God's Promise Is Certain!

“where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever…” (Heb 6:20 ESV) This passage certainly would have had more meaning to the first century Jews who had become Christians than to most of us today. We who are 21st century Gentiles don’t really comprehend in it fullness the role of the Old Testament Jewish priest. We don’t recognize or utilize priests in the Christian Church today. The high priest, among many other duties, would once a year go behind that curtain that separated mankind from the presence of God. On Yom Kippur he alone entered the Holy of Holies, to make atonement for his house and for the people (Lev. 16). He alone could offer the sacrifices for the sins of the priests, or of the people, or of himself. He would enter the holy of holies to burn incense and sprinkle sacrificial animal blood to expiate his own sins and those of the people of Israel. Of course, if God chose to accept this offering and sacrifice then the judgment of God’s people would be rolled back another year. Jesus Christ was appointed as our high priest. He went behind the curtain into the very presence of God and offered a blood sacrifice to God on our behalf. What made this different was the fact that the blood that was offered to appease God was His very own blood which testified to his sacrificial death. Thanks be unto God for accepting this blood, this sacrifice! Not only did God accept it then, he continues to accept this sacrifice, and he will forever. This becomes our rock-solid hope the writer of Hebrews tell us (Chapter 6) – it is an anchor for our soul! The contrast between Aaron and Melchizedek is that Christ is a priest forever, never loosing his viability as my high priest before God! I need to constantly be reminded of this truth in order not to grow dull in my patient waiting upon the return of Christ to fully redeem us. What great sin of mine to take this for granted.

Good News / Bad News for a Pastor

Good News: You baptised seven people today in the river. Bad News: You lost two of them in the swift current.

Good News: The women's group voted to send you a get-well card.Bad News: The vote passed by 31-30.

Good News: The pastor-parish relations committee accepted your job description the way you wrote it.Bad News: They were so inspired by it that they asked the bishop to send a new minister capable of filling the position.

Good News: The trustees finally voted to add more church parking.Bad News: They are going to blacktop the front lawn of the parsonage.

Good News: Church attendance rose dramatically the last three weeks.Bad News: You were on vacation.

Good News: Your biggest critic just left your community. Bad News: He has been appointed as your conference bishop.

Good News: The youth of the church came to your house for a visit.Bad News: It was in the middle of the night and they were armed with toilet paper and shaving cream.

Good News: The Church Council has agreed to send you to the Holy Land for study.Bad News: They are waiting for war to breakout before sending you

The Trouble With Wealth

Thomas Watson - (ca. 1620-1686), English non-conformist Puritan preacher and author Watson was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was noted for remarkably intense study.

In 1646 he commenced a sixteen year pastorate at St. Stephen's, Walbrook. He showed strong Presbyterian views during the civil war, with, however, an attachment to the king, and in 1651 he was imprisoned briefly with some other ministers for his share in Christopher Love's plot to recall Charles II of England. He was released on June 30, 1652, and was formally reinstated as vicar of St. Stephen's Walbrook.

Watson obtained great fame and popularity as a preacher until the Restoration, when he was ejected for nonconformity. Notwithstanding the rigor of the acts against dissenters, Watson continued to exercise his ministry privately as he found opportunity. Upon the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 he obtained a license to preach at the great hall in Crosby House. After preaching there for several years, his health gave way, and he retired to Barnston, Essex, where he died suddenly while praying in secret. He was buried on 28 July 1686.

Regarding riches and worldly wealth: "The bee may suck a little honey from the leaf, but put it in a barrel of honey and it dies."

Christians must stave of the world so that it does not get into their heart (Psalm 62:10). "Water is useful to the ship and helps it to sail better to the haven, but let the water get into the ship, if it is not pumped out, it drowns the ship."

"So riches are useful and convenient for our passage. We sail more comfortably with them through the troubles of this world; but if the water gets into the ship, if love of riches gets into the heart, then we are drowned by them" (1 Timothy 6:9).

- The Puritan Pulpit - Thomas Watson

Humility: True Greatness

There is no doubt that when this book arrived on the scene in 2005 that it caused quiet a stir. Its topic is one that we all treat as the “500 pound gorilla” in the room. We realize that pride is the number one sin that God hates and despises, yet it is the one sin that we seem to have the greatest difficulty getting a handle on. Pride is so elusive, so subtle, so deceptive, and it is so prevalent in everything that we are in our being. C. J. Mahaney does an excellent job in tackling this “500 pound gorilla.” In a very humble, yet powerful way he walks us through this sin that plagues us all. He states that; “Humility draws the gaze of our Sovereign God.” He makes the point that humility gets God’s attention, especially as he uses Isaiah 66:2 as support: “…this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (ESV) When I read this I immediately stopped and bowed my head to say to God, “This is the man I want to be, please work these things in my life!” I don't know why I was not aware of this book until this past month. Of course, all things are in God's sovereign timing. If there is someone like me who is not aware of this book I want to take this time to recommend it to you! What I found to be most valuable was his list of practical suggestions to do what he calls, “How to weaken pride and cultivate humility by always maintaining a focus on the cross, practicing several exercises as each day begins, through a special focused study on certain pertinent subjects, and with a very practical on going exercise. These are so practical that I have begun to practice them in anticipation of God reducing the pride I battle with in order to be the man that draws His attention.

I have read and am re-reading this book. It is challenging but I highly recommend it. Reading Humility: True Greatness will change the way you think about this sin called pride. Reading it can transform your thinking and your life. If you haven’t read it yet, stop putting it off, today is the day!

That Old Rugged Cross

“In all the creatures, indeed, both high and low, the glory of God shines, but nowhere has it shone more brightly than in the cross, in which there has been an astonishing change of things, the condemnation of all men as been manifested, sin has been blotted out, salvation has been restored to men; and in short, the whole world has been renewed, and everything restored to good order.” --John Calvin In his book, Humility: True Greatness, C. J. Mahaney encourages us, for the purpose of killing pride, to begin each day reflecting on the wonder of the cross. Thomas Ascol noted, “The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the hinge on which all biblical revelation turns. Together with the resurrection of Christ, it is the apex of redemptive history.” Can you not be moved when you hear or read the words of Isaac Watts – “When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down, did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?”

As I reflect on that old rugged cross that so long ago was stained with blood so divine I am still amazed! The cross is a constant reminder that my sin and guilt has been divinely and eternally dealt with. I am humbled and my pride does crumble as I reflect and realize, although I deserved punishment, judgment, death, and hell, God provided a satisfactory sacrifice for my sins, apart from anything I could ever warrant or do.

When I do survey that wonderful cross I do see the glory of God shine the brightest and I marvel that God used the cross to blot out my sin and provided salvation. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light! (Isaac Watts)

The Wonder of Our Self-Sufficient God!

Gen 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Have you ever stopped to contemplate or mediate on that sentence? It is so rich and full that I don’t know if we could ever wring the fullness of what it is saying to us in a lifetime. What does this really mean? It means that there was a time when God lived alone in the unity of His nature. He was complete and He was happy. Most human beings are social creatures and it is extremely difficult for most people to be alone for lengthy periods of time. We crave, need, and thrive off of the company or the society of other people. As a matter of fact, one form of discipline or punishment that we impose on people is “forcing them to be alone.” We impose this practice on very young children by sending them from our presence to their rooms, or to the corner, or to a designated place where they can not interact with the presence of others and they are “alone.” We punish prisoners with time in the “box” or what is humanely called “solitary confinement.” How long did God exist before He chose to reveal His glorious and majestic character? Of course they answer is that He existed eternally. The next question to contemplate is how long is eternity? Stop, and at some point attempt to contemplate God existing alone in His nature for eternity. It is mind blowing. Once you have tried to comprehend the fact that God existed with absolutely no beginning for what we can only call "forever", think about the fact that … …there was no heaven where His glory was manifested …there were no angels to sing his praise and worship …there was no universe to uphold by the power of His word …there was no earth to engage his attention …there was nothing- no one but God – not for a day, or a month, or a year, or even an age, but from everlasting! Through a past eternity God was alone. He was self-contained – He had everything that He “needed.” God has always been everything that He is, and has always had everything that "makes" Him God. It is absolutely impossible to add to God in anyway at all. He was self-sufficient – He needed nothing. God did not lack in any capacity. He was self-satisfied – He was totally happy and pleased. He did not need anything! If heaven, angels, a universe, an earth, or even mankind had been necessary to complete God in any way, they would have been spoken into existence from eternity past. The creating of them did not add one thing to the essential nature of God. His essential nature and glory can not be added to or subtracted from! Next time you are alone, take some time and contemplate the solitariness of God in which there was an eternity past in which God lived alone. In this “aloneness” He was completely sufficient, completely satisfied, and completely self-contained.

Think Great Thoughts of God!

Charles Spurgeon introduced his first sermon at New Park Street Chapel with these words: “It has been said by some one that "the proper study of mankind is man." I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass's colt; and with the solemn exclamation, "I am but of yesterday, and know nothing." No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God. We shall be obliged to feel—

"Great God, how infinite art thou, what worthless worms are we!" A. W. Pink wrote:

"The foundation of all true knowledge of God must be a clear mental apprehension of His perfections as revealed in Holy Scripture. An unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshipped.

Something more than a theoretical knowledge of God is needed by us. God is only truly known in the soul as we yield ourselves to Him, submit to His authority, and regulate all the details of our lives by His holy precepts and commandments. "Then shall we know, if we follow on (in the path of obedience) to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3). "If any man will do His will, he shall know" (John 7:17

What is amazing, and better said by Richard Baxter, "I bewail that my apprehensions are so dull, my thoughts so mean, my affections so stupid, and my expressions so low and unbecoming such a glory." As I write this first blog of June, my mind races to think of things that would be witty, penetrating, and on the cutting edge. I realize that I am not that witty, rarely penetrating, and certainly not on the cutting edge of all that is happening today. I am simply a pastor with a heart for God’s people. I think and write pastoral for the glory of God and the joy of all peoples through our glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. As I begin the month of June my mind is drawn to contemplate God. I urge you to think great and frequent thoughts on God and His glorious character. It is harder to take the time these days amidst all of the intrusions and interruptions in our lives. Secret time and secret places alone with God are almost a thing of the past.

Let me encourage you to do as Jonathan Edwards did: “I frequently used to retire into a solitary place, on the banks of the Hudson River, at some distance from the city for contemplation on divine things and secret converse with God; and had many sweet hours there.” "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?" Exodus 15:11 (ESV)