Christ, Our Very Life!

We took him for all that we knew of him and we found that he was much more than we then thought he was; but we did not pick & choose and say, We will have his pardon but we will not have his sanctification. We took the many-sided Christ, the Christ of many glorious characters . . .we took a whole Christ and then we gave him our whole selves. . . . We made no bargains with him; we gave the freehold of our souls to Jesus and of our bodies too and we only asked that we might not have a pulse beating except for him, or our lungs heaving except as he was our very life [Charles H. Spurgeon, MTP, vol. 55, 587].

Prayer: Not Just for Emergencies

The impression that one often gets at prayer meetings is that petition is the pivot upon which prayer turns and that the main function of prayer is to handle life's emergencies....If prayer is fostered only by emergencies and is only and always just petition, then...some very important aspects of prayer are being ignored. Prayer is more than the church's ambulance, called out to deal with various crises after the damage has already been done....To pray in an emergency is altogether right. But to pray only in an emergency cannot be right because this limits prayer to the area of our own self-awareness in the events of life. It makes prayer a convenience, something to which we are driven by our human perspective on the crisis, not something in which we are drawn and energized by the Holy Spirit (R. Arthur Mathews, Born For Battle, 65).

Prayer: A Battle Against Whatever Is Not God's Will

Prayer is a weapon, a mighty weapon in a terrible conflict. Our prayers are to be a continual, conscious, earnest effort of battle, the battle against whatever is not God's will (P.T. Forsyth).

Spurgeon on Prayer

This week I'm preaching on prayer from Ephesians 6:18 and came across this remarkable thought from the great 19th century Baptist preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening):
What a multitude of prayers we have put up from the very first moment we learned to pray. Our very first prayer was a prayer for ourselves. We asked God that He would have mercy on us and blot out our sin. He heard us. But when He had blotted out our sins, we had some more prayers for ourselves. We had to pray for sanctifying grace, for constraining and restraining grace. We’ve been led to pray for a fresh assurance of faith, for a comfortable application of God’s promises, for deliverances in the hour of temptation, for help in the time of duty, for aid in the day of trial. We’ve been compelled to go to God for our souls as beggars asking for everything. Bear witness, children of God: You have never been able to get anything for your souls from anywhere else. All the bread your soul has eaten has come down from heaven. All the water which it has drunk has flowed from the Living Rock, Christ Jesus the Lord. Your soul has never grown rich in itself. It has always been a pensioner upon the daily bounty of God, and hence your prayers have ascended to heaven for a range of spiritual mercies all but infinite. Your needs are innumerable, and therefore the supplies have been infinitely great. Your prayers have been as varied as the mercies have been countless. Therefore, don’t you have cause to say, “I love the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplication”? For your prayers have been many, but so have been God’s answers to them. He has heard in your day of trouble; he has strengthened you; He has helped you even when you dishonored Him by trembling and doubting at the mercy seat. Remember this, and let it fill your heart with gratitude to God, who has thus graciously heard your poor, weak prayers. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits.

sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory of the world).

Tonight in my sermon I read this statement by Kevin DeYoung that reminds me of the famous Latin phrase sic transit gloria mundi (thus passes the glory of the world). Several people have asked me to post it. It is quite thought provoking:

Kevin DeYoung (7/10/09): I’m all for young people dreaming big dreams. Go out and change the world. Make a difference. Discover a cure for cancer. Write a best-selling novel. Become president. But remember, your “glory” will not last. Your great accomplishments will fall away–either in your lifetime, or in a generation, or at the end of all things. No one will care about your GPA and SAT scores in 10 years. If you win a state championship, you’ll be forgotten the next year you don’t. Your beauty will get wrinkles and trim figure plump. Write a great book and it will gather dust in a library some day. Have a big famous church, it won’t last forever. Be an important person in your field, you'll still be unknown to over six billion people in the world. Build an amazing house, it will crumble some day, if it doesn’t go into foreclosure first. All of our achievements and successes are destined to be like dead grass and faded flowers. But...the word of our God stands forever. . . All God’s declarations about himself and his people are true. All his promises will come to pass. Our only confidence is in the word of God.

Indeed, the glory of this world will pass. But let me share another Latin phrase that is just as true: sic durat gloria Dei (thus endures the glory of God). The wise person will believe this, and adjust his/her life accordingly.