Christ Is All When Your Husband Is Killed In Battle

This cut scene from the movie We Were Soldiers is sobering. The husband of the woman singing the solo (though she doesn't know it yet) is killed in that Sunday battle, and he will never return home. This same dreadful loss happens to many of the young women sitting in that little church. In the face of pain like that, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and rightousness. When all around my soul gives way, Christ then is all my hope and stay:

The Word Does It All!

Concerning his contribution to the Reformation, Martin Luther wrote:

For the Word created heaven and earth and all things (Ps 33:6); the Word must do this thing, and not we poor sinners.... I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept (cf. Mark 4:26-29), or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. Had I desired to foment trouble, I could have brought great bloodshed upon Germany, indeed, I could have started such a game that even the emperor would not be safe. But what would it have been? Mere fool's play. I did nothing; I let the Word do its work. What do you suppose is Satan's thought when one tries to do the thing by kicking up a row? He sits back in hell and thinks: Oh, what a fine game the poor fools are up to now! But when we spread the Word alone and let it alone do the work, that distresses him. For it is almighty and takes captive the hearts, and when the hearts are captured the work will fall by itself.

From: John W. Doberstein, ed. and transl., Sermons I, vol. 51, in Luther's Works, Helmut T. Lehmann, gen. ed. (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1959), 77-78.

Communion With God Through Christ - Worth More Than All The Wonders Of The Starry Heavens!

J. Gresham Machen wrote:

The responsibility of the church in the new age is the same as its responsibility in every age. It is to testify that this world is lost in sin; that the span of human life - nay, all the length of human history - is an infinitesimal island in the awful depths of eternity; that there is a mysterious holy living God, Creator of all, Upholder of all, infinitely beyond all; that he has revealed himself in his Word and offered us communion with himself through Jesus Christ the Lord; that there is no other salvation, for individuals or for nations, save this, but that this salvation is full and free, and that whosoever possesses it has for himself and for all others to whom he may be the instrument of bringing it a treasure compared with which all the kingdoms of the earth - nay, all the wonders of the starry heavens - are as the dust of the street.

J. Gresham Machen, "The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age," The Presbyterian Guardian 36:1 (January, 1967), 13.

Because Of Jesus, Nothing Remains For Us But To Sing!

Concerning the cup of the wrath of God that Jesus drank to the dregs for us, F.W. Krummacher wrote:

All that mankind have heaped up to themselves against the day of God’s holy and righteous wrath - their forgetfulness of God, their selfish conduct, their disobedience, pride, worldly-mindedness, their filthy lusts, hypocrisy, falsehood, hardheartedness, and deceit - all are united and mingled in this cup, and ferment together into a horrible potion.

"Shall I not drink this cup?" asks the Saviour. "Yes," we reply, "empty it, beloved Immanuel! We will kiss thy feet, and offer up ourselves to Thee upon Thy holy altar!" He has emptied it, and not a drop remains for His people. The satisfaction He rendered was complete, the reconciliation effected, and now nothing remains for us but to sing Hallelujah!

F.W. Krummacher, The Suffering Savior (Carlisle, Pa: Banner of Truth Trust, 2004), 139.

The Happier You Are In God, The More He Is Glorified

In his Body of Divinity (pages 13-14), Thomas Watson wrote:

We glorify God by working out our own salvation. God has twisted together His glory and our good. We glorify him by promoting our own salvation. It is a glory to God to have multitudes of converts; now, his design of free grace takes, and God has the glory of his mercy; so that, while we are endeavoring our salvation, we are honoring God.

What an encouragement is this to the service of God, to think while I am hearing and praying, I am glorifying God; while I am furthering my own glory in heaven, I am increasing God’s glory.

Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, you will honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away?

So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified.

HT: Justin Taylor

Christ Desires My Supreme Good!

My friend Katie recently blogged:

Helen Roseveare, a missionary doctor to the Congo for twenty years, writes:

To be a living sacrifice will involve all of my time. God wants me to live every minute for Him in accordance with His will and purpose . . . No time can be considered as my own, or as 'off-duty' or 'free.' . . . To be a living sacrifice will involve all of my possessions. . . All should be available to God for the furtherance of His Kingdom. My money is His . . . He has the right to direct the spending of each penny . . . I must consider that I own nothing. All is God's, and what I have, I have on trust from Him, to be used as He wishes.

To be a living sacrifice will involve all of myself. My will and my emotions, my health and vitality, my thinking and activities all are to be available to God, to be employed as He chooses, to reveal Himself to others. Should He see that someone would be helped to know Him through my being ill, I accept ill health and weakness. I have no right to demand what we call good health . . . All rights are His -- to direct my living so that He can most clearly reveal Himself through me. God has the right, then, to choose my job, and where I work, to choose my companions, and my friends . . .

To be a living sacrifice will involve all my love . . . I relinquish the right to choose whom I will love and how, giving the Lord the right to choose for me . . . Whether I have a life partner or not is wholly His to decide, and I accept gladly His best will for my life. I must bring all the areas of my affections to the Lord for His control, for here, above all else, I need to sacrifice my right to choose for myself . . .

I need to be so utterly God's that He can use me or hide me, as He chooses, as an arrow in His hand or in His quiver. I will ask no questions: I relinquish all rights to Him who desires my supreme good. He knows best.