The Tournament

By Sidney Lanier

JOUST FIRST

 I

Bright shone the lists, blue bent the skies,

And the knights still hurried amain,

To the tournament under the ladies' eyes,

Where the jousters were Heart and Brain.

II

Flourished the trumpets: entered Heart,

A youth in crimson and gold. Flourished again:

Brain stood apart,

Steel-armored, dark and cold.

Ill

Heart's palfrey caracoled gayly round,

Heart tra-li-ra'd merrily;

But Brain sat still, with never a sound,

So cynical-calm was he.

IV

Heart's helmet-crest bore favors three

From his lady's white hand caught;

While Brain wore a plumeless casque; not he,

Or favor gave or sought.

V

The herald blew; Heart shot a glance,

To find his lady's eye,

But Brain gazed straight ahead, his lance

To aim more faithfully.

VI

They charged, they struck; both fell, both bled,

Brain rose again, ungloved,

Heart, dying, smiled, and faintly said,

"My love to my beloved."

JOUST SECOND

I

A-MANY sweet eyes wept and wept,

A-many bosoms heaved again;

A-many dainty dead hopes slept

With yonder Heart-knight prone o' the plain.

II

 Yet stars will burn through any mists,

And the ladies' eyes, through rains of fate,

Still beamed upon the bloody lists,

And lit the joust of Love and Hate.

III

 O strange! or ere a trumpet blew,

Or ere a challenge-word was given,

A knight leapt down i' the lists; none knew

Whether he sprang from earth or heaven.

IV

His cheek was soft as a lily-bud,

His gray eyes calmed his youth's alarm;

Nor helm nor hauberk nor even a hood

Had he to shield his life from harm.

V

No falchion from his baldric swung,

He wore a white rose in its place.

No dagger at his girdle hung,

But only an olive-branch, for grace.

VI

And "Come, thou poor mistaken knight,"

Cried Love, unarmed, yet dauntless there,

"Come on, God pity thee ! — I fight

Sans sword, sans shield; yet, Hate, beware!"

VII

Spurred furious Hate ; he foamed at mouth,

His breath was hot upon the air,

His breath scorched souls, as a dry drought

Withers green trees and burns them bare.

VIII

Straight drives he at his enemy,

His hairy hands grip lance in rest,

His lance gleams full bitterly,

God! — gleams, true-point, on Love's bare breast!

IX

Love's gray eyes glow with a heaven-heat,

Love lifts his hand in a saintly prayer;

Look! Hate hath fallen at his feet!

Look! Hate hath vanished in the air!

X

Then all the throng looked kind on all;

Eyes yearned, lips kissed, dumb souls were freed;

Two magic maids' hands lifted a pall,

And the dead knight, Heart, sprang on his steed.

XI

Then Love cried, "Break me his lance each knight!

 Ye shall fight for blood-athirst Fame no more !"

And the knights all doffed their mailed might

And dealt out dole on dole to the poor.

 XII

Then dove-flights sanctified the plain,

And hawk and sparrow shared a nest.

And the great sea opened and swallowed Pain,

And out of this water-grave floated Rest!

Book Illustration - Sir Ector and Sir Turquine

King Arthur and His Knights

The Spirituality of God

Guest Post by Lewis Kiger

Scripture tells us that humanity is created with an awareness that God exists. Mankind is made to worship, and if he does not know the true God of the Bible; he will find something else to idolize. Nearly all (if not all) civilizations in history have had gods of some sort. They have either prayed to the sun and stars or bowed before graven images made from wood or stone. This is idolatry, in that is consists of worshiping something that can be seen or handled; something tangible. We must worship God as He is, rather than crafting a false idol from our fallen imaginations. I bring to your memory, that we have been called upon to walk by faith and not by sight.

 Jesus had an interesting conversation with a woman he met at a well in Samaria who was confused on the idea of who God is, which in turn, warped her view of what worship was. She knew God existed and had her own ideas of how He should be worshiped. Here is a portion of their conversation;

John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

 Note the words of our Lord in this Text: “God is Spirit.” He is teaching that God is a Spirit Being. In other words, He is without physical composition. That does not mean that God is merely a “force” or some imperceptible power, for God is a Self-conscious, Intelligent, Moral Agent, yet He is not composed of material matter.

Both John 1:18 & John 6:46 clearly state: “no man hath seen God at any time.” There have been many people who have claimed to have “had a vision of God;” to have been given a “divine revelation” of God. But this is contrary to the clear teaching of Holy Writ. 1 Timothy 1:17 states that God is Eternal, Immortal, and Invisible. Again, 1 Timothy 6:16 speaking of God the Father reads: “whom no man hath seen, nor can see.” God is spirit, and we must worship Him with our spirits.

 Rather than depending on what the natural eye observes, we must love and depend on the unseen God as revealed in His Word.

  It is much easier for people to bow to an idol or hold a relic than to worship God in spirit and truth. Yet, God as Spirit; desires to be worshiped by and with our spirits. Our inner man, our spiritual man. The Triune God has been worshiped all over this globe. Not by the cunning crafts of men’s hands, but by Holy Spirit filled men and women humbly bowing with their hearts ablaze for their Heavenly Father.

God can be worshiped in a building or a barn – it isn’t the building, but the bowing. God can be worshiped behind stained glass, or broken glass. It isn’t the colored glass, but the contrite heart that God accepts. (Psalms 34:18)

 We do not need crosses and crucifixes or statues and sculptures to aid in worship. God is not worshiped by the works of men’s hands as Acts 17:25 says. We should never bow before any graven image; less we break His moral law. 

 Mankind may fashion lifeless gods after their imagination, but any god that can be made by fallen hands, is not much of a god. Let men bow before idols and pay homage to the moon and stars if they will, but any object that can neither hear nor help is a poor deity. We cannot see our Creator, but we can see His creation. His works declare His existence and our conscience bears witness to this.

 Meditating on this truth should cause us to marvel at the Incarnation of Christ. That the Eternal Son of God, took on flesh, and walked among men. He alone could truly say, “He that has seen me, has seen the Father.” For He is the image of the Invisible God (Colossians 1:15) And in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) Jesus of Nazareth is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His Person. 

PART 1 

PART 2
PART 3

Pastor Lewis Kiger

Memorial Heights Baptist Church

Deacons - Tuesday With Timothy #32

1 Timothy 3:8 - 13  Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Moving on from the office of the bishop, or the pastor, we move to the next office of the church, that of deacon. When a church is healthy, a good pastor will provide the spiritual leadership and spiritual food for the church by preaching God's Word. The church is not a one man band and if the pastor is left to do everything, he won't get around to do much of anything. A deacon is a man who is ordained and set apart for a particular work in the church.

The office of deacon was not an original position when the church was organized. Early in the book of Acts, there were problems in the church where some groups felt that some widows in the church were being neglected. They were complaining to the Apostles about these needs. The men of God said that it wasn't right for them to leave the task that Jesus had given them to take care of issues that should have been taken care of by the church members.

It wasn't that it was not an important issue, it was that the Apostles, who were charged with feeding the flock didn't have time to be taking care of every issue in the church. They instructed the church to select seven men who would be able to serve the church so that the men of God could do the work that they were called to. When they took the load of serving tables from the men who were to serve the Word, God blessed the church and the Word of God increased.

The word deacon is a transliterated word which, according to Thayer means:

1.  to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon
2. to minister to one, render ministering offices to
3.  to wait at a table and offer food and drink to the guests
4.  to minister, i.e. supply food and necessities of life

The primary purpose of the church is not just to exist. Self-preservation is not the commission of the church. The church is to glorify God and proclaim the Word of God. There are other areas, other jobs, and other fields of service, but this is the primary purpose. To go, to make disciples, baptize them, and then teach them. The deacons fill the role of coming in and making sure the pastor the church called is able to do the job they need him to do. The church isn't Washington D.C. where the pastor and deacon has separate but equal powers. The elders of a church should have the same goal in mind and working together to reach that goal. When that happens, God will bless the deacons, God will bless the pastor, and God will bless the church.

That is why it is important that the church select good deacons. There are qualifications to the office, just like a pastor. Verse eight starts off by saying "likewise" and lists some things that both the pastor and the deacon should have in common that we have dealt with in earlier posts.

Book Illustrations: A Great Leap of Joy

Art work from The Story of a Proverb by Sidney Lanier. The Grand Vizier was really happy he wasn't beheaded for failing to cover the entire earth in leather to keep the king from hurting his toes. 

The Eternality of God by Lewis Kiger

This is part three in the series by Lewis Kiger on the attributes of God. 

How old is God? Will God ever die?

As we strive to get to know God better we must quickly acknowledge that this Attribute is one of the most difficult qualities of God for us to understand.

1 Timothy 1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

 Note that is this text, God is called the Eternal, Immortal King. The writer it teaching us that God has no beginning and no ending. God has always been, and always will be. Before the stars were thrust out into space and given a name by their Creator, God was there. Before the first angel’s wing brushed along the halls of heaven, God existed. Long after the sands of time have fallen, and this earth has been renovated by fire, even then, God will still be the Ruler of all. We find the concept of Eternality so difficult, because we are mere mortals contemplating the Immortal.

  

  Just think – nearly everything we do is governed by time. What time we must get up in the mornings. What time we have to “clock in.” When is lunch time? Break time? QUITTING TIME! Our days start and end with time. And further yet, all are days are numbered (Job 14:5). We only have so much time here on this earth and we have watches, clocks, and calendars to help us keep track. Time is a tyrant. But it is also something very precious to us. We value time with family and friends. We treasure the short time we have with our loved ones. And yet, time is something we never seem to have enough of. How often do we say things like; “I just don’t have time” or “where does the time go?” Days, weeks, months, and then years all roll by. Decades pass, and we age, we get older. Like the seasons, we are constantly changing.

 Yet, none of this is true with God. He is Eternal. He is Immortal. He has no beginning and no ending. Time has no bonds on God. He is the Creator of time, the sustainer of time. We use terms like eternity past, and eternity future to try and assist us in understanding what forever means – but in truth, God exists beyond time. He is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalms 90:2). He is ever present. One day with Him, is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). It is all the same to God. His days are unending. He dwells in the perpetual now. Time does not weaken God.  Time does not alter God. God doesn’t get old. He and He alone inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15).

 It is good to know that the Keeper of our soul, is not under time constraints. He is not weakened, warped, or wounded by the centuries or even countless millennia. 1 Timothy 6:16 states that God alone possesses Immortality. Deuteronomy 33:27 speaks of the believers being able to rest underneath the Everlasting Arms of the Eternal God.

 The Eternality of God, is one of the fundamental truths of the Christian faith and as we continue this study, we will show that each of God’s attributes complement one another. They work in perfect unison to reveal to us God’s magnificent glory. In this case, we see that God has an Eternal Love for His children. A love that will never fade or wear out. That He loved us so much, that He purposed to save us from our sins. That in the fullness of time, the Eternal Son, made in the likeness of our flesh, would come to this sin cursed earth and die on a Roman cross and rise from the dead to redeem us to God. And the Eternal Spirit would use the everlasting gospel to reveal to us our sinfulness and our need for a Savior, and point us to Calvary, graciously granting us faith and repentance so that by faith in Christ, we may now have eternal life.

Everything you see around you – everything – had a beginning and will one day have an ending. But not God. He is the Eternal, Immortal King of Heaven and Earth; whose dominion is from Everlasting to Everlasting.

  What a Great God, indeed. 

PART 1 

PART 2

Some things you just have to wait for. Tuesdays with Timothy #31

1 Timothy 3:6-7 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

The job of pastor is a very difficult one because the main part of the job is preaching the Word, which  in turns means rebuking, exhorting, commanding, and taking oversight. The church has to voluntarily submit to the leadership of the person they call as pastor  and this requires that the man not be a novice and that he not be, as Justice Scalia may have said, a fine practitioner in the arts of jiggery-pokery. They seem unrelated, but if I have anything to do with it, you'll see why I think they go together by the time you get to the end of the post. To add further bang for your buck, if you are wanting to be a pastor someday, you'll be that much closer to being ready by the time we are done. Because I want you to do well, allow me add this totally unnecessary sentence of fluff here to help you even more. What do they have in common, besides avenues for Satanic attack? Time. Somethings, you just have to wait for.

First, the man is not to be a novice or a new convert. You are not to call a man who has recently been saved into church leadership. The Christian life is full of ups and downs and a new convert is usually all ups for a while and if he is all ups and then ceremoniously hoisted upon the shoulders of the church and lifted up into leadership, he is in real danger of falling and falling hard.

The second area is how the man is viewed outside of the church. This is also a time related quality. It may have been that a man was a decent chap prior to the Lord saving him and he had a good reputation before. It is more likely that the man lived like a sinner and had the reputation of a sinner. The only way this can be corrected is time and a steady Christian walk. A man that has a bad reputation going into the pulpit is going to drag it with him. It will hurt both him and the church. Take for example, the man who wrote this Epistle. Saul of Tarsus had quite the reputation and not in the good way. Even after the years of service to Christ before coming to Jerusalem, his bad reputation preceded him. Only time and his dedication to Christ (along with some character references) did the trick for those in Jerusalem.

You cannot grow a good name overnight any more than you can move the distance between yourself and the day the Lord saved you except to patiently wait. If you try to fast forward or speed up the process, you are setting yourself (or the church) up for some hard times.

Now for some necessary qualifications. The novice has nothing to do with physical age, but life as a Christian. There are novices who are drawing social security and were too old to fight in Vietnam and there are some college students who have been Christians well over half their life. It also needs to be said that a faithful Christian will have rubbed people the wrong way. There will be those who hate him because they hate Christ and will have all sorts of terrible things to say about the man. Like the Accuser, they'll love to tear down his reputation. This cannot be avoided and is to be expected. I believe what this is means is he should be knows as an honest Christian man. People may not like him, but they wouldn't be afraid to buy a used car from him. They may hate his preaching and call him a religious zealot, but wouldn't care to call him as a character witness on their behalf, if they were in trouble with the law. They should be know for being a faithful Christian, not just be liked and praised by the community.

The Self-Existence of God

Guest post by: Lewis Kiger  (You can read part 1 in the series HERE)

Where did God come from? This is a question often asked. Sometimes, we who are indeed born again believers, ask this as we try to understand God more fully. But this is also a question asked by those who seek to scrutinize the Christian faith. However, the answer to either inquirer must come back to what God has said concerning Himself in His Word.  To resolve this matter, we need only to open our Bible to its first page where the Inspired Text plainly begins “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1). In the beginning of time…GOD was there. In fact, it is more accurate to say that in the beginning GOD IS. To say that God is self-existent is to say that God exists fully independent of all others. His Divine being was not brought about by any act or influence of any other. In other words, no one created God.

While our minds may find this concept difficult to grasp, I stress that it is necessary that God be fully self-existent. If there was ever anything that preceded God, anything that existed prior to God then whatever that is, must be at least equal to, if not superior to God. And any such suggestion, is not only fallacious and biased, it is irrational, and has no Biblical basis whatsoever. God is not an invention of the simple minded and needy. He is not the random result of cosmic chemical chaos. He is the Supreme Architect of all things. He is the uncaused Cause. The uncreated Creator. The God that reveals Himself to us in Holy Writ, identifies Himself as the Self-reliant, Self-existent, I AM. We read in Exodus 3:14 “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” The same God that appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, now appears to Moses in the mount and says “go tell my people that the “I AM” has sent you.” Here He declares Himself as Jehovah. The very name itself meaning, the “Self-Existent One.” I EXIST or I AM. This is always present tense with God because He dwells beyond both space and time, and is bound by neither – He always IS. No matter when in time or eternity, GOD IS. God is the Self-Existent One. God has no origin. God simply IS.  Everything we see around us, had a beginning, and will at some point come to its end –  but not God. The Triune God of Heaven and Earth is the supreme source for all things. The Origin of all things. He is the Gracious Giver of all life; animal life, plant life, angelic life, spiritual life, and eternal life.

God is in a category all by Himself. He is not dependent upon anyone for anything and relies on no one, and depends on none. He is complete in Himself. He did not create because there was something missing in Him and He did not construct the planet and place men on it, because He needed us. No, God is perfectly and fully complete in Himself.

  If sinners are to see the Glory of God, and if saints are to be moved by the character of God, we must realign our view of God as is revealed in Holy Writ. We must proclaim a “BIG GOD.” A God that is utterly unlike us, utterly beyond us in every notable way. I submit to you that the average Christian’s notion of God is so far from being accurate that it is borderline blasphemous. No wonder the world is so dismissive of our God; we have shrunk Him down to manageable terms. We have tried to make Him fit into our own idea of who He should be. Yet, in Psalms 50:21 the Psalmist corrects this grievous error by saying, you thought that God was altogether just like you [mortal men] but He isn’t; and time will prove it. Sadly, the god that is preached in many pulpits and is spoken of in many Christian circles no more resembles the God of the Bible than the dim flickering of a candle represents the noon-day sun.

God was not crafted by the hands of man, nor can He rightly be sculpted by our own imaginations. He must be understood as He reveals Himself to be. And although we are no more than children trying to describe the indescribable, may God give us a high and holy view of Him, as He is worthy of our praise and adoration.

Rule His House- Tuesdays with Timothy #30

1 Timothy 3:4-5 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

When a church looks to ordain a man or looks to call a pastor they need to look at the man, but also look at his family. The man's family is a good barometer of his ability to shepherd a flock. I believe every Christian man who God has blessed with a family has the duty to shepherd his children and his wife. God ordained headship and with headship comes authority and responsibility.

The man that knows how to rule his home will usually have the skill set to know how to rule the church. The children under his roof should be in subjection to him. If they won't listen to him, it is doubtful that anyone else will either. This also tells the church that they are calling a man to lead them. The pastor has to be given a measure of authority and respect by the church if he is to lead them. A father cannot lead his family from behind and neither can a pastor.

Let me take the time (again) to say that these are overarching principles of the man's character. This doesn't not disqualify a man if he doesn't have children or if his children are grown. A man can no more make his children believers than he can raise the dead. We are saved by grace, after all. A rebellious child doesn't disqualify a man from the ministry. However, if the man's kids are setting fire to the tract rack and have proven their skill in rearranging the letters on the church sign to things that make the deacon's wife blush, then we may have a problem of leadership in the home.

Getting to know God by Lewis Kiger

Lewis Kiger, pastor of the Memorial Heights Baptist Church in Perry, GA has graciously allowed me to publish his series of articles on the attributes of God that are published in their local newspaper. In the coming weeks, look for these guest posts.  I also encourage you to check out his sermons at Sermonaudio where he faithfully exposits God's Word.

Getting to Know God 

by Lewis Kiger

How old is God? Where did God come from? What is God made of? Can God be depended upon? Is God fair? Why does God care what we do? On and on we might go, with the variety of questions people ask about the Triune God of the Bible.

 In his incredible little book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer begins with these words: “What comes into our minds, when we think about God; is the most important thing about us.” It would do us well to stop and consider the weight of these words. I would like for us to begin a journey together – a journey towards a fuller knowledge of God. Let me say from the very outset of our voyage, that we will not arrive while we are clothed in these bodies of clay. There is no way that mortal men with finite minds can fully comprehend an infinite God and I doubt that even in Heaven, we will entirely understand the fullness of God. Yet it is a journey worth making. Any progress at all in the knowledge of God is important progress.

You may think, “Isn’t this kind of study only for preachers and theologians?” C.H. Spurgeon answers this objection saying, “Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.” He goes on to say that; “the proper study of the Christian, is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the doings, and the existence of the great God, which he calls his Father.” The truth is, our view of God affects everything about us. Our understanding of God has a huge impact on our lives. Not merely theologically but in a practical way. High views of God, leads to high worship, lofty praise, and majestic adoration. Low views of God, leads to low worship and meager affection. A greater awareness of WHO GOD IS, will affect our lives tremendously. It will strengthen our faith in Him, increase our awe of Him, sure up our dependence on Him, and increase our thankfulness for Him. It will affect what we say, where we go, even how we think. A better understanding of God will affect our homes, our churches, our habits, our evangelism, and especially our LOVE!

In the coming weeks we will see that we must base our view of God on the Bible. On Holy Writ. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us and any inquiry into the Person of God, must be based on what God declares Himself to be. The God who reveals Himself in His Word, wills to be to be loved, revered, feared, and known! But, this must be founded on more than mere human opinion, but on the foundation of God’s inerrant Word.

 What I won’t do is try to prove that God exists. God never sets out in His Word to substantiate that He is real. He simply begins His Divine Manuscript by saying, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” If mortal men will not believe Moses and the Prophets, they will not believe though one rose from the dead. And One has risen from the dead, and still men do not believe. The Lord was right, only the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.

 Finally, while we may not all agree on every point of Biblical doctrine, every believer should be able to stand with a united voice and say…what a Great God we serve! Indeed, what comes into our minds when we think about God, IS the most important thing about us.

 Join with me the next several weeks as we seek to discover more of the perfections of our God, and say with Moses, Lord show me thy glory!

Jeremiah 9:23-24 Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me…

On His Blindness

by John Milton

WHEN I consider how my light is spent
  E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
  And that one Talent which is death to hide,
  Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present        
  My true account, least he returning chide,
  Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,
  I fondly ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
  Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
  Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
  And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
  They also serve who only stand and waite.