Eye Fixed on Christ

 

Keep Your Eye Fixed on Christ

Beware of hindering yourselves with any weight of earthly cares. Examine your hearts most closely, and purge out each besetting sin with a godly prayerful jealousy. Remember that blessed rule, "looking unto Jesus." Peter did run well for a time, when he left the ship to walk upon the sea to Jesus—but when he saw the waves and the storm he was afraid and began to sink. Thus many a one sets out courageously—but after a while corruptions rise high within, corruptions are strong without, the eye is drawn off Jesus, the devil gets an advantage—and the soul begins to sink. Oh, keep your eye steadily fixed on Christ, and you shall go through fire and water and they shall not hurt you.

~ J.C. Ryle

Choice

“Every time you make a choice you are turning into the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state of the other.”

 
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Almost Gone

"But as for me--my feet were almost gone! My steps had well near slipped!" Psalm 73:2

Ah, how frequently have I been almost gone! I can call to mind places and times, when I have been in the very mouth of danger, on the brink of a fearful fall--and yet the Lord has held me up! But for 'special keeping'--where would I have been this morning? Andwhat would I have been? Blessed be God, though it was almost--it was not quite. This word, almost, has been sweet to my soul. Almost gone!--but altogether saved, through God's most free, and all-glorious grace!

- James Smith

The Shallowness of Worldly Possessions

The possession of the whole world, and all that it contains, will never make a person happy. Its pleasures are false and deceptive. Its riches, rank, and honors, have no power to satisfy the heart. So long as we have not got them they glitter, sparkle, and seem desirable. The moment we have them we find that they are empty bubbles, and cannot make us feel content. And, worst of all, when we possess this world’s good things, to the utmost bound of our desire, we cannot keep them. Death comes in and separates us from all our property forever. Naked we came upon earth, and naked we go forth, and of all our possessions we can carry nothing with us. Such is the world, which occupies the whole attention of thousands! Such is the world, for the sake of which millions are every year destroying their souls!

~ J.C. Ryle

Charity Never Fails

1 Corinthians 13:8, "Charity never faileth."

Nothing is more valuable and commendable, and yet, not one duty is less practiced, than that of charity. We often pretend concern and pity for the misery and distress of our fellow-creatures, but yet we seldom commiserate their condition so much as to relieve them according to our abilities; but unless we assist them with what they may stand in need of, for the body, as well as for the soul, all our wishes are no more than words of no value or regard, and are not to be esteemed or regarded: for when we hear of any deplorable circumstance, in which our fellow-creatures are involved, be they friends or enemies; it is our duty, as Christians, to assist them to the utmost of our power.

Geroge Whitefield
from the sermon "The great duty of charity recommeded"

True Worship

It is not your worshipping God by words in hymns and prayers, or sitting in a certain place, or covering your faces at certain times that is acceptable to him; true worship lies in your heart paying reverence to him, your soul obeying him, and your inner nature coming into conformity to his own nature, by the work of his Spirit in your soul; and because men can scarcely get the idea of this till the Holy Spirit gives it to them, this is a reason why it is so rare, so exceedingly rare.

Charles Spurgeon

Gratitude

The man believes that he is forgiven. What then? He feels gratitude to him who has pardoned him. Feeling gratitude, it is but natural that he should hate that which displeases his Saviour, and should love intensely that which is pleasing to him who saved him, so that faith operates upon the entire nature, and becomes the instrument in the hand of the regenerating Spirit by which all the faculties of the soul are put into the right condition. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he, but his thinkings come out of his believings; if he be put right in his believings, then his understanding will operate upon his affections, and all the other powers of his manhood, and old things will pass away, all things will become new through the wonderful effect of the faith, which is of the operation of God. Faith works by love, and through love it purifies the soul, and the man becomes a new creature. See ye then the wisdom of God? He may choose what way he will, but he chooses a way which at once guards his grace from our felonious boastings, and on the other hand produces in us a holiness which other wise never would have been there.

- Charles Spurgeon

Path of Humility

Accept every humiliation,look upon every fellow-man who tries or vexes you, as a means of grace to humble you. Use every opportunity of humbling' yourself before your fellow-men as a help to abide humble before God. God will accept such humbling of yourself as the proof that your whole heart desires it, as the very best prayer for it, as your preparation for His mighty work of grace, when, by the mighty strengthening of His Holy Spirit, He reveals Christ fully in you, so that He, in His form of a servant, is truly formed in you, and dwells in your heart. It is the path of humility which leads to perfect death, the full and perfect experience that we are dead in Christ.

Andrew Murray

But Dust

He remembereth that we are dust. ~ Psalm 103:14

Oh how in this thy quire of souls I stand,
--Propt by thy hand--
A heap of Sand!
Which busie thoughts--like winds--would scatter quite,
And Put to flight,
But for thy might;
Thy hand alone doth tame
Those blasts, and knit my frame.

~ Henry Vaughan

Who Chose Whom?

". . . I mention these cases in particular, because I think they are remarkable proofs of the doctrine of God's eternal election and everlasting love. Whatever men's reasoning may suggest, if the children of God fairly examine their own experiences--if they do God justice, they must acknowledge that they did not choose God, but that God chose them." ~ George Whitefield

It's Not About Me

Charity . . . seeketh not her own. I Cor. 13:5

". . . a spirit of charity, or Christian love, as exercised toward our fellow-creatures, is opposite to a selfish spirit, as it is a sympathizing and merciful spirit. It disposes persons to consider not only their own difficulties, but also the burdens and afflictions of others, and the difficulties of their circumstances, and to esteem the case of those who are in straits and necessities as their own. . . a man of charitable spirit is apt to see the afflictions of others, and to take notice of their aggravation, and to be filled with concern for them, as he would be for himself if under difficulties. And he is ready, also, to help them, and take delight in supplying their necessities, and relieving their difficulties. He rejoices to obey that injunction of the apostle (Col. 3:12), "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness;" and to cherish the spirit of "wisdom (James 3:17) that is from above," which is "full of mercy;" and, like the good man spoken of by the Psalmist (Ps. 37:26) to be "merciful," that is, full of mercy." ~ Jonathan Edwards (From Charity and Its Fruits)

Insignificance of the External

"Let it never be forgotten that the material part of a Christian Church is by far the least important part of it. The fairest combinations of marble, stone, wood and painted glass, are worthless in God's sight, unless there is truth in the pulpit and grace in the congregation. The dens and caves in which the early Christians used to meet, were probably far more beautiful in the eyes of Christ than the noblest cathedral that was ever reared by man. The temple in which the Lord Jesus delights most, is a broken and contrite heart, renewed by the Holy Spirit". ~ J.C. Ryle

Archibald's Prayer

"O most merciful God! . . . Thou has a perfect right to dispose of me, in that manner which will most effectively promote thy glory: And I know that whatever Thou dost is right, and wise, and just, and good. . . .And when my spirit leaves this clay tenement, Lord Jesus receive it! Send some of the blessed angels to convey my inexperienced soul to the mansion which Thy love has prepared. And O! let me be so situated, though in the lowest rank, that I may behold thy glory. May I have an abundant entrance administered unto me into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; for whose sake and in whose name, I ask all these things. Amen."

Prayer uttered by Archibald Alexander, founder of Princeton Theological Seminary, shortly before his death in 1851.

Savoury Mercies

The Lord is my portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. Psalm 16: 5-6

Take notice not only of the mercies of God, but of God in the mercies. Mercies are never so savoury as when they savour of a Saviour. ~ Ralph Venning, 1620-1673

Confessing Christ Boldly to Others

The wickedness of being ashamed of Christ is very great. It is a proof of unbelief. It shows that we care more for the praise of men whom we can see, than that of God whom we cannot see. It is a proof of ingratitude. It shows that we fear confessing Him before man who was not ashamed to die for us upon the cross. Wretched indeed are they who give way to this sin. Here, in this world, they are always miserable. A bad conscience robs them of peace. In the world to come they can look for no comfort. In the day of judgment they must expect to be disowned by Christ to all eternity, if they will not confess Christ for a few years upon earth. Let us resolve never to be ashamed of Christ. Of sin and worldliness we may well be ashamed. Of Christ and His cause we have no right to be ashamed at all. Boldness in Christ's service always brings its own reward. The boldest Christian is always the happiest person.

~ J.C. Ryle

Abundant Satisfaction

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. Psalm 63:5

There is that in a gracious God and in communion with him, which gives abundant satisfaction to a soul . . . And there is that in a gracious soul, which takes abundant satisfaction in God, and in communion with him.

~ Matthew Henry.

A Secret Work

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Psalm 139:15

" 'My substance was not hid from thee.' The substantial part of my being was before thine all-seeing eye; the bones which make my frame were put together by thine hand. The essential materials of my being before they were arranged were all within the range of thine eye. I was hidden from all human knowledge, but not from thee: thou hast ever been intimately acquainted with me. 'When I was made in secret.' Most chastely and beautifully is here described the formation of our being before the time of our birth. A great artist will often labour alone in his studio, and not suffer his work to be seen until it is finished; even so did the Lord fashion us where no eye beheld us, and the veil was not lifted till every member was complete . . . 'And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.' 'Embroidered with great skill,' is an accurate poetical description of the creation of veins, sinews, muscles, nerves, etc. What tapestry can equal the human fabric? . . ."
~ Charles H. Spurgeon, from The Treasury of David

How dare we dispense with this marvelous work of God as if it were nothing but a "choice" belonging to us, the creatures? How dare we take it upon ourselves to even think we can make a determination whether this secret work of the Creator should or should not live? I wonder what Mr. Spurgeon would have thought if what would be happening in this day had been foretold? If God withholds judgment on our nation, it is purely a display of His long suffering and mercy!

Fellow saints, let's continue to pray that in the face of mercy, the time will soon come that this darkness prevailing over us will begin to be lifted. Let's do all we can to see that it happens, even if what we do seems small compared to the big picture. Who knows how even our littlest efforts can be used by the great Artist, who certainly recoils at seeing His work destroyed.

(Posting on both my personal and devotional blogs to recognize Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, 2011.)

His Beauty Upon Us

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. . .Psalm 90:17

"Ah! dear Lord, when you give us a sight of our own evil heart, we are overwhelmed with horror, and should soon be driven to despair, if you did not at once turn our eyes to that wondrous hill of Calvary, where One 'altogether lovely' made the great atonement which brought us back to you! That precious blood, which cleanses us from all sin, restores to us the beauty which that sin has forfeited; its royal purple not only covers our disfigurement, but removes it, and bestows upon us the beauty which the Lord looks on with pleasure.

"O my soul, do you not desire above all things that this 'beauty of holiness' may be your glorious dress? Then you must keep very close to the Master, shutting the door of your heart to every evil thing, and opening it wide to the incoming of his Holy Spirit, who, in revealing Christ to you, will make you like him. An old fable tells how a piece of common clay became sweetly scented by close contact with a rose; the fable will be a happy fact in your experience if the Rose of Sharon blooms in your heart, and sheds its fragrance around your life. 'Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty,' yes, may God grant it; but the condition is thus expressed--'Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord'."

~ Susannah Spurgeon

A Treasure Within

Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11

"There is a great difference between Christians and worldlings. The worldling hath his treasure in jewels without him; the Christian hath them within. Neither indeed is there any receptacle wherein to receive and keep the word of consolation but the heart only. If thou leave it in thy mouth only, it shall be taken from thee; if thou have it in thy book only, thou shalt miss it when thou hast most to do with it; but if thou lay it up in thy heart, as Mary did the words of the angel, no enemy shall ever be able to take it from thee, and thou shalt find it a comfortable treasure in the time of thy need."
~ William Cowper

Handel's Reflection

Think on this as we enjoy the Hallelujah chorus this Christmas season.

"What a wonderful thing it is to be sure of one's faith! How wonderful to be a member of the evangelical church, which preaches the free grace of God through Christ as the hope of sinners! If we were to rely on our works--my God, what would become of us?"

~ George Frideric Handel