The Sifford Sojournal

Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.

Page 36 of 93

David’s Digest: It’s Not Easy Being Saved, Part 1 – Wonder at Rich Men’s Difficulty

It seems to me a common thought in Christianity today is just how easy it is to be saved, or that Christianity is an easy or light thing. “Say this prayer and you’re going to heaven! That’s it!”

I believe the Bible shows otherwise, and I believe Puritan Thomas Manton makes an excellent case showing that it is no easy thing to be saved, what a true Christian walk entails, and why it is important to understand this. It comes from his sermon on Mark 10:26, which says,

And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?

Now, what they were astonished at was the saying from Christ in the previous verse,

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

I plan to break this sermon up into multiple parts and post here on our blog edited down versions from the sermon, but I hope you will take the time to read the entire thing, as it has many more examples and Scripture references, and you can find it here:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A51840.0001.001/1:17.13?rgn=div2;view=fulltext

May God grant us eyes to see and ears to hear, and true desire for Christ, now and in eternity.

From Thomas Manton:

Mark 10:26 – “And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?”

In this verse you have the entertainment of Christ’s doctrine concerning the difficulty of rich men’s being saved: the effects of it are two. (1.) A great wonder or deep sense of this difficulty, ‘They were astonished out of measure’. (2.) An anxious question, ‘And they said among themselves, Who then can be saved?’

For the first branch, their great wonder, they were struck at heart, astonished out of measure: we meet with it before at the first proposal of this difficulty, ‘They were astonished at his words’; but now when Christ had rendered the reason, and reassumed the former difficulty, ‘It is easier for a Camel, &c.’ This doth increase the astonishment, and it is not barely said, they were astonished, but out of measure so. Let us a little inquire into the reason of this wonder, why should the disciples be so troubled at this speech? They were poor, or however had left all and followed Christ, as it is in the next words.

(1.) Some say, it was for others, to see so great a part of the world cut off from all hopes of salvation. Though all have not wealth, yet there are few but do desire it, and that desire may hinder as well as the enjoyment, therefore they being solicitous for the salvation of others, they were astonished, and said, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Certainly it is good, not only to work out our own salvation, but to affect the salvation of others. … This is the Disposition of God’s People, when they have found any comfort and benefit by Christ themselves they desire others should share with them, and be partakers of the same grace, and heirs of the same promises. … Carnal things are possessed with envy: they that are rich and great in the world would shine alone, and when they are gotten to the top themselves, they are loth to teach others the way to climb up after them. But it is not so with spiritual things, grace is charitable and communicative. Indeed where any take up religion out of faction and carnal aims, they would enclose the common salvation, and envy the profession and hope of it to others, that they may be the better esteemed and respected themselves. … Those that have really tasted of the sweetness of Christ themselves are glad of company, and it is a great satisfaction to them, to hear that others are in a towardly or hopeful way of salvation.

(2.) The former [point (1.)] reason was good, and argued a gracious disposition in them; but this that I shall now give, is of a worser alloy, and argues weakness: and yet I cannot but think that this had an influence upon them, viz. the hopes of an earthly kingdom, and the great emoluments and preferments they expected thence. Christ’s own disciples were deeply leavened with a conceit of an earthly kingdom which the Messiah should set up. And though they had left all, and followed him in his poor estate, yet they expected greatness, and honour, and the confluence of all worldly blessings, when the kingdom of the Messiah should begin; and therefore when they heard Christ again and again expressing himself concerning the difficulty of rich men’s entering into the kingdom of God, ‘They were astonished out of measure’; as finding all their carnal hopes dashed at once. I cannot but think this was one cause of their astonishment, because in all their converses with Christ, they bewrayed a spice of this humour [state of mind]. Two instances I shall give as a pregnant proof of it: one when they were at the Sacrament, a little before the death of Christ; ‘There was a strife amongst them, which of them should be accounted the greatest’, Luk. 22.24. … Nay, you shall see after Christ had suffered such ignominious things at Jerusalem, this conceit abode with them; and therefore after his resurrection, they come to him with this question, Acts 1.6. ‘Lord! wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?’ They thought the Messiah would set up a temporal kingdom over all nations, and that they should at least be princes and lords under him, in the exercise of his dominion and sovereignty. … We see hence, that the best are too carnal, and too apt to mind earthly things, and please themselves with the dreams of an happy estate in the world. The appetite of temporal dominion, and wealth, and honour, and peace, is natural to us, and we think God doth us wrong, if he doth not make us flourish here. All God’s children find something of this disposition in themselves, even whilst they are under the cross, they do too little to comfort themselves with the meditation of the glory of the world to come; but are always feeding themselves with desires and hopes of an earthly happiness, and of turning the tide and current of affairs that seem to be against them, that the world may more smile upon them, and befriend them more, and when they are frustrated and disappointed of this hope, their soul faints, and they are astonished out of measure. O this is a sign that our conversation is not in heaven, and that we do not seek the things that are above, and are not perfectly subdued to the will of God, who many times sees the cross to be necessary and profitable for us: and therefore to please ourselves still with carnal hopes and dreams of a commodious and comfortable condition in the world, is not for a Christian.

(3.) The sense of this difficulty might revive the thoughts of other difficulties. Other things besides riches might obstruct them, and hinder their passage to heaven; and therefore even those that had left all, and followed Christ, were astonished out of measure, when they understood the way to heaven to be much harder than they formerly conceited. … When we hear strict doctrine pressed, we should not put it off to others, but fear for ourselves. The poor disciples were astonished out of measure when Christ spake to the rich how hard it was for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

(4.) Possibly this astonishment might arise from fear of the success of the Gospel, wherein they were to be employed as instruments, when they heard that rich men were not likely to prove friends, but rather enemies to the kingdom of God: alas, what should they do that had parted with all, and were like to be left destitute to the mercy of an unkind world! If the great and mighty men of the world, who should be their props and supports, should so hardly be gained; alas then how should they go abroad and preach with any efficacy for the saving of souls!

Now whether this, or that, or all caused the wonder, I will not now determine; all these have an influence upon it, and for these reasons they were astonished out of measure. This is the first effect, their wonder.

Stay tuned for part 2, if the Lord wills!

— David

Turkey Update Fall & Winter 2016-2017

After the Lord granted a Black Turkey heritage breed female to just show up on our homestead one day, and granting we be able to find her a mate, and then granting some turkey chicks to hatch (I called them “turklets”), by His graces they have continued to grow, and are making their presence known around the homestead. At times, they act like they own the place! 🙂

With Hank, which is brown and name starts with the letter “H”, we decided to name the brown male Lil Hank and the brown female Haddie; and with Trina, which is black and name starts with the letter “T”, we decided to name the black female Tasha.

Here is a video update of them over the last several months, from when we let them out of their cage area in the summer kitchen for their first day of free ranging around the homestead to just this past Lord’s day. It’s a little long, but they’re also fun and fascinating to watch, especially when they fly up on our house porch roof and look in the upper windows! 🙂 The high jinks really start about half way through, although we cover time before that, as letting them out was a big deal for us since we didn’t really know what was going to happen once they got free, but the Lord has been gracious in their health and safety and granting they stick around! 🙂


We are thankful to God for granting the continued health and safety of these unexpected gifts, and we ask for guidance with our turkey raising!

— David

Garden – Fall 2016 – Update I

Even though we gave a mid-October update on our 2016 garden, outside conditions were still conducive for the garden plants to keep going…

The weather here where we are at is difficult at times in regards to gardens at the end of the year, because what often happens is we will still be having garden-friendly weather, and then a cold snap will hit, followed by weeks of fine weather before another one, or before the cold really starts to take hold for the winter.

The end of last year was like that, and so for the first cold snap, we covered all of our garden plants because they appeared to still be producing. This was November 20:

Here is the tomato plant:

2016 Fall Garden Tomatoes Covered for Cold Snap

And the okra plants:

2016 Fall Garden Okra Covered for Cold Snap

And then here is the okra uncovered after the freeze:

2016 Fall Garden Okra After Freeze

To elevate the blankets over the okra, I ironically used tomato cones:

Tomato Cones Around Okra to Elevate Cover Blankets

And here is the tomato plant uncovered. This plant was a volunteer tomato plant, and I believe is all one big one that just grew and grew:

Tomato Plant After Freeze

And these are two volunteer tomato plants that grew outside the garden on the west side of our house:

Other Tomato Plants After Freeze

But finally, after about another month, the next big cold snap was on the way, so we decided to just pull everything left. Mostly there were only tomatoes, and here you can see the final haul:

Tomato Plant with Tomatoes Picked

Final Basket Haul of Tomatoes

From that point, we just spread them out on newspaper in the house to let them ripen, and then we ate them as they did! Yummy! We even have a few left! 🙂

We are always grateful to the Lord for granting what He decides to from our gardens! We pray He continue to guide us in developing our gardens and homesteads, for His glory and the benefit of His Church.

— David

The Barn – Update VIII – Second Animal Stall

After mostly finishing the barn loft platform, and then doing so after putting in some steps, we were finally able to move more ground-floor stuff we’ve had in the barn up to the loft so we could get the second barn stall in place. This was the plan all along, since we have two sets of goats during breeding time, which is during the winter when we would most likely need for them to have extra shelter.

What was nice was I was able to essentially copy exactly the first barn stall, and when I bought the materials for that one, I had just doubled the materials in preparation for the second, and so I already had all of the supplies needed.

You can see more details of the process in that first barn stall blog post, but here a few pictures from this one. The long boards had been standing on the ground so long, some of them getting moist, that termites had eaten out at least one of the ends, but it was still usable after cutting off the bad part:

Second Barn Stall Side
Second Barn Stall Side from Outside
Second Barn Stall with Gate
Second Barn Stall Gate Closeup
Second Barn Stall from Inside
Second Barn Stall Side Cross Brace

As I mentioned, the purpose of these stalls is to bring in our goats during cold or extreme weather. I added large eye hooks along the side boards to be able to hook each of them up to hopefully keep the chaos to a minimum, and here is a video during one of our fairly drastic (for us) cold snaps we recently had, with them all hooked up in place. Thankfully, it appears to have worked out very nicely, and we are thankful to the Lord!


We are very grateful to God for granting we be able to finish this part of the homestead and barn, and to have a better place of refuge for our goats. Their exposure up in the fields has been a concern for us over the years, and it’s a relief to be able to bring them into the barn now.

— David

Lullaby – Thank You Lord for This Day of Care

Not only did I have a little theme song for William our cat, which I was able to turn into a little lullaby, I also had one for our other cat Mimi.

Her lyrics were “Little Mimi, little Mi-mi-mi,” etc., and I often sing it to her as I’m carrying her into the house at night. Wanting again to do something spiritual with it, and although it has some cha-cha-sounding syncopation in it when played a little faster, slowing it down made it sort of like a lullaby again to me, and being short like William’s song, I put some quick lullaby-esqe words to it, and here is how this one turned out:

Thank you Lord for this day of care
And the graces you did kindly share!
If you please grant us rest
May your name eternally be blessed!

Thank You Lord for This Day of Care

Here’s a PDF:
Lullaby – Thank You Lord for This Day of Care PDF

And this is a musical audio of the arrangement:


Lullaby – Thank You Lord for This Day of Care MP3 (instrumental)

And a vocal version:


Lullaby – Thank You Lord for This Day of Care MP3 (vocal)

When I started to score it, I wasn’t sure how to write the syncopation in measures two and four; even though they’re technically 4/3 with the last two notes tied, that just seemed more complicated in trying to read it than to just write it out the way I did, a little more literally.

Anyway, as before, I’m pleased and thankful to be able to do a little something with the little tune the Lord granted. 🙂

We always pray the Lord glorify Himself through us in whatever way He may, and maybe even through a simple little melody!

— David

Goat Breeding Time 2016!

Recently, it was time to put our billy goats and nannies together for breeding time this 2016!

The following is a video of the event. As I mention in the beginning of the video, our buck Shatner had some problems coming out of our first cold front of the season. It appeared he spent the night sitting in his urine, and the temperature had reached freezing. He was quite cold in the morning and was having trouble standing. He did seem to bounce out of it, and was shown here in the video around the time, but sadly, shortly after the first part of the video was made, Shatner went down hill and soon died. We were both there with him at the very end. He was a good buck, our first, made many kids, and we are thankful to the Lord for granting him to us. Also mentioned in the video, our other buck Rocky has a growth on his back leg, which seems to be slowing him down, although it did appear the other day he is able to get the job done:


With one of our two bucks gone, we were hoping to find a new one, leaning more toward the Lamancha breed with the hope of more milk production. Graciously and with one look at an internet selling list page, there was a young Lamancha buck available in the general area — wow! I contacted the owners, and went and got him the next day. Here he is in the back of the truck just after arriving back after picking him up on that cold morning, and sticking with the famous “Billy” names, we decided to call him Shakespeare:

New Billy Goat Shakespeare

His previous owners said he could jump fences, and he indeed did one time as he was roaming out of the pen. But the silly billy (pun intended 🙂 ) tried again to jump the fence but this time caught his back hoof in the top square of the net-wire fencing, so when he went over, the top vertical wire next to his leg bent up and over the top wire pinching his leg in place. Thankfully, Sue was there, and we were able to cut the wire pretty quickly with only a little, mostly external damage, although it seems to have shaped him up a little with fence jumping. 🙂

Here is his video when we put him in with his nannies. You can sure tell he is younger by his immediate interest level 🙂 :


We are always thankful to God for granting we be able to have the goats and the milk. We thank Him for Shatner and the offspring from him, and for Shakespeare now, and the continued health, safety and provision He has granted for the goats and the homestead, and pray He might grant those continue, and for healing for Rocky, according to His will!

— David

David’s Digest: Love of the World, Part 6 – Denying Lawful Pleasures

This is the planned final part of this series of blog posts, and here are the previous parts:

Part 1 – Cooling Zeal
Part 2 – Truth in Trials
Part 3 – The Evil of Worldliness
Part 4 – Heaven My Way
Part 5 – Worldliness in Much

This is another little related excerpt I found from Thomas Manton in his sermon 6 on Genesis 24:63, of which the entire sermon you can read here:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A51840.0001.001/1:26.6?rgn=div2;view=fulltext

Others for want of considering the end of their lives, are so far from living as Christians, that they scarce live as men, but either as beasts, or as devils. Delight in the pleasures of the world transformeth a man into a beast, it is their happiness to enjoy pleasures without remorse, and to gratify the body; and delight in sin transformeth a man into a devil. Worldly pleasures are not bread, and sinful pleasures are poison: You that are allured by the pleasures of the world, which are lawful in themselves, you lay out your money for that which is not bread; and you to whom it is meat to do evil, you feed upon that which is rank poison; the world cannot satisfy, and sin will surely destroy.

How much of our time is spent in the things of the world, even those that might be lawful? I believe this is an important question to continue to ask ourselves.

Finally, let’s look at the example of Christ, again from Thomas Manton in a sermon on Philippians 2:7, which in its entirety you can read here:
https://sites.google.com/a/oldpaths.org.uk/oldpaths/m/manton/mantonvol18/m000000012/page124sermonuponphilippiansii7philii7butmadehimselfofnoreputation:

[5.] The last lesson is contempt of the world and all the glory thereof. Christ teaches us this lesson by making himself of no reputation in two ways—

(1.) The example of his own choice. The Lord of heaven and earth despised and neglected the glory and riches of this world. He passed through the world to sanctify it as a place of service; but chose not pomp of living, nor the happiness of it, lest we should choose it as our rest and portion: ‘They are not of the world, as I am not of the world,’ John xvii. 16. Those that are dearest unto God must look by crosses and trials to be fitted for another world. If a man say never so much for contempt of the world, yet live in the love of it, his saying is nothing.

But Christ would be a pattern of his own doctrine. Contempt of the world is a lesson of great consequence; salvation lies upon it: 1 John ii. 15-17, ‘Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world: if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world; and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.’ Whether we are high or low, full or kept bare, it concerns us all to learn it. Though we flow in wealth, we should be as having nothing, and sit loose from the creature. If we are poor, we must count grace a preferment: James i. 9, 10, ‘Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted; but the rich, in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.’

There is required of all an hearty preparation for, when they are not called to a patient enduring of, afflictions for Christ’s name: Phil. iv. 12, ‘I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.’ This is of a hard digestion to a natural man.

Now Christ’s example is a great help to us to check our worldly desires; let us not affect greater eminency in the world than Christ had; and to check the vanity of fulness, or our carnal complacency, that it may not be a snare to us: 1 Tim. v. 6, ‘The woman that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.’ Christ was a man of sorrows; do you profess Christ, and yet are you addicted to vain pleasures, and not able to deny them?

(2.) As it is an argument to confirm us in the certainty of the happiness of the world to come. It were best to choose the easiest life here if we did not believe eternity, to live a life of pomp and ease. The troubles and miseries of the godly have been counted a sure argument to confirm it: 1 Cor. xv. 19, ‘If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.’ God would not make us miserable by our duty. And 2 Thes i. 5, ‘It is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God.’ If the consideration of godly men’s sufferings in this world be of moment to such an inference, much more the sufferings of Christ, who was not only a man good and innocent beyond example, instructing the souls, curing the bodies of so many men, but also the Son of God. His exaltation is a pledge of our happiness, and his humiliation an argument he is gone there as our forerunner.

The kingdom of the world, ruled by Satan, is the enemy of all people — its ends, like Satan’s, are to destroy souls. The carnal man, which is enmity against God (Rom 8:7), is like a cancer to the soul (Paul calls it “the body of this death” in Rom 7:24; see what Puritan commentator Dr. John Gill says about this verse), and these worldly distractions and pleasures are like sugar to that cancer, which feed it and help it grow. Why wouldn’t we choose to deny ourselves these things?

The carnal man is with us until we die, Satan is on the constant prowl, and the world is continuously pulling us toward it. After going through the previous 5 parts (and hopefully the whole sermon here), and this part, I believe that surely this is something for which we should always be on careful watch, for the rest of our lives, if we have concern for our eternal welfare.

May the Lord God almighty help us to mortify the flesh, and by His infinite graces and mercies, may the things of earth during our time here ever continue to fade…

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.

Psalm 73:25-26 – “25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

— David

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