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So I was browsing around the Internet today, looking for some good generic pictures of white-water rafting, and I found something pretty sweet: an online album that contains some action shots from our 2008 Freshman Rafting Trip! I guess the rafting company posted the pictures they took of us to Shutterfly, which means that if you want to buy a print of yourself getting owned by a wave, you totally can…
Anyways, the pictures of our group start here, and if you click through the photos, you’ll be able to see different boats full of this year’s freshman class. Check out Jessi B.’s face on this one (and what happens to the boat afterwards…haha). Cam’s got pretty good posture in this shot…
This morning as I was doing my TAWG I came across this quote in J.C. Ryle’s devotional called “Daily Readings: From All Four Gospels“. I wrote it down on a card for me to think about today and thought you might benefit from it too.
“Let us often say the psalmist’s words, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts‘ [Psalm 139:23]. At best we have but a faint conception of the deceitfulness of our own hearts.”
This past Sunday I had the privilege of attending Ryan Hawkins Eagle Scout ceremony. It was an incredible honor to be part of this momentous day in his life and his family. I don’t know all of the requirements of being a boy scout as I never participated growing up. However, I do know that it is a big deal for Ryan to be an Eagle Scout. It literally takes years of commitment, hard work and perseverance to reach this stage. It was mentioned at the ceremony that only 2 out 100 reach this accomplishment. You can read the details here>.
I have thought about this a couple of times since Sunday and I just wanted to share the news with you. So next time that you see Ryan be sure and tell him congrats!
Matt
I finished another chapter of Ryle again today (Faithfulness and Holiness from the Real Retreat) and wanted to post another quote from his chapter on Growth. If you have been this book too please Make Some Noise about what you have been learning!
“Let us know, furthermore, that ‘growth in grace’ is one way to be happy in our religion. God has wisely linked together our comfort and our increase in holiness. He has graciously made it our interest to press on and aim high in our Christianity. There is a vast difference between the amount of sensible enjoyment which one believer has in his religion compared to another. But you may be sure that ordinarily the man who feels the most ‘joy and peace in believing,’ and has the clearest witness of the Spirit in his heart, is the man who grows.”
I read another chapter in the book from the Real Retreat, Faithfulness and Holiness. Today’s chapter was called The Cost. J.C. Ryle begins the chapter by emphasizing that it required the blood of Jesus to save a Christian’s soul….nothing more, nothing less. With this truth as foundational for our understanding of Christianity he then considers what a Christian must be ready to give up if he wishes to be saved. Of if you like, to live a life of grateful obedience to Jesus because of all that he has done. Here is one quote that jumped off the page at me and thought I would share for you additional thoughts.
“It will cost a man his love of ease…He must take heed to his behaviour every hour of the day, in every company, and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imaginations, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life. He must be diligent about his prayers, his Bible-reading, his use of Sundays, with all their means of grace.”
1. Read today’s One Year New Testament entry.
2. Alistair Begg (the Sr. Pastor at Parkside) was on National Public Radio this past week. Listen to the interview. Thanks Hiram for the link!
3. Sign up for the NCAA Men’s Basketball pick em’ competition. The students who finish with the highest score will win some sort of fabulous prize.
4. Upload a recent pic for the Picture of the Week.
5. Get a Twitter account and get text messages sent to your phone on important stuff…like when something is canceled because we got 20 inches of snow or when registration is open for an upcoming event.
6. Give this quote some thought. What do you think this guy (Samuel Rutherford: lived in the 17th century) is saying? “I urge upon you…a nearer communion with Christ and a growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn by in Christ that we never saw, and new foldings of love in him. I despair that ever I shall win to the far end of that love, there are so many plies in it; therefore dig deep, and sweat, and labour, and take pains for him, and set by so much time in the day for him as you can: he will be win with labour.”
Hey this quote was in the bulletin last week. I know that a lot of you were on 7SR this past weekend…which was a really good time and probably didn’t see it. (UPDATE Dan is editing the 7SR video right now, Grace is sorting through pics and Kelley is doing a brief write up from the weekend. All will be posted in the next couple of days!) I thought it might be worthwhile to post it for you to think on.
“O Lord, let me not live to be useless.”
This is credited to John Wesley who was a minister and Christian theologian back in the day (1703-1791). It is one of those quotes that I should probably post around my office and at home. You know, in spots that I tend to spend a lot of my day. I love the web, Fantasy Football, e-mail and in and of themselves none are inherently bad. However, I can get them out of whack proportionally and end up living uselessly. Where would it be beneficial for you to have this little reminder?
During our study in the book of Proverbs we talked about how we can be reckless with our words if we are not careful (Proverbs 12:18). This was a quote from that night that you asked for and I wanted to post it for us to continue to think about. Gary Brady, a pastor in London writes,
“Whenever we have in mind to criticize a person or praise someone; to reveal a truth to or about a person; to give people our opinion, or to tell them about what to do we need to think carefully about the effect our words will have.”
