Don't forget. . .

We are forgetting that the All Powerful God became a helpless baby boy.

Past, present, future . . .

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future is contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is redeemable. --Eliot

This is what Jesus Christ does in a life. He works back through our past and forgives and heals. He is in our present by the Holy Spirit as our Helper and effectively works in our daily lives conforming us to His very image. He is in our future with eternal glory.

Oh What A Savior!

Once I was straying in sin's dark valley,
No hope within could I see,
I searched thru heaven and found a Savior,
To save a poor lost soul like me.

Chorus:

Oh what a Savior! Oh Hallelujah!
His heart was broken on Calvary,
His hands were nail scared: His side was driven,
He gave his life blood for you and me.

He left the Father, with all His riches,
With calmness sweet and serene,
Came down from heaven and gave His life blood
To make the vilest sinner clean.

Copyright 1948 By Marvin P. Dalton

CALVARY'S LOVE

"If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying "Peace, peace," where is no peace; if I forget the poignant word "Let love be without dissimulation" and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love." - Amy Carmichael, Missionary to India

AND YET

Have I been so long time with thee
And yet hast thou not known Me?

Blessed Master, I have know Thee
On the roads of Galilee.

Have I been so long time with thee
On the roads of Galilee:
Yet, my child, hast thou not known Me
When I walked upon the sea?

Blessed Master, I have known Thee
On the roads and on the sea.

Therefore then hast thou not known Me
Broken in Gethsemane?

I would have thee follow, know Me
Thorn-crowned, nailed upon the Tree.
Canst thou follow, wilt thou know Me
All the way to Calvary?

(Amy Carmichael)

The trodden down Christ. . .

The Cross proclaims that God is love, a love that conquers by the shedding of Christ's own precious blood for sinners:

In weakness like defeat
He won the victor's crown;
Trod all His foes beneath His feet
by being trodden down.

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews 12:2,3).

"For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. " (II Corinthians 13:4).

"...the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men"(I Corinthians 1:25).

Who but an omniscient God would have devised such a plan? "Contradiction of sinners against Himself"...thank you, Jesus.

Isaac and Christ

Isaac was not a little child when offered by his father, but rather he was precisely the same age as Jesus at His crucifixion. If Isaac was offered right around the time of his mother's death, he would have been about age 35½. This is supported by the fact that Sarah's death is the very next event recorded in Genesis (23:1).

Isaac is called a "lad" or "boy" in Gen 22:5 & 12, but this word (nah'-gar) is exactly the same as used of the "young men" in the same verse; it is used of Joshua in Ex 33:11 during the year of the Exodus, when he was 53 years old. Obviously, then, Isaac need not have been a child.

Isaac carried the wood of his own sacrifice (Gen 22:5), as did Jesus; He was immobilized, as was Jesus. Both actual sacrifices, of ram and Christ, were trapped by horns (Jesus on the ‘horns’ of the cross — an ancient, technical description); and both were crowned by thorns (the brambles, in the case of the ram).

Most Ancient Days: Chapter 6 -- Kings of the Nile: Egypt from Babel to Sodom

THE MOST IMPRESSIVE INDIVIDUAL IN HISTORY

When asked which person left the most permanent impression on history, H.G. Wells replied that judging a person's greatness by historical standards: "By this test, Jesus stands first."

"I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history."



--H.G. Wells, British writer, 1866-1946

Treasure

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." (2 Corinthians 4:7)

What treasure?

"...the light of the knowledge of the g l o r y of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)

On this Monday the earthen of me is a bit creaky and a bit cracked, but the glory is always constant, in which I rejoice.

(Friend Laura Wetherbee chose the verse today on Facebook. Thanks, it's a good one to have in my mind today.)

Let's bow our knee today. . .

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

-Philippians 2:5 - 11

Wonderful Christ

For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called
Wonderful,
Counsellor,
The mighty God,
The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace.
-- Isaiah 9:6

The truth is still the truth. . .

A lie is still a lie, even if you’ve been believing it for 40 years; and the truth is still the truth, even if you’ve been believing it for only two weeks.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8.32) KJV

"Jesus saith, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14.6).

The most shocking thing . . .

The words of C.S. Lewis,

"Among the Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He were God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among pantheists, like the Hindus of India, anyone might say that he is part of god or one with god. There would be nothing very odd about that. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God in their language meant the Being outside of the world who had made it and was infinitely different than anything else. And when you have grasped that concept you will see that what this man said was quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips."

The greatest man. . .

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth. -Fyodor Dostoevsky, novelist (1821-1881)

Isaiah's portrait of Jesus Christ:

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief...surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53: 3,4,5).

Again the incomprehensible is realized:

"And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8).

Oh, what a Savior!
Oh, hallelujah!
He shed His lifeblood for me.

The cast die...

Quoted from a letter from a Christian martyr in Zimbabwe, quoted in Brennan Manning's (1996) The Signature of Jesus:

I'm part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit's power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made - I'm a disciple of his. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees and colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminance, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean in his presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer, and I labor with power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions are few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the enemy, pander at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go til he comes, give til I drop, preach til all know, and work til he stops me.

Christianity is a Person...

Written by Andrée Seu June 25, 7:31 AM

I am scheduled to have an MRI for a suspicious mammogram.

It clears the sinuses.

What it does for me in particular is cause me to lose total interest, very suddenly, in any notion of Christianity as a good moral code or religion.

As the preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) wrote in Authentic Christianity:
“The fundamental thing is that Christianity is about Jesus. . . . Christianity is not a teaching—it is a person. . . . The Lord Jesus Christ was the theme of the preaching of the early church. . . . This is the tragic thing that has been forgotten at the present time. ‘What we need,’ people say, ‘is the application of his teaching.’ But it is not. What you need is to know him and to come into relationship with him. . . .”

That is what the Apostle to the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul, expresses so many times in his letters to the saints:

To the Corinthians: "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2).

To the Philippians: "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Philippians 3:7-8).

To the Ephesians: "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted...edifying of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:15-16).

To the Galatians: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14).

Meekness and gentleness...

A yoke




Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ (Paul writing to the Corinthians, 2 Cor. 10:1.)

Jesus calls:
Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.(Matthew 11:28-30).

Have you found Him so?

LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED

There has been one in this world called Jesus of Nazareth, and it is he who says to you, "Let not your heart be troubled...believe in me," which means, "Come to me, tell me your troubles, tell me all about your difficulty about God, the difficulty of prayer, the difficulty about your weak will and failure." I do not care what it is that makes you restless and ill at ease. it may be the possibility of war, it may be illness, it may be business troubles, it may be your own weakness morally in the realm of your will--whatever it is, whatever is troubling and making you unhappy, go to him about it. He is the one who loved you enough to die for you. He said, "come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". There is no need for you to be unhappy and restless. Believe in Christ. Believe in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who came on earth to deliver you from that very thing and who has removed every barrier between you and God and who can give you rest and peace here and now. -Martyn Lloyd-Jones