New Year's Devotional: "To Him who loves us & released us from our sins by His blood"

Grace to you and peace…from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 1:5-6

…for now our salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Romans 13:11

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free

From our fears and sins release us

Let us find our rest in Thee

Israel's strength and consolation

Hope of all the earth Thou art

Dear Desire of every nation

Joy of every longing heart

Born Thy people to deliver

Born a child and yet a King

Born to reign in us forever

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone

By Thine all sufficient merit

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

CHARLES WESLEY

         The position they assigned to Him was superlative. They said with one voice, “To Him be the glory and the dominion until the ages of the ages.” An age of days is long, an age of years incomputable, but an age of ages is eternity; and it was their desire and belief that through uncounted eons, every star would shine, every jewel would flash, every wave break, every voice sing, and every creature live to promote the everlasting radiance of His crown, that it should embrace all beings, in all spheres, for all ages, without rival or successor; that the Man of Nazareth and Calvary should be the only Ruler; that the Lamb should be seated in the supreme place of authority—such was the confident expectation and the desire of the church as reflected here. But on what ground did the early believers base their estimate of our Savior’s superlative claims?  Whatever else might have been urged, this was their supreme consideration, that “He had loosed them from their sins by His own blood” (vs.5) This was His greatest contribution to the world’s need; and it was for this that they ascribed to Him, “blessings and honors and glory and might, unto the ages of the ages.”(Rev.7:12)

         Now is our salvation nearer then when we believed. Jesus is about to appear the second time unto salvation. The bodies of the saints are to be set free from the power of death, and raised in the likeness of the body of Christ’s glory: The creature is to be emancipated from the bondage of corruption; the last remains of Satan’s rule over our world are to be destroyed. The golden ages are to return. From the watchers and holy ones the song of redemption is yet to ascend: “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”(Rev. 7:10)

F.B. MEYER

1847-1929

          

Christmas Eve Devotional "Awake ! my heart, and lift thine eyes!"

“…for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

                         Luke 2:10-12

     From heaven high I wing my flight.

To bring new tidings of glad delight ;

Or tidings good so much I bring,

Thereof I'll speak, and thereof I'll sing.

For unto you a Child, this morn,

Is of a chosen virgin born;

A Child so blest, and fair to see,

He shall your joy and your comfort be.

Salvation 'mong you will He share,

Which God the Father did prepare,

That in the heavenly kingdom ye

Might dwell both now and eternally.

Then mark ye well the sign He chose,

The crib and lowly swaddling clothes;

There shall ye find the Infant lain

That earth and all things doth sustain.

Let us rejoice, then, every one,

And with the shepherds wander on,

To see what gift the God of heaven

To us, e'en His dear Son, hath given.

Awake ! my heart, and lift thine eyes!

Behold what in yon manger lies!

What is this beauteous Babe so mild?

It is the lovely Jesus child.

      O Jesus, whom my heart holds dear,

Make thee a warm soft cradle here;

Within my breast a dweller be,

That I may ever remember Thee.

        Glory to God on highest throne,

Who sent to us His only Son ;

Therefore rejoice, ye angel throng,

Of this new year to sing the song.

MARTIN LUTHER

Tr: Henry William Dulcken

        The sun sets on the twenty-fourth of December on the low roofs of Bethlehem, and the gleams with wan gold on the steep of its stony ridge.  The stars come out one by one.  Time itself, as if sentient, seems to get eager, as though the hand of its angel shook as it draws on towards midnight.  Bethlehem is at that moment the veritable centre of God's creation.  How silently the stars drift down the steep of the midnight sky!  Yet a few moments, and the Eternal Word will come.

F.W. FABER

        He, that, as Job saith, taketh the vast body of the sea, turns it to and fro as a little child, and rolls it about with the swaddling-bands of darkness; He to lie there, the Lord of glory, without all glory!  Instead of a palace, a poor stable; of a cradle of state, a beast's cratch; no pillow but a lock of hay; no hangings but dust and cobweb!  Christ, though as yet He cannot speak, yet out of His crib, as a pulpit, this day preaches to us, and His theme is, "Learn of Me, for I am humble."  This is the praecepe of praesepe, as I may call it, the lesson of Christ's manger.

BISHOP ANDREWS

        When therefore the first spark of a desire after God arises in thy soul, cherish it with all thy care, give all thy heart into it; it is nothing less than a touch of the divine loadstone, that is to draw thee out of the vanity of time, into the riches of eternity.  Get up therefore, and follow it as gladly as the wise men of the east followed the star from heaven that appeared to them.  It will do for thee as the star did for them, it will lead thee to the birth of Jesus, not in a stable at Bethlehem in Judea, but to the birth of Jesus in the dark centre of thine own soul.

WILLIAM LAW

Christmas Devotional ~"It was Jesus that rolled the stars on their orbits, to tell forth the glory of God..."

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  This One was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it….

And the Word became 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.

JOHN 1:1-5,14

A Branch so fair has blossomed

From tender parent stem,

Out of the rod of Jesse,

As told by godly men,

And brought a Flow’r so bright,

Well in the midst of winter

And darkness of the night.

This little Rose, so lovely,

That sprang from Jesse’s rod

A lowly virgin brought us,

The favored one of God;

By His decree and might

A holy Child she bare us

One blessed Christmas night.

This little Flow’r, so fragrant,

My heart fills with delight,

For with its shining splendor

It drives away the night.

True man, and yet God’s Son,

Saves us from sin and sorrow,

And when life’s day is done.

15th Century German Carol

He was born of a woman; yet He made woman. He ate and hungered, drank and thirsted; yet He made corn to grow on the mountains, and poured the rivers from His crystal chalices. He needed sleep; yet He slumbers not, and needs not to repair His wasted energy. He wept; yet He created the lachrymal duct. He died; yet He is the ever-living Jehovah, and made the tree of His cross. He inherited all things by death; yet they were His before by inherent fight….

It was the voice of Jesus that said, "Let there be light"; and the new ethereal substance spread like a haze of glory through space. It was the hand of Jesus that made the expanse between cloud and sea, in which the birds fly (Gen. 1:20). It was the bidding of Jesus that drove the turbulent waters from the land into the ocean-bed which He had scooped. It was the thought of Jesus to splinter the mountain peaks; to thrust the frozen glacier down into the valley by inches; to pour forth the rivers; and to shake down over the hills the falling foam of the cataract. It was Jesus that carpeted the earth with flowers, and devised the innumerable sorts of plants, and planted the noble forest-trees. It was Jesus that rolled the stars on their orbits, to tell forth the glory of God, and to keep time on Nature's dial. It was Jesus that made the fish to flash in the deep; the reptile to creep in the brake; the firefly to glance through the forest; the birds to sing in the woods; flocks to browse on the hills; and herds to traverse the prairies.

It was Jesus who created the human nature which, in after years, He was to assume. He made man in the image and after the likeness of what He was Himself to be in the fullness of time. What strange emotions must have filled his heart as He built up that first man from the red earth!

Not a flower

But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain,

Of His unrivalled pencil.

All life--natural and physical, animal and intellectual, spiritual and religious--is in Him. The whole universe of living things was not simply brought into being by Christ; but it is kept in existence and sustained in living beauty by the constant communications of His fullness --as a vale is kept in fertile beauty, luxuriant with vegetation, by the spray of a perennial waterfall. As the Word, He creates; as the Life, He sustains. As the Word, He declares God; as the Life, He communicates His essence. "As the Word, He is God without us; as the Life, He is God within us."

Apart from Christ, you may exist; but you have no life in you. "He that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." You may have many attractive and amiable qualities, much that is correct in behavior, and beautiful in appearance; but you have no life.

But if you are in Christ, opening all your being to Him, door behind door, back into the most sacred chambers of your being, so that He has free and unhindered entrance into your entire nature; then, as the Nile, descending through the channels cut by the Egyptian peasantry, bears life and fertility into their gardens and cornfields, so will He bring His own life, the life of God, "life indeed," into you, and though you were dead, yet shall you live (John 11:25).

F.B. MEYER

The Gospel of John

"We take refuge in our refuge when we set our faith on God, & tell Him all that threatens or troubles us."

My soul, wait in silence for God only,

For my hope is from Him.

 He only is my rock and my salvation,

My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.

On God my salvation and my glory rest;

The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.

 Trust in Him at all times, O people!

Pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us.  ~Selah.

Once God has spoken;

Twice I have heard this:

That power belongs to God;

And loving-kindness is Yours, O Lord,

PSALM 62:5-8,11-12

         The Psalmist’s whole being is, as it were, but one stillness of submission. The noises of contending desires, the whispers of earthly hopes, the mutterings of short-sighted fears, the self-asserting accents of an insisting will, are hushed, and all his nature waits mutely for God’s voice. No wonder that a psalm which begins thus would end with “Once God has spoken, twice I have heard this”; for such waiting is never in vain. The soul that leaves to God is still; and, being still, is capable of hearing the Divine whispers which deepen the silence which they bless. “There is no joy but calm”; and the secret of calm is to turn the current of the being to God. Then it is like a sea at rest.

         The psalmist’s silence finds voice, which does not break it, in saying over to himself what God is to him. Not only does his salvation come from God, but God Himself is the salvation which He sends forth like an angel. The recognition of God as his defense is the ground of “silence”; for if He is “my rock and my salvation,’ what can be wiser than to keep close to Him, and let Him do as He will? The assurance of personal safety is inseparable from such a thought of God.

         Every man who has learned that God is a refuge for him is thereby assured that He is the same for all men, and thereby moved to beseech them to make the like blessed discovery. The way into that hiding-place is trust. “Pour out before Him your heart,” says the psalmist. “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God," says Paul. They both mean the same thing. We take refuge in our refuge when we set our faith on God, and tell Him all that threatens or troubles us. When we do, we are no longer in the open, defenseless before the rush of enemies, but housed in God, or, as Paul puts it, guarded in Christ Jesus, as in a fortress. No wonder that the psalm pauses for a moment on that thought, and lets the notes of harp and horn impress it on the listeners!

         So far the psalmist has spoken. But his silent waiting has been rewarded with a clear voice from Heaven, confirming that of his faith. It is most natural to regard the double revelation received by the psalmist as repeated in the following proclamation of the two great aspects of the Divine nature —Power and Loving-kindness. The psalmist has learned that these two are not opposed nor separate, but blend harmoniously in God’s nature, and are confluent in all His works. Power is softened and directed by Loving-kindness. Loving-kindness has as its instrument Omnipotence. The synthesis of these two is in the God whom men are invited to trust; and such trust can never be disappointed; for His Power and His Loving-kindness will cooperate to “render to a man according to his work.” Such “work of faith” will not be in vain; for these twin attributes of Power and Love are pledged to requite it with security and peace.

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

The Expositor’s Bible –Psalms Vol.II

There is the joy whereto each soul aspires,

And there the rest that all the world desires,

And there is love and peace and gracious mirth;

And there in the most highest heavens shalt thou

Behold the Very Beauty, whereof now

Thou worshippest the shadow upon earth.

From the French of

DU BELLAY (1550), tr. By A. LANG

Raising Cane ~A True Story of Gratefulness

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, 

the fruit of our lips that give thanks to His Name.

Hebrews 13:15

I come now before You Lord

Pouring forth praise like sweet perfume

Breaking open my grateful heart,

That I may exalt and glorify You.

May the praises of my lips,

Fill the realm of Heaven with fragrance.

For You have loved and accepted me

Ever present with tender grace and forgiveness.

Jesus, You sacrificed Your life,

A fragrant offering unto God.

You drank my cup of bitterness

Breaking open Your heart on the cross.

Praise and glory be unto You,

My Shepherd through the valley.

You have been faithful all along,

And will lead me to glory.

The Anointing of Jesus

C. TAYLOR

My son Nick and I entered Swedish Hospital Cherry Hill at twilight on a blustery fall day. We found Cory’s room, and settled in for a long visit. Despite his recent brain surgery, Cory looked good. We asked him to tell us how this second surgery came about so suddenly.

“I was writing at my computer, working on my latest graphics project, when I noticed my left hand couldn’t type anymore. Then my leg stopped functioning and I couldn’t walk. I knew something was wrong, so I called my neurosurgeon. He scheduled my surgery within a week and they removed as much of the tumor as they could, along with scar tissue from a previous surgery three years ago.”

Cory lay very still on his bed, wearing his Seattle Sounders hat, his Seahawk sweatshirt and comfy sweats. Clearly he was fighting for his life. Sweet homemade get well cards made by his two girls, now four and five years old, hung on the walls. Cory’s big, beautiful, white smile put Nick and I at ease. He welcomed us into his sterile hospital room that his mother, Kris, had made as homey as she possibly could. There were flowers, pictures of his dad and family, and blankets from his favorite Seattle teams.

We talked about his rehab schedule, and how he wanted to celebrate Halloween with his girls in the hospital; what costume he would wear as he rode from room to room in his wheelchair trick-or-treating for candy. He knew his girls wanted to be princesses.

“How is your mom holding up right now?” Nick asked.

“She’s so strong,” he quickly responded, “So encouraging.”

Then I leaned toward him and asked, “What is your biggest fear right now, Cory.”

“Not being able to pick up my girls and hold them anymore. They say, ‘Daddy, why do you have to ride in a wheelchair?’ It’s so hard for them to see me as weak. I can’t pick up anything heavy right now. I just want to lift them up and give them the biggest hug.”

I’ve known Cory since he was a little boy. He is an amazing athlete, an incredible soccer player and an avid outdoorsman. As a young man, he worked as a model. He is a very devoted father.

“I’m so thankful,” he went on, “for all the doctors and nurses that are here caring for me, Cory added.  “You know, if I were in another country with a brain tumor, I’d probably be discarded on the side of the road and left to die. Yet, here I am, waited on hand and foot by people ready to meet my every need. I have doctors who are skilled and devoted in their attempt to cure me. I’m laying here in this beautiful hospital, served food that I’ve ordered, and completely surrounded by nice people who are here to help me recover.”

Nick and I looked at each other and nodded. Hearing Cory speak so thankfully, so full of wisdom, and with no self-pity was deeply encouraging, and rare. He had an understanding of suffering in this world that very few people knew, holding his head held high with grace and dignity.

The next time I saw Cory, he was at church, walking with a cane and being supported by his dear mom Kris, who is a nurse. Kris had moved in with Cory after his release from the hospital. Kris held onto the back of his jeans by the belt loop, in case he stumbled. I was so happy to see them both, and I gave Cory a big hug. He squeezed me with all his strength and said, “Love you.”

Kris and Cory sat in the front row at church, in the same spot where Kris always sat. At the end of the service, the pastor asked if anyone wanted prayer for more power and strength from the Spirit of God to stand. The lights were dimmed, but I could see Cory slowly stand up tall, head held high, and his mother holding his weak left arm. While we sang, I saw Cory raise his one strong, grateful hand up in worship as his cane hung down from his palm. His hand open before Heaven, Cory humbly accepted his trial and received God’s grace to walk slowly and faithfully through his valley of shadow. His hands and heart were filled.

CATHY TAYLOR

Raising Cane

“My dear Wormwood: Music and silence--how I detest them both!" ~Silence with God

And after He had sent the multitudes away, He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.
Matthew 14:23

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."

Matthew 6:6

O NOW I see what beauties lay
O’er summer’s close,
And autumn’s calm breathing with decay,
With her last dying rose,
Sweeter than spring.

A calm awaiting seems to lie
O’er leaf and wave;
A calm undressing, all so silently,
For calmness of the grave,
Unrepining.

The noiseless brook its banks along
Winds like a lake,
Save stilly heard a rippling under-song,
Whose passing eddies make
Silence more still.

Upon the dread and dim serene,
Each thought that breaks,
And every breath that stirs the quiet scene,
A mighty Being speaks,
Whom we await.

Such is the awful calm they learn
Beneath Thy cross
Who fain would sit, looking for Thy return,
And count the world but loss
Thy love to gain.

ISAAC WILLIAMS
The Banks in Autumn

        “My dear Wormwood: Music and silence--how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell--though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express, no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise--Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile--Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress."

C.S. LEWIS
The Screwtape Letters

        You whom the Holy Spirit is urging to act that your souls may become the Bride of God, must….”sit alone and keep silence” as the prophet says…. Get away then I tell you, not physically but in mind and intention, in spirit and devotion; for the Lord Christ is Himself a Spirit, and it is spiritual solitude that He requires of you, though bodily withdrawal is not without its uses, when it may be had, especially in a time of prayer.  You have His own commandment in the matter, “When you pray, enter into your room and when you have shut the door, pray.”  He, Himself practiced what He preached. He would spend all night in prayer, not only hiding from the crowds, but not allowing any even of His closest friends to come with Him.  Even at the last, when He was hastening to His willing death, though He had taken three with Him, He withdrew even from them when He desired to pray.  You must do likewise, when you want to pray.
        He who would pray must choose the best time to do so as well as the best place.  A time of leisure is the fittest and most suitable, especially the silence of the night; for prayer is freer in the night and purer too.   How confidently does prayer mount up, unknown to any except God and the holy angel who receives it on the heavenly altar! How acceptable and clear it is in its modesty then, how peaceful and serene with no noise or interruption to disturb it!

 BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
 1090-1153
 On Loving God

"A man’s will should be an echo, not a voice; the echo of God..." Devotional on Silence before God

My soul, wait silently for God alone,

For my hope is from Him.

Psalm 62:5

Come, my people, enter into your rooms,

And shut your doors behind you;

Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment…

Isaiah 26:20

“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Matthew 6:6

That silence is first a silence of the will. The plain meaning of this phrase is resignation; and resignation is just a silent will. Before the throne of the Great King, His servants are to stand like those long rows of attendants we see on the walls of Eastern temples, silent, with folded arms, straining their ears to hear, and bracing their muscles to execute his whispered commands, or even his gesture and his glance. A man’s will should be an echo, not a voice; the echo of God, not the voice of self. It should be silent, as some sweet instrument is silent till the owner’s hand touches the keys. Like the boy-prophet in the hush of the sanctuary, below the quivering light of the dying lamps, we should wait till the awful voice calls, and then answer, ‘Speak, Lord! for Thy servant heareth.’ Do not let the loud utterances of your own wills anticipate, nor drown, the still, small voice in which God speaks. Bridle impatience till He does. If you cannot hear His whisper, wait till you do. Take care of running before you are sent. Keep your wills in equipoise till God’s hand gives the impulse and direction.

         Such a silent will is a strong will. It is no feeble passiveness, no dead indifference, no impossible abnegation that God requires, when He requires us to put our wills in accord with His. They are not slain, but vivified, by such surrender; and the true secret of strength lies in submission. The secret of blessedness is there, too, for our sorrows come because there is discord between our circumstances and our wills, and the measure in which these are in harmony with God is the measure in which we shall feel that all things are blessings to be received with thanksgiving. But if we will take our own way, and let our own wills speak before God speaks, or otherwise than God speaks, nothing can come of that but what always has come of it—blunders, sins, misery, and manifold ruin.

We must keep our hearts silent too. The sweet voices of pleading affections, the loud cry of desires and instincts that roar for their food like beasts of prey, the querulous complaints of disappointed hopes, the groans and sobs of black-robed sorrows, the loud hubbub and Babel, like the noise of a great city, that every man carries within, must be stifled and coerced into silence. We have to take the animal in us by the throat, and sternly say, ‘Lie down there and be quiet.’ We have to stop our ears to the noises around, however sweet the songs, and to close many an avenue through which the world’s music might steal in. He cannot say, ‘My soul is silent unto God,’ whose whole being is buzzing with vanities and noisy with the din of the marketplace. Unless we have something, at least, of that great stillness, our hearts will have no peace, and our religion no reality.

            As the flowers follow the sun, and silently hold up their petals to be tinted and enlarged by his shining, so must we, if we would know the joy of God, hold our souls, wills, hearts, and minds still before Him, whose voice commands, whose love warms, whose truth makes fair, our whole being. God speaks for the most part in such silence only. If the soul be full of tumult and jangling noises, His voice is little likely to be heard. It is the calm lake which mirrors the sun, the least cat’s-paw wrinkling the surface wipes out all the reflected glories of the heavens. If we would mirror God our souls must be calm. If we would hear God our souls must be silence.

         The silence of the soul before God is no mere passiveness. It requires the intensest energy of all our being to keep all our being still and waiting upon Him. So put all your strength into the task, and be sure that your soul is never so intensely alive as when in deepest abnegation it waits hushed before God.

ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Expositions of Holy Scripture

SILENCE TO GOD ~Psalm 62

"Love to God grows out of the love of God."

Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

II Thessalonians 3:5

Jesus, the very thought of Thee

With sweetness fills the breast;

But sweeter far Thy face to see,

And in Thy presence rest.

No voice can sing, nor heart can frame,

Nor can the memory find

A sweeter sound than Thy blest Name,

O Savior of mankind!

O hope of every contrite heart,

O joy of all the meek,

To those who fall, how kind Thou art!

How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this

Nor tongue nor pen can show;

The love of Jesus, what it is,

None but His loved ones know.

O Jesus, Thou the beauty art

Of angel worlds above;

Thy Name is music to the heart,

Inflaming it with love.

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

The first precious thing which we are to enter is the love of God. Beloved, we know the love of God in various ways. Many know it by having heard of it, even as a blind man may thus know the charms of an Alpine landscape. Poor knowledge this! Others of us have tasted of the love of God, have talked about the love of God, have prayed and have sung concerning the love of God. All very well, but Paul meant a dove of a brighter feather. To be directed into the love of God is quite another thing from all that we can be told of it. A fair garden is before us. We look over the wall and are even al- lowed to stand at the door while one hands out to us baskets of golden apples. This is very delightful. Who would not be glad to come so near as this to the garden of heavenly delights?

Yet it is something more to be shown the door, to have the latch lifted, to see the gateway opened and to be gently directed into the Paradise of God. This is what is wanted—that we may be directed into the love of God. Oh, that we may feel something of it while we meditate upon it! Beloved, we come, when we are taught of the Spirit of God, to enter into the love of God by seeing its central importance. We see that the love of God is the source and center, fountain and foundation of all our salvation, and of all else that we receive from God.

At first we are much taken up with pardoning Grace. We are largely engrossed with those royal robes of righteousness with which our nakedness is covered. We are delighted with the viands of the marriage banquet—we eat the fat and we drink the sweet. What else would you expect from starving souls admitted to the abundant supplies of heavenly Grace? Afterwards we begin more distinctly to think of the love that spread the feast, the love that provided the raiment, the love that invited us to the banquet and gently led us to take our place in it. This does not always come at first.

But I pray that none of us may be long receiving the gifts of love without kissing the hand of love. That none of us may be content to have had much forgiven without coming and washing the feet of our forgiving Lord with our tears and declaring our deep and true love to Him. O saved soul, may the Lord fill you with personal love to that personal Savior through whom all blessings come to you! Remember, you have all good things because God loves you!         

When this great world, the sun, and moon and stars, had not yet flashed the morning of their little day, the LORD GOD loved His people with an everlasting love. In the Divine purposes, which were not of yesterday, nor even of that date of which Scripture speaks as “In the beginning”—when the Lord created the heavens and the earth—God loved His own people.

He had chosen you, thought of you, provided for you and made ten thousand forecasts of loving kindness towards you before the earth was. Beloved Believer, you were engraved on the hands of Christ even then. Oh that the Lord would direct you into the antiquity of His love. It shall make you greatly prize that love to think that it had no beginning and shall never, never have an end.

“The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God.” Beloved, let the love of God to you flow into your hearts and abide there till it settles down and bears on its surface the cream of love to God, yielded by your own heart. The only way to love God is to let God’s love to you dwell in your soul till it transforms your soul into itself. Love to God grows out of the love of God.

C.H. SPURGEON ~June 1888

Sermons