December 1, 2013

• Advent Hope: What does Jesus Christ mean to you? ~ Is yours a lively or a dead hope?

  Excerpt from Maurice R. Smith's "The Welsh Revival - Longing And Preparation," accessed 12/1/2013 from http://sentinellenehemie.free.fr/mrsmith1_gb.html:

  At the outset of the Welsh Revival Joseph Jenkins was the pastor of New Quay (pronounced "key") Church in Cardiganshire. He was deeply concerned about the spiritual state of the young people in his church and had begun spending prolonged times in prayer for them. He was concerned that his youth group had become more social than Christian. One Sunday morning in February of 1904 he challenged the 60 youths in his Christian Endeavour movement. "What does Jesus Christ mean to you?" he asked. The question was embarrassing to them. There was a prolonged silence. One boy eventually spoke up and said, "Jesus Christ is the hope of the world." Jenkins responded, "Never mind the world. What does Jesus Christ mean to you?" Finally, young Florie Evans, who had been converted by Jenkins only two weeks before, testified to the cold youth meeting, "I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart." This simple statement of personal faith deeply moved the Christian Endeavour movement. The effect was startling, and resulted in an overpowering sense of God’s presence in the church. The fire of revival had been lit. The young people soon began visiting other local churches carrying the fire and sharing the blessing.

  As we anticipate celebrating Christmas and count down the weeks to Christmas, many of us may light candles that symbolize love, peace, joy, hope, etc. We may hear sermons preached on those themes – including the truth that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world (see Matthew 12:21; Romans 15:12). But what do these words mean to you? Have you tasted and savored their sweetness in your heart? What does Jesus Christ mean to you?  Has the person of Jesus Christ become a living reality to you? Have you supped with the Beloved (Rev. 3:20) and become "drunk with love" (Songs 5:1)? Has the Holy Spirit put these truths of Scripture into your mind and written them on your heart – or are they lifeless words on the written page:  cold, empty, external constructs that have never warmed, delighted, rejoiced, and filled your soul to overflowing with a holy intoxication?

  Hebrews 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

  7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

  8 For finding fault with them, he saith,
  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

  9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

  10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord;
  I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

  11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

  12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

  13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

   

  Is your hope a lively hope?

  . . .

   Or, is your hope, for all intents and purposes, a dead hope?

   

  "Religious knowledge is not, alas, at all the same as spiritual life, and it is not infrequently found in an unnatural separation from it." ~ K. Moody Stuart in "Brownlow North: His Life and Work" (London: Banner of Truth, reprinted 1961; 1st edition 1878), 51.

  
  

  I Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

  It is a cold, lifeless thing to speak of spiritual things upon mere report: but they that speak of them as their own, as having share and interest in them, and some experience of their sweetness, their discourse of them is enlivened with firm belief, and ardent affection, they cannot mention them, but their hearts are straight taken with such gladness, as they are forced to vent in praises. Thus our Apostle here [Peter], and St. Paul, and often elsewhere, when they considered these things wherewith they were about to comfort the godly to whom they wrote, they were suddenly elevated with the joy of them, and broke forth into thanksgiving; so teaching us, by their example, what real joy there is in the consolations of the Gospel, and what praise is due from all the saints to the God of those consolations. This is such an inheritance, that the very thoughts and hopes of it are able to sweeten the greatest griefs and afflictions. What then shall the possession of it be, wherein there shall be no rupture, nor the least drop of any grief at all? The main subject of these verses is, that which is the main comfort that supports the spirits of the godly in all conditions. ~ Robert Leighton's (1611-1684) "Commentary on First Peter" (Grand Rapids: Kregel,1972), 28.

  
  
  Psalm 36:7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

   

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  Scripture quotations are taken from the KJV.

  Related:

  “The honeycomb I lift!” ~ Will you join me? I Samuel 14:24-30
  “The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it…” | the Father’s assurance
  come sinners, make consideration of Israel’s Consolation ~letter 132 on assurance & fighting for joy

   

  • 10:34 PM
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