Midsummer Devotional '23 "To see Him, then, is the final consummation of all."

 

  Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light

Matthew 17:1-2

 

 Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”  All at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone.

Mark 9:7-8

 

 

Deep into the night, the sky begins to darken, 

Glimmers of hope start filling the midnight sky.

I lift up my eyes, my spirit begins to hearken,

For One who shepherds the stars, reigns on high. 

 

Like a flock, You lead forth the vast starry host,

Calling out each one by name as their Maker.

In the Name of the living God, will I boast,

Possessor of great strength and absolute power.

 

ch: 

Jesus, You shine with radiance, clear and bright,

More brilliant than the sun, moon, and stars of light.

Praise and glory to You in the highest height,

Mighty Savior, God of uncreated Light.

 

Who has measured the great waters in his hand?

Who has weighed the mountains upon a scale?

Yet, it’s my name You call, my destiny You’ve planned;

Shepherding with a love that does not fail.

C.A. TAYLOR

Shepherd of the Stars

 

 

Who can adequately speak of the great scene on the Holy Mount, when heaven and earth met and became one, and the body of Jesus shone with a dazzling brightness; of the glory which came down from heaven and covered the Savior and His companions; and of the voice that came out of the excellent glory and proclaimed the Son of Man to be the Son of God? It must be admitted that these things are far above our loftiest conceptions. 

         All the bright and blessed things God’s people know on earth are but feeble foretastes of the joys of heaven. Yes, I have a word of comfort for thee, aged pilgrim. Thine eyes, often so tear-stained, red with weeping, weary with anxiety, perhaps half-blinded with infirmity, or dim with age, thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty. 

When Simeon beheld the infant Savior in the Temple, he said, “Lord, now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace…For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” To the pure in heart, it is promised that they shall see God. When our Lord prayed for His elect before his Passion, He said, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou has given me, may be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me.” And John says, “Now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” To see Him, then, is the final consummation of all. There is nothing more held out to man, as nothing higher could be. For this great vision our whole life here is but a preparation. This is the end of creation, the end of redemption, the end of struggle and victory. They to whom it is vouchsafed will have reached the greatest height and the most perfect bliss that any creature can attain. 

 

JAMES HASTINGS

Greatest Texts in the Bible -Isaiah

 

 

         It is when I have lifted up mine eyes that I am impressed with the solitary majesty of the Son of Man; it is in the elevation of my own moral view that I see Him to be what He is—the King of kings. When my moral view was not lofty, I thought of Him as of other men; I would have built for Moses and Elijah tabernacles by His side. But when the transfiguration glory touched me, I awoke to His glory—His solitary, unrivaled glory. I saw Him to be the chief among ten thousand, and fairer than the children of men. Moses and Elijah faded from the mountain’s brow, and He stood alone in peerless unapproachable splendour; I saw no man there save Jesus only.

GEORGE MATHESON

Easter Morning Devotional '23 "...someday life shall conquer death, light conquer darkness..."

 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!”  So, they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.  Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

Matthew 28:9-10

 

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Matthew 6:28-29

 

My love, My fair one, come!”

Yea, Lord!  Thy Passion over,

We know this life of ours

Hath passed from death and winter

To leaves and budding flowers;

No more Thy rain of weeping

In drear Gethsemane;

No more the clouds and darkness,

That veiled Thy bitter Tree.

Our Easter Sun is risen!

And yet we slumber long,

And need Thy Dove’s sweet pleading

To waken prayer and song.

Oh, breathe upon our deadness,

Oh, shine upon our gloom;

Lord, let us feel Thy presence

And rise and live and bloom.

Jackson Mason~1889

O voice of the Belovèd!

 

Consider the lilies of the fields.  We must take our Lord’s words exactly.  He is speaking of the lilies, the bulbous plants which spring into flower in countless thousands every spring over the downs of Eastern lands.  All the winter they are dead, unsightly roots, hidden in the earth.  But no sooner does the sun of spring shine upon their graves, than they rise into sudden life and beauty, as it pleases God, and every seed takes its own peculiar body.  Sown in corruption, they are raised in incorruption; sown in weakness, they are raised in power; sown in dishonour, they are raised in glory; delicate, beautiful in colour, perfuming the air with fragrance; types of immortality, fit for the crowns of angels.

    Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.  For even so is the Resurrection of the dead.  Yes, not without a divine providence —yea, a divine inspiration —has the blessed Eastertide been fixed, by the Church of all ages, as the season when the earth shakes off her winter’s sleep; when the birds come back, and the flowers begin to bloom, when every seed which falls into the ground and dies, and rises again with a new body, is a witness to us of the Resurrection of Christ; and a witness, too, that we shall rise again; that in us, as in it, life shall conquer death; when every bird that comes back to sing and build among us, every flower that blows, is a witness to us of the Resurrection of the Lord and of our Resurrection….

    They obey the call of the Lord, the Giver of Life, when they return to life, as a type and a token to us of Christ their Maker, who was dead and is alive again, who was lost in hell on Easter eve, and was found again in heaven forevermore.  And so the resurrection of the earth from her winter’s sleep, commemorates to us, as each blessed Eastertide comes round, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and is a witness to us that someday life shall conquer death, light conquer darkness, righteousness conquer sin, joy conquer grief; when the whole creation, which groaneth and travaileth in pain until now, shall have brought forth that of which it travaileth in labour —even the new heavens and the new earth, wherein shall be neither sighing nor sorrow, but God shall wipe away tears from all eyes.

 

CHARLES KINGSLEY

Out of the Deep -1880

 

Good Friday Devotional '23 "This is the only record of our Lord’s singing..."

  

And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it; and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.”

        And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them; and they all drank from it. 
        And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is to be shed on behalf of many." 
        "Truly I say to you, I shall never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

 

        And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 
      Mark 14:22-26

 

 

 

This is the only record of our Lord’s singing when He was on the earth.  It is worthy of special notice that it was just as He was starting out to Gethsemane that He sung a hymn with His disciples.  It would not have seemed so strange to us if He had sung that night on the Transfiguration Mount, or the day He entered Jerusalem amid the people’s hosannas, or on some other occasion of great gladness and triumph; but that the only time we hear Him singing should be in the darkest night of His life is very suggestive.

        It tells us of the deep gladness that was in the heart of Christ under all His griefs and sorrows.  He knew the agony into whose black shadows He was about to enter.  He saw the cross, too, that stood beyond Gethsemane.  Yet He went out toward the darkness with songs of praise on His lips.  There is a Scripture word which tells us that “for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame.”  This was the joy that broke forth here in a hymn of praise.  It was the joy of doing the Father’s will and of saving lost souls.  We get thus here another glimpse of Christ’s great heart of love.

        We can go forward with joy to meet sorrow and sacrifice when we are doing our Father’s will.  We should learn to sing as we enter life’s valleys of shadow.  It is a great thing to be able to sing as we work and sing as we suffer.  The secret of Christ’s song here was His looking beyond the garden and the cross; He saw the reward, the glory, the redemption accomplished.  If we look only at the sorrow before us, we cannot sing; but if we look on to the joy of victory, and the blessedness of the reward, and the ripened fruits that will come from the suffering, we can sing too as we enter the sorest trial.

          J. R. Miller 
         Come Ye Apart 

Late Winter Devotional '23 "I rejoice in being exactly what I am, —a creature capable of loving God..."

 

I love the LORD because He has heard

my appeal for mercy.

 Because He has turned His ear to me,

I will call out to Him as long as I live.

Psalm 116:1-2

In the mid silence of the voiceless night, 

When, chased by airy dreams, the slumbers flee, 

Whom, in the darkness, doth my spirit seek,

O God, but Thee?

 

And if there be a weight upon my breast, 

Some vague impression of the day foregone,

Scarce knowing what it is, I fly to Thee

And lay it down.

 

Or if it be the heaviest that comes, 

In token of anticipated ill,

My bosom takes no heed of what it is,

Since ‘t it is Thy will.

 

For oh! in spite of past and present care,

Or anything besides, how joyfully

Passes that almost solitary hour,

My God, with Thee!

 

More tranquil than the stillness of the night,

More peaceful than the stillness of that hour,

More blest than anything, my bosom lies

Beneath Thy power.

 

For what is there on earth that I desire,

Of all that it can give or take from me?

Or whom in heaven doth my spirit seek,

O God, but Thee?

 

Unknown hymn found treasured up in a humble cottage in England

 

 

I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul, than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul and heaven in my eye…. I rejoice in being exactly what I am, —a creature capable of loving God, and who as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and look for a while out of the window, and gaze at the moon and stars, the work of an Almighty hand. I think of the grandeur of the universe, and then sit down, and think myself one of the happiest beings in it.

 

A Poor English Woman in the 18^th century 

 

In a world where there is so much to ruffle the spirit’s plumes, how needful that entering into the secret of His pavilion, which will alone bring it back to composure and peace! In a world where there is so much to sadden and depress, how blessed that communion with Him in whom is the one true source and fountain of all true gladness and abiding joy! 

 

Richard Chenevix Trench

Christmas Devotional '22 "~"Jesus revealed the preciousness and worth of childhood."

                     

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, 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

A baby is a harmless thing

And wins our hearts with one accord,

And Flower of Babies was their King,

Jesus Christ our Lord:

Lily of lilies He

Upon His Mother’s knee;

Rose of roses, soon to be 

Crowned with thorns on leafless tree.

A lamb is innocent and mild

And merry on the soft green sod;

And Jesus Christ, the Undefiled,

Is the Lamb of God:

Only spotless He

Upon His Mother’s knee;

White and ruddy, soon to be

Sacrificed for you and me.

Nay, lamb is not so sweet a word,

Nor lily half so pure a name;

Another name our hearts hath stirred,

Kindling them to flame:

‘Jesus’ certainly

Is music and melody:

Heart with heart in harmony

Carol we and worship we.

C.G. ROSSETTI

Poems -1886

By coming Himself a little child, our Lord forever glorified and sanctified childhood. Christmas is, par excellence, the children’s festival. It is the day when the children however far they may be scattered during the year, meet again around the family hearth and sit down again around the family table. When we begin to analyse our Christmas joy, it is amazing how largely it gathers round the children. And it is right that Christmas should be the children’s festival, for it is the anniversary of the discovery of the little child. Before Christ came child life was held of little account; infanticide was common; little children were flung out as rubbish and left to die. But Jesus became a little child, and by so doing revealed the preciousness and worth and winsome beauty of childhood. He put the crown upon the child’s head. What care is taken of him today. And what love is lavished upon him. When Christmas morning dawns, the child wakes to find himself surrounded with presents. He hung his stocking up overnight, and, sure enough, in the morning it is filled with good things. Santa Claus, we say in our make-believe way, visited his bedroom overnight, and brought him the gifts. But many of our children know better. They have begun to realize that father and mother are the real Santa Claus, and that it is they who have brought the presents. But another figure is standing behind father and mother—it is Jesus Christ. He is the true Santa Claus. He, and not St. Nicholas, is the ‘good fairy’ to whom the children owe all their Christmas joy and gladness. It is well, therefore, that Christmas Day should be made a happy day for the children. It is well that all that is brightest should be identified with the birthday of Jesus, for it was the coming of Jesus that exalted the child. Our children owe their happy homes, their parents’ love, their beautiful presents, all to the fact that when the shepherds went to Bethlehem long ago they found a Babe.

JAMES HASTINGS
The Gospel of Luke

The Christ of God we sing, 

The Babe of Bethlehem!

And on His infant head we place

The royal diadem.

The crown of thorns is His,

That child of poverty, 

Who on this earth of ours can find

No place His head to lay. 

The crown of heaven is His,

And angels own him there.

The crown of earth shall yet be His,

And we that crown shall share.

HORATIUS BONAR

Christ My Song

Thanksgiving Devotional '22 ~"The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet"

  

 

      

  

    For who is God, except the LORD?  And who is a rock, except our God?  It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way blameless.  He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and sets me upon my high places.                                                                                                          Psalm 18:31-33

        Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food…Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.  The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high places.                                                                                    Habakkuk 3:17-19

                                        I leave thee never; thou art not alone, 
                                                            And with thine own and thee Mine angels dwell: 
                                                            Possess thy soul in patience; freely give 
                                                            Me love for love, and all shall yet be well.

                                        The time is short, they that now weep, ere long 
                                                            Shall be as though they wept not:  they that mourn 
                                                            Be comforted, for I will comfort them; 
                                                            And sweet shall be their glad thanksgiving song. 
                                                                                                              Author Unknown

        
        I think of Wordsworth's lines, in which he describes a natural lady, made by Nature herself: 
                                                                  "She shall be sportive as the fawn 
                                                                   That wild with glee across the lawn 
                                                                              Or up the mountain springs." 
        And it is this buoyancy, this elasticity, this springiness that the Lord is waiting to impart to the souls of His children, so that they may move along the ways of life with the light steps of the fawn.

        Some of us move with very heavy feet.  There is little of the fawn about us as we go along the road.  There is reluctance in our obedience.  There is a frown in our homage.  Our benevolence is graceless, and there is no charm in our piety, and no rapture in our praise.  We are the victims of "the spirit of heaviness."  And yet here is the word which tells us that God will make our feet "like hinds' feet."  He will give us exhilaration and spring, enabling us to leap over difficulties, and to have strength and buoyancy for the steepest hills.  Let us seek the inspiration of the Lord.  "It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way blameless."

                                                                                          J.H. Jowett 
                                                                              My Daily Meditation~1914

        Methinks these words are worthy of being written as with a diamond on a rock forever.  Oh, that by Divine grace they might be deeply engraven on each of our hearts!  That in the day of his distress he would fly to God; that he would maintain a holy composure of spirit under this dark dispensation, nay, that in the midst of all he would indulge in a sacred joy in God, and a cheerful expectation from Him.  Heroic confidence!  Illustrious faith!  Unconquerable love!

                                                                                                  P. Doddridge~1795

Autumn Devotional '22 -"Come, ye weary, heavy-laden..."

 

I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:13-14

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and pow'r.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall
If you tarry till you're better,
You will never come at all.

Joseph Hart -1750

There are times when we seem to be simply crushed with the trouble laid on us; and, strangely enough it is not always the great trial, the death-stroke, which takes the treasure of a clinging heart from us.  But there are seasons when outward matters practically are much the same as when we could look at things brightly, and enjoy them, even; when no special sorrow or anxiety presses, hopes and fears and anticipations are all much as before; and yet there is a dense cloud of weary, clogging depression on our souls. Everything seems grey, chill, and disheartening; we find no spirit, no “savour” in anything. The cloudy days chills us, but the sunshine hardly gladdens us; solitude is full of carking, weary painfulness, yet we shrink from society, and are oppressed with the feeling that it is “nothing” to those who pass by, all unconscious of our suffering.  

Familiar places, books we have habitually delighted in, occupations we longed to have time to pursue, have lost all zest.  We cannot write freely to the most sympathetic of correspondents for fear we should break out into fretful complaining, or lest they should entirely fail to understand our trouble.  The interests, practical, artistic, literary, political, ecclesiastical, or even domestic, which were so keen a while since, are all pale and sickly.  “Cui bono!” is the perpetual rejoinder of the weary spirit, and we shrink more and more within our shell, more and more utterly miserable.

Now there are several remedies to be taken promptly, even if the relief they give be slow.  First of all, say to yourself that He Who was constrained to cry out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” more than knows every iota of your trouble; knows it, sees it, watches it, and the precise chastening, healing discipline it is meant to work in your soul, pities and loves you the while; in short, “in all your affliction He is afflicted,” and you were never less alone than in this dreary, heartsick, languid season of chilling desolation. 

Take any little “hold-byes,” as the old Covenanters called them, that happen to touch you: “My time is in Thy Hand;“ “When my spirit was in heaviness Thou knewest my path;” “Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth Thee;” “O tarry thou the Lord’s leisure; be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart, and put thou thy trust in the Lord.” The words may have lost the cheering reality they once had; but never mind, go on repeating them, striving to realize them, and even as the soft dew sinks imperceptibly into the ground, and makes the tender grass to spring up and grow, we know not how, so the Spirit of the Comforter will sink into your heart, and in an hour when you think not, you will feel His ineffable grace and hope stealing over you.  It may not be now, or speedily-leave that to Him Who cares for you as not even your fond mother knew how to care -but come it will.  Only hold on with both hands to that certain hope, and let the Father’s Love, the Son’s Grace, and the Holy Spirit’s Fellowship work in you till patience has her perfect work.

H.L. Sydney Lear

Weariness-1884