A Look at Legalism from Legion

If you are unfamiliar with C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, this post might not make much sense. However, if you have read and enjoyed Lewis' work, I believe you will find this post extremely worthy of your time.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Screwtape Letters, let me say a few words: C. S. Lewis wrote the Screwtape Letters as if from the devil's point of view, looking at humankind and all their struggles, failings and temptations. Screwtape is the administrator in the bureaucracy of Hell. He is the mentor to Wormwood, an apprentice in tempting. Throughout the book, Screwtape gives forth advice, in the form of letters, on various ways Wormwood can undermine faith and promote sin in the minds of men. Much observation is given on human nature and Christian doctrine. Obviously, Wormwood and Screwtape live in a morally-reversed world where greed and gain are seen as the highest of benefits.

R. C. Sproul (founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries, and president of Ligonier Academy. He is also the author of the commentaries on Romans and John), in one of his posts in Tabletalk Magazine, he took on the act of writing from a "devil's point of view" to a tempter in training, just as Lewis did. His overall emphasis is on the subject of legalism. Written in this unfamiliar form, the Christian begins viewing man's sinful nature in a whole new light.

Dear Cousin Gall,

We are excited to write to you regarding the new training we have received from our great mentor. He has come up with a wonderful ploy to create havoc with the enemy. We know that hordes of converts have gone over to the side of our most hated one. We are not able to unconvert them, for once they are converted to Him, He keeps them on His side. So what can we do? Our great leader advises a new way by which we can paralyze them to make their impact in our domain slight.

How is that? The principal means is by stealing their liberty. We can do that by binding them with chains where God has left them free. We will direct their attention to a different law, a false law, a new law. We’ll tell them that what obedience to the enemy really requires is that they refrain from dancing, from smoking, from wearing lipstick, and from going to movies. By putting the accent there, we can keep their attention away from pursuing real righteousness and the fruit of the Spirit. In a word, the strategy we will employ is to make them legalists.

Of course, we know that it is not legalism to obey the law of God, but it is legalism to think that the enemy’s law is something different from what it is. We must work hard to fool them, to tell them that true righteousness comes by obeying these cultural standards that we will suggest to the church. We’ll get people so caught up with refraining from these worldly things that they will be paralyzed and confused about what true righteousness is. We’ll also get them to think that by keeping this new law, their works will save them.

If we’re not able to convince them altogether of this false law, then we’ll give them an unbalanced view of the real law, that is, we’ll encourage them to act like the Pharisees of old by majoring in minors, by obeying lesser items of the law while ignoring the weightier matters. This is part of the strategy of keeping them unbalanced and paralyzed. If we can accomplish this stratagem, then perhaps our gates will prevail against them.

Your Master,
Legion

From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul. © Tabletalk magazine. Website: www.ligonier.org/tabletalk. Email: tabletalk@ligonier.org. Toll free: 1-800-435-4343

The Fight of the Christian Faith

We may take comfort about our souls if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness. It is not everything, I am well aware, but it is something. Do we find in our heart of hearts a spiritual struggle? Do we feel anything of the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we would? (Gal. 5:17). Are we conscious of two principles within us, contending for the mastery? Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification. All true saints are soldiers. Anything is better than apathy, stagnation, deadness, and indifference. We are in a better state than many. The most part of so-called Christians have no feeling at all. We are evidently no friends of Satan. Like the kings of this world, he wars not against his own subjects. The very fact that he assaults us should fill our minds with hope. I say again, let us take comfort. The child of God has two great marks about him, and of these two we have one. He may be known by his inward warfare, as well as by his inward peace.

He (the Christian) sees his own many sins, his weak heart, a tempting world, a busy devil; and if he looked only at them he might well despair. But he sees also a mighty Saviour, an interceding Saviour, a sympathizing Saviour—His blood, His righteousness, His everlasting priesthood—and he believes that all this is his own. He sees Jesus, and casts his whole weight on Him. Seeing Him he cheerfully fights on, with a confidence that he will prove “more than conqueror through Him that loved him” (Rom. 8:37)

J. C. Ryle (1879)

Girls Are Like Apples on Trees

I thought this might be an encouragement to some of you single girls and women out there! God's timing is always perfect! Pray for your future man daily, just as you would want him to pray for you daily! Stay pure, in thought and action, just as you would want him to stay pure and wait for you!

Ark Encounter

Help Build Noah's Ark!

The Ark Encounter, powered by Answers In Genesis, will open in 2014. The site will include A Journey Through Biblical History, the Tower of Babel, a First-Century Village, a Children's Arena, an Aviary, the Walled City, Noah's Animals, and of course, a life-size replica of Noah's Ark, supposedly built identical to how Noah and his sons would have constructed it.
Partner with this amazing outreach by sponsoring a peg, plank or beam that will be used to build the ark.
Take a walk through the Ark Encounter on the following link to view what you will be sponsoring. Don't forget to catch the Ark Vision by Ken Ham on "The Ark" tab.
Spread the news for others to help out with this vision which will become a powerful outreach to teach the world about God's Word and the message of Salvation!

Visit Ark Encounter now by clicking the highlighted words!

Before Summer Ends...

Before the summer ends I thought I might spread a
bit from Puritan's Providence

We finally realized that our mulberry tree was a white
Asian mulberry tree. Fine by me, except that we waited too
long for them to ripen and the birds
found them before we realized our mistake

After this picture was taken we had the pond extended
to the other side of the fence, to the ducks great
joy!

Speaking of the ducks, I think my pictures are a little
out of date. They no longer look like cute, fuzzy
little things

Our plums did quite well. Once Belle found us picking
our fruit, she decided she would do the same

My garden marker is no longer visible from the
feathery, green stalks of the carrots.
They seem just about ready to harvest!

I believed this was going to be our most productive
tree until the figs and blueberries came on

Just as our fruit came on and our bees arrived
small, yellow flowers showed their heads
all around our yard

This garden marker has also completely disappeared
amongst the onions and cabbage

Every day a tomato or four... ready to be picked.

We're thankful for Belle--if it weren't for her, the ducks
would never get into their pen at night

Beehive

Our first beehive of the year has arrived!

The bee connoisseur, my mother, has done extensive research and has formerly worked with our first beehive living in the city. Thankful our neighbors are no longer five feet away, our bees have full roaming ability.
May is a late month to receive our bees. We'll have to make sure the hive has plenty of food in the colder months.

The beehives are shipped wrapped in clear plastic. You can either remove the plastic in the beginning, just before setting up, or do as we did, and arrange the hive in the proper order and then remove the plastic. It's a very easy and quick job, so it's best that you leave the plastic on the hive if you aren't going to assemble in the next couple of days.

Place your hive on something elevated and extremely sturdy. Be sure your hive has a clear path for flight. Once they find their flight path they will use this path from now on... so make sure you won't be disturbing or blocking this path. A bit of shade is also helpful, as you can see on the right side of the hive.

Leveling is a must! Make sure your hive is accurately leveled. This is a job to perform before you ever receive your bees, or at least before you place your bees in the hive.
The bees have arrived! This small wooden box contains around 9,000 bees. The only thing keeping the bees in is the surrounding fine, wire mesh... one of the reasons the mail-lady no longer delivers these bee-boxes by hand. My mom is all suited up, and ready to place these little insects in their new hive.

The removing of a couple of frames aids in getting the queen bee inside the hive. A typical hive consists of 10 frames, but it is said that honey production increases by a good rate if one frame is left out. We only have 9 frames in our hive.

Before opening the box, spray the wire mesh with sweetened water. This gives the bees something tasty to focus on, but more importantly, the sticky sugar wets their legs and wings so it's easier to get them in their new hive. You just about can't spray the bees with too much sweet water. It's time to open up the box and remove the canister filled with sweetened water (nectar), and to remove the queen bee from her "holding cell." So, begin by popping the wooden slat off.

The small wire mesh that sticks up from the canister is the flap hooked to the holding cell where the queen bee resides. It is ever so important to make sure the queen bee is among your shipped bees. It's time to lift the can from the box.

Only nectar is inside the canister, which fed the bees in their shipping process. But once the can has been removed the bees are free to fly, although the sweet, sticky water will prevent them from doing too much!

The beekeeper holds the small cell in which the queen bee resides. Many bees are still hanging from the cell, most likely protecting their beloved queen, and trying to lick the sweet water from their bodies.

The bees are dumped into the hive by shaking the box with the mouth facing down toward the frames, lightly banging the bottom of the box on the grass, shaking the leftover bees into the hive again, and so forth, until almost all of the bees are out of the shipping container and into the hive. The cell in which the queen is held is also placed inside the hive, between two frames. Typically, the bees will eat away at the candied cell to release their beloved queen. Ours however, did not (perhaps from so much sweet water that had been sprayed onto them), and so we simply popped the opening to release the queen.

Once the frames are in place the next section is positioned on top, the feeding container. Our buckets of nectar (sweetened water) are poured into both sides of the feeding compartment. Small, wire mesh (much like what was on the outside of the traveling box) is positioned in the middle, to separate the nectar into two containers. The bees fly up from their frames to the inside of the wire mesh to feed on the sweet water. The feeding compartments must stay full until the bees are making enough of their own honey to survive.

Some eager bees will accidentally get into the nectar, you can scoop them out with your tool, though the time spent getting them out may only prevent more free bees to land in the pool of nectar. Once all the sweet water is poured into the feeding troughs, it's time to place the top back onto the hive.

The task is complete, and the bees are happy in their new home. The entrance is the small green-looking wood. As seen in the picture, there is a small entrance and a large entrance. You can close one or the other, depending on how much action is going on in the front. The few bees remaining in the traveling box need to find their way to the hive. Just leave the box on the ground near the hive, with the mouth facing up, and all the bees will find their way to the new home.

The bees are happy, and so we leave them to explore their new home, and hunt for flowers and water on their own. The bee's feeding container is no longer needed now that their feeding trough is filled and so it's time to give Belle a special treat! The tiny hole in the nectar container lets out a small dribble of sweet water, which Belle consumes quickly. She too gets a treat, and one she couldn't keep her tongue from.

Internal and External Evidences

Scripture is the number 1 documented historical event (with eyewitnesses) in the entire world! Josephus, a Jewish historian in Rome was hired by Rome to write the history of the Jews. Rome wanted a library of history all about their superiority over all other nations. So Josephus got to work. But since he was writing about the most eye-witnessed accounts and most accurately documented accounts he did not leave out the truth of all prophecies, miracles, and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Thalus, Flagon, Tacitus, and others in this era wrote about the same events and all that went on during the crucifixion (such as the earthquake, the eclipse for 3 hours, etc) and all of these writings were from a secular world-view. There is so much internal and external evidence. And other than the Bible the most well documented events in history are about what went on during the crucifixion!
There are over 2,000 eye-witnesses that have been martyred during A.D. 34. And there are over 25,000 extant copies of Scripture, certainly more than any other documented historical event ever! There are only 7 copies of Plato’s writings, and the earliest copy was written 900 years after his death. Aristotle: less than 50 copies, written 1,100 years after his death. Julies Caesar: 10 copies written 1,000 years after his death. The New Testament however: 5,000 + copies in Greek, 6,000 more were found 3 years ago, 10,000 in Latin, 9,300 in other languages. All of these were written within 100 years of when the New Testament’s history actually happened. That comes to a total of over 25,000. Wow!
Psalm 12:6, 7 says: "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever."

Picture above: Old Testament scroll, located in Mullah Jacob's Synagogue in Isfahan

Finally, our plum tree gives forth her beautiful white blooms

The Bradford pear takes all the glory in our front yard

Belle... never tiring of her crazy antics

Just as cute as cute can be!

The Sound of the Sea

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,

And round the pebbly beaches far and wide

I heard the first wave of the rising tide

Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;

A voice out of the silence of the deep,

A sound mysteriously multiplied

As of a cataract from the mountain’s side,

Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.

So comes to us at times, from the unknown

And inaccessible solitudes of being,

The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;

And inspirations, that we deem our own,

Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing

Of things beyond our reason or control.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Beauty is woken through lines of poetry. Stirring words to fill the soul. But something small inside each line bids us come closer to smell the sweet aroma of truth.

Not much is known about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by some but to read his poem, “The Sound of the Sea” opens up a vast chasm of understanding between the reader and the artist of words.

The last six lines of Longfellow’s poem is what speaks clearest. The sea is understood, the soul is understood, and a small glimpse of a divine hand upon our lives is portrayed. With true solidity in the proper fashion much is gleaned. We are able to meditate on what matters most. “The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul” escalates on further examination of what the next three lines denote.

Our swelling cares and inspirations, tossed to and fro, as the white crests on the billowing sea, are believed to come so often from our own “ingenious mind.” This though is simply, as only Longfellow can portray, is naught but a “divine foreshadowing and foreseeing of things beyond our reason or control.”

The mighty hand of our Creator is always in complete control. Those beauties of inspirations and distending emotions are graced so often upon us by the ruler of heaven, earth, and the depths, yet we see it not. We place our belief in our own hands and imaginings, play-acting that such emerge from our own marvelous minds. We see it not that all these glories and inspirations are of things beyond our reason or control. This is how it could never come from ourselves, but must and always come from a divine and supernatural working through our Creator. Yet how, without such aid and precise design that our Creator has put into process through us would all of this come about? It would not, it could not. Blessed by the hand of the Almighty our eyes are opened and we are then able to understand what this divine foreshadowing and foreseeing is. We can then, and only then revel perfectly in our inaccessible solitude.

Resolved: The Way of Truth

Our lifespan on this earth has grown shorter through time. Methuselah lived to be 969, Adam was just a few years younger than that when he died, and even Noah lived until his death at the age of 950. But very quickly after the flood things began to change... and not just the fear of man instilled into animals. Abraham was but 100 years in his, what Noah would call "youth," yet when God informed him that his wife Sarah would bare a child the both of them laughed at the idea. They understood that at that age they were considered the elderly. Sarah was past her time to birth children , but one thing they both did not realize were the awesome miracles God had already and was about to perform. Sarah was governed by what she herself knew, seemed to understand and see around her, and even what she felt. This is why, to the face of her Lord, she lied by saying she did not laugh at what her Lord told her. How shameful, how humiliating, and mostly after the Lord said, “nay, but though didst laugh!”

How often we run on feelings. How often I myself run on my own comfort zone. How can we place our hope, faith, joy, and comfort in silver, timber or our own carcasses? But all of these run on feelings. If we feel that we don’t have enough silver we begin to fret. If we feel as though we will lose something we are clinging to we panic and do all we can to hold on to it or get it back. This goes on and on in many different ways in each of our lives resulting in abandonment to the Holy Spirit which has been placed in our lives for the sole purpose to guide us to cling to Christ in our ups and downs, not material objects or personal feelings that can change like the surf on the sand.

We each have our own comfort zones, whether it be in the rising of our financial situation, the “right here, right now” love of someone, or simply the next exciting joy and pleasure we can squeeze out of our “doldrum” life. Why do we have to do this? Why do we have to squeeze every fragment of our existence until we get what we want? We are never truly satisfied. Our excitement builds until what we have been waiting for is over. Perhaps that is why the divorce rate is so high. We are never fully satisfied because we have been wired from the beginning to find perfect contentment in Christ. Our true “comfort zone,” if that is what we could call it, should be in our Creator. If our earthly loved one is so much of a comfort and joy to us how much more should our heavenly Father, our true loved one, be of a comfort and joy to us? He knows us more than anyone on this earth knows us, why can He not be our full joy and contentment?

What about those who cling to their house? Their house, which will burn up in the conflagration (or perhaps sooner), is more of a comfort to them than having peace in the knowledge of spending eternity out of this communistic world and abiding in the perfect, heavenly Kingdom of our true Father!

Our frets are over our own desires, not fulfilling God’s desires. Do we ever say, “oh I have so little time on this earth. I must abandon all fleshly, selfish activities and quickly, quickly spread the Word. Quickly live out what Spirit abides within me, minister and show true love to others (mostly God’s people).” But how do we know they are Gods, you ask. That is why we must find out and plead with them for Christ’s glory.

How rapid life is, yet how slow it drags on through our worldly vision. We try to pull at each piece of time, making (or trying hard as we might) time all for ourselves all day, every day. What vain foolishness. We were not born simply because God knew of nothing else to do. But He gave us a purpose, and He graciously gives us His own strength to accomplish each and every purposeful task. We too should not spend life in frivolity, for if God has a plan for us then we have a plan. Will we follow His ordered plan with His ever abiding and upholding hand? Or will we strip ourselves from His law, turn from His perfectly planned ways, and shove our noses in the pigpen only pretending we are feasting on manna? God forgive us for following our own plan and shunning your peace and grace. With love, joy, and glory unto God, we are to commend our lives unto Him.

“Do what you will with me for your glory and my better good and pure joy!”