A Morning Offering

THE VALLEY OF VISION

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
Where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
Hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
That the way down is the way up,
That to be low is to be high,
That the broken heart is the healed heart,
That the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
That the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
That to having nothing is to possess all,
That to bear the cross is to wear the crown
That to give is to receive,
That the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
And the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley.

(from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions)

O Wisdom

O Wisdom,
coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
pervading and permeating all creation,
you order all things with strength and gentleness:
Come now and teach us the way to salvation.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Wisdom comes from the mouth of the Most High God. The Almighty speaks, and matter comes into being from nothing. The Lord whispers, and by whispering saves.

Preview: Second Sunday in Advent

A Sermon on Mark 1:1-8



Given on the Second Sunday in Advent, 2008
First Presbyterian Church
Jackson, Minnesota

For Those Who Desire to Preach...

... here is a quote attributed to Bruce Theilman:

There is no special honor in preaching, there is only special pain. The pulpit calls those anointed to it as the sea calls its sailors. And like the sea, it batters and bruises and does not rest. To preach, to really preach is to die naked a little at a time and to know each time you do it that you must do it again.

Amen.

A New Thing

Here is Brit Hume, on what he'll be doing now that he's retiring from his 40-year, wildly successful career in television news, and leaving his highly rated Fox News show behind:

The Hollywood Reporter: WHAT OTHER THINGS WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO IN RETIREMENT?

Hume: I certainly want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done. I'm not claiming it's impossible to do when you work in this business. I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died (by suicide in 1998), I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it's a pretty big thing. If you do it part time, you're not really living it.

About those implications, Paul wrote these words:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:17-21 NRSV)

Preaching Christ - Living in Christ

A Sermon on 1 John 3:1-10



Given November 16, 2008
First Presbyterian Church
Jackson, Minnesota

On the Way

In the mail: The ESV Study Bible. I purchased the brown, TruTone version, and I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to look it over.