Wouldn't It Be Great!

Wouldn't it be great that if every time my mind wandered, it wandered to Jesus? Since such is the state of Heaven (a heart and mind full of Him), why not begin it now? Every memory would be of Him and His Word. When thoughts pop into my mind they would not be reminders of ungodly song lyrics, or vile thought patterns that I must constantly battle, or even lawful things that simply use energy that would be better spent upon Him; they would be of Him and His ways, of Him and His glory, of Him, only of Him.

The 42nd and 43rd

Why art thou cast down, my soul,
And in my heart all peace is gone?
Hope thou in God: I shall again
Sing praises at His mighty throne.

My soul, thine eyes are turned away
From Him where refuge can be found;
Small wonder, then, so dark the day,
When trials and troubles do abound.

The floods come from His waterspouts,
His waves and billows me o'erflow -
Mine enemies would have me doubt,
But still His goodness I may know.

Lord, send Thy Light; Lord, send Thy Truth;
They, back to Thee shall bear my heart,
Unto that most holy place
Where deepest joys Thou dost impart.

Though now my soul in heaviness
Cleaves to the dust, I hope in Him.
Be ready, harp: for soon I'll sing,
And praise my Saviour once again.

MC

What About Holiness?

I have been thinking along these lines for a while, but have not known exactly how to put my thoughts together on this matter. Personal holiness, it seems (from reading the old writers), used to be something you could see outwardly. Now, holiness seems to be so personal that nobody else knows it exists. I have enjoyed very much reading the works of Spurgeon, Bunyan, Owen, et al. To them, someone who had been saved lived differently from the world, so differently that anyone could tell that there had been a remarkable change in that person's life. There were places that Christians didn't go, amusements that were called "worldly", and behaviours that simply were not found among Christian people.

In thinking about my own life, I can say that I need to be more holy, and that there are many things that distract me from that pursuit of holiness. I am sure that some of these things show up externally, in behaviours, and not simply in my innermost being where no one else can see. I want to be like Christ, and I am struggling even now to put down some of the works of the flesh in my life that pull me in the wrong direction.

To take a larger view of things, it is necessary to step back, sometimes quite a ways back, in order to get a better perspective. It is my opinion that, looking at the big picture, we can see some areas in which the church has failed in its corporate pursuit of holiness. We have tried, for one, to institute a system of holiness, much as that which the Pharisees had in place in Jesus' day. There was the idea that if you did this and didn't do that, you were holy. Jesus condemned this type of thinking in the Pharisees and in us when He quoted the Old Testament, saying: "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." It has always been (and always will be) the tendency of men to try to reduce holiness to a list of dos and don'ts. Sometimes young people will be quick to see the fallacy of that practice, and because they see the hypocrisy of making external standards a test of holiness, they reject everything they are taught, out of hand. This happens in the world as well as in the church, by the way. These astute(?) young people make an accurate observation, but then demonstrate a foolish reaction, based upon that observation. They go off the proverbial deep end. In the Christian realm, new churches and denominations are begun as a result, new voices are heeded, new practices and beliefs are embraced, and by some, Christianity is rejected altogether. All of these things occur, often with the same hypocritical lack of discernment that they assign to their parents.

Externals do not determine one's spirituality. You cannot say a man is spiritual simply by the way he dresses, the way he wears his hair, what he abstains from, etc. Mormon missionaries could be mistaken for BJU students, for example. Externals do not make you holy. The young people are right in this. But their reasoning has a fatal flaw. It seems they think that since externals don't determine what we are before God, externals don't matter. Let me expand on that with a ridiculous for instance to demonstrate:

"Since not stealing doesn't make me holy, it is okay to steal."

The translation into the church goes like this: A person is not a Christian because he looks a certain way, listens to a particular type of music, spends his time in "Christian" activities and with Christian people, doesn't drink, smoke, etc. . . . therefore, he can look however he wants to, listen to whatever music he likes, do whatever he wants with whoever he wants, drink, smoke, etc. and still be holy, because holiness isn't determined by what he is on the outside. After all, God looks on the heart.

There is one thing that I want to say to address this type of thinking: While externals do not determine our spirituality, they ARE indications of it. Holy people will behave a certain way: they WILL be different. And I am afraid that much of the unholiness in the church today (in young and old alike) exists simply because people will not have anyone telling them what to do. So, what kind of Christian does not obey his Lord? But I level this charge at myself first.

What Grace is This!

When I consider all my sin:
The vileness still found within;
I wonder then, how can it be
That God's dear Lamb did die for me?

And so, of reaching Heaven's bliss,
I do despair, and ponder this:
My sin too great to be forgiven,
Nor e'er one hope to enter Heaven.

Then sweetly comes that blessed voice:
"Lift up your head, My child, rejoice -
My grace, sufficient e'er shall prove:
Thy sin, though great, bows to My love."

My heart and voice in wonder sing
"Amazing grace." My soul takes wing
To lift the Name of Him on high,
Who loved me and for me did die.

MC

That's Impossible!

"And straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate." - Mark 15:1

How can Infinity be bound? How can Omnipotence be restrained? Poor, pitiful man, how is it that you think that the creature can hold the Creator captive? Is it not possible only because He has permitted you to do so? Because, in the eternal counsels of God, it was determined to be, that Jesus should be bound, therefore He was bound. "He became obedient unto death," and, in preparation for this death, He humbled Himself and was bound by vessels of clay.

Let all creation wonder, that He Who said "Let there be," should bow to the dust which He had created. Stand amazed, ye angels of God, that impotence should tie the hands of the Almighty. Well, by permission it was done, that all things should be fulfilled, and the Lord of Glory so humbled Himself. Man would have humbled Him, if he could have done so, but it was not the will of man that bound the Saviour. Man did will it, to be sure, but it was according to the counsel of God's own will that Jesus should be bound and carried away. This was proven in that the sufferings of Christ never went beyond what the Scriptures foretold of them. There was not one blow more or less to that blessed face than was before determined, not one taunt, not one action of the combined forces of the Jewish mob and the Roman soldiers that had not been accounted for in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Wicked men took Him and slew Him, but only because God did design that it should happen. Man, in the height of his wrath against God, in the fulness of his rage against the Brightness of His Glory, could do no more than perform the will of God in the matter. Let nature rise up against its Maker, still it is like the sea to which God has said "this far and no farther." Nothing can be done that has not been foreknown, foreseen, and foreordained. Man, as free as he wills to be, still is bound to carry out the will of God.

So, Christ, as our righteous Samson, is not bound by the cords of His captors, but by the Father's will. And even in the apparent triumph of His oppressors He could have snapped their bonds with ease, but for His submission to the eternal Will of God. And in His death, our Mighty Lord slew more than He did in His life, for in His death, Death itself died, and Christ destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the Devil.

Oh, foolish men, you cannot see that the bonds are on your own wrists: for as you move to do all the wickedness you desire, yet you only accomplish that which has been ordered from before the foundation of the world!

Satan, in all glee do you bruise His heel, and yet, in so doing, the fatal blow strikes your own head.

Who can stand against the power of God? When every work of man and devils to dishonor God is turned to His eternal glory, what can be done against Him? Sing, all ye His saints, His wondrous works in salvation - sing the wisdom of His ways - sing His glory and grace! Who but our Saviour could, in being bound, bind sin and death and Hell? And who but He, being carried away captive, could lead our captivity captive and give gifts unto men?

"Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's sake."


O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.