Month: April 2022

6 Signs of Living to Please God

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

The great English Puritan, Richard Baxter, exhorted: “See therefore that you live for God’s approval as that which you chiefly seek, and as that will suffice you.”

Baxter suggested that we may discover for ourselves whether or not we are living chiefly for God’s pleasure, or for something else, by considering these six signs: 

1. You will be careful to understand the Scripture, to know what pleases and displeases God

2. You will be more careful in the doing of every task, to fit it to the pleasure of God rather than men.

3. You will look to your hearts, and not only to your actions; to your goals, and thoughts, and the inward manner and degree.

4. You will look to secret duties as well as public, and to that which men do not see as well as those which they see.

5. You will revere your conscience, paying close attention to it, and not slighting it; when it tells you of God’s displeasure, it will disquiet you; when it tells you of His approval, it will comfort you.

6. Your pleasing men will be charitable for their good, and pious (holy) in order to please God, not proud and ambitious for your honor among men, nor impious against the pleasing of God.

Whether men are pleased or displeased, how they judge you or what they call you, will seem a small matter to you, as their own interests, in comparison to God’s judgment. You don’t live for them. You can bear their displeasure, and comments, if God is pleased. 

To learn more about Richard Baxter, check out this short overview from the archives of Christian History magazine: Richard Baxter.

Black Diamonds

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

I have long been intrigued by baseball’s old Negro Leagues. Like many other baseball fans, I have long wondered how the greats like Josh Gibson, or Satchel Paige in his prime, would have stacked up with the legends of Major League Baseball. Scant opportunities through exhibition games suggest they would have more than held there own.

For some months now, I have enjoyed listening to the podcast Black Diamonds, hosted by Bob Kendrick, historian and president of the Negro League Baseball Museum, in Kansas City. Kendrick not only winsomely recounts the history of Negro League baseball, but he offers a peek into the personalities of those who played, and those who played important roles behind the scenes. I have long been familiar with some of the more well known players from the Negro Leagues era – Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, etc. But through Kendricks’ storytelling and interviews, I now feel as if I have met some of the greats – guys like Oscar Charleston, Leon Day, Martin Dihigo, etc. – who paved the way for the many who came along after them.

Worth the listen for any fan of baseball or student of 20th Century American history.

Link: Black Diamonds