I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.
Martha Snell Nicholson
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Be Men of God
"Our people need a God-besotted man. Even if they criticize the fact that you are not available at the dinner on Saturday night because you must be with God, they need at least one man in their life who is radically and totally focused on God and the pursuit of the knowledge of God, and the ministry of the word of God.
How many people in your churches do you know that are laboring to know God, who are striving earnestly in study and prayer to enlarge their vision of God. Precious few. Well then, what will become of our churches if we the pastors, who are charged with knowing and unfolding the whole counsel of God, shift into neutral, quit reading and studying and writing, and take on more hobbies and watch more television?"
John Piper
How many people in your churches do you know that are laboring to know God, who are striving earnestly in study and prayer to enlarge their vision of God. Precious few. Well then, what will become of our churches if we the pastors, who are charged with knowing and unfolding the whole counsel of God, shift into neutral, quit reading and studying and writing, and take on more hobbies and watch more television?"
John Piper
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Small is the Kingdom Big
Ed Stetzer:
"Church leaders in America also tend to think big is good and bigger is better, but Jesus says that small is reflective of the kingdom of God. It starts as something small, but it will not stay small and, ultimately, it will change everything. A revolutionary movement begins with only a handful of subversives, but eventually expands so widely that it can overthrow a king with an army. The subversive kingdom starts small, but ultimately overwhelms the Devil and his minions when Jesus returns as reigning King, replacing the deepest darkness with brilliant light.
Jesus is unembarrassed, unashamed and unperturbed by describing the Kingdom using small things. That is His point. He says the mustard seed "is the smallest of all the seeds." He is emphasizing the smallness of the kingdom of God. But more to the point, He is describing how small can be subversive."
Read the entire article here.
(Article originally published in Outreach Magazine)
"Church leaders in America also tend to think big is good and bigger is better, but Jesus says that small is reflective of the kingdom of God. It starts as something small, but it will not stay small and, ultimately, it will change everything. A revolutionary movement begins with only a handful of subversives, but eventually expands so widely that it can overthrow a king with an army. The subversive kingdom starts small, but ultimately overwhelms the Devil and his minions when Jesus returns as reigning King, replacing the deepest darkness with brilliant light.
Jesus is unembarrassed, unashamed and unperturbed by describing the Kingdom using small things. That is His point. He says the mustard seed "is the smallest of all the seeds." He is emphasizing the smallness of the kingdom of God. But more to the point, He is describing how small can be subversive."
Read the entire article here.
(Article originally published in Outreach Magazine)
Monday, June 27, 2011
Baptism: No Big Deal?
Craig Blomberg:
"I . . . want to insist that, if not normative, believers’ baptism by immersion as soon as feasible after conversion was the normal practice of the New Testament church and it should be ours also. . . .
My concern here is rather the inordinate number of young adults (and a few older ones) I meet these days who seem to think baptism is just no big deal. And if they weren’t raised in a church that prescribed a certain way for it to be done, they may never have been baptized at all. And if they have had faith in Christ for many years already, it really seems to them to be unnecessary. Or, if they do go through with baptism, it is just, they say, “ because Christ commanded it and we need to obey him.” But they can’t give any particular reason for why he should have commanded it."
Read the entire article here.
(HT Justin Taylor)
"I . . . want to insist that, if not normative, believers’ baptism by immersion as soon as feasible after conversion was the normal practice of the New Testament church and it should be ours also. . . .
My concern here is rather the inordinate number of young adults (and a few older ones) I meet these days who seem to think baptism is just no big deal. And if they weren’t raised in a church that prescribed a certain way for it to be done, they may never have been baptized at all. And if they have had faith in Christ for many years already, it really seems to them to be unnecessary. Or, if they do go through with baptism, it is just, they say, “ because Christ commanded it and we need to obey him.” But they can’t give any particular reason for why he should have commanded it."
Read the entire article here.
(HT Justin Taylor)
Glorifying God When You’re Feeling Low
"It’s easy to say that God is good when you’re feeling great. But it’s another thing – a more God-glorifying thing – to say (and sing) out loud that God is good when you’re feeling low.
The next time you’re feeling a little blue, remember to ‘talk’ to your soul. In fact, use the words “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” to tell your soul wonderful things about God. It’ll thank you for the reminder!"
Joni Eareckson Tada, Hymns for a Kid’s Heart: Volume Two, p. 17.
(HT The Works of God)
The next time you’re feeling a little blue, remember to ‘talk’ to your soul. In fact, use the words “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” to tell your soul wonderful things about God. It’ll thank you for the reminder!"
Joni Eareckson Tada, Hymns for a Kid’s Heart: Volume Two, p. 17.
(HT The Works of God)
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Childlike Obedience
“God has declared in the gospel that whenever we come to him, we are to call upon him freely and openly as our Father, who has adopted us as his children. If we do not have this assurance, the thought of serving God will make us grind our teeth.
"If, however, we are persuaded that God looks upon us favourably; if, though we are weak and can do nothing worthy of his approval, he accepts us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will surely be filled with courage.
"We will be like a ship’s sail that has been stretched and filled by the breeze! Thus, our hearts will run to obey him, like a ship driven along by its sail, when we know that God delights in us and accepts our works, not wanting us to be compelled into servitude. He is happy for us to be his children, and that we desire to obey him.”
John Calvin - Sermons on Galatians
"If, however, we are persuaded that God looks upon us favourably; if, though we are weak and can do nothing worthy of his approval, he accepts us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will surely be filled with courage.
"We will be like a ship’s sail that has been stretched and filled by the breeze! Thus, our hearts will run to obey him, like a ship driven along by its sail, when we know that God delights in us and accepts our works, not wanting us to be compelled into servitude. He is happy for us to be his children, and that we desire to obey him.”
John Calvin - Sermons on Galatians
Friday, June 24, 2011
Trials of Life
"Trials, we must distinctly understand, are a part of the diet which all true Christians must expect. It is one of the means by which their grace is proved, and by which they find out what there is in themselves. Winter as well as summer–cold as well as heat–clouds as well as sunshine–are all necessary to bring the fruit of the Spirit to ripeness and maturity. We do not naturally like this. We would rather cross the lake with calm weather and favorable winds, with Christ always by our side, and the sun shining down on our faces. But it may not be. It is not in this way that God’s children are made “partakers of His holiness.” (Heb. 12:10). Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and Job were all men of many trials. Let us be content to walk in their footsteps, and to drink of their cup. In our darkest hours we may seem to be left–but we are never really alone."
J.C. Ryle - Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987], 338,339.
(HT Scripture Zealot)
J.C. Ryle - Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: John, volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987], 338,339.
(HT Scripture Zealot)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Rose of Sharon
"Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world, in a tenfold degree. Among flowers, the rose is deemed the sweetest—but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul—than the rose can in the gardens of earth. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun—and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark—in comparison with Him, for the King in His beauty transcends all.
“I am the Rose of Sharon.” This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not “the rose” alone, He is “the Rose of Sharon.” Just as He calls His righteousness “gold,” and then adds, “the gold of Ophir” that is—the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest.
There is variety in His charms. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell—finds appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of His love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume.
Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose—and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ; nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate Him. Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the Rose of Sharon. What emblem can fully set forth His beauty? Human speech and earth-born things, fail to describe Him. Earth’s choicest charms added together, feebly picture His abounding preciousness. Blessed Rose, bloom in my heart forever!"
Charles Spurgeon - Morning and Evening, May 1
“I am the Rose of Sharon.” This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not “the rose” alone, He is “the Rose of Sharon.” Just as He calls His righteousness “gold,” and then adds, “the gold of Ophir” that is—the best of the best. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest.
There is variety in His charms. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell—finds appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of His love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume.
Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose—and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ; nay, she shall be the better able to appreciate Him. Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the Rose of Sharon. What emblem can fully set forth His beauty? Human speech and earth-born things, fail to describe Him. Earth’s choicest charms added together, feebly picture His abounding preciousness. Blessed Rose, bloom in my heart forever!"
Charles Spurgeon - Morning and Evening, May 1
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
God Never Wastes Pain
"God never allows pain without a purpose in the lives of His children. He never allows Satan, nor circumstances, nor any ill-intending person to afflict us unless He uses that affliction for our good. God never wastes pain. He always causes it to work together for our ultimate good, the good of conforming us more to the likeness of His Son (see Romans 8:28-29)."
Jerry Bridges - Transforming Grace, p. 139
Jerry Bridges - Transforming Grace, p. 139
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Christians Get Depressed Too
Ligonier Ministries:
"David Murray, Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, has written the most helpful, concise, and pastoral Christian treatment of this subject that I have encountered. If you have friends or family members who have experienced depression; if you have experienced depression; or if you want to know how to minister effectively to those who have, then you need to read this book
What are its strengths? This work is clear and understandable. Christians Get Depressed Too manages to be theologically nuanced while also accessible to a general audience. This work is concise and practical. After completing the book’s 112 pages, the reader will walk away with a clearer sense of what depression is and how best to serve those facing depression. This work is well-organized. It consists of six alliteratively-titled chapters: “The Crisis;” “The Complexity;” “The Condition;” “The Causes;” “The Cures;” “The Caregivers.” Many of the chapters have helpful internal structures, from the enumeration of “false” thought patterns in “The Condition;” to “ten areas [each beginning with ‘s’] for caregivers to consider when they are trying to help a depressed person get better” in the closing chapter.
One feature of this work that particularly commends it is its balance and moderation. Take, for example, the question, “what are the causes of depression?” Murray is unwilling to say that depression’s causes are exclusively physical (brain chemistry), spiritual (demon possession or personal sin), or mental (an overactive imagination). In company with the Puritans, Murray rightly recognizes the often unfathomable interrelations of mind and body, concluding that depression’s causes may be manifold, complex, and elusive.
If depression’s cause(s) are complex, then so also are its cures. Murray identifies four areas that together comprise what he calls a “‘package’ of healing”: lifestyle, false thoughts, brain chemistry, spiritual life (70-86). None should be considered to the exclusion of the others. Each should be part of a comprehensive approach to one’s own or to another’s depression."
Read the entire article here.
Buy the book here.
"David Murray, Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, has written the most helpful, concise, and pastoral Christian treatment of this subject that I have encountered. If you have friends or family members who have experienced depression; if you have experienced depression; or if you want to know how to minister effectively to those who have, then you need to read this book
What are its strengths? This work is clear and understandable. Christians Get Depressed Too manages to be theologically nuanced while also accessible to a general audience. This work is concise and practical. After completing the book’s 112 pages, the reader will walk away with a clearer sense of what depression is and how best to serve those facing depression. This work is well-organized. It consists of six alliteratively-titled chapters: “The Crisis;” “The Complexity;” “The Condition;” “The Causes;” “The Cures;” “The Caregivers.” Many of the chapters have helpful internal structures, from the enumeration of “false” thought patterns in “The Condition;” to “ten areas [each beginning with ‘s’] for caregivers to consider when they are trying to help a depressed person get better” in the closing chapter.
One feature of this work that particularly commends it is its balance and moderation. Take, for example, the question, “what are the causes of depression?” Murray is unwilling to say that depression’s causes are exclusively physical (brain chemistry), spiritual (demon possession or personal sin), or mental (an overactive imagination). In company with the Puritans, Murray rightly recognizes the often unfathomable interrelations of mind and body, concluding that depression’s causes may be manifold, complex, and elusive.
If depression’s cause(s) are complex, then so also are its cures. Murray identifies four areas that together comprise what he calls a “‘package’ of healing”: lifestyle, false thoughts, brain chemistry, spiritual life (70-86). None should be considered to the exclusion of the others. Each should be part of a comprehensive approach to one’s own or to another’s depression."
Read the entire article here.
Buy the book here.
Monday, June 20, 2011
The Center Of Our Lives
"The core problem isn't the fact that we're lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He's great and deserves to be the center of our lives. Jesus came humbly as a servant, but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves. He commands everything from His followers."
Francis Chan, "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God"
Francis Chan, "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God"
Sunday, June 19, 2011
God's Love Is Active
"God’s love is active. He decided to love you when He could have justly condemned you. He’s involved. He’s merciful, not simply tolerant. He hates sin, yet pursues sinners by name. God is so committed to forgiving and changing you that He sent Jesus to die for you. He welcomes the poor in spirit with a shout and a feast. God is vastly patient and relentlessly persevering as He intrudes into your life. God’s love actively does you good. His love is full of blood, sweat, tears, and cries. He suffered for you. He fights for you, defending the afflicted. He fights with you pursuing you in powerful tenderness so that He can change you. He’s jealous, not detached. His sort of empathy and sympathy speaks out, with words of truth to set you free from sin and misery. He will discipline you as proof that He loves you. God Himself comes to live in you, pouring out His Holy Spirit in your heart, so that you will know Him. He puts out power and energy. God’s love has hate in it too: hatred for evil, whether done to you or by you. God’s love demands that you respond to it: by believing, trusting, obeying, giving thanks with a joyful heart, working out your salvation with fear, delighting in the Lord."
David Powlison - Seeing With New Eyes, 2003, p. 165.
David Powlison - Seeing With New Eyes, 2003, p. 165.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Morality Will Be Swallowed Up
"Christianity will do you good--a great deal more good than you ever wanted or expected. And the first bit of good it will do you is to hammer into your head (you won't enjoy that!) the fact that what you have hitherto called 'good'--all that about 'leading a decent life' and 'being kind'--isn't quite the magnificent and all-important affair you supposed. It will teach you that in fact you can't be 'good' (not for 24 hours) on your own moral efforts. And then it will teach you that even if you were, you still wouldn't have achieved the purpose for which you were created. Mere morality is not the end of your life. You were made for something quite different than that. . . . Confucius simply didn't know what life is about. The people who keep on asking if they can't lead a decent life without Christ, don't know what life is about. . . .
Morality is indispensable: but the Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear--the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy."
C. S. Lewis, 'Man or Rabbit?' in God in the Dock (Eerdmans repr., 2002), 112
(HT Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology)
Morality is indispensable: but the Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear--the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy."
C. S. Lewis, 'Man or Rabbit?' in God in the Dock (Eerdmans repr., 2002), 112
(HT Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology)
Thursday, June 09, 2011
The Exercise Of Gentleness And Moderation
“As you are likely to be engaged in controversy, and your love of truth is joined with a natural warmth of temper, my friendship makes me solicitous on your behalf. . . . I would have you more than a conqueror and to triumph not only over your adversary but over yourself. If you cannot be vanquished, you may be wounded. To preserve you from such wounds as might give you cause of weeping over your conquests, I would present you with some considerations . . . .
As to your opponent, I wish that before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him, and such a disposition will have a good influence on every page you write.
If you account him a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of David to Joab concerning Absalom are very applicable: ‘Deal gently with him for my sake.’ The Lord loves him and bears with him; therefore you must not despise him or treat him harshly. The Lord bears with you likewise, and expects that you should show tenderness to others from a sense of the much forgiveness you need yourself. In a little while you will meet in heaven. He will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts. And though you may find it necessary to oppose his errors, view him personally as a kindred soul, with whom you are to be happy in Christ forever.
But if you look upon him as an unconverted person, in a state of enmity against God and his grace (a supposition which, without good evidence, you should be very unwilling to admit), he is a more proper object of your compassion than of your anger. Alas! ‘He knows not what he does.’ But if God, in his sovereign pleasure, had so appointed, you might have been as he is now, and he, instead of you, might have been set for the defense of the gospel. If you attend to this, you will not reproach or hate him, because the Lord has been pleased to open your eyes, not his.
Of all people who engage in controversy, we who are called Calvinists are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation.”
John Newton - The Works of John Newton (Edinburgh, 1988), I:268-270.
(HT Ray Ortlund)
As to your opponent, I wish that before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him, and such a disposition will have a good influence on every page you write.
If you account him a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of David to Joab concerning Absalom are very applicable: ‘Deal gently with him for my sake.’ The Lord loves him and bears with him; therefore you must not despise him or treat him harshly. The Lord bears with you likewise, and expects that you should show tenderness to others from a sense of the much forgiveness you need yourself. In a little while you will meet in heaven. He will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts. And though you may find it necessary to oppose his errors, view him personally as a kindred soul, with whom you are to be happy in Christ forever.
But if you look upon him as an unconverted person, in a state of enmity against God and his grace (a supposition which, without good evidence, you should be very unwilling to admit), he is a more proper object of your compassion than of your anger. Alas! ‘He knows not what he does.’ But if God, in his sovereign pleasure, had so appointed, you might have been as he is now, and he, instead of you, might have been set for the defense of the gospel. If you attend to this, you will not reproach or hate him, because the Lord has been pleased to open your eyes, not his.
Of all people who engage in controversy, we who are called Calvinists are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation.”
John Newton - The Works of John Newton (Edinburgh, 1988), I:268-270.
(HT Ray Ortlund)
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Two Great Truths
"There are two great truths which from this platform I have proclaimed for many years. The first is that salvation is free to every man who will have it; the second is that God gives salvation to a people whom He has chosen; and these truths are not in conflict with each other in the least degree."
C.H. Spurgeon
C.H. Spurgeon
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Altogether Incalculable
"I am afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs, is altogether incalculable ... Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best book in a minister's library."
Spurgeon
Spurgeon
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
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