e-Sword

e-Sword is an excellent tool for bible study on your PC - and it's free! You can download bibles in several languages and versions as well as commentaries and other study tools.

e-Sword version 8.0 has just been released and it looks very good.

Click here if you'd like to download e-Sword.

Fidelity in Marriage

Here's a short article from Focus on the Family called Quick Facts About Infidelity that I thought was really helpful. Remember that this is an issue which faces every married person. Don't ever think that you are immune to it.

by David Sanford

• Nobody wakes up one day and suddenly decides to begin an extramarital affair.


• Infidelity begins in the heart and mind. By the time a person physically commits adultery, he or she has been indulging for quite some time in progressively more intense mental and emotional affairs.


• Pornography is one of the worst affairs of the mind. It can destroy years of marital fidelity within hours.


• Left unchecked, workplace friendships between men and women can easily evolve into emotional affairs.


• Marital fidelity begins long before marriage: (a) it begins as a promise we make to ourselves — to be a person of faithful character — before marriage ever enters the picture; (b) it is a promise we make to our future spouse when we get engaged; (c) it is a vow we make to our spouse when we get married.


• Marital fidelity is a daily commitment to seek the best for your spouse and family.


• Marital fidelity is strengthened when you affirm your spouse, listen to your spouse, and seek to meet his or her needs. It’s also strengthened when you set healthy boundaries for your media consumption and for your relationships outside of the home.


• Marital fidelity is weakened when you devalue your spouse, minimize the time you have with your spouse, and focus on meeting your own needs. It’s also weakened when you fantasize about someone other than your spouse (and God) meeting your deepest needs and desires.


• Marital fidelity produces lifelong rewards. In contrast, infidelity can cause years of untold anguish.


• "Silently and imperceptibly, as we work or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak; and at last some crisis shows us what we have become" (B. F. Westcott). This is true in every area of life, including marital fidelity.

My Testimony

If you'd like to hear my testimony of how I became a Christians, go to the thirsty4God (T4G) website (http://www.thirsty4god.co.uk/). As far as testimonies is concerned, this is not the most exciting testimony you'll hear! But for me it's great to look back and see God's grace at work in my life. Any conversion is a miracle, a work of God's grace, and mine is no exception.

The T4G website is a very good website which is aimed at young Christians in particular. If you're not a registered user already, I recommend that you register and read the articles and the other material that is available on website.

Don't waste your life

"Only one life - 'twill soon be past
Only what's done for Christ will last"

View this clip of John Piper's sermon to hear a powerful message on this little text.

SCYC 2007

The Vang Gang spent 2 weeks in July at the Shetland Christian Youth Camp (SCYC) in Sumburgh, Shetland.

This year there were 3 children's camps running from Tuesday to Saturday and a youth weekend from Thursday to Sunday. The children's camps were fully subscribed with 80 campers each week. About 35 young people were at the youth weekend.

It was a great joy to be able to tell the children about God's plan of salvation at the meetings in the first 2 camps. In the 3rd camp, Graeme Paterson from Plains, Scotland, was responsible for the meetings and Paul Coxall from "our" assembly (Fernielea Gospel Hall) in Aberdeen spoke at the meetings at the youth weekend.

All four camps went well and we are thankful to God for His provisions and help for the camps. Our prayer is that many of the 275 or so young people who heard God's word will trust in the Lord Jesus for their salvation and live for Him.

This year was the 14th year that SCYC has had children's camps and, having been involved since the start, it's great to be able to look back and see how this work has grown and how God has blessed.

Two Prayers

I don't read a lot of poetry but I have an excellent compilation of Christian poems by James M. S. Tait called "Bells and Pomegranates". It was first published in 1946 and published again in 1985 with additional poems. JMS Tait was a well-known solicitor and preacher in Shetland. He was born in 1903 and died in 1980.

One of my favourite poems by JMS Tait is called "The Two Prayers" and is based on the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15.

The Two Prayers

Father, give me - Luke 15:12
Father...make me - Luke 15:19

'Give me' he prayed, the foolish, wilful boy,
He thought that but to have was to enjoy,
A broken, sobered man, robbed, hungry, bare,
'Make me' he prayed; and 'twas a wiser prayer.

Much wiser. My possessions may decay:
What I become can no one take away.
A man's true worth may be appraised the best
By what he was, not by what he possessed.

Grace-driven effort

An oxymoron (plural oxymora), according to en.wikipedia.org, is “a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron is a Greek term derived from oxy ("sharp") and moros ("dull"). Thus the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron”. Examples of oxymora are “pretty ugly” and “deafening silence”. My favourite oxymoron is “Microsoft Works” – although arguably it’s not an oxymoron in it’s strictest sense!

“Grace-driven effort” may seem like an oxymoron to some people...I would disagree.

I agree that we are helpless sinners and that, as such, we are unable to save ourselves – only God can, and He does so because of His grace (Eph. 2:8-9). We have no involvement in our saving; we simply receive it by faith.

Having been saved by grace we continue to rely on God’s grace – we stand in it (Rom 5:2) and we should be strong in (2 Tim 2:1). But we must labour too.

“Let go and let God” is a phrase often seen on bumper stickers and t-shirts. It's a catchy phrase and on the surface, it seems sound too, but I find it rather misleading - and dangerous when taken to an extreme. The danger is that as Christians we abdicate responsibility and hand it over to God.

The apostle Paul had a very clear attitude in His life regarding his responsibility as a child of God: "I discipline my body and keep it under control" (1 Cor 9:27). But in disciplining and controlling his body Paul relied on the grace of God. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 he could say "by the grace of God I am what I am...I worked harder than any of them [the apostles], though it was not I, but the grace of God that is in me".

This is what we call grace-driven effort - and it is badly needed today. If you are a child of God, don't just sit and wait for God to change you and use you! Seek God diligently, pursue holiness, discpline your body and keep it under control - but do so realising that in yourself you can do nothing (John 15:5) and rest on God's grace to conform you more and more, day by day, into the likeness of His Son.

Don Carson said this about grace-driven effort:

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated

Chief...

...of sinners!

That is the title the apostle Paul gives himself - Chief of Sinners. Not the most prestigous title in the world I suppose but one that everybody should ascribe to themselves.

I'm reading a very good book just now by Jerry Bridges called The Discipline of Grace. In it Bridges emphasises the need for believers to see themselves as sinful.

Bridges lists four statements by made by the apostle Paul concerning his own sinfulness:

• I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle (1 Cor 15:9)


• I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good (Rom 7:19)


• I am the very least of all the saints (Eph 3:8)


• Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief (1 Tim 1:15)

Bridges points out that the statements are listed chronologically which is interesting. Note the "progress", so that in the beginning (Eph 3:8) Paul compared himself with an elite group of Christian men, and said of himself that he was the least of the apostles. In the end (1 Tim 1:15) Paul compared himself with sinners (i.e. everybody, for we are all sinners) and he saw himself as the chief, that is, the greatest or the foremost of them all - the greatest sinner of the lot!

This is spiritual progress - not that we think of ourselves as becoming better and more important - but that we become more and more aware of our sin. This may seem to be paradoxical, and it certainly flies in the face of modern psychology which encourages positive thinking (which isn't necessarily all bad) and the need for self esteem, but it's a sign of spiritual growth.

Paul did not wallow in his sinfulness though or use it as an excuse for sinning. What it did to Paul was that it saved him from self-righteousness and made him cast himself upon the grace of God.

"The problem with self-righteousness is that it seems almost impossible to recognise in ourselves. We will own up to almost any other sin, but not the sin of self-righteousness. When we have this attitude, though, we deprive ourselves of the joy of living in the grace of God. Because, you see, grace is only for sinners." (J Bridges)

William Carey, the pioneer missionary, had grasped this lesson, as evidenced in a letter to his son on his 70th birthday:

"I am this day seventy years old, a monument of Divine mercy and goodness, though on a review of my life I find much, for which I ought to be humbled in the dust; my direct and positve sins are innumerable, my negligence in the Lord's work has been great, I have not promoted his cause, nor sought his glory and honour as I ought, notwithstanding all this, I am spared till now, and am still retained in His work, and I trust I am received into the divine favour through Him."

Facelift

Having left my blog unattended since November 2006, it's now had a facelift and the intention is to put regular posts on my new blog (here's hoping!).

The picture above is of Koltur which is an island in the Faroe Islands, located to the west of Streymoy and to the north of Hestur. The total population of Koltur is 2 people and some 160 sheep! Koltur is one of 18 islands in the Faroes, 17 of which are inhabited - some, like Koltur, only by one family.

Bíblian og samkynd (in Faroese)

Eg ætli ikki at taka lut í tí almenna orðaskiftinum um hetta evnið, men eg vil gjarna á mínum bloggið luta tilfar um evnið, sum er í samsvar við trúnna á, at bíblian, frá permu til permu, er Orð Guds, og er einasta grundarlag at byggja moralskar meginreglur á.

Tað er skuffandi at hoyra fólk, sum siga seg trúgva bíbliuni, avnokta fundamentalar sannleikar um kærleika og kynslív (t.d. Sonja Klein), men tað er eisini gleðiligt at hoyra tey, sum tala fyri bíbliuni, og ikki royna at kroysta nútímans hugsannarháttir inn í bíbliuna.

Góð dømir um tey, sum tala fyri orði Guds eru John MacArthur og Al Mohler.

Klikk her fyri at síggja orðaskifti millum John MacArthur, og Chad Allen, sum er sjónleikari og talsmaður fyri samkynd.

Klikk her fyri at síggja orðaskifti millum Al Mohler og ein lesbiskan prest.

Ein sera góð grein um homoseksualitet út frá bíbliunnar sjónarmiði, er at finna her. Greinin kallast Homosexuality and the Bible.

Heimurin – Stríðsvøllur ella Spælipláss?

Tað kristna lívið er ein dagligur dystur, eitt støðugt stríð, og tí eiga vit at taka orð Paulusar til Timoteus til okkara og fylgja teimum.

Paulus hevði hesi orð til unga vin sín Timoteus:

o Stríð hitt góða stríð (1. Tim 1:18)
o Ver íðin (1. Tim 4:13)
o Akta eftir tær sjálvum og eftir læruni, ger støðugt tað (1. Tim 4:16)
o Flýggja frá hesum (peningakærleika)! Stevn eftir rættvísi, gudsótta, trúgv, kærleika, toli, spakføri (1. Tim 6:11)
o Stríð hitt góða stríð trúarinnar, gríp hitt æviga lív (1. Tim 6:12)
o Varðveit tað, sum tær er litið upp í hendur (1. Tim 6:20)
o Skammast ikki við vitnisburðin um Harra okkara (2. Tim 1:8)
o Verð sterkur í náðini (2. Tim 2:1)
o Líð ilt við mær sum góður hermaður (2. Tim 2:3)
o Ger tær ómak at vísa teg sjálvan fram sum ein, ið royndur er fyri Gudi (2. Tim 2:15)
o Flýggja frá ungdómslystunum (2. Tim 2:22)
o Prædika orðið, ver íðin í tí og í ótíð (2. Tim 4:2)
o Ver edrúur í øllum (2. Tim 4:5)
o Royn alt tað tú kanst (2. Tim 4:9, 21)

Don Carson skrivar: “Menniskju reka ikki móti heilagleika. Uttan at vit stremba við hjálp náðinnar, nærkast vit ikki gudsótta, bøn, lýdni fyri skriftini, trúgv og gleði í Harranum. Vit reka móta kompromi og kalla tað tolsemi; vit reka móti ólýdni og kalla tað frælsi; vit reka móti pátrúgv og kalla tað trúgv. Vit fagna vantandi fráhald og kalla tað avslapping; we sløsa okkum til bønarloysi og dára okkum sjálvi til at hugsa, at vit eru sloppin undan lógarlæru; vit glíða mótvegis gudloysi og sannføra okkum sjálvi um, at vit eru frígjørd”.

Trúgvandi vinur:

o Stríðir tú hitt góða stríð?
o Ert tú íðin?
o Gert tú tær ómak?
o Roynir tú alt tað tú kanst?

Walking humbly with your God

Micah 6:8 "walk humbly with thy God".

On 22 August 1889 C.H. Spurgeon preached a great sermon on this text. After reading the sermon tonight, I thought it was an appropriate start to my blog. The first half of the sermon deals with the question: "What is the nature of humility". The second half of the sermon answers the question "wherein does this humility show itself". I've included the second half of the sermon. Click here to read the whole sermon.

Spurgeon:

Wherein, then, does this humility show itself? It ought to show itself in every act of life. I would not advise any of you to try to be humble, but to be humble. As to acting humbly, when a man forces himself to it, that is poor stuff. When a man talks a great deal about his humility, when he is very humble to everybody, he is generally a canting hypocrite. Humility must be in the heart, and then it will come out spontaneously as the outflow of life in every act that a man performs.

But now, specially, walk humbly with God when your graces are strong and vigorous, when there has been a very clear display of them, when you have been very patient, when you have been very bold, when you have been very prayerful, when the Scriptures have opened themselves up to you, when you have enjoyed a grand season of searching the Word, and especially when the Lord gives you success in his service, when there are more souls than usual brought to Christ, when God has made you a leader among his people, and has laid his hand upon you, and said, "Go in this thy might." Then, "Walk humbly with thy God." The devil will tell you when you have preached a good sermon; perhaps you will not have preached a good one when he tells you that you have, for he is a great liar; but you may go home wonderfully pleased with a sermon with which God is not pleased, and you may go home wonderfully humble about a sermon that God means to bless. But when there really does seem to be something that the evil one tempts you to glory in, then hear this word, "Walk humbly with thy God."

Next, when you have a great deal of work to do, and the Lord is calling you to it, then, before you go to it, walk humbly with God. Do you ask, How? By feeling that you are quite unfit for it, for you are unfit in yourself; and by feeling that you have no strength, for you have not any. When you are weak, by owning your weakness you will grow strong. Lean hard upon your God, cry to him in prayer. Do not open your own mouth, but from your heart pray, "Open thou my lips, and my mouth shall speak forth thy praise." Be intensely subservient to the Spirit of God, yield yourself up to be worked upon by him, that you may work upon others. Oh, there is such a difference between a sermon preached by our own power and a sermon preached in the power of the Holy Spirit! If you do not feel the difference, my brother, your people will soon find it out. "Oh, to be nothing, nothing!Only to lie at his feet!" Then it is, when walking humbly with God in service, that he will fill us, and make us strong.

Next, walk humbly with God in all your aims. When you are seeking after anything, mind what your motive is. Even if it be the best thing, seek it only for God. If any man, or any woman either, tries to work in the Sunday-school, or if anyone preaches in the open air, or in the house of God, with a view of being somebody, with the idea of being thought to be a very admirable, zealous brother or sister, then let this word come into your ear, "Walk humbly with thy God." There is a word which Jeremiah spoke to Baruch which we need to have said to ourselves sometimes: "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." You young men of the College, do not be always hunting up big places; be willing to go to small places to preach the gospel to poor people. Never mind if the Lord sends you right down to the lowest slum; but go, and let your aim always be this, "I do not desire for myself anything great except the greatest thing of all, that I may glorify God." "Walk humbly with thy God." You are the kind of man who will be promoted in due time if you are willing to go down. In the true Church of Christ, the way to the top is downstairs; sink yourself into the highest place. I say not this that even in sinking you may think of the rising; think only of your Lord's glory. "Walk humbly with thy God."

Walk humbly with God, also, in studying his Word, and in believing his truth. We have a number of men, nowadays, who are critics of the Bible; the Bible stands bound at their bar, nay, worse than that, it lies on their table to be dissected, and they have no feeling of decency towards it; they will cut out its very heart, they will rend asunder its tenderest parts, even the precious Song of Solomon, or the beloved apostle's Gospel, or the Book of the Apocalypse, is not sacred in their eyes. They shrink from nothing, their scalpel, their knife, cuts through everything. They are the judges of what the Bible ought to be, and it is deposed from its throne. God save us from that evil spirit! I desire ever to sit at the feet of God in the Scriptures. I do not believe that, from one cover to the other, there is any mistake in it of any sort whatever, either upon natural or physical science, or upon history or anything whatever. I am prepared to believe what ever it says, and to take it believing it to be the Word of God; for if it is not all true, it is not worth one solitary penny to me. It may be to the man who is so wise that he can pick out the true from the false; but I am such a fool that I could not do that. If I do not have a guide here that is infallible, I would as soon guide myself, for I shall have to do so after all; I shall have to be correcting the blunders of my guide perpetually, but I am not qualified to do that, and so I am worse off than if I had not any guide at all. Sit thou down, Reason, and let Faith rise up. If the Lord hath said it, let God be true, and every man a liar. If science contradicts Scripture, so much the worse for science; the Scripture is true, whatever the theories of men may be. "Ah ! "you say, "you are an old-fashioned fogy." Yes, I am; I will not disclaim any compliment which you choose to pass upon me; and I will stand or fall by this blessed Book. This was the mighty weapon of the Reformation; it smote the Papacy, and I shall not throw it down, whoever does. Stand thou still, my brother, and listen to the voice of the Lord, and "walk humbly with thy God" as to his truth.

Walk humbly with God, next, as to mercies received. You were ill a little while ago; and now you are getting well. Do not let pride come in because you feel that you can lift so many pounds. You are getting on in business; you wear a much better coat than you used to come here in; but do not begin to think yourself a mighty fine gentleman. Now you get into very good society, you say; but do not be ashamed to come to the prayer-meeting along with the Lord's poor, and to sit next to one who has not had a new coat for many a day. "Walk humbly with thy God," or else it may be that he will take thee down a notch or two, and bring thee back to thy old poverty; and then what wilt thou say to thyself for thy folly?

Next, walk humbly with God under great trials. When you are brought very low, do not kick against the pricks. When wave after wave comes, do not begin to complain. That is pride; murmur not, but bow low. Say, "Lord, if thou smite me, I deserve more than thou dost lay upon me. Thou hast not dealt with me according to my sin. I accept the chastisement." Let not the rebellious spirit rise when a child is taken away, or when the wife is taken from your bosom, or the husband from the head of the house. Oh, no; say, "It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good."

And next, walk humbly with God in thy devotions, as between thyself and God in thy chamber. Dost thou read? Read humbly. Dost thou pray? Pray humbly. Dost thou sing? Sing joyfully, but sing humbly. Do take care, when thy God and thyself are together, and none besides, that there thou showest to him thy humble heart, with deep humility that it is no more humble than it is.

And then, next, walk humbly as between thyself and thy brethren. Ask not to be head choir-master; desire not to be the principal man in the church. Be lowly. The best man in the church is the man who is willing to be a doormat for all to wipe their boots on, the brother who does not mind what happens to him at all so long as God is glorified. I have heard brethren say, "Well, but you must stand up for your dignity." I lost mine a long time ago, and I never thought it was worth while to look for it. As to the dignity of the pastor, the dignity of the minister, if we have no dignity of character, the other is a piece of rag. We must try to earn our position in the Church of God by being willing to take the lowest room; and if we will do so, our brethren will take care that before long they will say to us, "Go up higher." In thy dealings with weak Christians, with feeble Christians, do not always scold. Remember that, if thou art strong now, thou mayest very soon be as weak as thy brethren are.

And in dealing with sinners, "walk humbly with thy God." Do not stand a long way off, as if you loved them so much that distance lent enchantment to the view. Do you not think that, sometimes, we deal with sinners as if we would like to pluck them from the burning if there was a pair of tongs handy; but we do not care to do it if our own dainty fingers would be smutted by the brands? Ah, beloved, we must come down from all lofty places, and feel a deep and tender pity towards the lost, and so walk humbly with God!

Now, I have not time to go through all this subject as to your circumstances. If you are poor, if you are obscure, do not be pining after a higher place; walk humbly with your God, take what he gives you. In looking back, rejoice in all his mercy; and walk humbly at the recollection of all your stumbles. In looking forward, anticipate the future with delight, but do not be proudly imagining how great you will yet be made. "Walk humbly with thy God." In all thy thoughts of holy things, be humble; thoughts of God should lay thee low, thoughts of Christ should bring thee to his feet, thoughts of the Holy Ghost should make thee grieve for having vexed him. Thoughts of every covenant blessing should make thee wonder that such privileges ever came to thee. Thoughts of heaven should make thee marvel that thou shouldst ever be found among the seraphim. Thoughts of hell should make thee humble,— "For were it not for grace divine, That fate so dreadful had been thine."

Oh, brethren, the Lord help us to walk humbly with God! This will keep us right. True humility is thinking rightly of thyself, not meanly. When you have found out what you really are, you will be humble, for you are nothing to boast of. To be humble will make you safe. To be humble will make you happy. To be humble will make music in your heart when you go to bed. To be humble here will make you wake up in the likeness of your Master by-and-by. The Lord bless this word, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

My Blog

The purpose of my blog is to share articles and other material of a Christian nature, which I have found useful, with other likeminded people. The material will primarily be in English but some may also be in Faroese, my mother tongue.

I hope that you will find this blog helpful.