Cold Coffee

Inscription on John Owens Tomb

2006-05-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Longtime no write!!! My apologies. In fact, I have not even checked my e-mail in weeks. Hmmmm. I have benn ploughing through John Owens masterpiece, The Glory of Christ, which has been a real staggering work for me, (the unedited version.) I came across an old photo of his toomb in Bunhill Fields, England, and was impressed in my spirit by the inscription on his tomb, translated by a Dr, Gibbons. It could probably be translated for us again in these days, but do your best. This is worth the time if you have it.

"John Owen, D.D., born in the county of Oxford,the son of an eminent minister, himself more eminent, and worthy to be enrolled among the first divines of the age; furnished with human literature in all its kinds, and in its highest degrees, he called forth all his knowldge in an orderly train to serve the interests of religion, and minister in the sanctuary of his God. In Divinity, practice, polemic, and casuistical he excelled others, and was in all equal to himself. The Arminian, Socinian, and Popish errors, those hydras, whose contaminated breath and deadly poison infested the Church, he, with more than Herculean labour, repulsed, vanquished, and destroyed. The whole economy of redeeming grace, revealed and applied by the Holy Spirit, he deeply investigated, and communicated to others, having first felt its divine energy, according to its draught in the Holy Scriptures, transfused into his own bosom. Superior to all terrene pusuits he constantly cherished, and largely experienced, that blissful communion with Deity he so admirably describes in his writings. While on the road to heaven, his elevated mind almost comprehended its full glories and joys. When he was consulted on cases of conscience, his resolutions contained the wisdom of an oracle. He was scribe every way instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of God. In conversation he held up to many, in his public discourses to more, in his publications from the press to all, who were set out for the celestial Zion, the effulgent lamp of evangelical truth, to guide their steps to immortal glory. While he was thus diffusing his divine light, with his own inward sensations, and observations of his afflicted friends, his earthly tabernacle gradually decayed, till at length his deeply sanctified soul, longing for the fruition of its God, quitted the body. In his younger age, a most comely and majestic form; but in latter stages of life, depressed by constant infirmities, emaciated with frequent diseases, and above all crushed under the weight of intense and unrelenting studies, it became an incommodious mansion for the vigorous exertions of the spirit in the service of its God. He left the world on a day dreadful to the Church by the cruelties of men, but blissful to himself b the plaudits of his God, August 24th 1683, aged 67."

How would you have like to have chiseled out that epitath?

My son Micah, gave me a good book as far a men of this century have written, entitled "God is the Gospel", by John Piper. I would encourage any one who seeking God's face to read it, as he was affected by John Owen's book the "Glory of Christ." Many of Piper's thoughts are Owen's works regurgitated in digestable format.

Phillip's Daughters

2006-02-26T11:31:00.000-08:00

"And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy." [Acts 21.9]

This is an unusual condition, for we might be able to reason one of the four, but all four were virgins. Whether this was a directive from Phillip, which was permissable in that time, or of their own volition we cannot tell, but they were set apart unto the Lord. These daughters Luke and the Apostle come into contact with when they came upon Phillip the Evangelist during their missionary endeavor. This was the same Phillip that was filled with the Holy Spirit, chosen as one of the first deacons of the early church. He was a man that was so burdened for lost sinners that an awakening occured under his ministry in Samaria.
What can we derive from this? Well, for one thing a man such as this who is Spirit filled has a positive effect upon his family and it appears in this case that it had affected his daughters in this beneficial way.
Note that they were virgins. Now marriage is honorable and a worthy institution of which I am most blessed, yet there is a certain hindrance in total availability, as the Apostle put it, "I say that it is good for a man so to be." 1 Cor. 7.26 and also "he that is married careth for thte things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord." 1 Cor. 7.32. These women could spend the bulk of their time in worship and praise, serving the Lord solely. So then Phillip's life so impressed them and blessed them that they gave up this hope [that is of marriage] for one better. Their thoughts were not fixed upon what most young girls were preoccupied with, but with the Lord whom thier father loved and now they also. They then were used, prophesying and edifying all to whom they come into contact, among which were Luke and Paul as they came upon their home during their journey and were affected in a positve eternal way. Let us then take heed to the command given by the Apostle in Eph. 5.18. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." and so also be used to the edification of all the saints.

By His Grace alone,

C.J.E.

Cold Coffee

2006-02-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

Greetings to all who may have some interest, and I know that many of you have been giving me all kinds of wit and sarcasm, ahem.... so.... I will finally enter this blog world at the urgings and promptings of my beloved daughter, attempting to contribute somethings that might be of eternal value to some inquisitve souls.

This is basically an introduction of what I would like to do. Some you may be curious of my title, 'Cold Coffee.' I thought of this quite a few years ago, as I like to think that I am an efficianado of sorts of Coffee, and I usually have a fresh cup at my desk when I have my quiet time with the Lord. My real desire is to have such a worship of Christ and all of His glory that all other things fade in importance, and so when those times come my coffee becomes cold, and my heart is warmed. I confess that not all my times are like this, but it is my constant desire, as the Psalmist David spoke so long ago, the young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. So then, by the grace of God, I will commit to at least 2 postings a week of my personal gleanings to whomever would find benefit from them, but it will probably help me more than anything to improve my writing skills as one day I hope to write on various texts of Scripture.

It is fitting then that I will close with a little diddy from one of my favorite Puritan writers, Richard Baxter:
"Each of us is a pen in the hand of God and.. what honor is there in a pen?"

-by His grace alone.