A Morning Devotion
Morning Dedication
Almighty God, as I cross the threshold of this day I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends, to Thy care. Watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me. Incline my heart to thy ways. Mould me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms clay.
May my lips be a well-tuned harp to sound Thy praise. Let those around see me living by Thy Spirit, trampling the world underfoot, unconformed to lying vanities, transformed by a renewed mind, clad in the entire armour of God, shining as a never-dimmed light, showing holiness in all my doings.
Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands. May I travel miry paths with a life pure from spot or stain. In needful transactions let my affection be in heaven, and my love soar upwards in flames of fire, my gaze fixed on unseen things, my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility, mockery of earth and its vanities.
May I view all things in the mirror of eternity, waiting for the coming of my Lord, listening for the last trumpet call, hastening unto the new heaven and earth. Order this day all my communications according to Thy wisdom, and to the gain of mutual good.
Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable. May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one.
If my life should end today, let this be my best day.
From Valley of Vision - A Collection of Puritan Prayers
The Joy of a Husband
The world today whispers and yells to us that our pleasure, security and contentment are the cornerstones of a happy, healthy marriage. In fact, the grounds for divorce in most instances are labeled as “incompatibility” and “unable to get along”. If one carefully lifts up the labels will find that the true reason is simple selfishness.
We are Ambassadors, Not Diplomats!
“We are not sent to preach sociology but salvation; not economics but evangelism; not reform but redemption; not culture but conversion; not progress but pardon; not a new social order but a new birth; not revolution but regeneration; not renovation but revival; not resuscitation but resurrection; not a new organization but a new creation; not democracy but the gospel; not civilization but Christ; we are ambassadors, not diplomats.”
— Hugh Thomson Kerr
Sovereign Grace and Man’s Responsibility
“Again, the grace of God is sovereign. By that word we mean that God has an absolute right to give that grace where he chooses, and to withhold it when he pleases. He is not bound to give it to any man, much less to all men; and if he chooses to give it to one man and not to another, his answer is, “Is thine eye evil because mine eye is good? Can I not do as I will with mine own? I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” Now, I want you to notice the sovereignty of Divine grace as illustrated in the text: “I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest to them that asked not after thee.”
You would imagine that if God gave his grace to any he would wait until he found them earnestly seeking him. You would imagine that God in the highest heavens would say, “I have mercies, but I will leave men alone, and when they feel their need of these mercies and seek me diligently with their whole heart, day and night, with tears, and vows, and supplications, then will I bless them, but not before.”
Five Errors that Arise from Christ-Replacements
In a culture where everything in most churches is man-centered the way that we interpret Scripture is often focused primarily on us. What we must realize is that all of Scripture points to Christ. The only way to correctly interpret Scripture is to have a Christ-centered focus on the text - for no other reason than that is exactly what Scripture does - it points to Christ!
Jesus most clearly taught that “you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)
Hendryx comments in his paper that “Jesus never condemned a Pharisee for taking Moses too seriously. They take him far less seriously than they should. For Jesus says, “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for He write of Me. But if you don’t believe His writings, how will you believe My words. Your accuser is Moses.” (John 5:46). So to understand Moses is to come to know Christ when He is revealed. Likewise, Abraham saw Jesus’ day and was glad, the Bible testifies. And “…foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” (Gal)”
“The Scriptures should be read with the aim of finding Christ in them. Whoever turns aside from this object, even though he wears himself out all his life in learning, he will never reach the knowledge of the truth.” - John Calvin
I ran across an excellent article by John Hendryx entitled “Five Errors that Arise from Christ-Replacements” and it’s a must read. He outlines five examples of doctrinal errors that arise when Christ is unBiblically removed as the key focus of Scripture (which is so terribly common today).
Take some time to read this excellent article over at monergism.com.
God and the iPhone
I am in San Francisco on the day of the iPhone 3G launch. Since I am a tech guy, I knew it was going to be a big deal and the San Franciscans didn’t disappoint. The Apple Store was easily identifiable because of the line that stretched down the block, around the corner and on. Later in the day it was even worse as the sidewalk was completely blocked.
Later in the day, I was reading in John Piper’s book When I Don’t Desire God and came across the following paragraph:
The psalmist described the connection between inner blindess and idolatry. “The idols of the nationa are… the work of human hands. They have… eyes, but do not see… Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust them!” (Ps. 135:15-18) Make and trust a blind idol and you become blind. Apply that principle to the modern world, and think of the idols of our won day. What do we make and what do we trust? Things. Toys. Technology. And so our hearts and our affections are formed by these things. They compress the void in our heart into shapes like toys. the result is that we are easily moved and excited by things - computers, cars, appliances, entertainment media. They seem to fit the shapes of our hearts. They feel good in the tiny spaces they have made. But in this readiness to receive pleasure from things, we are ill-shped for Christ. He seems unreal, unattractive. The eyes of our hearts grow dull.
I can’t help but think of the XBox 360, the computer, the DVD player, the digital camera, the iPod and all of the other bits and pieces of electronic stuff that are in my life and have to ask myself if I am not becoming a little spiritually near-sighted because of all of the things that I am settling for to give me pleasure and fulfillment, rather than the only One who deserves my praise and my enjoyment.
Christ Who Saves…
“It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ… It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or in the nature of faith, but in the object of faith.”
- B. B. Warfield
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