humility

  • Contemplating the ascended Lamb: the soul's delight & sweetest feast!

    Luke 24:51
    And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

      

    Philippians 2:6-11
    Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
    But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
    and was made in the likeness of men:
    And being found in fashion as a man,
    he humbled himself,
    and became obedient
    unto death,
    even the death
    of the cross.
    Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,
    and given him a name which is above every name:
    That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    of things in heaven,
    and things in earth,
    and things under the earth;
    And that every tongue should confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

    * * *

    Revelation 5:6
    And I beheld, and lo in midst of the throne and of the four living creatures,
    and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.


    . . .

       How delightful to contemplate the honors which encircle the Lamb in the midst of his Father's throne! After being here so long marred with grief and shame, how sweet to know that he has found a throne! After wandering an exile from heaven for more than thirty years for our revolt, and to seek through this wilderness that which was lost, we joy that he has found a home. After being so long unknown and neglected, we rejoice that he has found those who can honor his worth. After all the mockery of the judgment hall and the pretorium, we exult to hear the shout of all heaven in his praise. After the crown of thorns, we are enraptured to see him wear the diadem of the universe. After being cast out upon the wide world, not having where to lay his head, we triumph that a palace has received him. After depending for bread on the charity of his female followers, we are transported to see him the heir of all things and able in his turn to impart to others. After being so long a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,—after all the agonies of the garden and the cross,—we sing and shout for joy that he has found repose,—that he has found infinite and eternal delight in the glory of his Father and the salvation of his Church. Let him have his happiness and his honors. Amidst all the sufferings of life, it shall be our solace that the man of sorrows is happy,—that the despised Nazarene is honored at last. Of all the luxuries that ever feasted the soul, the sweetest is to see the Lamb that was slain in the midst of his Father's throne.

    Excerpt from Sermon XXXII., "The Lamb in the Midst of His Father's Throne," found in Sermons by the Late Rev. Edward D. Griffin, D.D. to Which is Prefixed a Memoir of His Life by William B Sprague, D.D., Minister of the Second Presbyterian Congregation in Albany. Volume II. (New York: John S. Taylor, Brick Church Chapel, 1839), 477-478. Reprinted by Banner of Truth Trust (Edinburgh: 1987).  (HT for the text: http://books.google.com/books?id=pS0NAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false.)


    * * *

    Is it a delightful to you to contemplate the honors encircling the Lamb in the midst of His Father's throne?

    Has your soul ever savored the sweetest luxury of seeing the slain Lamb in the midst of His Father's throne?

    When was the last time you sat down under His shadow and considered Him?

    "As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.
    I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste."
    ~ the Shulamite woman, Song of Solomon 2:3

    The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
    Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.
    ~ Psalm 111:2, KJV & ESV

    Related:

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

    Scripture quotations marked ESV 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:

    "Pinedale sun through clouds2" / own photo / CC by SA/3.0.
    An edited version of the photo found here - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_orchard.jpg - PD

  • Palm Sunday ~ To Jerusalem ... For All Nations

    Matthew 16:21
    From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
    and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes,
    and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

    Luke 13:33
    I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following,
    for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.

    Zechariah 9
    9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
    behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
    humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    10  I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war horse from Jerusalem;
    and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall speak peace to the nations;
    his rule shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.
    11  As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
    12  Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
    today I declare that I will restore to you double.

    Isaiah 49
    3  And he said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
    4  But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
    yet surely my right is with the LORD,
    and my recompense with my God.”
    5  And now the LORD says,
    he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
    to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
    for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD,
    and my God has become my strength—
    6  he says:
    “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
    I will make you as a light for the nations,
    that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

    Matthew 28:20
    ... the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

    Romans 3
    21  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

    27  Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28  For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29  Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30  since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith AND the uncircumcised through faith.

    Palm Sunday
    (To Jerusalem ... For All Nations)

    To Jerusalem, Lion of Judah must go
    To acquit His flock, render them white as snow

    Last Adam lifted up on Calvary's tree
    In our place, to suffer, die, and bleed

    To become a curse, burnt offering for sin,
    Spotless Lamb, all our iniquities laid on Him

    Set His face like a flint, endured the cross,
    Not one the Father gave Him will be lost

    Zealously labored to bring His Father fame,
    Endured the cross, despising the shame

    The gladness of His seed He kept in full sight,
    His Father's will was His desire and delight

    To bruise Him was the Father's pleasure
    To redeem His elect, His peculiar treasure

    Covenant mercies flowed through His precious blood
    O! Just and Justifier! How great a salvation!

    Rejoice greatly, O! daughter, shout aloud!
    Salvation revealed, make a joyful sound!

    Fear not, hear Him, God's only begotten Son,
    Christ, our Passover: "It is finished! It is done!"

    Behold! Your King has come, lowly and meek,
    To ransom His bride, set His prisoners free

    Jesus Christ, a servant of the circumcision,
    Yea, from the Jews, redemption sprung

    Hidden mystery for ages, since before creation,
    Yet now to all nations, glad tidings are sung

    The evangel to be published by beautiful feet,
    God's dominion and glory advancing from sea to sea

    Grace given to preach to ev'ry tribe and tongue,
    Peace through His cross –– O! reconciling blood!

    This morning, as you raised your voice and palm in exaltation,
    Did you recall God's plan to gather a people from all nations?

    In Sunday worship, with your uplifted hands,
    Did you plead for the unreached in many lands?

    Today, according to the Joshua Project (http://www.joshuaproject.net/):

    Total People Groups: 16,594
    Unreached People Groups: 7,162
    % People Groups Unreached: 43.2 %

    World Population: 7.03 Billion
    Population in Unreached Groups: 2.87 Billion
    % Population in Unreached: 40.9 %

    John 10:7  So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9  I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11  I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16  And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17  For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

    John 11:45  Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46  but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47  So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49  But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50  Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51  He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52  and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53  So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

    * * *

    The Way is open, prisoners far and prisoners near!
    Humble yourselves, through Jesus Christ, to God draw near!

    Put no confidence in your failing, mortal flesh,
    Receive by faith Christ's perfect righteousness

    Trust no longer in your works, but to the stronghold flee
    Justified by faith in Christ alone, be grafted to the olive tree

    Cry, "Hosanna! Save now!" and He will appear,
    The prayer of the destitute He always hears!

    John 6:37  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.


    Related:

    Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Emphasis mine.

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jesus_entering_jerusalem_on_a_donkey.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Public Domain

  • "new foldings of love in Him... the many pound-weights of His love" ~ Rutherford

    The following is an excerpt from one of the many letters the Scottish minister Samuel Rutherford wrote while he was banished from his flock at Anwoth and confined in Aberdeen for a period of almost two years "for non-Conformity to the acts of Episcopacy... and his work against the Arminians" (Sketch of Samuel Rutherford by Andrew A. Bonar in "Letters of Samuel Rutherford," p. 12) ~ hence Rutherford's reference to himself as an "His exiled prisoner."

    Even during this time, Rutherford spoke often of trysting with Christ. For example, in LETTER LXIX., he wrote:  "I cannot but write to my friends, that Christ hath trysted me in Aberdeen..." Rutherford was full proof of Jesus' promise found in John 7:

    37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive...

    Have you known such a thirst, and have you come to Christ and drunk – or are you continuing to drink elsewhere and, as a result, remaining dry, thirsty, unfilled and unsatisfied?

    Are there rivers of living water bubbling up and overflowing out of your heart? Have you ever drunk of Jesus? Has anyone ever accused you of being drunk with wine –– Spirit-filled and Spirit-intoxicated like the believers in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit descended?

    Like Peter and John, Samuel Rutherford could not help but speak what he had seen and heard (Acts 4:20). His tongue was indeed the pen of a ready writer (Psalm 45) because he had drunk of Christ, and drunk deeply, and he continued to drink of Christ through the Holy Spirit. Rutherford had come to know Christ by experience as altogether lovely and the fairest of 10,000. His heart was filled to overflowing with the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:14-21), and having been filled, he returned again and again to the Most Holy Place, and with boldness and confidence he sought grace upon grace, so he might be filled again and again and again. Rutherford knew what it was to sup with Christ –– to  experience and enjoy more and more of the everlasting, never-ending fount of the love of God in Christ for him!

    On this Valentine's Day, many of you who profess to be Christians may be sitting in the quiet at home all alone tonight, and feeling empty and unfilled and disappointed and unloved. –– I urge you to read Rutherford's words and prayerfully examine your own relationship to Christ in light of the Scripture.

    Are you aware that there are, as Rutherford put it –– "curtains to be drawn by in Christ, that we never saw, and new foldings of love in Him" to all who seek Him?

    Have you ever prayed God might grant you an entrance into and experience of the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge?

    Have you ever experienced the love of God shed abroad into your heart and known Christ's divine love (in contrast to all earthly loves) never to disappoint (Romans 5:1-5)?

    Along with Rutherford, I pray those of you who belong to Christ might seek "a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing communion," for that is your privilege and your inheritance as a child of God. Labor to know Him, and having known Him, never cease such happy labor to know Him! He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him! O! what an enchanted pleasure it is to be "sweetly pressed" by "the many pound-weights of His love"!
    Luke 11:13  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

    John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things... John 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15  All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you...

    LETTER CIV.––To the Right Honourable and Christian Lady, my LADY VISCOUNTESS OF KENMURE (1637)

         I urge upon you, Madam, a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn by in Christ, that we never saw, and new foldings of love in Him.


    I despair that ever I shall win to the far end of that love, there are so many plies in it.  Therefore, dig deep; and sweat, and labour, and take pains for Him; and set by as much time in the day for Him as you can.  He will be won with labour.

         I, His exiled prisoner, sought Him, and He hath rued upon me, and hath made a moan for me, as He doth for His own,¹ and I know not what to do with Christ.  His love surroundeth and surchargeth me.  I am burdened with it; but oh, how sweet and lovely is that burden!  I dow not keep it with in me.  I am so in love with His love, that if His love were not in heaven, I should be unwilling to go thither.  Oh, what weighing, and what telling is in Christ's love!  I fear nothing now so much as the losing² of Christ's cross, and of the love-showers that accompany it.  I wonder what He meaneth, to put such a slave at the board-head, at His own elbow.  O that I should lay my black mouth to such a fair, fair, fair face as Christ's!  But I dare not refuse to be loved.  The cause is not in me, why He hath looked upon me, and loved me for He got neither bud nor hire of me.  It cost me nothing, it is good-cheap love.  Oh, the many pound-weights of His love under which I am sweetly pressed!

    ____________

    ¹ Jer. xxxi.20. [ Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.] /  Hos. xi.8. [How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.]

    ²The fear to be deprived of it.  Early editions give "laughing," which seems a misprint.

    Reference:  "Letters of Samuel Rutherford, With a Sketch of his Life and Biographical Notices of His Correspondents by the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar" (The Banner of Truth Trust: Edinburgh, 1984 & 2006; first published 1664, reprinted from the 1891 edition), 215-216.

    Related:

    ♥ Valentine's Day Posts ♥ (Series Links)
    postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
    Three Years Later: Dancing & Skipping with Mrs. Durham | Letter 147 on fighting for joy
    "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word)"
    Herein is love ... Vast as the ocean ~ And let him that is athirst come!
    Linger, linger, linger – so you might know God's love
    Embittered, pricked in heart? Go into the sanctuary of God (Psalm 73)
    the lover's inquiry | letter 114 on fighting for joy
    The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
    five years ago ~ for your joy (AND an inheritance | Richard Sibbes & the Sealing of the Spirit)
    Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer
    the children of God will never say of Him: "Got stood up big time!"

    Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_Rutherford.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}
    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Konzerthaus_Ravensburg_Prospekt_Motiv_Vorhang.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}
    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Julia_Margaret_Cameron_(British,_born_India_-_Sadness_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

naphtali_deer

About me...

Christian hedonist in training. Pressing on to know more and more of the joy of the LORD. Pleading with God to rend the heavens and revive and refresh my own soul, as well as His Church, to His praise, honor and glory.

Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures. ~ Alan Redpath

My other websites

tent of meeting: Prayer for reformation & revival

(See also Zechariah821. Zechariah821 is a mirror site of tent of meeting, found on WordPress)

deerlifetrumpet: Encouragement for those seeking reformation & revival in the Church

RSS feed

RSS feed