Monday Verse: Marshes of Glynn

I mentioned before that Jesse Stuart was an author from Greenup County, Kentucky where I was born and raised. He was our local, literary, legend.  When I was in middle school they constructed the Jesse Stuart Bridge that crossed the Ohio River and made life much easier for us to who journeyed across state lines.

In the process of time, I end up in Georgia. I went from running the hills to coastal Georgia where the biggest hill in 100 miles is the Sidney Lanier Bridge. For some reason, I never thought to ask "who was Sidney Lanier?"  I was perusing a collection of American Poets, I saw a poem called The Marshes of Glynn, which caught my eye because there is a church in Brunswick called Marshes of Glynn Baptist Church. Then I noticed its author - Sindey Lanier. Another bridge named after another local author and poet found in another county I live; which provides us another Monday Verse. Enjoy.


Glooms of the live-oaks, beautiful-braided and woven
With intricate shades of the vines that myriad-cloven
  Clamber the forks of the multiform boughs,--
                        Emerald twilights,--
                        Virginal shy lights,
Wrought of the leaves to allure to the whisper of vows,
When lovers pace timidly down through the green colonnades
Of the dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods,
  Of the heavenly woods and glades,
That run to the radiant marginal sand-beach within
        The wide sea-marshes of Glynn;--
Beautiful glooms, soft dusks in the noon-day fire,--
Wildwood privacies, closets of lone desire,
Chamber from chamber parted with wavering arras of leaves,--
Cells for the passionate pleasure of prayer to the soul that grieves,
Pure with a sense of the passing of saints through the wood,
Cool for the dutiful weighing of ill with good;--
O braided dusks of the oak and woven shades of the vine,
While the riotous noon-day sun of the June-day long did shine
Ye held me fast in your heart and I held you fast in mine;
But now when the noon is no more, and riot is rest,
And the sun is a-wait at the ponderous gate of the West,
And the slant yellow beam down the wood-aisle doth seem
Like a lane into heaven that leads from a dream,--
Ay, now, when my soul all day hath drunken the soul of the oak,
And my heart is at ease from men, and the wearisome sound of the stroke
  Of the scythe of time and the trowel of trade is low,
  And belief overmasters doubt, and I know that I know,
  And my spirit is grown to a lordly great compass within,
That the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn
Will work me no fear like the fear they have wrought me of yore
When length was fatigue, and when breadth was but bitterness sore,
And when terror and shrinking and dreary unnamable pain
Drew over me out of the merciless miles of the plain,--
Oh, now, unafraid, I am fain to face
  The vast sweet visage of space.
To the edge of the wood I am drawn, I am drawn,
Where the gray beach glimmering runs, as a belt of the dawn,
  For a mete and a mark
    To the forest-dark:--
                        So:
Affable live-oak, leaning low,--
Thus--with your favor--soft, with a reverent hand,
(Not lightly touching your person, Lord of the land!)
Bending your beauty aside, with a step I stand
On the firm-packed sand,
                        Free
By a world of marsh that borders a world of sea.
  Sinuous southward and sinuous northward the shimmering band
  Of the sand-beach fastens the fringe of the marsh to the folds of the land.
Inward and outward to northward and southward the beach-lines linger and curl
As a silver-wrought garment that clings to and follows
    the firm sweet limbs of a girl.
Vanishing, swerving, evermore curving again into sight,
Softly the sand-beach wavers away to a dim gray looping of light.
And what if behind me to westward the wall of the woods stands high?
The world lies east: how ample, the marsh and the sea and the sky!
A league and a league of marsh-grass, waist-high, broad in the blade,
Green, and all of a height, and unflecked with a light or a shade,
Stretch leisurely off, in a pleasant plain,
To the terminal blue of the main.
Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea?
  Somehow my soul seems suddenly free
From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin,
By the length and the breadth and the sweep of the marshes of Glynn.
Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free
Ye publish yourselves to the sky and offer yourselves to the sea!
Tolerant plains, that suffer the sea and the rains and the sun,
Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won
God out of knowledge and good out of infinite pain
And sight out of blindness and purity out of a stain.
As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God:
I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies
In the freedom that fills all the space ‘twixt the marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God:
Oh, like to the greatness of God is the greatness within
The range of the marshes, the liberal marshes of Glynn.
And the sea lends large, as the marsh: lo, out of his plenty the sea
Pours fast: full soon the time of the flood-tide must be:
Look how the grace of the sea doth go
About and about through the intricate channels that flow
  Here and there,
                        Everywhere,
Till his waters have flooded the uttermost creeks and the low-lying lanes,
And the marsh is meshed with a million veins,
That like as with rosy and silvery essences flow
  In the rose-and-silver evening glow.
                        Farewell, my lord Sun!
The creeks overflow: a thousand rivulets run
‘Twixt the roots of the sod; the blades of the marsh-grass stir;
Passeth a hurrying sound of wings that westward whirr;
Passeth, and all is still; and the currents cease to run;
And the sea and the marsh are one.
How still the plains of the waters be!
The tide is in his ecstasy.
The tide is at his highest height:
                        And it is night.
And now from the Vast of the Lord will the waters of sleep
Roll in on the souls of men,
But who will reveal to our waking ken
The forms that swim and the shapes that creep
                        Under the waters of sleep?
And I would I could know what swimmeth below when the tide comes in
On the length and the breadth of the marvellous marshes of Glynn.

Amazing, Saving Grace

Tuesdays with Timothy  #9

14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. 17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

This is one of my favorite passages. Oh, what amazing grace that God would take a sinner, a blasphemer, a religious persecutor and saved him. To call a malicious, arrogant tyrant, who voraciously opposed Him, and then forgive him. But not only forgive him, but give him life and make him a joint-heir with Christ. This was truly exceeding abundant grace.  Not merely grace given, but grace given and overflowing. Grace is a gift we do not deserve and God gives it in an overflowing fashion. Taking into account Paul’s life and his great sin we see the greatness of God’s grace. We are saved by grace, through faith and Paul gives a personal testimony to this fact. There was a great love in the heart of Paul that flows from the love which is found in our union with Christ. No longer found in Adam, or found in his works, or found in the sect of the Pharisee; Paul was now found in Christ. 

This is a faithful saying, worthy and dependably - Jesus came to save sinners, of whom Paul says he is chief.  Paul knew it to be true experimentally because he had experienced the depth of sin and the heights of grace. The Bible declares it imperatively and I can tell you that I know it to be true and trustworthy. This saying is deserving of your receiving its truths. If there were ever anything worth believing, it is this, Christ Jesus came to save sinners. The value and truth of this saying makes it worthy of receiving. He came from Heaven, born of a virgin. He came of his own will and came with a purpose and a mission. It was not first to rule, or to destroy. Not even to judge and condemn. All this comes later. Jesus came to save sinners.  Big sinners, wretched sinners, young sinners, and old sinners. He came to lift up the poor in spirit and save the lost an undone. To seek and save the unworthy, the unloved, the undeserving. Christ came to save sinners and Paul rejoiced, because he was a sinner. Are you a sinner? Have you committed great crimes against God? Are you stained as scarlet with your wretchedness? Jesus came to save sinners. Paul rejoiced that he is now an example for all sinners, in that he acquired mercy.

Paul obtained, or received mercy. You don’t earn mercy and you don't deserve grace. Mercy, according to Thayer, is “to help the afflicted, to bring help to the wretched”. Mercy to the wretched, to the poor in spirit, to the destitute, and to the depraved. To bring salvation to the dying, mercy to the sinner, grace to the filthy, help to the hurting, and healing to the sick of soul. Perhaps one imagines they are too dirty to be saved or too ugly inside to be cleansed or perhaps too used to be loved and too shamed to be accepted. Well, Paul has some news for you, and this is actually why he told you he was so bad to start with; Paul is our pattern and example.  Are you a sinner? Have you committed great crimes against God?  God has given you a pattern to look to.  God has shown us what he does in saving a soul.  You are a sinner? So was Paul. Have you have rejected Christ? Have you have blasphemed?  So did Paul and God saved Paul. God forgave him and gave him life. God gave him repentance, faith, love and cleansed him and made him pure and clean that he can stand righteous before God, in Christ.  Not by works of righteousness because you can't wash yourself enough to clean your soul.  Not by being good, can’t be good enough to make up for the past. Not by turning your life around, because you are already guilty. But God offers full and free and forever salvation. Saved from your sins, saved from Hell and preserved to have a blessed eternity with Jesus Christ. The salvation is not in turning your life around, but faith in Christ, the substitute on the cross. Jesus took upon Him the sins of His people on the cross and there received the wrath of God due sinners. Christ paid for the sin of His people and laid down His life in my place. Christ victoriously rose for our justification and all who come to Him in faith receive forgiveness and pardon. Hear the words of the apostle himself in Acts 16:30-31 Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Trust in what Christ did as an atonement, a substationary sacrifice on the cross, by grace, be saved and live in peace forever with the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.

This is true, and you ought to believe it!

Monday Verse: The Last Word of a Blue Bird (As told to a child)

Male Mountain Blue Bird. Source Wikipedia

Good Monday Morning. I hope you spent the Lord's day with the Lord's people, in the Lord's house. Our poem this week was suggested by a dear brother in Christ and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I did some reading about it and if you would like a little behind the scenes information on this poem, you might find THIS interesting as well.
 

The Last Word of a Blue Bird
(As told to a child)
by Robert Frost

As I went out a Crow
In a low voice said, "Oh,
I was looking for you.
How do you do?
I just came to tell you
To tell Lesley (will you?)
That her little Bluebird
Wanted me to bring word
That the north wind last night
That made the stars bright
And made ice on the trough
Almost made him cough
His tail feathers off.
He just had to fly!
But he sent her Good-by,
And said to be good,
And wear her red hood,
And look for the skunk tracks
In the snow with an ax-
And do everything!
And perhaps in the spring
He would come back and sing."

Book Review: Persuasive Preaching

Persuasive Preaching

A Biblical and Practical Guide to the Effective Use of Persuasion

By: R. Larry Overstreet

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Romans 12:1. Paul gave his life to preaching the gospel and calling men unto salvation and to follow Jesus Christ. He declared the truth and then he urged, and pleaded for men to obey. Persuasive Preaching is a book calling men who stand behind the pulpit to not just give information, but persuade men to believe and follow Jesus. What does this mean and what does this look like? This book attempts to give that answer. It is theology that forms the basis of our methodology and if the foundation of theology is off the methodology and practice will be as well. Before addressing the theology of the book, let me give you a brief overview.

The book is separated into four parts and in part one, Overstreet addresses the problems modern preachers face in trying to reach people with a post-modern view of the world. As Christians, we believe in ultimate truth in a society whose ultimate truth is, there is no truth. He hits the nail on the head here. Persuasive preaching faces an uphill battle in our society where people are raised to think they are the key of their own ultimate truth and reject outright any claim to absolute truth. Part two is not for everyone, and Overstreet lets us know this up front. This is a scholarly treatment, and unless you have a proficiency in Greek, you may not get a lot out this section. Overstreet offers Biblical support for persuasion in preaching and uses Paul’s preaching as an example of how the message should be declared with the desire that people believe what is being preached and act on that message. The third sections provides examples of how to put this information together in a sermon outline and provides different ways a sermon can be persuasive with both positive and negative examples. The last chapter, Overstreet tries to apply some application in the book dealing with what persuasive preaching looks like in action and covers the dangers of manipulation.

The prologue sets the tone with a story of how Mr. Overstreet was saved in a church that gave a closing invitation and laments that some churches do not continue in this practice. He closes the book with a plea for the public invitation. Theology matters.  Overstreet’s definition of persuasive preaching is “the process of preparing biblical, expository messages using a persuasive pattern, and presenting them through verbal and nonverbal communication means to autonomous individuals who can be convicted and /or taught by God’s Holy Spirit, in order to alter or strengthen their attitudes and beliefs toward God, His Word and other individuals, resulting in their lives being transformed into the image of Christ.”

Here lies my problem with the book. Who is autonomous? Who out there has an absolute autonomous free will? What Biblical texts are provided to prove this assertion? The underlying presupposition of the book is that man's will is autonomous and that he is free to choose with the ability to choose Christ on his own. With this view of man as a foundation for the book, the persuasion takes on a whole new meaning and the preachers goal and task takes on a whole new dynamic. This is why the insistence on the invitation is out of place in Biblical preaching. While he goes to the text to prove that Paul was persuasive in his preaching, the presupposition of autonomy leaves us with a pragmatic plea for the invitation, not a Biblical case for one. God the Holy Spirit is the one who makes preaching effectual, and when a person is born again, they will find the preaching persuasive, whether there was an invitation or not. So while there are many worthwhile points and good thoughts in the books, I did not agree with the premise, that men can be persuaded unto salvation or that a man dead in trespasses and sins and be persuaded to be born again by an effective delivery or style, or sadly, an invitation. Ironically, I was not persuaded.

Thanks to Cross Focused Reviews for the review copy of this book. 

Low Down and Dirty

Tuesdays with Timothy  #8

13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 

Paul never forgot what the Lord saved him from. But at the same time, I don't think he dwelt on his sin, but took his sin to Christ, who is faithful and just to forgive him his sins. He lists the sins of blasphemy, being a persecutor, and being injurious. Today I want to consider these three sins, and next time look at why he brings it up. 

He was a blasphemer, and that involves more that using God's name in a curse. It means to speak of God in terms of impious irreverence; to revile or speak reproachfully of God, according to Webster’s dictionary. At first consideration, this may strike you as as odd, Paul saying he was a blasphemer, considering his Jewish upbringing and that "touching the law, a Pharisee". How could one who spent his whole life trying to keep the law describe his former way of life as a blasphemer? Paul blasphemed Christ and his crime was multiplied by his knowledge of God's Word. Paul outwardly kept the law as a Pharisee, but this was the sin that Christ warned the Pharisees of committing with their blatant rejection of the works of Christ.  Paul preached that Jesus was an imposter, spoke irreverently of Christ and denied Christ was the Saviour and was the Christ. He also compelled others to blaspheme the truth, name, and character of the Lord Jesus. 

Paul may have also been guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit on account of his addendum "but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief". Sins of unbelief are still sins (Numbers 15:28-30) so he was not excusing his sin, but rather he was forgiven because he did it in unbelief. I believe that this was included to tell us that he also blasphemed the Holy Spirit, but in ignorance thus not committing the unpardonable sin.  Those who committed the unpardonable sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:22-32) attributed the work of the Holy Ghost to the Devil, but they did it purposefully, actually knowing the truth and blaspheming anyway. The Pharisees knew that Jesus was the Christ and knew that the work He did was of the Holy Spirit and proceeded  knowingly and willingly to blaspheme the true work of God. Paul blasphemed Christ, (and I believe the Holy Spirit), but he was ignorant of the truth. In his sinful zeal, he thought he was doing the right thing. He obtained mercy because he did it unregenerate ignorance while many of his friends committed the unpardonable sin. They did believe the claims that Jesus was who he said he was and with full understanding, blasphemed Christ and the Holy Spirit. 

Paul was also a persecutor. He imprisoned the saints (Acts 22:19). He hunted the saints (Galatians 1:13) For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it. When he persecuted beyond measure, that means he hunted the church with incalculable and indescribable wrath. He wasted the church.  You have seen movies where the villains come into a town and kick in the doors, destroy the houses, burn the property etc. That is Saul of Tarsus when he found a church - he would ransack it. Acts 22:4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. He beat them (Acts 22:19) and put them to death. Men or women, it did not matter. He separated husbands and wives, father's and daughters - he was a terrorist, a religious zealot with a blank check to fulfill his desire to cause harm. 

He was injurious. This word is translated “despiteful” in the list of sins in Romans 1:29-30.  Not only did he sin, but was proud and insolent in his sin. Tyndale translated it as being a "tyrant". With a proud satisfaction as a boastful conqueror, or a wicked pirate, Paul persecuted mercilessly because he “knew” he was right . Paul was a religious man who had conviction. A man, who read, prayed, studied and believed in his religion with all his heart and in all sincerity. A sincerity that caused action; that compelled him to kill, imprison, beat, hunt and persecute those who did not believe as he did. Yes, Paul was a great sinner; but he  served a great Saviour.

Monday Verse: Birches

Birches
BY ROBERT FROST

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

The Good Ole Days

"We frequently hear the question discussed as to which are the best times. Some are perpetually singing the praises of the "good old times;" though, if one reads the page of history, it does not appear that the old times deserve any very special praise, unless oppression, ignorance, persecution, and abundant suffering deserve to be the theme of song. It is the common habit of the fathers, with tears in their eyes, to say, "The former days were better than these," but we have the wisdom of Solomon on our side when we tell them they do not enquire wisely Concerning this. "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this." (Ecclesiastes 7:10.)"

Charles Spurgeon from the sermon NOW

The Church as an Institution

BH Carroll notes the difference  between the church as an institution verses the institution exemplified in the local body.  This from his Interpretation of the English Bible, Ephesians 2.

"We now come to a very important thought. When Paul talks about the new man, and the church is said to be the bride made one with Christ, as Adam and Eve were made one, and when he talks about one commonwealth and one citizenship, and when he talks about them being one household, and being made into one temple, he is speaking of the church as an institution. God established a time institution. That institution is exemplified, becomes operative, in particular churches.

This thought is expressed in verse 21: "In whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord." That is to say, each particular congregation, particular church, is an expression of the church as an institution, and its only expression. For instance, a new state may provide for "trial by jury." There, "jury" is an institution, of which each particular jury is an expression. So the expression, "I will build my church," when that institution becomes operative, it is exemplified in a particular church. We must make the distinction in usage according to the laws of language between an institution in the abstract sense and its expression in every particular, concrete case. Speaking abstractly, we may say that the church is a temple. Speaking concretely, each particular church is a temple. Such usage of language is common. We never misunderstand its import in other matters. We never make the abstract sense a conglomeration. If we say abstractly "the husband is the head of the wife" we do not mean all husbands are blended into one big universal husband. But we mean that in every particular case the husband is the head of the wife. Just so in Ephesians 1:22; 2:12-20; 3:10, 21 the church as an institution is discussed under several figures. But always Ephesians 2:21-22 (revised text) shows what the institution is in its expression. It becomes operative in particular churches only. Later Ephesians 5:23-33 will discuss the glory church."

Book Review: The Foundation of Communion with God: The Trinitarian Piety of John Owen.

Introduced and Edited by: Ryan M. McGraw
Reformation Heritage Books

John Owen (1616 - 1683) was an English Nonconformist pastor, theologian, and scholar. He was also a prolific author and the Ryan McGraw has set out in the book The Foundation of Communion with God to not only wet your appetite, but give you an introduction to Owen and his writing style.If you have never read John Owen - buy this book. Owen can be intimidating and some of his works are difficult but this book shows you that it is worth the effort.

The Foundation of Communion with God is part of an ongoing series of books Profiles in Reformed Spirituality that takes selections of the writings of the Puritans and reformers with biographical sketches to introduce the reader to the author and his works with the hope that it will encourage further exploration. With this book and John Owen I can say: mission accomplished.

The book consists of three main sections. After a brief introduction and biographical sketch, we get to the readings. Section one deals with Knowing God as Triune. Section two deals with Heavenly-Mindedness and Apostasy, and the last section Covenant and Church. There are 41 separate readings but are very short, just a few long paragraphs each. But don't let their brevity fool you; they are deep and full of wonderful truths.

The two appendices close the book out with some helpful tips to reading Owen and some recommendation on where to proceed for those ready to pursue more of his writings.

Since each chapter is an excerpt from a larger published work, you don't have the flow of thought you would have if you were reading the original book itself. I think it would be helpful to use this as a devotional book to take it a chapter a day.

If you are unfamiliar with John Owen or thought that the Puritans are out of reach, or maybe you think that the old writers have nothing to say to us today, I would urge you to pick up this volume and sit at the feet of an old master and grow to love the depths and the riches of our Triune God.