Gracious Lord, incline thy ear;
My requests vouchsafe to hear;
Hear my never-ceasing cry;
Give me Christ, or else I die.

Wealth and honour I disdain,
Earthly comforts, Lord, are vain;
These can never satisfy;
Give me Christ, or else I die.

Lord, deny me what thou wilt,
Only ease me of my guilt.
Suppliant at thy feet I lie;
Give me Christ, or else I die.

All unholy and unclean,
I am nothing else but sin;
On thy mercy I rely;
Give me Christ, or else I die.

Thou dost freely save the lost;
In thy grace alone I trust.
With my earnest suit comply;
Give me Christ, or else I die.

Thou dost promise to forgive
All who in thy Son believe;
Lord, I know thou canst not lie;
Give me Christ, or else I die.

Words – William Hammond, 1719-1783
Music – Drew Holcomb, 2004
Taken from the Gadsby Hymnal # 737

Here is the reason why.

In the span of 10 days, Christ’s Glory Church, in partnership with Hope Christian Church, 21,000 Gospel tracts has been spread abroad in Metro Manila, Philippines. What can 21,000 Gospel tracts do? In the hands of men and in the power of men, nothing. Absolutely nothing. A useless endeavor. Pointless. Pathetic. Irrational. Illogical. A waste of money, energy and time. But in the hand of God? An opportunity for 21,000 souls or more to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus that saves from sin, death and the wrath of God in the judgment of sinners in an eternity of Hell. An opportunity for 21,000 souls to be reconciled to God, from hostility against Him to peace with Him. An opportunity for 21,000 souls to see Him as He really is, supreme, worthy of all praise and glory. An opportunity for 21,000 souls to worship and glorify God in submission of their lives in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus.

The printed page never flinches, it never shows cowardice; it is never tempted to compromise. The printed page never gets tired; it never gets disheartened. The printed page travels cheaply-you can be a missionary for the price of a stamp. It requires no building in which to operate. The printed page works while you sleep. It never loses its temper in discussion. And it works when you are gone from the scene. The printed page is a visitor that gets inside the home and stays there. It always catches a man in the right mood. It speaks to him only when he is reading it. It never answer’s back and it sticks to the point.

—Author Unknown

Craig Ireland (Pastor of Hope Christian Church) and Luke Stewart arrived on Wednesday afternoon (February 2).

Here is my journal.

I bless thee for the happy moment
when I first saw thy law fulfilled in Christ,
wrath appeased, death destroyed, sin forgiven,
my soul saved.

Ever since, thou hast been faithful to me:
daily have I proved the power of Jesus’ blood,
daily have I known the strength of the Spirit,
my teacher, director, sanctifier.

I want no other rock to build upon than that I have,
desire no other hope than that of gospel truth,
need no other look than that which gazes on the cross.

Forgive me if I have tried to add anything to the one foundation,
if I have unconsciously relied upon my knowledge,
experience, deeds, and not seen them as filthy rags,
if I have attempted to complete what is perfect in Christ;

May my cry be always, Only Jesus! only Jesus!

In him is freedom from condemnation,
fullness in his righteousness,
eternal vitality in his given life,
indissoluble union in fellowship with him;

In him I have all that I can hold;
enlarge me to take in more.

If I backslide,
let me like Peter weep bitterly and return to him;

If I am tempted, and have no wit,
give me strength enough to trust in him;

If I am weak,
may I faint upon his bosom of eternal love;

If in extremity,
let me feel that he can deliver me;

If driven to the verge of hope and to the pit of despair,
grant me grace to fall into his arms.

O God, hear me, do for me more than I ask, think, or dream.

Amen.

—A prayer from the Valley of Vision

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

—Isaiah 6:1-8

In times of great trials, affliction and suffering, a loved one passed away, a friend enduring a terminal disease, heart-wrenching experiences—we cry out to God in equally great desperation. We cry out to God for His mercy. We beg for His help to deliver us. We seek God so desperately in these moments, often promising that we would surrender our lives if He would save us in those crisis moments. We cry out to God, His love, His mercy, His grace, in that, the God of love would help us in our time of great need. This happens so often that the idea of God being a God of love and mercy has been so burned into what Christianity is that it has somehow become God’s primary attribute.

There was a church in the United States of America that started a series of messages based from an album of John Lennon of the Beatles. The reasoning behind this decision was because since God is a God of love, and that God is love, it must therefore follow that songs that exalt love are songs that exalt God. Interesting, in our desperation for love and mercy, we exalt these concepts so much as to elevate them to undue heights of reverence. Love is no longer an attribute of God, it is now the attribute of God. So much so that God is no longer just love, but love itself is now God.

We talk much of verses like John 3:16 (as great and as blessed as those verses are) that speak of God’s love for the world in His desire to save a people for Himself. We enshrine these verses that mark the attribute of God’s love and allow it to define the very root of our thinking.

Now that emphasis of love being equated to God Himself is outright heresy. Surely God is love, but love is not God. We have this view of God that sees Him as only loving, not judging; only merciful, but never wrathful. We have a view of God that leaves no room for holiness, no room for justice, wrath, sovereignty and His supremacy.

Holy, Holy, Holy

And yet dear beloved, where do we learn of a God of love? Where do we learn and read that God is a God of love? In Afghanistan? In a cancer ward? On the bedside of a loved one, whose body is twisted in unimaginable pain, a breath away from Hell? Where do we learn of that God of love? Is it not true that the same place we learn that God is a God of love is in the same place we find out that God is a holy God?

Does not that same inspired text of Scripture that tells us of the love of God tells us of a God that is perfectly holy, perfectly just and perfectly righteous (Isaiah 6:3)? That same place that tells us of a God whose wrath furiously burns against sin and sinners (Rev 19:15)?

In the book of Isaiah, in the 6th chapter, we read:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

—Isaiah 6:1-4

In this passage we see one of the most distinct displays of the glory and majesty of God in all of Scripture.

The year that King Uzziah died, a year wherein a monarchical reign that lasted for 5 long decades had met its end. Can you imagine that? A child would be born and Uzziah was king. That same child would grow up to marry and Uzziah was still king. That same child would have children of his own and Uzziah was still king. That same child would have little grand-children and Uzziah still was king.

And suddenly, this seemingly invincible king dies. It was a time of great loss and bereavement for the nation of Israel, the time of great instability and uncertainty for the future. In this period of great mourning of the death of a King that ruled for 52 long years, suddenly Isaiah was brought to see the true King seated on the throne, alive and well, high and lifted up, the Sovereign of all that is and all that was and all that ever will be. The earthly king, Uzziah was dead. The Lord, God of all Creation is alive and ever living and Isaiah is brought before His presence.

This, for Isaiah, was a crisis moment. A moment in his existence when his whole life will be radically changed. The office of a Prophet is not exactly a contractual office. Complete your 15 year contract and you’re free. No. It is a lifetime calling that defines the very existence of that person called.

Here Isaiah was brought not to confront a burning bush. Neither was he confronted by the singular sound of the voice of God. Not an angel or a messenger on high. No walls. No mediums. No veils. No divisions. He was brought before the presence of the living God Himself; before the throne of God, high and lifted up.

He was brought into the presence of the Holy.

And at the end of this passage in the fourth verse, Isaiah recounts, “And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.”

After the seraphim sang to one another that heavenly chorus, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” the foundations of the thresholds of the heavenly temple shook. The foundations of the great temple where God Himself resides, indestructible and utterly glorious, as magnificent and other-worldly as they were, shook at this declaration, the declaration that God is “Holy, holy, holy.”

What was so special about that declaration? Surely we read it often in the Scriptures, declarations of God’s holiness. Often we find characters in the Word of God exalting certain attributes of God. At times we see God’s mercy and steadfast-love magnified. At other times we see God’s justice and righteousness glorified by men. But what is it in this specific declaration of God’s holiness that makes it so special?

In the English language, we have certain tools we use when we want to call emphasis to certain words and phrases. We can underline the word, italicize it or write it in bold type print. Or in speaking, we can raise the tone of our voice on certain words to make known the importance of that particular word. The Hebrew culture has a similar tool as well. It is the simple tool of repetition.

In the gospels in the New Testament, we see Jesus when speaking to His disciples, He would preface a number of His teachings with the words, “Verily, verily”, or “Truly, truly.” Now, everything that Jesus had to say is important. We know that every single word that rolls out from the lips of the Son of God is tremendously important. But even Jesus when He speaks, has certain things that He says is of greater and deeper importance than the other things He has said. It is one thing for the Lord to say, “Truly I say unto you.” It is quite another thing when He says, “Truly, truly I say unto you.” He is saying, “This is truth of very truth! Listen to this!”

Going back to the vision of Isaiah, the seraphim did not cry out to one another that God is “Mercy, mercy, mercy.” Neither did they declare that God is “Love, love, love”, or “Justice, justice, justice”, or “Pure, pure, pure.”

The seraphim did not simply declare that God is “Holy.” Nor did they say that God is “Holy, holy.” But what they did cry out is that God is “Holy, holy, holy!” From the mouths of angels, there is no other attribute of God raised to the superlative degree. God is “Holy, holy, holy!”

And at this call, this declaration of the superlative excellence of the Holiness of the God of all Creation, the foundations of the temple shook! Do you see the significance of that? Inanimate objects, things that are deprived of personality, thought and spirit, had the good sense to tremble before God. They were moved at the sheer presence of the Holy.

Dear beloved, how can you and I, men and women created in the image of God be left unmoved in His presence? How can we, in the great majority of instances of our lives, be left bored and indifferent before Him?

A doctor accused of running a filthy “abortion mill” for decades in an impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood delivered babies alive, killed them with scissors and allowed a woman who had survived 20 years in a refugee camp to be overmedicated and die at his clinic, prosecutors said.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, was charged Wednesday with eight counts of murder for the deaths of seven babies and one patient.

Prosecutors described the clinic as a “house of horrors” where Gosnell kept baby body parts on the shelves, allowed a 15-year-old high school student to perform intravenous anesthesia on patients and had his licensed cosmetologist wife do late-term abortions.

Kermit Gosnell… Gosnell also kept jars of severed feet on his shelves, Williams said. Gosnell also had a taste for macabre jokes, once muttering that a nearly six-pound baby born alive to a 17-year-old who was seven-and-a-half months pregnant could “walk me to the bus stop,” the report said.

Gosnell typically worked weeknights, arriving hours after his unskilled staff administered anesthesia and drugs to induce labor. He then “forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord,” Williams said.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhu0PnDj-yU

I wonder how many of us went back to our separate indifferent lives even after hearing such appalling realities that are going on by the thousands in our society today. I wonder how many of us who profess the name of Christ would even bother to do anything to defend and engage in controversy for the sake of the unborn. I wonder how many of us would even care.

I wonder how many of us even care about the millions of lost souls all around us. I wonder how many of us even care about the million more being killed every day not letting them even have a chance to see the light of life.

It staggers my imagination how pathetically little most of us care about doing anything at all for the dying and the constantly threatened to death. I guess it’s no surprise why most of us, even us Christians, would care little about the life and eternity of others even at the thought that God has appointed a day whereby He will judge all men in righteousness.

How about you? Do you care? Do you care about the honor of God and His Gospel? Does your heart burn for love of Him? Are you left in brokenness and anguish when you think about a world that does not glorify and worship God who deserves all  honor and praise? If not, then I fear your heart is but a heart of stone, and your spirit a dead one, still in the bonds of iniquity. If you don’t care, then God will judge you in righteousness and He will see to it that you will be punished in the burning fury of His eternal wrath. Unless you repent from your sins and by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ the Lord you will perish. Flee to Him! He can save even one such as you are.

If you still think little about the issue of Abortion, here’s some thoughts from Randy Alcorn:

The article is generally correct, but incorrect in one major respect. This abortionist did not kill seven babies; he killed thousands and thousands of babies. Anyone who only counts them as babies once they get big enough is an accomplice to this man’s evil deeds.

I must say that while I agree this is all horrific, in fact I am not shocked about it. Why? Because I already knew what was going on in abortion clinics. I already knew that innocent people are killed there by the hundreds every week. Twenty-two years ago I looked in the dumpster of an abortion clinic and saw pieces of human flesh. This is not news to me.

I knew that the lives of women are ruined there, and I knew that the “doctors” who spend their lives killing babies in most cases know exactly what they are doing. (Yes, I have talked with them.) The “shocking discovery” that an abortionist who made millions of dollars from child-killing had such a low regard and such a profound disrespect for the lives of babies and women is properly responded to with a “Huh?” As in, didn’t we know that already? And, if we didn’t, what is wrong with us?

I think every congressman and congresswoman who has stood up, wearing their tailored clothes and giving speeches defending late term abortion—or abortion at any stage—should resign from office. I think every physician who quietly sends women to abortionists should lose his license. In fact, in a morally sane culture, far more serious measures would be taken. They would go to jail, because they have assisted in and promoted the killing of children.

I think that every Christian who keeps voting for “prochoice” candidates and who opposes showing the photos of dead babies, while defending what kills the babies in the photos, should question their faith (is it biblical, or does it merely mirror the current drift of our culture?). They should ask whether Jesus would ever defend and vote for the killing of children. (A graphic picture of the results of abortion is included at the end of this blog.)

I think every church member who is against the observance of Sanctity of Human Life Sunday (this weekend in many churches) and thinks the church shouldn’t talk about abortion—and every pastor who refuses to speak about it from the pulpit—needs to be taken on a virtual tour of that Pennsylvania clinic and come to terms with what abortion really is.

And if the pastor still refuses to open God’s Word and talk about defending the rights of the poor and needy and fatherless, and including unborn children in that, then I think he too should resign. (Along with all members of the church board who lobby against dealing with abortion from the pulpit.) If you lack the conviction or the courage to stand up and say to your church, who you are accountable to lead, “It is wrong to kill unborn babies, God hates it and God will judge it,” then you should not be a pastor. If you don’t have the guts to say “These are children—we must stop killing them” then you need to do something that doesn’t even pretend to take on a biblical and prophetic mantle.

Could we please stop pretending? Abortion is in fact the ruthless killing of an innocent human being. That’s what it always has been, and that’s what it always will be. When Planned Parenthood and NOW and politicians deny this, they are simply lying. There is nothing new about this. (See the excerpt below from my book ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments, which speaks of Satan’s role in killing children and lying about the fact that they are being killed.)

Abortion is Satan’s attempt to kill God in effigy by destroying the little ones created in God’s image. We are not dealing here with “one more social issue,” but a unique and focused evil in which Satan has deeply vested interests.

Jesus said of the devil, “He was a murderer from the beginning…. When he lies he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). It is no accident that Jesus speaks about Satan’s murders and his lies in the same breath. Lies are the wheels that turn every holocaust. To pull off his murders, Satan tells us lies. He is so eloquent, so persuasive in his lies, and we are so gullible, that we fall for his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11). He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), calling right wrong and wrong right, making us think—as many prochoicers do—that they are taking the moral high ground even as they defend something unspeakably immoral.

If some of the prochoice arguments momentarily cloud and eclipse what you know to be right, realize it is simply because the devil is behind the persuasive rhetoric of the prochoice movement. He is fluent in the language of lies and uses the prevailing assumptions of culture, education, and media to draw us away from God’s thoughts about children and abortion and toward his.

We are dealing here with a force of darkness that will bitterly resist every effort to combat it and that requires earnest and sustained prayer and alertness to the spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:10–20). The abortion battle is being fought in the realm of thoughts and ideas. Paul says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

As Christian leaders, we must realize that we will be held accountable, both in this life and in eternity, for how we deal with this issue. We must take deliberate and significant measures to stop the killing, to minister to our hurting women, and to make a difference in our community. The desire to be popular and avoid people’s disapproval is a common reason for church leaders to hold back in pro-life efforts. But for every reason we have, we must be ready to answer a question on the last day: “Was that reason more important than the lives of all those children I created in my image?”

Martin Luther addressed the pastor’s role in facing the greatest evil of his day:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proven, and to be steady on all the battle fronts besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

No matter how uncomfortable it makes you to face the truth, I recommend that you view this simple two minute video about abortion, from a wonderful group called abort73. While the “prochoice” groups lie about it, this video tells the objective truth about abortion. “Seeing is believing”—this is why Pregnancy Resource Centers encourage pregnant women to look at their ultrasounds, and Planned Parenthood and other “abortion providers” (sanitized term for child killers) warn their employees NOT to let pregnant women see ultrasounds. Why? Because when they see them, they know for sure that they are REALLY caring a child. And therefore that getting the abortion will mean killing the child they have now seen.

If you are surprised to discover, as in the case of this Pennsylvanian abortion clinic, that those who kill babies for a living are really not very good people, my question is…where have you been, and what have you been thinking goes on in these clinics? And if some abortionists are better at sanitizing the walls and disposing of baby body parts, do you really think that makes them any better in the sight of God Almighty, Creator of these children, and Judge of us all?

No, dear friends, God is not merely mildly displeased about sin, not even abortion. In the words of R.C. Sproul, “Because something is legal does not mean that it acceptable to God.” What are you prepared to do about it? Go back to your profane lives, or raise up the banner of the Gospel of Christ that men may be saved?

A friend of mine expressed concern that his aging father is battling thoughts of suicide.  “Dad used to be a juggernaut of activity, always engaged in business, church projects, and helping others.  But now his aging body is breaking down, and he’s been set aside on a sick bed shelf.  He feels worthless.”  But he’s not.

Suppose a statue on its shelf capable of speech, and ask of it, “Why are you there?”

It would reply, “Because my master, the sculptor, placed me here.”

“Why are you so motionless?”

“Because he willed me to be so.”

“Of what use are you?  What does it profit you to be here?”

“I am not here for my own sake, but solely because it is the will of my master.”

“But you can’t even see!”

“No; but he sees me, and chooses that I should stay here.”

“Wouldn’t you want to have the power to move and go nearer to your master?”

“Not unless he wills it.”

“Don’t you have any wishes of your own?”

“None; for I am where my master placed me, and his pleasure is the sole object of my existence.” – Unknown

But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father,

We are the clay, and Thou our potter;

And all of us are the work of Thy hand.

—Isaiah 64:8

May the Lord give us the courage and faithfulness to stay at our posts until HE calls us home.  Though it may not seem very glamorous, because the King has posted us, no assignment is more noble.

For us, our Lord Jesus stood as a brass pillar till the last breath was beaten out of His nostrils.  That’s how He served us.  So ought we serve Him.  Some saints are called to show their faithfulness spectacularly, burning at a martyr’s stake.  Others are called to do it privately, lingering for years on a sick bed.  In our Lord’s eyes, joyful endurance in either situation is spectacular.  Soon, such will hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

—Mark Chanski
Reformed Baptist Church of Holland

source

Imagine a family who did not prepare their children for college. This would be unthinkable in today’s world. Everyone prepares their child for an academic future. Day-care programs boast about the head start they will give children in their “academic careers.” We buy houses in neighborhoods with “the best schools.” Beyond that, many families place their children in expensive preparatory schools, enduring tremendous financial burdens, incurring debt, and commuting hours each day in an effort to give their children an edge in that all-important race for the apex of academia.

However, little thought is given to preparing our sons to be husbands. Thus, they meander through life without the skills or mind-set necessary to play this most important role until one day, having met “the one,” they pop the question, set a date, and—in the rarest of cases—go to the pastor to learn everything they need to know about being the priest, prophet, provider, and protector of a household in four one-hour sessions. In the words of that great theologian Dr. Phil, “How’s that workin’ for ya?”

As a result, we have families led by men who haven’t the foggiest idea what their role is or how to carry it out. We have wives who were created with a God-given need to be led by godly men, a curse from the days in the garden that puts them at odds with this arrangement, and a cultural mandate to fight against male headship. Top this off with children who long for the security that can only be found in clear roles and boundaries in the home, and the result is a frustrated family mired in dysfunction. Sound familiar?

If we have any desire to change this, we must begin to prepare young men to be husbands and fathers. We must stop preparing them for lives of selfishness, immediate gratification, and perpetual adolescence if we ever expect to turn the tide. The skills required of a husband and father take a lifetime to acquire. Our sons must begin to acquire them sooner rather than later.

If we prepare our children to be husbands and wives, and God calls and equips them to be single, we have lost nothing. On the other hand, if we do not prepare our children to be husbands and wives, and they (like the overwhelming majority of people) end up married someday, we have lost a great deal. Prudence would point toward the necessity to prepare our children for marriage, and to do so with all diligence.

—Voddie Baucham, Jr., What He Must Be, pp.42-44

They are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name …so that they may be one as we are one.—John 17:11

This Scripture contains the first preparation of Christ for death, where he sets his house in order, prays for his people, and blesses them before he dies.ⁱ The love of Christ was ever tender and strong to his people, but the greatest demonstration of it was at parting, in two ways especially: in leaving support and comfort with them in his last heavenly sermon, in John 14 through John 16, and in pouring out his soul to the Father for them in this heavenly prayer, John 17. In this prayer he gives them a sample of his intercession, which he was just then going to perform in heaven for them. Here his heart overflowed, for he was leaving them and going to the Father. The last words of a dying person are remarkable—how much more a dying Savior?

We have here Christ’s petition in behalf of his people, not only those at that place, but all others that then did or afterwards would believe on him. And the sum of what he here requests for them is that his Father would protect them through his name, where you have both the mercy and the means of attaining it. The mercy is to be protected. Protecting implies danger, and there is a double danger anticipated in this request: danger in respect of sin and danger in respect of ruin and destruction. To both these the people of God lie open in this world.

The means of their preservation from both is the name, that is, the power of God. This name of the Lord is the strong tower that the righteous run to and are safe (Prov. 18:10). Alas! It is not your own strength or wisdom that keeps you, but you are kept by the mighty power of God. This protecting power of God does not, however, exclude our care and diligence but implies it. God keeps his people, and yet they are to keep themselves in God’s love (Jude 21), to, above all else, guard their hearts (Prov. 4:23).

The arguments with which he urges and presses on this request are drawn partly from his own condition—within a very few hours he will be separated from them in regard to his corporeal presence; partly from their condition—“they are still in the world,” that is, I must leave them in the midst of danger; and partly from the joint interest his Father and he himself had in them: Keep those you have given me.

—John Flavel

Footnotes

1. John Flavel, “Of Christ’s Humiliation unto Death, in His First Preparative Act for It,” sermon 20 in a series, The Fountain of Life Opened Up, from The Works of John Flavel, vol. 1 (1820; reprint, Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1968), 1982; downloaded from the Electronic Public Library, http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-09:flafn-20.txt. Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily devotions with the church’s great preachers. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

—Psalm 135:5-7

The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
they have eyes, but do not see;
they have ears, but do not hear,
nor is there any breath in their mouths.
Those who make them become like them,
so do all who trust in them!

—Psalm 135:15-18

We live and walk in a world of in-between. The moment we begin our pilgrimage in seeking the truth of life in Christianity one of the first things we realize is that there is a great gulf that separates us from God, an endless chasm that forbids us to touch the holy. We quickly realize that we are trapped in a world of the profane.

Even amongst Christians there’s a conscious reality in our minds about a great disconnect between the eternal and the temporal, between the infinite and the finite, between the holy and the profane. Somehow, for the most part, the God of the Bible is more about fiction than He is about fact. Somehow, the God of the Bible is more about poetry than He is about truth. Somehow, the God of the Bible is more about mere expressions of impersonal thought and feeling rather than a manifestation of what is actually real and tactile, of what reality really is.

The Reality of God

As with any other sphere of life, whether it is in medicine, engineering or science, whatever it may be, a proper apprehension of the past is a must to understand that which is at present, and that which is to come. In academics one must first study the basics before moving on to the advance concepts and theories, before which no application can be made.

It’s just a fact, the reason why societies and cultures fail is because they fail to learn from what has been, they fail to consider that which is past.

This is a vital mistake in the human heart. We come into this world not thinking about that which has gone before, things that are apart from us, things that are not dependent upon us. Our minds and hearts are bound to a small and constrained reality of self.

A foremost Jewish theologian, Abraham Heschel, talks about life in America in the 20th century. He writes that the thing that characterizes us in the 20th century is our superficiality. He says,

We have become a people who are satisfied with skimming over the surface of life, interested only with images & impressions on television; not with deep & profound truth, but with sound bytes that entertain us but don’t delay us in any serious call to reflection. We’re pragmatists; … we want to be practical and in our busy practicality we go through life blind to the very depths of the reality that is staring us in the face.

We must understand and come to grips with the absolute reality of God. Now what does that mean, absolute reality of God? It means the absolute absurdity if God is limited. It talks about the absolute irrationality of disconnecting God over areas and spheres of our life. It means that anything gained apart from a knowledge of a reality of who God is, is absolutely futile in and of itself.

The very reason why we fail to comprehend, much less submit ourselves to the God of the Bible is because we’re not even convinced that He’s real. We take His Word and His truth for granted because we fail to grasp the very essence of the God-hood of God, that He is God and that He is holy.

Also one new feature in N.D. will be the paginated posts. So for all the new long posts that I will be putting up they will be split up to a number of posts, not separate posts, but posts natively having “Page 1, 2, 3, …”.

If you live locally in Manila/Quezon City Philippines you are more than welcome to join us in our study, leave a message in the comments below if interested.

If you want to start your own study on R.C.’s book you can purchase the paperback here: The Holiness of God.

This is a “one sitting” book that kept me turning the pages until wee hours of the morning. Few authors possess the keen ability to help readers come into a grasp of the nature of God’s holiness, but through this book Dr. Sproul (along with his wits and unique sense of humor) is able to help us understand better and transport the reader into the presence of God.

We often hear many talk about how God is love, yet why do fewer ever speak of His holiness and justice? The Holiness of God reminds me yet again that my salvation (through Christ’s propitiatory death) is an act of mercy and grace by God (not an obligation), since His absolute holiness demands only justice for my sins. Dr. Sproul helps readers dig deeper beneath a superficial surface of what it means that God is holy—bringing us into a deeper understanding and love of who God is, a greater awe for His absolute holiness, and reverence in worship. As the famous Reformed preacher Jonathan Edwards once wrote: “A true love of God must begin with a delight in his holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute; for no other attribute is truly lovely without this.”

One of my favorite chapters carries an intriguing title: The Trauma of Holiness. Why and how does holiness invoke trauma? Many other religions have invented god(s) who brought only comfort. Even Sigmund Freud espoused the theory that people invent “god(s)” to help them deal with scary things, to serve as a “crutch,” so to speak. In this book Sproul draws a contrast by demonstrating how the one and only true God has certain characteristics distinct from those that would normally be attributed by the common man. Our true God possesses a uniqueness (an awesome “otherness”). After Jesus miraculously calmed the storm in the Sea of Galilee, the disciples felt uncomfortable and terrified (yes, terrified) upon realizing that they, in their sinfulness, were in the presence of the Holy One. What a contrast to those popular man-made ideas of God invented only to bring comfort!

This book helps us to see better the God who is—who not only brings comfort in time of need, invokes our adoration and praise, but also in whose Holy presence drives us to our knees in reverential worship.

—Jessica Santoso, A Pilgrims Progress

—John 10:27-30

My soul, with joy attend,
While Jesus silence breaks;
No angel’s harp such music yields
As what my Shepherd speaks.

“I know my sheep,” he cries;
“My soul approves them well;
Vain is the treacherous world’s disguise,
And vain the rage of hell.

“I freely feed them now
With tokens of my love.
But richer pastures I prepare,
And sweeter streams above.

“Unnumbered years of bliss
I to my sheep will give;
And while my throne unshaken stands,
Shall all my chosen live.

“This tried almighty hand
Is raised for their defence;
Where is the power can reach them there,
Or what can force them thence?”

Enough, my gracious Lord,
Let faith triumphant cry;
My heart can on this promise live;
Can on this promise die.

—S.M. P. Doddridge

Convince them how impossible it is to go the way to heaven without knowing it, when there are so many difficulties and enemies in the way; and when men cannot do their worldly business without knowledge, nor learn a trade without an apprenticeship.

Convince them what a contradiction it is to be a Christian, and yet to refuse to learn; for what is a Christian but a disciple of Christ? And how can he be a disciple of Christ, that refuseth to be taught by him And he that refuseth to be taught by his ministers, refuseth to be taught by him; for Christ will not come down from heaven again to teach them by his own mouth, but hath appointed his ministers to keep school and teach them under him.

To say, therefore, that they will not be taught by his ministers, is to say, they will not be taught by Christ; and that is to say, they will not be his disciples, or no Christians.

Make them understand that it is not an arbitrary business of our own devising and imposing; but that necessity is laid upon us, and that if we look not to every member of the flock according to our ability, they may perish in their iniquity; but their blood will be required at our hand.

Show them that it is God, and not we, who is the contriver and imposer of the work; and that therefore they blame God more than us in accusing it. Ask them, would they be so cruel to their minister as to wish him to cast away his own soul, knowingly and wilfully, for fear of troubling them by trying to hinder their damnation?

Acquaint them fully with the nature of the ministerial office, and the Church’s need of it; how it consisteth in teaching and guiding all the flock; and that, as they must come to the congregation, as scholars to school, so must they be content to give an account of what they have learned, and to be further instructed, man by man.

Let them know what a tendency this hath to their salvation, what a profitable improvement it will be of their time, and how much vanity and evil it will prevent. And when they once find that it is for their own good, they will the more easily yield to it.

—Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

There is an evil under the sun which is as terrible as an open catastrophe,—indeed, it works greater ill to the church in the long run,—and that is, when a man’s ministry is eaten through and through with spiritual dry rot.

I heard an old Indian describe the way in which furniture may be devoured by the white ants. The ants will come into the house, and eat up everything; and yet, to all appearance, nothing is touched. The bookcases stand just where they did, and the trunks and everything else remain exactly as they were; at least, it is so to the eye; but directly they are touched, they all crumble to pieces, for the ants have eaten the substance out of them.

In the same way, some men still remain in the ministry, and yet the soul of their ministry has gone. They have a name to live, yet they are dead: what can be worse than this condition? One might almost sooner have an explosion, and have done with it, than see men continuing to maintain the form of religion after vital godliness has gone, scattering death all around them, and yet maintaining what is called a respectable position. God save us from this last as much as from that first! If I am a rotten bough, let me be cut off; but to hang upon the tree, all verdant with parasitical lichen and moss, is deplorable. A respectable ministry, devoid of spiritual life, is little better than respectable damnation, from which may God deliver us!

When men drift into this condition, they generally adopt some expedient to hide it. Conscience suggests that there is something or other wrong, and the deceitful heart labours to conceal or palliate this fact. Some do this by amusing themselves with hobbies instead of preaching the gospel. They cannot do the Lord’s work, so they try to do their own. They have not honesty enough to confess that they have lost gospel power, so they ride a hobby; and it is a very mild form of evil when they raise some side issue, which has no other fault about it than that it diverts them from the main point. Many are these playthings; I have no time to mention more than one.

I have known certain brethren give themselves solely to expound prophecy. Now, a man full of the life of God may expound prophecy as much as he likes; but there are some who, having lost their love of the gospel, try to win back what little popularity they once had by taking up with guesses at the future. They may be quite, sure that, if they cannot profit men by bringing them to the manger and the cross, they will make a complete failure of it if they handle the seals and the vials.

Did you ever notice, in Calvin’s Commentaries, that there is no exposition of the Book of Revelation? Why not? He said, “I have not expounded that Book because I do not understand it.” When I hear a man say, “I have found much in Matthew which does not belong to the Church, I have outgrown much of the Romans and Galatians, and I cannot enjoy the Psalms, for they do not rise to the perfection of my experience; I want something more elevated and spiritual, more abstruse and wonderful;” I conclude that this brother is spinning his last hank, and spending his last pennyworth of sense.

I have been amused by observing the manner in which speculators have been taken in when they have left the old ship of the gospel to become prophets. The beast of the Revelation was reported to be Napoleon I, and then the creature suddenly reappeared in his nephew, Napoleon III By-and-by, the deadly wound was healed, and the Prince Imperial wore the dreadful honours of the prophetic book; but the prince is now dead, and it will be needful for the seers to invent a new theory. There is no fear but what they will do it before long; and, meanwhile, “our Israelitish origin” will do to fill up the time.

In the story of Sindbad the Sailor, it is said that, as they sailed along, they saw an island, and at the sight thereof they greatly rejoiced. The crew left the ship, and feasted on the island, and were going to take possession of it in the name of the king, when suddenly it began to quiver and to plunge, and finally it went down altogether, for it was a whale’s back, and not an island at all! I have known brethren disport themselves upon the back of some novel speculation, when suddenly the facts of history have gone against them, and the whole thing has gone down very like a whale.

I have mentioned one of the more harmless hobbies, but some have taken to fancies which have bred greater mischief. Speculation is an index of the spiritual poverty of the man who surrenders himself to it. His flour has all been used, so he tries plaster of Paris; he has no more gold or silver, so he coins the baser metals. He cannot prophesy after the measure of faith, so he exercises his immeasurable imagination. His own experience does not serve him with topics for his ministry, and therefore he takes airy flights into regions of which he knows nothing.

“Look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near!” Luke 21:28

We are entering upon a new year, we shall have
new toils,
new trials,
new temptations, and
new troubles.

In whatever state, in
whatever place, into whatever condition we may
be brought this year–let us seek grace to follow our Lord’s
loving advice, and “look up!”

Do not look back–as Lot’s wife did.

Do not look within—as too many do.

Do not look around—as David did.

But “look up!” Look up to God—He is your Father, your Friend, your Savior. He can help you. He will help you. He says, “Look unto Me, and be delivered—for I am God!”

Look up for light to guide you
—and He will direct your path.

Look up for grace to sanctify you
—and the grace of Jesus will be found sufficient for you.

Look up for strength to enable you to do and suffer God’s will
—and His strength will be made perfect in your weakness.

Look up for comfort to cheer you
—and as one whom his mother comforts, so will the Lord comfort you.

Look up for courage to embolden you
—and the Lord will give courage to the faint; and to those who have no might—He will increase strength.

Look up for endurance to keep you
—and the God who preserves you will enable you quietly to bear the heaviest burden, and silently to endure the most painful affliction.

Look up for providence to supply you
—and the jar of flour will not be used up,
and the jug of oil will not run dry;
but God shall supply all your needs, according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Look up in faith
—exercising confidence in the Word of a faithful God.

Look up in prayer
—asking for what God has graciously promised.

Look up in hope
—expecting what you ask in the name of Jesus.

Look up with adoration
—and adore the sovereignty, righteousness, and wisdom of God.

Look up constantly
—let nothing daunt or discourage you! Rather say,
“Our eyes are on the Lord our God—until He shows us mercy.”

Look up—for this will keep . . .
the head from swimming,
the heart from sinking,
the knees from trembling,
the feet from slipping, and
the hands from hanging down!

It is impossible to say what will happen to us, or what will be required of us this year—but “Look up!” This direction, if properly attended to, will . . .
procure for us all that we need,
secure us against all that we dread, and
make us more than a match for all our foes and fears!

Fellow-Christian, are you fearful? “Look up” and hear Jesus saying to you, “Do not be afraid—I Myself will help you!”

Are you discouraged? “Look up”
—and your youth shall be renewed like the eagle’s, and fresh light, comfort, and courage shall be given to you!

Are you desponding? “Look up”
for Jesus never breaks the bruised reed, nor quenches the smoking flax.

Do not look too much at your sin
—look at the infinitely meritorious blood of God’s dear Son!

Do not look too much at self
—but look at Jesus, who ever lives to make intercession for you in Heaven.

Are you stripped of your comforts, your props, and your goods?
Then look up! He who stripped you—loves you!

He will be more than all these to you! He will . . .
bind up your broken heart,
calm your perturbed spirit,
cheer your drooping mind, and
fill you with His own peace and happiness.

Look up . . .
for all that you need;
from all that you fear;
through all that would obstruct your way.

Look up every day, saying with David, “In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You—and will look up!” Psalm 5:3

Look up in every trial, saying “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help: my help comes from the Lord, who made Heaven and earth!”

Do not look at your sin
—it will discourage you!

Do not look at your self
—it will distress you!

Do not look at Satan
—he will bewilder you!

Do not look to men
—they will deceive, or disappoint you!

Do not look at your trials
—they will deject you!

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us—looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith!” Hebrews 12:1-2

Look only, look always, look intently—to Jesus!

Run looking, work looking, fight looking, suffer looking, live looking, and die looking—to Jesus, who is at God’s right hand in glory.

Oh, look, look, look to Jesus!

—James Smith, “A New Year’s Motto” 1865

(Editor’s note: It would have been helpful to have sent this gem out on January 1—but I did not read it until this afternoon. Nevertheless, we can still make this our motto verse for 2011—”Look up!“)

Found in GraceGems.org

We can never get enough help on how to live honoring and pleasing lives to God. We can never get enough help on how to be holy as He is holy. If indeed we desire to honor and please Him who has died for us, who has purchased us, who has risen from the dead for us, let us give our all in the pursuit of holiness. And in His mercy, may we one day receive those blessed words: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master.”

From ChristianAudio.com:

Hello and happy 2011!

During this time of new year’s resolutions, why not consider something more important. Holiness is a goal that most aspire to, but few attain. The Pursuit of Holiness is a book that will surely challenge and inspire in 2011 and for years to come.

“Be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16

Peter’s quote from Leviticus is not only an exhortation and a reminder, but a Scriptural command for us to do so. How is this accomplished? The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges is one of the best books written on holiness and is truly a modern day classic. Along with Holiness by J. C. Ryle and The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul, few books speak with clarity and conviction regarding the holiness of God and man’s responsibility in this process.

Truly one of the best free audiobooks christianaudio has ever offered, we invite you to journey with us in The Pursuit of Holiness. This short classic is worthy of being listened to or read multiple times. Arthur Morey’s thoughtful and steady narration add value and warmth to this important book.

Blessing to you for the new year,
christianaudio
Listen Enjoy Think Grow

Free Download of the Month – January 2011

The Pursuit of Holiness
by Jerry Bridges
read by Arthur Morey

Holiness is something that is often missed in the Christian’s daily life. According to Jerry Bridges, that’s because we’re not exactly sure what our part in holiness is. In The Pursuit of Holiness, he helps us see clearly just what we should rely on God to do and what we should accept responsibility for ourselves. Whether you’re continuing your pursuit of holiness or just beginning, the principles and guidelines in The Pursuit of Holiness will challenge you to obey God’s command of holiness.

Discount Price: $0.00
Retail Price: $9.98

Instructions: Add the download format to your cart and login to your christianaudio account to complete the checkout process. If you do not yet have an account, opening one is free!

This free download is available in MP3, M4B, and One-Click Zip formats.

Also, if you want to receive in your email a day by day devotional from Jerry Bridges’ “Holiness Day by Day”, go to this link and subscribe, or enter your name and email in the sign up form here.

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”
By Charles Wesley, 1747

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAJbMcQRfy0

III.—To the Viscountess of Kenmure, on occasion of illness and spiritual depression.

ACQUIESCENCE IN GOD’S PURPOSE—FAITH IN EXERCISE—ENCOURAGEMENT IN VIEW OF SICKNESS AND DEATH—PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Madam,

—All dutiful obedience in the Lord remembered. I have heard of your Ladyship’s infirmity and sickness with grief; yet I trust ye have learned to say, “It is the Lord, let Him do whatsoever seemeth good in His eyes.”

It is now many years since the apostate angels made a question, whether their will or the will of their Creator should be done; and since that time, froward mankind hath always in that same suit of law compeared to plead with them against God, in daily repining against His will. But the Lord being both party and judge, hath obtained a decreet, and saith, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure (Isa 46:10). It is then best for us, in the obedience of faith, and in an holy submission, to give that to God which the law of His almighty and just power will have of us.

Therefore, Madam, your Lord willeth you, in all states of life, to say, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven:” and herein shall ye have comfort, that He, who seeth perfectly through all your evils, and knoweth the frame and constitution of your nature, and what is most healthful for your soul, holdeth every cup of affliction to your head, with His own gracious hand.

Never believe that your tender-hearted Saviour, who knoweth the strength of your stomach, will mix that cup with one drachm-weight of poison. Drink then with the patience of the saints, and the God of patience bless your physic.

I have heard your Ladyship complain of deadness, and want of the bestirring power of the life of God. But courage! He who walked in the garden, and made a noise that made Adam hear His voice, will also at some times walk in your soul, and make you hear a more sweet word.

Yet, ye will not always hear the noise and the din of His feet, when He walketh. Ye are, at such a time, like Jacob mourning at the supposed death of Joseph, when Joseph was living.

The new creature, the image of the second Adam, is living in you; and yet ye are mourning at the supposed death of the life of Christ in you.

Ephraim is bemoaning and mourning (Jer 31:18), when he thinketh God is far off and heareth not; and yet God is like the bridegroom (Song 2:9), standing only behind a thin wall and laying to His ear; for He saith Himself, “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself.”

I have good confidence, Madam, that Christ Jesus, whom your soul through forests and mountains is seeking, is within you. And yet I speak not this to lay a pillow under your head, or to dissuade you from a holy fear of the loss of your Christ, or of provoking and “stirring up the Beloved before He please,” by sin.

I know, in spiritual confidence, the devil will come in, as in all other good works, and cry “Half mine;” and so endeavour to bring you under a fearful sleep, till He whom your soul loveth be departed from the door, and have left off knocking. And, therefore, here the Spirit of God must hold your soul’s feet in the golden mid-line, betwixt confident resting in the arms of Christ, and presumptuous and drowsy sleeping in the bed of fleshly security.

Therefore, worthy lady, so count little of yourself, because of your own wretchedness and sinful drowsiness, that ye count not also little of God, in the course of His unchangeable mercy. For there be many Christians most like unto young sailors, who think the shore and the whole land doth move, when the ship and they themselves are moved; just so, not a few do imagine that God moveth and sailethⁱ and changeth places, because their giddy souls are under sail, and subject to alteration, to ebbing and flowing.

But “the foundation of the Lord abideth sure.” God knoweth that ye are His own. Wrestle, fight, go forward, watch, fear, believe, pray; and then ye have all the infallible symptoms of one of the elect of Christ within you.

Ye have now, Madam, a sickness before you; and also after that a death. Gather then now food for the journey. God give you eyes to see through sickness and death, and to see something beyond death. I doubt not but that, if hell were betwixt you and Christ, as a river which ye behoved to cross ere you could come at Him, but ye would willingly put in your foot, and make through to be at Him, upon hope that He would come in Himself, in the deepest of the river, and lend you His hand.

Now, I believe your hell is dried up, and ye have only these two shallow brooks, sickness and death, to pass through; and ye have also a promise that Christ shall do more than meet you, even that He shall come Himself, and go with you foot for foot, yea and bear you in His arms. O then! O then! for the joy that is set before you; for the love of the Man (who is also “God over all, blessed for ever”), that is standing upon the shore to welcome you, run your race with patience. The Lord go with you.

Your Lord will not have you, nor any of His servants, to exchange for the worse. Death in itself includeth both the death of the soul and the death of the body; but to God’s children the bounds and the limits of death are abridged and drawn into a more narrow compass. So that when ye die, a piece of death shall only seize upon you, or the least part of you shall die, and that is the dissolution of the body; for in Christ ye are delivered from the second death; and, therefore, as one born of God, commit not sin (although ye cannot live and not sin), and that serpent shall but eat your earthly part. As for your soul, it is above the law of death. But it is fearful and dangerous to be a debtor and servant to sin; for the count of sin ye will not be able to make good before God, except Christ both count and pay for you.

I trust also, Madam, that ye will be careful to present to the Lord the present estate of thisdecaying kirk. For what shall be concluded in Parliament anent her,ⁱⁱ the Lord knoweth.

Stir up your husband, your brother, and all with whom you are in favour and credit, to stand upon the Lord’s side against Baal. I have good hope your husband loveth the peace and prosperity of Zion: the peace of God be upon him. Thus, not willing to weary your Ladyship farther, I commend you, now and always, to the grace and mercy of that God who is able to keep you, that you fall not.

The Lord Jesus be with your spirit.

Your Ladyship’s servant at all dutiful obedience in Christ,

S. R.

Anwoth, July 27, 1628.

You can purchase Samuel Rutherford’s Letters here: Paperback, Hardcover, Gift edition
Or download the pdf here: Complete, Selected Writings

Footnotes

1. So it is in the earlier editions; not “faileth.”
2. “In reference to her,”—alluding to the known design of Charles I. to enforce conformity to Episcopacy.

O God,

Most high, most glorious, the thought of Thine infinite serenity cheers me, for I am toiling and moiling, troubled and distressed, but Thou art for ever at perfect peace.

Thy designs cause thee no fear or care of unfulfilment, they stand fast as the eternal hills.

Thy power knows no bond, Thy goodness no stint.

Thou bringest order out of confusion, and my defeats are Thy victories:
The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

I come to Thee as a sinner with cares and sorrows, to leave every concern entirely to Thee, every sin calling for Christ’s precious blood; revive deep spirituality in my heart; let me live near to the great Shepherd, hear His voice, know its tones, follow its calls.

Keep me from deception by causing me to abide in the truth,
from harm by helping me to walk in the power of the Spirit.

Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities,
burning into me by experience the things I know;

Let me never be ashamed of the truth of the gospel,
that I may bear its reproach,
vindicate it,
see Jesus as its essence,
know in it the power of the Spirit.

Lord, help me, for I am often lukewarm and chill;
unbelief mars my confidence,
sin makes me forget Thee.

Let the weeds that grow in my soul be cut at their roots;
grant me to know that I truly live only when I live to Thee,
that all else is trifling.

Thy presence alone can make me holy,
devout, strong and happy.

Abide in me, gracious God.

Amen.

—A prayer from the Valley of Vision

I thank the Lord. I praise the Lord. I fall flat on my face and worship Him.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.

Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.

For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men.

—Lamentations 3:22-33

He has given me new friends, dear brothers and sisters. New hopes, new dreams. Avenues and opportunities where Christ can be greater exalted. And yet what am I, what are we but cracked clay pots in His hands? O, glorify Yourself, God! O for all Your lavished graces upon us, not unto us O Lord, not unto us, but to You alone be the glory for ever and ever, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness (Ps 115:1)!

1830

Be pleased, dear Lord, to grant me during the present year—more of Your gracious presence, more tenderness of conscience and fear of offending You; more humility, stronger faith, and more entire devotedness to Your cause. Enable me to leave my temporal concerns entirely with You, to walk by faith, to have my treasure in heaven, and to manifest by my conduct—that I am Your disciple. Let me not grow cold or lukewarm—but may “I lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset me, and may I run with patience the race set before me, looking unto Jesus. Amen.”

1832

“Here I raise my Ebenezer.” Thus far the Lord has brought me. Though the past has been a year of multiplied transgressions and backslidings, I trust, through His abundant mercy, my face is still Zionward, and that my prevailing desire is to be devoted entirely to His service. Take me, dearest Lord, and form me for Your own glory. I feel much bodily weakness. Oh, that through the crevices of this frail tabernacle, I may see some of the glories of the eternal world!

1840

Most dear and precious Christ, I had not thought to see another new-year’s day—but hoped before now—to have beheld You face to face! Like him of old, who was possessed of a legion of demons, I besought that I might be with You. But for a season, You have seen good to withhold the full answer to my request. “May Your will be done!” Glorify Yourself in me, and be much, very much with me, until You shall say, “Arise, my love, and come away,” to be with Me forever!

I desire most humbly and unreservedly, in Your own strength, to yield to Your Divine disposal—all I have and am, and to continually lose my wish and will, in Yours. I would lay at Your feet all creatures and created good, with every seeming evil—and embrace Yourself, my Jesus, as my joy, portion, happiness, wisdom, strength, peace—yes, my all in all—for the coming year, or so much of it as I tarry upon earth; and then, as my joyful, blissful portion through eternity!

Oh, lead me, Holy Comforter, more into Christ—and out of SELF! I have had much of blessing—but I long and pray for more; in Jesus’ name. Enlarge my expectations more, I beg You—and more I shall receive. “Lord, increase my faith.”

1842

Precious Christ, I come with a large request for 1842: it is that You would be the “Alpha and Omega” of it. Do You not say, “Ask what I shall give you?” Yourself, Lord! You have most blessedly given Yourself to me. But I find sweet liberty to entreat more unfolding, revealing, and opening of Your glorious person, amazing work, and matchless love, than I have yet had; and more losing and treading down of SELF, too—that I may be lost in Your fullness, and forgotten and forsaken in Your soul-absorbing glories.

Oh! raise me higher, draw me nearer, that I may daily die, and You live in me more manifestly. I just give myself to You, to live on You, to live in You, to live for You, more and more than heretofore, and that by the power of the Spirit resting on me. I humbly ask that mine may be a large and still-increasing portion; that, under fresh anointings, You, most lovely Jesus, may be more fully known, more loved, more served; for it is to You the Holy Spirit leads, of You He testifies.

Oh, do make this a large, rich, full year! You being increasingly honored in me, and I increasingly lost in You, and made an increasing blessing to Your dear people. An Ebenezer for past mercies befits me; large and magnificent have been Your bestowments; bountiful and constant Your favors to me—a poor worthless nothing! “Bless the Lord, O my soul—and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”

Taken from the diary of Ruth Bryan.
Seen at GraceGems.org // First posted on Jan 6, 2008, Jan 2, 2010

II.—To a Christian Gentlewoman on the death of her daughter.

CHRIST’S SYMPATHY WITH, AND PROPERTY IN US—REASONS FOR RESIGNATION

Mistress

—My love in Christ remembered to you. I was indeed sorrowful at my departure from you, especially since ye were in such heaviness after your daughter’s death. Yet I do persuade myself, ye know that the weightiest end of the cross of Christ that is laid upon you lieth upon your strong Saviour; for Isaiah saith,  “In all your afflictions He is afflicted” (Isa 58:9).

O blessed Second who suffereth with you! and glad may your soul be even to walk in the fiery furnace with one like unto the Son of Man, who is also the Son of God. Courage! up your heart! When ye do tire, He will bear both you and your burden (Ps 55:22). Yet a little while and ye shall see the salvation of God.

Remember of what age your daughter was, and that just so long was your lease of her. If she was eighteen, nineteen, or twenty years old, I know not; but sure I am, seeing her term was come, and your lease run out, ye can no more justly quarrel your great Superior for taking His own at His just term day, than a poor farmer can complain that his master taketh a portion of his own land to himself when his lease is expired.

Good mistress, if ye would not be content that Christ would hold from you the heavenly inheritance which is made yours by His death, shall not that same Christ think hardly of you if ye refuse to give Him your daughter willingly, who is a part of His inheritance and conquest? I pray the Lord to give you all your own, and to grace you with patience to give God His also.

He is an ill debtor who payeth that which he hath borrowed with a grudge. Indeed, that long loan of such a good daughter, an heir of grace, a member of Christ (as I believe), deserveth more thanks at your Creditor’s hands, than that ye should gloom and murmur when He craveth but His own. I believe you would judge them to be but thankless neighbours who would pay you a sum of money after this manner.

But what? Do you think her lost, when she is but sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty? Think her not absent who is in such a friend’s house. Is she lost to you who is found to Christ? If she were with a dear friend, although you should never see her again, your care for her would be but small. Oh, now, is she not with a dear Friend? and gone higher, upon a certain hope that ye shall, in the Resurrection, see her again, when (be ye sure) she shall neither be hectic nor consumed in body?

You would be sorry either to be, or to be esteemed, an atheist; and yet, not I, but the Apostle, thinketh those to be hopeless atheists who mourn excessively for the dead (Thess 4:13). But this is not a challenge on my part. I do speak this only fearing your weakness; for your daughter was a part of yourself; and, therefore, nature in you, being as it were cut and halved, will indeed be grieved.

But ye have to rejoice, that when a part of you is on earth, a great part of you is glorified in heaven. Follow her, but envy her not; for indeed it is self-love in us that maketh us mourn for them that die in the Lord. Why? Because for them we cannot mourn, since they are never happy till they be dead; therefore we mourn for our own private respect.

Take heed, then, that in showing your affection in mourning for your daughter, ye be not, out of self-affection, mourning for yourself. Consider what the Lord is doing in it. Your daughter is plucked out of the fire, and she resteth from her labours; and your Lord, in that, is trying you, and casting you in the fire.

Go through all fires to your rest; and now remember that the eye of God is upon the bush burning and not consumed; and He is gladly content that such a weak woman as you should send Satan away, frustrate of his design. Now honour God, and shame the strong roaring lion, when ye seem weakest.

Should such an one as ye faint in the day of adversity? Call to mind the days of old. The Lord yet liveth. Trust in Him, although He should slay you. Faith is exceeding charitable, and believeth no evil of God.ⁱ Now is the Lord laying, in the one scale of the balance, your making conscience of submission to His gracious will, and in the other, your affection and love to your daughter. Which of the two will ye then choose to satisfy? Be wise, then; and as I trust ye love Christ better than a sinful woman, pass by your daughter, and kiss the Lord’s rod.

Men do lop the branches off their trees round about, to the end they may grow up high and tall. The Lord hath this way lopped your branch in taking from you many children, to the end you should grow upward, like one of the Lord’s cedars, setting your heart above, where Christ is, at the right hand of the Father. What is next, but that your Lord cut down the stock after He hath cut the branches?

Prepare yourself; you are nearer your daughter this day than you were yesterday. While ye prodigally spend time in mourning for her, ye are speedily posting after her. Run your race with patience. Let God have His own; and ask of Him, instead of your daughter which He hath taken from you, the daughter of faith, which is patience; and in patience possess your soul.

Lift up your head: ye do not know how near your redemption doth draw.

Thus recommending you to the Lord, who is able to establish you, I rest, your loving and  affectionate friend in the Lord Jesus,

S.  R.

Anwoth,  April 23,  1628.

You can purchase Samuel Rutherford’s Letters here: Paperback, Hardcover, Gift edition
Or download the pdf here: Complete, Selected Writings

Footnotes

1. So in his “sermon before the House of Lords,” 1645: “Faith thinketh no evil of Christ.”Also Letters 20. and 92.: “Love believeth no evil.”