Fullness In Christ

‎"Thou hast taught me that the finding of this treasure of all grace in the field of Christ begets strength, joy, glory, and renders all graces alive. Help me to delight more in what I recieve from Christ, more in that fullness which is in him, the fountain of all his glory." -from "Fullness In Christ" (page 19) Valley of Vision

Thou Art All Fair, My Love

The Lord's admiration of his Church is very wonderful, and his

description of her beauty is very glowing. She is not merely fair, but

"all fair." He views her in himself, washed in his sin-atoning blood

and clothed in his meritorious righteousness, and he considers her to

be full of comeliness and beauty. No wonder that such is the case,

since it is but his own perfect excellency that he admires; for the

holiness, glory, and perfection of his Church are his own glorious

garments on the back of his own well-beloved spouse. She is not simply

pure, or well-proportioned; she is positively lovely and fair! She has

actual merit! Her deformities of sin are removed; but more, she has

through her Lord obtained a meritorious righteousness by which an

actual beauty is conferred upon her. Believers have a positive

righteousness given to them when they become "accepted in the beloved"

(Eph. 1:6). Nor is the Church barely lovely, she is superlatively so.

Her Lord styles her "Thou fairest among women." She has a real worth

and excellence which cannot be rivalled by all the nobility and royalty

of the world. If Jesus could exchange his elect bride for all the

queens and empresses of earth, or even for the angels in heaven, he

would not, for he puts her first and foremost-"fairest among women."

Like the moon she far outshines the stars. Nor is this an opinion which

he is ashamed of, for he invites all men to hear it. He sets a "behold"

before it, a special note of exclamation, inviting and arresting

attention. "Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair"

(Song of Sol. 4:1). His opinion he publishes abroad even now, and one

day from the throne of his glory he will avow the truth of it before

the assembled universe. "Come, ye blessed of my Father" (Matt. 25:34),

will be his solemn affirmation of the loveliness of his elect.

-C. H. Spurgeon

Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken.

Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken

1. Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.

2. Let the world despise and leave me,
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like them, untrue.
O while Thou dost smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me,
Show Thy face and all is bright.

3. Man may trouble and distress me,
’Twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me;
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.

4. Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father,
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;
All must work for good to me.

5. Soul, then know thy full salvation
Rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine.

6. Haste thee on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer.
Heaven’s eternal days before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide us there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission,
Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

Henry Lyte

The Assurance of Support

"Underneath are the everlasting arms." - Deut. 33:27

God—the eternal God—is himself our support at all times, and especially when we are sinking in deep trouble. There are seasons when the Christian sinks very low in humiliation. Under a deep sense of his great sinfulness, he is humbled before God till he scarcely knows how to pray, because he appears, in his own sight, so worthless.

Well, child of God, remember that when you are at your worst and lowest, yet “underneath” you are “everlasting arms.” Sin may drag you ever so low, but Christ’s great atonement is still under all. You may have descended into the deeps, but you cannot have fallen so low as “the uttermost;” and to the uttermost he saves.

Again, the Christian sometimes sinks very deeply in sore trial from without. Every earthly prop is cut away. What then? Still underneath him are “the everlasting arms.” He cannot fall so deep in distress and affliction but what the covenant grace of an ever-faithful God will still encircle him. The Christian may be sinking under trouble from within through fierce conflict, but even then he cannot be brought so low as to be beyond the reach of the “everlasting arms”—they are underneath him; and, while thus sustained, all Satan’s efforts to harm him avail nothing.

This assurance of support is a comfort to any weary but earnest worker in the service of God. It implies a promise of strength for each day, grace for each need, and power for each duty. And, further, when death comes, the promise shall still hold good. When we stand in the midst of Jordan, we shall be able to say with David, “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” We shall descend into the grave, but we shall go no lower, for the eternal arms prevent our further fall. All through life, and at its close, we shall be upheld by the “everlasting arms”—arms that neither flag nor lose their strength, for “the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is weary.”

-- C. H. Spurgeon

The Preciousness Of Trial

"The Lord tries our faith to test its genuineness, to promote its purity, to invigorate its power-thus to bring us into a more intimate acquaintance with Himself. How seldom would the Lord see our uplifted face, or our outstretched hands, or hear the plaint accents of our voice, did He permit this grace to lie sluggish and stagnant in the soul.  But it is "living water" which Christ has deposited within the regenerate, and trial is needed to keep it pure, sparkling, and ascending."

Octavius Winslow

Ring The Bells Of Heaven

"'Good Prayers,' says an old divine, 'never come weeping home. I am sure I shall receive either what I ask, or what I should ask. Prayer pulls the rope below, and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly: others give but an occasional pull at the rope: but he who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continually with all his might.' 
That is the best kind of bell ringing--ringing the bells of heaven--making a sensation in the world celestial and pulling the power down upon the world terrestrial. Reader, do you know how to handle the bell rope, to pull it vigorously and constantly? We know some that do. Hell trembles when they seize the rope."




E.M. Bounds

The Father's Bargain

This might be my favorite couple paragraphs ever written by any man. This is a conversation between the Father and the Son about the people of God. Amazing!

Here you may suppose the Father to say, when driving His bargain with Christ for you:

Father: My Son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls? And thus Christ returns.

Son: O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shall thou require it. I will rather choose to suffer their wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.

Father: But, my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare thee.

Son: Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it!” (Works, Vol.1, p.61).

~ John Flavel