MORNING:
1 Chronicles 23 (family); Micah 2 (secret)
EVENING:
1 Peter 4 (family); Luke 11 (secret)
A CHRISTIAN CATECHISM:
Q69. What is faith in Jesus Christ?
A69. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, through which we receive, and rest upon, Him alone for salvation, as He is set forth in the gospel. Isaiah 33:22; John 1:12; Philippians 3:9; Hebrews 10:39
Q70. What is repentance to life?
A70. Repentance to life is a saving grace, through which a sinner, out of a true sense of his own sins, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it to God with full purpose to strive after new obedience. Psalms 119:59; Jeremiah 31:18-19; Joel 2:13; Acts 2:37; 11:18
Q71. How are the outward means by which the Holy Spirit communicates to us the benefits of redemption?
A71. The outward and ordinary means by which the Holy Spirit communicates to us the benefits of Christ’s redemption, are the Word, by which souls are begotten to spiritual life; Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, Prayer, and Meditation, by all which believers are further edified in their most holy faith. Acts 2:41-42; James 1:18
CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST DEVOTION:
“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:4-5).
Those beloved Puritans who sailed to America four centuries ago were not leaving England to find a new home in order to elevate their standard of living; they weren’t looking for a bigger house because they’ve outgrown the old one. When they left England to forge out a new life in the new land, they still had eyes upon the city of God that was to come: the New Jerusalem.
Most of them did not even call themselves Puritans, as that was a name given them by others due to the outward life produced by their inward devotions and meditations… and their practical outlook, to do whatever was needed to flee from sin, and to serve God with love, joy, peace, and with a clear conscience according to the Holy Scriptures. In fact, the closer they were drawn to God, the less purity they saw in themselves under the brilliant and glorious light of God’s Redemption. No, most of them called themselves Christians.
They wouldn’t have objected to being called Pilgrims, however. The 17th century classic by John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, should indicate the Puritan thought concerning their lives on the planet as one of a pilgrimage toward a celestial city.
The first thanksgivings of the Pilgrims in America were only a reflection of the constant giving of thanks that these Puritan believers had for the graces bestowed upon them in, through, and by Jesus Christ. They emphasized that these graces were just that, graces; granted them by the unmerited favor of God. Therefore, thanksgiving poured forth from their lives daily, and from their lips continually.
Too often, our role as ambassador of Christ overshadows our role as pilgrim for Christ. Both roles are ours, and one should not be emphasized to the detriment of the other. As ambassadors, our representation of Christ, the importance of His commands, and the seriousness of His commissions in the work He has given us to do, is important and should not be neglected; nevertheless, we must give place to the reality of our pilgrimage: the brevity of life in the light of eternity, the hardships faced in a land that is not our own, and the truth that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
We should be thankful for the material things that God hath bestowed upon us; and many of us really and truly are. Yet, I wonder, are we as thankful for the blessed graces of Baptism, the Lord’s Table, Prayer, and Meditation upon God’s Word? And more than that, are we rejoicing with thanksgiving for that moment of glimpsing a bit of Christ’s glory through the truth in God’s Word, and the pure joy of thinking, reflecting, and meditating upon the atoning Sacrifice of Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the reality of His return? The latter are graces that can never be taken away if God has granted them from above, regardless of whether you live in opulence in a country that allows men to pray openly; or whether you live under the worst of tyrannies where the blessedness of those latter graces is all that you have. In Christ, even in the midst of despair and destitution, we have much, very much, to be thankful for.
O come, let us sing to the Lord:
come, let us ev’ry one
A joyful noise make to the Rock
of our salvation.
Let us before His presence come
with praise and thankful voice;
Let us sing psalms to Him with grace,
and make a joyful noise.
For God, a great God, and great King,
above all gods He is.
Depths of the earth are in His hand,
the strength of hills is His.
To Him the spacious sea belongs,
for He the same did make;
The dry land also from His hands
its form at first did take.
O come, and let us worship Him,
let us bow down withal,
And on our knees before the Lord
our Maker let us fall.
For He’s our God, the people we
of His own pasture are,
And of His hand the sheep; to-day,
if ye His voice will hear,
Then harden not your hearts, as in
the provocation,
As in the desert, on the day
of the tentation:
When Me your fathers tempt’d and prov’d,
and did My working see;
Ev’n for the space of forty years
this race hath grieved Me.
I said, This people errs in heart,
My ways they do not know:
To whom I sware in wrath, that to
My rest they should not go.
Psalms 95
Scottish Psalter
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