He was without any comforts of God - no feeling that God loved him - no feeling that God pitied him - no feeling that God supported him. God was his sun before - now that sun became all darkness...He was without God - he was as if he had no God. All that God had been to him before was taken from him now. He was Godless - deprived of his God. He had the feeling of the condemned, when the Judge says, "Depart from me, ye cursed...who shall be punished with everylasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." He felt that God said the same to him.

Ah! This is the hell that Christ suffered. The ocean of Christ's sufferings is unfathomable...He was forsaken in the [place] of sinners. If you close with him, as your surety, you will never be forsaken..."My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" [The answer?] For me - for me.

Robert Murray McCheyne, Scottish minister and evangelist (1813-1843)

No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.

Alexander MacLaren, Scottish Baptist minister (1826-1910)

Today there are just too many things to do. My natural response is to fret and fear. Both are forbidden: Fret not. Fear not. That tells me what not to do. What, then, should I do?

I will run the course set out in thy commandments, for they gladden my heart (Ps 119:32 NEB).

There will be both time and strength today to run that course, for it is always possible to do the will of God. The course He sets for us in his commandments is not an obstacle course, but one carefully planned to suit our qualifications - that is, not too rigorous for our limitations, not too lenient for our strengths.

The plan of God for me, for this one day, is meant not to trouble but to gladden my heart. Christ's yoke, according to his own promise, is not hard but easy - if we bear it together with Him and if we bear it as Christ bore it, in meekness and lowliness of heart.

We must run with resolution the race for which we are entered, our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom faith depends from start to finish (Heb 12:2 NEB).

Elisabeth Elliot, American writer and missionary (1926-)
From A Lamp Unto My Feet and found at Rocks in my Dryer

The righteous, loving Father humbled himself to become in and through his only Son's flesh, sin and a curse for us, in order to redeem us without compromising his own character. The biblical gospel of atonement is of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us...The concept of substitution may be said, then, to live at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin in man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.

John Stott, The Cross of Christ (IVP, 1986)

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
'I love her for her smile...her look...her way
Of speaking gently,...for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of ease on such a day' -
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee, - and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheek dry,
Since one might well forget to weep who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby.
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (1806-1891)

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, "What! You too? I thought I was the only one!"

C S Lewis, English theologian and writer (1898-1963)

It is worthwhile to be a Shorter Catechism boy. They grow up to be men. And better than that, they are exceedingly apt to grow to be men of God.
B B Warfield, American theologian (1851-1921)

As you know, I have made it one of my goals for 2007 to learn the first 52 questions of the Shorter Catechism. (I was amused and surprised to see that the Shorter Catechism was originally intended for those of "of weaker capacity" rather than the Longer Catechism.) Learning the catechism and teaching it in Sunday school has fallen out of favour, so why start to learn it now?

I am persuaded that the use of a good Catechism in all our families will be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times...Those who use it in their families or classes must labour to explain the sense; but the words should be carefully learned by heart, for they will be understood better as years pass.
Charles Hadden Spurgeon, English Baptist preacher (1834-1892)

Learning the catechism has been used to teach the basic tenets of the Christian faith since the first century. As my denomination adheres to the Westminster Standards, I decided to use the Shorter Catechism which goes through the main doctrines of Faith, the Ten Commandments, the Sacraments and Prayer.

Many older friends, even those who are not Christians, who were catechised as children say that the teaching is hidden away in their hearts and minds and find back to them at times of difficulty or trial. It is perhaps not completely disconnected that Bible knowledge, even in Christians, has fallen in the last twenty years as popularity of the catechism has decreased despite a proliferation of Bible study material in all sorts of media.

Therefore it is the duty of every father of a family to question and examine his children and servants at least once a week and to ascertain what they know of it, or are learning and, if they do not know it, to keep them faithfully at it. However, it is not enough for them to comprehend and recite these parts according to the words only, but the young people should also be made to attend the preaching, especially during the time which is devoted to the Catechism, that they may hear it explained and may learn to understand what every part contains, so as to be able to recite it as they have heard it, and, when asked, may give a correct answer, so that the preaching may not be without profit and fruit.
Martin Luther, German theologian (1483-1546)

Should we be catechising our children at home and in Sunday school? I think we should to allow these children to learn Christian truths and to form a good theological foundation at an early age. Perhaps it is similar to the bank tellers or medical students only being let loose on normal bank-notes, hearts and lungs I wrote of a few days ago. If we teach our children Biblical Christian doctrine, they might be less likely swayed by false teaching or be led astray in the future.

The older I grow, and I now stand on the brink of eternity—the more comes back to me the first sentence in the Catechism which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes: ‘What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.’
Thomas Carlyle, Scottish satirist and historian (1795-1881)

As I learn the Catechism, I want to strengthen my knowledge of basic Christian doctrine, some of which I know but wish to more fully understand and some of which I accept but want to be able to defend from Scripture. I want to hide these teachings and this wisdom in my heart, so that I might strengthen my knowledge of and relationship with him and ultimately "glorify God and enjoy him forever."

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 5:12-14

Our wisdom ought to be nothing else than to embrace with humble teachableness, and at least without finding fault, whatever is taught in Sacred Scripture.

John Calvin, French Reformation theologian (1509-64)

Minnie Louise Haskins, American teacher and writer (1875-1957)
(quoted by George VI in his Christmas broadcast of 1939)

If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?

I do sometimes I would get overwhelmed with everything I have to do. I've been feeling a bit like that recently. Work is crazily busy and I have to work every second weekend. The way doctors are trained is being changed in August so there is a lot of uncertainty about our job situation for next year - they are expecting 20,000 doctors to be unemployed in the UK! Already many of my friends have moved to Australia and New Zealand because they can't get work here. I'm not entirely sure what my future holds at all so I am trying to see this as an exciting, rather than a terrifying and unsetlling, time!

I shared this with a close friend and sister in Christ. She has only just been introduced to the wonderful writings of Elisabeth Elliot, but she has clearly been paying attention when she pointed this bit out! (She might have also found this at Amy's Humble Musings where she also blogged about this recently.)

I had learned a principle from my mother many years before: Do the next thing. And it is wonderful how simple it is when we just do the next thing.

That's all we need to - just to do the next thing. We are not given our life's plan, probably because it would overwhelm us more, but just asked to live day by day, asking for our daily bread, asking for forgiveness daily, studying the Bible daily, letting tomorrow worry about itself and taking up our crosses daily. I really do believe this; I just need to act like I do!

Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Proverbs 30:8

Love bade me welcome:
yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love,
observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me,
sweetly questioning,
If I lacked anything.

George Herbert, English poet and pastor (1593-1633)

There is an account come of the arrival of King George II, and a great rejoicing for it in Edinburgh. I see the fires and illuminations of that city reflected on the skies. O, how will the heavens reflect and shine with illuminations, when the King of kings, and Lord of lords, shall erect His tribunal in the clouds, and come in His own glory, and His Father's glory, and in the glory of the holy angels! O, what a heartsome day will that be! When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we appear with Him in glory. We shall then lift up our heads with joy, because it shall be a time of refreshing from, the presence of the Lord.

Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish minister (1680-1754)

Every wise workman takes his tools away from the work from time to time that they may be ground and sharpened; so does the only-wise Jehovah take his ministers often times away into darkness and loneliness and trouble, that he may sharpen and prepare them for harder work in his service.

Robert Murray McCheyne, Scottish minister and evangelist (1813-1843)

Some people do not like to hear much of repentance; but I think it is so necessary that if I should die in the pulpit, I would desire to die preaching repentance, and if out of the pulpit I would desire to die practising it.

Matthew Henry, English minster (1662-1714)

God's work done God's way will never lack God's supply.

James Hudson Taylor, English missionary to China and founder of China Inland Mission (1832-1905)

We must, during all our labour and in all else we do...pause for some short moment, as often indeed as we can, to worship God in the depth of our heart, to savour him, though it be in passing, and as it were by stealth.

Brother Lawrence, lay brother in Carmelite monastery and author of "The Practice of the Presence of God" (c.1605-1691)

Faith never rests so calmly and peacefully as when it lays its head on the pillow of God's omnipotence.

John Charles Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool (1815-1900)

I was tagged by Kirsty after reading her blog today. You are supposed to go here, look through the random quotations and pick five that represent who you are or who you believe. I love finding new quotes, so, in the interest of not wasting time, I decided to go for the first five - even then, I wanted to read more and more, but that will have to wait for another day... If you're reading this and not yet done this, please consider yourself tagged! We are getting a fascinating insight into people through this!

A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States of America (1884-1962)

Maya Angelou, American writer and civil rights activist (1928-)

Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament.It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.

Joseph Addison, English politician (1672-1719)

C S Lewis, English theologian and writer (1898-1963)

Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.

George Herbert, English minister and poet (1593-1633)