Pleading That Christ Would Be All In All With Songs

We sang three hymns over the weekend that plead with the LORD to make Christ all in all to us. May He do it for Jesus' sake!

I Asked The Lord
(John Newton, 1779)

These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free
and break thy schemes of earthly joy
that thou may'st find thy all in me.

My Times Of Sorrow And Of Joy
(Benjamin Beddome, 1778)

Here perfect bliss can ne'er be found,
the honey's mix'd with gall;
Midst changing scenes and dying friends,
be Thou my all in all.

Jesus Paid It All
(Elvina Hall)

I hear the Savior say, "Thy strength indeed is small,
Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all."

Make Christ Your Greatest Treasure!

A dear brother wrote me this note as I started a new church internship. These words are sweet, and they convey a message I need to review moment by moment every day:

Dear Brothers,
Welcome! . . . [the internship] is certainly demanding . . . lots of reading, lots of writing and lots of meetings, events, meals, weddings, services, service reviews, reviews of service reviews, reviews of reviews of service reviews . . . you get the point. So, from one weak, easily distracted, quickly diverted brother . . . an encouragement: Brothers, guard your communion with the LORD. Make it daily. Make it meaningful. Make it non-negotiable. Pursue Christ. Make Him . . . not great papers, or activity, or prep for ministry, or ecclesiological understanding . . . your greatest treasure. And fight for this by going deep with Him daily. I struggled with this during the internship. And I have since. Let's get after this together brothers. For Christ is more precious than even fruitful ministry: "The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!' And he said to them, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven'" (Luke 10:17-20). Oh for grace to do so! Welcome, again.

Our Jealous Lover!

Mark Dever writes:

The Bible presents God not simply as our creator but as our jealous lover. He wants us - every part of us.

Mark Dever, The Gospel And Personal Evangelism (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 34.

Christ: The Perfect Object Of All Our Devotion!

Mark Dever writes:

To fear God is to love him. When the One who is our all-powerful creator and judge is also our merciful redeemer and savior, then we have found the perfect object for the entire devotion of our heart. And that devotion will lead us to share this good news about him with others.

Mark Dever, The Gospel And Personal Evangelism (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 27.

Christ: The All Sufficient Comforter!

Discussing the trials and struggles Christians face, Richard Sibbes wrote:

God sees fit that we should taste of that cup of which his Son drank so deep, that we might feel a little what sin is, and what his Son's love was. But our comfort is that Christ drank the dregs of the cup for us, and will succour us, so that our spirits may not utterly fail under that little taste of his displeasure which we may feel. He became not only a man but a curse, a man of sorrows, for us. He was broken that we should not be broken; he was troubled, that we should not be desperately troubled; he became a curse, that we should not be accursed. Whatever may be wished for in an all sufficient comforter is all to be found in Christ:
1. Authority from the Father. All power was given to him (Matthew 28:18).
2. Strength in himself. His name is 'The mighty God' (Isaiah 9:6).
3. Wisdom, and that from his own experience, how and when to help (Hebrews 2:18).
4. Willingness, as being bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh (Genesis 2:23; Ephesians 5:30).

Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Carlisle: Banner Of Truth, 2008), 66.

All The World Is Nothing Compared To Christ!

Richard Sibbes said:

Be stirred up, then, to desire to be where Christ is, and to have the kisses of his love in his ordinances, as further testimonies of his favour, and never rest from having a desire to increase in grace and communion with Christ. So shall you never [lack] assurance in grace and communion with Christ. So shall you never [lack] assurance of a good estate, nor comfort in any [bad] estate. Cast such a man into a dungeon, he hath paradise there. Why? Because Christ comes to him. And if we have this communion with Christ, then though we are compassed about with death, yet it cannot affright us, because the great God is with us, Ps. xxiii. 4. Do with such a one as you will; cast him into hell, if it were possible; he having a sweet communion with Christ, will be joyfull still; and the more sense we have of the love of Christ, the less we shall regard the pleasures or riches of the world. For what joy can be compared with this, that the soul hath communion with Christ? All the world is nothing in comparison.

Richard Sibbes, "The Spouse, Her Earnest Desire After Christ," in The Works Of Richard Sibbes, Vol. 2 (Carlisle: Banner Of Truth, 1983), 207-208.

The Infinite Riches Of Christ

Richard Sibbes wrote:

. . . the church (and so every Christian) . . . hath evermore springing up in them an insatiable desire for a further taste and assurance of [Christ's] love [because of] Christ's infinite riches, infinite in his glory, in his power, in his beauty, in his pleasures, and joys, and the like. He hath all things, 'All power is given him in heaven and in earth,' Mat. xxvii. 18; every way infinite in himself; and hence it is, that the spouse hath an infinite desire to have a further taste of his love, and a nearer communion with him.

Richard Sibbes, "The Spouse, Her Earnest Desire After Christ," in The Works Of Richard Sibbes, Vol. 2 (Carlisle: Banner Of Truth, 1983), 204.

Lacking No Good Thing In Christ!

Richard Sibbes said:

Christ condescended so far unto us, to such a near league, as to take us to be his spouse, who hath all things. What then can we [lack] when we are at the fountain of all things? We can [lack] no protection, for that is the covering of this well. We can [lack] no good thing but he will supply it. We have free access unto him, as the wife hath to her husband . . .

Richard Sibbes, "The Spouse, Her Earnest Desire After Christ," in The Works Of Richard Sibbes, Vol. 2 (Carlisle: Banner Of Truth, 1983), 201.

Panting For Christ!

John Owen wrote:

This I know: that in the immediate beholding of the person of Christ we shall see a glory in it a thousand times above what here we can conceive. The excellencies of infinite wisdom, love, and power therein, will be continually before us.

And all the glories of the person of Christ which we have before weakly and faintly inquired into, will be in our sight forevermore. Hence the ground and cause of our blessedness is that 'we shall ever be with the Lord,' (1 Thess. 4:17), as He Himself prays, 'that we may be with Him where He is, to behold His glory' (John 17:24).

We cannot perfectly behold it until we are with Him where He is. There our sight of Him will be direct, intuitive, and constant. There is a glory, there will be so, subjectively in us in the beholding of this glory of Christ, which is at present incomprehensible.

For it doth not yet appear what we ourselves shall be (cf. 1 John 3:2). Who can declare what a glory it will be in us to behold this glory of Christ? And how excellent, then, is that glory of Christ itself? This immediate sight of Christ is that which all the saints of God in this life do breathe and pant after.

John Owen, "Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ," in The Works of John Owen, ed. William Goold, 24 vols. (Edinburgh: Johnson & Hunter; 1850-1855; reprint by Banner of Truth, 1965), Vol. 1:379.

HT: Tolle Lege

Christ: The Delight Of All Believers!

John Owen wrote:

The saints' delight is in Christ: He is their joy, their crown, their rejoicing, their life, food, health, strength, desire, righteousness, salvation, blessedness: without Him they have nothing; in Him they shall find all things. 'God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Gal. 6:14). He has, from the foundation of the world, been the hope, expectation, desire, and delight of all believers.

John Owen, Communion With The Triune God, Eds. Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1657/2007), 236.

HT: Tolle Lege