The Old Oaken Bucket

By: Samuel Woodworth

How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood,

When fond recollection presents them to view!

The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wildwood,

And every loved spot which my infancy knew;

The wide-spreading pond, and the mill which stood by it,

The bridge, and the rock where the cataract fell;

The cot of my father, the dairy-house nigh it,

And e’en the rude bucket which hung in the well —

The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,

The moss-covered bucket which hung in the well.

That moss-covered vessel I hail as a treasure;

For often, at noon, when returned from the field,

I found it the source of an exquisite pleasure,

The purest and sweetest that nature can yield.

How ardent I seized it, with hands that were glowing!

How quick to the white-pebbled bottom it fell;

Then soon, with the emblem of truth over-flowing,

And dripping with coolness, it rose from the well —

The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,

The moss-covered bucket arose from the well.

How sweet from the green mossy brim to receive it,

As, poised on the curb, it inclined to my lips!

Not a full blushing goblet could tempt me to leave it,

Though filled with the nectar that Jupiter sips.

And now, far removed from the loved situation,

The tear of regret will intrusively swell,

As fancy reverts to my father’s plantation,

And sighs for the bucket which hangs in the well —

The old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket,

The moss-covered bucket which hangs in the well.

My grandpa had a well in his garden and I can still taste that cool water from the bucket. One day working on the farm, I felt like I was dying of thirst. It had to have been over 100 degrees outside and I just wanted some water. We stopped the tractor at the well, dropped the bucket and I was refreshed by the cool crisp water. My Dad, looked down in the water and asked if I had already drunk it. Indeed I had, why? Because there is a dead rat floating in the top.

Ah, the good ole' days. If your thoughts reading this poem was "no wonder the life expectancy was so short, with all the disease and germs in the water", this poem HERE will be more your taste. 

The Lord is My Shepherd - My Soul Among Lions

From Pulpit to Pew

"Clearness in the pulpit is good sense in the pew. Mysticism in the pulpit is nonsense in the pew.  The absence of exposition from the pulpit is ignorance of the Bible in the pew." 

Austin Phelps from The Theory of Preaching (circa 1881)

Enter and Exit Empty-handed

Tuesday with Timothy #74

1 Timothy 6:6-8  But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

A newborn baby cries. Mom and Dad cry. The nurse cleans and swaddles the baby, who left the warmth and safety of the womb to experience the first shock of cold air on his naked skin. The baby enters the world weak and vulnerable. Someone quickly gives the boy a blanket, then maybe a cap to keep his head warm. Soon thereafter, he is given a name. Mom and Dad have a stockpile of necessities to give him when they take him home. A bed, a house, clothes, and blankets. Just a month or so before, friends and family had a baby shower to make sure the baby would have sufficient items to get started. The baby comes into this life empty-handed.

Junior grows and begins to acquire possessions. He gets clothes, and toys. He gets older and gets pocket knives and BB guns. He gets older still and then comes his first car and his first job. His first house with his first (hopefully only) wife. He gets a garage to store the stuff on the land he has acquired. He gets his retirement. He gets bad news at the doctor. He gets sick. He dies. He leaves this world and leaves all his stuff behind.

It is one of life's few certainties. You bring nothing in this world and you can’t take a bit of it with you when you leave. It’s a somber thought. So much of life is buying and trading, gaining and keeping. Working to keep up what you have, taking care of what Grace and Providence has provided and when it’s over, you leave it all for someone else. In our text, Paul is not anti-possessions or advocating a life of poverty. He wants you to consider you life. What is most important to you? What do you value? What do you live and long for?

When the baby is born, he is cold and hungry. Mother takes him in her arms, wraps him up tight and feeds him. The baby eats, snuggles close and falls asleep - content. Having all that he wants, the infant rests well. Paul tells us that we should have that outlook. Are we clothed and fed? Let’s rest in God’s care and be content with what He has provided. Life is more comfortable with modern conveniences. I’m thankful for air conditioning, insulated walls, microwaves and all the hundreds of little things we have that makes life enjoyable and comfortable. It would be sad to spend our whole life chasing after comforts, conveniences, and toys only to leave  this world and enter into eternal pain and misery. Be childlike in your faith and be content with what God has given you. Have your treasure in Heaven where no one will be empty-handed.

Sovereign Ruler of the Skies

By John Ryland

Sovereign Ruler of the skies, 
ever gracious, ever wise, 
All my times are in Thy hand, 
all events at Thy command. 
He that formed me in the womb, 
He shall guide me to the tomb. 

All my times shall ever be 
ordered by his wise decree. 
Times of sickness, times of health; 
times of poverty and of wealth; 
Times of trial and times of grief; 
times of triumph and relief; 

Times the tempter’s power to prove; 
times to taste a Savior’s love. 
All must come, and last, and end, 
as shall please my heavenly Friend. 
Plagues and deaths around me fly; 
till he bids, I cannot die; 

Not a single dart can hit, 
till the God of love thinks fit. 
O Thou gracious, wise, and just, 
in Thy hands my life I trust; 
Thee at all times will I bless: 
having Thee I all possess. 

Think Not

The Old Testament is there -- right at the front of your Bible. 39 books, 929 chapters, 23,145 verses worth of wisdom, history, prophesy, and poetry. All believers acknowledge the Old Testament and affirm they believe it.  In Jesus' sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17-18) he said " Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." The people Jesus spoke to would also have said they believed the Old Testament was God’s Word, but they thought wrongly about the law and about Jesus. Most of the people Jesus preached to had their entire identity wrapped up in keeping God’s law and he planned to correct them in this sermon. He starts off by saying, don’t think  I’m coming to destroy the law. Don't misunderstand the law's purpose and Christ's mission.

In this short passage, Jesus shows us how He thought about the Bible, and how we should think about God's Word. Jesus said the Bible is unchangeable and permanent. Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not the Bible. The Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). Jesus said the Bible is authoritative and accurate. Survey the Lord’s teaching and you see He referred to the Old Testament as proof and evidence for His preaching and doctrine.  For instance, Jesus referenced the marriage in the Garden of Eden, the murder of Abel, Noah, Jonah being swallowed by the fish, Lot’s wife, Sodom and Gomorrah, manna from Heaven, to name a few. Jesus believed the Old Testament. Jesus believed nothing in God’s word is insignificant or unimportant. Jesus is the theme of the Old Testament  John 5:39  "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." Jesus did not come to do away with the Scriptures which testified of him, or the Words He lived by, preached from, and fulfilled.  Jesus, preaches himself, and how he will fulfill the law of God. What other person could speak the way Jesus does? Jesus constantly preaches about himself, and we love Him for it. Jesus fulfilled the law in many different ways. He fulfilled prophecies concerning himself. He fulfilled the types and shadows and ordinances of the ceremonies designed to point to and prefigure His work at Calvary. He fulfilled laws by obeying them in the flesh. Jesus was not against the law. It isn't the law of the Old Testament on one side and Jesus on the other. Jesus and the law are on the same side.  We are on the wrong side of the law, and only in Christ can we be freed from its condemnation. Don't think wrongly about the law. It's there, and you broke it. The law is there to show you your need of salvation. 

A Failure to Communicate

"You're not listening to what I am saying!"

"Oh, yes I am, you said..."

We've all been down that conversational road, and we know that unless something changes, it's not going to end well. Both sides are talking past one another and not listening to try and understand the other person. An argument will never end well when both parties hear what they want to hear just to prove their side right. When you try to win an argument instead of the person, it gets messy. Often there is not any real malice intended, but we don't understand what the other side is saying or trying to say. It might be a failure in communication or it might be a prejudice against what is being said. There is talking, but no communication.

How can we avoid this? We don't act like the Captain in Cool Hand Luke and start beating people over the head because they are not listening to us. We can avoid this by not attributing evil intentions to everyone that disagrees with us on every point. We can listen and ask questions of people to make sure we are hearing what they are trying to say before we grab our pitchforks. We can go to someone privately and ask them for clarification. Don't be so vain, to think this (or every) article is about you. Maybe, just maybe, the problem is that you didn't understand or didn't read it closely enough. Maybe you are reading more into the article, sermon, post than was intended by the person who posted it.

It is not acceptable to deliberately mishear our opponent. When we know what our opponent is saying and we know that there is disagreement, we have to deal honestly. Truth is nothing to play around with and nothing to compromise on; but we do the truth a disservice when we don't rightly represent those people and those positions we oppose. Don't defend the truth by lying about your opponent. How can we claim to stand for the truth, but don't care to understand the truth in our arguments? You need to be "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath," according to James 1:19. This should especially be true when dealing with good brothers who disagree with us. Once you wrongly attribute malice to someone who disagrees with you because it makes it easier to refute them, but you've lost your opportunity to convince him of your position and have made an enemy out of your brother. To deal honestly with truth or with another person you have to listen to them, to what they are really saying. Listen to them and deal with what they actually say and what they mean, not what you think they said, not what you want them to mean, or what you wish they would have said.

The Harvard Business Review has a good article on talking past each other in business situations. In the article, they list some items that might be helpful to us. I have slightly edited the bullet points below:

Stop doing this:

• assuming that others see what you see, feel what you feel, and think what you think
• recognize that emotions, such as fear and distrust, change how you and others interpret conversations
• thinking you understand and remember what others say, when you really only remember what you think about what they’ve said.
• underestimating your own blind spots

Start doing that:

• asking open-ended questions, to which you don’t know the answers, (i.e. What influenced your thinking?)
• listening to the answers to understand them, not just to refute them
• Be clear in defining your terms

When Thou Passest Through the Waters

Is there any heart discouraged as it journeys on its way? 

Does there seem to be more darkness than there is of sunny day? 

Oh, it’s hard to learn the lesson, as we pass beneath the rod, 

That the sunshine and the shadow serve alike the will of God; 

But there comes a word of promise like the promise in the bow — 

That however deep the waters, they shall never overflow. 

When the flesh is worn and weary, and the spirit is depressed, 

And temptations sweep upon it, like a storm on ocean’s breast, 

There’s a haven ever open for the tempest-driven bird; 

There’s a shelter for the tempted in the promise of the Word; 

For the standard of the Spirit shall be raised against the foe, 

And however deep the waters, they shall never overflow. 

When a sorrow comes upon you that no other soul can share, 

And the burden seems too heavy for the human heart to bear, 

There is One whose grace can comfort if you’ll give Him an abode;

There’s a Burden-Bearer ready if you’ll trust Him with your load; 

For the precious promise reaches to the depth of human woe, 

That however deep the waters, they shall never overflow. 

When the sands of life are ebbing and I know that death is near; 

When I’m passing through the valley, and the way seems dark and drear; 

I will reach my hand to Jesus, in His bosom I shall hide, 

And ’twill only be a moment till I reach the other side; 

It is then the fullest meaning of the promise I shall know. 

“When thou passest through the waters, they shall never overflow.”

Author unknown. This is based on Isaiah 43:2. I found it in the book Comfort the Grieving, by Brian Tautges. The poem is also available in tract form HERE. 

How to Think by Alan Jacobs

Alan Jacobs thinks we have a thinking problem. I think he’s right. Not that we cannot think, but as a society, we would rather not and actively avoid it. Thinking requires too much of us. Thinking will change us and often will cause us trouble. If you want to slow down and really think and are concerned with discovering truth, this book is for you.

How to Think is an important book for our times. The world of social media has made thinking much more difficult. We create echo chambers of online communities that agree with us. It is so easy to categorize anyone who disagrees with us as the enemy, dismiss them, block them, and banish them from your feeds. But learning to think involves a “skepticism about our own motives and generosity toward the motives of others." You have to care about the truth more than your social position. Changing your mind does have social consequences. 

Thinking is also more than coldly calculating all possible options like a super computer. We are human beings, not machines. Clear and good thinking requires the rational, logic, but there is the emotional aspect involved as well. There always has been, a social aspect to our thinking. No one comes to any conclusion as “an independent thinker”. Whether through face to face discussion, books, or teachers, we don’t come to ideas on our own. All of these factors come to play, and they can either be used for good thinking or to shut it down. All logic and no compassion, or all emotion and no social element or empathy for those you disagree with will shut down thinking. The search for truth requires the courage to admit you are wrong, or to say your friends and family are wrong. 

I didn't agree with all his conclusions, but I am still thinking them over. 

Thank to Netgallery.com for the review copy. 

Think Before You Speak

Proverbs 29:11 A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. Proverbs are short bits of wisdom, written in a memorable way, giving  godly principles for living in the fear of the Lord.  Here, we get the principle of thinking before you speak. Sometimes you must speak up quickly. Our proverb is not dealing with the exceptions that prove the rule. Most of the time as a general rule, slow down and think before you utter all your mind.

It isn’t wisdom to say everything that comes to mind in the moment. It isn’t wise, or brave, or strong and independent. It’s foolish. Some time ago, I sat in a waiting room; waiting as it turns out. I couldn't read as I usually do since a fellow patient in waiting kept uttering all her mind on every conceivable topic. No philosophy was beyond her scope and no person was spared from her opinion. One unfortunate soul sat across from her, and she asked her when her baby was due. “I’m not pregnant, but thanks.” Ouch. Did that stop our fool? Did this  humiliate and humble her? Of course not, she pressed on telling us all why she made such an assumption, making an awful situation somehow worse. The nurse opened the door, called the fool's name and she went back, muttering and sputtering on like a boat motor, leaving a rather upset young woman in her wake, contemplating her weight in the waiting room.

The wise man doesn’t feel he needs to speak quickly or be the first to have a hot take on a subject. Though he may be outraged, he can wait and think through the issue instead of venting on a public forum. The wise man can wait for the most advantageous time to speak. The wise man will think through the issue and make sure that he has covered all the ground and other possible avenues not yet considered. The sage can check his outrage and his anger for a while, making sure what he says is right, but also the right time and in the right spirit.

It is easy to get caught up in the current events of the day and feel like you have to voice some opinion on the matter and do it now. When someone makes us angry or says something we disagree with, it is natural, to want to immediately respond, or even take up arms and go to war. Learn wisdom. You don’t have to say all you know. You don’t have to let everyone else know all your mind; which, probably is really what you feel, not what you think. Give it a few minutes to simmer on the back burner and think before you speak. James said " let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." As someone quipped, perhaps paraphrasing Solomon, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

Learning to Love the Psalms

Learning to Love the Psalms
by
W. Robert Godfrey

Learning to Love the Psalms is a great book that sets out (and succeeds) to guide the reader to better “understand and appreciate the Psalms at a new level.” This book is not a commentary to every verse, or even every Psalm, but it is an introduction to a life of personal study and reflection on the Psalms. Godfrey gives you a good overview of the 150 Psalms and some necessary information in understanding Hebrew poetry, different forms the Psalms are written in, and structure of the Psalter. He also provides some things to look for as you go forward and how to apply them to their historical setting, how they point to Christ, and how they are for Christians today. 

The book is broken up into the 6 sections; the overview of the Psalter, then 5 books of the Psalms. In each section, Godfrey gives you a summary and outline to the book (there are 5 books in the Psalter) and themes to look for through that section. He selects certain Psalms and works through them showing how the principles he laid out at the beginning are used to get more out of the passage. Not only do you learn about the psalm, but you are seeing how to work through the psalms. He is teaching the principles of getting the most out of Psalms on your own.  

Learning to Love the Psalms is very accessible and I think a valuable resource for personal study or a great help to pastors or teachers who want to help teach the Psalms. The book will work best if you take your time and work through the Psalter, using this book as your guide. The Psalms are poetry and are designed for slow reading, meditation, and repeated reflection and Godfrey has written a book to help you toward a lifetime of fruitful meditation and worship.

I received a review copy from Netgallery.com. 

Be Ready: The Sword of the Spirit

I Peter 3:15 ..and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you… What we believe about salvation will affect how we go about telling others about Jesus. The Bible tells us that spiritually, we are as dead as a doornail, and need the Spirit of God to give life and the Holy Spirit uses the instrument of His Word to regenerate sinners. So if we desire to see sinners saved, when asked about the hope that is in us, we must use the Word of God.

It is at this point the battle will be won or lost. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and the Word is sharper than any two-edged sword. The Bible can pierce the soul and spirit asunder and is like a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces. The Scripture cannot be broken and endures forever. It is the incorruptible seed by which we are born again. The Bible is the Sword of the Spirit, so as a Christian, why would you ever lay down such a weapon when speaking to those without Christ? When I was about 8 years old, a friend and I were walking through the woods after a big snow storm, and because we were 8 year old boys, we decided to walk across a frozen pond. My friend made it about 10 feet before the ice broke and he fell through. I grabbed a stick and stuck it out to him and pulled him to shore. Had I left the safety of the bank to jump in after him, I could have grabbed hold of him, but then we both would have been trapped. We cannot leave the solid ground of the truth to bring someone to safety relying on our own power.  Being ready is understanding that there is no such thing as a neutral position. Everyone has a bias. I come to every conversation with the belief that God exists and we can know Him only through Jesus Christ. That is my presupposition. God’s word is God’s self-revelation, so in order to know Him and to know truth, we have to start with the authoritative Word of God. Some argue that's a circular argument. But ultimate truth must be the foundation and starting point of any worldview. If logic, reason, and the scientific method is how we arrive at the truth, tell me how we arrived at that conclusion? By reason and logic; and that, my friend, is a circular argument too.  When discussing ultimate realities, there must be a place or a truth you start from and base everything else on. God has revealed Himself to us in His Word, through Jesus Christ and that ultimate truth is found in His Word. The Bible is are starting point. Being ready is to have confidence in the power of the Word and faith in God's power to save.

Free Audio Book

This month's free audio book at Christian Audio is a really good one.

The Whole Christ, by Sinclar Ferguson.

He does a great job in examining legalism and antinomianism and showing that they are "non-identical twins" rather than opposites. The cure is not to sway towards the other error, but looking to Christ and the grace of God. The Marrow of Modern Divinity had a profound impact on me years ago (get that book and read it too) when I was struggling between the two sides and swinging back and forth. Ferguson gives the historical context of that book, then goes through the major themes. Highly recommended.