Category God’s Love

Thoughts on this world

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We are instructed by God to not love the things of this world. Over the past 20 years, but especially the last 3 weeks, He has been steadily working in my heart and mind to enable me to obey this command.

But as this process unfolds, a realization emerges that separates the things that we experience from what the world offers us. And chief among those experiences are the ones that involve relationships with people.

The people in our lives assemble a tapestry that will endure throughout eternity. Jesus tells us that we will remember the times when we assisted those who were in need.

This last three weeks has been a time of reflection for me. I have pondered with gratitude the unlikely reality that at a time when I was not seeking Him, God called me; and through His love He brought me out of a dark existence and delivered me into His amazing light.

Regardless of how one interprets the current situation viz. the “virus”, it would seem apparent that God has determined that this nation’s corruption, immorality, and denial of His sovereign and righteous reign have reached the point where He will not allow the situation to continue unabated.

When I consider all that is contained in the idea of being a witness to God’s judgement on our nation it is overwhelming. I’m sure that the last three weeks have been an emotional roller coaster ride for most, if not all, people in this land. I’ve experienced fear, anger, and sadness in varying combinations and degrees.

Throughout, I never doubted that the God who was at work in this situation is a God who is faithful to His people. And so even when I was in the depths I knew that God had placed His care on those who fear Him.

If there are particularly difficult days in your life during this season I’m moved to remind you that God is already, through His Spirit, teaching you about the glory that will ultimately be revealed to you in its fullness.

For me, I am happy to report that I’ve made significant strides in letting go of the things of this world. It’s not a finished work but I thank God for the progress that I’ve seen. As for those things in this world that are lasting, and I’m speaking only of heart matters here, the music videos below captures a small bit of my past life and brings to mind some of the people that I’ve known.  And while no nation is without sin, I believe that for much or even most of our country’s history there was an abundance of goodness throughout this land.  It’s plainly apparent in my memory and I think also wonderfully so in the videos.

 

Aiding the Helpless, Part 1

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Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

– Matthew 18:10

In The San Fransicso Call, Sunday, March 7, 1895, appears a story of neglected children. There is no doubt that similar cases (many much worse) have occured within the span of our shared human history, and the evidence would convict our world that it continues this evil even in this time of supposed enlightenment.

What are the factors in play here? A husband and father who completely disregards his duties and obligations. We don’t know how his actions might have led to his wife’s demise and downward spiral into the chasm of alchohol abuse, but she obviously lost every worldly thing as a result.

And so who is left to attend to the needs of the helpless?

One of the biggest challenges in this life for me is to understand that God, for his purposes, allows situations to play themselves out to a certain point. If this weren’t the case, then we would never read stories like the one below.

In this case there was, in accord with God’s timetable, a report to an organization founded to address just such situations as this. And then there was an honorable officer who immediately recognized the need to remove the children from their home. And lastly, there were structures in place to house and care for the children once removed from their home.

I think it goes without saying that there are at present many children who are living in similar or worse situations. What God likely looks down upon in sadness, anger,  compassion, or a combination of all three is something that should not fail to gain and keep our attention. Even though we might not have first hand knowledge of any particular situation, we should still maintain an awareness that there are children in desparate circumstances through absolutely no fault of their own.

And so I encourage you to seek God’s will on how he would make use of your time, efforts, and prayers on behalf of neglected, abused and mistreated children.

In a future post I will provide some information about the organization mentioned in this article, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. It is still in operation today, but until I read this article I had never heard of it. If you are thinking that its name is similar to that of an organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to animals you might be surprised to learn that this similarity is not a matter of chance.

Here’s the article:

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Our Expression of God’s Love

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Lord, is there an opportunity for me today in which I might deprive myself for the good of another?

Please guide me.

Lord, is there an opportunity for me today in which I might make myself lesser that you might become greater?

Please guide me.

Lord, is there an opportunity for me today in which I might demonstrate your love?

Please guide me.

(Video note:  My apologies for the ad, can skip after 5 seconds.)

Our God, Our Lord, Our Father

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C. H. Spurgeon

This Morning’s Meditation

“The Lord looks down from heaven; He observes all mankind.” Psalm 33:13

Perhaps no figure of speech represents God in a more gracious light—than when He is spoken of as stooping from His throne, and coming down from heaven to behold the woes—and to attend to the wants of mankind. We love Him, who, when Sodom and Gomorrah were full of iniquity, would not destroy those cities until He had made a personal visitation of them.

We cannot help pouring out our heart in affection for our Lord—who inclines His ear from the highest glory, and puts it to the lip of the dying sinner, whose failing heart longs after reconciliation. How can we but love Him—when we know that He numbers the very hairs of our heads, marks our path, and orders our ways!

Especially is this great truth brought near to our heart, when we recollect how attentive He is, not merely to the temporal interests of His creatures—but to their spiritual concerns. Though leagues of distance lie between the finite creature and the infinite Creator—yet there are links uniting both. When a tear is wept by you—God beholds it! “Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him.”

Your sigh is able to move the heart of Jehovah; your whisper can incline His ear unto you; your prayer can stay His hand; your faith can move His arm. Do not think that God sits on high taking no account of you. However poor and needy you are—yet the Lord thinks upon you. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him.

Our Necessary Poverty

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J. C. Philpot

 

Today’s Daily Portion

“The poor have the gospel preached to them.” Matthew 11:5

What is the gospel? Is not the gospel a proclamation of pure mercy, of super-abounding grace? Does it not declare the loving-kindness of God in sending his only-begotten Son to bleed and die, and, by his obedience, blood, and merit, to bring in a salvation without money and without price? Is not this the gospel? Not clogged by conditions, nor crippled by anything that the creature has to perform; but flowing freely forth as the air in the skies?

The poor to whom the gospel is preached, value it; it is suitable to them; it is sweet and precious when the heart is brought down. But if I stand up in religious pride, if I rest upon my own righteousness, if I am not stripped of everything in the creature, what is the gospel to me? I have no heart to receive it; there is no place in my soul for a gospel without money and without price.

But when I sink into the depth of creature poverty, when I am nothing and have nothing but a mass of sin and guilt, then the blessed gospel, pardoning my sins, covering my naked soul, shedding abroad the love of God, guiding me into everything good, and leading me up into enjoyment with a Three-One God, becomes prized.

When such a pure, such a blessed gospel comes into my heart and conscience, has not my previous poverty of spirit prepared me for it? Has not my previous beggary and necessity made a way for it, made it suitable to me, and when it comes, makes it precious to me? We must, then, sink into poverty of spirit, that painful place, in order to feel the preciousness, and drink into the sweetness and blessedness of the gospel of the grace of God.

Our Position in Christ Assured

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All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.         John 6:37

Excerpted from Holiness by J. C. Ryle

Let all the world know that the Lord Jesus will not cast away His believing people because of shortcomings and infirmities. The husband does not put away his wife because he finds failings in her. The mother does not forsake her infant because it is weak, feeble and ignorant. And the Lord Christ does not cast off poor sinners who have committed their souls into His hands because He sees in them blemishes and imperfections. Oh, no! It is His glory to pass over the faults of His people, and heal their backslidings, to make much of their weak graces, and to pardon their many faults.

Who is there now among the readers of this paper that feels desires after salvation, but is afraid to become decided, lest by and by he should fall away? Consider, I beseech you, the tenderness and patience of the Lord Jesus, and be afraid no more. Fear not to take up the cross, and come out boldly from the world. That same Lord and Saviour who bore with the disciples is ready and willing to bear with you. If you stumble, He will raise you. If you err, He will gently bring you back. If you faint, He will revive you. He will not lead you out of Egypt, and then suffer you to perish in the wilderness. He will conduct you safe into the promised land. Only commit yourself to His guidance and then, my soul for yours, He shall carry you safe home. Only hear Christ’s voice, and follow Him, and you shall never perish.

Ryle, J. C.. Holiness (pp. 185-186). Heritage Bible Fellowship. Kindle Edition.

To Love God

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J. C. Philpot

Today’s Daily Portion

“Draw me; we will run after you! Let the king bring me into his chambers.”

Song of Solomon 1:4

How many of us can take the words of the bride into our lips, or have ever been able at any one time of our life to use such an expression? We must have had some sight and sense of the preciousness and loveliness of Jesus before ever we can cry, “Draw me,” from the depth of a sincere heart. For the sincere soul is afraid to approach the holy Jehovah, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and insult him with mock petitions and words that it does not feel. But if ever that desire has been kindled, and that prayer raised up in your soul, “Draw me, we will run after you,” it must have been the work of the Holy Spirit in your hearts, to raise up those feelings and to give you a living faith in the Son of God.

And “he that believes shall be saved.” Whatever doubts, whatever fears, whatever temptations, whatever exercises beset the path, “he that believes shall be saved.” He that has had given him one grain of spiritual faith in Christ’s glorious person, who has had one sight of his atoning blood, one sip of divine love shed abroad in his heart, is sure to go to glory; he is saved with an everlasting salvation, in his covenant Head.

The Lord that has kindled these strong desires after himself in his soul, will surely fulfill them. As we find he did in the case of the bride; he said to her, after a little time, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”

God’s Loving Kindness

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C. H. Spurgeon

This Morning’s Meditation

“The kindness and love of God our Savior.” Titus 3:4

How sweet it is to behold the Savior communing with His own beloved people! There can be nothing more delightful than, by the Divine Spirit, to be led into this fertile field of delight. Let the mind for an instant consider the history of the Redeemer’s love—and a thousand enchanting acts of affection will suggest themselves, all of which have had for their design—the weaving of the heart into Christ, and the intertwisting of the thoughts and emotions of the renewed soul with the mind of Jesus.

When we meditate upon this amazing love, and behold the all-glorious Kinsman of the Church endowing her with all His ancient wealth, our souls may well faint for joy. Who is he who can endure such a weight of love? That partial sense of it which the Holy Spirit is sometimes pleased to afford, is more than the soul can contain; how transporting must be a complete view of it! When the soul shall have understanding to discern all the Savior’s gifts, wisdom with which to estimate them, and time in which to meditate upon them—such as the world to come will afford us—we shall then commune with Jesus in a nearer manner than at present. But who can imagine the sweetness of such fellowship? It must be one of the things which have not entered into the heart of man—but which God has prepared for those who love Him. Oh, to burst open the door of our Joseph’s granaries, and see the plenty which He has stored up for us! This will overwhelm us with love.

By faith we see, as in a glass darkly, the reflected image of His unbounded treasures—but when we shall actually see the heavenly things themselves, with our own eyes—how deep will be the stream of fellowship in which our soul shall bathe itself! Until then our loudest sonnets shall be reserved for our loving benefactor, Jesus Christ our Lord, whose love to us is wonderful, passing the love of women.

Our Pleadings

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J. C. Philpot

Today’s Daily Words for Zion’s Wayfarers

“And shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him?” Luke 18:7

“Behold, he prays,” was the word of the Lord to Ananias to convince him that that dreaded persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, had been quickened by the Spirit. And what a mercy it is for the quickened soul that the blessed Spirit thus helps his sinking, trembling spirit, puts life and energy into his cries and sighs, holds him up and keeps him steadfast at the throne, and thus enables him to persevere with his earnest [pleadings] for mercy, mingles faith with his petitions, and himself most graciously and kindly intercedes within him and for him with groanings which cannot be uttered. This is “praying with the spirit” (1 Cor. 14:15) and “in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20). This is pouring out the heart before God (Psalm 62:8), pouring out the soul before the Lord (1 Sam. 1:15); and by this free discharge of the contents of an almost bursting heart, sensible relief is given to the burdened spirit.

By this special mark, the convictions of a quickened soul are distinguished from the pangs of guilt and remorse which are sometimes aroused in the natural conscience. Cain said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear,” but there was neither repentance nor prayer in his heart; for “he went out from the presence of the Lord “–the very presence which the living soul is seeking to reach and be found in, and into which the Spirit brings him (Eph. 2:18).

Saul was “sore distressed,” when God answered him, “neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets,” but he goes to the witch of Endor, and in the end falls upon his own sword. Judas repented of his accursed treachery, but went and hanged himself. No prayer, no supplication was in either of their hearts. So it is prophesied that men shall gnaw their tongues for pain, and yet shall blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and not repent of their deeds (Rev. 16:10, 11). But the elect cry day and night unto God; and their prayers, perfumed with the incense of their all-prevailing Intercessor at the right hand of the Father, enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.