Those are, I know, extremely loaded words. I use them deliberately…

Because He did.

When God speaks it is very subtle, very quiet, almost indistinguishable from ambient noise. He wanted to tell me about His Son – Jesus the Christ.

Jesus was God you know. He was with God and was God and even was present at the creation event. It was communicated to me that, in fact, all things were made through Jesus. Jesus was also full of grace and truth, which He brought with Him from the Father’s side, when He came to earth. Yeah, the earth is His too – it’s apart of creation isn’t it? The irony is that when Jesus came to His own creation – His own things – that same creation didn’t know Him or receive Him. Creation’s Maker, Master and Engineer was not recognized as such. I speak of the majority – the overwhelming majority. Some did embrace Him for who He was and is and will always be. To those He gave the right to be adopted of God, born of God – not the will of the flesh nor blood, nor any contrivance of man, nor any one of heaven’s high and lofty hosts. By God these few were conceived and by God these few are His children.

No one has ever seen God. No one has ever seen Him with his own eyes, been with Him on a journey, been able to hear his speech… until Jesus came to us. Indeed, Jesus is the only God and He is at the Father’s side. Jesus reveals God to us.

I do not lie. Such thing were spoken to me this afternoon. God also desires to speak the same to you, along with many other great and glorious things. Go hear Him yourself in the first chapter of the gospel of John.

 Approach, my soul, the mercy seat,

Where Jesus answers prayer;

There humbly fall before His feet,

For none can perish there.

Thy promise is my only plea,
With this I venture nigh;
Thou callest burdened souls to Thee,
And such, O Lord, am I.

Bowed down beneath a load of sin,
By Satan sorely pressed,
By war without and fears within,
I come to Thee for rest.

Be Thou my Shield and hiding Place,
That, sheltered by Thy side,
I may my fierce accuser face,
And tell him Thou hast died!

O wondrous love! to bleed and die,
To bear the cross and shame,
That guilty sinners, such as I,
Might plead Thy gracious Name.

“Poor tempest-tossèd soul, be still;
My promised grace receive”;
’Tis Jesus speaks—I must, I will,
I can, I do believe.

Remember this—all the sighing, mourning, sobbing, and complaining in the world, does not so undeniably evidence a man to be humble, as his overlooking his own righteousness, and living really and purely upon the righteousness of Christ.

Let us get this one thing straight. God can do anything he damn well pleases, including damn well. And if it pleases him to damn, then it is done, ipso facto, well. God’s activity is what it is. There isn’t anything else. Without it there would be no being, including human beings presuming to judge the Creator of everything that is.

Attrib: Virginia Stem Owens in the 1983 December issue of Reformed Journal.

“In a nutshell, abiding in Christ means allowing His Word to fill our minds, direct our wills, and transform our affections. In other words, our relationship to Christ is intimately connected to what we do with our Bibles!”

- Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone*

“There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel.”

- Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer*

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.“

- JOHN1.1-2,14 | KJV

*Source [OFI]

I updated the site a bit today.  Thats right – I changed the three albums on the left to show more accurately what I am actually listening to.  I also added a ‘Reading’ section to show a few of the books my nose is firmly buried in at some point everyday (usually).

I think thats all for now…should be back to normal posting habits sooner rather than later.

Love.

Jesus is God and man in one person: man that he may feel our woes, God that he may help us out of them.

Source [OFI]

“Christians come to see that both their sins and their best deeds have all really been ways of avoiding Jesus as savior. They come to see that Christianity is not fundamentally an invitation to get more religious. A Christian comes to say: “Though I have often failed to obey the moral law, the deeper problem was why I was trying to obey it! Even my efforts to obey it has been just a way of seeking to be my own savior. In that mindset, even if I obey or ask for forgiveness, I am really resisting the gospel and setting myself up as Savior.

To “get the gospel” is turn from self-justification and rely on Jesus’ record for a relationship with God. The irreligious don’t repent at all, and the religious only repent of sins. But Christians also repent of their righteousness. That is the distinction between the three groups–Christian, moralists (religious), and pragmatists (irreligious).”

Source [R]

How often do we (I’m referring to believers here) find that the indwelling sin that remains in us can so quickly and swiftly find opportunity in our souls – even, at times, immediately after devotions:

“To hear with what strong arguments he can recommend watchfulness, prayer, forbearance, and submission, when he is teaching or advising others, who would not suppose but he could also teach himself, and influence his own conduct? Yet, alas! Quam dispar sibi! The person who rose from his knees before he left his chamber a poor, indigent, fallible, dependent creature, who saw and acknowledged that he was unworthy to breathe the air or to see the light, may meet with many occasions before the day is closed, to discover the corruptions of his heart, and to show how weak and faint his best principles and clearest convictions are in their actual exercise. “

He goes on to elaborate on the paradox that is a Christian:

“And in this view, how vain is man! What a contradiction is a believer to himself! He is called a believer emphatically, because he cordially assents to the word of God; but, alas! how often unworthy of the name! If I was to describe him from the Scripture-character, I should say, he is one whose heart is athirst for God, for his glory, his image, his presence: His affections are fixed upon an unseen Saviour; his treasures, and consequently his thoughts, are on high, beyond the bounds of sense. Having experienced much forgiveness, he is full of bowels of mercy to all around; and having been often deceived by his own heart, he dares trust it no more, but lives by faith in the Son of God, for wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and derives from him grace for grace; sensible that without him he has not sufficiency even to think a good thought.

In short, he is dead to the world, to sin, to self, but alive to God, and lively in his service. Prayer is his breath, the word of God his food, and the ordinances more precious to him than the light of the sun. Such is a believer in his judgement and prevailing desires.

But was I to describe him from experience, especially at some times, how different would the picture be! Though he knows that communion with God is his highest privilege, he too seldom finds it so; on the contrary, if duty, conscience, and necessity did not compel, he would leave the throne of grace unvisited from day to day. He takes up the Bible, conscious that it is the fountain of life and true comfort; yet perhaps while he is making the reflection, he feels a secret distaste, which prompts him to lay it down, and give his preference to a newspaper.

He needs not to be told of the vanity and uncertainty of all beneath the sun; and yet is almost as much elated or cast down by a trifle, as those who have their portion in this world. He believes that all things shall work together for his good, and that the most high God appoints, adjusts, and over-rules all his concerns; yet he feels the risings of fear, anxiety, and displeasure, as though the contrary was true. He owns himself ignorant, and liable to be deceived by a thousand fallacies; yet is easily betrayed into positiveness and self-conceit. He feels himself an unprofitable, unfaithful, unthankful servant, and therefore blushes to harbour a thought of desiring the esteem and commendations of men, yet he cannot suppress it.” (all emphasis added)

More on this in the next few days folks. If feeling so compelled, I do recommend you read the whole thing – it repays greatly if read a few times!