REFLECTIONS

Love Forever

About Christopher Love, a 17^th Century Christian Martyr; the following letter was written to his wife:

“July 15, 1651 [the day he expected to be executed]

From the Tower of London

My Dearest Beloved,

I am now going to my long home, yet I must write thee a word before I go hence and shall be seen no more. It is to beg thee to be comforted in my gain and not to be troubled in thy loss. Labor to suppress thy inward fears now that thou art under outward sorrows. As thy outward sufferings abound, let thy consolations in Christ also abound. I know that thou art a woman of a sorrowful spirit. My time is short; I have but few words of counsel to give thee, and then I shall leave thee to God who careth for thee and thine.

1.     While  thou art under desertions, labor rather to strengthen and clear up thy evidences for heaven than question them.

2.     Remember a faith of adherence or reliance on the Lord Jesus brings thee to heaven, though thou want the faith of evidence or assurance.

3.     Labor to find that (and more also) in God which thou hast lost in the creature.

4.     Spend not thy days in heaviness for my death. If there were knowledge of things below or sorrow in heaven, I should grieve to think my beloved should mourn on earth.

5.     Lie under a soul-searching ministry. I know thou are not a spongy hearer, sucking in foul water as well as fair. God hath given thee a good understanding, to be able to discern things that differ. As the mouth tastes meat, thy ear trieth words

6.     Be conversant in Christian meetings and much in the exercises of mortification, in fasting and prayers,yet have respect to the weakness of thy body and thy present condition.

7.     Have a care of thyself and babies. God will take care of thee and them. I can write no more; farewell my dear, farewell, farewell.

My dear, I beg thee to be satisfied. My heart is greatly comforted in God. I can quietly submit to the good pleasure of His will, and I hope thou dost so also. I am delivered by the determinate counsel of God; the will of the Lord be done. Read for thy comfort when I am dead and gone Jeremiah 49:11 and the beginning of 12; Isaiah 9:6-8; Psalm 146:9; 2 Corinthians 4:17-18; and Hebrews 12:6-7.”

-From A Spectacle Unto God the Life and Death of Christopher Love  by Don Kistler Soli Deo Gloria  Morgan, Pa  1994.

REFLECTIONS

The Fear of the Lord

"2. A greater fear of God's majesty.'Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him' (Psa. 33:8). God is so high above us that the thought of His majesty should make us tremble. His power is so great that the realization of it ought to terrify us. He is so ineffably holy, and His abhorrence of sin is so infinite, that the very thought of wrongdoing ought to fill us with horror. 'God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him’ (Psa. 89:7).

'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' (Prov. 9:10), and 'wisdom' is a right use of 'knowledge.' Just so far as God is truly known will He be duly feared. Of the wicked it is written, 'There is no fear of God before their eyes' (Rom. 3.18). They have no realization of His majesty, no concern for His authority, no respect for His commandments, no alarm that He shall judge them. But concerning His covenant people God has promised, 'I will put my fear in their hearts, and they shall not depart from Me' (Jer. 32:40). Therefore do they tremble at His Word (Isa. 66:5), and walk softly before Him.

'The fear of the Lord is to hate evil' (Prov. 8:13). And again, 'By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil' (Prov. 16:6). The man who lives in the fear of God is conscious that 'The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good' (Prov. 15:3), therefore is he conscious about his private conduct as well as his public. The one who is deterred from committing certain sins because the eyes of men are upon him, and who hesitates not to commit them when alone, is destitute of the fear of God. So too, the man who moderates his language when Christians are about him, but does not so at other times, is devoid of God's fear. He has no awe-inspiring consciousness that God sees and hears him at all times. The truly regenerate soul is afraid of disobeying and defying God. Nor does he want to do so. No, his real and deepest desire is to please Him in all things, at all times, and in all places. His earnest prayer is 'Unite my heart to fear thy name' (Psa. 86:11).

Now even the saint has to be taught the fear of God (Psa. 34:11). And here, as ever, it is through the Scriptures that this teaching is given us (Prov. 2:5). It is through them that we learn that God's eye is ever upon us, marking our actions, weighing our motives. As the Holy Spirit applies the Scriptures to our hearts, we give increasing heed to that command, "Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long' (Prov. 23.17). Thus, just so far as we are awed by God's awful majesty, are made conscious that ‘Thou God seest me’(Genesis 16:13), and work out our salvation with ‘fear and trembling’ (Philippians 2:12 ), are we truly profited  from our reading and study of the Bible.”

-From A W. Pink's Profiting From The Word  Published by The Banner of Truth Trust Carlisle, PA  1998