Daily Lament

 “It is our daily lament that we cannot love God enough.”

— Charles Spurgeon

Look to Christ Every Day

 My dear friend, I am a poor sinner still; and I have to look to Christ every day as I did at the very first.

--Charles Spurgeon. 

Does Jesus Love Me

 It is a question that many believers have asked. It is often on the mind of the downcast and discouraged. “Does Jesus love me?” It may be a nagging doubt or an agonizing cry of the heart—possibly quite similar to

Psalm 22:1

. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” sounds much like, “God, do you really love me?”

While this may be a common experience for the Christian, we must look to the not-very-common answer. In other words, we need the biblically satisfying solution to such deep longing.

To arrive there, we begin where the Scriptures begin, and not with our own subjective experience. We so easily look to ourselves for the answer: “Do I feel loved? Am I really all that lovable? Have I obeyed Jesus enough that He would love me?” But all these subjective attempts at comfort are no comfort at all. Who among us has ever-steady emotions? Who, biblically speaking, is lovable in their own right? Who could ever obey enough to be acceptable in their own righteousness before a holy God? The Scriptures are clear on these points: no one.

No, the solution to this fundamental question is not in ourselves. Rather, it is in the person and work of Jesus. When the Scriptures encourage us with the reality of Christ’s love for His people, they always look to Him and never to us.

“But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (

Rom. 5:8

, BSB). Don’t miss how that verse begins: “God proves his love for us.” How is it that we know God loves us? He sent Christ to save us even when we were yet His enemies. Elsewhere, the Apostle John argues the exact same way: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (

1 John 4:10

). When we doubt the love of God in our lives, we must look to what Christ has objectively done for us, in that He came, He pursued, He sought us, He saved. After all, this was the very reason Christ came into the world: to seek and to save His people (

Luke 19:10

).

God’s perfect love flows from Him and is entirely of Him, as He places it upon us.

This type of love, a love that originates entirely in God and not in our own loveliness, is at the heart of biblical “unconditional love,” or agape love. God’s perfect love flows from Him and is entirely of Him, as He places it upon us. While we are devoid of everything lovable, excellent, praiseworthy, or beautiful, God lavishes His love upon us. He did this “in order to make known the riches of his glory,” as

Romans 9:15–23

makes clear. The love that God shows us, now His children in Christ, is entirely free and gracious, flowing from Him to us, not because of us, but entirely because of Him.

Once we can comprehend this type of love, it is a glorious and encouraging reality. Human love is so often grounded in the object of our love, which is why people speak of “falling in and out of love.” What makes our hearts sing one day leaves us disappointed and despairing the next. We can be so fickle. Then we take our ever-changing, always-conditional love, and read our humanness back into God. We think He loves like we love. May it never be. The unmerited love that God displays toward us is of an entirely different kind. Listen to how

Ephesians 1

describes it: “He chose us . . . before the foundation of the world . . . in love . . . according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (

Eph. 1:4–6

).

He chose us in Christ. He perfectly loves Jesus, described here as “the Beloved.” That is who Christ is—the loved one of God. And out of Himself, He loves us just as He loves Christ, and this from all eternity. Could there be any greater news?

If ever there is a question about whether God loves us, the biblical solution is not to look to ourselves, our love, or our faithfulness. Instead, we are called to look at the objective reality of what God has done for us in Christ. We are to ground our certainty and assurance of His love in who He is and what He has done—not in ourselves, which is ever-shifting sand.

As biblical theologian Geerhardus Vos famously said,

“The best proof that He will never cease to love us” is “that He never began.”

Jesus has loved us from all eternity. He has always and will always love His people—His sheep—His precious chosen ones. As the children’s song so simply and profoundly puts it, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” May this be all the answer to the question “Does Jesus love me?” we ever need. The answer, in Christ, is “yes.”

Dr. Keith A. Evans is associate professor of biblical counseling at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, N.C., and a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.

Love of God

 The love of God has no meaning apart from Calvary. And Calvary has no meaning apart from the holy and just wrath of God. Jesus did not die just to give us peace and a purpose in life; He died to save us from the wrath of God.

--Jerry Bridges

All Our Existence

 “The better we know God, the more we will want all of our existence to revolve around him, and we will see that the only goals and plans that really matter are those that are somehow tied to God himself, and to our eternity with him.”

– D. A. Carson

Through Faith

 We are not said to be justified 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘮 (on account of faith) but 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘮 (through faith).

—Puritan Thomas Manton, Works 13:478

Faith is said to justify, because without it we cannot apprehend the righteousness of Christ; as the hand may be said to feed and nourish the body, but the nutritive virtue is not in the hand, but in the meat. —Puritan Thomas Manton, Works 13:477

Seeing the Hand of God

 "Cultivate the holy habit of seeing the hand of God in everything that happens to you."

-Arthur Pink.

Contentment

 “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”

-Jeremiah Burroughs

Not to His Decrees

 It is our duty to look to God’s commands, and not to His decrees; to our own duty & not to His purposes. The decrees of God are a vast ocean, into which many have curiously pried to their own horror and despair...

- Thomas Boston

Christ Intercedes

 WHEN CHRIST INTERCEDES

FOR ALL THE ELECT, HE PRAYS

FOR THEM THE SAME AS HE DID

FOR PETER, THAT THEIR FAITH

MAY NEVER FAIL.

-JOHN CALVIN

God Loves You

  “Do not let the devil tempt you to believe that God does not love you because your love is feeble.”

— Charles Spurgeon

Relationship

 Maybe you were told that Christianity is about your personal relationship with Jesus. And of course, there is some truth to this...

Faith is personal. and Christ saves sinners, not crowds, but somewhere along the way, “personal” became “private.” So you tried to manage it. You monitored your quiet times. You evaluated your sincerity. You dissected your motives. Because of this, you may have learned to ask questions like: Am I close enough? Do I feel Him enough? Am I serious enough? Am I different enough? You were turned inward so often that you forgot where Christ actually is. So, let me be blunt. If your identity depends on the quality of your devotion, you and I both are in a world of trouble. Our devotion fluctuates, and if the stability of our standing before God rises and falls with your devotion, you will live either proud or panicked. But, you were not saved as an individual spiritual project; you were united to Christ (Eph. 1:6), and that means your identity is not generated by you; it is bestowed upon you. You did not climb into Him; the Spirit grafted you in. You did not negotiate adoption; the Father declared it. You did not secure your own righteousness; the Son accomplished it. When you were joined to Christ, you were joined to His body. A covenant people gathered around a preached Word and a visible gospel. Your instinct likely says, “How is my relationship with Jesus doing today?” But the church exists to keep telling you that, “Christ is risen, you are baptized into Him, and His verdict over you stands.” One is introspective. The other is declarative. One keeps you looking at your navel. The other drags your eyes to a cross and an empty tomb. If Christianity is primarily about your inner experience, you will constantly recalibrate who you are based on how you feel about God this week. But if Christianity is about union with Christ, then your identity is anchored outside of you. Week after week, you walk in as someone tempted to reinvent yourself, and Christ says through His Word, “You are Mine.” Not because you are intense enough, not because you are consistent enough, not because you are improved enough. Because He obeyed perfectly for you. Because He died for you. Because He was raised for you. Because He is coming again for you. You are not on an individual journey called “My Walk with Christ.” You are a baptized sinner whose life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). and will never fluctuate.

Faith in Christ for Sanctification.

 Faith acts upon Christ for justification, as he is a Jesus, or by receiving him as a Jesus; faith acts upon Christ for sanctification, as he is a Lord, or by receiving him as Lord.

- Ralph Erskine

Rejoice in Christ

 Be humble, and mourn over the many flaws and failures in your obedience; yet withal rejoice, and glory, and make your boast in the fullness, perfection, and unchangeableness of that righteousness of the Incarnate God which will place you without fault before the throne.

— Octavius Winslow (1808-1878),

No Condemnation in Christ Jesus: As Unfolded in the Eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans

John Cotton: Faith

 There is no more required of you than to lay hold on Christ. He does not look for perfection of faith, but truth of faith. Be your faith ever so weak, if true, it gives you Christ, and He gives you the promise, and that gives you eternal life.

—Puritan John Cotton, Works 3:310

That which makes us doubt [our salvation] is a secret cleaving to the works of the law. —Puritan John Cotton, Works 3:310

Empty Us

 'The Lord continues to empty us  in order to teach us to lay aside

all self-reliance that we may  cling to Christ alone."            --  PAUL WASHER

Abounding Grace

 We must not sin that grace may abound; but when we have sinned, we must make use of abounding grace.

—Puritan Thomas Manton, Works 11:158

Lived in Our Place

 Jesus not only died for us, He also lived for us. That is, all that Christ did in both His life and death, He did in our place as our substitute.

Jerry Bridges

Deaf in Church

 “The ears of many of our hearers are stopped with earth….

“Many sit and stare the minister in the face, yet scarce know a word he says…. “If a man be in a mill, though you speak never so loud to him, he does not hear you for the noise of the mill. We preach to men about matters of salvation, but the mill of worldly business makes such a noise that they cannot hear; ‘in hearing they hear not.’ “It being thus, ministers who are called ‘sons of thunder’ had need often ascend the mount and ‘lift up their voice like a trumpet’ (Isa. 58:1) that the deaf ear may be syringed and unstopped, and may ‘hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches’ (Rev. 2:7).” — Thomas Watson

One Hour in Heaven

One Hour in Heaven 

by Charles Spurgeon. 

 Philippians 1 23. I desired to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. 

 What would it be like to have one hour in heaven? Not to escape trouble merely, nor to walk golden streets for novelty's sake, but to be where Jesus is? That is the believer's greatest joy, the sum and substance of all heavenly delight. Paul did not long for death because he was weary of life, but because being with Jesus was better by far than even the most fruitful life on earth. The streets of gold, the gates of pearl. What are these to me? My heaven is to see my Savior's face and lie forever in his embrace. In one hour in heaven, the soul would drink more deeply of joy than in a lifetime below. 

Here on earth, even the most blessed moments are but sips from a thimble. There the believer drinks from the river of God's pleasures. All sin left behind. No more weary striving against the flesh. No more battling the darkness. In that hour, holiness would not be a struggle, but a nature complete, untainted, radiant. Think of it. One hour of seeing the face of Jesus. Not by faith, not through a veil, but face to face. The lamb slain yet enthroned. The wounds still visible yet glorified. 

That one sight would eclipse every earthly treasure and all former sorrows. The mind would be filled with divine truth. The heart would be consumed with perfect love. And the will would be fully surrendered in joyful obedience. No distractions, no doubts. No distance, only worship, adoration, and praise. The believer would be among the redeemed from every nation, singing the song of the lamb. Yet not one moment would be spent drawing attention to self, but all glory would be directed to the one who bought us with his blood. Just one hour in such a place would make every earthly loss seem light, and every affliction but momentary. 

What holy motivation this should bring? If an hour there is so rich, then how can we live for the fading trifles of time? How can we cling to dust and shadows when the substance awaits? Let us fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen? Let us live not for fleeting temporal comforts, but for the eternal weight of glory. For one hour in heaven will soon be followed by endless ages in the presence of our matchless king.

Superficial Evangelism

 There is a superficial evangelism which puts the gospel entirely in terms of human beings. Are you unhappy? Are you worried? Do you want this or that? Come to Christ and you will get it. And so people come. They have never trembled under the holy law of God, and that is because they were never taught it. 'Well,' they say, 'I'm all right now, I'm forgiven.' And they are negligent about their conduct. They have not realized its importance because they do not know why a person is saved.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Happy Joy

 “You must find joy in God, or you will not find joy at all.”

— Charles Spurgeon

God is Happy! All Happiness is in God, and all happiness is derived from God.

--inspired by puritan material

Understanding the Facts

"Unregenerate man is fully capable of understanding the facts of the gospel: he is simply incapable, due to his corruption and enmity, to submit himself to that gospel. And he surely responds to God every day: negatively, in rebellion and self-serving sinfulness, The Reformed assertion is that man cannot understand and embrace the gospel nor respond in faith and repentance toward Christ without God first freeing him from sin and giving him spiritual life (regeneration)."

— James White

Worthless Nobodies

Many Christians become discouraged and disheartened when their spiritual life and witness suffer because of sin or failure. We tend to think we're worthless nobodies—and left to ourselves, that would be true! 

 But worthless nobodies are just the kind of people God uses, because that is all He has to work with. 

God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek, and the weak so that there's never any question about the source of power when they change the world. It's not the man; it's the truth of God and the power of God in the man. 

 — John MacArthur

Going to a Wedding

 On February 4th in 1555, John Rogers was burnt to death here for believing you could be saved

by faith in Jesus Christ alone.

John Rogers had been a Roman Catholic priest, but his friend William Tyndale had explained

the gospel to him.

He became pastor of a church around the corner from here, he got married, he had a family,

but then in 1555, Queen Mary came to the throne.

And she hated the gospel.

She had at least 198 people burnt to death, and the first would be John Rogers.

The pressure on Rogers that day was intense.

This man really going to die for a message of what someone else has done.

This gospel doesn't flatter you.

This gospel tells you the only thing you bring is your sin.

You really going to die for that?

All you bring to it is faith.

All you do is accept him.

You're going to die for that?

We know what happened though, because the French ambassador Antoine Nwai was a witness,

and he wrote a letter explaining what he'd seen.

What he said was that John Rogers, when he walked to Smithfield, he walked as if he

was going to a wedding.

But it was here that scores of men and women died simply because they believed you could

be saved by faith in what Jesus Christ has done.

And perhaps because they did, we can.

Luther on Prayer

 “Father, do not call us into judgment, for in Your presence no one is righteous. Please do not condemn us for being ungrateful for all of Your unspeakable goodness—both spiritual and physical—and for our daily blunders and sins, which are more than we know or mark (Psalm 19:12).

Furthermore, do not consider how good or bad we have been, but look upon us with Your infinite compassion, bestowed upon us by Christ, Your beloved Son. Forgive also all our enemies and all those who have harmed us or done us an injustice, even as we forgive them from the heart. For they do themselves irreparable harm when they vent their anger against us. We gain nothing by their ruin. Rather, we would rather see them blessed with us. Amen.”

— Martin Luther on the fifth petition for of the Lord’s Prayer

Our Own Want

 When we have a due apprehension of the eminent actings of any grace in Christ Jesus, and withal a deep and abiding sense of our own want of the same grace, it is a season of especial application unto him by prayer for the increase of it.

John Owen

Emotional Highs

 The Christian life is not a string of emotional highs, but obedience and faith amid valleys, disappointments, and the mundane. "Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." Rev 3:10

-Ryan Denton

John Owen on Atheism

 “If I say to a man that the sun is risen and shines on the earth,

“if he questions or denies it, and asks me to prove it, it is sufficient to say, ‘It proves itself by its own light.’ “If he then says that this is no proof to him because he cannot see the light of the sun, then it is a satisfactory answer to say that he is blind. “If he is not blind, it is useless to argue with him because he is contradicting the witness of his own eyes and leaves himself with no satisfactory rule by which he could ever be convinced about anything. “So if I tell a man that the ‘heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork,’ or that the ‘invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,’ and he asks me how I can prove this, “it is a sufficient answer to say that these things in and by themselves prove the existence of the infinitely wise and powerful Creator, and that he ought to be able to reason that out for himself. “If he says that it does not appear to him that the universe was ever created but that it only came into being by chance, “then it is sufficient to say that he is delirious and does not have the use of his reason, or that he is arguing in express contradiction to his own reason, as the heathen philosophers admitted. “And if I declare to anyone that the Scripture is the word of God, a divine revelation, and that it proves and manifests itself to be so, and he replies that by the use of his sense and reason it does not appear to him to be God’s word, “then it would be a sufficient reply to secure the authority of Scripture…to say, ‘All men have not faith,’ in the light of which alone we can see the marks of its divine origin impressed on it.” — John Owen