He without anything is more than all without Him

"God, and all that he has made, is not more than God without any thing that he has made...He is enough without the creature, but the creature is not anything without him. It is therefore better to enjoy him without anything else, than to enjoy everything else without him."
- William Secker

"...be not afraid"

A storm? But He who rules all things,
From rolling dice to hearts of kings,
Still speaks; my frightened heart is stayed
By, "It is I; be not afraid."

AFC-6-22-09

comprehended in Christ

"When we see that the whole sum of our salvation, and every single part of it, are comprehended in Christ, we must beware of deriving even the minutes portion of it from any other quarter.
If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that he possesses it; if we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, we shall find them in his unction; strength in his government; purity in his conception; indulgence in his nativity, in which he was made like us in all respects, in order that he might learn to sympathise with us: if we seek redemption, we shall find it in his passion; acquittal in his condemnation; remission of the curse in his cross; satisfaction in his sacrifice; purification in his blood; reconciliation in his descent to hell; mortification of the flesh in his sepulchre; newness of life in his resurrection; immortality also in his resurrection; the inheritance of a celestial kingdom in his entrance into heaven; protection, security, and the abundant supply of all blessings, in his kingdom; secure anticipation of judgment in the power of judging committed to him.
...since in him all kinds of blessings are treasured up, let us draw a full supply from him, and none from any other quarter."
- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. II.XVI.19

He who enables me to fight....

“’Did not God assist us, we should not only not be able to conquer, but not able even to fight.’ [Augustine]”

- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Book II, Chap. V, section 14

The very fact that I am able to fight against sin and pursue righteousness, however feebly, ought to give me hope, in that God’s Spirit helps me and gives me a will to do good. Indeed, my heart should take great courage in the remembrance that He who enables me to fight is just as able to make me a conqueror in His good time.

giving advice to my deceitful heart regarding its prayers:

Do not presume to counsel the One who has all knowledge. Though you plead your case before Him, do not consider it His wisdom to precisely comply with you, nor count your desires more sovereign than His. Is He not God? Does He not do as he pleases in the heavens and on the earth?
And yet, He has told you to pray - as a means for accomplishing His will....did you begin to think there was any other purpose for prayer?

Let not your prayers be the cries of a revolutionary in the streets, or the whisperings of a counselor sidling behind the throne, but the requests of a loyal subject bowing before the King, who delights in nothing so much as in seeing the will of the King be done.

what is trustworthy

"Circumstances often lie to us, and we cannot trust our feelings."
- C. J. Mahaney

It sounds like nothing profound, but it has resounded its clear note of truth in my mind again and again - a clear and forceful exhortation to believe nothing but the One whose word is truth, regardless of circumstances or feelings.

That word says,
"I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them." - Jer 32:4

and
"for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." - Rom 8:28

This word never lies.

love Him or die

I must love Christ or my soul will die.

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me....If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
... As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love."

Loving Christ is not my option; it is my life. Ought I not then tremble when my love for Him grows dim or cold? Ought I not cry out for mercy lest I die?

Thanks be to God that the Word which commands "Keep yourselves in the love of God" is addressed to those who are "kept by Jesus Christ" and promises that nothing "can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

...how shall I fight?

How shall I overcome weakness and sin and fleshly tendencies? How shall I be enabled to do what is truly good for my soul?

I saw the answer this afternoon as I readied for supper:

Not by willpower, but by superior satisfaction!

I realized that true victory over habits of the flesh does not come by reminding myself that I "ought not", but by reminding myself that I need not, because I have Christ, because I was a child of wrath and darkness, but am now am counted among the beloved of God, because I have been justified by faith and have peace with God through Jesus Christ, through whom I have obtained access by faith into the grace in which I stand. And I rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5)... and do I need to go there, to gaze there, to say that?... Why should I?

And here is one example of that heavenly bread with which the soul can be satisfied. I have fed on it many times to day and been strengthened:

“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me."
- Isaiah 12:1 ESV

To be taken from under divine wrath to divine love...this is altogether enough.

Do Thou for Me

"Do Thou for me, O God the Lord,
Do Thou for me;
I need not toil to find the word
That carefully
Unfolds my prayer and offers it,
My God, to Thee.

It is enough that Thou wilt do,
And will not tire,
Will lead by cloud, all the night through
By light of fire,
Till Thou hast perfected in me
Thy Heart's desire.

O blessed be the love that bears
The burden now,
The love that frames our very prayers,
Well knowing how
To coin our gold; O God the Lord,
Do Thou, do Thou."

- Amy Carmichael

"But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord for thy name's sake"
- Psalm 109:21

"On My Heart Imprint Thine Image"

Reading John Owen, I encountered these heart-pricking words:

Many love the world too well and have their minds too much filled with the things of it to entertain desires of speeding through it to a state wherein they may behold the glory of Christ. They are at home and are unwilling to be absent from the body, though to be present with the Lord. They hope, it may be, that such a season will come at one time or another, and then it will be the best they can look for when they can be here no more. But they have but a little sight of the glory of Christ in this world by faith, if any at all, who so little, so faintly desire to have the immediate sight of it above...Goods, lands, possessions, relations, trades, with secular interests in them, are the things whose image is drawn on their minds and whose characters are written on their foreheads, as the titles whereby they may be known. As believers, beholding the glory of Christ in the blessed glass of the gospel, are changed into the same image and likeness by the Spirit of the Lord (II Cor. 3:18); so these persons, beholding the beauty of the world and the things that are in it in the cursed glass of self-love, are in their minds changed into the same image. Hence perplexing fears, vain hopes, empty embraces of perishing things, fruitless desires, earthly, carnal designs, cursed, self-pleasing imaginations, feeding on, and being fed by, the love of the world and self, abide and prevail in them. But we have not so learned Christ Jesus.

I fear that I saw a dreadful amount of myself in these lines. Oh how prone I am to idolatry and to wandering from Jesus' bosom. God remove this cursed inclination from my soul and give me more love for Christ!

to keep humble

"When we measure ourselves by the life of our Lord who humbled himself even to death on a cross, we cannot but be overwhelmed by the tawdriness and shabbiness, and even the vileness of our hearts." - J. Oswald Sanders

Here is another reason to be reading the gospels - to keep humble. Have I forgotten how grand He is - my Jesus - and how poor I am?

I must be looking unto Jesus - indeed to persevere in laying hold of Him and to joy in His sufficiency and to love His loveliness, but also - that I may realize His greatness, and be humbled.

"Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession," - Hebrews 3:1 ESV

As If Thou Wast Not Enough

My God,
Let me ask nothing of Thee
as if Thou wast not enough
as if Thou must give to me
something outside Thyself
to satisfy my soul.
Let me first and only ask
that I may know Thee.
Then give me what Thou wilt
But oh, the fullness, the fullness of joy
Is in Thee, my God,
In nothing else but Thee.

In Need of Grace

Lord grant us grace,

for the grace lies with you

and with us lies the need.


" Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help in time of need."
- Hebrews 4:16 ESV

Contented

Those who wait upon the Lord with perfect trust are perfectly free.

Here lies contentment - that He who did not spare His Son for us - shall He not also along with Him, graciously give us all things?

Shall our Father with-hold from us anything good? No, never.

Believing this, there is no fretting, no sighing after what He has presently with-held.
Only freedom to joyfully toss all of our cares on Him and live for His glory. He shall work for me as I wait for Him.

This is where I would always be.

"He who hitherto hath fed me
And to many joys hath led me,
Is and ever shall be mine.
He who did so gently school me,
He who still doth guide and rule me,
Will remain my help divine.

"Well He knows what best to grant me;
All the longing hopes that haunt me,
Joy and sorrow, have their day.
I shall doubt His wisdom never, -
As God wills, so be it ever, -
I to Him commit my way."

- Author Unknown, tr. Catherine Winkworth

Seeing and Being

"Man becomes that which he gazes upon"

- George Harrison

I like that statement because it really is true. It's biblical -

"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." - 2 Cor. 3:18 ESV

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." - 1 John 3:2 ESV

That's the positive aspect of this truth - beholdingJesus, we become like him. It is also true in the negative aspect. Those who make idols and look to them become like them (Ps. 115:4-8)

But oh, to be always looking unto Jesus and reflecting his glory!

Now, what am I looking at?

We fight...

With thanksgiving we fight

In the soul's bitter night

And we battle dark forces with song.

~ ~ ~

Lust gives way to loving

And fears fall to trusting

As gratitude proves itself strong.

~ ~ ~

"And be thankful."

- Colossians 3:15

If it pleaseth Him...

Sovereign Lord, may this

My heart-song be:

If it pleaseth Thee

It pleaseth me.

"...that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,

what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Romans 12:2 ESV

I Ask Thee...

...blind my eyes to earthly riches

by the brightness of the coming reward.

"He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward."

- Hebrews 11:26 ESV

What Ought to Make the Heart Beat

On Revive our Hearts radio today, Nancy Demoss shared this statement from Oswald Chambers that really leaped out at me:

"Our circumstances are the means of manifesting how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. The thing that ought to make the heart beat is a new way of manifesting the Son of God.”

That means any opportunity to do right is a cause to rejoice that I can manifest the mighty purity of the spirit of Christ dwelling in me. Anything that shows my own weakness or dependency on Christ is a cause to rejoice that I can manifest His power. If anything I cherished is taken from me, it is a cause to rejoice that I might demonstrate His superior value. For those united to Jesus by faith, all of life is about manifesting His superiority. That's what should make us excited, what should make our heart beat. Even if it means less of something - less of comfort, less of ease, less of reputation, less of strength, the important thing is that it is more, more, more of Jesus seen. May God make this our hearts' desire.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. - 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV

"Gratitude Becomes Us"

I appreciated this statement from Charles Spurgeon's sermon entitled "Unconditional Surrender". It's what I needed to hear when I was a younger teenager who was rather ungrateful for the way God made me, the things I had and the family I was born into. (And what I need to hear now too!):

"Have you accepted your position in the scale of worldly wealth? Are you satisfied to be sickly, obscure or of small ability? Are God's appointments your contentments? Too many professors [professing believers] are quarreling with God that they are not other than they are. This is evil, and shows that pride is still in their hearts, for were they conscious of their own deserts they would know that anything short of hell is more than we deserve, and as long as we are not in the pit of torment gratitude becomes us."

If only I always realized how unworthy I am - I should never complain. To think of what manner of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God! He has given us so much! And the things we don't understand, the things that are hard, He has designed with love far greater than we can imagine. Ingratitude from the redeemed is unfitting. Gratitude becomes us.

"Submit yourselves therefore to God"

- James 4:7 ESV