Psalm 139:23 [23] Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!

GM, Happy Reformation Day! The rock on which the Church is built is Christ the cornerstone. He is a stone of stumbling and rock of offense for those who reject him, but is the rock of salvation for those who believe. Jesus, the rock of ages, cleft for you. Trust him.

Prayer for today: “Slay utterly, O Lord, and cast down the sin which does so easily beset us; bridle the unholy affection; stay the unlawful thought; chasten the temper, regulate the spirit; correct the tongue; bend the will and the worship of our souls to you and so sanctify and subdue the whole inward man, that setting up your throne in our hearts, to the dethronement of all our idols, and the things of earth we hold too dear, you may reign there alone in the fullness of your grace, and the consolations of your presence, till the time arrives when we shall reign with you in glory. Amen.” - Richard Brooke

O worship the King all-glorious above, O gratefully sing his power and his love: our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.

Every church we drove by on our way to church on Sunday had noticeably more cars in their parking lots. We had new visitors, too. Praise God.

True freedom is the liberty to choose the good. Big difference from freedom as the liberty to do whatever you want.

Lord, without you I can do nothing; with you I can do all. Help me by your grace, that I fall not; help me by your strength, to resist mightily the very first beginnings of evil, before it takes hold of me; help me to cast myself at once at your sacred feet, and lie still there, until storm be overpast; and, if I lose sight of you, bring me back quickly to you, and grant me to love you better. Amen. – E.B. Pusey GM. May the Lord keep you this day.

CS Lewis on Marriage: The idea that ‘being in love’ is the only reason for remaining married really leaves no room for marriage as a contract or a promise at all. […] As Chesterton pointed out, those who are in love have a natural inclination to bind themselves by promises. […] And of course, the promise, made when I’m in love and because I’m in love, to be true to the beloved as long as I live, commits me to being true even if I cease to be in love. […] Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing. There are many things below it, but there are also things above it. You cannot make it the basis of a whole life. It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling. Now no feeling can be relied on to last in its full intensity, or even to last at all. Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go. And in fact, whatever people say, the state called ‘being in love’ usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending ‘They lived happily ever after' is taken to mean ‘They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married’, then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friend-ships? But, of course, ceasing to be 'in love' need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense—love as distinct from 'being in love'—is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love' with someone else. 'Being in love' first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it. […] People get from books the idea that if you have married the right person you may expect to go on 'being in love’ for ever. As a result, when they find they are not, they think this proves they have made a mistake and are entitled to a change—not realising that, when they have changed, the glamour will presently go out of the new love just as it went out of the old one. In this department of life, as in every other, thrills come at the beginning and do not last. The sort of thrill a boy has at the first idea of flying will not go on when he has joined the R.A.F. and is really learning to fly. The thrill you feel on first seeing some delightful place dies away when you really go to live there. Does this mean it would be better not to learn to fly and not to live in the beautiful place? By no means. In both cases, if you go through with it, the dying away of the first thrill will be compensated for by a quieter and more lasting kind of interest. What is more (and I can hardly find words to tell you how important I think this), it is just the people who are ready to submit to the loss of the thrill and settle down to the sober interest, who are then most likely to meet new thrills in some quite different direction. The man who has learned to fly and become a good pilot will suddenly discover music; the man who has settled down to live in the beauty spot will discover gardening. This is, I think, one little part of what Christ meant by saying that a thing will not really live unless it first dies. It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go—let it die away—go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow—and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life. It is because so few people understand this that you find many middle-aged men and women maundering about their lost youth, at the very age when new horizons ought to be appearing and new doors opening all round them. It is much better fun to learn to swim than to go on endlessly (and hopelessly) trying to get back the feeling you had when you first went paddling as a small boy.

“God takes you from where you are, and not from where you should have been.”

@Maple AI is document upload down? Images upload fine but not documents regardless of file type. “Failed to process document. Please try again.”

Friends, consider supporting this project by @Thank God For Bitcoin https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tgfb/the-orange-umbrella-book

Bitcoin and sin. We need new hearts.

The Lord is good. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness!

I've found a Friend, oh, such a Friend! He bled, he died to save me; And not alone the gift of life, But his own self he gave me. Naught that I have my own I call, I hold it for the Giver; My heart, my strength, [my bitcoin], my life, my all, Are his, and his forever.

@jack mallers Good MM episode! 58 mins. 👍 On the next one, can you speak to what Strike is doing to enhance account/app security? Seems more important now with the loan product launching.

As bitcoiners, we love freedom and self-sovereignty. Saving in bitcoin will give you greater financial freedom, but without Christ, it’s hollow. Christian freedom is paradoxical. One must give it up to find it. George Matheson’s hymn, Make Me a Captive, Lord (1890), captures it well: Make me a captive, Lord, And then I shall be free; Force me to render up my sword, And I shall conqu'ror be. I sink in life's alarms When by myself I stand; Imprison me within Thine arms, And strong shall be my hand. My heart is weak and poor Until it master find; It has no spring of action sure, It varies with the wind. It cannot freely move Till Thou hast wrought its chain; Enslave it with Thy matchless love, And deathless it shall reign. My will is not my own Till Thou hast made it Thine; If it would reach a monarch's throne, It must its crown resign. It only stands unbent Amid the clashing strife, When on Thy bosom it has leant, And found in Thee its life.

I bet Saylor owned the domain strategy.com for some time.