{"id":6808,"date":"2025-02-04T01:23:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T01:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6808"},"modified":"2025-03-03T01:44:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T01:44:57","slug":"bulletin-edition-january-2024-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6808","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Edition January 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John 17:26 And I have\ndeclared unto them thy name, and will declare it<\/em>: that the love\nwherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n Eternal\n love!<\/strong>
\n <\/strong>
\n <\/em>-Spurgeon’s sermon, “Good Cheer for Christmas”<\/em>
\n
\n Every child of God is the object of eternal love<\/strong>–
\n love without beginning and without end.
\n This is one of the fat things full of marrow.
\n
\n Is it so, that I, a believer in Jesus, unworthy as I am,
\n am the object of the eternal love of God?
\n
\n What transport lies in that thought!
\n
\n Long before the Lord began to create the world, he had
\n thought of me.
\n Long before Adam fell or Christ was born,
\n and the angels sung their first choral over Bethlehem’s
\n miracle, the eye and the heart of God were towards his
\n elect people.
\n
\n He never began to love them, they were always
\n “a people near unto him.”
\n Is it not so written-“I have loved you with an\n everlasting
\n love, therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn you”?\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Eternal love,
\ninfinite wisdom,
\nboundless power!
\n<\/strong>
\nSpurgeon, “The Ravens’ Cry” No. 672.<\/em>
\n
\nEternal love <\/strong>appointed a way of mercy
\nfrom before the foundation of the world,
\nand infinite wisdom<\/strong> is engaged with
\nboundless power<\/strong> to carry out the divine
\ndesign. Surely the Lord must take much
\npleasure in saving the sons of men.
\nIf God is pleased to supply the beast of
\nthe field, do you not think that he delights
\nmuch more to supply his own child?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Blessed be the God\nand Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual\nblessings in heavenly places in Christ.” \u2013Ephesians 1:3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

O, could our faith but embrace\na little, were it only a little, and O, could we daily come and drink but a few\ndrops of this pure fountain of immortal joy, in the sweet realisation of being\nblessed, already blessed, fully blessed, unalterably, irreversibly blessed with\nall spiritual blessings in Christ, what strength and consolation would it\nimpart to our often cast down soul! Look at the words; examine them again and\nagain; think over in your mind, one by one, the spiritual blessings that you\nmost covet. Is it pardon? Is it peace? Is it the love of God shed abroad in\nyour heart? Is it the spirit of adoption, enabling you to cry, “Abba,\nFather?” Is it communion with God? Is it the enjoyment of his presence and\nsmiles? Is it deliverance from every doubt and fear? Is it a large measure of\nhis fear in your heart, a subduing of all your lusts and corruptions, a godly,\nholy life, and a happy, blessed death? Are not these the spiritual blessings\nwhich you prize above house or land, wife or husband, child or relative, or any\nearthly good? With these, then, and with every other are you blessed, already\nblessed, if you are one of God’s saints and a believer in Christ Jesus. God has\nnot yet to bless you, beyond giving you a foretaste here and the full enjoyment\nhereafter. He has already <\/em>blessed you with them all in Christ\nJesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“WE LOVE HIM,\nBECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US”.<\/strong>              I\nJohn 4:19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We\nmay differ on many points. But in this one thing every true child of God is\nlike every other child of God-“We love him\u201d. We do not love him as we\ndesire. We do not love him as we know we should. We do not love him as we soon\nshall. But we do really love him. It is not possible for a man to experience\nthe grace of God in salvation and not love the God of all grace. It is not\npossible for a man to know the efficacy of Christ’s blood in his own soul and\nnot love his gracious Redeemer. It is not possible for a man to have his heart\nrenewed by the power of the Holy Spirit and not love the Spirit of life. In\nspite of our many weaknesses, sins, and failures, we do honestly and sincerely\nconfess, “Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know also that we would never have loved him if he had not\nloved us first. The love of God for us precedes our love for him. “He\nfirst loved us.” He loved us before we had any desire to be loved by him.\nHe loved us before we sought his grace. He loved us before we had any\nrepentance or faith. He loved us before we had any being. He loved us\neternally. Does he not say, I have loved the with an everlasting\nlove, therefore with lovingkindness have I called thee”? He chose us, redeemed\nus, and called us because he loved us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only does God’s love for us precede our love for God, but\nGod’s love for us is the cause of our love for him. “We love him, because\nhe first loved us.” This heart of mine was so hard, this will\nwas so stubborn, that I would never have loved the Lord, if he had not\nintervened to conquer me with his love. In the midst of my sin and corruption,\nhe passed by, and behold it was “the time of love”. He revealed his\ngreat love for me in Christ. Beholding the crucified Christ, dying in the place\nof sinners, the love of God conquered this rebel’s heart. Trusting Christ as my\nonly Saviour, I am compelled to love him, because he first loved me. And now I\nknow that whatever I am, by the grace of God, I am because he loved me. Tell\nme, my brother, Is it not so with you?   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\nFortner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because he first loved\nus<\/strong>
\nby Spurgeon<\/em>
\n
\n“We love him because he first loved us.<\/strong>” -1 John 4:19
\n
\nThere is no light in the planet but that which proceeds from
\nthe sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but
\nthat which comes from the Lord Jesus himself.
\n
\n>From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God,
\nall our love to God must spring. This must ever be a great
\nand certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than
\nbecause he first loved us. Our love to him is “the fair
\noffspring” of his love to us.
\n
\nCold admiration, when studying the works of God,
\nanyone may have.
\nBut the warmth of love can only be kindled in
\nthe heart by God’s Spirit.
\n
\nHow great the wonder that such as we should ever have
\nbeen brought to love Jesus at all! How marvellous that
\nwhen we had rebelled against him, he should, by a display
\nof such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! never
\nshould we have had a grain of love towards God unless it
\nhad been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us.
\n
\nOur love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed
\nabroad in the heart: but after it is thus divinely born, it must
\n“be divinely nourished”.
\n
\nLove is an exotic– it is not a plant which will flourish
\nnaturally in human soil, it must be watered from above.
\nLove to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it
\nreceived no nourishment but that which could be drawn
\nfrom the rock of our hearts it would soon wither.
\n
\nAs love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly
\nbread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by
\nmanna from on high.
\n
\nLove must feed on love.
\nThe very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us.
\n
\n“I love you, Lord, but with no love of mine,
\nFor I have none to give;
\nI love you, Lord; but all the love is yours,
\nFor by your love I live.
\nI am as nothing, and rejoice to be
\nEmptied, and lost, and swallowed up in you.”
\n
\nIf Christ has our love…
\nIf Christ has our love he has our all; and Christ never has what
\nhe deserves from us, until he has our love. True love withholds
\nnothing from Christ, when it is sincerely set upon him. If we
\nactually love him, he will have our time, and he will have our
\nservice. He will have the use of all our resources, and gifts, and
\ngraces. Indeed, then he shall have our possessions, and our
\nvery lives, whenever he calls for them.
\n
\nIn the same way, when God loves any of us, he will withhold
\nnothing from us that is truly good for us. He does not hold
\nback his own only begotten Son, Rom.8:32.
\nWhen Christ loves us, he gives us everything we need– his
\nmerits to justify us, his Spirit to sanctify us, his grace to adorn
\nus and his glory to crown us. Therefore, when any of us love
\nChrist sincerely, we lay everything down at his feet, and give
\nup all to be at his command and service. “…they did not love
\ntheir lives so much as to shrink from death.” Rev. 12:11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For you!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\n“The Son of God, who loved me and\ngave Himself for me!” Galatians 2:20
\n
\nIs Jesus precious to your heart?
\n
\nIs He the object of your supreme admiration and delight?
\n
\nDoes He have your warmest affection?
\n
\nDo you love Jesus?
\n
\nYou must light your torch of affection for Christ, at the altar of Calvary.
\nYou must go there, and learn and believe what the love of Jesus is to you:
\n  the vastness of that love,
\n  the self-sacrifice of that love,
\n  how that love of Christ laboured and wept, bled, suffered, and\ndied for you!<\/strong>
\n
\nCan you stand before this love–this love . . .
\n  so precious,
\n  so great,
\n  so enduring,
\n  so self-consuming,
\n  so changeless;
\nand know that . . .
\n  for you<\/em> was this offering,
\n  for you<\/em> this cross,
\n  for you<\/em> this agony,
\n  for you <\/em>this scorn and insult,
\n  for you <\/em>this death–
\nand feel no sensibility, no emotion, no love to Jesus? Impossible!<\/em>
\n
\nDo not be cast down, then, in vain regrets that your love to Christ is so\nfrigid, so fickle, so dubious. Go and muse upon the reality and the greatness\nof the Saviour’s love to you. And if love can inspire love–while you muse, the\nfire will burn, and your soul shall be all in flame with love to Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Octavius Winslow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For He satisfieth\nthe longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” \u2013Psalm 107:9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We find the living family of\nGod sometimes set forth under the character of the ‘hungry’. Let us see what\nthey are hungering after. Is it pleasure, honour, promotion, respectability? O\nno; these toys and baubles cannot satisfy the spiritual hunger of a living\nsoul. They cannot hunger after that on which they cannot feed. They hunger then\nafter righteousness, as the Lord said–“Blessed are you who hunger and\nthirst after righteousness.” They hunger after God himself in his blessed\nmanifestations; they hunger after the bread of life which came down from\nheaven, that a man should eat thereof and not die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ in the mere letter of\nthe word cannot satisfy their keen appetite. They must feed upon him\ninternally, or their famine still continues. To these hungry, famishing souls,\nto have Christ in the letter is like a starving beggar standing outside a shop\nwhere there is plenty of provisions, and not having a farthing to buy them\nwith. What is Christ in the letter? Will a sight of Christ in the word of God\nremove the burden of guilt, bring peace into the soul, purge the conscience or\nsubdue the power of sin? Will the mere doctrine of Christ draw up the\naffections to him, cast out the world, dethrone self, or purify the heart?\n“Alas!” we say by painful experience, “not one jot, not one\njot.” But the ‘presence of Christ in the soul’ can at once do all these\nthings. Thus a hungry, famishing soul can only be pacified by Christ coming\ninto his heart as the hope of glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 J.C.Philpot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The genuine Gospel will\nalways appear like an insult on the taste of the public. Whenever it comes, if\nit be not received, it awakens disgust and provokes abhorrence. Nor can it be\notherwise.  For its principal design is to mortify the pride of man and\ndisplay the glory of grace; to throw all human excellence down to the dust, and\nto elevate, even the Throne of Glory, the needy and the wretched; to show that\neverything which exalteth itself against the knowledge of Christ is an\nabomination in the sight of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nancient Gospel is an unceremonious thing, it pays no respect to the academic\nbecause of his profound learning; nor to the moralist on account of his upright\nconduct.  It has not the least regard to the courtier because of his\npompous honours, nor the devotee for the sake of his zeal of his\nrighteousness.  No, the potent prince and the abject slave, the wise\nphilosopher and the ignorant rustic, the virtuous lady and the infamous\nprostitute, all stand on the same level in the Gospel\u2019s comprehensive\nsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

           ~Abraham\nBooth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting at the leper’s\ntable!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Jesus was in Bethany\nat the home of Simon, a man who had leprosy.”\n(Matthew 26:6).<\/em>
\n
\nTo this home Jesus had been invited–and He goes.
\n
\nIt seems to have been his leprosy which first brought Simon to Christ–and\nChrist to him. His disease was his link of connection with the Lord; and had it\nnot been for it, he might never have sought Him.
\n
\nIt is still so with us. Our sin, our moral leprosy–draws us to Jesus. We go to\nJesus, not about the good<\/em> that is in us, but the evil<\/em>.\nOur sense of guilt draws us to Him as the Pardoner; and our consciousness of\nsin constrains us to deal with Him as the Healer and Renewer. And as we began,\nso also do we go on. Sin brought us to Him–and Him to us. Our sin\nkeeps us constantly at His side. <\/strong>
\n
\nSimon finds that he has much more to do with Jesus than merely for the cure of\nhis leprosy; therefore he must have Him at his table. So is it with us.
\n
\nWe begin our relationship with Jesus by going to Him with our sins. But we soon\ndiscover that it cannot be ended here. Our relationship becomes a constant\ninterchange of thought and sympathy. We invite Him to our house–and He comes.\nWe ask Him to dine with us–and He comes.
\n
\nHow great the honour enjoyed by Simon, of entertaining the Lord of glory;\nsitting at his own table, with Jesus at his side as his guest! How marvellous\nthe condescension of Christ, in thus sitting at the leper’s table!<\/strong>
\n
\nHere, then, is the Saviour that suits us–the healer of the leper, and the\nguest of the healed one! We say to Jesus, “Heal me”–and He heals!\n“Come in”–and He comes! “Sit down at my table”–and He\nsits down immediately.
\n
\nIt is but little communion indeed, that we can taste here; for the best of\nearthly feasts are but foretastes of the marriage-supper. But the whole glad\nfullness we shall yet enjoy, when we shall meet a long absent Lord, not at our\ntable–but at His own! That day shall be the day of the Master’s joy, as well\nas of ours–He feasting with us, and we with Him! He enjoying our fellowship,\nand we His–forevermore!               \n                     \n                 Horatius Bonar<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 17:26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Eternal love! -Spurgeon’s sermon, “Good Cheer for Christmas” Every child of God is the object of eternal love– love without beginning and without end. This is […]<\/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-6808","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\/6808","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=6808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6823,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6808\/revisions\/6823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}