Bound for the Promised Land

He is there and He hears us

2009-10-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

How staggering a thought, that God Almighty should hear our prayers! Eternal life is not the only certainty for the children of God, but the ear of God, too!

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him (1 John 5:13-15).

David Powlison on why you should pray aloud (in the context of child abuse):

Take the phrases you underlined [from Psalms 55-57] and rewrite them, in your words, as a prayer. Now find a place—the woods, your car, your bedroom—where you are comfortable making some noise to God, and say these prayers out loud to him. Remember, you are talking to the Lord who loves you, who hears you, who is going to act to save you, and who will redeem your soul in peace. Praying out loud helps you realize that God is right there, listening to you.

Your prayer brings your real troubles to the one person, the Lord, who is your only hope. Notice how the psalmist repeats himself. He tells God about his troubles in many different ways. He doesn’t mind repeating himself. He is having a living, honest conversation with God. Not a stilted, rote, “saying your prayers” kind of dialogue. When you’re coming out of the darkness of child abuse, it’s important that you keep talking—say it twice, say it ten times, say it every day. Keep crying out to the God you love; the God you need; the God who’s your only hope.

More on praying, praying aloud, and praying from the Word:

A Personal Liturgy of Confession

Should We Really Call It a "Quiet" Time?

A perplexing (and disturbing) response

2009-10-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

When I went to 2008 Resolved conference, I was blessed to hear John Piper preach on The Triumph of the Gospel in the New Heavens and the New Earth. This was one of the most comprehensive, weighty, and devastating messages I've heard from Piper. In it, he talks about the horror of sin, the futility of creation, and hope in liberation from this bondage and in our redemption for the spectacular display of the glory of God. It's an excellent sermon - one that surely will, using his metaphor, fill the belly of your boat with ballast, so that you will endure the crashing waves of your life without capsizing and make it safely to the harbor of heaven.

But something else happened during that message, and unfortunately, it wasn't an isolated incident. Piper was discussing the inadequacy of open theism in comforting those who suffer, but his criticism was not met with tears for those who affirm such a pitiable position, but with laughter from the audience.

I know Piper can be unintentionally funny. Listening to him get excited over European water spiders and microscopic diatoms has certainly made me laugh. He has interesting mannerisms - his intensity can look quite animated in the pulpit with his booming voice, intonations, and hand motions. But he is also uniquely earnest and characteristically serious, and I think our culture is so inundated with frivolity that we don't know how to appropriately respond to a weighty subject without somehow trivializing it. The problem is, I expect that with the world, but what about the church?

I'm not writing this as a defense of John Piper per se - I'm concerned with how we personally approach matters that demand solemnity and humility. Praise God that Piper preaches on those matters every week and ponders them deeply throughout each week. I'm grateful he does, but do we come before the Word ready to receive its truths with the same fear and awe? When we think of sin, suffering, death, judgment, eternity ... are we sobered or giggling?

This happened again recently at a conference on counseling. Confessing his personal struggles was met with laughter from the conference attendees, and his trying to be more serious only elicited more laughter. Justin Taylor and Greg Gilbert blogged on that, so you can listen to the audio there. I just hope that when we do hear something like this, we'll be humbled, not amused.

Your Word is sufficient

2009-10-05T09:51:00.001-07:00

If you talk to me on a pretty regular basis, then one thing you will find out is that one of my most influential teachers is a man named David Powlison. He is editor for the Journal of Biblical Counseling, a biblical counselor and faculty member at Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF), and also a professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. I first found out about him through a message he delivered at the 2005 Desiring God National Conference - "Christ's Grace and Your Sufferings." (I actually posted an excerpt of that message on my blog back in my I-never-write-and-only-quote-others days.)

In his introduction, Powlison spoke of how Christians often know the right answer without truly understanding it because we treat biblical truths like a quick fix. That often times, the richness and fullness of the Word is sapped by a single qualifier: "just," ie, "if you just ... (fill in the blank)." That when we think of the Word as some kind of easy formula, magic bullet, or pat answer with "just", we ignore all the beautiful and detailed contours of the Bible. And then it becomes something overly simplistic, and then we find it unhelpful and irrelevant. How are we to approach the Word and be blessed by this divine gift instead of treating it like some evangelical amulet?

By God's grace, I have always been taught that the Bible is true, authoritative, and sufficient, so I wanted to study it and obey it. But what that actually looked like wasn't always clear to me, and it's in this that Powlison has helped me profoundly. For instance, knowing (and affirming) the doctrine of God's sovereignty is one thing, trusting God when the future looks uncertain and bleak is another. Doing that isn't easy, but it's exactly in those situations when my true beliefs and the limitations of my finiteness are revealed, and I am then forced to wrestle with who God is, why He matters, and who I am in the light of that reality.

It's easy to treat the doctrines of systematic theology (God, man, sin, Christ, salvation) as obscure, abstract, and irrelevant to the daily grind of our lives - but that is far from the truth. God has used Powlison's teachings to show me that these doctrines are the very lens through which I should view life in this world, and why these truths matter more than anything else we could come to know.

I think the best introduction to David Powlison that you can read is a short article titled "Do You See?" I can't find it online except a pretty thorough collection of excerpts on a post from Justin Taylor's blog. I highly recommend that you read it -- and anything else you can find by Powlison.

Drug design

2009-09-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

I've been studying the past couple weeks, which is why I haven't posted recently. But here are a couple things that I've studied that I found amazing and exciting:

Zovirax (Acyclovir)
This is an anti-viral drug called Acyclovir that works by inhibiting viral DNA replication. The reason I thought this was so cool was because it exhibits high selectively toward virally-infected cells. How does it do that? You administer the drug in an inactive form called a prodrug, and once the prodrug is phosphorylated by kinase enzymes, it will be converted into its active form. The reason it's selective toward viral cells is because the viral kinase enzyme works 100x faster than our own kinase enzymes, such that only viral cells are activating the drug and not our own cells.

Sinemet (L-DOPA/Carbidopa)
Parkinson's is a neurodegenerative disease in which the motor pathways of the central nervous system are lost and the patient experiences debilitating muscle tremors and is therefore unable to exercise fine muscle control. The loss of these cells results in an insufficient biosynthesis of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter used in the action of these pathways.

You could try treating this condition by directly adminstering dopamine, but this presents a couple key problems: dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to get to the brain where it is needed, and administration in high doses causes severe nausea and vomiting. You could then try to administer L-DOPA, a precursor of dopamine that can cross the BBB. Unfortunately, DOPA decarboxylase, the enzyme that converts L-DOPA into dopamine, is present mainly in the peripheral tissues (eg, liver, heart, lungs, kidneys) and not in the brain, so L-DOPA is converted to dopamine before it can even get to the brain, and you still end up with the side effects.

What you can do is administer L-DOPA with a decarboxylase inhibitor known as Carbidopa. Carbidopa cannot cross the BBB, so it remains in the peripheral tissues and only inhibits those peripheral decarboxylase enzymes, leaving L-DOPA to be taken up into the neural tissues and restore motor function back to normal levels.

Pretty neat, huh?

I'm going to try to actually blog this time

2009-09-15T11:49:00.001-07:00

I've had this blog for a long time, but I never actually wrote anything. I would just post something I'd read that had encouraged me, but looking back, I wish I had actually written my thoughts in a little more detail. I didn't because I just didn't want to put in the time and effort to write my thoughts down.

Writing is hard for me, but lately, I've been thinking about a lot of things that I want to write about. Most of the time, I don't tell people about my opinions (they've gotten me in trouble in the past), but I'd like an outlet for my thoughts that I hope will challenge, sharpen, and encourage others.

Some "regular" entries I would like to include would be book reviews (and perhaps film, if I see a film I like enough to recommend) and interaction with sermons I listen to. I don't follow that many people (that is, people outside my theological circles), so it's going to be restricted mainly to Grace Church, John Piper, DA Carson, David Powlison, Capitol Hill Baptist Church/9Marks, and occasionally Tim Keller. I also might write some thoughts on politics/economics/public ethics if I feel strongly enough about it, but I don't want that to take too prominent a role here. Also, because I'm not some impersonal theological robot, I think I might post some personal anecdotes for some lighthearted fun here and there.

Some topics I've been mulling over that I'll try to post this fall:

The Gospel, the Church, evangelism, missions, and social justice
Piper's preaching on the Gospel of John
Material possessions
Proverbs and biblical ethics
Race and missions
Relationships (all relationships, not just romantic)
What I appreciate about Grace Church
My experience as a Calvinist

By no means are my thoughts original or profound. They're mainly what I've learned from others and digested over time, but I would appreciate your input and I'm really yearning for some interaction, and yes, that includes disagreement! I hope that my tone is charitable and edifying, and I would appreciate your help in keeping me within those boundaries.

Here's to hoping I actually maintain a blog this time...

Gospel Love

2008-01-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

I remember years ago, Ed Clowney was expounding Deuteronomy 7, where God is saying to the children of Israel, "I love you, not because you are the greatest of all nations, in fact you are the least of all nations, but it is because I love you that I brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand." Now let's think about this for a second. It's circular reasoning. He says, I didn't love you because you were one of the great nations, in fact, you were the least of nations, but it was because I loved you that I brought you out of Egypt.

Here is what God is saying to you: I love you just because I love you just because I love you just because I love you.

When you get married, your spouse will come to you and say, "Honey, do you love me?" and you'll say, "Of course I love you, honey." Then she'll say, "Why? Why do you love me?" Now be very careful, because you might say, "Well, honey, you were the smartest of the girls, you were the prettiest of the girls, I love how we play tennis so well together, we have so many common interests, you're very sophisticated. You make me feel good about myself because when someone like you is at my arm, then other people say he must be pretty cool." In other words, don't tell her the truth. The only proper answer on which you can build a life of love is to say, "Honey, I love you just because I love you."

That is not just pillow talk rhetoric. Because if you say to another human being, I love you because of this factor or that factor, then all the identity shifts to that factor because that's the basis for my love. "I better keep my figure, stay smart, stay sophisticated, etc." Do you see what happens? What has happened is the basis of your identity, your loveliness, your value is shifted to the factor and now you are a slave to the factor. But God, through the cross, says, "I love you just because I love you. I'm coming and I'm saving you, not because you're great or cool or moral. I'm saving you because of sheer grace." Then you're free because He loves you for you. He loves you. He loves you for His sake, and therefore, He loves you for your sake. Finally you're free. It's not the figure, it's not the tennis, it's not the money, it's none of those things anymore. And to the degree that you understand the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it takes a long time to sink in, you will experience that freedom.

-Tim Keller, How the Cross Changes Us

Whether a rod or a crown...

2007-12-20T17:56:00.000-08:00

"Whether God come to his children with a rod or a crown, if he comes himself with it, it is well. Welcome, welcome Jesus, what may soever thou come, if we can get a sight of thee: and sure I am, it is better to be sick, providing Christ come to the bedside and draw the curtains, and say, Courage, I am thy salvation, than to enjoy health, being lusty and strong and never need to be visited of God."

-Samuel Rutherford

The Self-Denial That Brings Contentment

2007-10-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

Thereby the soul comes to rejoice and take satisfaction in all God's ways; I beseech you to notice this. If a man is selfish and self-love prevails in his heart, he will be glad of those things that suit with his own ends, but a godly man who has denied himself will suit with and be glad of all things that shall suit with God's ends. A gracious heart says, God's ends are my ends and I have denied my own ends; so he comes to find contentment in all God's ends and ways, and his comforts are multiplied, whereas the comforts of other men are single. It is very rare that God's way shall suit with a man's particular end, but always God's ways suit with his own ends. If you will only have contentment when God's ways suit with your own ends, you can have it only now and then, but a self-denying man denies his own ends, and only looks at the ends of God and therein he is contented. When a man is selfish he cannot but have a great deal of trouble and vexation, for if I regard myself, my ends are so narrow that a hundred things will come and jostle me, and I cannot have room in those narrows ends of my own. You know in the City what a great deal of stir there is in narrow streets: since Thames street is so narrow they jostle and wrangle and fight one with another because the place is so narrow, but in the broad streets they can go quietly. Similarly men who are selfish meet and so jostle with one another, one man is for self in one thing, and another man is for self in another thing, and so they make a great deal of stir. But those whose hearts are enlarged and make public things their ends, and can deny themselves, have room to walk and never jostle with one another as others do. The lesson of self-denial is the first lesson that Jesus Christ teaches men who are seeking contentment.

-Jeremiah Burroughs

Gospel Remission

2007-10-05T00:47:00.000-07:00

"When God comes to pardon sin, it is such a mercy as comes from the fountain of God's everlasting love. Other mercies do not. Where this is not present, you cannot have evidence of God's eternal love. If God gives you health of body, good voyages at sea, and good comings in respect of the world, you cannot draw arguments from hence that God bears eternal love to your soul. But when He comes to pardon your sins, it is a certain evidence that God has set His love on you from all eternity. If there were a chain let down from heaven and you could take hold but of one link that would certainly bring you there, both ends would come together. In Romans 8:30, there is a chain of many links let down, and if you can catch hold of the link of justification, you may certainly catch hold of predestination, for all hang together. If you are justified, then know for certain that you are a predestined man or woman whom God has set His heart upon from all eternity to do good. And this is a great happiness for a poor creature while he lives in this world, to know that God has set His heart upon him from all eternity to do him good. And, indeed, we can never be at rest until we come to this."

-Jeremiah Burroughs

Jesus Chooses and Uses Failures

2007-10-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

Peter's failure did not define him. It was a horrible, humbling stumble along the path of following Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross he completely paid for the sin of Peter's denial. "Not guilty" was the final word for Peter. He knew he did not deserve acquittal. But Jesus had settled Peter's account with the Father and gave him guiltlessness as a free gift of love. He was not Peter "The Denier" but Peter "The Forgiven."

"For we all stumble in many ways" (James 3:2). This is very true. When Jesus chose us to be his disciples, he knew our future failures as sure as he knew Peter's. We may be surprised by our own depravity, but Jesus isn't. We may be tempted to say, "That's not the real me." But it is. Facing and admitting our failures is one way Jesus teaches us what the gospel is. Our failures show us what we really are: great sinners. But that's not what Jesus wants us to focus on. He wants us to look to the cross and allow our failures to show us what Jesus is: a great Savior.

The guilt of past failures and sins can haunt and inhibit us in many ways. Satan loves to bind us up with the rope of condemnation. But Jesus aims to completely set us free. The whole goal of [Romans 8] is to free us from condemnation so we can live a fruitful life of following Jesus.

The church of Jesus Christ is a fellowship of forgiven failures. And in Peter Jesus shows us how he can transform a failure into a rock of strength for his church. Empowered by the Spirit of his beloved Lord, Peter became a humble, encouraging, suffering, and persevering disciple of Jesus. And he became a bold ambassador of the gospel of forgiveness to the most miserable failures.

-Jon Bloom

When Mercy Obliterates Unrighteousness, by John Calvin

2007-09-13T00:09:00.000-07:00

Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousnes (Rom. 4:4-5).

4. To him indeed who works, &c. It is not he, whom he calls a worker, who is given to good works, to which all the children of God ought to attend, but the person who seeks to merit something by his works: and in a similar way he calls him no worker who depends not on the merit of what he does. He would not, indeed, have the faithful to be idle; but he only forbids them to be mercenaries, so as to demand any thing from God, as though it were justly their due. We have before reminded you, that the question is not here how we are to regulate our life, but how we are to be saved: and he argues from what is contrary, that God confers not righteousness on us because it is due, but bestows it as a gift. And indeed I agree with Bucer, who proves that the argument is not made to depend on one expression, but on the whole passage, and formed in this manner, "If one merits any thing by his work, what is merited is not freely I imputed to him, but rendered to him as his due. Faith is counted for righteousness, not that it procures any merit for us, but because it lays hold on the goodness of God: hence righteousness is not due to us, but freely bestowed." For as Christ of his own good-will justifies us through faith, Paul always regards this as an evidence of our emptiness; for what do we believe, except that Christ is an expiation to reconcile us to God? The same truth is found in other words in Galatians 3:11, where it is said, "That no man is justified by the law, it is evident, for the just shall by faith live: but the law is not by faith; but he who doeth these things shall live in them." Inasmuch, then, as the law promises reward to works, he hence concludes, that the righteousness of faith, which is free, accords not with that which is operative: this could not be were faith to justify by means of works. — We ought carefully to observe these comparisons, by which every merit is entirely done away.

5. But believes on him, &c. This is a very important sentence, in which he expresses the substance and nature both of faith and of righteousness. He indeed clearly shews that faith brings us righteousness, not because it is a meritorious act, but because it obtains for us the favor of God. Nor does he declare only that God is the giver of righteousness, but he also arraigns us of unrighteousness, in order that the bounty of God may come to aid our necessity: in short, no one will seek the righteousness of faith except he who feels that he is ungodly; for this sentence is to be applied to what is said in this passage, — that faith adorns us with the righteousness of another, which it seeks as a gift from God. And here again, God is said to justify us when he freely forgives sinners, and favors those, with whom he might justly be angry, with his love, that is, when his mercy obliterates our unrighteousness.

Contemplate the Sufferings of the Substitute

2007-08-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

"Christ also hath once suffered for sins."
These were endured on behalf of all them that believe. See Him in Gethsemane.

"Gethsemane, the olive-press!
(And why so called let Christians guess)
Fit name, fit place, where vengeance strove,
And griped and grappled hard with love."

"Twas here the Lord of life appear'd,
And sigh'd, and groan'd, and pray'd, and fear'd;
Bore all incarnate God could bear,
With strength enough, and none to spare."

There, for us, Jesus sweated until His soul became so full of agony that the blood flushed the rivers of His veins, and at last burst the banks and overflowed. "His head, His hair, His garments bloody were." He was clad in a ruby robe of His own blood; and there He continued still wrestling, with His soul burdened, and "sorrowful even unto death," that He might prevail on His people's behalf, and that He might suffer the wrath of God for their sins.

He rose from the place where He had been pleading, renewed in strength, and went forth to meet His doom. He was betrayed by Judas, one of the twelve. His own familiar friend, whom He had trusted, who did eat of His bread, lifted up his heel against Him. You who have been forsaken by your firmest friend in the hour of your direst need, you that have known a plighted troth broken, pretended love turned into a deadly hatred, you may guess, but you can only faintly guess, the tremendous sorrow that came into the Redeemer's soul when the traitor, Judas Iscariot, betrayed him.

They hurry the Saviour away to Annas, to Caiaphas, to Pilate, to Herod, then back again to Pilate, without any breathing time, without any respite. They accuse Him of sedition. The King of kings seditious! They accuse Him of blasphemy; as if God could blaspheme! They could find no witnesses against Him, except the basest scum of the people, who were prepared to swear to any falsehood, and even these agreed not one with another. There stood the perfect man, the Son of God, accused and slandered by men who were not worthy to be spit upon.

They condemn the innocent, they mock Him, they laugh at Him, they jeer at His majesty, and torment His sacred person. He is given up to the tender mercies of the Roman soldiery. They set Him in an old chair as though it were a throne.They had just before torn His back with scourges, till His bones stood up like white cliffs in a sea of blood. They crown Him with thorns. They cast an old purple robe on His shoulders, they mock and deride Him, as though He were a sham king. For a sceptre, they give Him a reed; for homage, they give Him spittle; for the kiss of salutation, they give Him the lips of mockery. Instead of bowing before Him as their King, they blindfold Him, and smite Him in the face.

Was ever grief like Thine, Thou King of sorrow, despised by Thine own subjects? Thou, who didst give them breath, dost have that breath back again on Thee in violent and blasphemous oaths! Thou didst give them life; and they spent that like mocking Thee!

Jesus is led forth to Calvary. He is nailed to the cross by cruel and wicked hands. The rude rabble jeer at His sufferings. Within His soul, there is an agony such as we cannot fathom. Above, there are the swelling waves of Almighty wrath against our sins, covering all His soul. Hark! that dreadful soul-piercing cry, "MY GOD, MY GOD, why hast THOU forsaken ME?" It seems to be the gathering up of all His griefs, sorrows, and sufferings into one expression. Like some enormous lake, which receives the torrents of a thousand rivers, and holds all within its banks, so does that sentence seem to grasp all His woes, and express them all, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

At last, He bows His head, and yields up His spirit! At one tremendous draught of love, the Lord hath drained destruction dry for all His people. He has "suffered" all that they ought to have suffered. He hath given to the justice of God a full recompense for all their sins. He has on their behalf presented a complete atonement, —

"And, to the utmost farthing paid whate'er His people owed."

What joy it is, believer, to think that thou has such a perfect atonement to rest upon! If there were one sin Christ did not suffer for on the cross, or one evil thought of one of His people that He did not bear, we could not be saved. But He has "finished" the whole of His people's transgression, He has made an end of all their sins, He has obeyed all the jots and the tittles, as well as the great and weighty things, of the law of God, He has magnified it, and made it honourable. He has gone to "the end of the law for righteousness" — not half-way, but all the way; not near to its boundary, but even to its very end. He has not merely sipped from the cup of wrath, not merely tasted a portion of its bitter draught, but He has drained it to the very dregs. Ere He died, He turned the cup of wrath bottom upwards, for He had taken all it contained; and when He saw that there was not a single black drop trembling on its brim, He exclaimed, with the loud voice of triumph, "It is finished!" He had drunk the whole. Glory in this, ye living people of the living Christ! He hath offered for you a complete sacrifice, acceptable unto His Father. Glory in this, ye chosen people of the living God, that "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."

-Charles Spurgeon, Our Suffering Substitute

Is God's Wrath Too Severe?

2007-08-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

Is God's wrath too severe, his holiness too intense, his judgment too heavy? After World War II a play in West Berlin made a deep impression on the city. It was The Sign of Jonah by Günter Rutenborn. In a courtroom scene all the actors are found guilty in the evils of the war they have survived, and all transfer the blame to God. God is accused, found guilty and sentenced to become a human being, a wanderer on earth, deprived of his rights, homeless, hungry, thirsty. He shall know what it means to die. He himself shall die! And lose a son, and suffer the agonies of fatherhood. And when at last He dies, He shall be disgraced and ridiculed.

God's amazing grace has done more than the most bitter blasphemy could propose. God's wrath has been poured out on earth already, and God himself has borne all its fury.

The Bible itself presents a scene in which God is tempted and accused by his own people. It is the incident of Masseh-Meribah that followed the exodus of Israel from Egypt (Ex. 17). God guides the wilderness march to Rephidim, where there is no water. The people strive with Moses in judicial fashion. They are ready to initiate court-martial proceedings to execute Moses as a traitor who has led the nation into a deathtrap. Moses protests that their case is not just against him but against God. The people are accusing God of unfaithfulness to his covenant promise. The word Meribah does not mean merely a controversy. Meribah means a law-case. In Micah 6 the prophet uses the term to describe God's law-case against Israel as he summons the mountains and the foundations of the earth to bear witness to his faithfulness.

God is a righteous and just judge. If the people demand a court hearing, a trial will be held. God tells Moses to pass before the assembled people and to call the elders of the people into session. Moses is to take in his hand the rod of judgment, the rod with which he smote the River of Egypt, turning the Nile to blood. In the Pentateuch, the rod is both the symbol and instrument of the infliction of judgment. A guilty man in a controversy was to be beaten with the rod before the face of the judge (Deut. 25:1-3).

But now Moses takes the judicial rod and lifts it to inflict the sentence of judgment. In Isaiah 30 the prophet describes the descent of the rod of God's wrath upon the Assyrian enemy: For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be dismayed; with his rod will he smite him. And every stroke of the appointed staff, which the Lord shall lay upon him, shall be with the sound of tabret and harps. (Is. 30:31-32)

Dread fell upon Israel as Moses lifted the rod of God. Upon whom would the wrath of the Lord descend? Here is one of the most amazing verses in the Bible. God says to Moses, "Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock" (Ex. 17:6).

Nowhere else in the Old Testament does God say that he will stand before a man. God is the Judge. Men come to stand before him. Provision is made for hard judicial cases that can be appealed to the priests, Levites and judge in the place where God will set his name (Deut. 17:8-9).

But here God stands before Moses, the judge with the rod of judgment. God has been accused, and he stands in the prisoner's dock. God is symbolized by the rock on which Moses stands. In the Pentateuch, Rock is a name for God: "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God, the Rock, his work is perfect" (Deut. 32:3-4). The psalms that speak of Masseh-Meribah call God the Rock (Ps, 95:1, 8; 78:15-17, 35).

God commands Moses to smite the rock. It would be impossible for Moses to smite the Shekinah glory of God. God bears the smiting, and living water flows forth to the people. For this reason John bears witness in his gospel that when the spear was thrust into the side of the crucified Savior there flowed forth blood and water (Jn. 19:34). The Rock in the wilderness was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4) and great was Moses' sin in striking the Rock a second time (Num. 20:10-13).

The mystery of God's mercy foreshadowed in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New. The measure of God's love shows the reality of his wrath. Do not tell the Father his wrath is too great when he must direct it against his Beloved Son!

How much does the Father love the Son? The Son, who was in the bosom of the Father before the world was ... the Son, the firstborn, of whom God says, "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son" (Heb. 1:5) ... the Son in whom the Father's heart delights ... the Son who prays, "Father, glorify thy name! " How much does the Father love the Son at Calvary as he takes the cup and is obedient unto death?

What would God not give for his Son? "For the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" (Jn. 3:35). "For God so loved his only begotten Son that he gave the world that he might not perish ... ! " No, that is not John 3:16! "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

In giving his Son, God gives himself, and here is the measure of love.

I cannot understand that. I cannot explain that. Can you? I cannot begin to enter into the mystery of the love of God. But I can say this to you. What do you think it cost the Father to abandon the Son? Abraham took his son Isaac out to the mountain, but Abraham did not have to plunge the knife into his son. The promise was "The Lord will provide." And the Lord did provide. The Father sent the Son, and the Son bore the wrath. And Jesus Christ in the will of the Father hung upon the cross. There upon the cross Jesus Christ cried out, "Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani": "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mt. 27:46). In that act, Jesus Christ endured the lostness, the judgment, the doom, the poured-out wrath, because he came to bear that wrath in the place of man.

Jesus Christ and the Lostness of Man, Edmund Clowney

the disciplines of gospel-repentance.

2007-08-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

If you clearly understand these two different ways to go about repentance, then (and only then!) you can profit greatly from a regular and exacting discipline of self-examination and repentance. I've found that the practices of the 18th century Methodist leaders George Whitefield and John Wesley have been helpful to me here. In a January 9, 1738, letter to a friend, George Whitefield laid out an order for regular repentance. (He ordinarily did his inventory at night.) He wrote: "God give me a deep humility and a burning love, a well-guided zeal and a single eye, and then let men and devils do their worst!" Here is one way to use this order in gospel-grounded repentance.

Deep humility (vs pride)
Have I looked down on anyone? Have I been too stung by criticism? Have I felt snubbed and ignored?

Repent like this: Consider the free grace of Jesus until I sense a) decreasing disdain (since I am a sinner too), b) decreasing pain over criticism (since I should not value human approval over God's love). In light of his grace I can let go of the need to keep up a good image - it is too great a burden and now unnecessary. Consider free grace until I experience grateful, restful joy.

Burning love (vs indifference)
Have I spoken or thought unkindly of anyone? Am I justifying myself by caricaturing (in my mind) someone else? Have I been impatient and irritable? Have I been self-absorbed and indifferent and inattentive to people?

Repent like this: Consider the free grace of Jesus until there is a) no coldness or unkindness (think of the sacrificial love of Christ for you), b) no impatience (think of his patience with you), and c) no indifference. Consider free grace until I show warmth and affection. God was infinitely patient and attentive to me, out of grace.

Wise courage (vs anxiety)
Have I avoided people or tasks that I know I should face? Have I been anxious and worried? Have I failed to be circumspect or have I been rash and impulsive?

Repent like this: Consider the free grace of Jesus until there is a) no cowardly avoidance of hard things (since Jesus faced evil for me), b) no anxious or rash behavior (since Jesus' death proves God cares and will watch over me). It takes pride to be anxious - I am not wise enough to know how my life should go. Consider free grace until I experience calm thoughtfulness and strategic boldness.

Godly motivations (a 'single eye')
Am I doing what I am doing for God's glory and the good of others or am I being driven by fears, need for approval, love of comfort and ease, need for control, hunger for acclaim and power, or the 'fear of man?' Am I looking at anyone with envy? Am I giving in to any of even the first motions of lust or gluttony? Am I spending my time on urgent things rather than important things because of these inordinate desires?

Repent like this: How does Jesus provide for me what I am looking for in these other things? Pray: "O Lord Jesus, make me happy enough in you to avoid sin and wise enough in you to avoid danger, that I may always do what is right in your sight, in your name I pray, Amen."

All of Life is Repentance, by Tim Keller

The Doctor on Preaching the Gospel

2007-08-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

... If it is true that where sin abounded grace has much more abounded, well then, ‘shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound yet further?’

First of all, let me make a comment, to me a very important and vital comment. The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel. Let me show you what I mean.

If a man preaches justification by works, no one would ever raise this question. If a man’s preaching is, ‘If you want to be Christians, and if you want to go to heaven, you must stop committing sins, you must take up good works, and if you do so regularly and constantly, and do not fail to keep on at it, you will make yourselves Christians, you will reconcile yourselves to God and you will go to heaven’. Obviously a man who preaches in that strain would never be liable to this misunderstanding. Nobody would say to such a man, ‘Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?’, because the man’s whole emphasis is just this, that if you go on sinning you are certain to be damned, and only if you stop sinning can you save yourselves. So that misunderstanding could never arise ...

Nobody has ever brought this charge against the Church of Rome, but it was brought frequently against Martin Luther; indeed that was precisely what the Church of Rome said about the preaching of Martin Luther. They said, ‘This man who was a priest has changed the doctrine in order to justify his own marriage and his own lust’, and so on. ‘This man’, they said, ‘is an antinomian; and that is heresy.’ That is the very charge they brought against him. It was also brought George Whitfield two hundred years ago. It is the charge that formal dead Christianity – if there is such a thing – has always brought against this startling, staggering message, that God ‘justifies the ungodly’ ...

That is my comment and it is a very important comment for preachers. I would say to all preachers: If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again, and you had better make sure that you are really preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of God. There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation.

-Martyn Lloyd-Jones, on Romans 6

John Piper on the prosperity gospel

2007-07-14T16:48:00.001-07:00

Taking the Swagger Out of Christian Cultural Influence

2007-07-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

The fact that Christians are exiles on the earth (1 Peter 2:11), does not mean that they don’t care what becomes of culture. But it does mean that they exert their influence as very happy, brokenhearted outsiders. We are exiles. “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

But we are very happy sojourners, because we have been commanded by our bloody Champion to rejoice in exile miseries. “Blessed are you when others . . . persecute you . . . on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11-12). We are happy because the apostle Paul showed us that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). We are happy because there are merciful foretastes everywhere in this fallen world, and God is glad for us to enjoy them (1 Timothy 4:3; 6:17). And we are happy because we know that the exiles will one day inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). Christ died for sinners so that “all things” might one day belong to his people (Romans 8:32).

But our joy is a brokenhearted joy, because Christ is worthy of so much better obedience than we Christians render. Our joy is a brokenhearted joy because so many people around the world have not heard the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). And our joy is a brokenhearted joy because human culture –- in every society –- dishonors Christ, glories in its shame, and is bent on self-destruction.

This includes America. American culture does not belong to Christians, neither in reality nor in Biblical theology. It never has. The present tailspin toward Sodom is not a fall from Christian ownership. “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). It has since the fall, and it will till Christ comes in open triumph. God’s rightful ownership will be manifest in due time. The Lordship of Christ over all creation is being manifest in stages, first the age of groaning, then the age of glory. “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). The exiles are groaning with the whole creation. We are waiting.

But Christian exiles are not passive. We do not smirk at the misery or the merrymaking of immoral culture. We weep. Or we should. This is my main point: being exiles does not mean being cynical. It does not mean being indifferent or uninvolved. The salt of the earth does not mock rotting meat. Where it can, it saves and seasons. And where it can’t, it weeps. And the light of the world does not withdraw, saying “good riddance” to godless darkness. It labors to illuminate. But not dominate.

Being Christian exiles in American culture does not end our influence; it takes the swagger out of it. We don’t get cranky that our country has been taken away. We don’t whine about the triumphs of evil. We are not hardened with anger. We understand. This is not new. This was the way it was in the beginning –- Antioch, Corinth, Athens, Rome. The Empire was not just degenerate, it was deadly. For three explosive centuries Christians paid for their Christ-exalting joy with blood. Many still do. More will.

It never occurred to those early exiles that they should rant about the ubiquity of secular humanism. The Imperial words were still ringing in their ears: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). This was a time for indomitable joy and unwavering ministries of mercy.

Yes, it was a time for influence –- as it is now. But not with huffing and puffing as if to reclaim our lost laws. Rather with tears and persuasion and perseverance, knowing that the folly of racism, and the exploitation of the poor, and the de-Godding of education, and the horror of abortion, and the collapse of heterosexual marriage, are the tragic death-tremors of joy, not the victory of the left or the right.

The greatness of Christian exiles is not success but service. Whether we win or lose, we witness to the way of truth and beauty and joy. We don’t own culture, and we don’t rule it. We serve it with brokenhearted joy and longsuffering mercy, for the good of man and the glory of Jesus Christ.

-John Piper, August 27, 2003

God's Grace and Your Sufferings, by David Powlison

2007-07-03T01:14:00.000-07:00

How does God meet you in trouble, loss, disability, and pain? You probably already know the "right answer." He does not immediately intervene to make everything all better. Yet he continually intervenes, according to gracious purposes, working both in you and in what afflicts you. If you've read Psalms, if you've heard a sermon on the second half of Romans 8, if you've worked through 1 Peter in a Bible study, if you've read the earlier chapters of [Suffering and the Sovereignty of God], then you've got the gist already.

How does God's grace engage your sufferings? We may know the right answer. And yet we don't know it. It is a hard answer. But we make it sound like a pat answer. God sets about a long slow answering. But we try to make it a quick fix. His answer insists on being lived out over time and into the particulars. We act as if just saying the right words makes it so. God's answer insists on changing you into a different kind of person. But we act as if some truth, principle, strategy, or perspective might simply be incorporated into who we already are. God personalizes his answer on hearts with an uncanny flexibility. But we turn it into a formula: "If you just believe _______. If you just do _______. If you just remember ______." No important truth contains the word "just" in the punch line.

How does God's grace meet you in your sufferings? We can make the right answer sound old hat, but I guarantee this: God will surprise you. He will make you stop. You will struggle. He will bring you up short. You will hurt. He will take his time. You will grow in faith and in love. He will deeply delight you. You will find the process harder than you ever imagined--and better. Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life (Psalm 23:6). No matter how many times you've heard it, no matter how long you've known it, no matter how well you can say it, God's answer will come to mean something better than you could ever imagine.

To continue reading, click here.

The Glory to Come

2007-06-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

All that awaits us is glorious. There is an inheritance in reversion; and it is “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 1:4). There is a rest, a sabbath-keeping in store for us (Heb 4:9); and this “rest shall be glorious” (Isa 11:10). The kingdom which we claim is a glorious kingdom. The crown which we are to wear is a glorious crown. The city of our habitation is a glorious city. The garments which shall clothe us are garments “for glory and for beauty.” Our bodies shall be glorious bodies, fashioned after the likeness of Christ’s “glorious body” (Phil 3:21). Our society shall be that of the glorified. Our songs shall be songs of glory. And of the region which we are to inhabit it is said, that “the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Rev 21:23).

The hope of this glory cheers us. From under a canopy of night we look out upon these promised scenes of blessedness, and we are comforted. Our dark thoughts are softened down, even when they are not wholly brightened. For day is near, and joy is near, and the warfare is ending, and the tear shall be dried up, and the shame be lost in the glory, and “we shall be presented faultless before the presence of his GLORY with exceeding joy.”

Then the fruit of patience and of faith shall appear, and the hope we have so long been clinging to shall not put us to shame. Then shall we triumph and praise. Then shall we be avenged on death, and pain, and sickness. Then shall every wound be more than healed. Egypt enslaves us no more. Babylon leads us captive no more. The Red Sea is crossed, the wilderness is passed, Jordan lies behind us, and we are in Jerusalem! There is no more curse—there is no more night. The tabernacle of God is with us; in that tabernacle he dwells, and we dwell with him.

It is “the God of all grace” who “has called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.” It is “when the chief Shepherd shall appear, that we shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 5:4, 10). And this “after we have suffered a while,” and by suffering have been “made perfect, stablished, strengthened, settled.” So that suffering is not lost upon us. It prepares us for the glory. And the hope of that glory, as well as the knowledge of the discipline through which we are passing, and of the process of preparation going on in us, sustains us, nay, teaches us to “glory in tribulation.” This comfort, nay, it is happiness. Strange in the world’s eye, but not strange in ours! All that the world has is but a poor imitation of happiness and consolation; ours is real, even now; how much more hereafter! Nor will a brief delay and a sore conflict lessen the weight of coming glory. Nay, they will add to it; and it is worth waiting for, it is worth suffering for, it is worth fighting for. It is so sure of coming, and so blessed when it comes.

-Horatius Bonar

Dependence on Christ - God's Prescription

2007-06-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

You see I am mindful of my promise; and glad should I be to write something that the Lord may be pleased to make a word in season. I went yesterday into the pulpit very dry and heartless. I seemed to have fixed upon a text, but when I came to the pinch, it was so shut up that I could not preach from it. I had hardly a minute to choose, and therefore was forced to snatch at that which came first upon my mind, which proved 2 Tim. i. 12. Thus I set off at a venture, having no resource but in the Lord's mercy and faithfulness; and, indeed, what other can we wish for? Presently my subject opened; and I know not when I have been favoured with more liberty. Why do I tell you this? Only as an instance of His goodness, to encourage you to put your strength in Him, and not to be afraid even when you feel your own weakness and insufficiency most sensibly. We are never more safe, never have more reason to expect the Lord's help, than when we are most sensible that we can do nothing without Him. This was the lesson Paul learnt, to rejoice in His own poverty and emptiness, that the power of Christ might rest upon Him. Could Paul have done anything, Jesus would not have had the honour of doing all. This way of being saved entirely by grace, from first to last, is contrary to our natural wills; it mortifies self, leaving it nothing to boast of, and through the remains of an unbelieving, legal spirit, it often seems discouraging. When we think ourselves so utterly helpless and worthless, we are too ready to fear that the Lord will therefore reject us; whereas, in truth, such a poverty of spirit is the best mark we can have of an interest in His promises and care.

How often have I longed to be an instrument of establishing you in the peace and hope of the Gospel! And I have but one way of attempting it, by telling you over and over of the power and grace of Jesus. You want nothing to make you happy, but to have the eyes of your understanding more fixed upon the Redeemer, and more enlightened by the Holy Spirit to behold His glory. O! He is a suitable Saviour! He has power, authority, and compassion, to save to the uttermost. He has given His word of promise, to engage our confidence, and He is able and faithful to make good the expectations and desires He has raised in us. Put your trust in Him; believe (as we say) through thick and thin, in defiance of all objections from within and without. For this, Abraham is recommended as a pattern to us. He overlooked all difficulties; he ventured and hoped even against hope, in a case which to appearance was desperate; because he knew that He who had promised was also able to perform.

Your sister is much upon my mind. Her illness grieves me; were it in my power, I would quickly remove it. The Lord can, and I hope will, when it has answered the end for which He sent it. I trust He has brought her to us for good, and that she is chastised by Him that she may not be condemned with the world. I hope, though she says little, she lifts up her heart to Him for a blessing. I wish you may be enabled to leave her and yourself, and all your concerns, in His hands. He has a sovereign right to do with us as He pleases; and if we consider what we are, surely we shall confess we have no reason to complain; and to those who seek Him, His sovereignty is exercised in a way of grace. All shall work together for good; everything is needful that He sends; nothing can be needful that He withholds. Be content to bear the cross; others have borne it before you. You have need of patience; and if you ask, the Lord will give it: but there can be no settled peace till our will is in a measure subdued. Hide yourself under the shadow of His wings; rely upon His care and power; look upon Him as a physician who has graciously undertaken to heal your soul of the worst of sicknesses, sin. Yield to His prescriptions, and fight against every thought that would represent it as desirable to be permitted to choose for yourself. When you cannot see your way, be satisfied that He is your leader. When your spirit is overwhelmed within you, He knows your path; He will not leave you to sink. He has appointed seasons of refreshment, and you shall find He does not forget you. Above all, keep close to the throne of grace. If we seem to get no good by attempting to draw near Him we may be sure we shall get none by keeping away from Him.

-John Newton, August 19, 1775

Whom Have I in Heaven but Thee?

2007-06-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

'Let this assembly pause for a moment, while each one solemnly inquires with himself whether he has chosen the God of Asaph for his only portion and supreme delight, or whether his affections and hopes still linger among the vanities of this lower world. Do our souls stand ready, at the word of God, to break away from every scene of this enchanted ground, and leaving the world behind, to soar to regions from which all worldly things are forever excluded? Do we, like Simeon and Paul, pant to ascend to the full possession of the supreme good? Why do we wish for heaven? Is it that we may live forever at home with our God, and after a long and tedious separation, be forever united to the centre of our souls? Is it this, or is it some other heaven which is the object of our imagination and desire? And can we sincerely appeal to the Searcher of hearts, "There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee?" Have we a solemn conviction that we have chosen him for our supreme good and portion? Or do we still remain miserably encumbered with the lumber of earthly objects,-wretchedly ignorant of the Source of our being, -encompassed with darkness which has known no morning,-wickedly and fatally straying from the only source of happiness,-vagrants in the region of confusion, night, and misery? Ah wretched souls, whither do ye wander? Why prefer the night of chaos to the glories of the uncreated sun? Why flee from the fountain of happiness and love in pursuit of wretchedness and eternal war? Where can such bliss be found as you have left behind? Wherefore do you speed your course from the Author of your being as though all misery lived with him? Whither would you hurry in the wildness of your distraction? O return, return. Seek no longer for happiness in shunning its only source. O return, return. Let planets break loose from the attractions of the sun, and wander wildly and without order into the regions of night; but let not immortal souls break away from the attractions of the eternal Sun, to wander in wild and dark vagaries, in wretched confusion and ruinous disorder to all eternity. O return, while return is possible, to the substance and fountain of light and blessedness. Let the attractions of divine love draw you nearer and nearer, until you shall fall into the glorious Sun, and lose yourselves to all eternity in this beatific union. Renounce your alliance with worms and dust, sustain a glorious resurrection from the dead, and learn to say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee."'

-Edward Griffin

The Inward Experience of Believers (Romans 7:22-25)

2007-06-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

The feelings of a believer during this warfare

1) He feels wretched. 'O wretched man that I am'(v24). There is nobody in this world so happy as a believer. He has come to Christ, and found rest. He has the pardon of all his sins in Christ. He has near approach to God as a child. He has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. He has the hope of glory. In the most awful times he can be calm, for he feels that God is with him. Still there are times when he cries, O wretched man! When he feels the plague of his own heart; when he feels the thorn in the flesh; when his wicked heart is discovered in all its fearful malignity; ah, then he lies down, crying, O wretched man that I am! One reason of this wretchedness is, that sin discovered in the heart takes away the sense of forgiveness. Guilt comes upon the conscience, and a dark cloud covers the soul. How can I ever go back to Christ? he cries. Alas! I have sinned away my Saviour. Another reason is, the loathsomeness of sin. It is felt like a vapor in the heart. A natural man is often miserable from his sin, but never feels its loathsomeness; but to the new creature it is vile indeed. Ah! brethren, do you know anything of a believer's wretchedness? If you do not, you will never know his joy. If you know not a believer's tears and groans, you will never know his song of victory.

2) He seeks deliverance. 'Who shall deliver me?' In ancient times, some of the tyrants used to chain their prisoners to a dead body; so that, wherever the prisoner wandered, he had to drag a putrid carcass after him. It is believed that Paul alludes to this inhuman practice. His old man he felt a noisome putrid carcass, which he was continually dragging about with him. His piercing desire is to be freed from it. Who shall deliver us? You remember once, when God allowed a thorn in the flesh to torment his servant, - a messenger of Satan to buffet him, - Paul was driven to his knees. 'I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.' Oh, this is the true mark of God's children! The world has an old nature; they are all old men together. But it does not drive them to their knees. How is it with you, dear souls? Does corruption felt within drive you to the throne of grace? Does it make you call on the name of the Lord? Does it make you like the importunate widow: 'Avenge me of mine adversary?' Does it make you like the man coming at midnight for three loaves? Does it make you like the Canaanitish woman, crying after Jesus? Ah, remember, if lust can work in your heart, and you lie down contented with it, you are none of Christ's!

3) He gives thanks for victory. Truly we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us; for we can give thanks before the fight is done. Yes, even in the thickest of the battle we can look up to Jesus, and cry, Thanks to God. The moment a soul groaning under corruption rests the eye on Jesus, that moment his groans are changed into songs of praise. In Jesus you discover a fountain to wash away the guilt of all your sin. In Jesus you discover grace sufficient for you, - grace to hold you up to the end, - and a sure promise that sin shall soon be rooted out altogether. 'Fear not, I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by my name; thou art mine.' Ah, this turns our groans into songs of praise! How often a psalm begins with groans and ends with praises! This is the daily experience of all the Lord's people. Is it yours? Try yourselves by this. Oh, if you know not the believer's song of praise, you will never cast your crowns with them at the feet of Jesus. Dear believers, be content to glory in your infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon you.

Glory, glory, glory to the Lamb!

-Robert Murray M'Cheyne

An exhortation so to spend the present life, that it may only be a journey towards heaven

2007-06-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Labor to obtain such a disposition of mind that you may choose heaven for your inheritance and home, and may earnestly long for it and be willing to change this world, and all its enjoyments, for heaven. Labor to have your heart taken up so much about heaven, and heavenly enjoyments, as that you may rejoice when God calls you to leave your best earthly friends and comforts for heaven, there to enjoy God and Christ.

Be persuaded to travel in the way that leads to heaven: viz. in holiness, self-denial, mortification, obedience to all the commands of God, following Christ's example [and] in a way of heavenly life, or imitation of the saints and angels in heaven. Let it be your daily work, from morning till night, and hold out in it to the end. Let nothing stop or discourage you, or turn you aside from this road. And let all other concerns be subordinated to this. Consider the reasons that you have been mentioned why you should thus spend your life: that this world is not your abiding place, that the future is to be your everlasting abode, and that the enjoyments and concerns of this world are given entirely in order to another. And consider further for motive.

1. How worthy is heaven that your life should be wholly spent as a journey towards it. To what better purpose can you spend your life, whether you respect your duty or your interest? What better end can you propose to your journey, than to obtain heaven? You are placed in this world with a choice given you, that you may travel which way you please, and one way leads to heaven. Now, can you direct your course better than this way? All men have some aim or other in living. Some mainly seek worldly things. They spend their days in such pursuits. But is not heaven, where is fullness of joy forever, much more worthy to be sought by you? How can you better employ your strength, use your means, and spend your days, than in traveling the road that leads to the everlasting enjoyment of God: to his glorious presence, to the new Jerusalem, to the heavenly mount Zion, where all your desires will be filled and no danger of ever losing your happiness? No man is at home in this world, whether he choose heaven or not: here he is but a transient person. Where can you choose your home better than in heaven?

2. This is the way to have death comfortable to us. To spend our lives so as to be only a journeying towards heaven, is the way to be free from bondage and to have the prospect and forethought of of death comfortable. Does the traveler think of his journey's end with fear and terror? Is terrible to him to think that he has almost got to his journey's end? Were the children of Israel sorry after forty years' travel in the wilderness, when they had almost got to Canaan? This is the way to be able to part with the world without grief. Does it grieve the traveler when he has got home, to quit his staff and load of provisions that he had to sustain him by the way?

3. No more of your life will be pleasant to think of when you come to die, than has been spent after this manner. If you have spent none of your life this way, your whole life will be terrible to you to think of, unless you die under some great delusion. You will see then, that all of your life that has been spent otherwise, is lost. You will then see the vanity of all other aims that you may have proposed to yourself. The thought of what you here possessed and enjoyed will not be pleasant to you, unless you can think also that you have subordinated them to this purpose.

4. Consider that those who are willing thus to spend their lives as a journey towards heaven may have heaven. Heaven, however, high and glorious, is attainable to such poor worthless creatures as we are. We may attain that glorious region which is the habitation of angels: yea, the dwelling-place of the Son of God, and where is the glorious presence of the great Jehovah. And we may have it freely, without money and without price. If we are but willing to travel the road that leads to it and bend our course that way as long as we live, we may and shall have heaven for our eternal resting place.

5. Let it be considered that if our lives be not a journey towards heaven, they will be a journey to hell. All mankind, after they have been here a short while, go to either of the two great receptacles of all that depart out of this world: the one in heaven; whither the bulk of mankind throng. And one or the other of these must be the issue of our course in this world.

-Jonathan Edwards

Continue In The Faith (Acts 14:22)

2007-05-26T16:51:00.001-07:00

'Perseverance is the badge of true saints. The Christian life is not a beginning only in the ways of God, but also a continuance in the same as long as life lasts. It is with a Christian as it was with the great Napoleon: he said, “Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me.” So, under God, dear brother in the Lord, conquest has made you what you are, and conquest must sustain you. Your motto must be, “Excelsior.” He only is a true conqueror, and shall be crowned at the last, who continueth till war’s trumpet is blown no more. Perseverance is, therefore, the target of all our spiritual enemies. The world does not object to your being a Christian for a time, if she can but tempt you to cease your pilgrimage, and settle down to buy and sell with her in Vanity Fair. The flesh will seek to ensnare you, and to prevent your pressing on to glory. “It is weary work being a pilgrim; come, give it up. Am I always to be mortified? Am I never to be indulged? Give me at least a furlough from this constant warfare.” Satan will make many a fierce attack on your perseverance; it will be the mark for all his arrows. He will strive to hinder you in service: he will insinuate that you are doing no good; and that you want rest. He will endeavour to make you weary of suffering, he will whisper, “Curse God, and die.” Or he will attack your steadfastness: “What is the good of being so zealous? Be quiet like the rest; sleep as do others, and let your lamp go out as the other virgins do.” Or he will assail your doctrinal sentiments: “Why do you hold to these denominational creeds? Sensible men are getting more liberal; they are removing the old landmarks: fall in with the times.” Wear your shield, Christian, therefore, close upon your armour, and cry mightily unto God, that by his Spirit you may endure to the end.'

-Prince CH Spurgeon

On Jordan's Stormy Banks, by Samuel Stennett

2007-05-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

All o’er those wide extended plains,
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.

No chilling winds nor poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness, sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.

When shall I reach that happy place,
And be forever blessed?
When shall I see my Father’s face,
And in His bosom rest?

I am bound for the Promised Land.