Like “make coffee.”

Everything else follows after that in time, so that is what makes it a priority over other things.

Like “go to work.” Or “pick up paycheck.” Or “deposit paycheck in bank.” Or “buy coffee for tomorrow.”

Because that is our perspective, we think of ourselves as following a sort of checklist. A successful life based on our priorities means getting our checklist completed. At some point, we think we can mark our “priority items” as “DONE.”

But that is self-deception and perhaps even self-defeating.

Viewing priorities as an ever-changing list of items that require our effort will mean we are always pursuing High-ranking ACTIVITIES that vary with our circumstances rather than high- ranking PRINCIPLES that do not.

It is better to think of priorities as having primacy in importance rather than as things that have primacy in time or sequence.

Priorities, particularly when they are established by God, are better thought of as things that need to be done CONSTANTLY. By adopting that view, we will establish the foundations on which all other activities are always built, regardless of circumstances. So, what might they be?

ALWAYS seek to do good to one another and to everyone (1 The. 5:15)

Let your speech ALWAYS be gracious (Col 4:6)

give thanks ALWAYS to God (Eph 5:20)

Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS (Phil 4:4, 1 The. 5:16)

ALWAYS be sober-minded (2 Tim 4:5)

ALWAYS be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15)

Godly priorities are never “DONE,” rather they are always BEING DONE.

The ability to keep doing them is a gift from God, as His Holy Spirit produces its fruit in us of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22). There is no law limiting or restricting these. They are works of grace that are never finished.

They will not be marked “DONE” for His grace will never end.

God’s gracious forgiveness seems worthless to each of us when we do not know Christ. “After all,” each of us reasons, “I am already a pretty good person. If God is at all perceptive, He should be yearning for the chance to jump down from Heaven to love and accept me, just as I am. Indeed, if God does not do so, the fault lies with God’s inability to perceive my obvious virtue, not my own lack of it.”

Then we are  shown the truth of out own sinfulness and lack of merit before God. We reluctantly admit to needing God’s forgiveness after all. We come to seeing this need as satisfied only in what God can do and what He will do entirely apart from our efforts or merit. At this point, our natural reaction is to futher diminish God’s grace in forgiveness. What comes freely, we tend to regard lightly.

Life is a gift to each of us. There is no person alive who did anything to earn his own birth or bring it about. No one decided to be born. Not a one of us created the circumstances of his own conception or convinced his mother to carry him to term. Life was a gift that cost each of us nothing. Yet, even the dullest of us would admit that life is precious.

God’s grace is likewise a gift that none of us can earn or bring about. We cannot take it; by definition it is given. We cannot create the circumstances for it to be bestowed, for indeed the Giver decides that. God declares “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” (Exodus 33:19, Romans 9:15). Even so, it is precious and beyond value.

Let us guard against any thought or inclination that takes grace for granted or esteems it as meager. Such concepts will intrude upon our understanding sooner or later, usually subtly and quietly. We must be vigilant in our thought and speech to always regard God’s grace as a spectacular and marvelous aspect of His character. It is clear that He does:

But God, being rich in mercy,  because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,  made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—   and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable  riches of his grace in  kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:4-7, ESV)

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21, ESV)

God abhors idolatry. To worship anyone or anything other than the True God should be abhorant to us. Still, we are drawn to worshipping idols as moths are drawn to flame.Is this not our situation? We are gathered together at the foot of the mountain, waiting for our Deliverer to return. We have been told what to do, and how we are to wait. Then, finally, we hear something. It is a voice that speaks clearly and sounds certain. “Gather your gold and bring it to me.” This command is not from on high, but comes from an earth-bound source. Mass-media Aarons, whose intent is to please our vanities rather than God’s design, call out to us winsomely. They take our gold and fashion for us pretty gods – gods that promise us more gold, greater pleasure, better relationships, and beautiful bodies. These gods care about making us happy now, rich now, comfortable now. They are so much more approachable than the scary God who answers with thunder on the mountain. They are so much more permissive than the holy God who won’t even let us touch His mountain. We prefer to worship these made-up gods, because they are gods made in our image. They care about us and our glory, almost as much as we do.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5, ESV)

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Ephesians 5:5, ESV)

How do you get the shoddy goods buyers and pathetic thought readers to your electronic door?

Shameless self-promotion.

OK, content is also important. However, you can have the best content on the interweb and still not get the folks to come until you do the self-promotion. Google won’t help you, because Google works on the principle that your site is worth sending someone to if other web sites already have links going to your web site. You have to be known and liked by important people if you want other people to know and like you. It is all very much like high school. It’s also very much like THE WORLD.

Which brings me to why you see a link on our side-bar to Pyromaniacs. We like them. They are estute writers who always find interesting things to say in an insightful way. They have great graphics and do all sorts of satire as well as straight commentary. They have nice pictures to look at when you are tired of reading. We like pictures.

No doubt someday we would have linked to them when we got around to linking to other important sites that we like on the interweb. But we linked to them now because, on the interweb, they matter. A LOT. And, very generously, they are making a limited-time offer that they will link to us if we link to them. If we expect anyone but our best buddies to read anything on this site, we need to do that kind of self-promotion. At least for a while.

So why does it make us feel creepy? Because promoting ourselves is discouraged in Scripture. A LOT.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.’ But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:7-11, ESV)

This site is all about God’s glory, not ours. Our desire is to bring others to understand His marvelous grace and unsurpassible mercy. Our goal is to provide a forum for those who wish to praise His Son and defend the truth of His wonderful Word.

To attract folks to read and contribute, we need to do more than just provide people something inspiring to read or an opportunity to write. We need to let people know we are here. I hope that we will not do so in a way that detracts from God’s glory. Even so, while we do things to promote the site, we might feel just a bit sick to our stomachs.

It is not good to eat much honey,
nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.
Prov. 25:27 (ESV)

For now, everything is pretty rudimentary, so please be patient if the little tabs above don’t work, for example. We have relatives who are the same way.

Our focus will be Christ and His work of salvation as summarized in the Five Solas of the Reformation. Even if you don’t know what that means, please feel free to join in the discussion.

If you look over the right, you will see a place to register. After you register, you will be sent a password by e-mail. This takes a few minutes as the tiny electronic mail carriers drive their tiny electronic mailtrucks over the billions of miles to your house. After that, you can log in (in about the same place) and start living the dream.

By the way, you have to log in to post your own “article,” but don’t need to do so if you want to comment on someone else’s.

I fully expect that we may discuss serious topics but that we will not take ourselves too seriously. Even so, I pray that this site brings glory to the name of Christ.

Our intention is to be around for a while– either until Christ returns or until our three year lease is up, whichever comes first (of course, I personally hope it is the former, even though I prepaid and can’t get a refund).