Happy Monday, friends!! I don’t have long to write now…but quickly before I start work…as I sip on my peppermint mocha here(mm, so delicious!), thought I’d share just a few thoughts from my morning reading. Reading John 21 today, finally finishing the book of John. I really tried to take my time reading John, and oh how much I have enjoyed it and been supremely blessed. And so today I read the final chapter…containing one of my favourite parts – Jesus having breakfast with his disciples! – and as I read through to the end, I was convicted yet again by Jesus’ conversation with Peter. This talk that Jesus and Peter have…so encouraging to me. Peter had sinned greatly against the Lord in his betrayal and denial of Christ. Peter was weak and frail. And yet Jesus strengthened Peter and called him to do the work that he was called to do. “Feed my sheep.” Jesus knew that Peter was just a man. Jesus knew that Peter was imperfect. Yet Jesus also knew that Peter was one of God’s own children and had a purpose on this earth. And as he reminded Peter that even in his life, not all would go the way Peter might like – life would not be easy or pain free, oh no! – Jesus left Peter with some final words. “Follow me!” Of course Peter being Peter(oh how I love him!), he blusters a bit and pushes back on Jesus’ statement – “What about him!!?” pointing at John. I can imagine Peter thinking, “If I’m going to suffer and have a horrible death, I sure hope I’m not the only one!” Jesus gently rebukes him and then leaves Peter with the final words we have recorded as Jesus saying to Peter. Again – “Follow me!” And those may be strange words to us – surely, Peter had heard those words oh so long ago when he was standing by his father’s boats when Jesus first called Peter to discipleship. Peter had already chosen to follow Christ. Why was Jesus saying this again? Because Peter needed to hear it. This is such a good reminder to us – have you bowed the knee to God and repented of your sins and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and life everlasting? If so, hallelujah! (And if not…read the book of John and get back to me). But even so – we need this reminder each and every day. Jesus is saying to you, “Follow me!” Each and every day, remind yourself that every step you take needs to be in passionate obedience to Christ, eagerly delighting and rejoicing in the good will of God. Follow Jesus this day. Will it always be easy? Of course not. But it will be glorious. Many years after that walk on the beach with Jesus, Peter took his final steps on this earth and was crucified for his love for his Lord. He glorified Christ with his death. Let us glorify Christ with our life.
Tag: jesus
Of Symphonies and Spaghetti
That is the way to pray, says Christ, take these two things together, never separate
these two truths. Remember that you are approaching the almighty, eternal,
ever-blessed holy God. But remember also that that God, in Christ, has become
your Father, who not only knows all about you in the sense that He is
omniscient, He knows all about you also in the sense that a father knows all
about his child. He knows what is good for the child. Put these two things together.
God in His almightiness is looking at you with a holy love and knows
your every need. He hears your every sigh and loves you with an everlasting love.
He desires nothing so much as your blessing, your happiness, your joy and your prosperity.
Then remember this, that He ‘is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think.’ As your ‘Father which is in heaven’ He is
much more anxious to bless you than you are to be blessed. There is also no
limit to His almighty power. He can bless you with all the blessings of heaven.
He has put them all in Christ, and put you into Christ. So your life can be enriched
with all the glory and riches of the grace of God Himself.
That is the way to pray. Before you begin to make any petition, before you
begin to ask even for your daily bread, before you ask for anything, just realize
that you, such as you are, are in the presence of such a Being, your Father which
is in heaven, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ‘My God.’ ‘My Father.’
-D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, page 330
I Don’t mind If You Don’t Dance, but Hope you don’t mind If I Do
A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.”
So he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on
a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when he had spent everything,
a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of the
citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with
the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him.
But when he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying
here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and
in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”
So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for
him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your
sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly bring out the best robe
and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us
eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
…so I’ve been pondering this story lately(sorry for not typing all of it out – but about to make my dinner of steak, mashed potatoes and asparagus soon!)…after listening to the gorgeous version that Keith Green sings this morning while driving to church. And reading this again now, oh how it enlivens my heart. Thus such a man was I – lost and without hope in this world. And sometimes it’s easy to forget how great a feat of compassion this is – that our God should smile upon me and grant me His forgiveness. Oh how arrogant was I – demanding the share of my estate from my Father – all owed me I will take and all I take I will count as owed! And squandering the gift of life upon worthless things and loose living and becoming impoverished of heart and barren in soul and having nothing in and of myself that I might count as good. And yet my Father loved me still. And yet. And so coming to my senses – for how else can it be described! – I thought I might return to my Father and work for my restitution and slave for my redemption. But no my Father had divine love for me. For me. And so my Father has embraced me and kissed me and made me His own. And it is glorious and I am loved and I am named and I am a son again. I was lost. But now I have been found.
This Shall I Seek
If anyone wishes to come after Me, he
must deny himself, and take up his cross
and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will
lose it; but whoever loses his life for
My sake will find it. For what will it
profit a man if he gains the whole world
and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man
give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man is going to come in the
the glory of His Father with His angels and
will then repay every man according to
his deeds.
-Jesus Christ, Matthew 16:24-27
Three Steps to Summer Redux
Happy Wednesday friends!! During my drive over to work, I listened to a quality old CD I burned oh…five years ago? As I prepared for summer in Scotland? Wow, was it really five years ago? Anyway – great music, even though apparently my mix CDs were even more random back in the day! Andrew Belle, Lost Prophets, Needtobreathe, T-Swift…and of course – Hope Bible Church! Anyways, one of the songs there brought some good verses back to mind and thought I would share…
So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord,
is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to
them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has
fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of
the earth.”
And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were
looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they
were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men
in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, “Men of Galilee,
why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken
up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have
watched Him go into heaven.”
-Acts 1:6-11
Two points. Firstly, do we oft consider that we have the power of the Holy Spirit in us? We are the witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have received the Holy Spirit. We are imbued with the very power of God. Secondly, Jesus is indeed coming again – in a physical and most real sense. Let us long for that. But – let us not be melancholy and tarry our days away in mournful anticipation. Let us be filled with joy and do the deeds of the Lord as we walk upon this earth! We are the witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is who we are, now.
And one day, we will witness the return of the Lord to this earth and we shall see Him face to face. And then we will be with Him, forever.
At that, our hearts can only be full of joy, continually. At that thought, I bow my head in worship.
Have a most lovely day, dear friends.
the City of the Wind
For to receive the grace of God in Jesus Christ means not
only that my sins are forgiven because of His death for me on the cross on
Calvary’s hill, but also that I have been given a new life and a new nature. It means
that Christ is being formed in me, that I have become a partaker of the divine
nature, that old things have passed away and all things have become new. It
means that Christ is dwelling in me, and that the Spirit of God is in me. The
man who has been born again, and who has the divine nature within him, is a
man who is righteous and his righteousness does exceed that of the scribes and
Pharisees. He is no longer living for self and his own attainments, he is no
longer self-righteous and self-satisfied. He has become poor in spirit, meek, and
merciful; he hungers and thirsts after righteousness; he has become a peacemaker.
His heart is being purified. He loves God, yes unworthily, alas, but he
loves Him and longs for His honour and glory. His desire is to love God and
to keep and honour and fulfil His law. The commandments of God to such a
man ‘are not grievous’. He wants to keep them, for He loves them. He is no longer
at enmity against God; but he now sees the holiness of the law and nothing
so appeals to him as the living of this law and the exemplifying of it in his daily
life. It is a righteousness that far exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees.
Some of the most vital questions that can be asked, then, are these. Do you
know God? Do you love God? Can you honestly say that the biggest and the
first thing in your life is to glorify Him and that you so want to do this that you
do not care what it may cost you in any sense? Do you feel that this must come
first, not that you may be better than somebody else, but that you may honour
and glorify and love that God who, though you have sinned against Him grievously,
has sent His only begotten Son to the cross on Calvary’s hill to die for
you, that you might be forgiven and that He might restore you unto Himself?
Let every man examine himself.
-D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, page 182-183
Violently does the ocean Foam, Alone does the herald Stand
So today I have just begun reading the Gospel of John – a truly glorious book, divinely inspired and penned as it was! And while I could spend hours pondering and thinking and writing on the beauties contained in only the first chapter of John, I’d like to focus on a few words. Let me set the scene – John the Baptist has been talking about the One whose sandals he is not worthy to untie. The One upon whom the Spirit descended like a dove. The One who existed before John – although John was born first. The very Son of God. And as John proclaims in his preaching – “the Lamb of God!”
Some of John’s disciples are naturally curious and so they decide to follow Jesus. Jesus sees them following and turns to them and what does He say? “What do you seek?” These are the words I want to hone in on. Apart from them being the very first words Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John, these are the words Jesus speaks to those who would “follow Him”. So to those of you who would desire to follow Jesus(or at least curious to know more about him?), that is the question that needs to be answered. What do you seek? Notice – Jesus doesn’t say “who” – He says “what”. We desire many things on this earth, most of them unhelpful and even dangerous for us – body and soul. Jesus – as very God – understands that our minds are warped and corrupted and He knows that apart from the grace of God our desires will be foolish and our seekings ill-conceived. So – what do you seek? Do you seek fame and fortune? Do you seek pleasure and gain? Do you seek comfort and self-gratification? Do you seek companionship and emotional fulfillment? Do you seek intellectual fulfillment? Do you seek a sense of identity or belonging that you think comes with “religion”? Do you seek moral stature and a cleansing of the conscience? Do you seek love? What do you seek?
I would say that to desire to be a follower of Christ…that question must be answered. Consider in your own life what it is you truly desire and long for. And then consider who Christ is. Think – these men following after Jesus didn’t know who He was at this point. They understood John had been making grand proclamations about Him. But they did not truly know Him. They wished to know Him more. But what did they seek? This was the question Jesus asked them. And how did these men answer Him? They didn’t answer him directly – maybe because they did not know what to say – but they asked where he was staying and Christ answered – “Come, and you will see.” That is the invitation Christ gives to all people – “Come, and you will see.” These men went to the house of Jesus and spent the day with Him and…began to understand who He truly is.
And who is Jesus? The Lamb of God. Indeed, as John had earlier said – “The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” And now we finally come to the crux of the matter – because this is who Jesus is – the One who takes away the sin of the world. The One who saves. So what do you seek? Do you seek salvation? If so, this is what Christ offers. He offers freedom from sin. He offers life from death. He offers salvation from this hopeless life that without Him is empty and vain. What do you seek? The Lamb of God – the Savior – is at hand. And as you wonder if Jesus is truly all that…He says, “Come, and you will see.” Come in your darkness and in your shame. Come in all your dirt and filth. Come in your hopelessness. Come. Behold – the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
and Thus
To hunger and thirst after righteousness is nothing but the longing to be positively holy.
I cannot think of a better way of defining it. The man who hungers and thirsts after
righteousness is the man who wants to exemplify the Beatitudes in his daily life. He is a man
who wants to show the fruit of the Spirit in his every action and in the whole of his life
and activity. To hunger and thirst after righteousness is to long to be like the New Testament
man, the new man in Christ Jesus. That is what it means, that the whole of my being and the
whole of my life shall be like that. Let me go further. It means that one’s supreme desire
in life is to know God and to be in fellowship with Him, to walk with God the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit int he light. ‘Our fellowship’, says John, ‘is with the Father, and with
His Son Jesus Christ.’ He also says, ‘God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.’ To be
in fellowship with God means to be walking with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the light,
in that blessed purity and holiness. The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness is the man
who longs for that above everything else. And in the ends that is nothing but a longing to be like
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Look at Him; look at His portrait in these Gospels; look at Him
when He was here on earth in His incarnate state; look at Him in His positive obedience to God’s
holy law; look at Him in His reaction to other people, His kindness, His compassion, His sensitive
nature; look at Him in His reaction to His enemies and all that they did to Him. There is the portrait,
and you and I, according to the New Testament doctrine, have been born again and have been fashioned anew
after that pattern and image. The man, therefore, who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, is the
man who wants to be like that. His supreme desire is to be like Christ.
-D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, pp 66-67
Amen and Amen.
Day of Days
Hello friends! It’s Sunday evening here and I’m enjoying my chamomile tea and a little MLJ reading and really should get ready for bed momentarily. Quickly then…just know that today was a simply wonderful day. From being at church with my brothers and sisters and worshiping God together…to having some wonderful chats with friends old and new…and then getting home today and realizing after I finished my workout that I simply could not stay indoors as it’s been gorgeous all day!! After lying by the pool and finishing Steelheart(Brandon Sanderson) – I went for a walk…then thought how nice it would be to read outside at EQ. So walked back to the flat, picked up Lord of the Rings and walked back to EQ and sat on the porch with the sun warming my face…truly, this has to be one of my favorite days of the year. Blissful. I got many chapters of LotR read(from Bree to Rivendell!) and then finally walked back home to make my salad for dinner. Now…I prepare for the upcoming week. Knowing that God is good and has set my path in front of me, I cannot wait to walk in it. Give me the strength, Lord. Give me the strength. Sometimes I feel I know not why I take the steps I do…nonetheless, I trust my God. May this week be blessed of the Lord – only for His glory. Always. Now, I take my leave. Before I do…might as well write out a few of my favorite words from my latest chapter of MLJ:
What hope is there for the world? There is none. There is no comfort for the world now. But for the Christian man
who mourns because of sin and because of the state of the world, there is this comfort – the comfort of the blessed hope,
the glory that yet remains. So that even here, though he is groaning, he is happy at the same time because of the hope
that is set before him. There is this ultimate hope in eternity. In that eternal state we shall be wholly and entirely
blessed, there will be nothing to mar life, nothing to detract from it, nothing to spoil it. Sorrow and sighing shall
be no more; all tears shall be wiped away; and we shall bask for ever and ever in the eternal sunshine, and experience
joy and bliss and glory unmixed and unspoiled. ‘Happy are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.’ How true it is.
Unless we know that, we are not Christian. If we are Christian, we do know it, this joy of sins forgiven and the knowledge
of it; the joy of reconciliation; the joy of knowing that God takes us back when we have fallen away from Him; the joy
and contemplation of the glory that is set before us; the joy that comes from anticipation of the eternal state.
-Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, page 50
Thus sings my soul.
An Old Kind of Music
Hello friends…and happy Saturday! I have but a few minutes to write, as my steak is currently sitting on my counter and it will be time to cook it in less than 15 minutes! So I fly. Just thought I’d briefly chronicle the events of today, as it truly has been a most lovely day. Started out the day with a nice cup of coffee(warmed and heartened by honey and milk!) and some Psalm-reading. Fortified in both body and spirit, I then got some errands done – haircut and car wash, check! Following, had a nice lunch with John, Camille and Julie…good food, good chat, good friends. Thanks be to God. After that, I needed to give Julie her last birthday present, so she came by briefly…but it was such a gorgeous day(and it still is!) that we decided to go for a walk and soak in the sunlight a bit. We had a fantastic walk and even better talk…but eventually further errands demanded my attention. Did various shopping and then came back here, cleaned a bit…and now it’s almost dinner time! I decided I craved steak…so steak, mashed potatoes and asparagus is on the menu for tonight. Mmm…
Now, thought I’d leave you with a poem from last night’s Lord of the Rings reading. I do love it so, how each time I read this book, I find new favourite chapters…and so last night, shockingly enough, I discovered how much I loved the chapter “The Old Forest”. Who knew? Certainly not I. But reading Tolkien’s lovely prose and poetry…oh was my heart warmed and spirit thrilled.
Now let the song begin! Let us sing together
Of sun, stars, moon and mist, rain and cloudy weather,
Light on the budding leaf, dew on the feather,
Wind on the open hill, bells on the heather,
Reeds by the shady pool, lilies on the water:
Old Tom Bombadil and the River-daughter!
So yes, I think it is safe to say that this is still a book that brings joy to my heart. Now – time to create something that will bring joy to my stomach. Before I do – just know again how thankful I am for this day my God has made. My heart is overflowing with thankfulness. Peace and love.
