"Your Daughter is Dead"

"While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. 'Your daughter is dead!' he said." Luke 8:49 

Let us notice in this verse how universal is the dominion which death holds over mankind.  We see death coming to a rich man's house and tearing from him the desire of his eyes with a stroke!  Such tidings as these, are the bitterest cups which we have to drink in this world. Nothing cuts so deeply into man's heart as to part with beloved ones and lay them in the grave.  Few griefs are so crushing and heavy as the grief of a parent over the death of an only child.  

Death is indeed a cruel enemy! He makes no distinction in his attacks. He comes to the rich man's mansion as well as to the poor man's cottage.  He does not spare the young, the strong, and the beautiful any more than the old, the infirm, and the grey haired.  Not all the gold of Australia, nor all the skill of doctors can keep the hand of death from our bodies, in the day of his power.  When the appointed hour comes, and God permits him to smite then our worldly schemes must be broken off, and our darlings must be taken away and buried out of our sight. 

These thoughts are melancholy, and few like to hear of them. The subject of death is one that men shut their eyes at and refuse to look at. "All men think all men mortal, but themselves!"  But why should we treat this great reality in this way?  Why should we not rather look the subject of death in the face, in order that when our turn comes, we may be prepared to die?  Death will come to our houses, whether we like it or not. Death will take each of us away despite our dislike to hearing about it. Surely it is the part of a wise man to get ready for this great change. Why should we not be ready? 

There is one who can deliver us from the fear of death. Christ has overcome death, and "brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." He who believes on Him, has everlasting life. Though he dies yet shall he live. Let us believe in the Lord Jesus and then death will lose his sting. We shall then be able to say with Paul, "To me, to die is gain!" (Philippians 1:21) 

[J. C. Ryle]

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Romans 8:13 ...  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

John 5:24 ... Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Galatians 6:8 ... For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. ❤

The Twin Wonder ...

One of the most soul-exhilarating truths in all of Scripture is the twin wonder of God's grace and mercy.  These two divine attributes shine brightest when viewed against the dark backdrop of our utter unworthiness.  We have willfully rebelled against our Maker, transgressed His holy Word, and loved darkness rather than light. And yet, God, in infinite love and compassion, lavishes both grace and mercy upon vessels of wrath. 

GRACE is God's freely giving salvation to un-deserving, ill-deserving and Hell-deserving sinners. It is not merely a lifting of guilt; it is the bestowing of unimaginable blessing! Grace takes a vile rebel against God and makes him a beloved son of God.  Grace does not wait for worthiness it moves toward the unworthy and brings them nearby.  As Paul wrote, "It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast!" (Ephesians 2:8-9) Salvation is not a reward; it is a gift.  It is God placing a crown of blessing on the head of the one who deserved nothing but chains of punishment. 

MERCY, by contrast, is God withholding damnation to un-deserving, ill-deserving and Hell-deserving sinners. "He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities!" (Psalm 103:10) Every breath we take outside of Hell, is a mercy. Every morning that dawns with fresh light, is a token of God's longsuffering. It is mercy that delays judgment and gives room for repentance. It is mercy that pities the guilty and restrains wrath. Together, grace and mercy reveal the full beauty of the gospel. Grace gives Heaven. Mercy withholds Hell. 

Grace bestows riches. Mercy averts ruin. In Christ, both flow freely. The cross is where mercy and grace meet justice satisfied by the blood of the Son, and favor poured out without measure upon the utterly unworthy. There, the Hell-deserving are pardoned, adopted, and promised glory. Brethren, we have nothing to boast in. The only thing we contribute to our salvation, is our sin! And believer, never cease to marvel that you are now an heir of Heaven because God has not given you what you do deserve, and has given you what you could never deserve. Fall on your face before this God who is rich in mercy and abounding in grace. 

[Charles H. Spurgeon] 

Hebrews 4:16 ... Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

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Ready For the Bridegroom?

The Christian should be prepared for all that can happen.  As one that is dead to the world, and risen with Christ, as one that is united to Christ, and living in fellowship with Christ; as one that witnesses for Christ and is to share in the coming glory of Christ, he should be ready for anything, and everything. Especially should he be ready for the coming of his Lord. 

His life, in one view of it, should be a going forth to meet and to welcome his Lord; that so when he comes he may share in the happiness and honor of the wise virgins, of whom we read, "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut!" (Matthew 25:10) 

THE EVENT. It is called a wedding banquet, one of the most joyous events among men. Jesus has married our nature, when he took it into union with himself, in the womb of the virgin. So that now he is one with us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. God and man are one Christ. He has betrothed our persons, this was done through the gospel, and by the agency of the Holy Spirit. We are solemnly engaged to him, and he is pledged to us. We are to be his and his forever. He is to be ours and ours to all eternity. He will come to be publicly wedded to his glorious and glorified church. Then shall she be beautiful and glorious indeed. Then as represented in the song, she will look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun. Then he will display all his riches and honors, shining forth as the heir of all things, as the brightness of glory, as the image of the invisible God. Then, all his beloved people, will be filled with joy unspeakable and pleasure inconceivable. O it will be a glorious day, when Jesus looks upon the Church he has loved, and for which he laid down his life, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing the perfection of beauty, the very counterpart of himself. 

THE HAPPY VIRGINS. They were ready. As cleansed from all sin in his precious blood and purified from every stain by the operation of the Holy Spirit. As clothed with the magnificent robe of the Savior's righteousness, and the beautiful garments of salvation. As anointed with the holy unction, or the Spirit's grace and gifts. As adorned with all the virtues that can beautify humanity, and the graces that can dignify the Christian name. Having a well-trimmed lamp, shining with the light of knowledge, supplied with the oil of grace. Thus, washed and robed, anointed and adorned, and letting their light shine before men they were ready. Therefore, they went in with him to the wedding banquet and enjoyed what they had long wished and prayed for a full sight of him in all his glory and beauty! It was now their privilege to stand before him accepted, approved, and blessed. They were now acknowledged as his and honored as his beloved bride. They were now to be everlastingly shut in with him, free from sin, and filled with holiness, while sorrow, sickness, pain and death, Satan and every foe are shut out! Full of holiness, light, and love they are happy; perfectly and eternally happy.

THE DISMAL DOOM OF ALL BESIDE. "The door was shut!" Saints are shut in. Sinners are shut out. All within are safe and safe forever. All without are miserable eternally and unspeakably miserable. Forever excluded from God's presence, shut out from the Savior's wedding feast, they can never take part in the celestial service. Worse than this; they are shut out where hope expires, and black despair forever reigns; where rest can never be enjoyed, or comfort be ever tasted. They will be shut in with devils, and the souls of the damned, and shut in with them forever! How sad, to be so near to Christ and yet to be separated from him forever!  To be so near, even at the door of the wedding chamber and yet never allowed to enter it. 

How searching is this subject, how it urges upon us the duty of self-examination, and presses home upon us the solemn question, Am I ready? How glorious, how unutterably glorious, it will be, to be admitted with Jesus, to share in all the happiness and the honors of Jesus, and to be forever with the Lord. Holy Spirit, am I ready? Am I prepared for an event so solemn, so sublime, so glorious? Heart searching God, search, O search my heart, and see if all is right there, and as a display of your infinite grace, prepare me for that glorious day, so that when Jesus, as the Bridegroom comes I may be ready and go in with him to the marriage, before the door is forever shut. 

If anyone reads these lines, who is not ready, O Lord prepare that soul and let not one of my readers come too late, and find the door shut and shut forever! 

[James Smith]

Matthew 25:13 ... Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

Matthew 24:44 ... Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Revelation 19:7 ...  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. ❤

Encouragement to a Burdened Soul

My Very Dear,

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, by the anointing and teaching of the Holy Comforter. "For," said our Lord, "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you." "He will guide you into all truth." "He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me." The Holy Spirit is the living guide to Jesus. It is He who says, with power, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." It is He who convinces of sin, who wounds, and probes the wound, and lays open the evil of our nature, causing us to know that we are corrupt within and without. But He not only thus discovers the malady, but He also applies the remedy. He abases the sinner; and exalts the Savior. He gives the deep sense of sin that the great salvation may be more appreciated and enjoyed. We are as bad as we can be, and it is needful to know it; but the knowledge of our depravity will not save us. It is, "Look unto ME, and be saved, all the ends of the earth." Some seem to glory in their deep discoveries of depravity; but nay, rather "let him that glories, glory in the Lord."

The end of a thing is better than the beginning: the beginning of the Lord's teaching is to know ourselves; the end to know Him, whom to know is life eternal, and happy is it for those who tarry not in all the plain, but amidst all the sense of sin and the loathing of self, are kept pressing on, crying, "That I may know Him;" "that I may find Him;" "that I may be found in Him;" "I press towards the mark;" "I long for the prize."

We read, Luke 6:19, "The whole crowd was trying to touch Him, because power was coming out from Him and healing them all." Their miseries pressed them on to seek His mercies; and so, the poor woman with the issue of blood; it seemed incurable; it made her unclean. How dare she approach the Holy Jesus? How dare she presume to touch His unspotted garment? Ah, but she believed that He had power, and that that power was to be received by faith; and thus, she obtained the cure. "Somebody did touch Me; I know that power has gone out from Me." She had believed with the heart, and thus He drew her on to confess with the mouth, and then He openly gave her the full reward of her faith "Daughter, be of good comfort: your faith had made you whole; go in peace." (Luke 8:43-48)

Ah, many are now thronging and pressing Jesus by noisy profession, but only a few are getting the healing virtue, and those are unclean diseased ones who think themselves most unlikely of all. But of Him they hear; and "faith comes by hearing." To Him they are brought, for "all that the Father gives me shall come to me." And they do not come in vain, for "he who comes to me I will never cast out." "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Yes, power to forgive sins also. Yes, my precious Savior, with hand and heart do I subscribe thus--You have power to save those whom no one else could or would; for You have clothed such a vile sinner as I am with the garments of salvation. You have covered me with the robe of righteousness. Therefore, my soul does greatly rejoice in the Lord and is joyful in my God. Oh, those words, "My God!" when lawfully and feelingly uttered, have in them a world of blessedness!

Well, you see how it is with me. I am still delighting in the love of the altogether lovely Jesus; but not half enough. What do you think of Christ? Surely my heart's desire is, that He may be enthroned in your affections, for "He is worthy," and the more unworthy you feel, the better He will suit you! In your flesh "dwells no good thing." While you dwell in that tent you will find evil, only evil. Like the father of the faithful, you will have to go forth into the land (Deuteronomy 8:7-9) which the Lord will show you; but He must order all your journeying, as He says, "I will guide you with my eye, I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go."

It seems, however, that at present you are under the ministry of condemnation, because you are resting in your own righteousness, which you will never establish, as it is contrary to the law of faith. (Romans 10:3) The contrast is, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not alter the flesh, but after the Spirit." This is the ministry of righteousness which follows the other and exceeds in glory; for the work of righteousness is peace, "and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever." Here is that which establishes us. "You have set my feet upon a rock and established my goings." "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established." (2 Chronicles 20:20) "In righteousness shall you be established." (Isaiah 54:14) "He that establishes us in Christ and has anointed us is God, (2 Corinthians 1:21) who also seals us with that Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance." (Ephesians 1:13, 14)

All the operations of that Spirit in the soul are either to make known or make way for Christ; the latter seems at present His work in your heart. He is discovering your evil and shaking your movable things. (Hebrews 12:27) Like John, He goes before the Lord to prepare His way. Be of good cheer, this Divine Messenger betokens that the Lord is at hand. He would not have showed you all these things if He meant to destroy you. "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified" "through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

The Lord blesses you and grants you the instructions of wisdom for the training of your dear child, and all else you are called to. And now, farewell! May you be brought home at the appointed season in safety, and with dew resting upon your branch. As your husband is a lover of husbandry, he perhaps will not be offended with the Christian love and greeting of a gleaner, who can feelingly say, "The Lord bless you," (Ruth 2:4) and make you a blessing. (Micah 5:7) This is the true wish of my heart for you both.

Your very affectionately,
Ruth

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Sincere Prayer ...

Prayer is a sincere, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, for such things as God has promised in His Word.  Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled with God's grace. 

The truths that I know best, I have learned on my knees. I never know a thing well, until it is burned into my heart by prayer.  Sincere prayer is a shield to the soul, a scourge to Satan, and a fragrant and pleasing sacrifice to God. 

Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer. When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words be without heart. 

[John Bunyan]

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ... Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing.  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Ephesians 6:18 ... Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Mark 11:24 ... Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. ❤

"Farewell"

My very Dear Sister in our precious Lord,

I rejoice to hear of your soul's prosperity under those afflictions which have attended your body. I have again been visited with illness and am weak. The hand the heart of our own God our God of love is in everything to us. In all, let us love, bless, and adore His name, for honorable and glorious are all His works, and most worthy is He of praise from us in all. Under the sweet, enlarging influence of God's free love, we love Him and as much when He frowns as when He smiles.

A believing, loving, adoring spirit, under divine chastisement, is an excellent spirit a God-glorifying frame of soul. Our afflictions, light as they are, as being laid upon us and we supported under them by the Lord's all-gracious and almighty hand, are made blessings to us. They may well be borne by us, not only as they are designed for, and shall end in, our soul's present and eternal advantage, but also, and chiefly, in that our God is and will be glorified thereby His displaying the glory of His infinite love, grace, mercy, wisdom, power, faithfulness, and fatherly goodness towards us in them and by our ascribing all honor in filial duty unto Him.

Our God is infinitely concerned for our good in every affliction. So let us be earnestly, yes only, concerned about His glory as to our duty therein, casting all our care upon Him who cares for us.

We shall bless God, when we come to heaven, for every kind and degree of affliction that we passed through on earth for every trial, and for every circumstance attending it, wherein we are enabled to glorify God.

After this heavenly temper, and an increase therein, let us labor while pilgrims on this earth. A submissive, patient, cheerful, thankful frame of spirit, under the afflicting hand of God, is that honor, that reverence which we owe to Him as a Father and ineffably sweet, and exceedingly profitable is this unto us as His children. In a little, little while, sin and sorrow shall be no more. A fullness, an eternity of joy and glory in the immediate presence of God and the Lamb awaits us.

Our afflictions are given to us as a fruit of the Father's grace, of the Son's purchase and intercession, and as a season of the Spirit's preparing us below for that glory which is prepared for us above. Oh, my dear sister, all things are ours, whether life, or death, or things present, or things to come. Time with all its changes, its comforts and crosses, and eternity with all its great and unchangeable glories, are ours! Christ is ours, and all things in and with Him, and we are His, and shall shortly be with Him where He is, to behold His glory! We shall be like Him, perfectly so for we shall see Him as He is! We shall not be long absent from but shall shortly be forever with the Lord to see, to love, to praise Him perfectly and eternally. Oh, blessed day! It hastens upon us. A day without clouds, without decline, without end! A magnificent, bright day, that will spread its glories over all, when the Lord will be our everlasting light, and our God our glory!

Then farewell forever! Farewell trials! Farewell sin! Farewell sorrow! Farewell death! Farewell darkness! Farewell pain! Farewell weakness! Mortality shall be swallowed in life! And in the meantime, my dear sister, let us go on in faith and hope of that eternal life which God, who cannot lie, has promised; and loving and adoring the Lord in all things, let us follow the Lamb, even wherever He goes, until we reach immortal glory with Him. And now, my dear child, unto the tender care of your everlasting Father, I commit you. May His presence be with you, and His blessing be upon you continually.

[Anne Dutton]

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Everything On This Side of Hell is Mercy

Labor every day to be humbler, and lowlier, and littler, in your own eyes. "Who am I," says the humble soul, "that God should cross me in this mercy, and take away that mercy, and pass a sentence of death upon every mercy? I am not worthy of the least mercy, I deserve not a crumb of mercy, I have forfeited every mercy!" It is only pride that puts men upon contending with God. 

A humble soul will lie quiet at the foot of God; it will be contented with bare necessities. A dinner of green herbs well suits the humble man's palate, whereas a fattened ox is but a coarse dish to a proud man's stomach. A humble heart thinks none are less than himself, nor any worse than himself. 

A humble heart looks upon small mercies, as great mercies; and great afflictions, as small afflictions; and small afflictions, as no afflictions. He therefore sits mute and quiet under all. Do but keep humble, and you will keep silent before the Lord. Pride kicks, and flings, and frets; but a humble man has his hand upon his mouth. 

Everything on this side of Hell is mercy, much mercy, rich mercy, to a humble soul! Therefore, he remains mute under God's smarting rod. 

[Thomas Brooks] 

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Psalm 39:9 ... I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

Proverbs 13:10 ... Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

James 4:10 ... Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. ❤

Daily Bread

By asking God to give us our daily bread, we confess our dependence upon Him.

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Matthew 6:11-13 ... Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

John 6:35 ... And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Acts 17:28 ... For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. ❤

Oh, The Sense of Pardoned Sin!

The attribute of God which David selects for special praise: "All my inmost being, praise His holy name." You might have expected to read "gracious name," or "merciful name." But you find it written, "holy name."  Indeed, this is the emphatic point of the text: that an impeccably holy God would forgive our sin. He is a holy God righteous, just, and pure; who cannot look upon iniquity; whose fury burns against evil. Therefore, it is astonishing that He should forgive our iniquities. To accomplish this wonder, the miracle of the sin-atoning cross was wrought by His unspeakable love. 

You must have a true idea of that holiness, which is like a consuming fire that holiness which even angels cannot gaze upon, but of which they sing, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!"  You have but to gain a glimpse of that unutterable perfection, and you will abhor yourself in dust and ashes. And then you will marvel to think that the thrice holy God should have spared your guilty soul. How abhorrent is your depravity in His sight; and yet He does not smite you!  

What are you but a mass of corruption; and yet the infinitely pure One has considered you in love! What are you but a sink of impurity; and yet the all-holy God has looked upon you in compassion. While you were rotting away with the leprosy of sin, the Lord visited you in pity, to show that there was nothing good in you to earn His redeeming love. While you still had your thinking perverted, your affections polluted, and your desires depraved; even while you were full of the sinful plague of your own heart, God says to you, "I have forgiven you." 

In your confessed guiltiness, the Holy God will forgive your sin by an act of both justice and mercy. Plead your guiltiness and say, "Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great!" You must cast all your splendid righteousness onto the rubbish heap, right along with all your heinous iniquities and the ever-flowing stream of Christ's sin-atoning blood will wash it all away. You must cast all your prayers, your charities, and your good works on the same rubbish heap as your sins! You might have tried to sort them a little, but one is so much like the other, that you must fling all your good works and all your bad works overboard, and swim to glory on the sin-atoning cross! 

Though God is glorious in holiness, He is also glorious in mercy and grace. Do you sincerely trust in the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus to save you? Then every grain of your sin is as far removed from you, as the east is from the west. He has hurled the whole of your sin into the unfathomable depths of His ocean of mercy. Oh, the sense of pardoned sin! If indeed the royal pardon has been sent to you from the court of Heaven, then you may heartily sing, "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget any of His benefits who forgives all your sins!" 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

Psalm 103:1-3 ... Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

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Matchless Love!!

Sit down in astonishment at this matchless love of Jesus! 

 

Oh! what is in us, that should cause the Lord to save us? We were all equal in sin and misery; nay, doubtless, we have actually out-sinned thousands, to whom this precious salvation is denied. 

Oh! we were once poor wretches sitting upon the ash-heap; yes, wallowing in our blood; and yet behold, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, has so far abounded in His love, as to bestow Himself, His Spirit, His saving grace, and all the jewels of His royal crown, upon us! 

Oh! what heart can conceive, what tongue can express, this matchless love! Says Jesus: "I will be yours forever, and My Spirit shall be yours forever, and My grace shall be yours forever, and My glory shall be yours forever, and My righteousness shall be yours forever! All that I am, and all that I have shall be yours forever!" 

Oh, what incomparable love is this! 

Oh! what a precious Jesus is this! 

[Thomas Brooks] 

Romans 5:6-8 ... For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 

1 John 3:1 ... Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

John 3:16 ...  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ❤

Love Speech ...

 Biblical truth is not hate speech.  

It's LOVE speech.

Truth is only considered hate from those that hate the truth.

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Amos 5:10 ...  They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Galatians 4:16 ... Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

Ephesians 4:15 ... But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: ❤