The Lord Jesus loves his people so much...

Then He poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. -John 13:5

 

The Lord Jesus loves his people so much, that every day he is still doing for them much that is analogous to washing their soiled feet. Their poorest actions he accepts; their deepest sorrow he feels; their slenderest wish he hears, and their every transgression he forgives. He is still their servant as well as their Friend and Master....humbly, patiently, he yet goes about among his people with the basin and the towel. He does this when he puts away from us day by day our constant infirmities and sins....It is a great act of eternal love when Christ once for all absolves the sinner, and puts him into the family of God; but what condescending patience there is when the Saviour with much long-suffering bears the oft recurring follies of his wayward disciple; day by day, and hour by hour, washing away the multiplied transgressions of his erring but yet beloved child!....While we find comfort and peace in our Lord’s daily cleansing, its legitimate influence upon us will be to increase our watchfulness, and quicken our desire for holiness. Is it so?  ...CH Spurgeon image

Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang...

Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang;

 Through pillared court and temple the lovely anthem rang.  

To Jesus, who had blessed them close folded to His breast,  

The children sang their praises, the simplest and the best.

 

From Olivet they followed mid an exultant crowd,  

The victor palm branch waving, and chanting clear and loud.  

The Lord of men and angels rode on in lowly state,  

Nor scorned that little children should on His bidding wait.

 

“Hosanna in the highest!” that ancient song we sing,  

For Christ is our Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven our king.  

O may we ever praise Him with heart and life and voice,  

And in His blissful presence eternally rejoice! .

-Jeanette Threlfall

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God...

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.  And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.  And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. -Luke 1:26-38

“At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky...

“At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky 

And flinging the cloud and the towers by, 

Is a place of central calm: 

So here in the roar of mortal things, 

I have a place where my spirit sings, 

In the hollow of God’s Palm.”

-Edwin Markham

May the Strength of God pilot us...

May the Strength of God pilot us.

May the Power of God preserve us.

May the Wisdom of God instruct us.

May the Hand of God protect us.

May the Way of God direct us.

May the Shield of God defend us.

May the Host of God guard us.

Against the snares of the evil ones.

Against temptations of the world

May Christ be with us!

May Christ be before us!

May Christ be in us,

Christ be over all!

May Thy Salvation, Lord,

Always be ours,

This day, O Lord,

and evermore. Amen.

...St. Patrick image

A genuine Christian should be a walking mystery...

A genuine Christian should be a walking mystery because he surely is a walking miracle. Through the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian is involved in a daily life and habit that cannot be explained. -A.W. Tozer

Ye hills, lift up your voices...

Ye hills, lift up your voices; let the shaggy woods upon your summits wave with adoration. Ye valleys, fill the air with the bleatings of your sheep and the lowing of your cattle. Ye that have life, if ye have voices, tune his praise; and if ye walk in silence, let your joyful motions show the thanks ye cannot speak. O, ye trees of the field, clap your hands; ye winds, in solemn harmony chant to his glory. 

Thou ocean, with thy myriad waves, in all thy solemn pomp, thy motion to and fro, forget not him who bids a thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain, and write no furrow on thy ever youthful brow. 

And you, ye storms, howl out his greatness; let your thunders roll like drums in the march of the God of armies; let your lightnings write his name in fire upon the midnight darkness; let the illimitable void of space become one mouth for song; and let the unnavigated ether, through its shoreless depths, bear through the infinite remote the name of him who is ever good and doeth good. -CH Spurgeon image

Lord make me as holy...

“Lord make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.”

— Robert Murray M'Cheyne

You will never find Jesus so precious....

You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation—a rock rising above the storm.   

 -Robert Murray M’Cheyne

What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God...

What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now, as they must do at the last day. For each of us the time is surely coming when we shall have nothing but God! Health and wealth and friends and hiding places will all be swept away and we shall have only God. To the man of pseudo faith that is a terrifying thought, but to real faith it is one of the most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.

It would be a tragedy indeed to come to the place where we have no other but God and find that we had not really been trusting God during the days of our earthly sojourn. It would be better to invite God now to remove every false trust, to disengage our hearts from all secret hiding places and to bring us out into the open where we can discover for ourselves whether we actually trust Him. This is a harsh cure for our troubles, it is a sure one! Gentler cures may be too weak to do the work. And time is running out on us. -A.W. Tozer

Ash Wednesday: O Lord, the house of my soul is narrow...

O Lord, the house of my soul is narrow; enlarge it that thou mayest enter in. It is ruinous, O repair it! It displeases thy sight; I confess it, I know. But who shall cleanse it, or to whom shall I cry but thee? Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord, and spare thy servant from strange sins. 

-St. Augustine, Confessions

Send out your light and your truth;

    let them lead me;

let them bring me to your holy hill

    and to your dwelling! -Psalm 43:3

Transfiguration of Jesus: These are the divine wonders we celebrate today...

These are the divine wonders we celebrate today; this is the saving revelation given us upon the mountain; this is the festival of Christ that has drawn us here. Let us listen, then, to the sacred voice of God so compellingly calling us from on high, from the summit of the mountain, so that with the Lord’s chosen disciples we may penetrate the deep meaning of these holy mysteries, so far beyond our capacity to express. Jesus goes before us to show us the way, both up the mountain and into heaven, and - I speak boldly - it is for us now to follow him with all speed, yearning for the heavenly vision that will give us a share in his radiance, renew our spiritual nature and transform us into his own likeness, making us for ever sharers in his Godhead and raising us to heights as yet undreamed of.

 

Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John. Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration. Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed: Lord, it is good for us to be here.  -St. Athanasius on the Transfiguration image

Asbury Professor: We’re Witnessing a ‘Surprising Work of God’...

Tom McCall

February 13, 2023

"...As an analytic theologian, I am weary of hype and very wary of manipulation. I come from a background (in a particularly revivalist segment of the Methodist-holiness tradition) where I’ve seen efforts to manufacture “revivals” and “movements of the Spirit” that were sometimes not only hollow but also harmful. I do not want anything to do with that.

And to be perfectly clear, this is nothing like that. There is no pressure or hype. There is no manipulation. There is no high-pitched emotional fervor.

To the contrary, it has been mostly calm and serene. The mix of hope and joy and peace is indescribably strong and indeed almost palpable—a vivid and incredibly powerful sense of shalom. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is undeniably powerful but also so gentle.

The holy love of the triune God is apparent, and there is an inexpressible sweetness and innate attractiveness to it. It is immediately obvious why no one wants to leave and why those who must leave want to come back as soon as they can..."  the rest

"I found myself with Unspeakable Joy and Awe" - Evan Roberts (Welsh Revival)

“We are just sitting with him, it’s just deeply gentle and deeply loving; it’s just a glimpse of what I think HEAVEN WILL LOOK LIKE.” - Alison Perfater (Asbury Student Body President)#asburyrevival 🔥 pic.twitter.com/qWxU1ugImm

— Greg Gordon (@gregjgordon) February 13, 2023

"This is Revival it isn't hype. It's ordinary people crying out for a move of God."

Are you hungry for more of God? Have a posture of "heart cry" for God's work. Go "low"

He will touch you where you are.#asburyrevival 🔥 #moveofgod pic.twitter.com/2bFMHhJbIF

— Greg Gordon (@gregjgordon) February 13, 2023

Holy Spirit power...

I fear that if you take the preaching throughout the Church of Christ and ask why there is, alas! so little converting power in the preaching of the Word, why there is so much work and often so little result for eternity, why the Word has so little power to build up believers in holiness and in consecration,—the answer will come: It is the absence of the power of the Holy Ghost. And why is this? There can be no other reason but that the flesh and human energy have taken the place that the Holy Ghost ought to have. -Andrew Murray

Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God!

From subtle love of softening things,

From easy choices, weakenings,

(Not thus are spirits fortified;

Not this way went the Crucified;)

From all that dims Thy Calvary,

O Lamb of God, deliver me.

 

Give me the love that leads the way,

The faith that nothing can dismay,

The hope no disappointments tire,

The passion that will burn like fire;

Let me not sink to be a clod:

Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God!

-Amy Carmichael

Earth breaks up, time drops away...

Earth breaks up, time drops away,

In flows heaven, with its new day

Of endless life, when He who trod,

Very man and very God,

This earth in weakness, shame and pain,

Dying the death whose signs remain

Up yonder on the accursed tree,—

Shall come again, no more to be

Of captivity the thrall,

But the one God, All in all,

King of kings, Lord of lords,

As His servant John received the words,

“I died, and live for evermore!”

-Robert Browning 

Around us is a world lost in sin...

“Around us is a world lost in sin, above us is a God willing and able to save; it is ours to build the bridge that links heaven and earth, and prayer is the mighty instrument that does the work.” -E.M. Bounds

Hosanna to the King Of David’s ancient blood...

Hosanna to the King

Of David’s ancient blood;

Behold, he comes to bring

Forgiving grace from God:

Let old and young

Attend his way,

And at his feet

Their honors lay.

 

Glory to God on high;

Salvation to the Lamb;

Let earth, and sea, and sky,

His wondrous love proclaim:

Upon his head

Shall honors rest,

And every age

Pronounce him bless’d.

-Isaac Watts  image

We are anchored in God...

For a spiritual life is simply a life in which all that we do comes from the centre, where we are anchored in God: a life soaked through and through by a sense of His reality and claim, and self-given to the great movement of His will. 

-Evelyn Underhill

He comes to us in the brokenness...

He comes to us in the brokenness of our health,

in the shipwreck of our family lives,

in the loss of all possible peace of mind,

even in the very thick of our sins.

He saves us in our disasters, not from them.

He emphatically does not promise to meet

only the odd winner of the self-improvement lottery:

He meets us all in our endless and inescapable losing.

-Robert Farrar Capon

Your helplessness is your best prayer...

Your helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas. He hears it from the very moment that you are seized with helplessness, and He becomes actively engaged at once in hearing and answering the prayer of your helplessness.  -O. Hallesby

Prayer and a holy life are one...

Prayer and a holy life are one. They mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone... We are in danger of substituting churchly work and a ceaseless round of showy activities for prayer and holy living. A holy life does not live in the closet, but it cannot live without the closet. If, by any chance, a prayer chamber should be established without a holy life, it would be a chamber without the presence of God in it. ...E.M. Bounds

Happy New Year 2023!

"For you shall not go out in haste,
    and you shall not go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
    and the God of Israel will be your rear guard."

 -Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. "God requireth that which is past." At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. "For the Lord will go before you." This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward. God's hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for conscience.

Security for Today. "For ye shall not go out with haste." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ.

Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him. 

-Oswald Chambers image

Love came down at Christmas...

 Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love Divine;

Love was born at Christmas,

Star and Angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,

Love Incarnate, Love Divine;

Worship we our Jesus:

But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,

Love be yours and love be mine,

Love to God and all men,

Love for plea and gift and sign.

...Christina Rossetti image

Merry Christmas to all the readers of this blog!
Raymond and Pat Dague

Fear not because your prayer is stammering...

Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you. Just as a mother understands the first lispings of her infant, so does the blessed Saviour understand sinners. He can read a sigh, and see a meaning in a groan. -JC Ryle

Christ, whose glory fills the skies!

Christ, whose glory fills the skies,

Christ the true, the only Light,

Sun of Righteousness, arise!

Triumph o'er the shades of night:

Dayspring from on high, be near;

Daystar, in my heart appear.

Dark and cheerless is the morn

Unaccompanied by thee;

Joyless is the day's return,

Till thy mercy's beams I see,

Till they inward light impart,

Glad my eyes, and warm my heart.

Visit then this soul of mine!

Pierce the gloom of sin and grief!

Fill me, Radiancy Divine;

Scatter all my unbelief;

More and more thyself display,

Shining to the perfect day.

-Charles Wesley

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

     Serve the Lord with gladness!

    Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

    and his courts with praise!

    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

    his steadfast love endures forever,

    and his faithfulness to all generations.

-Psalm 100

A blessed Thanksgiving to all!

Hail to the Lord’s anointed...

Hail to the Lord’s anointed, great David’s greater Son!

Hail in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun!

He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free;

To take away transgression and rule in equity.

He comes in succor speedy to those who suffer wrong;

To help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong;

To give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light,

Whose souls, condemned and dying, were precious in His sight.

He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth;

Love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in His path to birth.

Before Him, on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go,

And righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.

Kings shall fall down before Him, and gold and incense bring;

All nations shall adore Him, His praise all people sing;

For He shall have dominion o’er river, sea and shore,

Far as the eagle’s pinion or dove’s light wing can soar.

For Him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend;

His kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end:

The mountain dews shall nourish a seed in weakness sown,

Whose fruit shall spread and flourish and shake like Lebanon.

O’er every foe victorious, He on His throne shall rest;

From age to age more glorious, all blessing and all blest.

The tide of time shall never His covenant remove;

His Name shall stand forever, His Name to us is Love.

...James Montgomery image

O for a closer walk with God...

O for a closer walk with God,

A calm and heavenly frame 

A light to shine upon the road

That leads me to the Lamb!

 

Return, O holy Dove, return,

Sweet messenger of rest:

I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,

And drove Thee from my breast.

 

The dearest idol I have known,

Whate’er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from Thy throne,

And worship only Thee.

 

So shall my walk be close with God,

Calm and serene my frame;

So purer light shall mark the road

That leads me to the Lamb.

-William Cowper

From morning to night keep Jesus in thy heart...

“From morning to night keep Jesus in thy heart, 

long for nothing, desire nothing, hope for nothing 

but to have all that is within thee changed 

into the spirit and temper of the holy Jesus.” 

-William Law

Within Thy circling power I stand...

Within Thy circling power I stand;

On every side I find Thy hand:

Awake, asleep, at home, abroad,

Thy power surrounds me still, O Lord!

-Isaac Watts

Pray and vote!

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide and direct, we humbly pray, the minds of all those who are called to elect fit persons to serve our country. Grant that in the exercise of our choice we may promote your glory, and the welfare of this nation. This we ask for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (ACNA BCP 2019)

A mighty fortress is our God...

 A mighty fortress is our God,

A bulwark never failing;

Our helper he, amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe

Does seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great,

And armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing,

Were not the right Man on our side,

The Man of God's own choosing.

You ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is he;

Lord Sabaoth his name,

From age to age the same;

And he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God has willed

His truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo! his doom is sure;

One little word shall fell him.

That Word above all earthly powers

No thanks to them abideth;

The Spirit and the gifts are ours

Through him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also;

The body they may kill:

God's truth abideth still;

His kingdom is forever!

-Martin Luther image

Church is to develop a Christian counter-culture with its own distinctive goals, values, standards, and lifestyle...

Instead of always being one of the chief bastions of the social status quo, the Church is to develop a Christian counter-culture with its own distinctive goals, values, standards, and lifestyle, a realistic alternative to the contemporary technocracy which is marked by bondage, materialism, self-centredness, and greed. Christ’s call to obedience is a call to be different, not conformist. Such a Church—joyful, obedient, loving, and free—will do more than please God: it will attract the world. It is when the Church evidently is the Church, and is living a supernatural life of love by the power of the Holy Spirit, that the world will believe.  -John R. W. Stott

We should all endeavor and labor for a calmer spirit...

We should all endeavor and labor for a calmer spirit, that we may the better serve God in praying to Him and praising Him; and serve one another in love, that we may be fitted to do and receive good; that we may make our passage to heaven more easy and cheerful, without drooping and hanging the wing. So much as we are quiet and cheerful upon good ground, so much we live, and are, as it were, in heaven. -R. Sibbes

“Hear what the Lord has done for me.”

Have you no words? ah! think again,

Words flow apace when you complain;

And fill your fellow-creature’s ear

With the sad tale of all your care.

 

Were half the breath thus vainly spent,

To Heav’n in supplication sent;

Your cheerful song would oft’ner be,

“Hear what the Lord has done for me.”

-William Cowper

If thou but suffer God to guide thee...

If thou but suffer God to guide thee,

And hope in Him thro' all thy ways,

He'll give thee strength, what-e'er betide thee,

And bear thee thro the evil days;

Who trust in God's unchanging love

Builds on the rock that naught can move.

Obey, thou restless heart, be still

And wait in cheerful hope, content;

To take what-e'er His gracious will,

His all discerning love, hath sent;

Nor doubt our inmost wants are known

To Him who chose us for His own.

Sing, pray, and swerve not from His ways;

But do thine own part faithfully.

Trust His rich promises of grace,

So shall they be fulfilled in thee.

God never yet forsook in need

The soul that trusted Him indeed.

-Georg Neumark

There is a stream, whose gentle flow...

There is a stream, whose gentle flow 

Supplies the city of our God; 

Life, love, and joy still gliding through, 

And watering our divine abode: 

That sacred stream, thine holy word, 

That all our raging fear controls; 

Sweet peace thy promises afford, 

And give new strength to fainting souls. 

-Isaac Watts