Dec
14
Joyce M. Horton - Ave atque vale
Filed Under Ave atque vale, Family, Reading | 2 Comments
Stonewall Jackson considered it a great blessing to die on the Sabbath day. Another valiant saint left the church militant for the church triumphant this past Lord’s Day, Mrs. Joyce M. Horton (1919-2006) of Clinton, Mississippi. She was a great friend of the Christian family. I cannot claim to have known Mrs. Horton well, but in the times I met her, there was always something of the savor of Christ about her. It could be well said of her what was said of Sibbes–that heaven was in her long before she was in heaven. I have friendships in circles that she influenced deeply, and I know that they will agree. Here is a lovely tribute from her obituary in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger:
‘Mrs. Horton’s passion during her years on this earth was to serve the One who created and redeemed her. In addition to the daily instruction of her six children, she taught Bible studies in her home, in local churches, downtown Jackson, in prisons, and through the Christian Women’s Club, in addition to speaking at conferences across the country. She taught the child’s version of the Westminster Shorter Catechism of the Presbyterian Church to two generations of children in her local church, and presented seminars to other churches on how to teach it. In 1979 she published the material of these seminars as How to Teach the Child’s Catechism to Children, widely-used today for training teachers in the US, Britain and Australia. At the age of 60, Mrs. Horton began a thrice-weekly Bible study for female prisoners at the Rankin County Correctional Facility and continued teaching for fifteen years, until ill health forced her retirement. During that time she taught a group study in each building, individually visited each maximum-security inmate, quelled a prison riot, rescued a relapsed ex-offender from a crack house, and by precept and example taught uncountable prisoners to love and obey her Savior. The effect of her teaching and influence on the inmates gained her unlimited access to the prison, even during “lock-down,” when no outside visitors are permitted. In 1999 she received the Presbyterian Church in America’s “Urban and Mercy Women in Leadership” award, which included a grant to her prison ministry.
‘In 1963, Mrs. Horton’s husband became one of the founding board members of Reformed Theological Seminary. For many years she prepared and served a back-to-school spaghetti dinner for students each September, and ministered to the wives of students through Bible studies, annual garden parties, personal counseling, and friendship.
‘Joyce Horton’s survivors include her husband of nearly 65 years, Frank, of Clinton; her children: Beverly Biggs of Crystal Springs; Joyce Herring and her husband Wayne of Memphis, Tenn.; Frank Horton Jr. (Bud) and his wife Jennifer of Brandon; Frosty Howell and her husband Michael of Montgomery, Alabama; Bob Horton and his wife Leigh Anne of Gadsden, Ala.; and Mark Horton of New York; her sister: Sandra Aeschliman and husband Richard of Atlanta, Ga.; her brother: Frank Matthews of Grenada; 19 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and nephews, and her self-proclaimed “black child,” Pauline Rogers of Natchez, one of the beneficiaries of Mrs. Horton’s prison ministry. Her life and her heart also embraced the, “company of the redeemed, whom no man can number.”‘
Mrs. Horton’s book How to Teach the Catechism to Children is still the best book of its kind. Teaching sound doctrine to children was important to her because she had embraced liberalism while she was in college. After she and Frank married, she embraced Reformed theology and never let go. Her life leaves a legacy of teaching ‘the trustworthy message as taught’ to many others. As she wrote in the preface to her book, ‘I take comfort in the fact that God can use a crooked stick to accomplish His purposes.’
And for believers, vale is not the final word. More fitting is the German farewell, auf wiedersehen–’until we see again.’
Dec
14
Better for nothing than for a nuisance
Filed Under C.S. Lewis, Christmas, Family | Leave a Comment
It’s Wednesday. There must be another Christmas party to attend. There must be another little gift to buy. Who’s going to be so favoured as to receive one of my signature fruitcakes? I need to credit fellow-laborer for the gospel Brad Mercer of First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, for bringing out the following C.S. Lewis excerpt from his vast and varied studies. It comes from a short essay Lewis wrote for the December 1957 edition of the publication, Twentieth Century. Under the heading, ‘What Christmas Means to Me,’ Lewis launches a scathing attack on the ‘commercial racket’ that overwhelms and undermines the celebration, merry-making, and hospitality that characterize the season.
From C.S. Lewis’ “What Christmas Means to Me”:
The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds.
1. It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to ‘keep’ it [in the commerical sense] in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out—physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.
2. Most of it is involuntary. The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost a blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (whom we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter-box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?
3. Things are given as presents which no mortal ever bought for himself—gaudy and useless gadgets, ‘novelties’ because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time than to spend them on all this rubbish?
4. The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necessary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labour of it. We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don’t know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I’d sooner give them money for nothing and write it off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.
From C.S. Lewis, “What Christmas Means to Me,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 304-305.
Dec
13
In Evil Long I Took Delight
Filed Under Christian Living, Evangelism, Justification | Leave a Comment
In evil long I took delight, unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight, and stopped my wild career.
I saw one hanging on a tree, in agony and blood,
Who fixed his languid eyes on me, as near his cross I stood.
Sure, never to my latest breath, can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with his death, though not a word he spoke.
My conscience felt and owned the guilt, and plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins his blood had spilt, and helped to nail him there.
Alas! I knew not what I did! But now my tears are vain:
Where shall my trembling soul be hid? For I the Lord have slain!
A second look he gave, which said, “I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid; I die that thou mayst live.”
Thus, while his death my sin displays in all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace, it seals my pardon too.
With pleasing grief, and mournful joy, my spirit now is filled,
That I should such a life destroy, yet live by him I killed!
-John Newton (1725-1807) from OLNEY HYMNS (1779).
You can find a version at www.cyberhymnal.org
Dec
12
Handel-ing Christmas - Part 3
Filed Under Christmas, Music | Leave a Comment
This installment of wading through Handel’s Messiah takes us to Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23.
Isaiah 7:14 (and Matt 1:23) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Our usual take on this passage is what an amazing thing it is for a virgin to bear a child. But consider a moment the second half of this verse: “and shall call his name Immanuel.” Matthew adds the translation of “Immanuel” as “God with us.” Did you catch that? God with us! God WITH us! That God should be with His people is an amazing promise and an amazing reality in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
What comfort it was for Israel in their wilderness wanderings to see the pillar of fire by night, the cloud by day, the tabernacle erected, and know that God was with them. We can sympathize with Moses’ bold statement, “Lord if you don’t go with us, we aren’t going anywhere.” Then God expressed his presence with his people in the temple under the reign of Solomon. Yet these all were only signs and symbols pointing to the day that God would so be with his people that he would become one of them. He came and tabernacled (John 1:14) with his people. What amazing grace that He would come as man to redeem man! What an encouragement is this passage and that we have a savior we can call Immanuel, God with us!
Dec
8
Handel-ing Christmas - Part 2
Filed Under Christmas, Music | Leave a Comment
We continue our look at Christmas through Handel’s Messiah by briefly considering the Bible texts of the 5th movement of part two of the Messiah:
Haggai 2:6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:1 Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
Our post today will be brief. I simply want you to meditate on the surpassing greatness of the coming of the Messiah. Listen to the expectancy of these two minor prophets. Read the words they use to express their joy in their coming hope: treasures, delight, glory. Note also that these men did not see, this side of glory, the fruition of that which they longed after. Yet we have. We know the surpassing greatness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have the joy of Christ’s coming and the expectancy of his second coming. May your heart rejoice this weekend at “the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight!”
Dec
7
Just a reminder: you can download sermons from FPC Kosciusko worship services from our church site www.fpckosciusko.org. Or you can subscribe to our weekly podcast and have them automatically downloaded onto your computer via iTunes.
Our Morning Worship service on the Lord’s Day is available by live streaming at www.breezynews.com at 11:00 am, “Mississippi time,” as Jack Cristil would say. That’s CST to everyone else. And if you don’t know who Jack Cristil is, reply to this entry, and I’ll tell you. His photo is below.
