“Yes, He is very precious to you who believe!” 1 Peter 2:7
If Christ is truly precious to us–we shall prefer Him above every other object; He will have the chief place in our affections. The love which a Christian has to his Savior, penetrates and possesses his heart. This distinguishes it from the pretended love of hypocrites, which is only in word, or in some external actions, while their hearts are full of sinful self-love; so that it may be said of them, “This people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.”
We may possibly delight in some objects of an inferior nature, as they contribute to our health, our ease, or our comfort. Our homes, our food, and our other temporal enjoyments are dear to us, because they minister to our comfort and convenience in the present life. But true love for Christ, does not allow any other object to hold the chief place in the heart. This chief place is for Jesus, whom we ought to love with supreme ardor. The choicest affections of our souls ought to be supremely fixed upon Him.
As it is impossible for any man to love an unknown object–so it cannot be expected that Christ should be supremely precious unto us, unless we know Him to be excellent and desirable, beyond whatever may be compared with Him. We shall not esteem Him above all things–if we have not elevated views of His transcendent worth. Our esteem of Him rises in proportion to the knowledge we have of Him. Godly men therefore ardently desire to increase in the knowledge of Him–that their affections may be more intensely fixed upon Him.
That love, which has but created things for its object, is degrading to the soul. It is a cleaving to that which can neither give happiness to our souls, nor repose to our minds. For to love any object ardently, is to seek our felicity in it, and to expect that it will answer our desires. It is to call upon it to fill that deep void which we feel in ourselves, and to imagine that it is capable of giving us the satisfaction we seek. It is to regard it as the resource of all our needs, the remedy of all the troubles which oppress us, and the source of all our happiness. Now, as it is God alone in whom we can find all these advantages, it is a debasing of the soul, it is idolatry to seek them in created objects! “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ!” Philippians 3:8
If Christ is truly precious to us–we shall be induced to devote our souls and our bodies, our talents, our abilities and our faculties–as a living sacrifice to Him. To contemplate His adorable perfections will be our highest joy. We shall be ready to obey Him–in opposition to all the threats and the solicitations of men. We shall rely upon Him, though all outward appearances seem to be against us. We shall rejoice in Him, though we have nothing else to comfort us. If we enjoy health and plenty, friends and reputation, the Lord is still the object of our earnest desires and our supreme delight. “Whom have I in heaven but you? There is none upon earth that I desire besides you! As the deer pants for the water-brooks, so longs my soul after you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God!”
“Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.” Hebrews 10:35
The writer of Hebrews has spent the first 10 chapters extolling the greatness of Christ as High Priest and the eternal sufficiency of His sacrifice for sin. He contrasts that with the Jewish sacrificial system instituted by God through Moses, which required repeated sacrifices, year after year.
I have tried to imagine what it would be like to have one day during the year when atonement was made for sins, and the rest of the year to feel the burden of them on my conscience. What a heavy weight that must have been. But here we read that Christ has “perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (10:14). His work on Calvary was a complete work, and at the very moment of my salvation, I stand perfect (through Christ) before God. Even though there are many, many things that God will change in me from that day until the day of my death, I can “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having my heart sprinkled from an evil conscience…” (10:22).
I have never before grasped the impact such a reality would have had upon the Jewish people who turned to Christ. No more waiting for the Day of Atonement when only the high priest could go into the holy of holies. Now they lived in the freedom of the Day of Atonement everyday.
This was a tremendously important thing for the Jewish Christians to understand, and especially as they were experiencing persecution for their faith, as the later part of chapter 10 seems to indicate.
It must have been difficult for the early Jewish Christians to have been ostracized and excluded from the religious community that they had grown up with and that had been such an important part of their lives. Now they were excluded, hated and persecuted. It would have been tempting for them to try to incorporate Christ into their Judaism.
But as the writer of Hebrews exhorts them to endure, he does so by reminding them of the wonderfully complete work of their new High Priest and the better things they have in Jesus Christ.
How thrilling to realize that the work has been done. So we can have confidence in the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ, forever completed on Calvary.
One thing is needful. These are the words of Jesus (Luke 10:42). That one thing is fellowship with Him. That is the one thing that I need. I don’t always know that as fully as I should and other things begin to creep in and crowd out the one thing.
I was reminded of this “one thing” concept today when reading the story of Hannah, who was barren: Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” 1 Samuel 1:8
I’m sure Elkanah was a good husband and provider. We’re told in verse 5 that he loved Hannah. It sounds as though she may have enjoyed a very pleasant relationship with Elkanah. But her heart was longing for one thing, and this one thing is what brought her to the place of pouring out her heart to the Lord in the fervency of her desire for it. She wanted nothing harmful, illegal or immoral. Only what was promised to her: children – a heritage from the Lord.
Elkanah could be a wonderful husband. But he could never be a son. And that was what her heart longed for. What does your heart long for? In those quiet moments when you can still your thoughts and search those secret corridors of your heart – what is that one thing you are longing for? Is it Him?
The longing of my heart to walk more closely with Jesus is almost painful at times. Painful because, to be honest, although I know that this is the genuine desire of my heart, I seem to be so complacent in my seeking after Him. In this complacency the question of the various Elkanah’s of life can be heard – “Am I not better?”
Elkanah will never be a substitute for a son. And absolutely nothing this world can offer – not even spiritual things – can be a substitute for a vibrant relationship with Christ.
Elkanah seemed to be content with the status quo. He didn’t understand Hannah’s longing. I wonder how many of us are like Elkanah – content with another church service, a few songs, a little sermon. But no meeting with God, no glory, a weekly event full of emotion but void of Presence. I KNOW THAT THERE IS MORE!!!!
And standing in church among a crowd of thousands, with voices singing worship choruses in unison, I find myself gazing upward, this question upon my lips – where are you God?
If we would gain benefit by the word, we must make our PROFITING the specific object of hearing it preached. By profiting I mean our growth in religious knowledge, affection, and practice; in other words, the increase of our holiness, spirituality, and heavenly-mindedness. In nothing, I believe, are professing Christians more deficient, than in their manner of, and motives for attending the public means of grace. It is painful and humiliating to think how extensively the gratifications of taste, and the pleasure produced by eloquence and oratory, are substituted for the cultivation of the mind in scriptural truth, and the improvement of the heart in Christian excellence. To be pleased—and not to be profited—is the object of the multitude. Hence the question, so often asked of those who have been listening to the solemn truths of salvation and eternity, “Well, how have you been pleased today?” And hence also, the common answer to such an inquiry, “O greatly delighted. It was a most eloquent sermon.” Pleased we may and ought to seek to be, but only as we are profited. Eloquence we may covet and admire; but then it should be the eloquence of truth, and not of mere rhetoric; the eloquence which makes us hate sin, love God, and mortify our corruptions; the eloquence which leaves us neither time nor disposition to praise, or scarcely think of the preacher, but absorbs us in the subject; the eloquence which burns into the very heart and consumes our lusts, and stimulates and strengthens our virtues; the eloquence of the Bible, and not of the schoolbook.
Each time I read the words of John the Baptist it makes me want to repent in dust and ashes for my prideful, self-seeking heart. He has a way of getting directly to the heart of things. Even though we only have record of a few sentences, they pack a powerful punch.
A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. John 3:27
He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30
He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. Matthew 3:11
I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. John 1:31
This is a far cry from so much of what I see in “ministry” today. Driving down the interstate there are billboards advertising local churches displaying huge pictures of the pastor and his wife. Not just one. Many. The phrase that comes to mind each time I see them is “what were they thinking????”
“Therefore I came”, John said. Why? That Christ should be revealed.
Not that I should become well known. Not that I should build a thriving church. But that Christ should be revealed.
There is a trap set for us, and it is ministry. Oh it looks so beautiful and desirable, and it seems so good. But ministry becomes idolatry when the purpose is anything other than revealing Christ.
In these days of Christian celebrities, may God guard our hearts from being caught up in such folly.
“Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; for Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there.” Numbers 20:26
Several years ago I discovered the writings of Art Katz, which have been transformational for me. I had never been a great fan of Leviticus, dreading only the genealogies more. But Art Katz brought out some wonderful nuances of this book. In particular, the consecration of Aaron and his sons for the priesthood was a striking passage. (Leviticus 8). As part of the ceremony, Moses took them to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, gathered all the congregation around, and then stripped and washed them before putting the priestly garments on them. Although the priesthood was the highest calling, it involved the most humiliating initiation.
I have seen artists’ renditions of the high priestly garments and they are beautifully ornate. Of a certainty, they drew attention. It must have been quite an experience to wear those robes, that breastplate, the holy crown.
However, as the time drew near for Aaron’s death, Moses took Aaron up the mountain and he left the priesthood the same way he entered it – stripped before the watching world.
Just like Aaron, none of us enter into this priesthood of believers without being stripped of our own righteousness and broken over our sin. It is a humiliating experience to have your utter sinfulness revealed and all pretense of our own goodness stripped away. Oh, the tears and groanings and soul wrenching pain of repentance. But after the humiliation, we are washed with His Word and clothed with His righteousness. And although we entered this world through birth, it is only through this second birth that we truly begin to live.
But there will come a day, the day appointed for our departing from this world, when death will have its moment. Taken by strangers, we will be prepared for death as our lifeless bodies will be stripped and washed and put into the ground.
Humiliation and nakedness – in the beginning and the end. But what about the stuff between? That time between entrance into the priesthood and exiting this world….
For somewhere around 40 years Aaron was high priest. And while it wasn’t always pleasant, his position did give him a unique position in relation to God and the people. 40 years to be faithful or unfaithful. 40 years to be a blessing or a hindrance. 40 years to more fully learn the ways and nature of this God or to become insulated from him by religion.
What are we doing with these few years between life and death? This is the question we must ask ourselves. When that second stripping comes, will we be able to face it with joy, knowing that we have run this race well?
It is my prayer that we will. May God help us to be faithful to do all and be all to the glory of His name.
“So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” Exodus 14:30
I recently read this verse and stopped to think about it for a few moments. I’ve never seen a dead body other than at a funeral when they’ve been prepared to be seen. Death made presentable.
But these Egyptians were recently dead, crushed by crashing walls of water. And now their dead bodies littered the shore of the Red Sea, in plain sight of Israel. I wonder what it was like to see this and realize this was the cost of your deliverance.
Only a short time before they had been required to kill a lamb for the purpose of putting its blood on their doorposts that they might be delivered from the destroyer sent to kill the firstborn in each family. The death of the lamb was the cost of their deliverance.
And only a short time later they camped at Mt. Sinai where they received from God the law and the system of sacrifice which provided covering of their sins. Every day animals were killed, sacrifices were offered and blood was sprinkled. An abundance of blood and death. This was the cost of their deliverance.
Death and deliverance, hand in hand. A pattern repeated year after year.
Into this system the Messiah is born. As Jesus gained prominence in Israel through the working of miracles and His teaching, great hope was stirred up in Israel. Was this the long awaited One who would bring deliverance?
The answer was a resounding Yes! But the deliverance He would bring would be much more than mere freedom from Roman oppression. It would be freedom from sin and its penalty. His was a death that would bring a complete and perfect deliverance.
“Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” 2 Corinthians 1:9-10
In Jesus, God did deliver us, does deliver us and will deliver us. AMEN!!
Give us men who will speak Your truth no matter the consequences.
Give us men who prefer to speak the truth of Your word to a few rather than to speak the fluff of this world to a multitude. Men who have no agenda other than Christ and no need for celebrity status.
Lord give us men who cry out to You in prayer before they ever step into the pulpit.
Lord give us men whose voices thunder with a word from heaven; whose souls are aflame with a heavenly vision of a glorious Saviour.
Oh give us men who will not water down Your truth because it seems too hard, too difficult for us to accept and obey, but who will tell us with all the unction that Your spirit presses upon them what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Give us men who will fly in the face of societal norms without fear when the faithful preaching of the gospel requires it.
Lord, we do not need 10 steps to improve ourselves. We need to know how to die that Christ might be formed in us. Give us preachers who not only teach this truth, but live it before us.
Teach us, O man of God, the whole counsel of God. The things that bring us comfort and those things that wring our souls with conviction and require something of us.
Jesus Christ has true excellency, and so great an excellency,
that when you come to truly see him, you look no further,
but your mind rests there.
There is a transcendent glory and an
ineffable sweetness in Christ.
You see that you had been pursuing shadows,
but now you have found the substance.
You realize that you had been seeking happiness in the stream,
but now you have found the ocean.
The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural
cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill its capacity.
Christ has an infinite excellency, such as the mind desires,
in which it can find no bounds; and the more the mind
contemplates Him, the more excellent does He appear.
Each new discovery of Christ makes His beauty appear more
ravishing, and the mind can see no end to His excellency.
There is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper,
and never come to the bottom.
Christ’s excellency is always fresh and new, and will as much
delight us, after we have beheld Him a thousand, or ten thousand
years, as when we have seen him the first moment.
The soul is exceedingly ravished when
it first looks on the beauty of Christ.
It is never weary of Him.
“And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly” – Luke 22:44
I love how in every aspect of the life of Jesus, we see a model of how to do things right. As Jesus faces the ultimate conclusion of His time here on earth, He retreats into the garden of Gethsemane for some time in prayer. How can we even imagine the intensity of what He felt in those moments? And as the intensity of His agony increased, so did the intensity of His prayer.
I face some intense moments. We all do. Although they pale in comparison to what Jesus faced, they are still difficult. Agony comes in a variety of flavors.
If I were to rewrite this verse to refer to myself, it would read something like this:
“and being in great agony, she raised her voice and complained.”
“and being in great agony, she became frustrated and hopeless.”
“and being in great agony, she felt distant from God and didn’t pray.”
“and being in great agony, she felt exceedingly sorry for herself.”
“and being in great agony, she pouted and felt that life had treated her very unfairly.”
I know that in my most difficult moments that I should run to God immediately, but often I don’t do that.
A few moments to wallow in self-pity, a few moments to garner the sympathy of others, a few moments to determine how I’m going to fix things. And the agony only increases and I am no closer to God.
How true are the words of this famous hymn:
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer
Lord, in the various agonies of life, help me to immediately draw near to You.
He is my Delight 