Tag: scripture

Passion

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So…baseball Opening Day was yesterday.  Sadly – I did not go to any baseball games, but surprisingly(and probably for the last time this year), all three of my teams won!  Rays had a comeback victory over Boston, Baltimore took out the Twins in the 11th with an Adam Jones homer…and the Astros just plain dominated with Verlander pitching like the Hall of Famer he is.  So I am happy.  Yay baseball!  Spring is now officially here.

But…far more importantly…today is what is commonly called Good Friday, despite the fact that the event it commemorates is horrifyingly brutal in the extreme.  The day man decided (once again!) that they knew better than God.  The day humanity decided (once again!) that they were better off without God.  The day we killed God.

And as shocking as that turn of events was…in the end it truly was a Good day.  For it was the day that God sacrificed Himself.  For us.  For all of us who put our faith in Jesus.  For all of us who give up our lives in submission to the only true God.  For all of us who bow the knee to the One who saves.

In honour of the events of today, I much enjoyed reading Philippians this morning…many many verses kept striking me with their brilliant truths, but I shall only quote a few of my favourites this day.  Despite the filth and lies we are surrounded by…remember:

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish
so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him,
not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through
faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

and…

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ;
who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the
body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject
all things to Himself.

-Philippians 3:7-11,20-21

Let us remember these things.  Let us pause this day in the midst of our frantic lives and ponder and meditate on the One who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped – even though He is God – but instead emptied Himself and became a Man and lived and died and rose again.  For us.

Amazing love, how can it be – that Thou my God shouldst die for me!?!

Éponine

James HoganLeave a comment

Read some of my favourite verses this morning…

For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
When I was a child, I used to
think like a child, reason like a child;
when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

For now we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face;
now I know in part,
but then I will know fully
just as I also have been fully known.
-1 Corinthians 13:9-12

I would like to dwell on the following phrases this day.  Firstly, “…but when the perfect comes…”  What a sublime few words, what a gorgeous sigh of hope.  Someday.  Secondly…”…for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face…”  Oh so true is it that our eyes can scarcely pierce the hollow lies of this dark and weary world.  There is a Truth about this world and though sometimes we glimpse it and though sometimes we may reach for it, our reaching is fumbling with our eyes half-closed.  There is a light glorious though and that light beckons true.  Someday our knowledge of the Truth will not be as though seen through shifting waters.  No, someday our knowledge of the Truth will be complete and full and perfect because we shall see that Truth face to face.  To bow at the feet of my Lord Jesus Christ.  Someday.  And “…just as I also have been fully known.”  Now our knowledge is partial and wavering and oh so frail at times.  Yet now – even now – we are completely and utterly known.  Our souls are not lost in the void and despite the devils’ siren call to blissful nothingness, we can with confidence state that we are loved by the One who knows our name.  Is it better to be self-determinedly lost and not yet found?  I say no, I say never.  Never again.  We have a higher hope, a sweeter faith, a most perfect love.  After all, we are fully known.

Coffee and the Tea

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Good morning friends, and happy Thursday!!  A brief few words…

I’ve much enjoyed this morning – sub-fifty temperatures for (maybe?) the last time this year.  Oh how I love a good cold morning!!  Now sitting here at my desk with a nice cup of black coffee(honey-sweetened, of course) and since my heart is full, I suppose I thought it was a good idea to write at least a little bit, before my day heats up drastically.

This morning as I was slowly waking up, I had the half-conscious thought/prayer, “Lord I am trying so hard”.  Don’t ask me what it was in relation to – in total honesty, I can’t quite remember – only I know that it’s a sigh of the heart that I often have – do you not sometimes pray and not even know what you’re praying?  Anyways immediately some words came to mind that much encouraged me – “It is not the man who wills or the man who runs, but the Lord who has mercy.”  That stunned me – because again I was sorta half asleep at the time – and I felt much blessed that God should grant me these words from my past reading of the Word.  I couldn’t quite remember the reference at first(first I thought it was Isaiah…then Romans.  Had to be somewhere in my recent reading, right?), but eventually(i.e., right now) I looked this up and found it is indeed Romans 9:16, which I read sometime in the past week or so.  Anyways – I say all this not to prop myself up, for surely that goes against the very spirit and words of that verse, but just to remark upon the graciousness of God and to encourage you all to make reading the Word a priority.  How much of a blessing was it for my self-centered, erroneous words of prayer to be immediately corrected and for myself to be much uplifted by these words of Scripture.  Truly a work of the Holy Spirit.  All praise be to God!!  My human effort and vain attempts at justifying myself are as nothing.  Dust in the wind.  Yet the grace and merciful lovingkindness of the Lord is sufficient for me.  For me!  Think on the wondrous mercy and love of our Lord.  Behold our God!

And a few brief more verses that are some of my very favourites that I do not think on often enough:

When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within,
then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.
Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You have taken hold of my right hand.
With Your counsel You will guide me,
and afterward receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And beside You, I desire nothing on earth.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For, behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all Your works.
-Psalm 73:21-28

A New Hope

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“It will come about in that day that I will respond,”
declares the Lord.
“I will respond to the heavens,
and they will respond to the earth,
and the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and to the oil
and they will respond to Jezreel.
I will sow her for Myself in the land.
I will also have compassion on
her who had not obtained compassion,
and I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are my people!’
and they will say,
‘You are my God!'”

-Hosea 2:21-23

Your Palms

James HoganLeave a comment

Happy Friday friends!!  Quick few words before work begins.  (Wanted to write more but sadly time does not allow!)  Firstly, need to log my latest read…(which you’ll probably not be surprised at if you’ve read any of my entries lately)

6.  The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.  This book is one of my very favourites.  And I typically like to re-read every few years…but this past re-read was after a little longer gap than most, mainly because of my nostalgia for the last re-read, which was in Aberdeen(in which this was my “garden read” whenever it was sunny outside!)  So although I wanted to hold onto that Scotland memory, I could eventually wait no longer and started this book anew in the latter part of last year.  Every time I read it, I do kind of wonder if I’m going to still have the same love for it…and every time I am reminded of my why I love it so.  A book that is gorgeous and full of pathos and hits me in the inner parts of my soul.  If I could write half as well(nay, a quarter!) as Tolkien, I would be thrilled.  Alas!  But reading this again, new passages continue to thrill me and I fall in love with Middle Earth and all my favourite characters all over again.  I must confess, I didn’t read the appendices, but I don’t think I have to read those to count this book as read, right??  (Although – I did read a little bit of one appendix…after finishing the last chapter last night, I read the story of Aragorn and Arwen Undómiel.  What love!)  So I have written many words but little substance, so to conclude this I will just say that this book remains unparalleled amongst fiction – so beautifully does it rhyme with my soul and present glimpses of that more perfect Truth.

And now – the sand runs swift through the glass, yet I will press on a bit longer.  Today I was blessed with a special gift…waking up extra early and actually being able to stay awake long enough to enjoy a gorgeously long coffee and reading morning.  Fresh-ground coffee and wonderful words to be read and a few special moments with my God.  What can compare?  So I had over an hour to read and so I got to read a bit of David Brainerd’s diary, then Psalms 9-10, Proverbs 2 and Daniel 10-12(gorgeous chapters…love what Daniel is told at the end…terrible paraphrase: “Keep on keeping on…until you die and then someday at the end of all things you will rise anew – gloriously, wondrously!”  Oh that I were a man who might also be called “one who is greatly esteemed” by my Lord) and also Romans 8.  Sometimes I struggle to make it all the way through Romans 8…but today I had the time to luxuriously read through the entire chapter.  Still – that first verse was almost too much for me and I can still barely grasp its magnitude –Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Bliss.  And…who will separate us from the love of Christ?

Might my heart always burn so hotly for the love of my Lord.

Liability

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So about to start this Wednesday(thankfully have a nice hot cup of coffee in front of me to aid and assist in this endeavour!)…just thought I’d share a few brief thoughts.

Firstly, was listening to my newest mix Tears of Nienna – which at some point, yes, I will post tracklist for – and as the CD wound down, I heard Taylor Swift’s “New Year’s Day”…a song laced with gorgeous piano, but apart from that, one line struck me: “Hold onto your memories, they will hold onto you.”  Apart from Taylor’s intended meaning for this, the line struck me because indeed, memories have such a strong hold on us at times.  The Lord knows I can surely fall into the nostalgia trap…I do so love thinking about dear memories and pondering the treasured past at times.  Do I do this too much?  Sometimes, yes.  It’s not a bad thing to think or recall the good things in your past – or indeed – remembering the deeds of the Lord in your life up to this point!  But – of course there was a but coming – we should be striving to live in the moment and press on to the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  We don’t want our memories to hold onto us.  All things in this life should be held loosely, even our memories of times most sweet.  Only one thing should we cling to – our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Secondly, this morning I read about Peter coming to preach to Cornelius and his household of heathens(i.e., Gentiles).  What a marvelous, momentous occasion was this.  For so long it was thought that salvation and the grace of God was limited to the Jews…now…God decreed and made manifestly known that the gift of eternal life was for all.  Peter was commanded to preach the gospel to these non-Jews(horror!) and he obeyed.  And God poured out His Holy Spirit upon them even as they heard the gospel of God.  The impact of this event can not be overstated.  Salvation and eternal blessings and ceaseless glory belong to all who believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no barrier based on nation, race or creed.  How amazing is the love of God.  Amen?  Amen.

Flowing Gold, Softer Silver

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A few minutes to write this morning.  …as I drove in to work this morning, noted the overwhelming full golden moon in the west.  Slowly did it sink towards the horizon.  But I could not help but be staggered by the beauty of the golden moon contrasted with the dark early morning sky and the garish city lights…the gleaming yellow loveliness of the moon overshadowed all else.  All praises to the One who made it so.

And…I suppose I have at least a couple minutes to write on my readings this morning?  Oddly enough(or not?!), my readings – as disparate as they were – had a common theme running throughout.  The love of money is a dangerous thing…for truly wealth is not all and it will flow away, as fickle and fragile as a moonbeam in your hand.  So why do we put our trust in money?  We have hope in something that is so much better, do we not?

A few words from the exceedingly chilling prophecies of Ezekiel(sadly I have not the time to write all the words…but you can read for yourselves Chapters 6 & 7 to get full context):

“Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations
to which they will be carried captive,
how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me,
and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols;
and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which
they have committed, for all their abominations.
Then they will know that I am the Lord;
I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster upon them…

All hands will hang limp and all knees will become like water.
They will gird themselves with sackcloth and shuddering will overwhelm them;
and shame will be on all faces and baldness on all their heads.
They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will not be able
to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.
They cannot satisfy their appetite nor can they fill their stomachs,
for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling…

Make the chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence.
Therefore, I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses.
I will also make the pride of the strong ones cease, and their holy places will be profaned.
When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none.
Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor;
then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost
from the priest and counsel from the elders.
The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed in horror,
and the hands of the people of the land will tremble.
According to their conduct I will deal with them,
and by their judgements I will judge them.
And they will know that I am the Lord.”

Sorry for the over-quoting.  But truly, what serious words are those.  Can your wealth save?  Can your luxuries satisfy?  Surely no.  And what devastating words are these: “According to their conduct I will deal with them and by their judgements I will judge them.”  That is what we all deserve, to be judged according to the full measure of our deeds.  Oh what bleakness is that.

Secondly…I also read in Acts 3…the account of Peter and John healing the lame man.  One line quite struck me:

“But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, ‘Look at us!’
And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
But Peter said, ‘I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!'”

And just imagine that scene.  Put yourselve in the lame man’s place…as he first anticipated that these kind gentlemen were about to give him money…and then in that split second after they said “I do not possess silver and gold,” imagine his disappointment.  His face falls, his hope fails.  That split second of disillusionment and pain.  But then.  Peter continues speaking and utters that most beautiful name – Jesus Christ.  And as He heals the man through the power of God and changes this man’s life forever, what joy crosses that man’s face.  He has received physical healing, yes.  But of far more importance – eternity awaits! – he hears the name of Jesus and witnesses the power of God. 

Do we understand this?  We put so much faith and hope in earthly things – status, wealth, power.  We think – surely if I had enough money, all would be well.  Surely.  But these things never satisfy.  And so as the people of Jerusalem found out, all their wealth was as nothing in the face of their iniquities and the judgment of God.  So too is all our money worthless for wiping away the stench and filth of our sins.  Only One can take away our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness and that is Jesus Christ, very God Himself.  So today, let us set aside our worries for the physical things of this world and instead set our eyes on Jesus, the true Author and Perfecter of our faith.  All else may fail us.  All else will fail us.  But our God never shall leave us nor forsake us – He will truly be with us and watch over us and care for us, all the days of our life.  The nearness of God is our good, for He has forgiven us all our sins.  Let us remember, let us rejoice and let us ceaseless love.

Shooting Star

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A sleepy morning. Yet I must confess I had a most enjoyable reading time(with my eggs and coffee)…reading a couple of my favorite chapters – Luke 21 & 22. I don’t have time to fully explicate these chapters and describe my thoughts…but this morning as I read, I was just encouraged by the words and actions of Jesus. From Him telling Peter, “Simon, Simon – Satan has demanded permission to sift you as wheat. Yet I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. When you have returned, strengthen your brothers.” We could spend hours just discussing that alone!! Oh how I love the fact that although Jesus doesn’t deny Satan permission to test Peter….he does say He prayed for Peter – he prayed for his faith. Oh how I long that Jesus would pray thus for me. And later on…as Jesus is fervently praying and tired and emotionally worn out…he is strengthened by an angel from heaven. Then he comes back and sees the disciples and what are they doing? Sleeping of course. He tells them “Pray that you might not fall into temptation.” Oh might I heed these words – what is better, to be self-satisfied and confident in my own abilities, to be awake yet sleeping? Or to desparately pray for that aid which we know we need, that we not stumble and fall. And later on in the chapter of course…Peter denies Christ, as Jesus knew he would. And at that moment of Peter’s third denial, we read that “Jesus turned and looked at Peter”. What was in Jesus’ eyes? What was that look? I imagine it as sorrow and love mingled…yet I cannot say. But Peter responded as is only proper. He fled and wept bitterly. To deny our Lord and Christ – how can we do this? Yet we do it every day. Pray to the Father for relief from temptation. Cry out to the Lord in prayer, day and night. And remember…Jesus is even now(as per Luke 22!) at the right hand of God in glory and He never ceases to plead your case. Forgiven am I. Eternity with my God awaits. Ne’er should I doubt my future when such joy is assured.

Signed and Sealed

James HoganLeave a comment

Happy Wednesday friends!!  A brief few words…reading in Jeremiah a bit today and was both encouraged and convicted by the words I read therein.  Jeremiah is in jail.  And the city of Jerusalem is literally under siege by the Chaldeans – with the fall of the city less than 2 years away.  Bad circumstances, right?  Jeremiah gets a word from the Lord however – telling him to purchase a piece of property as a sign that someday there will be a restoration.  And so Jeremiah obeys.  But after his obedience, he cries out to the Lord in prayer.  And oh might we all pray as he does here – he names the attributes of God – namely, his omnipotence, omniscience, mercy and justice – and he exults in the name of the Lord.  But even as he lifts up the name of the Lord, he also confesses and agrees as to the sins of the people and states that the city is surrounded and about to fall.  Without questioning God as such, Jeremiah lists the works of the Lord – His judgment and promised redemption.  And there is a hint of a question at the end, when Jeremiah mentions the fact that he bought a piece of property…even though the city is about to fall.  But Jeremiah’s faith is indeed strong.  And God replies(at length!  but I shall reproduce only a line): “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”

Truly let us remember that this day.  When all seems wrong and all is lost and we think surely nothing good is even possible…think on these words.  Jeremiah is imprisoned in a city that is about to fall to a ruthless enemy.  We are not normally in situations as dire as this, and so we have even less reason to doubt the goodness of God.  Yet, we do doubt, I know.  I know because I doubt.  And at those times, cry out to the Lord in prayer.  Think on the grand and beautiful attributes of God.  Remember that God is a God of exceeding lovingkindness and mercy.  Think on the great works of the Lord that He has done in your life.  And at the end, rest.  Rest in the promises of God – He shall surely never leave or forsake you, as long as you shall live.  Remember the promises of Christ – His yoke is indeed easy and His burden is light.  Go to Him, and you shall have rest for your souls.

The Tears of Nienna

James HoganLeave a comment

It has been ten days since my last update. Unconscionable. And even now, I don’t have long to write, but thought I’d say something briefly. It is one week until Christmas! And two days until Florida! Yay to both!!

And now as I sit here, one more Monday with my peppermint mocha…it is good to rest in the peace of God. I had a good morning(although too brief!) reading a few words…namely in Psalm 18, Proverbs 18 and then the end of Isaiah. Oh so sad to be done with Isaiah(epic book that it is!) but am excited for Jeremiah coming up next. Anyways, just a few brief thoughts…

“I love You, O LORD, my strength.”

Verse 1 in the beautiful Psalm that is 18 starts out with something that we should all echo. A love for the Lord our God. May that be the prayer of our soul each and every day, each and every moment. No matter what else surrounds or what else comes – “I love You, O Lord, my strength.” That love that we offer to our Lord – weak and feeble it may be, but still let it be our cry! And we see the psalm progress very rapidly into recounting a time of misery and depression and utter peril. David was terrified, encompassed by death, surrounded by the grave, confronted by danger on every side. These verses have oft comforted me in my own peril, little though it may be. I can be despondent, but then I see David’s own dire situation. And what was his response? In his distress he called upon the Lord. He called upon God Himself. Such a simple thing to do and yet too often we fail to consider the mercy of our Lord when we are myopically gazing into our own depths of despair. And so David calls upon God. And then? God heard His voice. His cry for help rose up into heaven and God heard. And then? Well I shan’t go and recount the whole rest of the psalm – because you should really read it yourself – but the first line of verse seven really says it all. We know that David was in trouble. We know that David cried out to the Lord. We know that God heard his cry! And then…the earth shook and quaked. The Lord God Almighty took action. And when the Lord takes action…things happen.

And so I ask you – do you cry out to the Lord? The Lord works – even as we may not always be aware of such and even as the work which the Lord does may not always be to our liking! – and so when we cry out to the Lord, we are heard and the Lord is not slow in keeping His promises to us. The Lord hears, the Lord answers. Awesomely.

One more verse…this one from Proverbs 18 – one of my favourites that I always enjoy reading:

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe.”

Truly the Lord is a refuge for us. Wherever we are, in whatever nerve-wracking situation we may be in…know that the Lord is our strength and salvation, truly! Run to Him. Go to the Lord and find peace in the arms of our Savior. He shall truly never let us go.

And in times when it can be difficult to understand how God will work or what he will do to make your unbearable situation any different…remember the deeds of the Lord in your life. Look back to the greatest miracle of them all – your salvation. In the depths of your sin and sorrow – was there anything you could do that could save you from yourself? Was your arm great enough to pull yourself out of the pit? Was your strength enough, your spirit enough, your will enough? When you had no hope…what else was there to do but cry out to the Lord? And that cry, the Lord heard. And that cry, the Lord answered. Over two thousand years ago, in fulfillment of prophecy and as the greatest miracle this world had yet seen, the Lord God Almighty took action. God Himself came down to earth in the form of a man to do what else could not be done – to save our souls from hell itself. And that salvation is freely given. To us. Cry out to the Lord in deepest sorrow and repentance both. Run to Him – our Lord and our God! And know that in the belief of who God is and what He has done for us – you shall be saved.

And so now that we think our trials and tribulations are so daunting and fearsome…just look back at the miracle God performed to grant that we – the foulest of beings – might be reconciled to the Holy One. And if that miracle can be performed(and it was), then be not afraid. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

(Pardon this unexpected digression…sometimes it just happens, I suppose)

All praises to the One who saved us from our sins. Peace and love.