Thou Who Wast Rich….

My favorite song of the season this year….

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becomes poor.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising
Heavenwards by thine eternal plan.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man.

Thou who art good beyond all measure,
All for love’s sake became sin;
Setting aside thine own good pleasure,
Died to make us live again.
Thou who art good beyond all measure,
All for love’s sake became sin.

Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship thee.
Emmanuel, within us dwelling,
Make us what thou wouldst have us be.
Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship thee.

– Frank Houghton (1894-1972)
– based upon 2 Corinthians 8:9

I definitely like SARAH BROWN’s version of this, on my favorite Christmas album. (Her album notes here)

Chip Stam writes: “This hymn was written at a particularly difficult time in the history of the missions to China. Missionaries had been captured by the communist Red Army and released in poor health after over a year of suffering. Others had been captured never to be heard from again. In 1934 the young missionaries John and Betty Stam (my great aunt and uncle) were captured in Anhwei and beheaded . The news of these sorrows had reached the mission’s headquarters in Shanghai. Though this was a very dangerous time for both the Chinese Christians and the foreign missionaries, Frank Houghton decided he needed to begin a tour through the country to visit various missionary outposts. While traveling over the mountains of Szechwan, the powerful and comforting words of 2 Corinthians 8:9, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,” were transformed into this beautiful Christmas hymn.”

Don’t flinch – especially at Christmas!

The wise old pastor in Liverpool, J.C. Ryle, calls us to openly own Christ. I pray none of us flinches in the face of godless men…

“We are not to be ashamed to confess Christ before men, and to let others know what He has done for our souls. If we have found peace through His blood and been renewed by His Spirit, we must not shrink from avowing it, on every proper occasion. It is not necessary to blow a trumpet in the streets, and force our experience on everybody’s notice.

“All that is required is a willingness to acknowledge Christ as our Master, without flinching from the ridicule or persecution which by so doing we may bring on ourselves. More than this is not required; but less than this ought not to content us. If we are ashamed of Jesus before men, He will one day be ashamed of us before His Father and the angels.”

~ J. C. Ryle
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark, 101, 102.

The design of God…

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10

The great design of God in his Word is to make us doers of his will. Doing the will of God is evidence of sincerity and our love for Christ. Failure to do God’s will is foolish, because

Hunting Tiger Woods…

Some biblical thinking on one (sad) current event….
– pdb

Hunting Tiger Woods
By C.J. Mahaney (here)

Tiger Woods wants his privacy back.
He wants the media entourage to disappear from his life.

He wants to be left alone so he can manage his personal problems in private.

Not a chance.

The story began unfolding in the early hours of last Friday

Providential Sufferings…

John J. Murray has written a fine little booklet Behind A Frowning Providence which has been helpful to me and others in my ministry over the years. One observation he makes is this…

God has forged an inseparable link between sufferings and glory. That was the road that Christ took. He was made complete as our Savior ‘through sufferings’. He endured. He was without sin. How much more is suffering part of the road that leads sinners to perfection and glory! What abundant cause we have to be reconciled to our sufferings!

Jesus is the reason for this?

In the midst of our culture’s materialistic fervor during the “holiday season” does it help for believers to chine in, “Jesus is the reason for the season”? I think Warren Cole Smith — (writing in WORLD Magazine) draws a helpful line for us….

I consider myself a “fellow warrior” with some of these folk. By that I mean that we agree on many things, and I would normally join them in their “culture war” fights. But on this one, please allow me to offer a dissenting view to the prevailing “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” mentality.

First of all, Jesus is most certainly not the reason for the orgiastic spending spree modern Christmas has become. I certainly think anyone should be able to say “Merry Christmas” if he wants to. But given what this holiday has become, there’s a part of me – a big part of me — that wants to keep the Jesus I worship as far away from this commercial debauchery as possible.

Of course the incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God, is the reason Christians celebrate Christmas — including the giving of gifts to one another. But this celebration of the incarnation is not an excuse for such Christless-commercialism and materialism (seeking happiness in possessions).

Remember the Word of Him who took on flesh and dwelt among us (Hebrews 13:5), “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”

– pdb

“The Word Became Flesh” Advent Sermons

I’m very excited about our Advent sermon series — “The Word Became Flesh” — on the incarnation, from John 1:1-14, which begins today. Within a few days, each sermon should be available at our Sermon Audio site.

May God be praised.
— pdb

Advent, Season of Light

Sunday begins the season of Advent (the 4 weeks prior to Christmas Day). As we celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God, the Light of the world, advent becomes a ’season of light’ in many ways.

The great American theologian B. B. Warfield wrote the following about the biblical concept of light…

Throughout the Scriptures “light” is used as the designation of all that is of consummate and unapproachable perfection, whether in the physical, intellectual, moral or spiritual spheres. In contrast with the darkness of sorrow and peril we have the light of joy and safety; in contrast with the darkness of death we have the light of life; in contrast with the darkness of error we have the light of truth; in contrast with darkness of sin we have the light of holiness; in contrast with the darkness of destruction we have the light of salvation. Physically, intellectually, ethically, spiritually, savingly, “light” is all that is pure and true, bright and holy and blissful. And light is the heritage of the saints. It is the sphere in which God lives, for we are to walk in the light as He is “in the light.”

— from “The Heritage of the Saints in Light” (on Col. 1:12), p. 346 in FAITH AND LIFE, (1916, republished by Banner of Truth Trust, 1974, 1990).

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Psalm 103 begins with great words of praise & thanks…

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

J. C Ryle online…

There is a fine looking web site (here), that offers spiritually rich quotes from one of my very favorite authors, J. C. Ryle.

The guy running this site has ways to link up your Facebook or Twitter accounts to receive this nuggets automatically….

Here is an example of what this site features

“Let us arm ourselves with a thorough knowledge of the Word of God. Let us read our Bibles more diligently than ever, and become familiar with every part of them. Let the Word dwell in us richly. Let us beware of anything which would make us give less time and less heart to the perusal of its sacred pages. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit – let it never be laid aside. The Bible is the true lantern for a dark and cloudy time – let us beware of traveling without its light.”

~ J. C. Ryle
Warnings to the Churches, “Idolatry”, 167.