The Highest Of All God's Commands - Look To Christ!

Martin Luther wrote to a struggling Christian:

The highest of all God’s commands is this, that we hold up before our eyes the image of his dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Every day he should be our excellent mirror wherein we behold how much God loves us and how well, in his infinite goodness, he has cared for us in that he gave his dear Son for us . . . Contemplate Christ given for us. Then, God willing, you will feel better.

From Timothy George, Theology Of The Reformers (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1988), 78-79.

Christ Is All, Not Luther!

Martin Luther commented on the absurdity of Christians calling themselves "Lutherans:"

The first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone . . . How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?

Cited from Timothy George, Theology Of The Reformers (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1988), 53.

Treasuring Christ Above All Else

Jesus Is Heaven

Spurgeon writes:

... strengthened and consoled by Jesus, the believer is not afraid to die; no he is even willing to depart, for since he has seen Jesus as the morning star, he longs to gaze upon Him as the sun in his strength. Truly, the presence of Jesus is all the heaven we desire. Jesus is at once: The glory of our brightest days; the comfort of our nights.

Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, July 2.

All Your Disappointments Are Ultimately Christ's Doing

This is my doing (1 Kings 12:24)

The disappointments of life are simply the hidden appointments of love. C.A. Fox

My child, I have a message for you today. Let me whisper it in your ear so any storm clouds that may arise will shine with glory, and the rough places you may have to walk will be made smooth. It is only four words, but let them sink into your inner being, and use them as a pillow to rest your weary head. "This is my doing."

Have you ever realized that whatever concerns you concerns Me too? "For whoever touches you touches the apple of mine eye" (Zech. 2:8). "You are precious and honored in my sight" (Isa. 43:4). Therefore it is My special delight to teach you.

I want you to learn when temptations attack you, and the enemy comes in "like a pent-up flood" (Isa. 59:19), that "this is my doing" and that your weakness needs My strength, and your safety lies in letting Me fight for you.

Are you in difficult circumstances, surrounded by people who do not understand you, never ask your opinion, and always push you aside? "This is my doing." I am the God of circumstances. You did not come to this place by accident - you are exactly where I meant for you to be.

Have you not asked Me to make you humble? Then see that I have placed you in the perfect school where this lesson is taught. Your circumstances and the people around you are only being used to accomplish My will.

Are you having problems with money, find it it hard to make ends meet? "This is my doing," for I am the One Who keeps your finances, and I want you to learn to depend upon Me. My supply is limitless and I "will meet all your needs" (Phil. 4:19). I want you to prove My promises so no one may say, "You did not trust in the Lord your God" (Deut. 1:32).

Are you experiencing a time of sorrow? "This is my doing." I am "a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering" (Isa. 53:3). I have allowed your earthly comforters to fail you, so that by turning to Me you may receive "eternal encouragement and good hope" (2 Thess. 2:16).

Have you longed to do some great work for Me but instead have been set aside on a bed of sickness and pain? "This is my doing." You were so busy I could not get your attention, and I wanted to teach you some of My deepest truths. "They also serve who only stand and wait." In fact, some of My greatest workers are those physically unable to serve, but who have learned to wield the powerful weapon of prayer.

Today I place a cup of holy oil in your hands. Use it freely, My child. Anoint with it every new circumstance, every word that hurts you, every interruption that makes you impatient, and every weakness you have. The pain will leave as you learn to see Me in all things.

(Written by Laura A. Barter Snow; found in L. B. Cowman, Streams in the Desert (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 43, February 1st reading)

May Christ Break All Our Idols!

Samuel Rutherford wrote:

I am most gladly content that Christ breaketh all my idols in pieces: it hath put a new edge upon my blunted love to Christ. I see He is jealous of my love, and will have all to Himself.

(Letter to John Stewart)

The Sure Mercies Of David

Speaking about the sure mercies of David from Acts 13:34, Charles Spurgeon said:

In the matter of our salvation, “the sure mercies of David” mean that God has laid hold upon His Son, Jesus Christ. You cannot help yourself, but Christ can help you; you cannot cleanse yourself, but Christ can cleanse you; you cannot save yourself, but Christ can save you. Dear heart, whatever be thy lack, there is no lack in Christ; whatever be thy need, Christ has exactly that which can meet thy case. Young man, thou sayest, “I have nothing,” and I meet thee with this, Christ has everything. Thou sayest, old man, “What can I do? “And I meet thee with this, What cannot Christ do? If thou art nothing, Christ is everything. If thou art everything that is evil, Christ is everything that is good. If thou hast weakness, mourn it; but trust Christ, and he shall be thy strength. If thou hast sorrow, thou canst not shake it off; but go to Jesus, and he shall be thy song. All that thou wantest is in Christ. This, then, is the first sure mercy of David, that help is laid on Christ.

What A Lovely One Is Christ!

Samuel Rutherford wrote:

O if I could invite and persuade thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousands of Adam's sons, to flock about my Lord Jesus, and to come and take their fill of [His] love! O pity for evermore that there should be such an one as Christ Jesus, so boundless, so bottomless, and so incomparable in infinite excellency and sweetness, and so few take Him! Oh! Oh! You poor, dry and dead souls, why will you not come hither with your empty souls to this huge, and fair, and deep and sweet well of life, and fill your empty vessels? O that Christ should be so large in sweetness and worth, and we so narrow, so pinched, so ebb, and so void of all happiness! And yet men will not take Him! They lose their love miserably who will not bestow it upon this lovely One.

From a letter to Lady Kilconquhar

Longing To See The Bridegroom's Joyful Face!

Samuel Rutherford wrote:

It is the crooked love of some harlots, that they love bracelets earrings and rings better than the lover that sendeth them; God will not be so loved; for that were to behave as harlots and not as the chaste spouse, to abate from our love when these things are pulled away. Our love to Him should begin on earth as it shall be in heaven; for the bride taketh not by a thousand degrees so much delight in her wedding garment, as she doth in her bridegroom; so we in the life to come, howbeit clothed with glory as with a robe, shall not be so much affected with the glory that goeth about us, as with the bridegroom's joyful face and presence.

Samuel Rutherford, The Letters Of Samuel Rutherford (Glasgow, 1765), 334.

Savouring The Hope Of Eternal Union With Christ

Raymond Ortland Jr. writes:

More than our popular churches and institutions and movements, God wants us ourselves. He wants our hearts, our loyalty, our love for himself alone. He wants to find in us the same sense of intimate belonging to him that is appropriate to sexual union on the human level. More than our showing the world how 'relevant' the church can be, God wants us to show him how much we treasure him above all else . . . above all, we show him our love by savouring the hope of eternal union with him in the new Jerusalem above as our only true fulfillment.

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Whoredom: God's Unfaithful Wife In Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 176.