Regarding the upcoming July 15 31 deadline for the Xanga fundraiser, it does seem the clock is clicking a tad bit quicker these days, doesn't it, fellow Xangans?

Well, not one of us knows where he will be tomorrow, much less on July 16th ~ James 4:13-16 ...

But I DO know this:  the God who is sovereign over all thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities (e.g. - see Colossians 1:15-18; Daniel 2 & 4; Psalm 135) is sovereign over all the happenings here in this little corner of the universe we call Xanga!

I also know that @TheXangaTeam has graciously provided archives in both html and XML (read: Word Press compatible) formats for ALL bloggers here. (Thank you, Xanga Team!)

I'm no computer guru, but because The Xanga Team DID provide the archives in XML format, I WAS able to export my deerlife blog over to WordPress (http://deerlifexanga.wordpress.com). (To explain: that's my smallest blog here, and one I'm not planning to continue here on Xanga if Xanga relaunches.) Yeah, it's got some formatting issues, and the pictures still need to be linked to the posts there, and I would like to do more with the theme, widgets, etc. (makes me appreciate all that Xanga 2.0 is offering!), but the full archive IS there! Whew! I was also doing that as sort of a test run in case Xanga ends up shutting down, and I need to export my other blogs. (If you've not already done so, please arrange to download your archives ASAP!)

* * *

After The Xanga Team announced the changeover to a paid blogging platform and the possibility of shutdown (link), I had great concerns about my archives (link)... After being convicted of my sin of anxiety over the situation, and remembering that God Himself is the One who gives and takes away, and His name is to be blessed and praised no matter what –– I asked God for grace to joyfully entrust myself to Him, just as Jesus entrusted Himself to His Father (see I Peter 2:23c -- one of my favorite portions in all the Scripture!). (See also my post: "Are you keeping calm & carrying on: Do you react or respond?").

[Through God's Holy Spirit, Christians are given supernatural strength to keep calm and carry on, but we must ask Him for that strength ~ Luke 11:1-13, esp. v. 13. That's a constant battle. Will we who are Christians look to and trust and lean on Jesus Christ as the Solid Rock, or will we be blown about by the storms of life -- in which case we end up giving a very inconsistent and shoddy witness to the world, and look no different from the storm-tossed, wearied, scattered, harried, helpless, and harassed sheep who've not come to the Good Shepherd so they might have life and life abundantly, and find rest and peace and joy in Him. ~ See Psalm 4, esp. vv. 6-8.]

In addition, I did go and post a question on the WordPress forums about how to import my blogs to WordPress. This was prior to the WP compatible archives being made available (http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/importing-blog-from-xanga):

I'm wanting to import my blogs from Xanga. Any help you could provide would be appreciated. The archives they're providing aren't in the .xml format. Is there any way I can import an RSS feed?

Though I did get a speedy response, there was no answer to my dilemma –– though I'd heard there were ways to import the files there for a fee –– but in the meantime, as I said above, TheXangaTeam came through with the XML archives!

Earlier today, a fellow Xangan posted a similar concern on that same thread about getting her Xanga blog ported over to WordPress in the event of Xanga shutdown... Here was my response to her:

Since the time I wrote this request, Xanga has provided a WordPress compatible format you can use to import your blog to WordPress.

From your private homepage on Xanga, click on Settings, and then click on Weblog Archives. If you've never updated your archives, then click the button that says "Update your archives." If that's the case, then you'll have to wait until they're ready. Otherwise, if they're already up to date (i.e. - up to the date of your last post), then click on wordpressWXR.zip. The file will download to your computer. After it's on your computer, you'll need to click on it to open it (to get it to the XML format). At that point it's set to import to a blog here on WordPress.

I'm still waiting to see what happens with Xanga, but I have three blogs on Xanga. Regardless of what happens to Xanga, I wasn't planning to keep one of those active there, but I did want to preserve a public record of it. I just imported that one to deerlifexanga.wordpress.com from Xanga, and it worked beautifully. (FYI: the archive did include all the private posts (which remained private) as well as the pulses (which are also marked as private -- even if they were public on Xanga). All the tags carried over. The formatting is off in some places, and eventually I hope to check everything, but I was glad to have the blog copied over here.)

You can find the import instructions here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/import/-- Just follow the instructions for WordPress.

I've still not downloaded my photos, so that's my next step!

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, please ask.

~ Karen

[Correction to my comment above is that the photos were successfully imported, but I do need to go through manually and add them in to all my posts.]

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Anyhow, I'm still hoping Xanga 2.0 will become a reality, and thanks to my husband, I have pledged $ 96 toward the fundraiser (link) to continue this blog and my tent_of_meeting blog here at Xanga. That said, I am taking measures in case Xanga doesn't relaunch. As of this point, just after noon on July 8, we're still needing over $ 20,000... #WeAreXanga

(In case of Xanga shut down, you can find me via my WordPress blog: http://naphtalideer.wordpress.com -- into which I'm hoping, Lord willing, to import this blog.)

Romans 8:28.

~ Karen

Today there was an explosion of joy throughout much of Scotland, as native son Andrew Murray won Wimbledon.

In the 19th century, native son William Hepburn Hewitson (1812-1850) was longing for the Christians in Scotland to know the highest and purest and most excellent Joy, so that the Good News of Great Joy might spread to the ends of the earth... "far as the curse is found."

On December 22, 1846, Hewitson wrote the following to a friend in Edinburgh:

"I just write you a few lines to bid you farewell before I leave Britain [for Trinidad]. Miserable it is to live with the name only, and not with the reality, of being in Christ. Blessed it is to be really in Him. No awakened soul should stop short of a realisation and experimental enjoyment of union with the Lord. No converted soul should rest satisfied, till it think every thought and speak every word in communion with Jesus. This would seem to a carnal professor, or to a child of God who is still a to great extent carnal, a standard far too high; but to have a lower standard is to be ignorant of our standing in Christ—of what we have in Him, of the closeness of our union with Him, and of the character we should maintain to be in keeping with our profession of faith in His name. My impression of the godliness of Scotland has been somewhat modified since my sojourn in Lisbon and Madeira. Scottish Christians, in general, seem not to realise everywhere—in all companies, and at all times—the presence, the indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ,—not to realise in any great measure that they are not of this world, but sent into it by God as messengers with a message from Him. But if this remark applies to Scotland, to what land does it not apply? Where is godliness more flourishing? Where profession more rife? Where the Church more conspicuously set on a hill before the world's eye? There being within our reach no means of Church-purification, we are called on to attend to the work of purifying our own hearts, of shining in our own homes, of carrying, wherever we move, a circlet of Divine light with us through the dark world. So will we spread the truth, diffuse the savour, glorify the name, of Christ. Christ dwelling in us—that is light, life, fragrance, holiness. Many seek Christ within before finding Christ without, and so cannot attain to peace; many, after finding Christ without, don't seek diligently to have Christ within. To have both Christ without and Christ within, is peace and purity."

Christian, have you been living with the name only and not with the reality of being in Christ?

Have you stopped short of a realisation and experimental enjoyment of union with your Lord?

Are you of the number who seem not to realise the presence and indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Revelation 3:1  And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3  Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

God forbid we rest satisfied and stop short of a realisation and experimental enjoyment of union with our Lord! God forbid it be said of us that we "seem not to realise the presence, the indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to realise in any great measure that [we] are not of this world, but sent into it by God as messengers with a message from Him." May our God stir up and awaken in us a thirst for Jesus Christ, that we might diligently seek to have both Christ without and Christ within!

John 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Proverbs 25:25  As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

Psalm 67:1  God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. 2  That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. 3  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. 4  O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. 5  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. 6  Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. 7  God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

Reference: John Baillie's "Memoir of the Rev. W.H. Hewitson, Late Minister of the Free Church of Scotland, at Dirleton" (London: James Nisbet & Co.), 4th edition (1853), 262-264 / 2nd edition (1852), 257-258. 4th edition book available at Google play here: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=bRVMAAAAYAAJ.

Related:

http://naphtali-deer.xanga.com/728425860/update-w-excerpt-lloyd-jones-sermons-on-the-role-of-experience-in-christianity/

Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon "Experimental Christianity" (ML-J cites a portion of this passage of Hewitson's)

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

You Will Know the Truth and the Truth Will Set You Free from Desiring God on Vimeo.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/you-will-know-the-truth-and-the-truth-will-set-you-free

(Excerpt taken from the printed sermon text found at the link above...)

My aim in this message is that you would experience Jesus, the sovereign, risen, living Lord of the universe, as the source and content of real freedom in your life.

For this to happen, we need two things: We need God's liberating truth and we need God's liberating grace. Which means I need to preach God's word, and pray for God's power.

So let's read the Bible passage that I will speak from, and then I will pray. John 8:30–36:

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Lord, open our eyes to your liberating truth—to yourself—and powerfully grant us to be set free from our bondage to sin. In Jesus' name, Amen.

. . .

We All Want to Be Free

I take it for a certainty that everyone in this room wants to be free in the deepest, fullest sense. If the opposite is bondage and slavery, no one here wants that. You may be enslaved to some habits that are very pleasurable, and in that sense love your slavery. But when you step back from the pleasures and consider happiness without that slavery, you would like to be done with bondage. You would like to be happy in freedom, not a slave to pleasant addictions. We all want to be free.

And in verse 36 of John 8, Jesus says, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." That is what we are after. "Free indeed." Really free. Freedom in its deepest and fullest meaning. Jesus offers us that this morning. This is Easter. The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He is alive. He is not mere memory. A mere historical figure like Caesar or Shakespeare or John Kennedy. He is back from the dead with a new glorious body. He is alive and reigning as the king of the universe, and he is making this offer of real freedom to all of us today.

. . .

What Full Freedom Is

There are at least four kinds of freedom. And each one adds a crucial dimension of freedom to the last until we get to the full freedom—"free indeed." Let me try to sum up these four kinds of freedom in one definition of full and complete freedom: You are fully free—completely free, free indeed—when you have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make you happy in a thousand years. Or we could say, You are fully free when you have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will leave you no regrets forever.

• If you don't have the desire to do a thing, you are not fully free to do it. Oh, you may muster the will power to do what you don't want to do, but nobody calls that full freedom. It's not the way we want to live. There is a constraint and pressure on us that we don't want.

• And if you have the desire to do something, but no ability to do it, you are not free to do it.

• And if you have the desire and the ability to do something, but no opportunity to do it, you are not free to do it.

• And if you have the desire to do something, and the ability to do it, and the opportunity to do it, but it destroys you in the end, you are not fully free—not free indeed.

To be fully free, we must have the desire, the ability, and the opportunity to do what will make us happy forever. No regrets. And only Jesus, the Son of God who died and rose for us, can make that possible. If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. To be happy forever, our sins must be forgiven and God's wrath removed and Christ must become our supreme Treasure. Only Jesus can do that. In fact, he has already done it. He died for our sins. He absorbed God's wrath. And he rose from the dead and is today therefore supremely precious. And he offers us that now as a free gift.

By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org