If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all.

Come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. A
Jesus, ready, stands to save you, Full of pity joined with power. B
He is able, He is able; He is willing; Doubt no more. A

Come ye needy, come and welcome; God's free bounty glorify; A
True belief and true repentance every grace that brings you nigh. A
Without money, without money Come to Jesus Christ and buy. A

Come ye weary, heavy laden, Bruised and broken by the fall. A
If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. A
Not the righteous, not the righteous; Sinners Jesus came to call. A

Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. A
All the fitness He requires is to feel your need of Him. B
This He gives you, this He gives you, tis the Spirit's rising beam. A

Lo! The Incarnate God, ascended; pleads the merit of His blood. A
Venture on Him; venture wholly, Let no other trust intrude. B
None but Jesus, none but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good. A

--Joseph Hart

Warfield on the Purpose of the Seminary

Whenever I read B.B. Warfield, I get help plain and simple. Here is something he said with regard to the purpose of the seminary and the task I have before me (and so does anyone else who is in ministry) --

What precisely must be taught in a theological seminary will be determined by our conception of the ministry for the exercise of the functions for which it offers preparation. And that will be determined ultimately by our conception of the Church.......On the evangelical view, the Church is the communion of saints, gathered out of a lost world; and the business of the minister is to apply the saving gospel to lost men for their salvation from sin -- from its guilt and from its corruption and power. Palpably, what he needs for this is just the gospel; and if he is to perform his functions at all, he must know this gospel, know it thoroughly, know it in all its details, and in all its power. It is the business of the seminary to give him this knowledge of the gospel. That is the real purpose of the seminary. -- Selected Shorter Writings Vol. 1, p. 376

Thanking God for my Eustace Adventure

In his The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis gives us a very telling picture of where all of us are in life post-conversion. Until this point, the young boy name Eustace has been a quite unbearable companion for those unfortunate enough to be on board the Dawn Treader. In an episode of the story where Eustace sneaks away to avoid helping repair the ship, he finds himself outwardly what he has always been in his heart: a dragon. This is quite disturbing to Eustace, because he can longer talk and feels desperately lonely. It seems that Eustace will forever be condemned to go on alone, when suddenly (Thanks to Aslan) he is turned back into a boy. Everyone around him notices the being a dragon has done Eustace some good. Summing up Eustace's little adventure Lewis writes, "It would be nice, and fairly true, to say that 'from that time forth Eustace was a different boy'. To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun. "

Colossians 1:27 tells us of this cure. "Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Hold fast to the Gospel and do not despair of glory (holiness) because by the grace of God you are what you are, and his grace toward you is not in vain. On the contrary, work harder than before, because it is not you, but the grace of God that is with you. (1 Cor 15).