“Tongue control? It will never be achieved unless there is first of all heart and mind control. When any Christian comes to the point of yielding to the Lord in full sincerity, cost what it may control of his thought life, the problem of managing his tongue will be solved, provided that such a surrender goes deeper than the intellect and reaches the emotions and will. For the Bible makes a distinction between mere intellectual knowledge of God and the trust of the heart.”
Frank E. Gaebelein, The Practical Epistle of James: Studies in Applied Christianity (Great Neck, N.Y.: Channel Press, 1955), 80-81.
We get our eggs through our weekly CSA veggie box. The chicken rancher is Jim Dunlop of TLC Ranch. He had told me about his mobile chicken coops, and I’ve tried to imagine what they look like; now there’s a photo that’s up for voting in a photo contest. The mobile chicken coops allow them to take their free range chickens and move them periodically to fresh grass. This also lets the previous area recover from the chicken troopin’ and poopin’. Click here to vote for this photo in their contest.
“TLC Ranch raise pigs and laying hens on 20 acres of organic pasture. The laying hens share the pasture with a system of movable fencing and mobile chicken coops made from recycled cotton trailers”
Isn’t it interesting that God had designed our bodies such that we begin to have intense physical attraction to the opposite sex in our high school and teenage years and at the same time parents are doing their best to avoid having daughters that become single teenage mothers or sons who become dead beat fathers . I’ve often wondered if perhaps God’s timing for marriage is not the same as our culture’s timing for marriage; it has been shifted not based on biblical reasons, but based on worldy reasons such as education, career, aquisition of a house, or other wordly things. On the other hand, God has designed our bodies such that they are ready for marriage and family much sooner.
I totally agree that we should be celibate before marriage, but if you don’t have the gift of celibacy—a life of celibacy for the purpose of serving God—then perhaps it’s unwise to try to force a gift that God has not given. Instead parents can plan for their children to marry earlier and experience the gift of marriage.
It seems that the wider evangelical world might be in for a bit of a shake-up in this respect. Christianity today’s cover story is “The Case for Early Marriage” and Albert Mohler is blogging and supporting it too. I’m all for it too—with a healthy portion of wisdom and discernment. Click here to see the article: “The Case for (Early) Marriage” on Albert Mohler’s blog.
Perhaps only a few of you know that I love the Puritans. My old friends from my school days, or party days, might not know a single thing about the Puritans. Perhaps their name invokes a stereotype of boring, religious people; but I’m more familiar with their writings, which use rich, sometimes poetic language that is full of passion and love for God. What if you can watch stuff like that on your modern flat panel LCD ? Well, there is a DVD lending service called Puritan Picks. I stumbled across it when looking at the redesign of the Monergism website. It looks like something worth checking out for all those who are curious about what a Puritan might pick to watch!
If you are like my wife, when she sees a premium Bible, she thinks, “I’m not spending over $100 on a Bible!” Now Logos is giving away 72 premium Bibles over the next 6 months. Enter and perhaps you may not need to spend a penny. Here’s their ad about this event:
This year, Compassion International brought some people to see the operations in India. I was invited, but at several thousand dollars, I simply couldn’t afford it at this time. They put a short thank you video together for the sponsors. It is very heart warming and encouraging. I cannot put into words how much sponsoring a child has affected me. I strongly recommend sponsoring a child.
