You Who Are Thirsty, Come!

This post has 539 words. It will take approximately 2 minutes, 41 secondes for reading it.

“All you who are thirsty come to the waters, and you, who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes come, buy milk and wine without money and without price.” Who is invited here? Not the satisfied or rich but the thirsty ones, and that is precisely your soul. It is thirsty. To what is it invited? to fill its want; to share in and enjoy the milk and wine of God’s abundant and rich grace. He does not sell his grace, he grants it as a gift for nothing. After all, he gives his bread to the hungry. That is what a righteous person does, and that is, in the first place, what the Lord God does.
Do you not desire to reach out for that? Is this not the only thing that you seek? And how could you achieve that if you needed money or good works for it–efforts that first had to please God and on account of which He would then grant His grace? If that were so, then you would never share in His grace because you possess nothing. But just at that point when you say, “I do not have any money” then comes the loving invitation: “You who have no money, come, but without money and without price.” And in the next verse those are actually punished who “weigh out money for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which does not satisfy.” In John 7:37, we read, “And on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” So, as you notice, Jesus especially desires the thirsty souls and his promises his grace to them. In Jeremiah 50:4-5 we read, ‘In those days and in that time,” says the Lord “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping. They will go and seek the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and be added to the Lord in an eternal covenant that will not be forgotten.”
—Johannes Hoornbeeck from “Spiritual Desertion”

Blog owners note: For those who are thirsty yet struggle with the battle of spiritual terrors, spiritual desertion or general lack of assurance, a battle I fight myself daily, so am all too familiar with it, remember that Scripture teaches that God takes the heart felt desire for the deed. So a heart felt desire and hungering and thirsting after righteousness, has already led to acceptance with God even if you don’t feel that is true. In Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says “Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” His words show that folk with that hunger are already blessed. He does not say they will be blessed or might be blessed. But Blessed are. Neither does He say, the self-righteous will be filled. It is people who go to God empty I believe with nothing of their own who face this battle with doubts and fears. And those are the very hearts, that God desires.

Law vs Grace or Sola Scriptura?

This post has 1319 words. It will take approximately 6 minutes, 35 secondes for reading it.

I know many people same as myself become wearied by hearing the argument of  “We are not under law but under grace,” as New Testament Christians.  Paul explicitly spoke against this. (Rom 6:1). We have no more liberty to licentiousness than did Israel in the time of the Prophets.  The letter still stands, the two Testaments are not divorced, but taken completely and Scripture interprets Scripture. In fact, if you read the Old Testament, through the lens of the New Testament,  you can see Christ all the way through the Old Testament.

I love Luther’s term for the Scriptures when he called them the “Swaddling clothes of Christ.”  Paul again in 2 Tim 3:16  used the term ALL Scripture, meaning both Testaments.

Christ in the New Testament was forever quoting the old Testament; one of the best known passages he quoted was Deut 8:3 In Matt. 4:4 and Luke 4:4

Matthew 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The Prophet Isa also spoke of the will of God regarding the Old testament and the time Isa was speaking from in Isa 59:21

As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.

It is pretty clear the Covenant he is speaking of is not of just some duration but of all duration till the end of time. One cannot read it any other way without wresting the Scriptures to other than they actually say.

When Jesus referred to Deut 8:3 I believe he was talking about us having the shield of faith as spoken of all through Ephesians 6, because we are in a war zone every day as Christians; we are soldiers and in a war no less than the troops or military on the battlie-field only our enemy cannot be seen but is of unseen powers and spirits, and that makes the god of this world because of that even more dangerous than a visible enemy.

But to take up the shield of faith, and putting on the whole armour of God which as Paul describes it as:

Ephesians 6:10-20 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Since the letter of the Law was given to Moses in the Old Testament and that above any other part of Scripture reveals both the will of God and the nature of God Himself, and since God is immutable, it stands and abides forever. The two Testaments should not be divorced or separated, and only what Christ Himself abrogated still stands, in fact he himself said, In Matt 5

Matthew 5:17-19 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

The Roman Catholic church though it hasn’t gone so far as with the second commandment and doing away with it, it has given itself the authority to disregard the fourth commandment of Sabbath keeping; and the Protestant church, even much of the Reformed, twists, wriggles and argues technicalities, to say why keeping the Sabbath Day holy is no longer binding, and brings in ceremonial arguments which has no relevance at all to the point at hand in the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment is just one example. We all break the law each and every day, if we are truly en-grafted into Christ, then His blood has paid the price of our past, present and future sins, but if we truly are in Christ, that should not lend us to want to live licentiously or to say liberty is doing as we want instead of dong God’s will. True Christian liberty is not freedom from the law but freedom under the law. If we say it is not longer binding on us as New Testament Christians we are actually passing sentence on the law of God. And in fact, making gods of ourselves by doing so. Just as Adam and Eve did in the garden.

The law to the New Testament Christian should not be a yoke or a burden but a joy and a delight. Jesus nailed it exactly when he said in John 14, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Do we love him? And if so, are we willing to deny our own will to do the will of the Father? And do it joyfully and cheerfully? God loves a cheerful giver as it is given with a right heart. He doesn’t like formalism or doing it out of rote as that would be nothing but trying to earn God’s favour, and legalistic or self righteous rather than the righteousness of Christ?

Do we delight to do His will as revealed in the Ten commandments and the other commandments in Scripture outside of the Tables? If so, then one’s hope is probably well grounded and sound. But if not, it maybe a time to search one’s heart and think about the words of Jesus, of “if you love me, you will keep My commandments.” If you love someone in this life, your spouse, child, parents, you want to do anything you can to make them happy don’t we? The same should be true of if we love Christ and that will show itself, by our fruit. James says that faith without works is dead, and I have believed for some time that the works he is primarily speaking of is obedience, and doing God’s will. That will include good works of course, but the scope is much broader, and it starts at the ten Commandments, because it is those that time and again every single day when we fall short and break them, that drive us back to Christ again and again. The Two Testaments stand together, not divided or divorced. It is not a question of Law vs Grace, it is a question of Sola Scriptura.

As Like Filthy Rags, without the Righteousness of Christ

This post has 76 words. It will take approximately 22 secondes for reading it.

O Soul! do not think when your sins pursue you, that a little praying and reforming your ways will pacify God. You must begin with your heart. If that is not renewed you can no more please God than one who, having unspeakably offended you, should bring you the most loathesome thing to pacify you; or having fallen into the mire, should think with his filthy embraces to reconcile you.
—Joseph Alleine

(Isa 64:6; Heb. 11:6; Matt. 7:13-14)

Are You a Law Student?

This post has 2092 words. It will take approximately 10 minutes, 27 secondes for reading it.

Are you a law student? King David was! Oh how I Love thy law etc, etc. (Psalm 119:97; Psalm 19:17)

The law has become obfuscated in our day and age, of what exactly if any relevance the moral law, the ten commandments has to do with New Testament Christians. You will find all kinds of variances, there is much antinomianism about, and there is still people adding to God’s Word and gong further than Scripture requires.

The order one brings God’s law into having anyone to do with life, at least in sincerity, has a lot to do with this subject. For one to uphold the law as much as we are able, and to attempt to, before we have been justified sinners before God, is legalism, we are trying to work our way to heaven, yet without being justified before God by the blood of Christ and having His righteousness imputed to us, it’s all folly and vanity. Much like the lawyers of the New Testament that Christ called a brood of vipers.

No one will get to heaven, or be true Christians, no matter how much we try to live by the Law of God, without first having gone to the Lord in faith, and had your sins washed clean with His precious blood, and so standing righteous in his sight. The order of things is of import. The first thing in the order of faith is the above.

Any good works before that will not merit anyone out of hell.

But there is a lot of confusion today amongst New Testament Christians about exactly how or if the law applies to us today. To try and follow it to the letter, when justified sinners before God, will often get the call of “Legalist” brought down upon our heads. Yet what is the moral Law as given in the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai? It is a reflection of God’s nature, and it tells us who and what He is above almost anything else.

This is not going to be a blog post about the fourth commandment, but I am using the fourth commandment as an example here because it is the one I hear most often that people do not understand how this applies today. That we are not under law but under grace and that it’s not put down as clearly as the other commandments are. The rest of the commandments say, thou shalt not, or thou shalt. Thou shalt not kill, is quite easy to interpret, same as thou shalt not commit adultery. We can all understand that in an instant. But some parts of Scripture are not all written in the same exacting way.
It took Tertullian to first bring the doctrine of the Trinity to the church, because in Scripture the Word trinity never appears, and it is only indicated at it being so. Tertullian was a study of Scripture, and this seems often where we go wrong today. We want the answers handed to us on a plate without doing the work that all Christians should do on their own behalf to find out what God is saying about any given subject. We ask this person, or that person; we ask as Calvinist’s what Calvin thought. The one place we don’t seem to go though is to appeal to God to illuminate us and go to His Word to put the hours in, the study in, to find out what is meant exactly by, “Remember the Sabbath day, and Keep it holy.”
Is it a symptom of the immediate everything society we live in? Perhaps. It’s also a sign of sloth and of us not delighting in God’s Word if we are not prepared to study it to that extent, to be like the Berean’s and search the Scriptures to see what God is saying and meaning exactly by Exodus 20:8.
In cases like that, we need to go to all of Scripture and find all the places where the subject is brought up, and study all those places together, so that we get a systematic belief that becomes plainer the more systematized it is, and so that we can be left in no doubt. God did not leave us in darkness over the Ten Commandments and what He requires or expects of us. The answers to everything that is not plain in one place can be found by studying the whole of Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture is an old and very true saying.

Anyone who refuses to do so, but keeps asking this person or that person, instead of going to the source in my opinion has good reason to question their conversion, especially over matters regarding the law. As what was David’s attitude in Psalm 119 that he delighted in the law and meditated on it day and night. In Psalm 19 he calls it perfect. Something perfect is not going to be changed. You cannot improve on perfect, and if the Moral law of God changed, that would indicate that God had changed too, in which case. If He was changeable He would not already be perfect so could not be God.
We read Jesus say: Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
And he did fulfil the law. The only man since Adam and Eve fell and put a curse on the rest of us who ever had or whoever will by living a sinless life. But by his fulfilling it to the letter, then he re-established it for those who are his people who came after him. Following Christ means being conformed to him and to imitate him. He fulfilled the law perfectly, (which we can never do) but the more we try to do so, the being conformed to Christ we will be becoming. Because first comes justification, then we are followers of Christ and having the moral law as our rule of faith and practice is what makes for the sanctified Christian.
The law each and every one of them, has a lot more meat on the bones of what they actually mean, besides the one or two lines stated in the Old Testament. For instance, I have known folk who thought though shalt not commit false witness, simply meant you shouldn’t perjure yourself in court!! There is a whole lot more to that law than that, but the folk who believe that’s what it teaches were not students of Scripture nor delighted in the law of God like David did, or they would have had after many years of professing faith much more than such a basic simple knowledge as that.
You can’t be saved by the law, by doing works without first being justified by God. But you can’t be saved without the law either. Anyone who is truly justified by and before God will do good works and obey the law of God as much as any human can, as a consequence of saving faith and saving grace. God does not tell us to do what he does not give us the tools to do. What God requires of us, he gives the grace to us to do it with. So if we are not following God, and obeying his rules, yes rules I say, Do this and live, or don’t do this and die, which appear in Scripture can quite justly be called rules, the Law of God. God’s Rules and not man’s rules. But if you mention the word rules to folk at times again you will have the word Legalist come crashing down upon your head. A parent gives its child rules to follow. As long as the child obeys it stays in favour with its parents. Once it disobeys it will be punished and out of favour. And God clearly says in both covenants, do this and live. With every promise comes a threatening and a curse, the promise is for if we do obey , the threatening is what will happen and the curse being pronounced upon us if we don’t and are not ignorant new born babes, there is a very good chance we have had no real conversion. Jesus fulfilled the Law as he states in Matt. 5:17 and his people need to establish it upon the earth as his rule of thumb and it is one way He is glorified, and the more people who do, the more dominion and rule Christ will have upon the earth, because his values and morals will be becoming and more and more established the greater number of professing Christians who live the law out in life and practice.

We will either accept the whole moral law, or we reject it, and if we do that, we reject Christ along with it, because the law is the Revelation of God’s character and nature. And if we try to keep the ones that are desirous and pleasing to us, but not the ones that don’t please our flesh, we break one law, the whole law is broken. (James 2:10)
When we are justified before God, and his righteousness imputed to us, the law leads to our sanctification. The unsanctified Christian does not exist it’s an oxymoron, at least Christians that have professed so any length of time. The law teaches us what is right and wrong and what is meant by being holy. Because the sum of holiness is summed up in those ten commandments, but again, we have to dig a lot deeper to find out the full scope of each law.
Let us be like the Berean’s and search the Scriptures to see what God is saying to us and to testify of Him who perfectly kept and fulfilled the Law. (John 5:39) Ignorance is a choice if we do not. As every bit of Scripture is for our good. 1 Tim. 3:16 The Law is alive the Law is real, and without it, no one will go to Heaven. Because only those who are justified before God will be given the grace needed to obey it and so be sanctified by it.
Obey God by doing His revealed will, and do this and live. It’s the only path a true Christian, one justified before God, can follow.  If the moral law was not still enforce, then no one would need a Saviour.

And let us pray along with Augustine: Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt. Because unless that is fulfilled, we will not see the face of God.

As Walter Marshall wrote:

One cause of these errors, that are so contrary one to the other, is, that many are prone to imagine nothing else to be meant by salvation, but to be delivered from hell, and to enjoy heavenly happiness and glory: hence they conclude, that, if good works be a means of glorification, and precedent to it, they must also be a precedent means of our whole salvation; and that, if they be not a necessary means of our whole salvation, they are not necessary at all to glorification. But though salvation be often taken in Scripture by way of eminency, for its fperfection in the state of heavenly glory; yet according to its full and proper signification, we are to understand by it, all that freedom from evil of our natural corrupt state, and all those holy and happy enjoyments that we receive from Christ our Saviour either in this world by faith, or in the world to come by glorfication. Thus justification, the gift of the Spirit to dwell in us, the priviledges of adoption are parts of our salvation which we take part of in this life. Thus also, the conformity of our hearts to the law of God, and the fruits of righteousness with which we are filled by Jesus Christ, in this life, are a necessary part of our salvation.—God saveth us from our sinful uncleanness here, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost as well as from hell hereafter (Ezek. xxxvi.29; Titus iii.5). Christ was called Jesus, that is a Saviour, because he saved his people from their sins. (Matt i. 21). Therefore it is part of our salvation to deliver us from our sins, which is begun in this life, by justification and sanctification, and perfected by glorification in the life to come.

Calvinist’s Should not be the Frozen Chosen

This post has 3378 words. It will take approximately 16 minutes, 53 secondes for reading it.

I have heard it said, and I’m sure many of you may have experienced it to some degree, that those within the Reformed faith community can be unloving. Sadly, this is often the case, but it should not be.   Being God’s elect should not make us the frozen chosen.

John Calvin who is quite greivously slandered and misrepresented in death as much as he was in life, made this well known statement:

Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life; is not apprehended by the intellect and memory merely, like other branches of learning; but is received only when it possesses the whole soul, and finds its seat and habitation in the inmost recesses of the heart.

Experimental religion doesn’t just appear as good theology, and doctrinal learning, it reaches into every recess of our lives and practices, it affects the whole man in the whole of life. It certainly doesn’t make us blocks of stone, because true Christianity, is about having tender hearts, and having the attributes that God does, though in a less perfect way, some of those ways being compassion, loving-kindness, long-suffering, and a few others I could mention.
This is a subjet that until a short time ago, I could not have written about without it turning into a rant at the cold, discompassionate Christians I have known, who have only sought their own or immediate families welfare, and anyone outside of that doesn’t count, and their soul is not worth nurturing, but now I am detached enough from the hurts I have felt for a very long time, since first being strapped to a sick bed, and left to basically die alone, by Christian “friends” both in my local vicinity and “friends” in the online world, whose faith didn’t extend outside their own four walls, or barely at least. But it is long over-due for saying even so.
In the times of the Reformers and puritans and Scots Covenanters, these people had a deep care and concern for the welfare of their brethren. Calvin never heard of an afflicted church, or someone awaiting martrydom, but he would write them a letter of comfort and consolation even if they were in different countries. He was not one of the frozen chosen.
This was displayed clearly in his concern for Servetus. Forget the fables you have read about that whole case, if you want to read an accurate account of events of Calvin and Sevetus then I may suggest you read an accurate and well researched account I posted some time ago, HERE.
If Michael Servetus at the last, escaped the flames of hell, it would have been because of how God used John Calvin to talk him out of his heresy. And there are some reports that when in the flames the last words he was heard to utter was, “eternal Father, accept my Spirit” I hope that is the case. But Calvin persevered so tirelessly in the case of Servetus because of his concern for his soul. It is why he was so frequent a visitor to him in his prison cell as he awaited execution, because he wanted him to repent before he died. Calvin certain wasn’t one of the frozen chosen.

The Wesminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God says this about visiting the sick:
Concerning Visitation of the Sick.

IT is the duty of the minister not only to teach the people committed to his charge in publick, but privately; and particularly to admonish, exhort, reprove, and comfort them, upon all seasonable occasions, so far as his time, strength, and personal safety will permit.

He is to admonish them, in time of health, to prepare for death; and, for that purpose, they are often to confer with their minister about the estate of their souls; and, in times of sickness, to desire his advice and help, timely and seasonably, before their strength and understanding fail them.

Times of sickness and affliction are special opportunities put into his hand by God to minister a word in season to weary souls: because then the consciences of men are or should be more awakened to bethink themselves of their spiritual estate for eternity; and Satan also takes advantage then to load them more with sore and heavy temptations: therefore the minister, being sent for, and repairing to the sick, is to apply himself, with all tenderness and love, to administer some spiritual good to his soul, to this effect.

He may, from the consideration of the present sickness, instruct him out of scripture, that diseases come not by chance, or by distempers of body only, but by the wise and orderly guidance of the good hand of God to every particular person smitten by them. And that, whether it be laid upon him out of displeasure for sin, for his correction and amendment, or for trial and exercise of his graces, or for other special and excellent ends, all his sufferings shall turn to his profit, and work together for his good, if he sincerely labour to make a sanctified use of God’s visitation, neither despising his chastening, nor waxing weary of his correction.

If he suspect him of ignorance, he shall examine him in the principles of religion, especially touching repentance and faith; and, as he seeth cause, instruct him in the nature, use, excellency, and necessity of those graces; as also touching the covenant of grace; and Christ the Son of God, the Mediator of it; and concerning remission of sins by faith in him.

He shall exhort the sick person to examine himself, to search and try his former ways, and his estate towards God.

And if the sick person shall declare any scruple, doubt, or temptation that are upon him, instructions and resolutions shall be given to satisfy and settle him.

If it appear that he hath not a due sense of his sins, endeavours ought to be used to convince him of his sins, of the guilt and desert of them; of the filth and pollution which the soul contracts by them; and of the curse of the law, and wrath of God, due to them; that he may be truly affected with and humbled for them: and withal make known the danger of deferring repentance, and of neglecting salvation at any time offered; to awaken his conscience, and rouse him up out of a stupid and secure condition, to apprehend the justice and wrath of God, before whom none can stand, but he that, lost in himself, layeth hold upon Christ by faith.

If he hath endeavoured to walk in the ways of holiness, and to serve God in uprightness, although not without many failings and infirmities; or, if his spirit be broken with the sense of sin, or cast down through want of the sense of God’s favour; then it will be fit to raise him up, by setting before him the freeness and fulness of God’s grace, the sufficiency of righteousness in Christ, the gracious offers in the gospel, that all who repent, and believe with all their heart in God’s mercy through Christ, renouncing their own righteousness, shall have life and salvation in him. It may be also useful to shew him, that death hath in it no spiritual evil to be feared by those that are in Christ, because sin, the sting of death, is taken away by Christ, who hath delivered all that are his from the bondage of the fear of death, triumphed over the grave, given us victory, is himself entered into glory to prepare a place for his people: so that neither life nor death shall be able to separate them from God’s love in Christ, in whom such are sure, though now they must be laid in the dust, to obtain a joyful and glorious resurrection to eternal life.

Advice also may be given, as to beware of an ill-grounded persuasion on mercy, or on the goodness of his condition for heaven, so to disclaim all merit in himself, and to cast himself wholly upon God for mercy, in the sole merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, who hath engaged himself never to cast off them who in truth and sincerity come unto him. Care also must be taken, that the sick person be not cast down into despair, by such a severe representation of the wrath of God due to him for his sins, as is not mollified by a sensible propounding of Christ and his merit for a door of hope to every penitent believer.

When the sick person is best composed, may be least disturbed, and other necessary offices about him least hindered, the minister, if desired, shall pray with him, and for him, to this effect:

“Confessing and bewailing of sin original and actual; the miserable condition of all by nature, as being children of wrath, and under the curse; acknowledging that all diseases, sicknesses, death, and hell itself, are the proper issues and effects thereof; imploring God’s mercy for the sick person, through the blood of Christ; beseeching that God would open his eyes, discover unto him his sins, cause him to see himself lost in himself, make known to him the cause why God smiteth him, reveal Jesus Christ to his soul for righteousness and life, give unto him his Holy Spirit, to create and strengthen faith to lay hold upon Christ, to work in him comfortable evidences of his love, to arm him against temptations, to take off his heart from the world, to sanctify his present visitation, to furnish him with patience and strength to bear it, and to give him perseverance in faith to the end.

That, if God shall please to add to his days, he would vouchsafe to bless and sanctify all means of his recovery; to remove the disease, renew his strength, and enable him to walk worthy of God, by a faithful remembrance, and diligent observing of such vows and promises of holiness and obedience, as men are apt to make in times of sickness, that he may glorify God in the remaining part of his life.

And, if God have determined to finish his days by the present visitation, he may find such evidence of the pardon of all his sins, of his interest in Christ, and eternal life by Christ, as may cause his inward man to be renewed, while his outward man decayeth; that he may behold death without fear, cast himself wholly upon Christ without doubting, desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and so receive the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul, through the only merits and intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, our alone Saviour and all-sufficient Redeemer.”

The minister shall admonish him also (as there shall be cause) to set his house in order, thereby to prevent inconveniences; to take care for payment of his debts, and to make restitution or satisfaction where he hath done any wrong; to be reconciled to those with whom he hath been at variance, and fully to forgive all men their trespasses against him, as he expects forgiveness at the hand of God.

Lastly, The minister may improve the present occasion to exhort those about the sick person to consider their own mortality, to return to the Lord, and make peace with him; in health to prepare for sickness, death, and judgment; and all the days of their appointed time so to wait until their change come, that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, they may appear with him in glory.

The whole document can read at one of my sister sites 2. Covenanted Reformation.

William Perkins, who is said to be the father of English puritans, and the first puritan, first  congregation was in a jail in Cambridge. He worked tirelessly with these men, many of them facing execution for their crimes, and he worked often never seeing the wages for his work.  One day however, a young man was awaiting execution at the jail, came to him in great distress about facing death, and his fear of it.  Perkins begged him and pleaded with him in tears, to accept Christ, telling him of the Gospel and how he could be sure of being like the thief on the cross and after execution be with Christ in paradise.  His tears and pleadings so affected the young prisoner that he did accept Christ, and he faced his execution with great courage, and it was a testimony to God’s grace at how bravely he met his death.  William Perkins, was not one of the frozen chosen. Neither were the Westminster divines who penned the Director of Publick Worship.

It is often said of Samuel Rutherford, that his life was one self sacrifice and consisted of: “always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick, always catechising, always writing and [always] studying.”   Samuel Rutherford, was not one of the frozen chosen.

If you read for any time through Calvin’s letters, you will see his words of comfort and consolation to those facing death, awaiting martydrom, exhorting them to be constant to the end, not only out of his pastors heart, but out of real concern for their souls.

Oliver Cromwell, whatever one may think of him in history, is another one who was deeply moved by the sufferings of the puritans.  Oliver Cromwell was not one of the frozen chosen.

If people are sick, and facing death or uncertain futures, they need to be built up and prepared to die, to be ready to meet their maker, for their souls to matter enough to spend time in trying to get them  to a good spiritual estate.  I was blessed to have one friend who was not one of the frozen chosen.

Richard Baxter in his “The Reformed Pastor” wrote his of ones duties towards the sick and/or dying.

We must be diligent in visiting the sick, and helping them to prepare either for a fruitful life, or a happy death. Though this should be the business of all our life and theirs, yet doth it, at such a season, require extraordinary care both of them and us. When time is almost gone, and they must now or never be reconciled to God, oh, how doth it concern them to redeem those hours, and to lay hold on eternal life! And when we see that we are like to have but a few days or hours more to speak to them, in order to their everlasting welfare, who, that is not a block or an infidel, would not be much with them, and do all he can for their salvation in that short space!
Will it not awaken us to compassion, to look on a languishing man, and to think that within a few days his soul be in heaven or hell? Surely it will try the faith and seriousness of ministers, to be much about dying men! They will thus have opportunity to discern whether they themselves are in good earnest about the matters of the life to come. So great is the change that is made by death, that it should awaken us to the greatest sensibility to see a man so near it, and should so excite in us the deepest pangs of compassion, to do the office of inferior angels for the soul, before it departs from the body, that it may be ready for the convoy of superior angels to the “inheritance of the saints in light.” When a man is almost at his journey’s end, and the next step brings him to heaven or hell, it is time for us, while their is hope, to help him if we can.
—Richard Baxter, “The Reformed Pastor” B.O.T. pp. 102

Richard Baxter was not one of the frozen chosen. But through my pilgrimage through this world in such an afflicted condition the last few years I seem to have sure come across and known and even been friends with alot of the frozen chosen, or as Baxter calls them “blocks or infidels.”
It is not always the case among Calvinists today, but sadly it is too rife and I have seen and experienced that from the sharp end. Doctrine and theology maketh no man. A man with good doctrine and all his theological ducks lined up, and maybe even with the voice of an angel for the holy words he speaks, if his actions say otherwise, it counts not one iota, and the puritans and reformers, of which just a few instances there are above and there could be countless others added to it, were both theologically astute, but also practiced experimental religion and were very self denying and self sacrificing. Their brethren’s sufferings mattered to them, they wept with those who wept, and had concern for their souls.
But finally, what does our good Lord say about the frozen chosen? In Matthew 25:31-46 he says thus which should deter anyone from being so self seeking or self serving only, to not be those mentioned in this passage because of the end that is threatened to them

Matthew 25:31-46 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Faith and religion is not passive, or just holy sounding words. Actions speak far louder than words, and show the inclination of our hearts, much more readily than any amount of holy sound words can ever do. Let us get back to the days of experimental religion. In the above example the whole sum of the law is broken, by not loving our neighboutr as ourself. And if we do not do so, then we do not love God aright either. As only when we love God rightly, we will be able to love our fellow man aright too. It does not only apply to Pastors, because we are all part of the royal priesthood

Live as if We Expect to Go to Eternity in the Next Hour

This post has 591 words. It will take approximately 2 minutes, 57 secondes for reading it.

Think often how religiously men wish they had lived when they come to the time of sickness and death. Those who have spent their time most carelessly, begin to have other notions of religion when they see the grim messenger approaching. Go to their bedsides and ask them whether sloth or diligence, formality or ferverncy, drinking or praying, loving the world or loving Christ, be the best; would they not tell you, that there are none so wise as they that are most religious? Think O’man, think with thyself, if thou wert now upon thy death-bed, and sawest thy friends stand mourning about thee, but unable to help thee, what would be thy thoughts and discourse at that time? Oh, then let some of the same thoughts and discourse fill up every day and hour of thy life now. Thou knowest not  but this moment thou mayest be as near as death as if thy friends and physicians were despairing of thy life and had given thee over for dead.
—John Willison, “The Afflicted Man’s Companion” pp. 251

There is no such thing as being a part time Christian, faith, religion, Christ, duty to God and man, should be all of our lives. The puritans believed we were not guiltless even over dreams that had improper things in them. How much more are we responsible for what we choose to make our business when awake. The world may be at our feet, if we are rich as compared to others, but it doesn’t mean we should make it our business and put God and His service, into second place. God says, “Thou shalt not have other gods before me.” and “you cannot serve both God and mammon.”
Christian, are you sure you have the right portion as your chief good? How we spend ones time, how we serve God in serving each other, and on what scale of pirority God is in all our thoughts, discourse and deeds is, will give us some idea of where our heart really lies.
Christian, the way is narrow and the gate is strait, few enter into it.[Matt 7:14] Why are there so few? Because despite their godly prostestations, and external actions that looked like a credible profession, the world was more important to them than the God of heaven and earth. We cannot be half a Christian; or a part time Christian; or just when it is convenient to us to be. It must be more than a way of life even, we must live and breathe moment by moment, the ways of God and Glorify Him and enjoy him forever. Christian, are you sure your happiness is from the Lord, and not the good things and comfort that the Lord may have given you? If God took them all away from you this very moment, would you retain your joy and happiness?
Let’s hope and pray that come the day we finally do leave this mortal coil, we do not find our profession of faith and religion here on earth, was nothing but empty and vain and a sham. It may fool those we converse with if it is, and they may think well of us becuse of it. But no one can fool or deceive God. Only he knows the secrets of the inner heart of any of us.
Christian, lets make sure we are not deluded, and our pilgrimage not in vain by only going half way, and the monster of self, keeping us from the other half.

We Shouldn’t Cast out Or Despise What God Loves

This post has 433 words. It will take approximately 2 minutes, 9 secondes for reading it.

This is continuing the recent series of posts about loving ones neighbour as ourself. I hope to get a plug in that will list series on the side-bar, so that this and any future series will be easy for the reader to find. And having seen what I have seen, towards both myself and others in affliction, this is an important subject and needs addressing. As my circle has always been small, circumstances make for that, but I not only suffered it towards myself but saw others suffer similar when in grave affliction, which to me indicates how rife it is, when my circle is so small yet have seen it twice already. When anyone can say to me or anyone like me, as far as suffering, I have asked for all I suffer, as if they deserve all their riches and are somehow better, it’s little different to the pharisee and the publican. Luke 8:11; Nor little different to Matt 23:26 to the close of chapter; Luke 11:46; Luke 11:52; Matt. 15:1-7 shows how the law works without love.

All men have Wants and Helps: But here is the matter, some have crookedness, and that is soon seen, because some carry the blot in their face, and they are soon spit at. you pity your own crooked toe, and are offended at your brother’s crooked nose; ye pity yourselves, and send your love home over to lick all yourselves: hold friends here, and lend Love and Charity to others, and send some of it home to love and pity others, and so much the more, because fire will be under much Ashes; and if the man be God’s Gold, will ye cast him away because he wanteth some grains, or because his King’s Stamp is lipped in the edge, and he wants half a letter? Christ will pay the skaith, and take him into his Treasure, whom ye have cast out of your love and hearts; only beware of casting a these whom God hath taken in; that is to be feared. In a Word, when there are weak and strong in a church, every man should have a back and a saddle in readiness to bear his brother through the water. our Lord Jesus will not cast away a bruised reed, nor deny a poor weak bairn of his own kin and blood, because he hath a little crook or an halt; Neither should we cast any way, but love, pity, help, wait on, and be thankful for what the Lord hath given us.
—Samuel Rutherford from a sermon, “cruel watchmen.”

The Last Enemy and His Last Mercy

This post has 913 words. It will take approximately 4 minutes, 33 secondes for reading it.

The Bible describes death as the Christian’s final enemy, and it is. The one thing the whole of the human race have in common is that none of us can escape or cheat death; and even among the most sound Christians, it can hold fear and uncertainty, and doubt any of a dozen other emotions.  John Knox noted upon his own death bed, that during those final days and hours the devil tempted with thoughts of self-exaltation, trying to make him feel pleased in what he had accomplished during his life.  My own fear, apart from the ones that most people will have, is that being alone, if it be at a time I am particuarly tortured in my mind or spirit, with no loved ones, that I am afraid I may betray Christ at the last. But, I know that is also something else I have to trust him for. One thing the broken vessels of his pilgrimage are aware of even more I believe than the stronger vessels, is just how God seems to perform the impossible and keeps us, when we feel we do not know how to even endure another hour. And God’s strength is shown by our own utter weakness, frailty and inability, that goes way beyond the norm of those same things in others. Death is the last enemy all of us face, death is also a serious business, and we should make it our business, before we are on our sick bed, not knowing or taking granted that we have another week or year. When we are in the strongest and finest of health, we should make death our buisness. By that I mean, in dying to this world, and preparing ourselves more and more for that day when the physical death arrives which you can be sure it will do, to get our hearts right with God and not give the enemy amunition to torment us with at those final hours, by things we did or didn’t do when we could have and now the enemy accuses us as we face death because we didn’t.  Preparing for death means to be doing Christians. Though that doing will take many different forms for us all because we are all differntly placed in life.  The regrets of life, of having not ate, drank and be merry, is not the kind of regret that should bother the Christian at death, but if we ever left undone what God calls us to do, and if we have ever repented of our grossest vile acts. Making death our buisiness in life, so that these things are not left till we are on our death bed,  is a continual getting and keeping our affairs in order. Our spiritual affairs, our claim to heaven.

I sometimes think that those who have added to my lot, thoughtlessly and carelessly and sometimes will full intent of doing so, that when they come to be on their own death beds, then the devil will remind them, how they didn’t do thus and thus to me, and in that they didn’t do it to Christ also. [Matt 25:32-46]  and Christ warns that has huge eternal consequences. That wouldn’t be something I would want the devil our common enemy to be able to accuse me of at my dying hour, yet I don’t see how all those who have added to this lot needlesssly, will avoid it totally.  That maybe their punishment, even if they  feest on riches now. That when they are at their weakst and most in need of comfort, all the will hear is the voice of the accuser reminding them what they did to me, when I lay where they are now.

Death is our common enemy without a doubt.  But it is also the last and greatest mercy that God can bestow upon his children. Because he takes us home to be with him, where no more tears or sorrow or suffering, or sin, will ever come near to us again. And it will all be replaced by unspeakable joy, and what seemed dark and veiled while in these bodies of clay, we will behold in all its glory, and we will sit with our Saviour, knowintg we travelled through this world as pilgrims, but now, finally, we have come home.

This a short poem about death, taken from Benajamin Palmers “The broken home or lessons in sorrow.”

The way is dark, my Father ! Cloud on cloud
Is gathering thickly o’er my head, and loud
The thunders roar above me. See, I stand
Like one bewildered ! Father, take my hand,
And through the gloom
Lead safely home
Thy child!

” The day goes fast, my Father ! and the night
Is drawing darkly down. My faithless sight
Sees ghostly visions. Fears, a spectral band,
Encompass me. O Father ! take my hand,
And from the night
Lead up to light
Thy child!

” The throng is great, my Father ! Many a. doubt
And fear and danger compass me about;
And foes oppress me sore. I cannot stand
Or go alone. O Father ! take my hand,
And through the throng

‘ Lead safe along[ Thy child!
•’ The cross is heavy, Father ! I have borne
It long, and still do bear it. Let my worn
And fainting spirit rise to that blest land
Where crowns are given. Father ! take my hand ;
And, reaching down,
Lead to the crown
Thy child !

The Narrow Way

This post has 3 words. It will take approximately for reading it.

On Matthew 7:13-27