I Love The Night

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  “It was a glorious night. The moon had sunk, and left the quiet earth alone with the stars. It seemed as if, in the silence and the hush, while we her children slept, they were talking with her, their sister — conversing of mighty mysteries in voices too vast and deep for childish human ears to catch the sound. They awe us, these strange stars, so cold, so clear. We are as children whose small feet have strayed into some dim-lit temple of the god they have been taught to worship but know not; and, standing where the echoing dome spans the long vista of the shadowy light, glance up, half hoping, half afraid to see some awful vision hovering there. And yet it seems so full of comfort and of strength, the night. In its great presence, our small sorrows creep away, ashamed. The day has been so full of fret and care, and our hearts have been so full of evil and of bitter thoughts, and the world has seemed so hard and wrong to us. Then Night, like some great loving mother, gently lays ...

X-Box marks the spot

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"Eph 2:3 among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:--"

Paul draws a line in the sand: once you were here, now you are here. Once you once lived in the lust of the flesh. Once you did the desire of the flesh and mind. Once you were by nature children of wrath, just like everyone else.

Someone would say, “There you go—it’s not your fault. You were born in sin; therefore your addiction came from your parents.” Great! Then tolerate my sin! Why is everyone so “concerned” about me?

While it is true that I was born in sin and I once thought and had the desires of the unregenerate heart, I do not have to continue living like an unbeliever, one who does not know Christ Jesus. Paul makes the distinction that “we also once lived”. We don’t live there anymore.

Bob Coy (Calvary Chapel, Ft. Lauderdale) summarized it this way: growing up, the best video games in the world was “Pong” (and remember how our parents thought the Atari would do “something” to our TV, so it was only turned on for a couple of hours a week?) and now we have the X-Box. If I am playing James Bond on my X-Box and you ask me if I want to play “Pong” I will do some serious laughing in your face—NO WAY!

I am not live with the whiney childish, “but God, it’s not my fault so please tolerate my sin—please excuse me, I can’t help myself.” I am instead to live with “but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus . . .” [emphasis added]

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