Sunshine

If I have not compassion on my fellow-servant even as my Lord had pity on me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I know little of His pity, if I know little of His courage of hopefulness for the truly humble and penitent, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I cast up a confessed, repented, and forsaken sin against another, and allow my remembrance of that sin to color my thinking and feed my suspicions, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I take offense easily, if I am content to continue a cool unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I say, “Yes, I forgive, but I cannot forget,” as though the God, who twice a day washes all the sands on all the shores of the world, could not wash such memories from my mind, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

-amy carmichael

Dr. Ironside: “Now test yourself in this way. You once lived in sin and loved it. Do you now desire deliverance from it? You were once self-confident and trusting in your own fancy goodness. Do you now judge yourself a sinner before God? You once sought to hide from God and rebelled against His authority. Do you now look up to Him, desiring to know Him and to yield yourself to Him? If you can honestly say yes to these questions, you have repented. Your attitude is all together different than what it once was. You confess you are a sinner, unable to cleanse your own soul, and you’re willing to be saved in God’s way. That’s repentance. And remember, it is not the amount of repentance that counts, it is the fact that you turned from self to God that puts you in the place where His grace avails through Jesus Christ. Strictly speaking,not one of us has ever repented enough. None of us has realized the enormity of our guilt as God sees it, but when we judge ourselves and trust the Savior whom He has provided, we are saved through His merits. As recipients of His loving kindness, repentance will be deepened and will continue day by day as we learn more and more of His infinite worthy and our own unworthiness.”

Are we not still as little children, making little out of great words? Have we grasped as yet a tithe of our Lord’s full meaning, in many of His sayings of love? When He is talking of bright and sparkling gems of benediction, we are thinking of common pebble-stones in the brook of mercy; when He speaketh of stars and heavenly crowns, we think of sparks and childish coronals of fading flowers. Oh that we could but have our intellect cleared; better still, could have our understanding expanded, or, best of all, our faith increased, so as to reach to the height or our Lord’s great arguments of love!

-ch spurgeon ”though we were dead”

“The mental pressure arising from our Lord’s struggle with temptation, so forced his frame to an unnatural excitement, that his pores sent forth great drops of blood which fell down to the ground. This proves how tremendous must have been the weight of sin when it was able to crush the Saviour so that he distilled great drops of blood! This demonstrates the mighty power of his love. It is a very pretty observation of old Isaac Ambrose that the gum which exudes from the tree without cutting is always the best. This precious camphire-tree yielded most sweet spices when it was wounded under the knotty whips, and when it was pierced by the nails on the cross; but see, it giveth forth its best spice when there is no whip, no nail, no wound. This sets forth the voluntariness of Christ’s sufferings, since without a lance the blood flowed freely. No need to put on the leech, or apply the knife; it flows spontaneously. No need for the rulers to cry, “Spring up, O well;” of itself it flows in crimson torrents. If men suffer great pain of mind apparently the blood rushes to the heart. The cheeks are pale; a fainting fit comes on; the blood has gone inward as if to nourish the inner man while passing through its trial. But see our Saviour in his agony; he is so utterly oblivious of self, that instead of his agony driving his blood to the heart to nourish himself, it drives it outward to bedew the earth. The agony of Christ, inasmuch as it pours him out upon the ground, pictures the fulness of the offering which he made for men.

Do we not perceive how intense must have been the wrestling through which he passed, and will we not hear its voice to us? “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” Behold the great Apostle and High Priest of our profession, and sweat even to blood rather than yield to the great tempter of your souls.” -Spurgeon

And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, “Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.’” Zechariah 2:1-5

As I was feeling weak and insecure this afternoon, a great pastor reminded me of a glorious truth found in a vision of Zechariah.  The prophet heard great news from an angel about Jerusalem— that it wouldn’t even be able to stay walled in anymore because there will a great growth and prosperity.

However, walls are pretty necessary for security and protection; otherwise, they’re vulnerable and weak.  To this the Lord says, “And I will be to her a wall of fire all around.”If this promise to protect the fragile is true for the villages of Jerusalem, it is true for me, a child of God.

The beauty of the Lord’s promises does not stop there: ”…and I will be the glory in her midst.”  God is not content just giving protection, but He will give me the pleasure of being in his presence as well.

Our hearts cry out for that because it’s the reason for which we were formed—to have communion with Our Father.  Which is why I love another promise the Son of God gives: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev. 3:20)  

His presence is ours to have. What joy!

“Is it not marvelous that you can place your faith in someone who makes dead people live, who makes sinners into saints, and who turns caterpillars into butterflies?  Isn’t it phenomenal that in a world of selfishness and shallow relationships, the Creator of the universe has taken such an interest in us?”

-Michael Horton, Putting Amazing Back Into Grace 

When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

save in the cross of Christ my God:

all the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,

sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

that were a present far too small;

love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

Prayer is agonozing.  Confronted with the deepest twists and dark caverns of my soul.  I run away at the idea.

Oh, no—prayer is beautiful.  Intimacy with the Lord is what I crave. It’s what I was created for. 

Today, prayer is hard.  It’s there I see how my existence is half-present, half-hearted.  The irony is prayer is the way back to wholeness.

Back to my knees.