Aug 25
24
When Peter walked on the water and saw the boisterous waves, the howling wind and began to sink, he simply prayed, “Lord save me.” A certain woman of Canaan, whom the Lord referred to as a Gentile dog, had a possessed daughter, and in seeking mercy for her she prayed, “Lord help me.” The thief on the cross who had been touched by the grace of God simply uttered, “Lord remember me.”
When the enlightened sinner sees that they are drowning in their sin, and that they are nothing but a dog and a convicted criminal, they won’t make a long discourse of words showing how much they know about sin, they will simply beg to be delivered from it.
David Eddmenson
If I could live a
thousand lives!
(C.H.Spurgeon)
“Who loved me, and gave Himself for me!” Galatians 2:20
“Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!” Song of Songs 5:16
Jesus is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely One! I could not live without Him. To enjoy His company is bliss to me – for Him to hide His face from me is my midnight of sorrow. Oh, for the power to live, to die, to labor, to suffer as unto Him, and unto Him alone!
I feel that, if I could live a thousand lives, I would like to live them all for Christ; and I should even then feel that they were all too little a return for His great love to me!
Is God a Beggar?
False preachers today have made a beggar of the LORD of Lords. No, my proud religionist, you are the beggar. God is not obligated to do anything but damn you to the eternal praise of His justice. If you keep listening to the wrong voices, your end shall be with those before you of whom Christ said, “I am come in my Father’s name and ye receive me not, let another come in his own name and him ye will receive (John 5:43)
Scott Richardson
Living Bread
In that “small round thing” called Manna was everything necessary to sustain the lives of the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. The only true “Whole Food” there has ever been. So it is with the Living Bread that came down from heaven. Eating the Bread of Life (trusting Christ alone for all my salvation) will sustain my immortal soul now and for all eternity. I need nothing more and cannot survive on anything less. Lord, give us our daily Bread.
Greg Elmquist
“To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” – Romans 7:18
I would never sin again! I would be generous, quick to forgive, forget all past injustices toward me, and take the lowest seat in the room. I would be rid of all pride, all bad motives, all sinful and selfish desires. I would never harbour a judgmental thought to anyone again. I would love and pray for those who wish me ill. I would be just like my Lord! To will is present with me. But it is equally true that to perform what I desire I find not! Not one time have I ever performed the good that I would! The will is the will of the new man! The inability to perform what I would is because of the old man that I still possess. As frustrating as this is, the blessed day is coming when I will no longer have the old man to contend with! That will be when we see Him as He is, and be just like Him! (I John 3:2).
Todd Nibert
My relationship with the eternal God (in Christ) does in great measure determine what I do. But what I do (good or bad), in no way determines my relationship with the eternal God.
Don Fortner
It is utterly impossible!
(Octavius Winslow, 1852)
It has been the distinctive aim, and the sincere desire of my ministry-to
make known and to endear the Saviour to your hearts.
Oh, how worthy is He . . .
of your most exalted conceptions,
of your most implicit confidence,
of your most self-denying service,
of your most fervent love!
When He could give you no more, and the fathomless depths of His love
and the boundless resources of His grace would not be satisfied by giving you
less-He gave you Himself!
Robed in your nature,
laden with your curse,
oppressed with your sorrows,
wounded for your transgressions,
and slain for your sins-
He gave His entire self for you!
His redeeming work now finished, He is perpetually engaged in meting out
blessings to His people from the exhaustless treasures of His love! He
constantly woos your affection, invites your grief, and bids you flee with
your daily trials to His sympathy; and with your hourly
guilt to His blood. You cannot be too covetous in your drafts upon
Christ’s fullness! Nor can you be too extravagant in your expectations of
supply! You may fail, as, alas! the most of us do, in making too
little of Christ-but you cannot fail in making too much of
Him!
It is utterly impossible to know Christ, and not become inspired with
a desire . . .
to love Him supremely,
to serve Him devotedly,
to resemble Him closely,
to glorify Him faithfully here,
and to enjoy Him fully hereafter!
Love flowing from a sight of the cross!
Winslow, “The Disciple Washing Christ’s Feet”
“And, behold, a woman in the
city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat
in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38 and
stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his
feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head,
and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”
Luke 7:37-38
She washed Christ’s feet with the tears of grateful
love. Jesus had pardoned all her sins, had absolved
her from their guilt, and had released her from their
power. How natural was the feeling of gratitude,
how appropriate this service of love!
The most genuine contrition for sin flows from a
sense of its forgiveness. Nothing breaks the heart
so thoroughly as the experience of God’s pardoning
love, love flowing from a sight of the cross!
We are not flogged into loving Him!
(J.C.Philpot)
“Set your affections on things above, not on things on the
earth.” Colossians 3:2
Where are your affections to be set?
Are they to be set on “things on the earth” . . .
those perishing toys,
those polluting vanities,
those carking cares,
which must ever dampen the life of God in the soul?
The expression, “things on the earth,” takes in a wide scope. It
embraces not only the vain toys, the ambitious hopes, the perishing pleasures
in which a gay unthinking world is sunk and lost—but even the legitimate calls
of business, the claims of wife and home, family and friends, with every social
tie that binds to earth. Thus . . .
every object on which the eye can rest;
every thought or desire that may spring up in the mind;
every secret idol that lurks in the bosom;
every care and anxiety that is not of grace;
every fond anticipation of pleasure or profit that the world may hold
out, or the worldly heart embrace—all, with a million pursuits in which man’s
fallen nature seeks employment or happiness, are “things on the
earth” on which the affections are not to be set.
We may love our wives and children. We should pursue our lawful callings with
diligence and industry. We must provide for our families according to the good
providence of God. But we may not so set our affections on these things, that
they pull us down from heaven to earth. He who is worthy of all our affections
claims them all for Himself. He who is the Bridegroom of the soul demands,
as He has fairly won, the unrivalled love of His bride.
But how are we to do this?
Can we do this great work by ourselves? No! it is only the Lord Himself,
manifesting His beauty and blessedness to our soul, and letting down the golden
cord of His love into our bosom—that draws up our affections, and fixes them on
Himself. In order to do this, He captivates the heartby
. . .some look of love,
some word of His grace,
some sweet promise, or
some divine truth spiritually applied.
When He thus captivates the soul, and draws it up—then the affections
flow unto Him as the source and fountain of all blessings.
We are not flogged into loving Him, but are drawn by love into
love. Love cannot be bought or sold. It is an inward affection that
flows naturally and necessarily towards its object and all connected with it.
And thus, as love flows out to Jesus, the affections instinctively and
necessarily set themselves “on things above, and not on things on the
earth.”
Jesus must be revealed to our soul by the power of God, before we can see His beauty
and blessedness—and so fall in love with Him as “the chief among ten
thousand, and the altogether lovely One.” Then everything that . . .
speaks of Christ,
savours of Christ,
breathes of Christ,
becomes inexpressibly sweet and precious!
In no other way can our affections be lifted up from earth to heaven. We cannot
control our affections—they will run out, of their own accord. If then our
affections are earthly—they will run towards earthly objects. If
they are carnaland sensual—they will flow towards
carnal and sensual objects.
But when the Lord Jesus Christ, by some manifestation of His glory and
blessedness; or the Holy Spirit, by taking of the things of Christ and
revealing them to the soul, sets Him before our eyes as the only object worthy
of, and claiming every affection of our heart—then the affections flow out, I
was going to say naturally, but most certainly spiritually, towards Him. And
when this is the case, the affections are set on things above.
Do you love Me?
Octavius Winslow
“Simon son of Jonah, lovest thou Me more than these these?” John
21:15
Do you love Me . . .
more than these creature claimants?
more than these earthly honours?
more than these worldly riches?
more than these domestic comforts?
more than parent, child, brother, sister, friend?
Do you love Me supremely, and
above all the ten thousand suitors for your heart?
Do you love Me?
Does My beauty charm you?
Does My love enthral you?
Does My grace draw you?
Does My cross attract you?
Have My sufferings and My death subdued you to penitence, faith, and love?
Am I dearer to you than earth’s dearest attractions?
Am I more precious than the heart’s most precious treasure?
Can you part with all, for Me?
“Do I love You, O my Lord?
Behold my heart and see;
Gently oust each idol thence,
That seeks to rival Thee.”
“You know I love You, dearest Lord;
But, oh, I long to soar;
Far from the sphere of mortal joys,
And learn to love You more!”
“If anyone man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Meranatha!” 1 Corinthians 16:22
True love to Christ!
by Spurgeon-
The Lord Jesus possesses all kinds of lovelinesses
compacted into one perfect loveliness! all perfections
blended to make one perfection! every sweet concocted
and distilled to make one perfect sweetness!
Oh, how one longs for but a moment’s sight of Christ in glory!
One might be content to have only a dry crust, and to lie in
an underground dungeon for the rest of one’s life, if one might
but gaze on his blessed face for once, and hear him say,
“I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
Those who truly love the Saviour wish to
know all that can be known about him.
True love likes to become familiar with the object of its
affection; its heart is set upon that object, it studies it,
and can never know it too well or too closely.
True love to Christ thinks of him from morning till night;
it is glad to be released from other thoughts that it may
follow only its one darling pursuit.
True love to Christ seeks to get to him, to live with him,
to live upon him, and thus to know him so intimately
that things which were unobserved and passed over at
the first, stand out in clear light to the increased
joy and delight of the contemplative mind.
If you have but a ‘spark’ of love for Jesus in your heart,
Jesus has a ‘furnace’ of love for you in his heart!
“LOVE ONE ANOTHER”
I John 4:11
The whole law of God is summed up in this one word – LOVE. Love is the reflection of God’s character. Love is the reflection of God’s mercy. Love is the reflection of Christ’s substitutionary work as our Redeemer. And love is the reflection of saving grace in the heart. If I have truly experienced grace in my heart, there will be a manifest love in my heart for the children of God. This love reveals itself in many practical ways. Love is FORGIVING. Love is not easily OFFENDED. Love is PATIENT, LONGSUFFERING, and KIND. Love is THOUGHTFUL and MERCIFUL. Love will cause a man to PRAY FOR HIS BRETHREN. Love will cause a person to SEEK THE COMPANY AND FELLOWSHIP OF HIS BRETHREN. Love will cause us to CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER, sharing each other’s joys and sorrows, bearing each other’s burdens, seeking each other’s welfare.
Do I have this LOVE? Do you? It matters not what else we have, or what else we may experience – IF LOVE IS ABSENT, CHRIST IS ABSENT, GRACE IS ABSENT, SALVATION IS ABSENT!
Don Fortner