Do you ever wonder what life would be like without the internet?

It has become such a huge part of my daily life that it's hard for me to even think far back enough to a time when I didn't use the internet. Of course, you can't forget the dial-up days. Anyone who has ever used dial-up will have the familiar sound ingrained in his mind throughout all eternity. Even now I'm trying to think of how to type out or even make the sound with my mouth. I can't do it. Imagine trying to describe it to your grandchildren . . . without sounding like a dying rooster. Impossible.

My point is: I'm aghast (I love that word) at how much I waste--yes, waste--on the internet, and more specifically, social media. 

This begs the question, why?

Why Do We Waste Time On Social Media?

Pride. Pride says 'I am so great that I want the whole world wide web to know it.' So whether it's my clever statuses, pictures I feel are attractive, or things that make my life look awesome, I'm striving toward one goal: self-worship. We want to put our best foot, face, and whatever else forward, whether we have to lie about our lives or photoshop our faces to do so.

Before you post, ask yourself why. And more importantly, Does this glorify my Heavenly Father? Is my life truly consumed by Him--even my social media?

What If There Was No Internet?

 It just makes me wonder how much I could actually accomplish if it were never invented.

I'm tempted to glorify the past. I envision the Good Old Days: those sweet, simple times long ago when everyone was well-behaved, worked hard, completed all that they intended to do, and even had enough time leftover to leisurely rock back-and-forth on the front porch rocking chair with a good book in hand while they gingerly sipped on their sweet tea. Oh, and as they lived and moved, there was an ethereal golden glow over everything and everyone.

But life wasn't like that. Men, women, and children still found ways to waste time. They still found ways to feed the monster Pride that dwells in every heart.

I'm writing this for you, dear reader, so that you would not excuse yourself from sin simply because you live in highly-technolgically advanced world, as if your generation were an exception. 

We have no excuse. Although sin may look outwardly a bit different than it did 50, 100, 200+ years ago, it is still at its very core sin. And yes, even time-wasting is a sin.

Does This Mean That I Have To Delete My Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc.?

I am not commanding you to delete every social media account you have right this very minute. 

I am asking you to consider how much time you spend on each and every social media account you have.

I am asking you to be careful that you, as a Christian, are putting off the aroma of Christ both on and off the internet.

I am asking that you would beg God to be captivated--wholly and completely caught up with Himself. 

Christian, strive to be true to the character of Him whose name you claim -- Christ's.

"Look to Jesus, believers, and that will keep you true to Him!" - Horatius Bonar

"We know nothing of religion here: we think only of Christ."

As C. S. Lewis is one the best and brightest authors, I'm going to share a few quotes from his book, The Great Divorce.

"There have been men before now who got interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself . . . as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist. There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a second thought to Christ. You see it in smaller matters. Did you never know a lover of books that with all his first editions and signed copies had lost the power to read them? Or an organizer of charities that had lost all love for the poor? It is the subtlest of all the snares." (Ch. 9)

~ 

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened." (Ch. 9)

~ 

"We know nothing of religion here: we think only of Christ." (Chapter 5)

~ 

"No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves. They are all holy when God's hand is on the rein. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods." (Ch. 11)

~ 

"'Oh, of course. I'm wrong. Everything I say or do is wrong, according to you.  

'But of course!' said the Spirit, shining with love and mirth so that my eyes were dazzled. 'That's what we all find when we reach this country. We've all been wrong! That's the great joke. There's no need to go on pretending one was right! After that we begin living.'" (Ch. 11)

~ 

"There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him." (Ch. 11) 

They shall sing in the ways of the Lord

I know to many of you this blog has long been dead. But I'd like to think he's only been sleeping, gone on an extended vacation; hibernating; but still very much alive.
And in the hope of awakening this old Blog o'Mine, I'd like to share a page out of Spurgeon's Morning + Evening from February 1st that I've found to be such a help to me and, I hope, to you as well.

"They shall sing in the ways of the Lord."

Psalm 138:5

The time when Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord is when they first lose their burden at the foot of the Cross. Not even the songs of the angels seem so sweet as the first song of rapture which gushes from the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God. You know how John Bunyan describes it. He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the Cross, he gave three great leaps, and went on his way singing—

“Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be The Man that there was put to shame for me!”

Believer, do you recollect the day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place when Jesus met you, and said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins; they shall not be mentioned against thee any more forever.” Oh! what a sweet season is that when Jesus takes away the pain of sin. When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous that I could scarce refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the house where I had been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy, that I wanted to tell every snow-flake that was falling from heaven of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels. But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of his constant lovingkindness leads them to say, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” See to it, brother, that thou magnifiest the Lord this day.

“Long as we tread this desert land,

New mercies shall new songs demand.”

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord

It wasn't easy to choose to stay at home and take on a full-time job when it seemed like just about everyone else was moving away and starting their freshman year of college.

 Honestly, every morning is a struggle. But the struggle is sweet when it is from, with, and for Jesus.

I have learned so very much about things I never thought I didn't know. Funny how we don't know so much that we don't even know we don't know. If that makes any sense at all.

Anyway, I've learned everything from how to [magically] fold cardboard into a perfectly-shaped shipping box, how to balance finances, how to convince telemarketers that we're not interested, and even just how to use the drive-thru at the bank. I'm experiencing things I've never done before. And I'm thankful for that. But more than anything else, I'm thankful for the precious lives I am able to come across, speak to, and encourage. I'm thankful for the stories and laughs, the wisdom and the advice they have given me.

I'll share one story a sweet lady told of her great-grandson.

~

When she was taking him to his Kindergarten class one day, he spoke up, pleading, 

"Mamy, would you pwease tell Ms. Julie (his teacher) that I'm sick and can't come today?" 

"But, dahlin' (it didn't matter who she was addressing, to Mamy, everyone is dahlin'), you're not sick."

"Yes, I am. I, I... I had a heart attack!"

Mamy stifled a laugh and decided to play along with him. She called Ms. Julie and told her what he had said. His teacher then said, 

"Well, in that case, we'll have to send for an ambulance right away."

When Mamy relayed the message to the backseat, he said, "Tell her it's too late! You and Mamma done buried me already."

~

Throughout this year, Habakkuk 3:17-18 has been such a comfort:

Though the fig tree may not blossom,

Nor fruit be on the vines;

Though the labor of the olive may fail,

And the fields yield no food;

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,

And there be no herd in the stalls - 

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Deuteronomy 6

In verses 6-9, God instructs us how we ought to respond to the Word He, in His kindness, has given to us:

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Believer, this is how you ought to live - with His Word hidden in your heart and always before your mind. Teach it, speak of it, think on it - constantly. I want to know this Book more than any other, and His words more than anyone else's.

And how could I not? Verses 20-23 say:

“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers."

As a believer, you are separated unto God. As a result, you look very strange to the world. As you should. God has set you apart and made you different. When they wonder at you and ask why? Why are you so odd? You should want nothing better than to tell of God's mercy and His great work in your heart! This should be your answer: That you were a slave. You were dead in your sins and subject to the chains of this world. But now you have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love! Now you are under the happy bondage of our good, kind Lord and Master. There is no happier position, no better place. 

Christmas is coming.

Is anyone else amazed that Christmas is 4 days away?
Or that 2011 is just around the river bend? (Oh how I love Disney songs.)
This. Is. Strange.
But I'm excited about all that 2011 has in store. It should be a pretty eventful year. Which is always better than a boring year.

I've also been overwhelmed with all this first-rate and incredible music that I've recently (re)discovered. But. It's not Christmas music, so I feel ashamed to share it. So it'll have to wait 'till after Christmas!

Remember Christ and His rich mercy toward undeserving sinners - toward us! - and in this busy Christmas season, seek Him:
"'And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people; for the Gentiles shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.'
It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isaiah 11:10-12

Glory to the newborn King

It's so easy to get caught up in all the busyness and excitement of Christmas. But it's also for us easy to carelessly say, "Jesus is the reason for the season" and "Keep Christ in Christmas" just because it's the right thing to say as "conservative Christians". But to really and truly say that He is the cause for all of our joy, not only at this time of year, but always, and to mean it and live upon it is a bit more difficult. But doesn't Christ deserve all of our joy, every thought, every action? Doesn't it become so much easier when we choose to do so out of love for Him who first loved us?

"For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given"; it's because of Christ's humble birth and His death on the cross that we can come before a holy and righteous God, for we are clothed in Christ's spotless righteousness, and say with joy, "I am His and He is mine." I hope that we might never forget the Reason - our "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace", Jesus Christ - and that we all might be able to sing with joy of the coming of our Savior:

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as Man with men to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"