Long I have pondered….

Long Have I Pondered

Long have I pondered the pain of the cross:
Wood soaked in blood, washed with tears,
drenched in sweat.
Whips, cruel nails, crown of thorns, countless cost:
Somehow this death is both promise and threat…. See More
Cascades of suff’ring and love shrink my pride:
Silent I’m hushed by his spear-riven side.

Long have I pondered the shame of the cross:
Jeered by the troops, by authorities scorned.
Mocked by a brigand, society’s dross —
Christ is abandoned, rejected, ignored.
How can I focus on triumphs and things?
Here writhes my Maker, Redeemer and King.

Long have I pondered the curse of the cross:
Sinless, the Christ bears my guilt and my pain.
Thundering silence, a measureless cost —
God in his heaven lets Christ cry in vain.
Now I can glimpse sin’s bleak horror, and worse:
Christ dies and bears the unbearable curse.

Long have I pondered the Christ of the cross:
Gone is the boasting when I’m next to him.
Loving the rebel, redeeming the lost,
Jesus’ pure goodness exposes my sin.
Self is cut down by this triumph of grace:
Christ’s bloody cross is the hope of our race.

Lyrics by D.A. Carson, Music by Mark Hopper
Copyright 1999 Christway Media, Inc

March 6, 2010 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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“Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices”

That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father to a region of sorrow and death;
that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature;
that he that was clothed with glory should be wrapped with rags of flesh;
he that filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled in a manger;
that the power of God should fly from weak man, the God of Israel into Egypt;
that the God of the law should be subject to the law,
the God of the circumcision circumcised,
the God that made the heavens working at Joseph’s homely trade;
that he that binds the devils in chains should be tempted;
that he, whose is the world, and the fullness thereof, should hunger and thirst;
that the God of strength should be weary, the Judge of all flesh condemned, the God of life put to death;
that he that is one with his Father should cry out of misery, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’;
that he that had the keys of hell and death at his girdle should lie imprisoned in the sepulchre of another,
having in his lifetime nowhere to lay his head, nor after death to lay his body;
that that head, before which the angels do cast down their crowns, should be crowned with thorns,
and those eyes, purer than the sun, put out by the darkness of death;
those ears, which hear nothing but hallelujahs of saints and angels, to hear the blasphemies of the multitude;
that face, that was fairer than the sons of men, to be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews;
that mouth and tongue, that spoke as never man spake, accused for blasphemy;
those hands, that freely swayed the sceptre of heaven, nailed to the cross;
those feet, ‘like unto fine brass,’ nailed to the cross for man’s sins;
each sense annoyed: his feeling or touching, with a spear and nails; his smell, with stinking flavour, being crucified about Golgotha, the place of skulls; his taste, with vinegar and gall; his hearing, with reproaches, and sight of his mother and disciples bemoaning him; his soul, comfortless and forsaken;

…and all this for those very sins that Satan paints and puts fine colours upon! Oh! how should the consideration of this stir up the soul against it, and work the soul to fly from it, and to use all holy means whereby sin may be subdued and destroyed!

~ Excerpt from “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices” by Thomas Brooks

March 4, 2010 · Filed Under Holiness and Sanctification, The Cross

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The Fear of God ~John Stott

“The kind of God that appeals to most people today would be easy-going in his tolerance of our offenses. He would be gentle, kind, accommodating. He would have no violent reactions. Unhappily, even in the church we seemed to have lost the vision of the majesty of God. There is much shallowness and levity among us. Prophets and psalmists would probably say of us, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” In public worship our habit is to slouch or squat; we do not kneel nowadays, let alone prostrate ourselves in humility before God. It is more characteristic of us to clap our hands with joy than to blush with shame or tears.

We saunter up to God to claim his patronage and friendship; it does not occur to us that he might send us away. We need to hear again the Apostle Peter’s sobering words, “Since you call on a father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives in reverent fear.” (I Peter 1:17) In other words, if we dare to call our judge our Father, we must beware of presuming on him. It must even be said that our evangelical emphasis on the atonement is dangerous if we come to it too quickly. We learn to appreciate the access to God which Christ has won only after we have first cried, “Woe is me for I am lost.”

John Stott: The Cross Of Christ

March 1, 2010 · Filed Under The Fear of God

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“Salvation is of the Lord” ~Jonah 2:9

“Salvation is the work of God. It is He alone who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is He also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is of the Lord.” If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because He upholds me with His hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God Himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: “Salvation is of the Lord.”  ~C H Spurgeon

February 18, 2010 · Filed Under Conversion, The Gospel

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The Wrath of God ~Charles Leiter

February 17, 2010 · Filed Under Uncategorized, Wrath of God

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Jesus is Altogether Lovely

“Yes, Christ is altogether lovely.

He is altogether lovely in his person, in the glorious all-sufficiency of his deity and the gracious purity and holiness of his humanity, authority, majesty, love, and power.

He is altogether lovely in his birth and incarnation.

He is altogether lovely in the whole of his life, in his holiness and obedience, which in the depths of poverty and persecution he showed by doing good, receiving evil, blessing others and being cursed himself all his days.

He is altogether lovely in his death, especially to sinners.  He was never more glorious and desirable than when he was taken down from the cross, broken and lifeless.  He carried all our sins into a land of forgetfulness.  He made peace and reconciliation for us.  He procured life and immortality for us.

He is altogether lovely in his work, in his great undertaking to be the Mediator between God and man, to glorify God’s justice, to save our souls, to bring us to the enjoyment of God who were at such an infinite distance from him by reason of our sin.

He is altogether lovely in the glory and majesty with which he is crowned.  Now he is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high.  Though he is terrible to his enemies, yet he is full of mercy, love, and compassion to his loved ones.

He is altogether lovely in those graces and comforts that he pours on his people by the Holy Spirit.

He is altogether lovely in all the tender care, power, and wisdom by which he protects, safeguards, and delivers his church and people in the midst of all oppositions and persecutions to which they are exposed.

He is altogether lovely in all his ordinances and the whole of that glorious worship which he has appointed for his people, by which they draw near to him and have communion with him and his Father.

He is altogether lovely and gracious in the vengeance that he takes and will finally execute upon the stubborn enemies of himself and his people.

He is altogether lovely in the pardon he has purchased and which he gives to those who receive him.

He is altogether lovely in the reconciliation that he has wrought, in the grace that he communicates, in the comforts, the peace and the joy that he gives his saints, and in his assured preservation of them, losing none but raising all of them to eternal glory in the last day.

Yes, he is altogether lovely…This is my beloved and this is my friend.”

(John Owen, Communion with God)

February 11, 2010 · Filed Under The Glory of Christ

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The Absolute Sovereignty of God ~R C Sproul

February 10, 2010 · Filed Under The Sovereignty of God

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Christ – Altogether Lovely by John Flavel

“Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved,
and this is my Friend.” Song of Songs 5:16

I. Christ is to be loved

At the ninth verse of this chapter, you have a question put forth by the daughters of Jerusalem, “What is your beloved more than another beloved?” The spouse answers, “He is the chief among ten thousand.” She then recounts many of the things she finds so excellent in her beloved and then concludes with these words: “Yes, he is altogether lovely.” The words set forth the transcendent loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and naturally resolve themselves into three parts:

First, Who he is: the Lord Jesus Christ, after whom she had been seeking, for whom she was overcome by love; concerning whom these daughters of Jerusalem had enquired: whom she had struggled to describe in his particular excellencies. He is the great and excellent subject of whom she here speaks.

Secondly, What he is, or what she claims of him: That he is a lovely one. The Hebrew word, which is often translated “desires,” means “to earnestly desire, covet, or long after that which is most pleasant, graceful, delectable and admirable.” The original word is both in the abstract, and plural in number, which says that Christ is the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting-place of all the waters in the world, so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet.

Thirdly, What he is like: He is altogether lovely, the every part to be desired. He is lovely when taken together, and in every part; as if she had said, “Look on him in what respect or particular you wish; cast your eye upon this lovely object, and view him any way, turn him in your serious thoughts which way you wish; consider his person, his offices, his works, or any other thing belonging to him; you will find him altogether lovely, there is nothing disagreeable in him, there is nothing lovely without him.” Hence note,

DOCTRINE: That Jesus Christ is the loveliest person souls can set their eyes upon: “You are the most excellent of men.” Psalm 45:2

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February 3, 2010 · Filed Under The Glory of Christ

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The Morning I Heard the Voice of God

Listen to John Piper telling of hearing God’s voice early one morning …

The Morning I Heard the Voice of God

February 3, 2010 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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Doubt or False Assurance

We can learn a valuable lesson from the disciple’s response when Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me” (Matt. 26:21). They did not turn and point the finger at the one sitting next to them, but “they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, ‘Lord, is it I?’

When it comes to doubting our salvation, most every Christian will have times of doubt as to whether or not he himself is saved, particularly in his earliest years as a Christian. He does not doubt the promises of God but rather or not he himself has received them. He who has doubts about his salvation will seek diligently after assurance. The false professor, on the other hand, will not experience such struggles for why would he struggle with something he does not truly believe? It is the one who never wrestles with his salvation that is more likely to be found in danger of a false assurance, for the reality of what is at stake never truly reaches the depths of his soul. J.C. Philpot states:

Now I believe that for the most part, those who have nothing else but a birth ‘of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man,’ have no doubts nor fears, no strong exercises nor sharp temptations as to their eternal state before God: whilst, on the other hand, those whom the Lord is teaching by the blessed Spirit, are often tried and exercised in their minds whether the feelings which they from time to time inwardly experience spring from a real work of God upon their souls, or whether they are mere counterfeits and imitations of a work of grace.

Thus, in God’s mysterious providence, those who have every reason to fear have for the most part no fear at all, and those who have no reason whatever to fear, but stand complete in Christ, the objects of God’s eternal love, and the sheep for whom Jesus died, are the only persons who are plagued and pestered with the fears that spring from their own unbelieving hearts, and the temptations with which Satan is continually distressing their minds. It is the object of Satan to keep those secure who are safe in his hands; nor does God see fit to disturb their quiet. He has no purpose of mercy towards them; they are not subjects of His kingdom; they are not objects of His love. He therefore leaves them carnally secure; in a dream, from which they will not awake till God “despises their image” (Ps. 73:20).

But on the other hand, where Satan perceives a work of grace going on; where he sees the eyes sometimes filled with tears, where he hears the sobs heaving from the contrite heart, where he observes the knees often bent in secret prayer, where his listening ear often hears the poor penitent confess his sins, weaknesses, and backslidings before God (for by these observations, we have reason to believe, Satan gains his intelligence), wherever he sees this secret work going on in the soul, mad with wrath and filled with malice, he vents his hellish spleen against the objects of God’s love. Sometimes he tries to ensnare them into sin, sometimes to harass them with temptation, sometimes to stir up their wicked heart into desperate rebellion, sometimes to work upon their natural infidelity, and sometimes to plague them with many groundless doubts and fears as to their reality and sincerity before a heart-searching God.

So that whilst those who have no work of grace upon their hearts at all are left secure, and free from doubt and fear, those in whom God is at work are exercised and troubled in their minds, and often cannot really believe that they are the people in whom God takes delight.(1)

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February 2, 2010 · Filed Under Assurance

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