{"id":6115,"date":"2021-12-04T05:52:33","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T05:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6115"},"modified":"2021-12-04T05:52:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T05:52:33","slug":"bulletin-edition-december-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6115","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Edition December 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Go and lay your icy heart upon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  His flaming heart of love!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(From Octavius Winslow’s, “Christ, the Everlasting\nFather”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The everlasting love of Christ never veers, never<\/p>\n\n\n\n

chills, and knows not the shadow of a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Measuring Christ’s love to us by our love to Him,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we often imagine that it must necessarily be<\/p>\n\n\n\n

affected by the cold, chilling atmosphere of our<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hearts; that when our love to Him ebbs, His love<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to us also ebbs; that when ours proves fickle<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and treacherous, wandering after some creature<\/p>\n\n\n\n

idol, then His love, exacting reprisals, in like<\/p>\n\n\n\n

manner starts off, and leaves us for another<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and perhaps more faithful object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No! the love of Jesus to His saints, is as eternal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as His being, is as unchangeable as His nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yield not, then, to despondency, beloved, when<\/p>\n\n\n\n

you discover the mercury of your love sink, even<\/p>\n\n\n\n

though it be to freezing point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There may be times when you can scarcely<\/p>\n\n\n\n

detect its existence, so faint its beating pulse,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

so congealed its warm current.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But since Christ’s love is not the effect, but the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cause of ours to Him, and is an everlasting love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

glowing in His heart ages that cannot be numbered<\/p>\n\n\n\n

or measured, before one pulse throbbed in ours;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we may take comfort in the assurance that no<\/p>\n\n\n\n

variation of affection in us towards the Savior<\/p>\n\n\n\n

can in the slightest degree affect the tenderness,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

depth, or immutability of the great love with<\/p>\n\n\n\n

which He has loved us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look, then, to Christ’s love to you,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and not to your love to Christ!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go and lay your icy heart upon His flaming<\/p>\n\n\n\n

heart of love! Go to His cross, and there muse<\/p>\n\n\n\n

upon the love that bore your sins, that suffered<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and bled, that wept, and groaned, and died for you,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

paying the death penalty of your transgressions;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and, while you thus muse, the flame will kindle,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the fire will burn, and your tongue will break forth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

into singing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DIVINE LOVE QUESTIONED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Octacvius Winslow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast\nthou loved us?”–Mal. 1:2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was ever baser, darker, ingratitude than this? Study it, O my soul,\nfor have you not, in spite of the countless evidences of your Lord’s love to\nyou, often doubted its reality, and questioned the wisdom, righteousness, and\ntenderness of its dealings? But, listen to the divine declaration of its\nexistence. God Himself asserts it; and who shall dare call it in question?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have loved you.” How does the Lord evidence the\nreality of His love to us? Take the display of God’s love to the literal\nIsrael, as typifying His love to His spiritual Israel; and in the analogy we shall\nsee more distinctly wherein He has loved us. The Lord’s love to His ancient\npeople was exhibited in choosing them above all nations upon the face of the\nearth to be His peculiar people in conferring upon them especial blessings and\ndistinctive privileges; by perpetuating their nationality amid many changes and\nrevolutions; by bringing them up out of Egypt; by emancipating them from the\nBabylonish captivity; and by conducting them to their own land. And to crown\nthese signal and especial blessings, having one Son, well-beloved, He sent Him\nto deliver and save them, saying, “They will reverence My Son.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all this, O my soul, see your Lord’s love shadowed forth. Did\nHe not choose you to be His peculiar treasure, loving you with an everlasting\nlove, and with love drawing you from your idol state to Himself; making you to\nforget your own people and your father’s house, that He might “betroth you\nto Himself forever, in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving kindness\nand in mercy?” Has He not “blessed you with all spiritual things in\nChrist Jesus,” conferring upon you the relation of a child, the dignity of\na saint, the inheritance of an heir? And to crown all, has He not given you His\ndear Son to be your Sin-Bearer, your Surety, your Redeemer, your Portion, and\nyour all? Truly may the Lord say, “I have loved you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And yet you say, How have You loved us?” Ah! here is\nyour dark ingratitude and base unbelief. When a cloud has shaded His love–when\na providence has hidden it–when a trial of faith has tested it–when some\ndark, crushing dispensation of your God seems to belie it, then you have\nexclaimed, “How have you loved me? Is this love? Has love painted this\ndark cloud, blighted this beauteous flower, broken this strong staff, and\nembittered this cup of earthly sweet, emptying me from vessel to vessel, all\nHis waves and His billows overflowing me?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, my soul, divine love–everlasting love–redeeming\nlove–unchanging love has done it all! Then, Lord, I will no longer distrust\nyour love–no more will I ask, How have You loved me? but will accept every\ncloud that shades it–every trial that embitters it–every correction that\nchanges its voice from the accents of tenderness and sympathy, to those of\nausterity and terror, as still love, disguised though it be. Dear Lord, allow\nme never more–in the gloomiest hour, in the sorest trial, in the severest\nrebuke, in the saddest moment–to call in question, to allow the shadow of a\ndoubt to rest upon the great, the tender, the changeless love with which You\nhave from all eternity loved me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, my soul, how much greater reason have you to doubt your\ntrue and deep love to Christ! He may well ask, “Do you love Me?” Be\nhumbled at the cross for this; and yet be not discouraged. Look to the Lord’s\ngreat and changeless love to you, and not to your poor, faint, faltering love\nto Him. This will inflame your affections, kindle a more responsive, obedient\nand patient love in return–a love that will constrain you to do all and suffer\nall your blessed Lord in love commands and ordains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2Th.\n2:16 \u00b6 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father,\nwhich hath loved us, and hath given us<\/em> everlasting consolation and good\nhope through grace,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2Th.\n2:17 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and\nwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Lord is pleased to apply a promise, drop in a word of\nencouragement, speak home an invitation with power, he administers consolation\nthereby. It comforts the drooping heart; it speaks peace to a guilty\nconscience. And this consolation is “everlasting consolation;” for it\nflows from nothing less than such a source, that is, the eternal love of God;\nand flows onward to an everlasting ocean of infinite delight. Any intimation of\na saving interest in the everlasting love of God is a blessing beyond all\nprice; for the Lord never gives any such intimation but as a certain pledge and\nforetaste of immortal bliss. He can neither disappoint nor deceive. Once blest,\nblest forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We may indeed for a long time together cease to enjoy the\ncomfort, and even may fall into the greatest depths of darkness and confusion,\nso as to lose sight of almost all our evidences; but the foundation of God\nstands sure–“The Lord knows those who are his.” The river of eternal\nlove may seem to flow by and not reach our breast, so high are the banks and\nhidden out of sight the stream. Still if ever it has watered our soul, it will\nbe one day “waters to swim in” of eternal delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He could not love you more!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Charles Spurgeon)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jer.\n31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying<\/em>, Yea, I have\nloved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn\nthee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He loved you without beginning. Before years, and centuries, and\nmillenniums began to be counted\u2014your name was on His heart! Eternal thoughts of\nlove have been in God’s bosom towards you. He has loved you without a pause;\nthere never was a minute in which He did not love you. Your name once engraved\nupon His hands\u2014has never been erased, nor will He ever blot it out of the Book\nof Life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since you have been in this world\u2014He has loved you most\npatiently. You have often provoked Him; you have rebelled against Him times\nwithout number, yet He has never stayed the outflow of His heart towards you;\nand, blessed be His name\u2014He never will. You are His, and you always shall be\nHis. God’s love to you is without boundary. He could not love you more\u2014for He\nloves you like a God; and He never will love you less. All His heart belongs to\nyou!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As the Father has loved Me\u2014so have I loved you!” John\n15:9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EVERLASTING LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John MacDuff<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How precious also are Your thoughts unto me, O God!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jer.\n31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying<\/em>, Yea, I have\nloved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn\nthee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we have an everlasting thought of God, “in the\nbeginning, before ever the earth was.” Believer, travel back in\nimagination to the ages of the past. Before the trance of eternity was broken\nby any visible manifestation of power\u2014before one temple was erected in space,\nbefore one angel waved his wing, or one note was heard of seraph’s song\u2014when\nGod inhabited alone these sublime solitudes\u2014then there was a thought of you,\nand that thought was\u2014Love!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of the sovereignty of that love. He says not, ‘You have\nloved Me with your poor earthly love, therefore have I drawn you.’ No, no! It\nis from nothing in you\u2014no foreseen goodness on your part. Grace is the reason\nof all He has done\u2014”God who is rich in mercy for His great love with which\nHe loved us.” “I will have mercy,” is His own declaration\u2014on\nwhom I will have mercy.” “Jacob,” (that cunning, scheming,\ncrafty youth,) “I have loved.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manasseh, (that miserable man who has defiled his crown,\ndishonoured his throne, and deluged Jerusalem with blood,) “I have\nloved.” That dying thief\u2014fresh from a life of infamy, breathing out his\nblasphemies on a felon’s cross\u2014”I have loved.” And why, let each of\nus ask, am I not a Cain or a Judas? Why am I not a wrecked and stranded vessel,\nlike thousands before me? Here is the reason; “Yes, I have loved\nyou.” Before you had one thought of Me, yes, when your thoughts were those\nof hatred, rebellion, enmity\u2014My thoughts towards you were thoughts of love!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that Sovereign love, as it is from everlasting, so is it to\neverlasting\u2014endless in duration\u2014enduring as eternity. The love of the creature\nis but of yesterday\u2014it may be gone tomorrow\u2014dried like a summer-brook when most\nneeded. But the love of God is fed from the glacier summits\u2014the everlasting\nhills. We may estimate its intensity, when the Savior could utter regarding it\nsuch a prayer as this, “That the love with which You have loved Me, may be\nin them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, amid the often misgivings of my own doubting heart, with its\nframes and feelings vacillating as the shifting sand, let me delight to ponder\nthis precious thought\u2014the long line of unbroken love\u2014every link love\u2014connecting\nthe eternity that is past with the eternity to come\u2014God thinking of me before\nthe birth of time\u2014even then mapping out all my future happiness and heavenly\nbliss\u2014and standing now, with the hoarded love of that eternity in His heart,\nseeking therewith to “draw” me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is “the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness\ntowards us through Christ Jesus”\u2014the moral gravitation-power of the cross,\nby which His true people have ever been drawn. “I, if I be lifted up from\nthe earth, will draw all men unto Myself.” Draw me, Lord, and I will run\nafter You. Show me Your loving-kindness thus enshrined and manifested in Your\ndear Son. Constrain me to love You in Him, because You have first loved, and so\nloved, me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the\nchildren of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalm 36:7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So fathomless, boundless, and inexhaustible!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(From Octavius Winslow’s, “Christ, the Wonderful”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ is wonderful in His love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love was the first and eternal link in the golden<\/p>\n\n\n\n

chain lowered from the highest throne in heaven<\/p>\n\n\n\n

down to the lowest depth of earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Christ should love us was the beginning of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wonders. When we endeavour to comprehend that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

love, measure it, fathom it, scale it; we learn that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it has heights we cannot reach, depths we cannot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sound, lengths and breadths we cannot measure!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

such divine love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

such infinite love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

such everlasting love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

such redeeming, dying love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is an Ocean whose eternal waves waft into our<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fallen world every wonder of God and of heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Jesus should love such beings as us; that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He should love us while we were yet sinners;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that He should set his heart upon us, choose us,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

die for us, call us, and finally bring us to glory,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

knowing what we were, and what we should prove,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, this is wondrous love indeed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plunge into this fathomless, boundless ocean of love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O you sin burdened one! It will cover all your sins,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it will efface all your guilt; it will flood over all your<\/p>\n\n\n\n

unworthiness; and, floating upon its golden waves,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it will gently waft you to the shore of eternal blessedness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How often have you wondered why Christ should set<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His heart upon such a one as you! And is it not a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wonder that, amid all your fickleness, backslidings,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cold, base returns, this love of God towards you has<\/p>\n\n\n\n

not chilled or changed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But do not rest, do not be satisfied with your present<\/p>\n\n\n\n

limited experience of Christ’s wonderful love. It is so<\/p>\n\n\n\n

marvellously great. This Ocean of love is so fathomless,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

boundless, and inexhaustible, you may plunge, with<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all your infirmities, sin, and sorrow, into its fullness,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

exclaiming, “O the depth!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The well is deep,” drink abundantly, O beloved!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go and lay your icy heart upon   His flaming heart of love! (From Octavius Winslow’s, “Christ, the Everlasting Father”) The everlasting love of Christ never veers, never chills, and knows not the shadow of a change. Measuring Christ’s love to us by our love to Him, we often imagine that it must necessarily be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6116,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6115\/revisions\/6116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}