Growing in Christ
delight in God
Isaac Ambrose – Looking Unto Jesus
09 months ago
In this knowledge of Christ, there is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world; there is nothing more pleasing and comfortable, more animating and enlivening, more ravishing and soul contenting;
only Christ is the sun and centre of all divine revealed truths, we can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, as the necessary element of your soul’s salvation, which doth not some way or other, either meet in Christ, or refer to Christ;
only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness,
the Sun to enlighten him,
the Physician to heal him,
the Wall of fire to defend him,
the Friend to comfort him,
the Pearl to enrich him,
the Ark to support him,
the Rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures.
Only Christ is that ladder between earth and heaven, the Mediator between God and man, a mystery, which the angels of heaven desire to pry, and peep, and look into.”
Heaven’s inhabitants will be ever digging into this gold mine, ever rolling this soul-delighting and precious stone, ever beholding, viewing, inquiring, and searching into the excellency of this same Christ.
If I had but one word more to speak to the world, it should be this; Oh! let all our spirits be taken up with Christ, let us not busy ourselves too much with toys, or trifles, with ordinary and low things, but look to Jesus.
Surely Christ is enough to fill all our thoughts, desires, hopes, loves, joys, or whatever is within us, or without us; Christ alone comprehends all the circumference of our happiness; Christ is the pearl hid in the large field of God’s word;
Christ is the scope of all the scripture:
all things and persons in the old world were types of him;
all the prophets foretold him,
all God’s love runs through him,
all the gifts and graces of the Spirit flow from him,
the whole eye of God is upon him,
and all his designs both in heaven and earth meet in him.
Isaac Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus
HT: Picture
The Wonder of His Love
12 years ago
God has been near to me lately, sensibly near. His love and intentions to have me as his own have continued to come to the fore in my thinking and affections. I recently got the newest David Crowder* Band album Church Music, in which, one of the many things they work through is meditating on the pursuing love of God. Through this my thoughts have been drawn to think on verses like Ephesians 2:4 “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us.” It’s struck me afresh lately, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) that God didn’t simply do this whole redemption thing to save us, or begrudgingly, but he desired us. Not generally, but uniquely. He wanted us with him. I imagine this is the doctrine of election from an experiential level.
Part of this has been for me an overwhelming sense of God’s nearness in love during times of prayer. It seems as though he rushes in on me. I’m prone to feel an awareness of my faults, but in looking to him I see the invitation to gaze upon him through Jesus Christ. In some ways it has seemed like a stretching of the soul, a delightful enjoyment of his mercies to me: Looking at my sin and seeing Christ take it on willingly; seeing him plead for me on the cross; enjoying the completed forgiveness and pure intentional grace from God bringing me near to him. Below is a poem that came out of one of these times of prayer the other night.
He to me a stamped of rain;
A tumult of an exhausted wave
My soul. Expanding, contracting,
Birthing I look to Him:….A deep stair, eyes penetrating
….Flesh is malleable here; souls are eternal.He to me gave himself on wood
A scarlet brambling brook
Dying. Serendipitous sobriety
My severe eye overflows.
….Rampant, heavy, breathing hushed;
….Nearer. Emmanuel, nearer still.
No title yet. God seeks us out. Redemption and all the glories of Christ, might I remind you, were His idea in the first place. God manifesting his glory in creation isn’t an extra way to bring in the praise (like a pay check). In the fellowship of the Eternal Trinity God had profound, deep, satisfying praise for himself already. But he desired to bring us in on the concert on his own account. This, my friends, is the awesome wonder of the love of God.
No Lesser Fountain!
02 years ago
Just a quick quote:
God has so constituted man, implanting in him such a capacity for happiness, and such boundless and immortal desires for its possession, as can find their full enjoyment only in infinity itself. He never designed that the intelligent and immortal creature should sip its bliss at a lower fountain than himself. ~ Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, p. 41-42
Exploiting God for All Joy
02 years ago
(A journal meditation from this mornings reading in James 1.)
Count trials of various kinds ‘all joy’ for it produces a faith that is steadfast. For faith to endure, it must be filled with joy. For growth in godliness it must have this deep undertow of joy-filled-persevering faith. Joy (all joy) is the only right response to a God ‘who gives generously to all without reproach.’ Fear or reproach is not love, and is not the perfected ‘all joy’ that grows in persistent confidence before the father in loving requests (1 John 4:18). We must grow in exploiting the generosity of God in a desire for the things of God. That is the only way of truly loving God. This is the right way of counting trials of various kinds ‘all joy’ – more opportunities to exploit God’s generosity to those whom he himself has saved by his power to himself (James 1:18). God saved us that we might exploit his grace continually to have those things that true love for God demands: preserving faith, wisdom, joy, godliness, and steadfastness. Let us exploit God to be like God – filled with ‘all joy’.
Blessedness in Walking in the Law
02 years ago
I so was challenged yesterday by reading of the example of David Platt that I’ve been reinvigorated to memorize Psalm 119. So in my steps on verse one this morning I wanted to make a small note.
Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord! ~ Psalm 119:1
What I noted and chewed on here is that those who are called blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessedness is in the obedience. There is the overwhelming temptation to feel that we must walk in obedience, grit and grind out teach through it so that we might eventually wind up in happiness in God (blessedness). No, that is not right. To obey God is to enjoy God, to be blessed and delighting in him. Why? Because we are submitting to and enjoying his Law, not our own law. This is what Paul talks about in Romans 8:13 when he says, “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” David clearly realized his own need for God to help him walk in the Law of God (v.8). Thus, we see with David that the blessed one is he who walks in the Law of God by the power of God to enjoy God in so doing. It truly is a delight to follow God’s law, to forsake out own cravings and desires and find God meeting us with deeper, righter pleasures because his law is founded in him. In walking in God’s law, we enjoy God.
Visits of Christ
32 years ago
In reflecting on the state of my soul lately, I can’t remember one single day in the last year where I wasn’t tempted to, battle with, or succumbed to spiritual depression. By spiritual depression I simply mean that black, hopeless cloud of a downward spiral into a meaningless, ambivalent, despair, fueled mostly by doubt and (for me) anger. It’s not precisely happy land, but a land nonetheless. Of course circumstances don’t particularly matter, this is one of those things that comes about for various randomly prompted reasons. However, in a recent trial Michelle and I have been facing, I’ve seen the temptation arrive at my door step.
With this, I have once again picked up the letters of a good (dead) friend of mine, Samuel Rutherford. His spiritual experience of God is nothing short of staggering. I’m particularly fond of reading his letters, not so much because he’s a dead Puritan, but because his experience and expressions of Christ help clear the fog for me and set a vision of what I want for my own life with Christ. In a letter I read last night, he spoke to the subject of spiritual depression with the following remark to a friend:
Now, my dear brother, I cannot show you how matters go betwixt Christ and me. I find my Lord going and coming seven times a day. His visits are short; but they are both frequent and sweet. I dare not for my life think of a challenge of my Lord. I hear ill tales, and hard reports of Christ, from The Tempter and my flesh; but love believeth no evil. I may swear that they are liars, and that [such] apprehensions make lies of Christ’s honest and unalterable love to me. ~ Samuel Rutherford, Letters #92, 195.
What he says is astonishing: The war of liars of “false lies” from Satan and his own flesh is fought by the declaring the true and unalterable love of Christ for him, which he experiences regularly. The Gospel says “Yes!” to our sin and it’s just punishment in Hell, but quickly follows up with the open arms and extension of Jesus Christ’s love for us in the mercy of his work on the cross. In my spiritual depression, there is a fog light of love to be seen in Christ. As Rutherford states, Christ’s love for me is “honest and unalterable.” More over, I long to experience Christ’s presence and love regularly through the day. How does one aim at this? By warding off Satan and the flesh’s regular attacks of condemnation with the Gospel. Jesus Christ died to save lost and hopeless people, one of the great truths to be seen here is that God initiates salvation to bring me near. He runs to save, he runs to love, not because of me, not because of what I add to him, but because he chooses to. God comes near in the Gospel not once, but regularly. Regular visits of Christ in love for the enjoyment of my soul.
As the Psalmist says:
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. ~ Psalm 43:5
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As an aside, I highly recommend checking out Samuel Rutherford’s Letters for lasting spiritual benefit.
I love Psalm 119…
02 years ago
I just want to say that I love Psalm 119. For about the last month I’ve been committing a section of it to memory, verses 33-40 (and am tempted to do the whole thing!). This is mainly because I saw my own heart confronted and turned to God by the middle line, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and give me life in your ways!” I liked the whole section which gives me hope for growth in holiness, so I hunkered down in the section to memorize it. A part of this has been making the whole psalm itself my evening devotion, one little verse at a time, right before I go to bed. Charles Spurgeon has a “devotional commentary” on this that I got for free once that I have been reading little by little along with this time (available for purchase here, and for free online reading here).
There have been two main reasons why I have grown in my love for this psalm.
The first is that in seeking to memorize verses 33 through 40, I have had a lot of time to reflect on the structure of the psalm. A quick glance at the psalm shows a lot of activity being done in the section: Teach, Give, Lead, Incline, Turn, Confirm, Turn, and Behold. But the key to the section is seeing the active agent in these verbs: God. David prays for great things (not only to keep the path of God’s law with a pure and whole heart to the end of his life, but also to delight in it, enjoy it, and to feel the weight of God’s glory and holiness), but we should note that it is the Lord that he demands to be the source of its affectation. “Teach me, O Lord… and I will thus, and only by your divine, gracious teaching, keep your holy way to the end.” This isn’t a legalism of giving thanks to God for producing the fruit and taking credit for it (like the Pharisee of Luke 18:9-14). It is an acknowledgment that apart from God, he sucks and will continue to in depravity if God does not teach him in his school of grace that changes people for life, continually, all to the glory of God. This is all from the explicit and implicit things being said in the structure of the section. Another is verse 36: “Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!” My selfish gain is being contrasted with God’s testimonies – his redemptive history. What does this say about what I am trying to do in celebrating my own achievements and fame? That’s what the structure of God’s holy Word here is asking us to ponder.
The second reason is that I’ve seen God’s power working in my through this time I’ve committed to memorization and meditation. Subtly, and unintentionally, I’ve noticed that the “furniture” of my mind has been shifted. I have noticed in retrospect how the language of 119 has come out in my prayers. I find that the psalm comes to mind in not only fighting temptations (i.e. “turn my eyes from looking at worthless things” is a pretty good measuring rod to evaluate my internet activity by…ahem, Facebook?). It’s also subtly changed my inherent, gut desires for holiness. I find my mind going more towards spiritual affections for Christ as expressed in this section of Scripture (i.e. the “promise” of verse 38 refers to God’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7, which is realized in Jesus Christ – talk about giving me hope!).
The Word of God has been more deeply lovely to me. It has been, as Jesus prayed, been my sanctification because it is the very truth of God (John 17:17). God’s word is living and active, and meditating on it has been a banquet of grace for the stirring of my soul for a deeper love for Jesus Christ that is filled with the glory of God.
Glorification Will Never End
03 years ago
Lord, grant that from hence I may learn to withdraw my thoughts, affections, desires and expectations, entirely from the world, and may fix them upon the heavenly state; where there is fullness of joy; where reigns heavenly, sweet, calm and delightful love without alloy; where there are continually the dearest expressions of their love: where there is the enjoyment of the persons loved, without ever parting: where those persons, who appear so lovely in this world, will really be inexpressibly more lovely, and full of love to us. How sweetly will the mutual lovers join together to sing the praises of God and the Lamb! How full will it fill us with joy to think, this enjoyment, these sweet exercises, will never cease or come to an end, but will last to all eternity. (Jonathan Edwards, Diary, Wednesday, May 1, 1722; Works 16:768)
This is one of the most profound things I have been struck by over the last year. The reward to b received in Heaven is the Lord Jesus, an ever flowing monsoon of love, to be seen and enjoyed into eternity, forever. Because he is infinite, when we become like he is (1 John 3:2), this becoming shall take an eternity. Therefore, glorification will never end.
Desires Are The Feet Of Love
03 years ago
This is a passage from Thomas Manton that totally floored me the other day. He is discussing love:
[Love] is a gracious and holy affection, which the soul, upon the apprehension of God’s love in Christ, returneth back to God again by his own grace…Love is carried out to its object [in] two ways – by desire and delight. Our necessity and need of God is the ground of desire; and our propriety and interest is the ground of delight. Desires are the feet of love, by which it runneth after its object; and delight is the rest and contentment of the soul in the enjoyment of it. ~ Thomas Manton, Works 5:72-73
Do Not Love The World
03 years ago
I have been seeing a lot of worldliness in my own heart recently, and particularly came to a head of seeing this sin penetrating through many areas of my heart last night. For me, it’s a preoccupation, fascination, and love for the world. I just want the world, I love it, and desire it. For me, it’s an intillecuatlist fascination with culture and the world; but ultimately, its my own personal little sin playground where I can mull over my own passions “for the sake of academics”. So in prayer last night about this, I believe the Lord prompted these verses for my own reflection upon in this matter in seeing my heart more clearly, and its solution:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. ~ John 2:15-17
So in thinking about them, I came to some helpful insights into the passage that I thought may benefit others. To begin with, I was benefiting from my Greek studies on this passage. If that sounds daunting to you – to learn Greek – take heart, because I’m only 8 chapters in my Greek book, and that’s not very much! So, I noticed two areas that the ESV translates where I would personally translate differently. In v. 15, between “the things of the world” and “for if anyone…” the ESV puts a period, and excluded the “for”. It’s not a big deal, nor does it lose the sense of the passage, but for me, those gramatical que’s are helpful. To begin with, the “for” needs to be there because the important Greek word, “hoti” is there to give a logical connection link between the phrases. Secondly, having the logical connection helps me see the picture John is given us in these words. With this in mind then, the way I’m seeing verse 15 build is as follows:
Thus, I see John giving us a picture of two ways we can live, and what those two ways are fundamentally built upon: either a love of the world, or a love of God. As you can see in the diagram, I see a distinction between the “love of the world” and the “love of the things of the world”. It creates a picture in my mind that John then goes on to fill out:
If you’re comparing this to your ESV, you’ll notice that I’ve translated the third clause as “pride of life” and not “pride in possessions”. The Greek can go either way because it literally reads: “the pride the (of) life/possessions.” The RSV translates this with the KJV as “the pride of life”, which I feel better fits the verse than “pride in possessions.” I believe John is getting at an all encompassing view of the sin of all things being in relation to one’s self. Not just possessions, but accomplishments and status. So it’s not just the tv or car, but the degree, the ideal family, the accomplishments at work or in the church, the sense of “I did this.” The picture I get of this verse is that the “things of the world” exist to serve and uphold the root of their cause (“the love of the world”) which is to make the self king! Part of this interpretation comes mainly from seeing that John says that all of these things are “passing away”. Since we know from Matt. 28 that Jesus Christ now reigns, and that all the kingdoms of this world will be put under his feet, there is a fundamental sense that the “love of the world” will “pass away” because its illusions of self-kingship will be uprooted, and will be so mainly because they already have been uprooted in the work of Christ (Col. 2:13-15).
And thus, in conclusion, I see the redemptive message and healing grace in these words showing this structure:
The way of growth and life is to have the love of the Father, manifesting itself in the love of the things of God (“the will of God”), and to thereby “abide forever”. Thus the cure to worldliness, my worldliness, is to grow in an all satisfying love for the Father. Our pleasure was never meant to be satisfied in anything other than in God. And if we do find pleasure in anything but him, it is treason in the highest form; and it will pass away under his mighty wrath. Thus, I find my heart filled with the grace of Jesus Christ by the presence of the Holy Spirit drawing my heart out in affections and longings for God himself. The cure to wordiness is delight in God. Do not love the world, love God! And if you love God, you’ll do the things of God (which Paul and the Apostles spell out in length throughout the NT).
If you think of me, pray that the Spirit would work this in my life, and in the life of his people: a deep satisfaction in God.
For Christ and his Church;
Yours,
~Jacob
