I'm so 3000 and 8, you so 2000 and late

Apparently something dramatic happened in 2008, because that is when most of my friends in the blogging world stopped updating their blogs. And although I didn't know it at the time, I was simply following the trend. Today as I went through my links to friends' pages, I discovered that some of the links are not even working anymore (don't worry I got rid of those). Except for the faithful few, my tiny blogging world had become virtually obsolete. But with the addition of my sister to the blogosphere (check out Confluence), I decided that blogging should become a "thing" again. Therefore, I write to you, oh internet, and once again put my thoughts out for all to read. But, since I don't have any thoughts of my own at the moment, I thought I would share with you someone else's thoughts.

Lately I've been struck by the Puritans and their intense devotion to studying the Word of God. The book "The Valley of Vision" is a collection of their prayers that were the fruit of hours of studying and meditating on the Scripture. In a prayer titled Continual Repentance, the last stanza is a plea:

Grant me never to lose sight of

the exceeding sinfulness of sin,

the exceeding righteousness of salvation,

the exceeding glory of Christ,

the exceeding beauty of holiness,

the exceeding wonder of grace.

Yesterday, we had a women's conference at our church. One of the seminars I attended was about being a servant. This prayer is perfect because if it is answered (and it is by God's grace), then we have the ability to serve humbly and to the glory of God. One of the points of the seminar is that a servant knows who they are. This includes knowing the depth of sin/our standing before God, the glory of Christ, and really everything in between. Another point is that being a servant demands continual repentance. Finally, being a servant means following our ultimate example, Jesus Christ himself. Though I'm positive the Puritans were not perfect, they definitely had a much better grasp on this concept than I do.

Anyway, here is my comeback attempt. We'll see how long it lasts ;-)