Watch your plans!

After James 4:10-5:6 

We believe we’re

in control; we act

as if we control

our lives and

everything that

happens. Watch 

your plans! You

don’t know what

tomorrow brings.

You are a mist,

present for a short

time, and then

you vanish. Make 

your plans in

the Lord’s will,

if God allows it.

He may allow it,

and he may not.

Embrace humility;

embrace direction

from the one,

the only one, truly

in control.

 

Photograph by Alvaro Reyes via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Is My Pain God’s Punishment? – Vaneetha Rendall Risner at Desiring God.

 

What We Learned from Dad – the team at Story Warren.

 

A Prayer for Father’s Day – Yuri Bezmenov at How to Subvert Subversion.

The solution to pride

After James 4:1-10 

The spirit dwells

within us; more grace

is given, grace is

given to the humble.

Submission to God

buries the pride.

Draw near to God,

and he draws near

to you. Cleanse

your hands; purify

your hearts. Mourn

and weep; turn

the laughter of pride

to the mourning 

of faith. It’s

a conundrum:

humble yourselves,

and he will exalt you.

 

Photograph by Timo Wagner via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

David’s God-Entranced Song – John Piper at Desiring God.

 

The Gift of Finitude – A.D. Donahue at Bandersnatch Books.

 

The Terrible Possibility of Adultery – Benjamin Vrbicek at Desiring God.

 

The Lie of Living Your Truth – Rosaria Butterfield at the Institute for Faith and Culture.

Mutual humility

After I Peter 5:5-7 

We are to be humble 

toward each other.

It’s not about birth,

class, position, wealth, 

or anything else we

measure ourselves

and each other by.

In the age of me,

the age of self,

the age of ego,

it’s countercultural

to be humble

toward each other.

If the measuring

stick is Christ,

we have no choice

but to be humble

toward each other.

 

“The more we experience the gap between reality and what we know to be true, the more we grow closer to God. The more we see the gap between man and God, the more we reach for God.” – Pastor Clay Smith, August. 18, 2024.

 

Photograph by Elianna Gill via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

The mower and the nun – poem by Cameron Brooks at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Something Is Wrong: The Nine Contradictions of our Technological Age – Andrew Noble at Something Is Noble. 

 

The Temptation of Christ in Illuminated Manuscripts – Amelia McKee at Art for the Liturgical Year.

 

For God So Loved This Anxious Generation – Sarah Eekhof Zylstra at The Gospel Coalition.

 

He leads the humble

After Psalm 25:9, 119:81 

He leads the humble

in doing what is right,

and teaches the humble

his way.

 

The soul of the humble

longs for his salvation;

the soul of the humble

hopes in his word.

 

He leads the humble,

in the way they should go.

He leads the humble

from the cross. 

 

Photograph by Arno Smit via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

The Cross – poem by George Herbert at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

The End of Religious Liberty – Jason Duesing at For the Church.

 

Two Poems for Holy Week –Jody L. Collins at Poetry & Made Things.

 

Good Friday at St. Bartholomew’s – Spitalfields Life.

 

Covenant Prayer – sonnet by Michael Stalcup at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Fairy Tales and Holy Week – Daniel McInerry at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Love Song – poem by Paul Wittenberger.

 

And Ran Away Naked, sonnet by Maryann Corbett – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

A model

After Philippians 2:1-11 

We have a model

for this humility thing.

He didn’t see himself

equal to God. Instead,

he poured himself out

to serve to the point

of death. Bow 

your knee; let

your tongue confess

who he is and what

he did. He’s the model,

the prototype, the one

to emulate, to embrace,

the one to follow and

do likewise.

 

Photograph by Jehyun Sung via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

A Sonnet Sent to Blackness – Elizabeth Melville at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Her Present Absence – Karen Harmening at Listening to Him on the loss of a child.

 

Sounds Like Paradise – poem by Roy Peterson at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Can We Tawk? – Paul Hughes at Poet and Priest.

 

A Lisbon Love Story – Tom Darin Liskey at Cultivating Oaks Pres.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Illustrated Edition -- Tweetspeak Poetry.

Complete my job

After Philippians 2:1-11 

If there is any truth

at all here, any comfort,

any affection or

sympathy, anything

at all, complete my job

by having the same,

the same love,

the same accord,

the same mind. It’s

not about me or you;

it’s about others.

Set ambitions aside,

abandon selfishness,

all who are gathered

here. Humble yourself

to count others

more significant than

you are.

 

Photograph by Toa Heftiba via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

These things – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Single Men with Many Sons: How to Be a Spiritual Father – Scott Hubbard at Desiring God. 

 

Mountain Solitaire: Letter from America, Part 1 – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule. 

 

On Armistice Sunday – Spitalfields Life.

 

London 11-11-2023 – poem by Susan Jarvis Bryant at Society of Classical Poets.

“Humility” by Andrew Murray

Humility is not a virtue widely promoted in contemporary culture. In fact, it’s one of the traditional virtues largely dismissed today, in this age of constant selfies, self-promotion on social media, and the near-compulsion to the experience celebrity. Even in the church, we turn our pastors into rock stars, promote ourselves by writing books guaranteed to invite controversy and attention, and read more Christian celebrity self-help books than we do the Bible.

Whether we’re Christian or not, humble we’re not.

To read Humility: The Beauty of Holiness by writer, teacher, and pastor Andrew Murray (1828-1917) is, in a very real sense, to enter an alien landscape.

Murray, the son of a Dutch Reformed minister and missionary, was born in South Africa, educated in Scotland, became a missionary and pastor himself in South Africa, and authored more than 240 books on faith, theology, and Christian living. He lived during the century of Darwin, Marx, and Freud, the triumvirate of thinkers who many believe permanently closed the book on the Christian faith. And yet he remained steadfast in his belief, and wrote book after book to encourage others in the faith.

Humility was one of those books. It’s a series of meditations on the subject (this edition is updated with modern English), and draws heavily from the Bible. And this is how Murray summarizes the framework of humility: “The creature must accept that its main concern, its best asset, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel in which God can dwell and demonstrate His power and goodness.” The creature Murray is referring to is the human creature.

Andrew Murray

Our best attribute is being an empty vessel?

Murray goes on to use the filter of human humility to reflect upon the secret of redemption, the humanity of Jesus, the teaching and disciples of Jesus, humility in daily life, holiness, sin, faith, death to self, happiness, and exaltation. He goes about his writing quietly and gently, but with a steadfast purpose – to help us understand why humility may be one of the most, if not the most, important characteristic of a Christian.

Humility may be the most countercultural book I’ve read in years.

Top photograph by Arto Marttinen via Unsplash. Used with permission.