Christmas 2011 is over

[SUV]

...for the next ten months...but the Preaching never ends!

I recently ran across one of the True Gems of Christianity, Pastor Jonathan Edwards' lovely Sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God from the Year of Our Lord, 1739.

It's a big 'un and Pastor would yell at me for wasting our Godly Bandwith if I copy it in its entirety.
Therefore, I urge you to go take a look-see and come back and post your very favorite parts of it!

PS This is required reading for any of you un$avED, touchy-feely "Christians" who might be sashaying around our Blessed Website

http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4yMTo0Ny53amVv

[James Hutchins]

Re: Christmas 2011 is over

Christmas 2011 may be over but there is no time like the present to start getting ready for 2012 next year! I'll be going out to Lancaster, PA this weekend to get a jump on the Hustle and Bustle.

[Mary Etheldreda]

Re: Christmas 2011 is over

We sinners are in the hands of a loving and caring God who wants to rescue us, heal us, and join us to Him. He won't stop us if we demand to do our own thing, and stomp off to declare war on him instead. And that does have consequences, but God isn't standing there, saying "You come back here or I'm going to burn you for all eternity!" God is standing right where He's always been, saying "If you touch that hot stove, you'll burn yourself! Please don't do that! And don't stand there, because there are rocks falling on you. You'll get hurt! Come back over by me."

You know...like a loving parent.

He loves us SO much!

This is one of my favorite parts:

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet 'tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment; 'tis to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep: and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up; there is no other reason to be given why you han't gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you don't this very moment drop down into hell.

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: 'tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell; you hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.

And yet still He loves us! I cannot fathom the depths of His Love!

My children are required to memorize this first paragraph before their 5th birthday. While the cake has been brought to them and they await the opportunity to blow out the candles, they recite this portion for all the family to hear and to give praise. Only when they can recite this flawlessly and with proper emotion do we proceed to tell them how blessed they are that God has deigned they lived to see another birthday. This is a birthday tradition every year after. In fact, I will share that often we call our children "spider" and "loathsome insect" not only to keep their minds focused on God's love for them, but as a cute little pet name as well!