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Bible quiet time chapters for this morning: 1 Pet. 1-2
Passage for reflection:
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, who having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls.” (1 Pet. 1:6-9)
As my follow up to my blog article yesterday, here is my initial experiment of writing out my Bible quiet time notes for blog readers, hopefully to be done on a regular basis. Similar to the way I wrote out my quiet time reflections on Twitter, my intended format for these quiet time notes is that they are written out in brief thoughts, so that the gist of my quiet time reflections is given without too much exhaustive detail. And in the interest of time for these quiet time articles, I only intend to cover a small section of the passages of the Bible that I actually read for quiet times in the mornings. This is especially true for when I read four chapters of the Bible per day under Robert Murray McCheyne’s Bible reading plan next year.
I had to be away from my home church Emmanuel this past Sunday, so I wasn’t available to sit in the sanctuary and take notes from the sermon. I hope to continue blogging the sermons of Emmanuel in support of my home church in the coming weeks (though my blog doesn’t represent anyone, including Emmanuel). In the meantime, I share a reflection from a quiet time study of the book of Romans from my days of rest on Sundays, regarding appreciation for true freedom of conscience in Christ and discerning the problems of sexual perversion and false notions of sexual modesty, even in contemporary Western culture.
After some down time of not blogging with any real consistency over the past several weeks, I’ve decided to recommit myself to the free time hobby. I plan to continue writing out Bible quiet time lessons and using classical Christian academic resources like Bible commentaries and the Westminster Confession of Faith. I also plan on blogging my home church Emmanuel’s sermons again, using my notes taken on the sermon to show what I’ve learned in the community life of the local church for blog readers.
I will admit to having gone through a rough time this past weekend. Last Friday, I wrote of wanting to mourn in the name of Christ onto the Lord for a public experience of heartache. The mourning time has brought me to a growing conviction of not wanting to do much more blogging for the foreseeable future. So as a result, I have been less than interested in writing articles for this week, or in general.
I did wish to write this week about enjoying common grace and saving grace in the Gospel foundation with God the Father, even in the matter of digital communications, and learning to speak good words of common grace and saving grace among our neighbors – particularly in the case of men speaking good words among women. As I’m sure various blog readers have deduced, the heartache mentioned earlier was a heartache from a woman. As my continuation of thought from the blog article of this past Friday, I do want to keep some sense of privacy about a very public experience of heartache.
I would be willing to write public words on my blog about the heartache that don’t constitute bad gossip – and keep a high sense of confidentiality – and yet instruct and edify readers. I will also note here in public that my home church Emmanuel had nothing to do with the heartache. I made this pretty clear in my article last Friday when I expressed my interest in serving Emmanuel. But I wished to clarify this even more plainly here. And more than anything, I would want to mourn about the heartache by the foundation of Christ onto God my Father in private.
I was going to post a blog article featuring several links to other articles from my blogroll friends, as was an old habit I did way back when for Fridays. I still have that article in mind for an upcoming Friday (sooner rather than later). But right now a rather devastating experience of broken human relationships has come to the forefront for me – in real life, not the Internet. I won’t specify “who” was involved in the breakdown; nor will I spill juicy details of bad gossip, as it were. I want to seek privacy in the quiet time of mourning and prayer onto the Lord.
I do write about this relational breakdown with “some” sense of public openness in terms of being transparent about myself by the Gospel foundation with the Lord. I want my public words to edify fellow Christians toward opening their own hearts onto the Lord in mourning and prayer regarding their own broken relationships in life. And I want my public words to serve the party or parties involved in the breakdown by leading the party or parties toward repentance and rest in Christ.
A recent quiet time lesson from the book of Leviticus got me to thinking about the concept of doing the work of my hands, the good work of the good things of creation, as worship to God the Father, especially based on His priestly grace revealed in Christ Jesus His Son. We are to give praise out of the foundation of Christ onto God our Father by faith and our expression of worship, the good works and good words of justifying faith. We are also to give praise through the good things of our lives, the good things of common grace, the good things of creation, onto God the Father, delighting in our Father as the Creator of good things and natural beginnings, and the Father of new beginnings, new birth, for His people through the atonement of His Son Jesus and the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit. We are to delight in common grace and saving grace of the Gospel in giving praise onto God the Father.
And I particularly got to thinking about using the good things of creation, the good works of my hands in these good things, in secular culture, even my home culture, as worship onto God my Father, even in knowing the better saving grace of the Gospel foundation. We are to distinguish between old life of unbelief and new life of justifying faith for bringing the works of our hands into praise out of the foundation of Christ Jesus, our true justifying priest, onto God our Heavenly Father. And we are to do these good things of working in our cities and our cultures in praise to God our Father as our expression and witness of grace to our neighbors, to lost sinners, in secular culture.
