The Daily Scroll

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There is a day

Maybe this is the end of a challenging week for you or maybe you just need a reminder of the hope we have in Christ. Anyway, watch this video of the song "There is a day" by the UK band Phatfish. It's just made my day!

Craving and grumbling

I was reading Numbers 11 recently as part of working through the excellent Gentle Rain on Tender Grass by Sharon James. In this chapter, the Israelites are grumbling against God about the manna he has provided for them and harking back to their captivity in Egypt (where they had all the cucumbers they could eat, apparently!). As a result of their complaining and ingratitude they were judged severely. This also tied in with a John Piper sermon I just listened to on John 13:31-35. Part way through he talked about how we must lay aside our feelings of "entitlement" in order to love like Christ.

All of this has reminded me again how easily it is to slip into an "entitlement syndrome" where I feel things should happen in a certain way, to a certain timetable of my choosing. When things don't go that way, often my first response is to grumble to God, just like the Israelites did.

We are in the middle of planning a very big move from Scotland to the USA, and there is a lot to do. When things don't seem to be working out to plan, or when the headlines are yet again full of financial disasters I'm finding it hard not to default to grumbling. But as Sharon James says,

If our hearts crave after things that the Lord has not yet provided, there is only one thing to do: pray.

She then quotes from the Imitation of Christ:

What you should feel and say when you meet something you would like: 'Lord, if this is your will, let it happen like this. Lord, if you see that this will help me and do me good, then grant that I may use it to the honour of your name. But if you know that it will harm me and not advance my soul's salvation, then take the desire away.' You cannot find complete satisfaction in any temporal gift, because you were not created to find your delight in them. Even if you possessed all the good things that God has created, you could not feel happy and glad; all your gladness and happiness rests in the God who created those things.

Shepherding A Child's Heart Conference

Some of our UK readers might be interested in attending the upcoming Shepherding a Child's Heart Conference with speaker Tedd Tripp at Grace Church Bristol in March of next year. Here is the blurb:

Everyone wants to be a great parent — the biggest responsibility of parenthood is teaching your children to love Jesus with all their heart, soul and strength. For parents with children of any age, Tedd Tripp’s insightful, biblical teaching provides perspectives and procedures for shepherding your child’s heart into the paths of life.

For more information and registration go here.

Ruth

I'm currently working my way through John Piper's sermons on Ruth from the recent UCCF Forum here in the UK.

Ruth: Sweet & Bitter Providence
Ruth: Under the Wings of God
Ruth: Strategic Righteousness
Ruth: May the Redeemers Name be Renowned

To complement, my husband and I are reading together Iain Duguid's commentary on Ruth which I've recommended before.

Pondering Bunyan

"We had this sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead." 2 Corinthians 1:9

"By this scripture I was made to see that if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon every thing that can be properly called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyment, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. The second was, to live upon God that is invisible, as Paul said in another place; the way not to faint, is to "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." John Bunyan

Taken from John Piper's biographical sermon on John Bunyan.

Driscoll Interviews Piper

In this video, Mark Driscoll interviews John Piper who shares openly and honestly on growing up, his parents, and about his marriage and family life.

Inspirational Biographies

I enjoy reading Christian biographies, yet recently I've been impacted more by the lives & ministries of some of the Christian 'greats' in some of the talks given by John Piper. Here are a couple that I've listened to already -

• How Few There Are Who Die So Hard! Suffering & Success in the Life of Adoniram Judson: The Cost of Bringing Christ to Burma
• Contending For Our All The Life & Ministry of Athanasius
• The Chief Design of My Life Mortification & Universal Holiness: Reflections on the Life & Thought of John Owen

Here a few more on my 'to listen to' list:

• George Mueller's Strategy for Showing God Simplicity of Faith, Sacred Scripture & Satisfaction in God
• Peculiar Doctrines, Public Morals, & the Political Welfare Reflections on the Life and Labor of William Wilberforce
• To Live Upon God that Is Invisible Suffering and Service in the Life of John Bunyan
• Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint Reflections on the Life of William Cowper

Grateful for 7 Years

Today I am grateful to God for seven wonderful years of marriage to Colin. Here are seven reasons why (though there are more).

1. I have a husband who loves his Lord passionately.
2. I have a husband who loves me more than I ever dreamed.
3. I have a husband who loves me sacrificially.
4. I have a husband who is my best friend.
5. I have a husband who loves our children.
6. I have a husband who loves God's Word.
7. I have a husband who loves the Church.