Category: Book Reviews

Rather Reminds Me of We Habitual Sunday Pew Dwellers Not Fully Grasping the Significance of the Remaining Prophecies Yet to be Fulfilled… Or Even Our Rights & Responsibilities as Christ-Followers…

For Your Consideration: What are the hidden forces at work in our lives, and how can we trace them? What effect do our decisions have on the rest of the world?

In 1980, Tim Berners- Lee was doing a six – month stint as a software engineer at Cern, a European laboratory for particle physics in Geneva. He was just noodling around, trying to come up with a program for organizing his notes.

He had devised a piece of software that, as he put it, “could organize all the random associations one comes across in real life and that brains are suppose to be so good at remembering, but sometimes, we aren’t.”

He called it Enquire, short for Enquire Within upon Everything, based on an encyclopedia from his childhood.

Building on ideas in software design at the time, Tim fashioned a kind of hypertext notebook where words in a document could be linked to other files on his computer, which he could index with a number. (Remember, there was no mouse to click on back then.) When he punched in that number, the software would automatically pull up its related document. It worked splendidly and confidently – and nobody else could use this software. It would only work on Tim’s computer.

Tim wondered, What i I want to add stuff that’s on someone else’s computer? After he obtained permission, he would have to to do the dreary work of adding the new material to the central database. An even better solution, he thought, would be to allow others to open up his document on their computers and allow them to link their stuff to his. He could limit their access to his colleagues at Cern, but why stop there? Why don’t we open it up to scientists everywhere? In Tim’s scheme, there would be no central manager. There would be no central database and absolutely no scaling problems. The thing could grow crazy like a kudzu jungle. It would be open-ended and indefinite.

He later revealed, “One had to be able to jump from software documentation to a list of people, to a phone book, to an organizational chart, or whatever.” He cobbled together a relatively easy to-to-learn coding system he called Hyper Text Markup Language – HTML. Of course, HTML has come to be the language of the Web – it is how Web developers put up most web pages that include formatted text, links, and images.

He designed an addressing scheme that gave each document a unique location, a universal resource locator, or URL. He designed a set of rules that permitted these documents to be linked together on computers connected by phone lines. He called that sets of rules Hyper Text Transfer Protocol -HTTP. By the end of the week, Tim had cobbled together the World Wide Web’s first browser, which allowed users anywhere to view his document on their computer screens.

In 1992, the World Wide Web debuted with a coding system that brought order and clarity to information organization. From that moment on the web and the Internet grew as one – often at exponential rates. Within five years the number of Internet users jumped from 600,000 to 40 million. At one point it was doubling every fifty-three days.

Tim Berners-Lee, trying to organize his notes, literally changed the ways we live. Tim works in a cubby at MIT now, but he has changed the world. He didn’t cash in on his “invention” like a lot of people would have. He’s content to labor quietly in the background, ensuring that all of us can continue well into the next century able to enquire within upon everything.

BOTTOM LINE:

When you stretch yourself, you grow and life’s rewards are attained through this growth. A life of growth will bring you never-ending fulfillment, and mastering The Seven Decisions will help you have that life, paving the way to unlimited possibilities.

FYI:

The Seven Decisions: Understanding the Keys to Personal Success

The Responsible Decision: The buck stops here.

The Guided Decision: I will seek wisdom

The Active Decision: I am a person of action.

The Certain Decision: I have a decided heart.

The Joyful Decision: Today I will choose to be happy.

The Compassionate Decision: I will greet this day with a forgiving spirit.

The Persistent Decision: I will persist without exception.

Conclusion: Final Thoughts On The Seven Decisions. Andy Andrews 2008.

Folks, I’m afraid too often TODAY we don’t want to even know where the battle lines are, or even the devastating skirmishes of our temptations! Am I to believe Christians will gain their victories in these cultural wars by default, or by our silence? Perhaps we need to ask Sam & Sarah in SE Asia what persecution is teaching them? And then we wonder why our church is lackluster, weak, seemingly dwindling, perhaps even seeking hospice care? Is it even possible to die on The Vine? The verse below is key: if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live…

“For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:13

Resisting temptation is a gutsy, courageous, stubborn refusal to violate God’s law. Repeatedly calling upon Christ for the strength to say no to the world, the flesh, and the devil and to say yes to God instead, brings an ultimate heavenly happiness and joy that can be found only in knowing and pleasing God.

Remember the Beatles song where Ringo Starr sang, “All I gotta do is act naturally”?

It’s hard to imagine worse advice! The truth is, if you act naturally you’re toast.

But if you act supernaturally, drawing on the power of the indwelling Christ, you’ll enjoy great personal benefits, now and later.

“O blessed Jesus, your love is wonderful! May your loving kindness be ever before my eyes to induce me to walk in your truth.” John Fawcett, (1739-1817) See the article on John and his song below.

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 89 Harvest House.

John Fawcett (1739-1817), a dissenting Baptist clergyman in England, gave us one of the most beloved farewell hymns of all time. Fawcett’s parish in Wainsgate, described by hymnologist Albert Bailey as “a straggling group of houses on the top of a barren hill,” may have been typical for many rural pastors in the 18th century.

Fawcett, orphaned at 12, was “bound out” to a tailor in Bradford where he worked long hours. He learned to read and eventually mastered Pilgrim’s Progress, the devotional classic by John Bunyan.

Fawcett was converted under the powerful preaching of George Whitefield while the evangelist delivered a message to 20,000 people in an open field. It is said that upon telling Whitefield he wanted to preach, the evangelist gave Fawcett his blessing.

Mr. Bailey describes Fawcett’s congregation at Wainsgate: “The people were all farmers and shepherds, poor as Job’s turkey; an uncouth lot whose speech one could hardly understand, unable to read or write; most of them pagans cursed with vice and ignorance and wild tempers. The Established Church had never touched them; fortunately the humble Baptists had sent an itinerant preacher there and he had made a good beginning.”

John and Mary Fawcett went to live there in 1765 following his ordination. By engaging families house-to-house, he built a congregation that grew to the point that a gallery had to be added to the modest meetinghouse. With the addition of four children to the family, a modest salary that was supplemented by parishioners’ donations of wool and potatoes was barely adequate, especially during the long winters.

The story is told that a prestigious parish with more financial resources in London, Carter’s Lane Baptist Church, extended a call. It is at this point that it becomes difficult to separate fact from apocryphal imagination.

Mr. Bailey, a vivid storyteller, sets the scene: “[John] and Mary decided to accept. The announcement was made to the church, and the farewell sermon was preached, the bulky items of his furniture and some of his older books were sold and the day of departure arrived. The two-wheeled cart came for the rest of his belongings, and likewise came the parishioners to say good-by.”

The crowd was despondent and in tears. According to Mr. Bailey, Mary is quoted as saying, “I can’t stand it, John! I know not how to go.” John responded, “Lord help me Mary, nor can I stand it! We will unload the wagon. . . . [To the crowd], We’ve changed our minds! We are going to stay!” Mr. Bailey describes a scene of pandemonium as the crowd broke out in joyful acclamations.

It was then the practice of many ministers to write hymns on the theme of the day to be sung at the conclusion of the sermon. (I certainly never heard of that practice before. Imagine that today!) This hymn was included under the title of “Brotherly Love” in Fawcett’s Hymns Adapted to the Circumstances of Public Worship and Private Devotion (1782). UM Hymnal editor Carlton Young notes that the “collection contained 166 hymns, most of them to be sung as a congregational response to the sermon.”

We do know that John Fawcett remained in Wainsgate for 54 years and nearby Hebden Bridge. We do not know if this hymn was written in conjunction with his decision to remain in Wainsgate, but its language connects well with congregations, identifying with the struggles of life and our unity in Christ.

No doubt this hymn has been tearfully sung by more Christians upon parting than any other hymn.

Fawcett developed a school for the area children by adding on to his home. He was known as an educator and scholar, as well as a fine preacher.

In 1811 Fawcett published his Devotional Commentary on the Holy Scriptures and was also honored with a Doctor of Divinity degree from Brown University, Providence, R.I.

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Psalm 119:97

Much of the modern thinking about meditation demeans rational thought. It’s a carryover from Transcendental Meditation. Such meditation involves the repetition of a mantra, a word (sometimes the name of a Hindu god) not thoughtfully pondered but mindlessly repeated in order to stop thinking. The goal isn’t to focus on words or meaning ; the goal is not to focus at all.

In contrast, meditation in the Bible is always on a real person (God) and real words and meanings from God (those in scripture). May we join David in praying, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14 ESV).

“Give yourself to prayer, to reading and meditation on divine truths: strive to penetrate to the bottom of them and never be content with a superficial knowledge.” David Brainerd.

Be sure to read the history of this spiritual giant below the music. Unforgetable! Forward to others.

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 76 Harvest House.

UP NEXT: Sin’s Consequences Do Capture Our Attention!

David Brainerd was born on April 20, 1718, in Haddam, Connecticut, the son of Hezekiah Brainerd, a Connecticut legislator. He was orphaned at the age of nine years, as his father died in 1727 and at 46 his mother died five years later.

On July 12, 1739, he recorded having an experience of “unspeakable glory” that prompted in him a “hearty desire to exalt God, to set him on the throne and to ‘seek first his Kingdom’. This has been interpreted by evangelical scholars as a conversion experience.

Two months later, he enrolled at Yale. In his second year at Yale, he was sent home because he was suffering from a serious illness, tuberculosis, that caused him to spit blood. When he returned in November 1740, tensions were beginning to emerge at Yale between the faculty staff and the students as the staff considered the spiritual enthusiasm of the students, which had been prompted by visiting preachers such as George Whitefield, to be excessive. Brainerd was expelled because of comments about the impious staff.

A law forbade the appointment of ministers in Connecticut unless they had graduated from Harvard, Yale, or a European institution, so Brainerd had to reconsider his plans. In 1742, Brainerd was licensed to preach by a group of evangelicals known as New Lights. As a result, he gained the attention of Jonathan Dickinson, the leading Presbyterian in New Jersey, who unsuccessfully attempted to reinstate Brainerd at Yale. Instead, Dickinson suggested that Brainerd devote himself to missionary work among the Native Americans, supported by the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge. He was approved for this missionary work on November 25, 1742, which he would continue until late 1746 when he became too ill. .

Within a year, the Native American church at Crossweeksung had 130 members.
Thereafter, he refused several offers of leaving the mission field to become a church minister. He continued his work converting Native Americans, writing in his diary:

“I could have no freedom in the thought of any other circumstances or business in life: All my desire was the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God: God does not suffer me to please or comfort myself with hopes of seeing friends, returning to my dear acquaintance, and enjoying worldly comforts.”

In November 1746, he became too ill to continue ministering, and moved later to Jonathan Edwards’ house in Northampton, Massachusetts where he remained until his death the following year. Diagnosed with incurable consumption, his diary entry for September 24, stated:
“In the greatest distress that ever I endured having an uncommon kind of hiccough; which either strangled me or threw me into a straining to vomit.”
During this time, he was nursed by Jerusha Edwards, Jonathon’s seventeen-year-old daughter. The friendship grew between them and “many speculate that there was deep (even romantic) love between them”. He died from tuberculosis on October 9, 1747, at the age of 29. Jerusha herself died in February 1748 as a result of contracting tuberculosis from nursing Brainerd. After his death, his younger brother John Brainerd continued his work.

He made a handful of converts, but became widely known in the 1800s due to books about him. Much of Brainerd’s influence on future generations can be attributed to the biography compiled by Jonathan Edwards and first published in 1749 under the title of An Account of the Life of the Late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd. It gained immediate recognition, with eighteenth-century theologian John Wesley urging: ‘Let every preacher read carefully over the Life of David Brainerd.’ From the eighteenth century, missionaries also found inspiration and encouragement from the biography. Gideon Hawley wrote in the midst of struggles:

“I need, greatly need, something more than humane [human or natural] to support me. I read my Bible and Mr. Brainerd’s Life, the only books I brought with me, and from them have a little support.”

Other missionaries who have asserted the influence of Jonathan Edwards’s biography of Brainerd on their lives include Henry Martyn, William Carey, Jim Elliot, and Adoniram Judson.

Brainerd’s life also played a role in the establishment of Princeton College and Dartmouth College. The ‘College of New Jersey’ (later Princeton) was founded due to the dissatisfaction of the New York and New Jersey Presbyterian Synods with Yale; their expulsion of Brainerd and subsequent refusal to readmit him was an important factor in driving individuals such as Jonathan Dickinson and Aaron Burr to act on this dissatisfaction. Dartmouth College originated from a school founded by Eleazar Wheelock for Native Americans and colonists in 1748, and Wheelock too had been inspired by Brainerd’s example of Native American education.

Satan will do his best to discourage you and make you doubt your salvation by reminding you of the sights, sounds & smells during “missing the mark” debauchery incidents (from Eph 5:15-20, thanks Travis!) when your conscience did Recognize God’s Revealed Truths , But You Catastrophically Ignored Them Anyway? If you’ve been forgiven and are now walking in faith, you were extended more of His Truths, namely, Grace & Mercy! Thank you Jesus Messiah!

[My Word] will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said in his Nobel Prize acceptance address, “One word of truth outweighs the entire world.” What did he mean? That the truth is bigger than we are. Just as the Berlin Wall finally toppled, the weight of all the world’s lies can be toppled by a single truth.

First, we must distinguish God’s truth from man’s truth, though at times, some persons consider them to intersect. For example, consider God’s truth expressed as His gracious gift of righteousness to us from our scandal ridden ash heaps, before we embraced the truth of His loving forgiveness. And, just think how many other examples there have been since the Berlin Wall, where a single truth topples the world’s lies and it begins a domino effect, be it in personal lives or national governments, or hopefully, both?

God’s truth resonates in the human heart. People may resist it, yet it’s the truth they need, for it’s His truth that sets them free.

We should let our feelings – real as they are – point to our need to let the truth of God’s words guide our thinking. THE PATHS TO OUR HEARTS TRAVEL THROUGH OUR MINDS. Truth always matters.

BOTTOM LINE:

“Once your soul has been enlarged by a truth, it can never return to its original size.” Blaise Pascal. Well said Blaise! May all our souls so be divinely enlarged!

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 69 Harvest House.

FOR FURTHER PERSPECTIVE: Fore & Aft…

Isaiah 55:9-12 (MSG)
“For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.“So you’ll go out in joy, you’ll be led into a whole and complete life.”

I really appreciate this song. I hope it plays for you. Attaching music is new for me.

And I know your love’s dimension is beyond my comprehension, But this is my heart’s intention to serve you til I die, Oh, I know I can’t repay you with the things I may say or do, But I still want to obey you because your love is always so true.