February 22, 2012

• Sackcloth and ashes

  

  "Sackcloth and ashes
  Offerings and fastings"

  "Father, isn't it enough?"
  My child, gaze upon My Son

  Behold the slain Lamb
  Behold what He's done

  

  Ecce Homo – Behold His face
  Are your fruits worthy of repentance?

  What to Me are your sacrifices?
  Rend your heart, not your garments

  The circumcision of the flesh
  Avails nothing for righteousness

  O! hold fast to the Head
  Take heed to what I've said

  My child, isn't He enough?
  My child, gaze upon My Son

  Behold the slain Lamb
  Behold what He's done

  Beware the guise of religion
  Guard against the deadly leaven

  Come, let us reason, make haste
  Of the New Covenant taste!

  Isaiah 1
  10  Hear the word of the LORD,
  you rulers of Sodom!
  Give ear to the teaching of our God,
  you people of Gomorrah!
  11  “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
  says the LORD;
  I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
  and the fat of well-fed beasts;
  I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
  or of lambs, or of goats.
  12  “When you come to appear before me,
  who has required of you
  this trampling of my courts?
  13  Bring no more vain offerings;
  incense is an abomination to me.
  New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
  I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
  14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts
  my soul hates;
  they have become a burden to me;
  I am weary of bearing them.
  15  When you spread out your hands,
  I will hide my eyes from you;
  even though you make many prayers,
  I will not listen;
  your hands are full of blood.
  16  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
  remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
  cease to do evil,
  17  learn to do good;
  seek justice,
  correct oppression;
  bring justice to the fatherless,
  plead the widow's cause.
  18  “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
  though your sins are like scarlet,
  they shall be as white as snow;
  though they are red like crimson,
  they shall become like wool.
  19  If you are willing and obedient,
  you shall eat the good of the land;
  20  but if you refuse and rebel,
  you shall be eaten by the sword;
  for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

  Colossians 2:6  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7  rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

  8  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10  and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11  In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12  having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14  by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

  16  Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17  These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18  Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19  and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

  20  If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21  “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22  (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23  These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

  Isaiah 1
  9  If the LORD of hosts
  had not left us a few survivors,
  we should have been like Sodom,
  and become like Gomorrah.

  ---

  Related posts:

  • Ash Wednesday 2007: A Prayer from Henri J. M. Nouwen
  • Ash Wednesday 2008: A Prayer for a "Holy Visitation"
  • Ash Wednesday 2009: Do you despise yourself? | Job 42
  • What is Biblical mourning? (Ash Wednesday 2010)
  • At Calvary: Can you say, "I'm with Him"?
  • Bible Reading: Lamentations 1:12-Is His Sacrifice nothing to you?
  • Good Friday: Are you glorying in the cross or in your works?
  • My deep concern for the churches (my concern over legalism in the church)
  • Instead of Legalism . . . CHRIST!
  • July 4: real freedom is found in His yoke (Elton Trueblood)
  • the examination & the supper | letter 108 on assurance & fighting for joy
  • Lenten Reflections: the remembrance and the rendering (Luke 20:9-26)
  • Surely none is righteous, no, not one ~ The Pharisee's Warning (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:9-10)
  • Are you a nominal Christian?
  • My posts on True & False Religion and Legalism including these posts based on Martyn Lloyd-Jones' chapter titled "Religion" in his book "Triumphant Christianity":
    Characteristics of False Religion:
    # 1-Hypocrisy
    # 2-Institutionalism
    # 3-Tradition
    # 4- Self-righteousness

    Characteristics of True Religion:
    # 1-Based entirely on God's revelation
    # 2, part 1-Honesty & Sincerity
    # 2, part 2-"Not of the letter, but of the Spirit"
    # 3 -Truth

  Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Photo credits:

  Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aschenkreuz.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0
  Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domenico_Fetti_-_Ecce_Homo_-_WGA7845.jpg / CC BY-SA 3.0 / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

  • 9:26 PM
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