Friday, August 28, 2009

excerpt from Spurgeon's "All of Grace"

God Justifieth the Ungodly

This message is for you. You will find the text in the Epistle to the Romans, in the fourth chapter and the fifth verse, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

I call your attention to those words, “Him that justifieth the ungodly.” They seem to me to be very wonderful words.

Are you not surprised that there should be such an expression as that in the Bible, “That justifieth the ungodly?” I have heard that men that hate the doctrines of the cross bring it as a charge against God, that He saves wicked men and receives to Himself the vilest of the vile. See how this Scripture accepts the charge, and plainly states it! By the mouth of His servant Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, He takes to Himself the title of “Him that justifieth the ungodly.” He makes those just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished, and favors those who deserve no favor. You thought, did you not, that salvation was for the good? that God’s grace was for the pure and holy, who are free from sin? It has fallen into your mind that, if you were excellent, then God would reward you; and you have thought that because you are not worthy, therefore there could be no way of your enjoying His favor. You must be somewhat surprised to read a text like this: “Him that justifieth the ungodly.” I do not wonder that you are surprised; for with all my familiarity with the great grace of God, I never cease to wonder at it. It does sound surprising, does it not, that it should be possible for a holy God to justify an unholy man? We, according to the natural legality of our hearts, are always talking about our own goodness and our own worthiness, and we stubbornly hold to it that there must be somewhat in us in order to win the notice of God. Now, God, who sees through all deceptions, knows that there is no goodness whatever in us. He says that “there is none righteous, no not one.” He knows that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” and, therefore the Lord Jesus did not come into the world to look after goodness and righteousness with him, and to bestow them upon persons who have none of them. He comes, not because we are just, but to make us so: he justifieth the ungodly.

When a counsellor comes into court, if he is an honest man, he desires to plead the case of an innocent person and justify him before the court from the things which are falsely laid to his charge. It should be the lawyer’s object to justify the innocent person, and he should not attempt to screen the guilty party. It lies not in man’s right nor in man’s power truly to justify the guilty. This is a miracle reserved for the Lord alone. God, the infinitely just Sovereign, knows that there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, and therefore, in the infinite sovereignty of His divine nature and in the splendor of His ineffable love, He undertakes the task, not so much of justifying the just as of justifying the ungodly. God has devised ways and means of making the ungodly man to stand justly accepted before Him: He has set up a system by which with perfect justice He can treat the guilty as if he had been all his life free from offense, yea, can treat him as if he were wholly free from sin. He justifieth the ungodly.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is a very surprising thing—a thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me even to this day the greatest wonder that I ever heard of, that God should ever justify me. I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin, apart from His almighty love. I know by a full assurance that I am justified by faith which is in Christ Jesus, and treated as if I had been perfectly just, and made an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ; and yet by nature I must take my place among the most sinful. I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving. I am loved with as much love as if I had always been godly, whereas aforetime I was ungodly. Who can help being astonished at this? Gratitude for such favor stands dressed in robes of wonder.

Now, while this is very surprising, I want you to notice how available it makes the gospel to you and to me. If God justifieth the ungodly, then, dear friend, He can justify you. Is not that the very kind of person that you are? If you are unconverted at this moment, it is a very proper description of you; you have lived without God, you have been the reverse of godly; in one word, you have been and are ungodly. Perhaps you have not even attended a place of worship on Sunday, but have lived in disregard of God’s day, and house, and Word—this proves you to have been ungodly. Sadder still, it may be you have even tried to doubt God’s existence, and have gone the length of saying that you did so. You have lived on this fair earth, which is full of the tokens of God’s presence, and all the while you have shut your eyes to the clear evidences of His power and Godhead. You have lived as if there were no God. Indeed, you would have been very pleased if you could have demonstrated to yourself to a certainty that there was no God whatever. Possibly you have lived a great many years in this way, so that you are now pretty well settled in your ways, and yet God is not in any of them. If you were labeled ungodly it would as well describe you as if the sea were to be labeled salt water. Would it not?

Possibly you are a person of another sort; you have regularly attended to all the outward forms of religion, and yet you have had no heart in them at all, but have been really ungodly. Though meeting with the people of God, you have never met with God for yourself; you have been in the choir, and yet have not praised the Lord with your heart. You have lived without any love to God in your heart, or regard to his commands in your life. Well, you are just the kind of man to whom this gospel is sent—this gospel which says that God justifieth the ungodly. It is very wonderful, but it is happily available for you. It just suits you. Does it not? How I wish that you would accept it! If you are a sensible man, you will see the remarkable grace of God in providing for such as you are, and you will say to yourself, “Justify the ungodly! Why, then, should not I be justified, and justified at once?”

Now, observe further, that it must be so—that the salvation of God is for those who do not deserve it, and have no preparation for it. It is reasonable that the statement should be put in the Bible; for, dear friend, no others need justifying but those who have no justification of their own. If any of my readers are perfectly righteous, they want no justifying. You feel that you are doing your duty well, and almost putting heaven under an obligation to you. What do you want with a Saviour, or with mercy? What do you want with justification? You will be tired of my book by this time, for it will have no interest to you.

If any of you are giving yourselves such proud airs, listen to me for a little while. You will be lost, as sure as you are alive. You righteous men, whose righteousness is all of your own working, are either deceivers or deceived; for the Scripture cannot lie, and it saith plainly, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” In any case I have no gospel to preach to the self-righteous, no, not a word of it. Jesus Christ himself came not to call the righteous, and I am not going to do what He did not do. If I called you, you would not come, and, therefore, I will not call you, under that character. No, I bid you rather look at that righteousness of yours till you see what a delusion it is. It is not half so substantial as a cobweb. Have done with it! Flee from it! Oh believe that the only persons that can need justification are those who are not in themselves just! They need that something should be done for them to make them just before the judgment seat of God. Depend upon it, the Lord only does that which is needful. Infinite wisdom never attempts that which is unnecessary. Jesus never undertakes that which is superfluous. To make him just who is just is no work for God—that were a labor for a fool; but to make him just who is unjust—that is work for infinite love and mercy. To justify the ungodly—this is a miracle worthy of a God. And for certain it is so.

Now, look. If there be anywhere in the world a physician who has discovered sure and precious remedies, to whom is that physician sent? To those who are perfectly healthy? I think not. Put him down in a district where there are no sick persons, and he feels that he is not in his place. There is nothing for him to do. “The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.” Is it not equally clear that the great remedies of grace and redemption are for the sick in soul? They cannot be for the whole, for they cannot be of use to such. If you, dear friend, feel that you are spiritually sick, the Physician has come into the world for you. If you are altogether undone by reason of your sin, you are the very person aimed at in the plan of salvation. I say that the Lord of love had just such as you are in His eye when He arranged the system of grace. Suppose a man of generous spirit were to resolve to forgive all those who were indebted to him; it is clear that this can only apply to those really in his debt. One person owes him a thousand pounds; another owes him fifty pounds; each one has but to have his bill receipted, and the liability is wiped out. But the most generous person cannot forgive the debts of those who do not owe him anything. It is out of the power of Omnipotence to forgive where there is no sin. Pardon, therefore, cannot be for you who have no sin. Pardon must be for the guilty. Forgiveness must be for the sinful. It were absurd to talk of forgiving those who do not need forgiveness—pardoning those who have never offended.

Do you think that you must be lost because you are a sinner? This is the reason why you can be saved. Because you own yourself to be a sinner I would encourage you to believe that grace is ordained for such as you are. One of our hymn-writers even dared to say:

A sinner is a sacred thing;

The Holy Ghost hath made him so.

It is truly so, that Jesus seeks and saves that which is lost. He died and made a real atonement for real sinners. When men are not playing with words, or calling themselves “miserable sinners,” out of mere compliment, I feel overjoyed to meet with them. I would be glad to talk all night to bona fide sinners. The inn of mercy never closes its doors upon such, neither weekdays nor Sunday. Our Lord Jesus did not die for imaginary sins, but His heart’s blood was spilt to wash out deep crimson stains, which nothing else can remove.

He that is a black sinner—he is the kind of man that Jesus Christ came to make white. A gospel preacher on one occasion preached a sermon from, “Now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees,” and he delivered such a sermon that one of his hearers said to him, “One would have thought that you had been preaching to criminals. Your sermon ought to have been delivered in the county jail.” “Oh, no,” said the good man, “if I were preaching in the county jail, I should not preach from that text, there I should preach ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’” Just so. The law is for the self-righteous, to humble their pride: the gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.

If you are not lost, what do you want with a Saviour? Should the shepherd go after those who never went astray? Why should the woman sweep her house for the bits of money that were never out of her purse? No, the medicine is for the diseased; the quickening is for the dead; the pardon is for the guilty; liberation is for those who are bound: the opening of eyes is for those who are blind. How can the Saviour, and His death upon the cross, and the gospel of pardon, be accounted for, unless it be upon the supposition that men are guilty and worthy of condemnation? The sinner is the gospel’s reason for existence. You, my friend, to whom this word now comes, if you are undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, you are the sort of man for whom the gospel is ordained, and arranged, and proclaimed. God justifieth the ungodly.

I would like to make this very plain. I hope that I have done so already; but still, plain as it is, it is only the Lord that can make a man see it. It does at first seem most amazing to an awakened man that salvation should really be for him as a lost and guilty one. He thinks that it must be for him as a penitent man, forgetting that his penitence is a part of his salvation. “Oh,” says he, “but I must be this and that,”—all of which is true, for he shall be this and that as the result of salvation; but salvation comes to him before he has any of the results of salvation. It comes to him, in fact, while he deserves only this bare, beggarly, base, abominable description, “ungodly.” That is all he is when God’s gospel comes to justify him.

May I, therefore, urge upon any who have no good thing about them—who fear that they have not even a good feeling, or anything whatever that can recommend them to God—that they will firmly believe that our gracious God is able and willing to take them without anything to recommend them, and to forgive them spontaneously, not because they are good, but because He is good. Does He not make His sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good? Does He not give fruitful seasons, and send the rain and the sunshine in their time upon the most ungodly nations? Ay, even Sodom had its sun, and Gomorrah had its dew. Oh friend, the great grace of God surpasses my conception and your conception, and I would have you think worthily of it! As high as the heavens are above the earth; so high are God’s thoughts above our thoughts. He can abundantly pardon. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners: forgiveness is for the guilty.

Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are; but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. A great artist some short time ago had painted a part of the corporation of the city in which he lived, and he wanted, for historic purposes, to include in his picture certain characters well known in the town. A crossing-sweeper, unkempt, ragged, filthy, was known to everybody, and there was a suitable place for him in the picture. The artist said to this ragged and rugged individual, “I will pay you well if you will come down to my studio and let me take your likeness.” He came round in the morning, but he was soon sent about his business; for he had washed his face, and combed his hair, and donned a respectable suit of clothes. He was needed as a beggar, and was not invited in any other capacity. Even so, the gospel will receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at once for salvation. God justifieth the ungodly, and that takes you up where you now are: it meets you in your worst estate.

Come in your disorder. I mean, come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinfulness. Come to Jesus just as you are, leprous, filthy, naked, neither fit to live nor fit to die. Come, you that are the very sweepings of creation; come, though you hardly dare to hope for anything but death. Come, though despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your bosom like a horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord to justify another ungodly one. Why should He not? Come for this great mercy of God is meant for such as you are. I put it in the language of the text, and I cannot put it more strongly: the Lord God Himself takes to Himself this gracious title, “Him that justifieth the ungodly.” He makes just, and causes to be treated as just, those who by nature are ungodly. Is not that a wonderful word for you? Reader, do not delay till you have well considered this matter.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

closer than

There is a friend that is closer than a brother...
.
I was reminded of that this weekend. God allowed me to visit my former roomate and her husband (with another former roomate) in Highland, Indiana. It was one of the most incredible snippets of time I have experienced of late as we reminisced about old tymes, made new memories, and spent countless seconds conversing and truly fellowshiping over free energy drinks and Pepsi.
.
No, seriously. God has blessed me with many friends, but a precious number of them are very balmacious to my soul.
.
The people I can spill "everything" to without fear or apprehension of rejection...
Those who have seen the inner workings of the heart when I couldn't see it myself, ...
and those who love me in spite of who I still am growing into, in spite of my failures or ridiculousness.
.
God has given me such people, and this weekend was one of the most refreshing I have had in quite a long time.
.
The conversations we had were full of grace and truth, and especially of things we need to hear on a daily basis. (Is there a better word for basis?) It is SO GOOD to have friends that are not afraid to talk about you in front of you ;) and who seek edification at every turn.
.
I can only pray that I am such a friend to them as well.
.
Thanks, y'alls!


Wednesday, August 19, 2009

follow me - and a bunch of lame rhymes.

so much can be found in the simplest of phrases: "follow me" a command, a beckon, an urging, a plea oh Saviour, Shepherd, Master be teach me to obey, to repent of all that is me, teach my heart to be commited to thee,
and submitted to thee,
oh Abba, grow me in all of these, so i may truly follow thee!
~motivated by "the call to discipleship" (Chapter one of "Christ's call to discipleship, by JM Boice)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Brave Saint Saturn is a tool (to be used to edify)

(This is also on my amoebathinks blog)....

Sometimes my heart hurts too much for my own words, and all I have strength for is picking pieces from who I am turning into.

these words are not my own, but they have become a part of me. I have rearranged them to fit that which I cannot express in my own words. If you want to know where they came from, they are written by one of my heroes, Reese Roper. Hopefully he won't shank me for using and rearranging them...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They said I'm foolish Fleeting hopes in borrowed dreams, They said forget her, The moon is far beyond your reach I would run out of fuel long before I'd ever land But none of them can see this world From the place where I stand.
Today on fragile wings I tried to touch the sun, as wax and feathers melted, all my dreams have come undone, today 
he made my faith seem worthless
the things i hold were pointless and he fought to stay but always dreamed that he could leave this place
In between the molecules is cold, no light for shaking fingers to ever have their hold, And I'm afraid I'll never soo the light, the blind are following in sightless plight
Two years pass, I pump the chamber,
full of air to shoot the birds.
Harmless game to hit them slightly,
Scare them off, in other words.
Starling falling to her death,
piercing copper steals her breath.
See the flutter in her breast,
starving babies in her nest.
Raise their souls up to the sky,
why must helpless creatures die?
The thought it comes to my mind, to somehow intervene, but it could bring me trouble, and what could I do anyway? It's hard to be effective, when it happens so often, too see a life unraveling, through drawn venetian blinds. I'm sickened by compassion, I'm stifled by my limitations Anesthetic apathy, take the pain away.
I could have made it better But the feelings just aren't there My heart is cold and black But I just don't think I care So here's to me saying "fare-thee-well" And when you hear this song I hope it hurts...   
Three strands of wire,  Threefold the tie that binds.  She is the one thing on the earth for which he still pines.  To his heart she was life,  So he prays to his Maker with a sigh,  As his fire sputters out,  Because robots never cry. 
I know you You haven't given up yet You are brave in this darkness, Saint Saturn Sometimes the bravest thing of all is to hope And my [his, her] heart still beats inside, and the blood runs in my [his, her] veins. A remnant of life remains, and my [his, her] heart still beats inside
I need you now, Not words or a feeling. But Jesus Christ, I've hit the ceiling. 
Oh God, we need you here,
We're sinking fast and we don't care. The evidence is all around me, on both sides of my door, Our hearts beat. Every breath has sacred weight,
every life has some design.
Can we kill and also save,
speak life,
while digging graves?
Your love, Your mercy, Your light unending. Your hope, Your peace, Your strength my heart is mending.
You lift my battered soul, You mend my broken wings together 
Hopelessly, hopeless and She is swimming further into the sea Thinking she's substandard While all the while, she is beautiful to me
like the pause before waking sleep is replaced by light, and life and hope it is the light of one far away sun that has beckoned them to leave and the hope of home that has lifted them from slumber the hope that; though the dark may come the sun also rises
i believe the sun also rises dries our tears bringing the blue skies of day i believe the sun also rises lighting our past, driving the darkness away so far away  Darkness can’t perceive the light,
though lightlessness has chilled us numb,
And though its wings may cloud the skies,
The dark shall never overcome

Light of the world,
Your love, has never failed
I need your love,
And most of all I want to feel your peace,
I need your love,
Let everything that you are not decrease,

(Your love,
Your mercy,
Your light unending.
Your hope,
Your peace,
Your strength my heart is mending.)

(Daylight,
Save me)

(including from: ) http://artists.letssingit.com/brave-saint-saturn-lyrics-heart-still-beats-rgb41wd

Thanks, Reese, for unknowingly helping me express myself.

my heart hurts (BSS lyrics composal)

Sometimes my heart hurts too much for my own words, and all I have strength for is picking pieces from who I am turning into.

these words are not my own, but they have become a part of me.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They said I'm foolish Fleeting hopes in borrowed dreams, They said forget her, The moon is far beyond your reach I would run out of fuel long before I'd ever land But none of them can see this world From the place where I stand.
Today on fragile wings I tried to touch the sun, as wax and feathers melted, all my dreams have come undone, today
he made my faith seem worthless
the things i hold were pointless and he fought to stay but always dreamed that he could leave this place
In between the molecules is cold, no light for shaking fingers to ever have their hold, And I'm afraid I'll never soo the light, the blind are following in sightless plight
Two years pass, I pump the chamber,
full of air to shoot the birds.
Harmless game to hit them slightly,
Scare them off, in other words.
Starling falling to her death,
piercing copper steals her breath.
See the flutter in her breast,
starving babies in her nest.
Raise their souls up to the sky,
why must helpless creatures die?
The thought it comes to my mind, to somehow intervene, but it could bring me trouble, and what could I do anyway? It's hard to be effective, when it happens so often, too see a life unraveling, through drawn venetian blinds. I'm sickened by compassion, I'm stifled by my limitations Anesthetic apathy, take the pain away.
I could have made it better But the feelings just aren't there My heart is cold and black But I just don't think I care So here's to me saying "fare-thee-well" And when you hear this song I hope it hurts...   
Three strands of wire,  Threefold the tie that binds.  She is the one thing on the earth for which he still pines.  To his heart she was life,  So he prays to his Maker with a sigh,  As his fire sputters out,  Because robots never cry. 
I know you You haven't given up yet You are brave in this darkness, Saint Saturn Sometimes the bravest thing of all is to hope And my [his, her] heart still beats inside, and the blood runs in my [his, her] veins. A remnant of life remains, and my [his, her] heart still beats inside
I need you now, Not words or a feeling. But Jesus Christ, I've hit the ceiling. 
Oh God, we need you here,
We're sinking fast and we don't care. The evidence is all around me, on both sides of my door, Our hearts beat. Every breath has sacred weight,
every life has some design.
Can we kill and also save,
speak life,
while digging graves?
Your love, Your mercy, Your light unending. Your hope, Your peace, Your strength my heart is mending.
You lift my battered soul, You mend my broken wings together 
Hopelessly, hopeless and She is swimming further into the sea Thinking she's substandard While all the while, she is beautiful to me
like the pause before waking sleep is replaced by light, and life and hope it is the light of one far away sun that has beckoned them to leave and the hope of home that has lifted them from slumber the hope that; though the dark may come the sun also rises
i believe the sun also rises dries our tears bringing the blue skies of day i believe the sun also rises lighting our past, driving the darkness away so far away  Darkness can’t perceive the light,
though lightlessness has chilled us numb,
And though its wings may cloud the skies,
The dark shall never overcome

Light of the world,
Your love, has never failed
I need your love,
And most of all I want to feel your peace,
I need your love,
Let everything that you are not decrease,

(Your love,
Your mercy,
Your light unending.
Your hope,
Your peace,
Your strength my heart is mending.)

(Daylight,
Save me)
 



Monday, August 17, 2009

the tabitha club

the Tabitha Club is starting! and coming into existence! Several years in the works, and I can only pray that this is the right time to start. more laters!

~Amanda

the tabitha club

the Tabitha Club is starting! and coming into existence! Several years in the works, and I can only pray that this is the right time to start. more laters!

~Amanda

thinking (inspired by shai... bua haha)

So this is a little post just to say
I think the best when I try to arrange
words invisible on a silly webpage
Many of you may get the brunt of it
I'm not really sorry you have to put up with it :)
I could just think inside my head and say nary a word
but if i did that then my voice would never be heard.

so thank you, dear friends, for listening still,
to my ridiculousness as i think with my *cough* quill

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Driving

Last night I had the privilege of driving about twenty minutes away from my "house" to pick up some neat young people, and on the way back I realized how much I really missed driving. Not the whole city-driving, with all the traffic lights, building lights, and house lights, but driving over 75mph through the desert in the dark with stars exploding around me. Well, maybe not even that, but just driving long distances to drive, usually with a far-off destination. For example, driving for at least forty minutes to get to chuch... I miss that. I miss the time God gave me to reflect before church while careening down the road at 75 miles per hour (or 30something in the snow)... Sometimes I'd go the whole way without music, just praying or making up my own songs, and who cares really, because out west everyone's nuts, so why not??

Anyways, I miss that. I miss being ABLE to drive forever to get somewhere. I miss the lack of civilization and the dust and the smell of sage. I totally miss my crazy students. But I know one thing.... I would never trade where I am right now to go back to Sanders unless He could use me more there than He can here. Maybe someday, who knows. But for now, I am here. I am in Grand Rapids, a city far from the desert and the stars, but surrounded by people that love me. Surrounded, also, by new experiences and new opportunities and new friends. Reminded daily how much I have been blessed, as I remember the Rez and its poverty and big-hearted Navajo children. I am where I am because the one who said "I, even I" has led me here.

i can only follow, as much as he fills my lungs with the right amount of oxygen and pushes my muscles together and apart to move me where He can use me.


So whether I am driving in the city or in the dark skydome of the night, I know that He has been my guide and my pillar of light and strength, and whom shall I fear? Hope, my soul, in God!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

What (in case you were curious)

this year i:
moved back to Grand Rapids, MI.
am living in my old bedroom.
plan on subbing this fall around Michigan.
am planning on traveling a bit to see babies and old friends and research life.
am taking online graduate classes to earn my Master's degree - deciding between elementary and secondary... (thoughts??!)
hope to start up the Tabitha Club - in actuality. not just as a facebook group!!!
have been learning a TON from the Word and from his servants.
have made so many new friends, and been able to stay in touch with some old friends, that it's been a blessing! :)