Daily Devotional Chronicle

"...and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." [Prov 1:32)

Freedom from afflictions seems most desirable both to nature and grace. We naturally love our ease, and would have nothing befall us that is grievous to the flesh and blood; and gracious persons pray and strive to prevent and remove afflictions. But yet the experience of all, good and bad, in all ages of the world proclaims this upon the housetops, that more have got good by afflictions than by being without them...
There is more danger in freedom than from affliction than we are willing to suspect; and it is more difficult to love, and fear, and trust God, when we have the world, than when we want it. Without serious godliness, it is impossible to withstand the insinuating and pleasing temptation of flattering prosperity; and unless faith is active, we cannot deal with it.
Why, then! is an afflicted condition to be preferred? Some that have had experience of both, say that they have been afraid to be without their afflictions. Some sick persons have been afraid of health, though they desired it, lest what they got in their sickness they should lose in their health.
But yet the continuance of afflictions breaks the spirit, and hinders that cheerful serving and praising God, which is, or should be, the life of a Christian. Though many are made better by afflictions, yet none are allowed to pray for afflictions, but against them, and use all good means to avoid or remove them. It is one thing that makes heaven desirable---to be done with all our afflictions.
---Samuel Annesley, "Puritan Sermons, Vol. 3. pp. 22.)

Posted by Deejay, October 27, 2008 18:52

Glory to the Trinity

"Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth me..."(Psalm 50:23)

Glorifying God has reference to all persons in the Trinity; to God the Father, who gave us life; to God the Son, who lost His life for us; and to God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity...
Creatures below us, and above us, bring glory to God; and do we think to sit rent free? Shall everything glorify God but man?... Creatures below us glorify God, the inanimate creatures... Creatures above us glorify God: the angels are ministering spirits. They are still waiting on God's throne, and bring revenues of glory to the exchequer of Heaven. Surely man should be much more studious of God's glory than the angels; for God has honored him more than the angels, in that Christ took man's nature upon Him, and not the angels... He has married mankind to Himself; the angels are Christ's friends, not His spouse...
We glorify God by praising Him. Doxology or praise, is a God exalting work. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me" (Ps. 50:23). David was called the sweet singer of Israel, and his praising God was called glorifying God. "I will praise thee O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy Name." (Ps. 86:12). Though nothing can add to God's essential glory, yet praise exalts Him in the eyes of others. When we praise God, we spread His fame and renown, we display the trophies of His excellency... Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men, in praise we act like angels....
---Thomas Watson--"Body of Divinity, pp 4, 7, 11

Posted by Deejay, October 13, 2008 23:17.

Enjoying God

...in thy presence is fulness of joy;...[Psalm 16:11]

Man's chief end is to enjoy God forever...There is a twofold fruition of enjoying God; the one is in this life the other in the life to come.
1. The enjoyment of God in this life. It is a great matter to enjoy God's ordinances, but to enjoy God's presence in the ordinances is that which a gracious heart aspires after... In the Word we hear God's voice, in the sacrament we have his kisses... The godly have had, in ordinances, such divine raptures of joy, and soul transfigurations, that they have been carried above the world, and have despised all things here below...
Let it be our great concern to enjoy God's sweet presence in His ordinances. Enjoying Spiritual communion with God is a riddle and mystery to most people. Everyone that hangs about the court does not speak with the King. We may approach ordinances, and hang about the court of heaven, yet not enjoy communion with God. We may have the letter without the Spirit, the visible sign without the invisible grace.
2. Let it be the chief end of our living to enjoy this chief good hereafter. Augustine enumerates 288 opinions from philosophers about happiness but all were short of the mark. The highest elevation of a reasonable soul is to enjoy God forever. It is the enjoyment of God that makes heaven...
You complain, Christian, that you don't enjoy yourself. In the day you cannot enjoy ease, in the night you cannot enjoy sleep... Let this revive you, that shortly you shall enjoy God, and then shall have more than you can ask or think; you shall have angels' joy, glory without intermission or expiration. We shall never enjoy ourselves fully till we enjoy God eternally.
---Thomas Watson From "A Body of Divinity."

Posted by Deejay, October 11, 2008 22:58

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I am an English woman living in England. I am a Calvinistic Christian and Covenanter. Things that are important to me include, My God and the Truths and doctrines enclosed in the canon of Scripture. My cat who I am absolutely crackers about! The history of the reformation and Puritan and Covenanter movements and the killing times and martyrdoms of those days for merely being a Christian and holding to the truth. We have a very safe and easy Christianity today by comparison. Sadly, I seem to share Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones' bleak outlook on the worth of the work (or lack of) of the Church as a whole in this age.

As another English Reformed Christian, Charles Spurgeon said:

"The old truths that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, is the truth that I preach today, or else I would be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. And that gospel which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."

I suffer chronic disability and illness from an condition that will at some point no doubt kill me. I have porphyria, a rare genetic blood disorder, that is most likened to living with full blown AIDS and leaves not an inch of my body internally or externally unaffected. This was the means however, that God used to save me, so I can say along with the Psalmist that it was good for me to afflicted. The illness though severe is not the biggest cross of it, but the fact that I live alone, are separated from the church I once loved, because when first ill and no longer able to attend, they forgot me, even after a letter of Repentance apologizing for their lack of care. So I resigned my membership, it being more painful and of no profit me staying and threw myself into God Alone's hands. I often don't see a human being though for days at a time, and with the degree of illness, continuous intractible pain, being so alone proves to be my biggest cross. But, God has taught me much through this trial. And it is part of why I have a great affinity with the suffering Martyrs of years ago. As my body is never not in agony, and faith has not always been easy, but God has been good. Most porphyrics will only have the symptom list below, when in an actual attack. A few like myself are always in acute stages of the illness and as if always in attack: