Brothers,

Two things I recently read in close proximity to each other have been pressing much on my mind, heart and conscience. I won’t say much about them here, but put them before you for your consideration. The first is a passage of Scripture. The second a portion of Owen, volume 6 on Temptation and Sin:

2 Timothy 2:20-23 (ESV)
“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.”

Owen, vol. 6, p. 56
(Note the context of this quote: Owen is discussing the need for us to get a clear and abiding sense upon the mind and conscience of the guilt, danger and evil of sin. Under the consideration of the evil of sin, he points out that some remaining corruptions if left unmortified may “take away a man’s usefulness”.)
“The world is at this day full of poor withering professors. How few are there that walk in any beauty or glory! How barren, how useless are they, for the most part! Amongst the many reasons that may be assigned of this sad estate, it may justly be feared that this is none of the least effectual,-many men harbour spirit-devouring lusts in their bosoms, that lie as worms at the root of their conscience, and corrode and weaken it day by day. All graces, all the ways and means whereby any graces may be exercised and improved, are prejudiced by this means; and as to any success, God blasts such men’s undertakings.”

Brothers, we know that any and all usefulness we may ever have must come from God and His grace at work in and through us. But may God help us not to be those who unnecessarily undermine our own usefulness through the coddling of secret sins. May we be convinced of the truth so helpfully taught and lived by Pastor Martin that indeed “the life of the man is the life of his ministry.” Let us be those who love Christ passionately and hate our sins vehemently.

With you in the fight,

Pastor Andy

Fellow Fishermen!

As you have any preaching or other ministry engagements, please add them to the Calendar (you’ll need a gmail account to do so [which is free]) or enter a post with the dates and as soon as I see it I’ll add it to the calendar.

One of the main purposes of this blog is to help us to pray for each other better and to promote love and fellowship.  So let us know what you’re doing!

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Also, Lord willing, there may be a few small changes in the next few weeks.  Once everyone has changed their password, we will change the access level of each member to be able to see each others “Private” blog posts, that way you will have the option to post messages that will only be viewable to logged in users.

So please go ahead and log in and change your password.  If you have any trouble getting signed in let either Brad or me know.  If by the end of the week you have not been able to set up your new password, we will assign you a password and send it to you via email.

Dear Fishermen, I’ve just posted a new blog update!
http://casey-consideringgrace.blogspot.com/

I Corinthians 2:9-12

But as it is written:

“ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

This passage is encouraging to me for a couple of reasons.  First of all, the the lines which Paul quote are a beautiful reminder that God is working for the good of His people in both this world and the next, even when they can’t see that good and don’t understand what is going on in their lives.

Secondly, this passage reveals the wonder of God’s revelation to Christians.  In the quote, Paul says that “Eye has not seen”.  But then he speaks to the wonder of Christians having received the Spirit to dwell in them.  In receiving the spirit Christians can know what good things God has in store for His people, even during dark providence.  The Spirit dwelling in Christians makes them to know that even during the most difficult times, God is working for the good of those who love Him.

Because the Spirit has made known to us that God is working for our good in all things, we can fully rest in that truth, trusting God, even during the harshest trials.

Its very exciting and encouraging to read what has already been written here.  Thank you.

Just a few things to note for the blog: if someone makes a comment for the first time then it will be held for approval.  Once anyone has had one comment approved then future comments will be posted automatically.  So if you write a comment and dont see it right away then dont worry, it will show up very soon.

Also, please make sure you change your passwords as soon as possible.  There are people on the web who would love to foul up a site like this with obscenities and such, and at this point the usernames and passwords can easily be found out.  To change your password go to your user profile and scroll to the bottom, and you will see where you can quickly make the change.

Finally, I added two pages, one which contains a calendar, and one which lists upcoming events drawn from the calendar.  If you have an event that you want added to the calendar then write up a blog post for the event and when I see the post I will add the event to the calendar.  The “upcoming events” page for our blog currently lists all the events listed on the calendar within the next 8 weeks.  If you have a gmail account associated with your user account here then I have given you access to edit the calendar directly.  There are directions at the bottom of the calendar page for how to edit the calendar and also how to gain access if you dont have access already.

Thank you!

Deuteronomy 5:29
Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!

Brothers, how compelling these words are to me.  How real this struggle is!  In these past weeks God has lavished us with His Spirit.  It feels as if He has been pouring down His truth and love upon us.  I have been warmed to my bones with the power and beauty of our Savior, Jesus Christ. How could we ask for better, this side of heaven, than what we have experienced over the last month?

And yet!  Still, come Monday, or Tuesday, or–rarely–as late as Wednesday, and the stress of work, and life, the cold, and soggy blanket of this world, and the wretchedness of my wandering heart, turn the blaze of my zeal into a sputtering, flickering, pathetic little flame.

Oh that I had such mind always, to fear my God to keep His commandments!

Lord willing, I hope to be preaching this text when I go up to Verona in two weeks.  My mind is full of these words, my heart is overflowing with the beauty of God’s love for us–His desire for our good, His perfect wisdom in His law. How rich, how lovely, how majestic is our God!

But in all His glory He knows us, down here in the dirt, where we are, He knows us.  He knows our weakness.  He knows our fears and our temptations.  He knows we will not always have this mind as we ought.  He knows we will have ups and downs.  He knows His sheep, and His sheep wander.  So, it was a particularly sweet balancing thought to meditate on God’s love last night as Robert Fisher opened up Psalm 23:3.  God restores my soul.

Yes, it is very much better for me to keep this mind, to always burn with zeal and passion!  But knowing that He loves me even in my stumbling, that is fuel for the fire!   O the joy that our beloved Jesus loves us, even in our sins, even in our weakness, and fear, and temptations, even our failures, our Jesus LOVES US!  The One against whom we are sinning, to whom we are so offensive, He Loves us, He restores us, He guides us home–doesn’t that feed the fire?!  That love is the tinder that my heart needs.

May God be pleased to blow upon the flames.

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Please be praying for me as I prepare to Preach on May 3rd.  I believe Paul Watkins will be preaching this coming Sunday.  Let us lift each other up!

To answer Brad’s questions from his first post:
1)  I’ll probably check the blog every couple days, unless it’s really active, and I’m hopeful I can post weekly.  (That may be optimistic, but I’m hopeful.)
2)  I looking forward to having a calendar we can use to schedule events, and keep up with each other.
3)  All the blogs I look at are already in the blogroll.

UPDATE:  As Pastor Stu just emailed,  Pastor McKinnon will be preaching in Verona on May 3rd. So, of course, I will not be.  But it has been wonderful thinking about this text.  Perhaps I’ll be able to preach it some other time soon.

Dear Brothers,

I have a blog site which is entitled Considering Grace. I began this website on the 22nd of March with the hope and purpose of exposing friends and family members to the truth of the gospel. Most of my family members are nominal Christians. The posts are evangelistic and devotional. I’ve received some good feed back from family members which is a direct answer to prayer. I also post updates on facebook with the hope of having friends I went to school with read as well.  I will seek to continue to post on the Considering Grace blog and follow that with an update on the Fisherman blog. Please join me in praying for this endeavor to be used for the eternal well being of those who have not seen the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Thanks brothers for getting this blog together and may our heavenly Father strengthen our love and passion towards Him and His eternal gospel. Here’s the address to my blog http://casey-consideringgrace.blogspot.com

Henry Martyn

1781-1812

See that blessed man. No one looks at me as he does- he never takes his eyes off me; and seems always to be saying, “The years are short. Be serious. Be in earnest. Don’t trifle- don’t trifle.”

Charles Simeon