Higher Than This

This is the Hubble Extreme Deep Field, the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light. The farthest galaxy in this picture is over 13 billion light-years away (HT: APOD).

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him..." Psalm 103:11

Run For The Closet

Were men but once acquainted with that relief and cheerfulness of spirit, which a good conscience and a spiritual address to God in prayer afford in the midst of troubles, they would run to their closets, rather than to taverns and ale-houses, to divert and cure their troubles.

 - Flavel, The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation, 508 

Taverns and ale-houses. Malls and Amazon.coms. ESPNs and reality shows. Funny websites and social media. You name it. It is strange how we neglect very good things for often very empty things which cannot cure our troubles. Sin not only makes us stupid - it makes us forgetful. 

What a place is this!

Thus far did I come laden with my sin;
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in
Till I came hither: What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me.

- John Bunyan as quoted in F. Leahy, The Cross He Bore, p. 73

Luther's If-Then

Luther:

"He died for me; he made his righteousness mine and made my sin his own; and if he made my sin his own, then I do not have it, and I am free."

- Quoted in "The Cross He Bore", Frederick S. Leahy, p. 42

Garments To Clothe Your Shame

Election Night Prayer

Father in heaven, as the USA votes tomorrow, I pray

that all of your people would vote,

that You would move your people to participate in choosing the authorities you have established (Rom. 13:1),

that You would open our eyes to the blessings we so easily overlook in a democratic system which approves good and punishes evil, albeit imperfectly, for You have established all authorities in perfect wisdom;

that evil acts which are now approved and legal may be rejected and punished,

that you would give your people further courage to lead in government positions and be lights in dark places,

that all peoples and rulers may bow the knee and kiss the Son in loving worship (Ps. 2),

and that your people would serve, honor, and treasure the King of kings, Jesus Christ, far above any temporary, much less than dust, easily forgettable government administration.

Grow in your people's hearts an ever-increasing affection and passion for the gospel of Christ even as the love of many grows cold and send us out with loud heralding as Jesus builds His Kingdom, which is forever and ever, amen.

How Can We Endure?

John Piper on how Romans 1:16,17 tells us how faith carries us to the end amidst our struggle with sin:

"In Romans 8:13 Paul says, "If you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." But the problem is, we all know that in our war with sin we do not win often enough to have peace in our consciences. So if our life hangs on perfect winning in the war with sin, we are going to despair and not persevere to the end. We will simply give up, because there is no use trying.

What then will keep us going and fighting so that we will live? Romans 1:16,17 answers: the gospel is the power of God to save believers because in the gospel we can see revealed every day that our standing with God is not based on our own righteousness but on God's, freely given to us by faith. And when we see that over and over in the gospel, day after day, as long as we live, our faith is renewed and sustained, and we press on in the fight. Our confidence that God will help us in life and save us from the wrath to come is based on our ever-renewed assurance that our acceptance with him is based on the gift of his own righteousness, not ours."

Via Desiring God - http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/how-does-the-gospel-save-believers-part-3

True Delight

Thou lovely Source of true delight,
Whom I unseen adore;
Unveil Thy beauties to my sight,
That I may love Thee more. 

Thy glory o’er creation shines;
But in Thy sacred Word,
I read in fairer, brighter lines,
My bleeding, dying Lord. 

’Tis here, whene’er my comforts droop,
And sins and sorrows rise,
Thy love with cheerful beams of hope,
My fainting heart supplies. 

Jesus, my Lord, my Life, my Light,
O come with blissful ray;
Break radiant through the shades of night,
And chase my fears away. 

Then shall my soul with rapture trace
The wonders of Thy love;
But the full glories of Thy face
Are only known above.

—Anne Steele

A few things:

1. If you aren't naturally a happy-go-lucky person in most of life, reading Anne Steele's hymns and poems will probably help you see Jesus and bring your pains to Him. They helped me.

2. Love of Jesus should be the only motive for the Christian's obedience. All other motives are faulty and miss the mark. The Christian life is wrapped up in Divine Love for a reason.

3. Reread the second stanza. We rightly ascertain God's glory in the realm of creation (Psalm 19:1-2), but there is a higher realm where we comprehend and see God - his Word - i.e. the Living Word, Jesus, and the written word, the Bible, of which we receive Spirit-wrought revelation. The "sacred Word" alone contains the "fairer brighter lines" that speak of the Word of God, who was with God and who is God.

4. It is ok to pray and sing to God in the midst of pain. I would think that if we are not bringing our pains in our personal and corporate communion with God, we are betraying the reality of sin and suffering in the normal Christian life. Sing your sorrows and live in reality. An overhyped spirituality of dominant victory in Christian living betrays reality. As Matt Chandler wisely said once, "It's ok to not be ok, but it's not ok to stay that way."

5. One day, soon, we will see the "full glories of Thy face". Let that fuel hope.

6. Go listen to a great version of this hymn by Indelible Grace here and buy the album. You can thank me later.

The Intimate Sacrifice

Ed Welch, on how Jesus expresses the physical symbols of the OT sacrificial system in spiritual realities:

If this sounds technical and ritualistic, you are missing the story. It is all very intimate. 

We are brought into the temple, the place of God's presence. 

We lay hands on the Lamb of God. Our sin and shame are transferred to him as he identifies with us. 

When the sacrifice is completed, the Priest sprinkles cleansing blood on us, and the temple curtain that separated us from the most holy areas of God's presence is torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). The final barrier between God and us is gone. 

We are invited to a fellowship meal, which we now call the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). 

Once you lay hands on the Lamb, everything changes. 

— Ed Welch, "Shame Interrupted", p. 191

A New Property of Great Price

Thomas Chalmers tells us how hard it is for man to give up the things in the world he loves:

To estimate the magnitude and the difficulty of such a surrender, let us only think that it were just as arduous to prevail on him not to love wealth, which is but one of the things in the world, as to prevail on him to set wilful fire to his own property. This he might do with sore and painful reluctance, if he saw that the salvation of his life hung upon it. But this he would do willingly, if he saw that a new property of tenfold value was instantly to emerge from the wreck of  the old one. 

 – Thomas Chalmers, "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection"

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Matthew 13:44