guitar

Does anyone know anything about my guitar? It's a 12-string Alvarez with a nice yellow tone and no pick-guard (I took it off.)

It seems to have gone missing from my office at the church, along with its case...and no one seems to know where it went.

So...if you took it or know who did...just make sure it gets back healthy.

-joe

back faster than i thought

Matt and I knocked out 45 miles on the Knobstone in 3 days. We finished yesterday around 4pm. I'm sore, my feet are blistered and it was a great time.

Meditated on John 17:1-5

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." (ESV)

I'll resume regular posting next week.

-joe

on the trail

I'm leaving in about 30 minutes for a 4 day excursion in southern Indiana. The Knobstone Trail (or Little Appalachian) is gonna be sweet. I'll steal some photos from my buddy Matt when we get back.

Have a great Holy Week.

-joe

the best of the week

I subscribe to a lot of blogs (too many to say outloud, although it is considerably less than this time last year.)

Below are some of the best things I read this week:
The Pyromaniacs disect a bad view of the will of God in a two part series here and here...(they are long)

Every week for awhile Challies has been giving stuff away here.

Gleason via Vitamin Z writes about the glutton of TV.

I never knew this...and it's funny: jumping the shark (I've really enjoyed DeYoung's blog over the past couple of months.)

And, for those of you who don't know, I share quite a bit from my reading here. You can even subscribe to it here.

Have a great Friday,

-joe

a new favorite

Could it be that I have found a book to replace my first love, A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God? I think, my friends, that I have.

I am devouring Joseph Alleine's book A Sure Guide to Heaven (originally published as An Alarm to the Unconverted.)

From the first couple of chapters contrasting true Christian repentance with false christiany guilt.

It is one thing to have sin alarmed only by convictions, and another to have it crucified by converting grace. Many, because they have been troubled in conscience for their sins, think well of their case, miserably mistaking conviction for conversion...You may have forsaken a troublesome sin, and have escaped the gross pollutions of the world, and yet in all this not have changed your carnal nature.

You may take a crude mass of lead and mould it into the more comely proportion of a plant, and then into the shape of an animal, and then into the form and features of a man; but all the time it is still lead. So a man may pass through various transmutations, from ignorance to knowledge, from profanity to civility, then to a form of religion, and all this time he is still carnal and unregenerate, his nature remains unchanged.

Contrast that with the true believer:

He that could see little sin in himself, and could find no matter for confessions, now sees the rottenness of his heart, the desperate and deep pollution of his whole nature. He cries "Unclean! Unclean! Lord, purge me with hyssop, was me thoroughly, create in me a clean heart." He sees himself altogether filthy, corrupt both root and branch...Hitherto, he saw no form nor comeliness in Christ, no beauty that he should desire Him; but now he find the Hidden Treasure, and will sell all to buy this field. Christ is the Pearl he seeks.

His hatred boils, his anger burns against sin. He has no patience with himself; he calls himself fool, and beast, and thinks any name too good for himself,when his indignation is stirred up against sin. He could once wallow in it with much pleasure; now he loathes the though of returning to it as much as of licking up the filthiest vomit.

The great inquiry is, whether the judgment and will are steadily determined for God above all other good, real or apparent. If so, and if the affections do sincerely follow their choice and conduct, though it be not so strongly and feelingly as is to be desired, there is no doubt but the change is saving.

-joe