pardoned.net

A little over a month ago I wrote an entry boldly announcing that I’d finally sold my laptop and I was free from my addiction to the internet. Well this last month has been difficult in many ways, namely productivity wise. I’ve been involved in Perspectives and trying to prepare my Wheaton application but both have been hindered greatly by my disconnectedness. So I broke down and bought a Dell Vostro 1400. It’s very different than my 12” Apple Powerbook, not just in size, but in the feel of it. It’s going to take some getting used to, it’s very quick but unfortunately it’s Vista, which is a hurdle to overcome in itself. Fortunately I’ve already got it dual-booting Ubuntu 7.10.

Please pray for me that I will use this notebook for my work and that it won’t become a distraction or a humbling block. I need to guard my heart, especially with so much at my fingertips.

I have never made theology a study. The great doctrines of depravity and repentance and justification and regeneration and of the judgment and final award, I have preached with all the clearness of my mind and all the unction of my heart. I have never tried to show a congregation the difference between evangelical and legal repentance. I have never discussed whether depravity was total or partial, or simply developed. I have never tried to prove there was a God, or that Christ was divine, or that there was a heaven or a hell. I have made these things, not an objective point, but a starting point. They have furnished the basis for all I have said, and they are either the inspirations of my hopes, or the ground-works of my fears. I have left the proof of the inspiration of the Bible, the demonstration of the fact that there is a God, the settlement of the question as to heaven and hell, to those who make a specter of such things and then speculate upon them, to the “muddy physicians.” My idea has always been that Christ meant what he said when he said, “Preach the Gospel,” not defend it; “Preach the Word,” not try to prove the Word is true.
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The finest compliment I have ever had was in the second year of my ministry, when a little son of one of my members said: “Father, will Mr. Jones be returned to this circuit next year?”
The father replied he hoped so, and asked his son, “Why?” “Well,” said the boy, ” I want him to come back, because he is the only preacher I ever listened to that I can understand every thing he says.”
I believe it is possible to preach our best thoughts and highest conceptions of God and truth so that children may understand us. The fact that they do not understand us is better proof that we are “muddy” than that we are high, for truth is like the water of the River of Life—clear as crystal.

-Sam P Jones, 1887 (from Sam Jones’ Own Book, pp.34-35, 36-37)

This Friday and Saturday my friend Colin Wilson and I will be visiting the Great White North to attend Missions Fest Vancouver. I’m really looking forward to going to the key notes given by Bruce Olson and George Verwer. Actually, I’ve missed several opportunities to hear George Verwer speak in person, so I’m really looking forward to having an opportunity to hear him. Gotta come back early though, it’s New Covenant Baptist Church’s 11th Anniversary and it looks like it’s going to be a big event this year.

I have been very blessed recently by reading the testimony of Sam P Jones, 19th century Methodist Evangelist and Revivalist. One of the great things I’ve found out about on the internet is Google books, so partly for my own reference, but also your edification I have copied links to the following wonderful books containing Sam Jones’ sermons and writings. If I ever see any of these for a small amount of money on bookfinder I’ll probably pick them up.

Sam Jones’ Own Book: A series of sermons collected and edited under the author’s own supervision. 1887 - 539 pages

Thunderbolts: Most earnest reasonings, delightful narratives, poetic and pathetic incidents, caustic and unmerciful flagellation of sin, together with irresistible appeals to the higher sensibilities of man to Quit His Meanness and Do Right. 1895 - 584 pages

Sam Jones’ Gospel Sermons: Delivered by the Great Preacher Rev. Sam. P. Jones. 1898 - 334 pages

Popular Lectures of Sam P. Jones. 1909 - 127 pages

Not digitized but highly desirable is the 507 page long book of Sam Jones sermons titled, ‘Quit Your Meanness.’ Published in 1886 by Cranston & Stowe.

I have one Sam Jones book ordered, although this could become a costly habit, so for now, I’ll read from these online if I need any inspirtation.

In some ways it feels like things are slowing down, but at the same time I feel like I’m caught up in a sprint fast approaching a heart attack. So much has changed in my life in such a short time, but the little details stand out brighter and clearer than ever. God has been confirming through many new insights into His Word that I am on the doorsteps of a grand new adventure, and this morning in talking with a friend about our impending old age I couldn’t help but remember a quote from the Will Ferrell movie Stranger than Fiction. Faced with his inevitable death Harold struggles to come to terms with who he is, I think hidden in here is some great wisdom.

Dr. Jules Hilbert: Hell Harold, you could just eat nothing but pancakes if you wanted.
Harold Crick: What is wrong with you? Hey, I don’t want to eat nothing but pancakes, I want to live! I mean, who in their right mind in a choice between pancakes and living chooses pancakes?
Dr. Jules Hilbert: Harold, if you pause to think, you’d realize that that answer is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led… and, of course, the quality of the pancakes.

God has been preparing me for a new adventure, I’ve been praying about all of the things that I can do before going to grad school, assuming that I get accepted somewhere. I’ve been praying about visiting friends in different locations around the world, and about possibly doing some short term ministry. This morning I prayed about visiting my friend Yu in Japan, and while making some phone calls at work later in the morning I saw an urgent need for an English speaker to work with a church in Japan on the OMF website. I really want to see what doors God can open and what exciting adventures he has in store for this coming year, and for the rest of my life.

Dwight Lyman Moody said in a Sermon on the eighth chapter of Romans something which I find very refreshing in this present moment. ‘Note that the difference between a believer and an unbeliever is right here. An unbeliever is living in his day, and he has nothing but a long dark eternal night to look forward to; a Christian is now living in his night, and he has a grand morning that he is looking forward to. The day is ahead, the glory is ahead, the best of life is ahead; it is not behind.’ The best is yet to come.