LOOKING TO JESUS...let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us....
"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." - Psalm 18:2
As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Mark 4:35-40
 |
| Rembrandt - The Storm on the Sea of Gallilee |
ON CHRIST THE SOLID ROCK I STAND
PSALM 46:1-3, 10
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Be still, and know that I am God.
"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"—Psalm 27:1
“The Lord is my light and my salvation." Here is personal interest, "my light," "my salvation"; the soul is assured of it, and therefore declares it boldly. Into the soul at the new birth divine light is poured as the precursor of salvation; where there is not enough light to reveal our own darkness and to make us long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. After conversion our God is our joy, comfort, guide, teacher, and in every sense our light: He is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Note, it is not said merely that the Lord gives light, but that He is light; nor that He gives salvation, but that He is salvation; he, then, who by faith has laid hold upon God, has all covenant blessings in his possession. This being made sure as a fact, the argument drawn from it is put in the form of a question, "Whom shall I fear?" A question which is its own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared, for the Lord, our light, destroys them; and the damnation of hell is not to be dreaded by us, for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different challenge from that of boastful Goliath, for it rests, not upon the conceited vigour of an arm of flesh, but upon the real power of the omnipotent I AM. "The Lord is the strength of my life." Here is a third glowing epithet, to show that the writer's hope was fastened with a threefold cord which could not be broken. We may well accumulate terms of praise where the Lord lavishes deeds of grace. Our life derives all its strength from God; and if He deigns to make us strong, we cannot be weakened by all the machinations of the adversary. "Of whom shall I be afraid?" The bold question looks into the future as well as the present. "If God be for us," who can be against us, either now or in time to come?
June 16th PM, Charles Spurgeon
Morning and Evening : Daily Readings
Did Jesus Christ not foil and slay evil by letting all the waves and billows of its horrid sea break upon him, spend their rage, fall defeated, and cease? Verily, he made atonement! God sacrificed his own son to us; there was no way else of getting the gift of himself into our hearts. Jesus sacrificed himself to his father and the children to bring them together—all the love on the side of the Father and the Son, all the selfishness on the side of the children. If the joy that alone makes life worth living, the joy that God is such as Christ, be a true thing in my heart, how can I but believe in the atonement of Jesus Christ? I believe it heartily, as God means it. And I believe in it as the power that brings about a making-up for any wrong done by man to man. Who that believes in Jesus does not long to atone to his brother for the injury he has done him? Who is the causer, the creator of the repentance, of the passion that restores fourfold? Jesus, our propitiation, our atonement. He could not do it without us, but he leads us up to the Father’s knee: he makes us make atonement. Learning Christ, we are not only sorry for what we have done wrong, we not only turn from it and hate it, we are able to offer our whole being to God to whom by deepest right it belongs. Have I failed in love to my neighbor? Shall I not now love him with an infinitely better love than was possible to me before? That I can and will make atonement, thanks be to him who is my atonement, my life, my joy, my lord, my owner, the perfecter of my being. I dare not say with Paul that I am the slave of Christ; but my highest aspiration is to be the slave of Christ.”
George MacDonald, from Justice in Unspoken Sermons
Drifting Blues, Charles Brown (video)
 |
| Ship at Sea, Rembrandt |
Comments
Post a Comment