Photos from the Congo

Big Picture gives us this collection of photos from the violence-ridden land of the Congo:

The Son is infinitely more glorious than the Sun

No created object makes a more wonderful or glorious display than the sun. For, besides illuminating the whole world with its brightness, how admirably does it foster and invigorate all animals by its heat, and fertilise the earth by its rays, warming the seeds of grain in its lap, and thereby calling forth the verdant blade! This it supports, increases, and strengthens with additional nurture, till it rises into the stalk; and still feeds it with perpetual moisture, till it comes into flower; and from flower to fruit, which it continues to ripen till it attains maturity. In like manner, by its warmth trees and vines bud, and put forth first their leaves, then their blossom, then their fruit.

And the Lord, that he might claim the entire glory of these things as his own, was pleased that light should exist, and that the earth should be replenished with all kinds of herbs and fruits before he made the sun.

John Calvin (Institutes, 1.16.2)

An Apparent Cockroach Infestation

My friend, Matt Fabry, owns Town And Country Pest Solutions. They recently rid this disarranged home of an apparent roach invasion:

Watching this video makes me want to clean my house everyday.

Win A Calfskin ESV Study Bible

Boomer In The Pew is giving away an ESV Study Bible. Check it out!

God: a mere spectator or Sovereign God over all creation?

The carnal mind, when once it has perceived the power of God in the creation, stops there, and, at the farthest, thinks and ponders on nothing else than the wisdom, power, and goodness, displayed by the Author of such a work (matters which rise spontaneously, and force themselves on the notice even of the unwilling), or on some general agency on which the power of motion depends, exercised in preserving and governing it. In short, it imagines that all things are sufficiently sustained by the energy divinely infused into them at first.

But faith must penetrate deeper. After learning that there is a Creator, it must forthwith infer that he is also a Governor and Preserver, and that, not by producing a kind of general motion in the machine of the globe as well as in each of its parts, but by a special Providence sustaining, cherishing, superintending, all the things which he has made, to the very minutest, even to a sparrow.

John Calvin (Institutes, 1.16.1)

The Broken Heart

A prayer from a book  that has helped me greatly in my walk with God, The Valley Of Vision:

O LORD,
No day of my life has passed
That has not proved me guilty in thy sight.
Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has often been praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in thy appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
Thy righteousness exalts me to thy throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in thee plead for my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice
To thy throne of boundless grace,
Grant me to hear thy voice assuring me:
That by the stripes I am healed,
That thou was bruised for my iniquities,
That thou has been made sin for me
That I might be righteous in thee,
That my grievous sins, my manifold sins,
Are all forgiven,
Buried in the ocean of thy concealing blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned,
Lost, but saved,
Wandering, but found,
Sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
Keep me always clinging to thy cross,
Flood me every moment with descending grace,
Open to me the springs of divine knowledge,
Sparkling like crystal,
Flowing clear and unsullied,
Through my wilderness of life.

Unique Music Video of the Year

Coldplay takes the prize in this category (I don’t even think “unique video” is a category, but this is just so cool:

Erasmus on the Christian life

I’m not on the same page with everything this guy did, but Erasmus (1466-1537), one of the instruments that fueled the Reformation, left us a “gem” in his works that John Dulan translated, The Essential Erasmus (p.58):

Make Christ the only goal of your life. Dedicate to Him all your enthusiasm, all your effort, your leisure as well as your business. And don’t look upon Christ as a mere word, an empty expression, but rather as charity, simplicity, patience, and purity—in short, in terms of everything He has taught us. Consider as the devil, on the other hand, anything that deters us from Christ and His teaching. “When your eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light.” Direct your gaze toward Christ alone to the extent that you love nothing, or desire nothing, unless it be either Christ or because of Christ.

Walmart: the big, bad wolf?

I have always been very skeptical about shopping at Walmart. It seems like they are trying to be number one and are willing to crush any competition hindering them from getting there. If there is a Target around I would go there over a Walmart any day of the week, even if it means that I have to drive farther to get there.

All of this may change after reading this article by Charles Platt, former senior writer for Wired magazine, in the New York Post. He went undercover as an employee  to see if he could figure out this retail giant’s game. He came out fairly pleased at what he learned.

How about you? Do you feel the same way that I did about Walmart? Does this article change your mind?

(HT:Z)

7 Potential Writing Projects

Yesterday, February 5 2009, John Piper began a two month writing leave. The elders at BBC feel this is part of his calling, so they give him this time to accomplish tasks that will benefit the Church at large—namely, writing books. I am excited to see what God will do through Pastor John during these next few weeks. Check out his post on the Desiring God website for more information on the potential writing projects