Another Friendly Pen Post

Since I’ve heard a few folks mention that they would also like to have a set of nice bible-marking pens, I thought I should put the word out that I found them today at Art Center Memphis in Midtown on Union.

After testing out the various brands, I went with the Prismacolor pens. If you decide to pick up some, you can get 15% off when purchasing 6 or more pens (about $2.65 ea.). So do better than me and ask a friend if they want you to pick some up for them! Or, even better, you can get 20% off with this coupon.

Disclaimer: I am getting 99% of profits on all pens sold in the next week. If you believe that, I also have some ocean-front property in Shelby County that I’d like to sell to you at a great price!

Bible & Bible Marking Pens

Those who know me well, know that I am partial to a good pen. I am especially partial to pens that are ‘fine-tipped, liquidy, and smooth-writing‘ (no clumps of ink at the beginning or end of a word, and definitely no skipped spaces when making a stroke, if ya know what I mean). The irony of it all is that my penmanship is terrible. Probably worse!

Since Tracy has been homeschooling our children, I’ve been trying to learn with them how to write more neatly. Unfortunately, my five year old has much better handwriting than me!

My eagerness to re-learn how to write is largely due to the fact that I’ve been preparing for a long time to get a new bible. Those of you who have used a bible for while know how difficult it is to make the transition. I have been searching for a bible that will last me—Lord willing—the duration of my lifetime. As an early birthday present from Tracy, a good friend recently delivered my brand new Cambridge Edition Wide-Margin NASB. After researching every NASB printed since 1977, I decided on this one, and I’m glad I did. I love it.

Partly due to my poor penmanship, and more because I do not own a set of good bible marking pens, I have yet to make a mark in the new bible. Now that I have the bible that I’m hoping to use for the rest of my life, it is only fitting (in my mind) that I should splurge on some excellent bible marking pens too. Now, again, those who know me well, know also that I am disenchanted with the ‘Christian’ sub-culture that tries to attach a cross to something (like a pen, or a breath mint) and sell it ‘in Jesus’ name.’ That’s not the kind of bible marking pen I’ve been trying to find.

I’ve been looking for pens with indelible ink (or pigment), extra-fine, soft-tipped, smooth-writing, no bleed, no fade, refillable, that come in multiple colors. Now that’s not too much to ask, is it? Thankfully, its not.

“There are three brands of these archival quality pens. Staedtler Pigment Liner, Prismacolor Fine Line Marker and Sakura’s Pigma Micron. All are high quality pens available with different sized writing nibs with the Prismacolor and Sakura available in different colors as well.”

I’m placing my order for these pens, and I thought some of you might be in the market too.

You can click here to read more about the bible-marking benefits of using these archival quality pens.

Happy bible marking! jt

Christ

I Bind Myself to Thee

Cecil Alexander

Christ be with me, Christ within me

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ besides me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

 

Thanks be to God for Christ; through Christ; in Christ!

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Christ: The Preacher

In this Sunday’s sermon text, Jesus declares that preaching was the purpose for which He came! With that in mind, I’ve been scouring over what some of my favorite preachers from Christian history have said about “The highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.” (M. Lloyd-Jones).

This is one of my favorites from John Piper:

Christian preachers, more than all others, should know that people are starving for God. If anyone in all the world should be able to say, “I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory,” it is the herald of God. Who but preachers will look out over the wasteland of secular culture and say, “Behold your God!”? Who will tell the people that God is great and greatly to be praised? Who will paint for them the landscape of God’s grandeur? Who will remind them with tales of wonder that God has triumphed over every foe? Who will cry out above every crisis, “Your God reigns!”? Who will labor to find words that can carry the “gospel of the glory of the blessed God”?

If God is not supreme in our preaching, where in this world will the people hear about the supremacy of God? If we do not spread a banquet of God’s beauty on Sunday morning, will not our people seek in vain to satisfy their inconsolable longing with the cotton candy pleasures of pastimes and religious hype? If the fountain of living water does not flow from the mountain of God’s sovereign grace on Sunday morning, will not the people hew for themselves cisterns on Monday, broken cisterns that can hold no water . . .?

We are called to be “stewards of the mysteries of God.” . . . And the great mystery is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” . . . And that glory is the glory of God. And “it is required of stewards that they be found faithful” – faithful in magnifying the supreme glory of the one eternal God, not magnifying as a microscope that makes small things look bigger; but as a telescope that makes unimaginably great galaxies of glory visible to the human eye.

John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Baker, 1990), p. 108-109.

Grace News

Link has been updated.

Worship Preparation

Lord willing, we will resume our series in Mark this Sunday. The sermon text will be: Mark 1:21-2:13

Thoughts for heart preparation:

• Walk with the Lord today.
• Meditate through the sermon text.
• Pray for the preacher , and those who will attend
  
• Attend prayer & preaching services with a ready heart.

The Joy of Giving

“Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.”—Phil 4:17 

We want to remind the Grace family of the two special opportunities to give toward the work of the gospel in the coming days:

1. Spreading Christ To Our Neighbors—Grace’s annually Easter offering emphasis will begin this coming Sunday (Feb 3) and will last until Easter (March 23).
2. Giving toward the Mathenia Fund is an ongoing offering that will collected at Grace, then sent to their home church. These resources will be used to cover any immediate costs related to the funeral and life change. Any excess will go toward the continuation of Anthony’s work for the gospel in Ethiopia.

Communion With God

“Now, if a man have a golden mill, he will not use it to grind dirt, straws and rotten sticks in. The soul, the mind, the thinking faculty of man is too high to be exercised in the things of this earth. The soul is of a most excellent capacious nature, it is fit to converse not only with angels, but with the eternal God himself, with Father, Son and Holy Ghost; it is of a transcendent being, put all the world into the balance with it, and it is nothing in comparison. The soul of the meanest galley slave is more than heaven and earth, than sun and moon and stars, and all the host of heaven. Now, if a man’s soul be of such an high-born nature, if the Lord hath put such a spirit in to the bosom of man; for him to bestow the strength of it upon low, base, mean and earthly things, oh what an evil is this [to neglect communion with God]!”

- Isaac Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus. 24.

Note: Available for $25 from Grace and Truth! Amazing! Especially considering it is going for $175 at Amazon!

Correction: Amazon is cheaper.

I Know That I Shall See Thy Face

Shortly before his death, late into his many sleepless nights, Clyde Cranford wrote a collection of poems. As he planned each part of his own funeral (yes, that’s right), he assigned me to read the one that follows.

I KNOW THAT I SHALL SEE THY FACE

(II Corinthians 4:18)

Eternity calleth me of late.

What wonders lie beyond the gate

Of temporal thing?

Each season brings a sigh;

Life’s days are passing swiftly by

With whisps of radiance unseen

And joy beyond imagining.

Unseen by eyes, but known by faith;

Yet eyes do long to see Thy face

And hands to touch Thy wounded side,

Fair Savior who for sinners died,

But lives again.

I know that I shall see Thee then,

My Lord, some day, some happy day,

In Spring or Summer fair,

Or when the Autumn’s golden hair

Begins to fall to Winter bare.

Sweet Lord who keeps me to the end,

Even I shall see Thee then.

“While we 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.” II Corinthians 4:18

Where Is The Goodness of God? Who Can Know it?

“The goodness of God has been stored up for those who fear Him. It has been wrought for those who take refuge in Him.”  – Psalm 31:19