Dear fellow-sinners

(The following letter was written by Pastor William Burns to the youth Sunday School class in Edinburgh, on March 10, 1840.)

Dear fellow-sinners, if you take refuge by faith in this sacrifice of Emmanuel, you are saved, and cannot come into condemnation. But if you despise and reject it, then sooner may heaven and earth pass away — than that you should escape being in hell to all eternity for your sins!

I rejoice to hear that some of you seem to have gotten a glimpse of the love of Jesus, and of the preciousness of His atoning blood. To such I would say — remain at Calvary, be there sleeping and waking, at work or at play, living and dying. Gaze upon that great sight — until your conscience enjoys perfect peace with God, until your heart is filled with Emmanuel's love, and your whole soul is transformed into His image, and becomes as a mirror, finely polished to reflect the rays of His grace and glory — to all eternity!

"Look unto Jesus!" is the whole of the gospel. Look and wonder, look and live, look and love, look and adore, look and admire, look and be blessed, look and be glorified, look eternally — and your hearts will be filled with everlasting love, and your mouth with an unending hallelujah!

But what can I say to those among you, who have heard of Jesus, and whose hearts are given to another — to the world, to themselves, to a lust, to a passion, to an idol, to sin, to Satan! Ah! to hell-fire you will go — if the Lord, in infinite mercy, does not interpose for you! Children, young people, who have not yet come to Jesus — realize that you are under the wrath of God — and that every moment it is coming nearer and nearer to your poor souls! Awake, arise, flee without a moment's delay to Jesus, and take refuge below His atoning cross — and enjoy now and to all eternity — His free, infinite, and unchangeable love to perishing sinners!

Shall I meet you in heaven — or see you going away in your impenitence and unbelief to hell?

Yours in Emmanuel,
William Burns

Do not be proud of your fine feathers! (2 Cor 5:21)

"God made Him who had no sin—to be sin for us!"
2 Corinthians 5:21

This from Thomas Watson:

This was the lowest degree of Christ's humiliation.
That Christ, who would not endure sin in the angels,
should endure to have sin imputed to Himself—is the
most amazing humility that ever was!

Christian! Learn to be humble! Do you see Christ humbling
Himself—and are you proud? It is the humble saint, who is
Christ's picture! Christians, do not be proud of your fine
feathers! Have you an estate? Do not be proud. The earth
you tread on, is richer than you! It has mines of gold and
silver in its depths. Have you beauty? Do not be proud. It
is but water mingled with dirt! Have you skill and abilities?
Be humble. Lucifer has more knowledge than you! Have you
grace? Be humble. It is not of your own making—it was
given to you by God. You have more sin than grace; more
spots than beauty. Oh look on Christ—this rare pattern of
humility—and be humbled! It is a sad sight, to see God
humbling Himself—and man exalting himself; to see a
humble Savior—and a proud sinner! God hates the very
semblance of pride!

"I hate pride and arrogance!" Proverbs 8:13

"If God," says Augustine, "did not spare the angels
when they grew proud; will He spare you—who are
but dust and sin?"

2 Cor 5:21

"For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that eve might be made the righteousness of God in him."2 Corinthians 5:21

This from Brother Winslow:
My reader, it is your highest honor, as it was His deepest shame; your richest glory, as it was His deepest humiliation; that He literally did bear all the sins of all His Church. As truly as we are "made the righteousness of God in Him," He was "made sin," or a sin-offering, for us. Behold how beautifully has the Holy Spirit brought out the doctrines of substitution and union. Of substitution thus, "He has made Him (who knew no sin) to be sin for us." And of union thus, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Oh amazing truth! Sinking to our deepest dishonor, He raises us to His highest glory. Sinking Himself with our fallen humanity, He raises us to a union with God. Substituting Himself for us, He makes us one with Himself. An affecting thought! Were all our iniquities, and all our "transgressions in all our sins," laid on Jesus? Yes, all! Before His infinite mind, to whom the past and the future are one eternal now, the sins of all His chosen ones, to the remotest period of time, passed in review, and were made to meet on the head of the atoning Lamb. Here is opened the high source of all real blessed ness to a believing soul. Sweet is the spring, and sweet are the streams that flow from it. Reconciliation with God- His free forgiveness- union with His nature- adoption into His family- acceptance in the Beloved- oneness with a risen Head- access within the veil- filial and perpetual communion- and the "peace of God, which, passes all understanding," are among the costly results of Christ bearing sin. And see how completely He has borne the mighty load. The moment our iniquities touched Him, it would seem as though He flung them to an infinite distance, or sunk them to an infinite depth. Never, in point of law and justice, can they appear against the pardoned soul. Laid upon our Surety, condemned, and punished, and pardoned in Him, "there is now no condemnation" of, or for sin, to "those who are in Christ Jesus." How strong is the language which declares this truth: "I have blotted out as a thick cloud your transgressions, and as a cloud your sins;" "You have cast all my sins behind Your back;" "Thus says the Lord, The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." And why? "Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world!" And may we not account as among the most precious and costly blessings resulting from this truth, its sanctifying tendency? My beloved, the deepest view you can ever have of God's hatred of sin is in the cross of Calvary; and the deepest sense of the "exceeding sinfulness of sin" you can ever feel is its entire pardon, imprinted on your heart with the atoning blood of Jesus, and witnessed by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. You hate it because it is forgiven; you abhor it because it is pardoned. Oh, powerful and precious motive to holiness! My soul, yield yourself to its sweet influence, draw your constraints to a life of deeper sanctification from the cross; thirst and pant with more intense desire after Divine conformity, as one all whose iniquities, transgressions, and sins are forever cancelled by the heart's blood of God's dear Son. Oh hateful and hated sin, atoned for so richly, pardoned so freely, blotted out so entirely, how can I admire you? how can I love you? how can I cherish you? and how can I yield to you now? You did burden and bow down to the earth the soul of my blessed Lord. You did mar the beauty, and veil the glory, and humble the spirit of my Beloved. You did crimson His body with the bloody sweat- you did wreath His brow with thorns- you did trouble his soul even unto death; and yet you, my transgressions, are forgiven- you, my sins, are covered- you, my iniquities, are not imputed, and that because Jesus, my surety, was wounded, and bruised, and stricken for me!

“How shall God be glorified?”

Listen to Warfield:
“It is the contemplation of God and zeal for his honour which in it draws out the emotions and absorbs endeavour; and the end of human as of all other existence, of salvation as of all other attainments, is to it the glory of the Lord of all… It begins, it centers, it ends with the vision of God in His glory: and it sets itself before all things to render to God His rights in every sphere of life” (358). – Romans 11:36-12:1-2.

The Experimental Calvinist - Loves God's Law

Reading a very good article "Heart-warming Calvinism" by Rev. Ian Hamilton.
You can find the rest of the article here. http://octaviuswinslow.org/experimental-calvinist/

Here's a nugget:
The Experimental Calvinist loves God’s Law – all-round obedience! Experimental Calvinism seeks to give God’s holy Law the place in the believer’s and church’s life that God’s holy Word gives it. Commenting on the phrase in Galatians 4:5, “to redeem those under law,” Calvin says, “We must here observe, the exemption from the law which Christ has procured for us does not imply that we no longer owe any obedience to the doctrine of the law, and may do whatever we please: for the law is the everlasting rule of a good and holy life.” Again, commenting on Galatians 3:25, “Now that faith has come we are no longer under the supervision of the law,” Calvin writes: “Is the law so abolished that we have nothing to do with it? I answer, the law, so far as it is a rule of life, a bridle to keep us in the fear of the Lord, a spur to correct the sluggishness of our flesh… is as much in force as ever, and remains untouched.” Calvin is simply echoing the teaching of Christ: John 14:15 cf 1 John 2:3-6.

More than ever, we need today to affirm and reaffirm the abiding relation of God’s holy law to God’s holy people. Faced today with incipient antinomianism, the duties and responsibilities of the moral law are seen by many to have no place in the believer’s life. “If the law might be disannulled as to new creatures, then why doth the Spirit of God write it with such legible characters in their hearts? … Now that which the Spirit engraves upon the heart, would Christ come to deface and abolish?” (Thomas Manton on Psalm 119, 1.5).
John Coquhoun in his “A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel,” endorses Calvin’s teaching and expresses what was the mainstream Puritan understanding of the Christian’s relationship to the Law of God:
“All who are united to Christ, and justified for his righteousness imputed to them, are dead to the law as a covenant; not that they may be without law to God, but that they may be under the law to Christ; not that they may continue in disobedience, but that they may be inclined and enabled to perform sincere obedience in time, and perfect obedience through eternity, to the law as a rule of life. One design of their being delivered from the obligations of the law in its Federal form is that they may be brought under the eternal obligation of it as a rule of duty in the hand of the adorable Mediator” (p. 260).

Redeeming Social Media

This from John Piper:

“I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others.
“One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.

“The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.”

Read the rest here...http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/resources/why-and-how-i-am-tweeting

Consider Jesus– in His Atoning Blood

"The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from every sin." 1 John 1:7

This from Brother Winslow:
The blood of Jesus is DIVINE. It is the blood of God's Son, the God-man Christ Jesus. In this consists its sovereign virtue. The Divine nature of Christ rendered His obedience and death an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savor.The blood of Jesus is ATONING. It was shed for sin, it has made to Divine justice a full satisfaction for sin, it puts away sin. Is sin your burden, O my soul? Is it for your sins you do moan and weep, and are cast down? Behold, the sin-atoning blood of Jesus; believe, and weep no more. Here is that before which not a sin can stand.
The blood of Jesus is CLEANSING. It "cleanses us." Oh, this is what you do so deeply need, my soul! Sin-forgiving, guilt-removing, heart-cleansing, conscience-purifying blood. All this is the blood of Jesus to you. Wash in it, and you shall be whiter than snow. "He that is washed is clean, every whit." And mark the tense of the wonderful words on which this meditation is based--it is the present tense. The blood "cleanses." It has cleansed, it will cleanse, but, as touching our daily walk as believers in Jesus, we have to do with its present cleansing. In our Christian travel through a sinful world the feet are apt to slide, prone to wander, and are constantly contracting fresh defilement, needing the daily washing in the blood. What a sweet thought, O my soul! that the fountain is open, and the blood cleanses, even now cleanses us, from all sin.
The blood of Jesus SPEAKS. "The blood of Christ that speaks." Oh, what a voice has the blood of Jesus! What sweetness and majesty, what gentleness and power! It speaks, and the troubled conscience is at rest; it speaks, and the broken heart is healed; it speaks, and the tormenting doubt is hushed; it speaks, and the trembling fear is quelled. It speaks, also, within the veil. The voice of Jesus' blood is heard in glory, sweeter and louder than the voices of all the minstrels round about the throne. My soul, the voice of Jesus' blood pleads louder for you in heaven, than all your sins can plead against you on earth.

It is sprinkled blood--that is, APPLIED blood. Therefore it is called, "the blood of sprinkling." The blood of Jesus practically will not avail us unless applied to the conscience, just as the blood of the Paschal lamb had availed nothing to the Israelite, when the first-born of Egypt was slain, had it not been sprinkled upon his house. And so God said, "When I SEE the BLOOD, I will pass over you." O my soul! look well to this. Why is it that you are so doubting and fearful? Why are you not walking in a full sense of your pardon and acceptance in JESUS–basking in the sunshine of a present and assured salvation? Is it not because you are stopping short of the applied blood? Oh, come to the blood, the blood of sprinkling! Keep no guilt upon your conscience, no anguish for uncleansed sin in your heart; but wash daily in the precious blood of Christ, which cleanses from ALL sin.

The Vitality of the Atoning Blood

"The blood is the life." Deut.12:23

This from Brother Winslow:

Reader, is the blood of Jesus the life of your soul? So momentous is the truth, though presented before, bear with me for pressing it again upon your attention. Believe me when, with all affection and solemnity, I say that your religion, your creed, your profession, are lifeless if they are not vivified, pervaded, and animated by the blood of the Son of God. God can have no dealings with you in this great matter of your salvation, but through the blood. He cannot 'reason' with you about your sins of 'crimson' and of 'scarlet' dye but on the footing of the blood. He cannot meet you for one moment in any other character than as a 'consuming fire,' but as He meets you at, and communes with you from above, the mercy-seat sprinkled with blood. The blood is everything to God in the way of satisfaction, of glory, and of honor. The blood should be everything to you in the way of acceptance, pardon, and communion. There is not a moment in which God's eye of complaisance is withdrawn from the blood in the perpetual acceptance of the believer; and there should not be a moment in which our eye of faith, in every circumstance of our daily walk before Him, should not also be upon the blood.

O fly to the atoning blood of Jesus! Not a moment is to be lost. Your only hope is there-y our only protection is there- your only safety is there. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Blessed words! Where he beholds the pure heart's-blood of His own Son- so precious to Him- sprinkled upon the broken, penitent heart of a poor sinner, He will pass him over in the great outpouring of His wrath; He will pass him over when the ungodly, the Christless, and the prayerless sinner is punished; He will pass him over in the dread day of judgment, and not one drop of wrath will fall upon him. Escape, then, for your life! Hasten to Christ. It may be late- your evening's sun may be setting, the shadows of eternity may be deepening around you, but you have the Divine promise- plead it in faith, and God will fulfil it in your experience- "And it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light." Relinquish now all the strongholds of your long rebellion against God, and Christ, and truth- give up your vain reasonings, and cavilings, and excuses, and come to the Lord Jesus, as a penitent and believing sinner; throw yourself upon His mercy, take hold of His blood, get beneath the covering of His righteousness, and tell Him that if He casts you off you are lost, eternally lost- and you shall be saved! "I went, and washed, and received sight!"

The Repose of the Cross

"For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." Psalm 103:14

"Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Eph 5:2

"Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved." John 13:23

This from Brother Winslow:

"Here, in the cross of Christ, or rather in the Christ of the cross, perfect rest is found for every species of weariness of which the believing soul may be the subject. Here is rest from the galling yoke of sin- for the power of the cross breaks it. Here is rest front the dreadful guilt of sin- for the blood of the cross cleanses it. Here is rest from the condemnation of sin- for the death of the cross has slain it. Here is rest from the obedience of the law- for the work of the cross supplies it. Here is rest from the sting of death- for the death of the cross extracts it. Here is rest from the dread of hell- for the love of the cross has closed it. And here is rest from the chafing of sorrow- for the sorrow of the cross soothes it."

"Once more we invite to this rest, the spirit of the weary- weary with sin, weary with sorrow, weary with the creature, weary with self. Imitate the beloved disciple, and recline your head upon Christ. It is the attitude of confidence, it is the expression of love. Come and bury your heart in the heart of Christ. Repose in Him your profoundest secret, unveil to Him your deepest grief. He has revealed to you the secret of His covenant- reciprocate this marvellous act of His friendship- tell Him all, trust Him with all, draw upon Him for all. Not more dear to Christ was the disciple who nestled in His bosom than are you. Precious and lowly as was his attitude when he literally bowed his head on Christ, your repose of faith upon Christ is a yet more precious and honoring act. Blessed as was John, more blest are you. "Jesus says unto Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed."

Propitiation (1 John 4:10)

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10.

This from Brother Winslow:

"Herein is love!" as though John would say, "and nowhere else but here!" That God should punish the innocent for the guilty- that He should exact the blood of His Son to cancel the guilt of His rebels- that He should lay an infinite weight of wrath on His soul, in order to lay an infinite weight of love on ours- that He should sacrifice His life of priceless value for ours- worthless, forfeited, and doomed- that He should not only give His Son, but should bruise Him, put Him to grief, afflict Him, should make His soul an offerinq for sin- that the 'Lord of Glory' should become a 'man of sorrows', the Lord of Life should die, and the Heir of all things should be "as him that serves." Oh depth of love unfathomable! Oh height of love unsearchable! Oh length and breadth of love unmeasurable! Oh love of God, which passes knowledge!

ETERNALLY REPOSE (REST) YOUR WEARY SOUL IN THE BOSOM OF JESUS

This from Brother Winslow:

"Forward, believer in Christ, to the toils, duties, and trials of another stage of life's journey! Jesus is enough for them all. Jesus will be with you in them all. Jesus will triumphantly conduct you through them all. Beloved one, live in the constant expectation of soon seeing Jesus face to face—conversing with He whom here below, cheered, comforted, and sweetened many a weary step of your Christian pilgrimage. That moment is speeding on. In a little while and all that now wounds and ruffles, tempts and pollutes, will have disappeared like the foam upon the billow, and you shall eternally repose your weary soul in the bosom of Jesus!"

A SOUL-SATISFYING SPECTACLE!

"The sight of Jesus is a soul-satisfying spectacle! The penitent soul is satisfied, for it sees in Jesus a free pardon of sin. The condemned soul is satisfied, for it receives in Jesus a free justification. The believing soul is satisfied, for it discovers in Jesus a fountain of all grace. The tried, tempted, sorrowful soul is satisfied, for it experiences in Jesus all consolation, sympathy and love. Oh, what an all-satisfying Portion is Jesus! He satisfies every holy desire—for He realizes it. He satisfies every craving need—for He supplies it. He satisfies every sore grief—for He soothes it. He satisfies the deepest yearnings, the highest aspirations, the most sublime hopes of the renewed soul—for all these center and end in Him!" Brother Winslow

Look again!

This from Brother Winslow:

But oh, look from everything to Christ. Look not within for sanctification; look for it from Christ. He is as much our "sanctification," as he is our "righteousness." Your evidences, your comfort, your hope, do not spring from your fruitfulness, your mortification, or anything within you; but solely and entirely from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look my friends!

This is from James Smith:

"Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us — looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith!" Hebrews 12:1-2. Look only, look always, look intently, to Jesus; run looking, work looking, fight looking, suffer looking, live looking, and die looking — to Jesus, who is at God's right hand in glory. Oh, look, look, look to Jesus!

"Behold the Lamb of God, who bore
Your burdens on the tree;
And paid in blood the dreadful score —
The ransom due for Thee!

Look to Him till the sight endears
The Savior to your heart;
His pierced feet — bedew with tears,
Nor from His cross depart!

Look to Him till His dying love
Your every thought control;
Its vast constraining influence prove,
O'er body, spirit, soul.

Look to him, as the race you run,
Your never failing Friend;
Finish He will, the work begun,
And grace — in glory end!

Christian Love

Had lunch with a dear brother this week and he mentioned that he had been thinking through 1 Corinthians 13...so that triggered me to do the same.

“Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity boasts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4—7

Here is Winslow:
TRUE Christian love will excite in the mind a holy jealousy for the Christian reputation of other believers. How sadly is this overlooked by many professors! What sporting with reputation, what trifling with character, what unveiling to the eyes of others the weaknesses, the infirmities, and the stumblings of which they have become cognizant, marks many in our day. Oh! if the Lord had dealt with us as we have thoughtlessly and uncharitably dealt with our fellow-servants, what shame and confusion would cover us! We should blush to lift up our faces before men. But the exercise of this divine love in the heart will constrain us to abstain from all envious, suspicious feelings, from all evil surmisings, from all wrong construing of motives, from all tale-bearing—that fruitful cause of so much evil in the Christian Church—from slander, from unkind insinuations, and from going from house to house retailing evil, and making the imperfections, the errors, or the doings of others the theme of idle, sinful gossip—“busy-bodies in other men’s matters.” All this is utterly inconsistent with our high and holy calling. It is degrading, dishonoring, lowering to our character as the children of God. It dims the luster of our piety. It impairs our moral influence in the world. Ought not the character of a Christian professor to be as dear to me as my own? And ought I not as vigilantly to watch over it, and as zealously to promote it, and as indignantly to vindicate it, when unjustly aspersed or maliciously assailed, as if I, and not he, were the sufferer? How can the reputation of a believer in Jesus be affected, and we not be affected? It is our common Lord who is wounded—it is our common salvation that is injured—it is our own family that is maligned. And our love to Jesus, to His truth, and to His people, should caution us to be as jealous of the honor, as tender of the feelings, and as watchful of the character and reputation, of each member of the Lord’s family, be his denomination what it may, as of our own. “Who is weak,” says the apostle, “and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?” Oh how graciously, how kindly does our God deal with His people! Laying His hand upon their many spots, He seems to say, “No eye but mine shall see them.” Oh! let us in this particular be “imitators of God, as dear children.” Thus shall we more clearly evidence to others, and be assured ourselves, that have “passed from death unto life.”

Psalm 103:13 - Miller

Psalm 103:13 As a father shows compassion to his children,so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

This from J.R. Miller

"Like as a father pities his children—so the Lord pities those who fear him." This is one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible. It brings God very near to us. It shows us His heart. He is not cold and far removed from us in feeling, indifferent to our sufferings, stern and severe in His judgment upon us. Rather, He is full of pity, like a human father in his pity toward his children. The best commentary on these words is Christ's own life. See Him moved with compassion for the sick, the lepers, the sorrowing, the sinful, the fallen; weeping by a grave at Bethany, deeply touched at Nain as He saw the widowed mother following her only son to the grave; weeping again over Jerusalem because the people would not repent and receive Him.

Psalm 103 - Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts

Divine Compassion. Ps. 103. 8-12; Isa. 43. 25

1 My soul, repeat his praise,
Whose mercies are so great,
Whose anger is so slow to rise,
So ready to abate.

2 God will not always chide;
And, when his strokes are felt,
His strokes are fewer than our crimes,
And lighter than our guilt.

3 High as the heavens are raised
Above the ground we tread,
So far the riches of his grace
Our highest thoughts exceed.

4 His power subdues our sins,
And his forgiving love,
Far as the east is from the west,
Does all our guilt remove.

Psalm 103 - Miller

Do not forget all His benefits!

(J. R. Miller, "Miller's Year Book—a Year's Daily Readings")
"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and
do not forget all His benefits:
who forgives all your sins,
who heals all your diseases,
who saves your life from the pit,
who crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things!"
Psalm 103:2-5

What an enumeration of divine blessings is this!
Any one of them is worth more than all earth's treasures combined!
If we are not forgiven—we must lie forever under the burden of sin, a weight greater than all the Alps! But God forgives—and forgives all our sins—and forgives freely, fully and forever!

If we are not healed—we must be sick forever, sick with the plague and leprosy of sin! But God heals—and heals all our evils, and heals completely!

If we are not saved from the dangers of this ensnaring world—we never can reach heaven! But God keeps, rescues, and saves our life from all impending destructions!

Earth's crowns are made of thorns, and at the best are only what the children call, 'play-crowns', for they are but of leaves that wither, or of gold and gems that will not last. But God crowns His people with crowns of love and compassion, which are real and radiant, which shall never fade—but shall shine forever, becoming crowns of eternal life and glory in heaven!

This world cannot satisfy our heart's deepest cravings. Its possessions only make our hunger more intense! But God satisfies the souls of His people, and meets all their cravings and hungers—with truly good and eternal realities!

"Praise the Lord, O my soul, and
do not forget all His benefits:
who forgives all your sins,
who heals all your diseases,
who saves your life from the pit,
who crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things!"
Psalm 103:2-5

Gazing On Jesus

GAZING ON JESUS


I fear we do not gaze enough upon that face covered with
the bloody sweat, for if we did, we should be more like
him; we should love him better; we should live more
passionately for him, and should spend and be spent, that
we might promote his glory.
-Spurgeon, "Fragrant Graces"

Col 1:15-20

 Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell."  Colossians 1:19

Winslow:

All wisdom to guide, all power to uphold, all love to soothe, all grace to support, all tenderness to sympathize, dwells in Christ. Let us, then, gird ourselves to a fresh taking hold of Christ. We must walk through this year not by sight, but by faith- and that faith must deal simply and directly, with Jesus. "Without me you can do nothing." But with His strength made perfect in our weakness, we can do all things. Oh, be this our course and our posture- "coming up from the wilderness leaning on her Beloved." Living in a world of imperfection and change, we must expect nothing perfect, nothing stable, in what we are, in what we do, or in what we enjoy. But amid the dissolving views of the world that "passes away," let us take firm hold of the unchangeableness of God. The wheels may revolve, but the axle on which they turn is immoveable. Such is our covenant God. Events may vary- providences may change- friends may die- feelings may fluctuate- but God in Christ will know "no variableness, neither the shadow of a turning." "Having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end."