AN OBSERVATION

The Christian life is a personal one. And what I mean is, it is easy to lay back and wait for corporate Bible study, corporate prayer, corporate evangelism, corporate benevolence ministry, corporate outreach, and all things corporate. It seems clear that God has provided a community body of the church to build one another up which includes encouragement, instruction, correction, and joint labor; it is wrong and dangerous to be a lone ranger void of accountability and teamwork.

Yet having said that, I am learning the past 4.5 years that I can never sit back and wait for the corporate functions (or lack thereof) to be my mainstay. In family worship, Joshua and his house will serve the Lord, and so I must constantly pursue Christ and His Kingdom as He first loved me and claimed me for His own possession. I will enjoy the nourishment of Christ, prayer, Scripture, evangelism, ministry, outreach, and worship without waiting for the Christian community to be the inducement or occasion to pursue these things.

Has the local congregation lacked evangelism, prayer, devotion, ministry, outreach, discipleship? Well, don't let that be my (your) excuse for my own lack of personal: evangelism, prayer, devotion, ministry, outreach, discipleship.

WANDERING SHEEP

I was a wandering sheep,
I did not love the fold;
I did not love my Shepherd’s voice,
I would not be controlled.
I was a wayward child,
I did not love my home;
I did not love my Father’s voice,
I loved afar to roam.

The Shepherd sought His sheep,
The Father sought His child;
They followed me o’er vale and hill,
O’er deserts waste and wild;
They found me nigh to death,
Famished and faint and lone;
They bound me with the bands of love,
They saved the wand’ring one.

They spoke in tender love,
They raised my drooping head,
They gently closed my bleeding wounds,
My fainting soul they fed;
They washed my filth away,
They made me clean and fair;
They brought me to my home in peace,
The long sought wanderer.

Jesus my Shepherd is:
’Twas He that loved my soul;
’Twas He that washed me in His blood,
’Twas He that made me whole.
’Twas He that sought the lost,
That found the wand’ring sheep,
’Twas He that brought me to the fold,
’Tis He that still doth keep.

No more a wandering sheep,
I love to be controlled;
I love my tender Shepherd’s voice,
I love the peaceful fold.
No more a wayward child,
I seek no more to roam;
I love my heavenly Father’s voice,
I love, I love His home!

HORATIUS BONAR

COMFORT THE FEEBLEMINDED

JOHN GILL ON 1 THESS 5:14

Comfort the feebleminded: such as are not able to bear the loss of near and dear relations; are ready to stagger under the cross, and at the reproaches and persecutions of the world; and are almost overset with the temptations of Satan; and are borne down and discouraged with the corruptions of their hearts, speak a comfortable word to them, encourage them with the doctrines of grace, and the promises of the Gospel.

Preaching with Faith

The preacher preaches the word with the aim to bring attention to the God of glory, an accurate apprehension /understanding of Scripture to the mind, a deepening affection to the heart, and a faithful application in the life.  Yet the preacher realizes he himself cannot change the listener's "attention, mind, heart, life"  The audience may ignore or drift from the passage, or reject and twist the meaning of the passage, and despise the passage, and never bear fruit in accordance with the passage.  So the pastor preaches first as an act of worship to God, an act of obedience to God, and an act of faith toward God, leaving the results of the preaching up to the power and grace of God.  Only God can change the attention, mind, heart, life of the soul.

POOR OR PLUSH

“For whom the devil cannot overcome with poverty, want, need and misery, he attacks with riches, favor, honor, pleasure, power and the like, and contends on both sides against us; yea, ‘he walketh about,’ says St. Peter in 1 Pet 5:8, so that if he cannot overthrow us either with suffering or love, … he retires to a higher and different method and attacks us with error, blindness and a false understanding of the Scripture.” -- Martin Luther

A GOOD PREACHER

“A good preacher should have these properties and virtues: first, to teach systematically; secondly, he should have a ready wit; thirdly, he should be eloquent; fourthly, he should have a good voice; fifthly, a good memory; sixthly, he should know when to make an end; seventhly, he should be sure of his doctrine; eighthly, he should venture and engage body and blood, wealth and honor, in the Word; ninthly, he should suffer himself to be mocked and jeered of everyone.” -- Martin Luther

I BLESS THEE

‎"O God, I bless thee for the happy moment when I first saw thy law fulfilled in Christ, wrath appeased, death destroyed, sin forgiven, my soul saved. Ever since, Thou hast been faithful to me, daily I have proved the power of Jesus' blood, daily I have known the strength of the Spirit, my teacher, director, sanctifier." -from "The Life Look" (page 54)

TRIFLES

"We all profess that we are bound for heaven, immortality, and glory: but is it any evidence that we really design it if all our thoughts are consumed about the trifles of this world, which we must leave behind us, and have only occasional thoughts of things above?"

- John Owen

CAN YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR

I've known this before and known it for years, and yet have failed to rest in the fact; but today I very deep and profound peace came in the confidence of: "It is not my responsibility if others fail to hear the sermon." The greatest under-shepherds you can name will stay have men sit and day dream with a wandering mind and never engaged with the Scripture or message. And yes, I have also been frequently guilty of such disrespect to God's Word; but I am just saying from the pastor's point of view, it is his duty to preach clearly, prayerfully, accurately; those who need 7 jokes and 7 sentimental stories to keep them interested are saying in effect: the death and resurrection of Christ does not interest me by itself.

THE DELIGHT OF THE FATHER

"Christ is the desire of nations, the joy of angels, the delight of the Father. What solace then must that soul be filled with, that has the possession of Him to all eternity!"

- John Bunyan

FEELINGS COME AND GO

“Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God--
Naught else is worth believing.

Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.

I'll trust in God's unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever,
For, though all things shall pass away,
HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!”

― Martin Luther

NOT PERMITTED

"I am not permitted to let my love be so merciful as to tolerate and endure false doctrine. When faith and doctrine are concerned and endangered, neither love nor patience are in order....when these are concerned, neither toleration nor mercy are in order, but only anger, dispute, and destruction - to be sure, only with the Word of God as our weapon."

Martin Luther

PUBLIC WORSHIP

"The Lord is more glorified by public worship than private. God is then glorified by us when we acknowledge that he is glorious. And he is most glorified when this acknowledgment is most public. This is obvious. A public acknowledgment of the worth and excellency of any one tends more to his honour than that which is private or secret. It was more for David's honour that the multitude did celebrate his victory, 1 Sam. 18:7, than if a particular person had acknowledged it only in private. Hence the psalmist, when he would have the glory of God most amply declared, contents not himself with a private acknowledgment, but summons all the earth to praise him, Ps. 96:1-8. Then is the Lord most glorified, when his glory is most declared, and then it is most declared when it is declared by most, by a multitude." -David Clarkson-

OUR BEARD COMES BACK

‎"Original sin is in us like our beard. We are shaved today and look clean; tomorrow our beard has grown again, nor does it cease growing while we remain on earth. In like manner original sin cannot be extirpated from us; it springs up in us as long as we live." -- Martin Luther

HONEY IN THE ROCK

‎"He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee." - Psalm 81:16

 I can remember the time, almost 10 years ago, when I first heard the song that really blessed me, it was called "Honey in the Rock." I was grinning ear to ear because the meaning of the lyrics, being based on Psalm 81:16 had gripped me.

GOD IS NOT TROUBLED

God is not troubled by anything that is now taking place in His world - either in its political, social, or religious sphere; nor should we be troubled. The helm is still in His hand; and Satan himself cannot so much as touch a hair of our heads, without His direct permission.
~Writings of A.W. Pink

POOR IN SPIRIT

"He only who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God, is poor in spirit" 
~John Calvin, via Al and Cathy Hartman

I HAVE A HIGH PRIEST

When old companions, old lusts, and sins crowd in upon you, and when you feel that you are ready to sink, what can save you, sinking sinner? This alone - I have a high priest in heaven, and he can support in the hour of affliction. This alone can give you peace - I have a high priest in heaven. When you are dying - when friends can do you no good - when sins rise up like spectres around your bed - what can give you peace? This - "I have a high priest in heaven."

Robert Murray M'Cheyne

THE WHOLE WORK IS HIS

"Faith is the acknowledgment of the entire absence of all goodness in us, and the recognition of the cross as the substitute for all the want on our part. The whole work is His, not ours, from first to last."

Horatius Bonar

LEANING ON YOURSELF???

"Indeed, the generality of men that are trained up in a Protestant country will tell you that they do not expect to be justified by their own righteousness, but by the righteousness of Christ. But alas! How few are there that do really and actually submit unto this righteousness. There is a cursed bias in the heart of man to lean to something in himself. Is not this the language of thy heart many 

times? O! If I had such a frame, such a melting of heart, such love, such a degree of humility and obedience, then I think God would accept of me, and love me on that account. But, Sirs, let me tell you, it is not on account of anything wrought in you, or done by you, but only on the account of the doing and dying of the Son of God.”

Ebenezer Erskine