Time

Place a high value upon your time; be more careful of not losing it than you would of losing your money.  Do not let worthless recreations, idle talk, unprofitable company, or sleep rob you of your precious time.  Be more careful to escape that person, action, or course of life that would rob you of your time than you would be to escape thieves and robbers.
~ Richard Baxter,
quoted in Home Educating Family magazine

Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
~ Ephesians 5:15-16

Parenting and Marriage

From Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss...

People ask me how it happens that my children are all so promptly obedient and so happy.  As if it chanced that some parents have such children or chanced that some have not!  I am afraid it is only too true, as someone has remarked, that "this is the age of obedient parents!"  What then will be the future of their children?  How can they yield to God who have never been taught to yield to human authority?  And how well fitted will they be to rule their own households who have never learned to rule themselves?


Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
~ Ephesians 6:1


...


My married life has been a beautiful one.  It is true that sin and folly and sickness and sorrow have marred its perfection, but it has been adorned by a love that has never faltered.  My faults have never alienated Ernest; his faults, for like other human beings he has them, have never overcome my love to him.  This has been the gift of God in answer to our constant prayer, that whatever other bereavement we might have to suffer, we might never be bereft of this benediction.  It has been the glad secret of a happy marriage, and I wish I could teach it to every human being who enters upon a state that must bring with it the depth of misery or life's most sacred and mysterious joy.


So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
~ Ephesians 5:33

If Each Will Do Something

We may not be able to do any great thing; but if each of us will do something, however small it may be, a good deal will be accomplished for God.

~ D. L. Moody,

quoted in The Well-Planned Day homeschool planner

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

~ Ephesians 4:16

If Christ Is Not My Substitute

Jeff received this quote in an email from a dear friend yesterday, and I was so moved by it that I wanted to include it here...

To put it bluntly and plainly, if Christ is not my substitute, I still occupy the place of a condemned sinner. If my sins and my guilt are not transferred to Him, if He did not take them upon Himself, then surely they remain with me. If He did not deal with my sins, I must face their consequences. If my penalty was not borne by Him, it still hangs over me. There is no other possibility. To say that substitution is immoral is to say that redemption is impossible. We must beware of taking up such a disastrous position...

In the process of salvation, God is not transferring penalty from one man (guilty) to another man (innocent). He is bearing it Himself. The absolute oneness between the Father and the Son in the work of atonement must not for a moment be lost sight of. When Christ substitutes for sinful man in His death, that is God Himself bearing the consequences of our sin, God saving man at cost to Himself, not at cost to someone else. In part the atonement is to be understood as a process whereby God absorbs in Himself the consequences of man's sin.

~ Leon Morris

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

~ Ephesians 2:13

Put On the Right Clothes

Nuggets of truth and inspiration continue to pop up from Colossians. Here's another one...

Only certain costumes suit Christians. To be otherwise dressed is inappropriate.

Put on the garments that suit God's chosen people, his own, his beloved: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience (Col. 3:12 NEB).

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14 RSV).

You have all put on Christ as a garment (Gal. 3:27 NEB).

You must put on the new nature of God's creating (Eph. 4:24 NEB).

You have discarded the old nature with its deeds and have put on the new nature (Col. 3:10 NEB).

Put on love (Col. 3:14 RSV).

The clothes we wear are what people see. Only God can look on the heart. The outward signs are important. They reveal something of what is inside. If charity is there, it will become visible outwardly, but if you have no charitable feelings, you can still obey the command. Put it on as simply and consciously as you put on a coat. You choose it; you pick it up; you put it on. This is what you want to wear.

Do you want to dress like a Christian? Put on Christ. The act of honest obedience--the fruit of love for Christ--is your part. Making you Christlike through and through is his part.

~ Elisabeth Elliot

from A Lamp for My Feet

The Ramban's Letter, Part Five

Today, finally, is the last segment I want to post from this ancient Jewish document.

Today, finally, we see the distinction between Jewish thought and Christian. We've come to a fork in the road; and depending on where you land on this issue, you end up in two very different schools of thought.

The Jewish perspective:

Read this letter at least once a week and neglect none of it. Fulfill it, and in so doing, walk with it forever in the ways of Hashem, may he be blessed, so that you will succeed in all your ways. Thus you will succeed and merit the World to Come which lies hidden away for the righteous.

~ from The Ramban's Letter to His Son

Did you catch it? Do you see how different this thinking is than Christian beliefs?

The Christian perspective:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved...[a few verses later, Paul writes it again]...For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.

~ Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.

~ 2 Timothy 1:8-9

Which would you rather have:

"...neglect none of it...then you will succeed and merit the World to Come..."

OR

"...not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace"?

I know myself. I know my weaknesses. I know my tendency to "neglect" what I know to be right. I know my inability to "merit" salvation. Because of that, I gratefully accept the second choice. I cast myself on the mercy of God and say, "Thank You forever for your purpose and grace!"