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Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Devotional ~Giving Eternal Thanks for the Lamb of God


The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:29

…and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:
​​“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
​​To receive power and riches and wisdom,
​​And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
Revelation 5:11-12

Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding;
Christ is nigh, it seems to say,
Cast away the works of darkness,
O ye children of the day.

Wakened by the solemn warning
Let the earthbound soul arise;
Christ, her Sun, all ill dispelling,
Shines upon the morning skies.

Lo, the Lamb, so long expected,
Comes with pardon down from Heav’n;
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all to be forgiven.

Honor, glory, might, and blessing
Be to God: the Father, Son
And the everlasting Spirit,
While eternal ages run.
6th Century Hymn

         I determined,” says Paul, “not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” That is the substance of a Christian’s faith and practice. In the Cross we learn all the power of sin, the intensity of our weakness, the far greater intensity of God’s Mercy. It is the all-prevailing witness of God’s Love, —the most powerful attraction to man’s heart. All graces are to be found therein, and it is the perfection of the interior life. The Cross is the substance of our faith, inasmuch as it sets before us the Only Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit of Mary, and thus embodying the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation….Every precept which our Dear Lord has given us may be summed up in the doctrine of the Cross. It teaches us the power of sin, inasmuch as nothing less than the death of God made Man could crush that power, and atone for sin; —the intensity of our weakness, for what remedy could we have brought had Christ not vouchsafed to be our Propitiation?—the intensity of God’s Mercy—for “if He spared not His Son, shall He not also freely give us all things?” Can we meditate on these things and refuse the only return God asks of us—that we should love, serve and obey Him?
H.L. SIDNEY LEAR
The Hidden Life of the Soul


He is the Lamb of God. For He is provided by God. The words have reference to an abiding element in God Himself. The Lamb of God belongs as much to the eternal essence of God as His glory, His righteousness, His truth, and His love. And for us, and perhaps for all worlds, this is the most wonderful and entrancing name of all. The highest praise we can offer to God is to sing, “Worthy is the Lamb!” Put emphasis on the words, “of God.” There you strike the distinctive feature of this sacrifice, and of the religion which it created. The difference between Christianity and all other religions lies in these two words. In other religions man provides his sacrifice for his god. In Christianity God provides the sacrifice for man. Christ comes forth out of the heart of God.
JOSEPH PARKER
John

He takes away the sin of the world; purchases pardon for all those that repent, and believe the gospel, of what country, nation, or language, whosoever they be. This is encouraging to our faith; if Christ takes away the sin of the world, then why not my sin? Christ leveled His force at the main body of sin's army, struck at the root, and aimed at the overthrow, of that wickedness which the whole world lay in. God was in Him reconciling the world to Himself.
He does this by taking it upon Himself. He is the Lamb of God, that bears the sin of the world. He bore sin for us, and so bears it from us.
 That it is our duty, with an eye of faith, to behold the Lamb of God thus taking away the sin of the world. Let it increase our love to Christ, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, Rev. 1:5.
MATTHEW HENRY
Book of John

Jesus Christ is King forever! The throne of heaven is the throne of God and of the Lamb! His dominion over nature always appears, to me, a delightful contemplation. I like to think of the sea roaring and the floods clapping their hands in His praise. He it is who makes the fields joyful and the trees of the forest glad. His pencil paints the varied hues of the flowers and His breath perfumes them. Every cloud floats over the sky blown by the breath of His mouth. Lord of all the realms of life and death, His providence runs without knot or break through all the tangled skeins of time. The Lord reigns and of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end!
Beloved, we see before us the grandeur of God and the gentleness of a lamb! The infinite Creator and the innocent creature are linked together in lovely union. You do not come to a finite helper when you draw near to Christ. In trusting to the merit of His blood, you have an all-prevalent plea and full security for pardon, peace and acceptance. You come to the throne of the Lamb and that throne of the Lamb is the throne of God!  All the riches of the glory of God are treasured up in Christ Jesus and Christ has all this wealth to bestow upon His redeemed family.
SPURGEON
Sermons

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Harvestime Devotional ~"...your Heavenly Father is stronger than the tempest..."



And behold there arose a great tempest in the sea, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Mark 4:37-39

"Stormy wind fulfilling His word." Psalm 148:8

Send out Thy Light, the way is dark before me,
The path Thy Love has moulded out for me;
Send out Thy Light, that I may see Thy Footsteps,
 Calming the waters of life's restless sea.

Send out Thy Light, the clouds are dark above me,
Gathering in tempest from the angry sea;
Send out Thy Light, that I may see the storm-drops
Which fall from the dear Hand once pierced for me.

Send out Thy Light, and lead me, Father, lead me
Beyond this darkness, sorrow, and unrest;
Send out Thy Light, and guide me, worn and weary,
To the calm shelter of my Saviour's Breast.
W.S. SMITH

Stormy winds come not without mercy and blessing. There is music in the blast if we listen aright. Is there no music in the heart of sorrow that the Lord of all has chosen for His own? Are you not nearer to the Master, have you not grown in faith, in patience, in prayerfulness, in thankful hope, since the time the storm winds first sighed across your life?
It is no small matter to grow nearer to God; it is worth all the tempest your soul has known. The heart of the Lord was yearning over you, and could not be satisfied till His winds had driven your soul entirely into the refuge and protection of His love.
Do not tremble because of the winds of the future; your Lord will be living and loving tomorrow, even as He lives and loves today; and no storm waits in your path but shall leave behind another record that your Heavenly Father is stronger than the tempest, nearer than the grief.
We are traveling home to that beauteous shore where the chill winds never sweep, the hurricane makes no moan; yet, amid the rest of the painless Homeland, shall we not love the Lord a thousandfold more for every storm of earth in which He drew near to us, saying, "Fear not," and held us by the hand, and tenderly bore us through the hour that seemed the darkest? We shall glorify Him then that He has been to us, again and again, a covert from the blast; but let us not wait to glorify Him till the blast is over. Even now let us give thanks that all the winds of life—the rough ones as well as those that blow from the south—are of His appointing. Whose every purpose is for our eternal gain.
Set your thoughts, not on the storm, but on the Love that rules the storm; then the winds of trouble shall no longer seem as sad and restless voices, but as an Æolian harp attuned to peace, to hope, to everlasting victory.

T. MORE


Delacroix 1798 – 1863