REFLECTIONS

Ephesians 6:10, 11  Be Strong in the Lord

“Here is a general agreement to constancy in our Christian way, and to courage in our Christian warfare. Is not our life a warfare? It is so; for we struggle with the common calamities of human life. Is not our religion much more a warfare? It is so; for we struggle with the opposition of the powers of darkness, and with many enemies who would keep us from God and heaven.

If Christians are soldiers of Jesus Christ, they must see that they are strong in the Lord. Those who have so many battles to fight, and who, in their way to heaven, must dispute every pass, by means of the sword, have need of a great deal of courage. Be strong for service, strong for suffering, strong for fighting. Let a soldier be ever so well armed externally, if he does not have within a good heart, his armor will stand him in little stead.

Be strong in the Lord. We have no sufficient strength of our own. Our natural courage is as perfect cowardice, and our natural strength as perfect weakness; but all of our sufficiency is of God.

‘Put on the whole armor of God, v. 11, make use of all the proper defenses and weapons for repelling the temptations and stratagems of Satan-get and exercise all the Christian graces, the whole armor, no part be naked and exposed to the enemy.

It is called the armor of God, because He both prepares and bestows it. We have no armor of our own that will be armor of proof in a trying time. Nothing will stand us in stead but His armor. The armor is prepared for us, but we must put it on.

 

The reason why the Christian should be completely armed is that he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil-that he may be able to hold out, and to overcome in spite of all the devil’s assaults, all the deceits he puts upon us, all the snares he lays for us, and all his machinations against us.”

-Matthew Henry  Expositor, Commentator, Minister  1662-1714

From, A Closer Walk with God; Daily Readings from Matthew Henry; compiled by Martin Manser; (Daybreak Books—Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids; 1987), Page 107.

REFLECTIONS

“The Prayer Of Love

Gracious Lord,

Thy name is love,

 in love receive my prayer.

My sins are more than the wide sea’s sand,

 but where sin abounds, there is grace more abundant.

Look to the cross of Thy beloved Son,

 and view the preciousness of His atoning blood;

Listen to His never-failing intercession,

 and whisper to my heart, ‘Thy sins are forgiven,

 be of good cheer, lie down in peace.’

Grace cataracts from heaven and flows for ever,

 and mercy never wearies in bestowing benefits.

Grant me more and more

 to prize the privilege of prayer,

 to come to Thee as a sin-soiled sinner,

 to find pardon in Thee,

 to converse with Thee;

 to know Thee in prayer as

  the path in which my feet tread,

  the latch upon the door of my lips,

  the light that shines through my eyes,

  the music of my ears,

  the marrow of my understanding,

  the strength of my will,

  the power of my affection,

  the sweetness of my memory.

May the matter of my prayer be always wise, humble, submissive,

 obedient, scriptural, Christ-like.

Give me unwavering faith that supplications are never in vain,

 that if I seem not to obtain my petitions

 I shall have larger, richer answers,

 surpassing all that I ask or think.

Unsought, Thou hast given me the greatest gift,

 the Person of Thy Son,

 and in Him Thou wilt give me all I need.”

-A Puritan’s Prayer from The Valley of Vision  Edited by Arthur Bennett  Published by The Banner of Truth Trust  Carlisle, PA  2002

REFLECTIONS

Helpful Insights

About Romans 12:2:

“To offer up our bodies in living sacrifice to God means conforming not longer to the pattern of this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds (12:2). In other words, what is at issue is not merely external behavior, while inwardly we remain in the grip of carefully masked hate, lust, deceit, envy, greed, fear, bitterness, and arrogance. What is at issue is the transformation of the way we think, bringing our minds in line with the ways and Word of God. That will produce all the change in behavior that is necessary and wise-and that change will be radical. By this fundamental transformation, we shall be enabled to test and approve in our own experience what God’s will is-and find it “good, pleasing and perfect” (12:2). In the light of Romans 9:9, doubtless the motivating power for this transformation is the Spirit of God. But that magnificent truth does not absolve us of resolve, it empowers us.”

About King Saul:

“Here is a man who thinks of himself as the center of the universe; whatever gods exist must serve him. If the covenant God of Israel does not help him as he wishes, then Saul is prepared to find other gods. This is the black heart of all idolatry.”

About Paul:

“He was very well aware of how easy it is the skew the Gospel, to trim it a little, to get around the bits we think our hearers will find awkward or offensive. So he knew that to preach the Gospel faithfully, he would have to preach it fearlessly. This does not reflect an “in your face style”. It means, rather, that Paul wanted to speak without fearing what his hearers would think or say about him, or what they might do to him, lest he compromise the Gospel he came to announce.”

About David:

“Here is a man of faith who knows he must be grounded in the One who inhabits eternity, or else he amounts to nothing.”

About 1 Peter 1:23:

“(2) More precisely, Christians have been “born again, not of perishable see, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (1:23). That which has transformed us and granted us new life from God himself has not been physical impregnation, but spiritual new birth, brought about by the enduring word of God.”

About 2 Chronicles 15:

“We should not be embarrassed by the blessing of God on integrity and righteousness. Righteousness exalts a nation: it lifts it up and strengthens its hand. This is not merely sociological inference: it is the way God has structured things, the way he providentially rules. Inversely, corruption attracts the wrath of God, and sooner or later will bring a nation down.”

““They overcame him by…the word of their testimony.” This does not mean that they frequently gave their testimonies. It means, rather, that they constantly bore testimony to Jesus Christ; in short, they constantly proclaimed the Gospel. This is what spells Satan’s defeat. Keep silent, and Satan wins.”

-D.A. Carson  Theologian and Professor  1946-

REFLECTIONS

His Wounds

“April 23, Evening

“Lo, in the midst of the throne...stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” – Revelation 5:6

“Why should our exalted Lord appear in His wounds in glory? The wounds of Jesus are His glories, His jewels, His sacred ornaments. To the eye of the believer, Jesus is passing fair because He is ‘white and ruddy’—white with innocence, and ruddy with His own blood. We see Him as the lily of matchless purity, and as the rose crimsoned with His own gore. Christ is lovely upon Olivet and Tabor, and by the sea, but oh! there never was such a matchless Christ as He that did hang upon the cross. There we beheld all His beauties in perfection, all His attributes developed, all His love drawn out, all His character expressed. Beloved, the wounds of Jesus are far more fair in our eyes than all the splendour and pomp of kings. The thorny crown is more than an imperial diadem. It is true that He bears not now the sceptre of reed, but there was a glory in it that never flashed from sceptre of gold. Jesus wears the appearance of a slain Lamb as His court dress in which He wooed our souls, and redeemed them by His complete atonement. Nor are these only the ornaments of Christ: they are the trophies of His love and of His victory. He has divided the spoil with the strong. He has redeemed for Himself a great multitude whom no man can number, and these scars are the memorials of the fight. Ah! if Christ thus loves to retain the thought of His sufferings for His people, how precious should His wounds be to us!”

“Behold how every wound of His

A precious balm distils,

Which heals the scars that sin had made,

And cures all mortal ills.

“Those wounds are mouths that preach His grace;

The ensigns of His love;

The seals of our expected bliss

In paradise above.””

-From, Morning and Evening, Charles H. Spurgeon (Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers); page 229.

REFLECTIONS

He Saved Us Alone

“Ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.” –John 16:32

Few had fellowship with the sorrows of Gethsemane. The majority of the disciples were not sufficiently advanced in grace to be admitted to behold the mysteries of “the agony.” Occupied with the passover feast at their own houses, they represent the many who live upon the letter, but are mere babes as to the spirit of the gospel. To twelve, nay, to eleven only was the privilege given to enter Gethsemane and see “this great sight.” Out of the eleven, eight were left at a distance; they had fellowship, but not of that intimate sort to which men greatly beloved are admitted. Only three highly favoured ones could approach the veil of our Lord’s mysterious sorrow: within that veil even these must not intrude; a stone’s-cast distance must be left between. He must tread the wine-press alone, and of the people there must be none with Him. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, represent the few eminent, experienced saints, who may be written down as “Fathers;” these having done business on great waters, can in some degree measure the huge Atlantic waves of their Redeemer’s passion. To some selected spirits it is given, for the good of others, and to strengthen them for future, special, and tremendous conflict, to enter the inner circle and hear the pleadings of the suffering High Priest; they have fellowship with Him in His sufferings, and are made conformable unto His death. Yet even these cannot penetrate the secret places of the Saviour’s woe. “Thine unknown sufferings” is the remarkable expression of the Greek liturgy: there was an inner chamber in our Master’s grief, shut out from human knowledge and fellowship. There Jesus is “left alone.”  Here Jesus was more than ever an “Unspeakable gift!” Is not Watts right when he sings—

                “And all the unknown joys he gives,

                Were bought with agonies unknown.”

-From, Morning and Evening, Charles H. Spurgeon (Massachusetts; Hendrickson Publishers); page 162.

REFLECTIONS

God’s Trusted Providence

“January 22

The birds of the air

Matthew 6:26”

“Behold the fowls of the air. Here is an argument taken from God’s providence towards the inferior creatures, and their dependence, according to their capacities, upon that providence. Look upon the fowls, and learn to trust God for food (v.26), and disquiet not yourselves with thoughts of what you shall eat.

            Observe the providence of God concerning them. Look upon them and receive instruction. There are various sorts of fowls; they are numerous, some of them ravenous, but they are all fed; it is rare that any of them perish for want of food, even in winter. The fowls, as they are least as service to man, so they are least within his care; men often feed upon them, but seldom feed them; yet they are fed, we know not how, and some of them fed best in the hardest weather; and it is your heavenly Father that feeds them.

            But that which is especially observed here is, that they are fed without any care or project of their own; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. The ant indeed does, and the bee, and they are set before us as examples of prudence and industry; but the fowls of the air do not; they make no provision for the future themselves, and yet every day, as duly as the day comes, provision is made for them, and their eyes wait on God.

            Improve this for your encouragement to trust in God. Are you not better than they? Yes, certainly you are. The heirs of heaven are much better than the fowls of heaven; nobler and more excellent beings, and, by faith, they soar higher; they are of a better nature and nurture. You are dearer to God, and nearer, though they fly in the open firmament of heaven. He is their Maker and Lord, their Owner and Master; but besides all this, he is your Father, and in his account ye are of more value than many sparrows; you are his children, his first-born; now he that feeds his birds surely will not starve his babes. They trust your Father’s providence, and will not you trust it?”

-Matthew Henry  1662-1714  Minister and Author  From, A Closer Walk with God; daily readings from Matthew Henry; compiled by Martin Manser; (Daybreak Books—Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids; 1987), Page 19.

REFLECTIONS

God’s Plan

God does not work without a plan! God has not left the world to chance.

There are some men who are always kicking against the plan of an eternal purpose, and who grow angry if you assert that God has settled what shall occur.

It is by the consent of all agreed that men are foolish if they work without a plan, and yet they cry out when we insist that God also, in all His working, is fulfilling a well arranged plan.

Depend upon it, however, let men rebel against this truth as they will, that God has determined the end from the beginning. He has left no screw loose in the machine, He has left nothing to chance or accident.

Nothing with God is the subject of an “if” or a “peradventure,” but even the agency of man, free as it is, as untouched and undisturbed as if there were no God, even this is guided by His mysterious power, and works out thoroughly His own purpose in every jot and tittle.

God wings the thunderbolt, and shall he not guide the most passionate spirit? God puts a bit in the mouth of the whirlwind, and shall He not control the most ambitious will?

God takes care that even the sea shall come no farther than He bids it, and shall not the heart of man be equally subject to the Divine purpose?

Yielding to man his free agency, giving to him his responsibility, leaving him as free as if there were no purpose and no decree, yet the eternal Jehovah works out His plans, and achieves His purpose to the praise of His glory.

Everything that has moved or shall move in heaven, and earth, and hell, has been, is, and shall be according to the counsel and foreknowledge of God, fulfilling a holy, just, wise, and unalterable purpose!

God is wonderful in His design and excellent in His working. Believer, God rules over all things for your good. The needs-be for all that you have suffered, has been most accurately determined by God.

Your course is all mapped out by your Lord. Nothing will take Him by surprise. There will be no novelties to Him. There will be no occurrences which He did not foresee, and for which, therefore, He has not provided. He has arranged all, and you have but to patiently wait, and you shall sing a song of deliverance.

Your life has been arranged on the best possible principles, so that if you had been gifted with unerring wisdom, you would have arranged a life for yourselves exactly similar to the one through which you have passed.

Let us trust God where we cannot trace Him.

In the end we shall read the whole of God’s purpose as one grand poem, and there will not be one verse in it that has a syllable too much, or a word too little. There will not be one stanza or letter redundant, much less one that is erased. But from the beginning to the end we shall see the master pen and the master-mind drawing forth the glorious array of majestic thoughts. And with angels, and seraphs, and principalities, and powers—shall burst forth into one mighty song:

“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” We shall see how from the first even to the last, the King has been ruling all things according to His own will.

-Charles Haddon Spurgeon  1834-1892  British Prince of Preachers