On this date, March 21, 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach was born. By the age of ten, both his parents had died. At eighteen he was appointed organist at a church, followed by positions in royal courts. Once he was imprisoned because the duke he worked for did not want him seeking employment elsewhere. Widowed with seven children, he remarried and had thirteen more. Bach composed hundreds of pieces, sometimes at the rate of one per week and influenced composers such as Mozart and Beethoven. John Sebastian Bach stated: “The aim… of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”

American Minute

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.
--- Saint Augustine
The Confessions of St. Augustine

You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving.
--- Amy Carmichael, missionary to India
Moral Makeover

Be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him, and expect help from Him, He will never fail you.
--- George Mueller 1805-1898
Streams in the Desert

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp--or what's a heaven for?
--- Robert Browning
Robert Browning: Selected Poems (Longman Annotated English Poets)

     Nineteenth of sixth month and first of the week. -- This morning the Indian who came with the Moravian, being also a member of that society, prayed in the meeting, and then the Moravian spake a short time to the people. In the afternoon, my heart being filled with a heavenly care for their good, I spake to them awhile by interpreters; but none of them being perfect in the work, and I feeling the current of love run strong, told the interpreters that I believed some of the people would understand me, and so I proceeded without them; and I believe the Holy Ghost wrought on some hearts to edification where all the words were not understood. I looked upon it as a time of Divine favor, and my heart was tendered and truly thankful before the Lord. After I sat down, one of the interpreters seemed spirited to give the Indians the substance of what I said.

     Before our first meeting this morning, I was led to meditate on the manifold difficulties of these Indians who, by the permission of the Six Nations, dwell in these parts. A near sympathy with them was raised in me, and, my heart being enlarged in the love of Christ, I thought that the affectionate care of a good man for his only brother in affliction does not exceed what I then felt for that people. I came to this place through much trouble; and though through the mercies of God I believed that if I died in the journey it would be well with me, yet the thoughts of falling into the hands of Indian warriors were, in times of weakness, afflicting to me; and being of a tender constitution of body, the thoughts of captivity among them were also grievous; supposing that as they were strong and hardy they might demand service of me beyond what I could well bear. But the Lord alone was my keeper, and I believed that if I went into captivity it would be for some good end. Thus, from time to time, my mind was centred in resignation, in which I always found quietness. And this day, though I had the same dangerous wilderness between me and home, I was inwardly joyful that the Lord had strengthened me to come on this visit, and had manifested a fatherly care over me in my poor lowly condition, when, in mine own eyes, I appeared inferior to many among the Indians.

     When the last-mentioned meeting was ended, it being night, Papunehang went to bed; and hearing him speak with an harmonious voice, I suppose for a minute or two, I asked the interpreter, who told me that he was expressing his thankfulness to God for the favors he had received that day, and prayed that he would continue to favor him with the same, which he had experienced in that meeting. Though Papunehang had before agreed to receive the Moravian and join with them, he still appeared kind and loving to us.

     I was at two meetings on the 20th, and silent in them. The following morning, in meeting, my heart was enlarged in pure love among them, and in short plain sentences I expressed several things that rested upon me, which one of the interpreters gave the people pretty readily. The meeting ended in supplication, and I had cause humbly to acknowledge the loving-kindness of the Lord towards us; and then I believed that a door remained open for the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ to labor among these People. And now, feeling my mind at liberty to return, I took my leave of them in general at the conclusion of what I said in meeting, and we then prepared to go homeward. But some of their most active men told us that when we were ready to move the people would choose to come and shake hands with us. Those who usually came to meeting did so; and from a secret draught in my mind I went among some who did not usually go to meeting, and took my leave of them also. The Moravian and his Indian interpreter appeared respectful to us at parting. This town, Wehaloosing, stands on the bank of the Susquehanna, and consists, I believe, of about forty houses, mostly compact together, some about thirty feet long and eighteen wide, -- some bigger, some less. They are built mostly of split plank, one end being set in the ground, and the other pinned to a plate on which rafters are laid, and then covered with bark. I understand a great flood last winter overflowed the greater part of the ground where the town stands, and some were now about moving their houses to higher ground.

     We expected only two Indians to be of our company, but when we were ready to go we found many of them were going to Bethlehem with skins and furs, and chose to go in company with us. So they loaded two canoes in which they desired us to go, telling us that the waters were so raised with the rains that the horses should be taken by such as were better acquainted with the fording-places. We, therefore, with, several Indians, went in the canoes, and others went on horses, there being seven besides ours. We met with the horsemen once on the way by appointment, and at night we lodged a little below a branch called Tankhannah, and some of the young men, going out a little before dusk with their guns, brought in a deer.

     Through diligence we reached Wyoming before night, the 22d, and understood that the Indians were mostly gone from this place. We went up a small creek into the woods with our canoes, and, pitching our tent, carried out our baggage, and before dark our horses came to us. Next morning, the horses being loaded and our baggage prepared, we set forward, being in all fourteen, and with diligent travelling were favored to get near half-way to Fort Allen. The land on this road from Wyoming to our frontier being mostly poor, and good grass being scarce, the Indians chose a piece of low ground to lodge on, as the best for grazing. I had sweat much in travelling, and, being weary, slept soundly. In the night I perceived that I had taken cold, of which I was favored soon to get better.

John Woolman's Journal

     God Maintains Your Surrender

     That is the great difficulty with many. People say: "I have often been stirred at a meeting, or at a convention, and I have consecrated myself to God, but it has passed away. I know it may last for a week or for a month, but away it fades, and after a time it is all gone."

     But listen! It is because you do not believe what I am now going to tell you and remind you of. When God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that?

     In this matter of surrender there are two: God and I--I a worm, God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do you not believe that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment?

     Moment by moment I'm kept in His love;

     I am using the 1895 Public Domain version. Below is an Amazon link for a modern copy.

Absolute Surrender (The Colportage Library)

          6

     The cool smooth skin of the bright water was delicious to my feet and I walked on it for about an hour, making perhaps a couple of hundred yards. Then the going became difficult. The current grew swifter. Great flakes or islands of foam came swirling down towards me, bruising my shins like stones if I did not get out of their way. The surface became uneven, rounded itself into lovely hollows and elbows of water which distorted the appearance of the pebbles on the bottom and threw me off my balance, so that I had to scramble to shore. But as the banks hereabouts consisted of great flat stones, I continued my journey without much hurt to my feet. An immense yet lovely noise vibrated through the forest. Hours later I rounded a bend and saw the explanation.

     Before me green slopes made a wide amphitheatre, enclosing a frothy and pulsating lake into which, over many-coloured rocks, a waterfall was pouring. Here once again I realised that something had happened to my senses so that they were now receiving impressions which would normally exceed their capacity. On Earth, such a waterfall could not have been perceived at all as a whole; it was too big. Its sound would have been a terror in the woods for twenty miles. Here, after the first shock, my sensibility ‘took’ both as a well-built ship takes a huge wave. I exulted. The noise, though gigantic, was like giants’ laughter: like the revelry of a whole college of giants together laughing, dancing, singing, roaring at their high works.

     Near the place where the fall plunged into the lake there grew a tree. Wet with the spray, half-veiled in foam-bows, flashing with the bright, innumerable birds that flew among its branches, it rose in many shapes of billowy foliage, huge as a fen-land cloud. From every point apples of gold gleamed through the leaves.

     Suddenly my attention was diverted by a curious appearance in the foreground. A hawthorn bush not twenty yards away seemed to be behaving oddly. Then I saw that it was not the bush but something standing close to the bush and on this side of it. Finally I realised that it was one of the Ghosts. It was crouching as if to conceal itself from something beyond the bush, and it was looking back at me and making signals. It kept on signing to me to duck down. As I could not see what the danger was, I stood fast.

     Presently the Ghost, after peering around in every direction, ventured beyond the hawthorn bush. It could not get on very fast because of the torturing grasses beneath its feet, but it was obviously going as fast as it possibly could, straight for another tree. There it stopped again, standing straight upright against the trunk as though it were taking cover. Because the shadow of the branches now covered it, I could see it better: it was my bowler-hatted companion, the one whom the Big Ghost had called Ikey. After it had stood panting at the tree for about ten minutes and carefully reconnoitred the ground ahead, it made a dash for another tree—such a dash as was possible to it. In this way, with infinite labour and caution, it had reached the great Tree in about an hour. That is, it had come within ten yards of it.

The Great Divorce

                Interest or identification?

I have been crucified with Christ. --- Gal. 2:20.

     The imperative need spiritually is to sign the death-warrant of the disposition of sin, to turn all emotional impressions and intellectual beliefs into a moral verdict against the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself. Paul says—“I have been crucified with Christ”; he does not say, ‘I have determined to imitate Jesus Christ,’ or, ‘I will endeavour to follow Him,’ but, ‘I have been identified with Him in His death.’ When I come to such a moral decision and act upon it, then all that Christ wrought for me on the Cross is wrought in me. The free committal of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the chance to impart to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

     “… nevertheless I live …” The individuality remains, but the mainspring, the ruling disposition, is radically altered. The same human body remains, but the old satanic right to myself is destroyed.

     “And the life which I now live in the flesh …,” not the life which I long to live and pray to live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh, the life which men can see, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” This faith is not Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him—“the faith of the Son of God.” It is no longer faith in faith, but faith which has overleapt all conscious bounds, the identical faith of the Son of God.

My Utmost for His Highest

     THE ascription of this psalm in the title to Moses must be admitted to be very remarkable. No other psalm is so ascribed. Nor indeed is a date given to any other earlier than the time of David. The psalm itself, however, when examined, is found to accord with the traditional date. Professor Cheyne notes in it a “roughness,” which is presumably a sign of antiquity. Ewald says of it, “The poem has in it something uncommonly striking, solemn, sinking into the depth of the Godhead. In contents and language it is throughout original and powerful; and, as it is undoubtedly very old, it would have been universally considered as correctly derived from Moses, had we known exactly the reasons which guided the collector.” Hengstenberg, Kay, Professor Alexander, and Dean Johnson accept unhesitatingly the Mosaic authorship.

     The psalm is termed, “A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.” It is, however, only in part a “prayer.” Meditation occupies the opening portion (vers. 1–6); complaint follows (vers. 7–11); it is only with ver. 12 that prayer begins. (For the application to Moses of the phrase, “man of God.” see Deut. 33:1; Josh. 14:6; Ezra 3:2.)

     Ver. 1.—Lord, thou hast been our Dwelling-place in all generations; or, “our habitation” (see Ps. 91:9); comp. Ps. 32:7, “Thou art my Hiding-place.” For well-nigh forty years Moses had had no fixed material dwelling-place.

     Ver. 2.—Before the mountains were brought forth (comp. Prov. 8:25). The “mountains” are mentioned as perhaps the grandest, and certainly among the oldest, of all the works of God. Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world; literally, or thou gavest birth to the earth and the world (comp. Deut. 32:18). Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God (comp. Ps. 93:2; Prov. 8:23; Micah 5:2; Hab. 1:12).

     Ver. 3.—Thou turnest man to destruction; or, “to dust” (comp. Gen. 3:19). And sayest, Return, ye children of men; i.e. “return once more, and replenish the earth.” There may be an allusion to the destruction of mankind by the Deluge, and the repeopling of the earth by the descendants of Noah, as Dr. Kay supposes; or the meaning may be that God is continually bringing one generation of men to an end, and then setting up another, having the same control over human life that he has over inanimate nature (ver. 2).

     Ver. 4.—For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday. Time has no relation to God; it does not exist for him. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8). Therefore we must not judge his methods of working by our own. When it is past; rather, as it passes. And as a watch in the night. To the sleeper a nightwatch seems gone in a moment.

     Ver. 5.—Thou carriest them away as with a flood. This verse is to be connected with ver. 3, “Thou sweepest mankind away;” i.e. removest them from the earth, when it pleases thee. They are as a sleep. Fantastic, vague, forgotten as soon as it is over. In the morning they are like grass which groweth up (comp. Pss. 37:2; 72:16; 92:7; 103:15; Isa. 40:7).

     Ver. 6.—In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withered (comp. Pss. 102:4, 11; 103:15; Isa. 40:7; Jas. 1:10, 11).

     Ver. 7.—For we are consumed by thine anger. From the general reflections, and the general consideration of human weakness, which have hitherto occupied him, the psalmist proceeds to speak particularly of the weakness and sin of himself and his own people, which have brought upon them a painful visitation. God’s anger is hot upon them, and has “consumed” them—not utterly, but so that they are greatly “troubled” and cast down. By thy wrath are we troubled. The expressions used suit the time of the later wanderings in the wilderness, when the generation that had especially sinned was being gradually “consumed,” that it might not enter the Holy Land.

     Ver. 8.—Thou hast set our iniquities before thee. Instead of hiding his face from their iniquities, turning away from them and overlooking them, God has placed them steadily “before him,” in the full searching and scorching light of his own purity and holiness. And not only has he done this with the sins which they know of, and whereof their consciences are afraid; but he has set their secret sins also in the light of his countenance. (On man’s “secret sins,” comp. Ps. 19:12, and the comment ad loc.)

     Ver. 9.—For all our days are passed away in thy wrath; or, “under thy wrath”—“whilst thou art still angry with us” (comp. Deut. 32:15–25). We spend our years—rather, bring our years to an end (Hengstenberg, Kay, Revised Version) as a tale that is told; rather, as a reverie, or “as a murmur.”

     Ver. 10.—The days of our years are three score years and ten. This seems a low estimate for the time of Moses, since he himself died at the age of a hundred and twenty (Deut. 34:7), Aaron at the age of a hundred and twenty-three (Numb. 33:39), and Miriam at an age which was even more advanced (Numb. 20:1; comp. Exod. 2:4). But these may have been exceptional cases, and we have certainly no sufficient data for determining what was the average length of human life in the later period of the wanderings. The suggestion has been made that it was probably even shorter than that here mentioned. And if by reason of strength they be four score years; i.e. “if, through exceptional strength in this or that individual, they occasionally mount up to four score years.” Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; rather, yet is their pride then but labour and vanity. They may boast of their age; but what real advantage is it to them? After seventy, the years draw nigh when each man is forced to say, “I have no pleasure in them” (Eccles. 12:1). For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Moreover, even if we live to eighty, our life seems to us no more than a span, so soon does it pass away, and we take our departure.

     Ver. 11.—Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Who can duly estimate the intensity of God’s anger against such as have displeased him? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath; rather, or who can estimate thy fury as the fear of thee (i.e. the proper fear) requires? The verse is exegetical of ver. 9, and is intended to impress on man the terribleness of God’s anger.

     Vers. 12–17.—From complaint the psalmist, in conclusion, turns to prayer—prayer for his people rather than for himself. His petitions are, (1) that God will enable his people to take to heart the lessons which the brevity of life should teach (ver. 12); (2) that he will cease from his anger, and relent concerning them (ver. 13); (3) that he will once more shower his mercies upon them, and cause their affliction to be swallowed up in gladness (vers. 14, 15); (4) that he will show his glorious doings to them and to their children (ver. 16); (5) that he will let his beauty rest upon them (ver. 17); and (6) that he will bless their doings, and establish them (ver. 17).

     Ver. 12.—So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. “Teach us,” that is, “so to reflect on the brevity of life, that we may get to ourselves a heart of wisdom,” or a heart that is wise and understanding.

     Ver. 13.—Return, O Lord, how long? rather, turn, O Lord; i.e. “turn from thy anger—how long will it be ere thou turnest?” And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. God “is not a man, that he should repent” (Numb. 23:19); and yet from time to time “it repents him concerning his servants” (Deut. 32:36; Ps. 135:14). He relents, that is, from his fierce anger, allows himself to be appeased, and has compassion upon those who have provoked him.

     Ver. 14.—Oh satisfy us early with thy mercy; literally, satisfy us in the morning with thy mercy; i.e. “after a night of trouble, give us a bright morning of peace and rest.” That we may rejoice and be glad all our days; rather, and we will rejoice and be glad, etc.

     Ver. 15.—Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. Proportion our time of joy to our time of sorrow; as the one has lasted many long years, so let the other. And the years wherein we have seen evil; or, “suffered adversity.”

     Ver. 16.—Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. The “work” and the “glory” are the same thing—some vast exertion of the Divine power and majesty, which will result in great good to his people. If we accept the Mosaic authorship of the psalm, the establishment of Israel in the land of Canaan may reasonably be taken as the “work” spoken of.

     Ver. 17.—And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us (comp. Ps. 45:2, “Thou art fairer than the children of men;” Ps. 27:4, “To behold the beauty of the Lord;” Isa. 33:17, “Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty”). The “beauty of God” is upon us when we see and realize the loveliness of his character. And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. The repetition adds nothing, except it be emphasis. God is asked, finally, to “establish the work” in which his servants are engaged—to bless it; that is, to advance it and prosper it. The nature of the “work” is not mentioned.

The Pulpit Commentary (23 Volume Set)

     Book Three - Internal Consolation

     The Twelfth Chapter / Acquiring Patience In The Fight Against Concupiscence

          The Disciple

     PATIENCE, O Lord God, is very necessary for me, I see, because there are many adversities in this life. No matter what plans I make for my own peace, my life cannot be free from struggle and sorrow.

     THE VOICE OF CHRIST

     My child, you are right, yet My wish is not that you seek that peace which is free from temptations or meets with no opposition, but rather that you consider yourself as having found peace when you have been tormented with many tribulations and tried with many adversities.

     If you say that you cannot suffer much, how will you endure the fire of purgatory? Of two evils, the lesser is always to be chosen. Therefore, in order that you may escape the everlasting punishments to come, try to bear present evils patiently for the sake of God.

     Do you think that men of the world have no suffering, or perhaps but little? Ask even those who enjoy the most delights and you will learn otherwise. “But,” you will say, “they enjoy many pleasures and follow their own wishes; therefore they do not feel their troubles very much.” Granted that they do have whatever they wish, how long do you think it will last? Behold, they who prosper in the world shall perish as smoke, and there shall be no memory of their past joys. Even in this life they do not find rest in these pleasures without bitterness, weariness, and fear. For they often receive the penalty of sorrow from the very thing whence they believe their happiness comes. And it is just. Since they seek and follow after pleasures without reason, they should not enjoy them without shame and bitterness.

     How brief, how false, how unreasonable and shameful all these pleasures are! Yet in their drunken blindness men do not understand this, but like brute beasts incur death of soul for the miserly enjoyment of a corruptible life.

     Therefore, My child, do not pursue your lusts, but turn away from your own will. “Seek thy pleasure in the Lord and He will give thee thy heart’s desires.”33 If you wish to be truly delighted and more abundantly comforted by Me, behold, in contempt of all worldly things and in the cutting off of all base pleasures shall your blessing be, and great consolation shall be given you. Further, the more you withdraw yourself from any solace of creatures, the sweeter and stronger comfort will you find in Me.

     At first you will not gain these blessings without sadness and toil and conflict. Habit already formed will resist you, but it shall be overcome by a better habit. The flesh will murmur against you, but it will be bridled by fervor of spirit. The old serpent will sting and trouble you, but prayer will put him to flight and by steadfast, useful toil the way will be closed to him.

The Imitation Of Christ

     They are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name …so that they may be one as we are one. --- John 17:11.

     With what [final] arguments [does] he plead with the Father? ( The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel ... )

     He adds [a fifth] argument in the words, “I am coming to you.” As his leaving them was an argument, so his going to the Father is a mighty argument also. There is much in these words, “I am coming to you”—“I, your beloved Son, in whom your soul delights; to whom you never denied anything. It is I who come to you, swimming through a bloody ocean. I come, treading every step to you in blood and unspeakable sufferings—all this for the sake of those dear ones I now pray for. Yes, the design and purpose of my coming to you is for them. I am coming to heaven in the capacity of an advocate to plead with you for them, my Father and their Father, my God and their God. Since I who am so dear come through such bitter pangs to you, so tenderhearted a Father, and all this on their account, since I now give them a little taste of that intercession work that I shall forever perform for them in heaven, Father, grant what I request. I know you will not deny me.”

     And [sixth,] to close up all, he tells the Father how careful he had been to observe and perform that trust which was committed to him: “While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction”
--- (John 17:12).

     And thus lies the argument: “You committed to me a certain number of souls. I undertook the trust and said, if any of these are lost, I will answer for them. In pursuing this trust I am now here on the earth in a body of flesh. I have been faithful. I have redeemed them” (for he speaks of that as finished and done which was now ready to be done). “I have kept them also and confirmed them until now, and now, Father, I commit them to your care. Do not let them fail now, do not let one of them perish.”

      Thus you see what a muscular, argumentative, pleading prayer Christ poured out to the Father for them at parting.
--- John Flavel

Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     Easter is the greatest of Christian holidays. But what does the word Easter mean? Where and when was it first celebrated?

     The origin of the word Easter is uncertain, but the Venerable Bede claimed that the Christian resurrection festival displaced ancient pagan celebrations involving the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess “Eostre.” That, he said, occasioned the term. Others believe the word derives from an old German term meaning sunrise.

     Whatever its meaning, it is the oldest celebration of Christianity. The earliest written reference to Easter comes from the mid-second century. A controversy arose about the dating of Easter, causing Polycarp to visit Rome’s bishop Anicetus. The two were unable to settle the controversy, and it became a hotly debated issue threatening to split the church. Believers in Asia celebrated one day, Christians in Europe another. Books, tracts, sermons, and harangues were devoted to the topic. Synods and councils were called. Tempers flared. Clergy excommunicated one another. Irenaeus wrote, “The apostles ordered that we should judge no one in respect to a feast day or a holy day. Whence then these wars? Whence these schisms?”

     The issue came to a vote at the famous Council of Nicaea in 325. Easter, declared the council, should be celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon after March 21, the vernal equinox. Easter then is a “movable feast” that may occur as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. The matter wasn’t entirely settled, but believers seemed to realize that it wasn’t the date, but the significance, that gave Easter its magnificence.

     A custom arose among early worshipers to keep watch the Saturday night preceding Easter morning, and many believed that Christ would return at the breaking of this day. New converts kept watch and prayed throughout the night, then were baptized at sunrise. Another custom, still widely practiced, finds the pastor addressing the congregation with the glorious words: He is risen! The assembled worshipers shout in return: He is risen indeed! For 2,000 years the foundation of Christianity has rested securely on this simple yet unfathomable truth.

     The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid! I know you are looking for Jesus, who was nailed to a cross. He isn’t here! God has raised him to life, just as Jesus said he would.
--- Matthew 28:5,6a.

On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

          Morning - March 21

     “Ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.”
--- John 16:32.

     Few had fellowship with the sorrows of Gethsemane. The majority of the disciples were not sufficiently advanced in grace to be admitted to behold the mysteries of “the agony.” Occupied with the passover feast at their own houses, they represent the many who live upon the letter, but are mere babes as to the spirit of the gospel. To twelve, nay, to eleven only was the privilege given to enter Gethsemane and see “this great sight.” Out of the eleven, eight were left at a distance; they had fellowship, but not of that intimate sort to which men greatly beloved are admitted. Only three highly favoured ones could approach the veil of our Lord’s mysterious sorrow: within that veil even these must not intrude; a stone’s-cast distance must be left between. He must tread the wine-press alone, and of the people there must be none with him. Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, represent the few eminent, experienced saints, who may be written down as “Fathers;” these having done business on great waters, can in some degree measure the huge Atlantic waves of their Redeemer’s passion. To some selected spirits it is given, for the good of others, and to strengthen them for future, special, and tremendous conflict, to enter the inner circle and hear the pleadings of the suffering High Priest; they have fellowship with him in his sufferings, and are made conformable unto his death. Yet even these cannot penetrate the secret places of the Saviour’s woe. “Thine unknown sufferings” is the remarkable expression of the Greek liturgy: there was an inner chamber in our Master’s grief, shut out from human knowledge and fellowship. There Jesus is “left alone.” Here Jesus was more than ever an “Unspeakable gift!” Is not Watts right when he sings ---

     “And all the unknown joys he gives,
     Were bought with agonies unknown.”


          Evening - March 21

     "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?"Job 38:31.

     If inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature may soon show us how puny we are. We cannot move the least of all the twinkling stars, or quench so much as one of the beams of the morning. We speak of power, but the heavens laugh us to scorn. When the Pleiades shine forth in spring with vernal joy we cannot restrain their influences, and when Orion reigns aloft, and the year is bound in winter’s fetters, we cannot relax the icy bands. The seasons revolve according to the divine appointment, neither can the whole race of men effect a change therein. Lord, what is man?

     In the spiritual, as in the natural world, man’s power is limited on all hands. When the Holy Spirit sheds abroad his delights in the soul, none can disturb; all the cunning and malice of men are ineffectual to stay the genial quickening power of the Comforter. When he deigns to visit a church and revive it, the most inveterate enemies cannot resist the good work; they may ridicule it, but they can no more restrain it than they can push back the spring when the Pleiades rule the hour. God wills it, and so it must be. On the other hand, if the Lord in sovereignty, or in justice, bind up a man so that he is in soul bondage, who can give him liberty? He alone can remove the winter of spiritual death from an individual or a people. He looses the bands of Orion, and none but he. What a blessing it is that he can do it. O that he would perform the wonder to-night. Lord, end my winter, and let my spring begin. I cannot with all my longings raise my soul out of her death and dulness, but all things are possible with thee. I need celestial influences, the clear shinings of thy love, the beams of thy grace, the light of thy countenance, these are the Pleiades to me. I suffer much from sin and temptation, these are my wintry signs, my terrible Orion. Lord, work wonders in me, and for me. Amen.

Morning and Evening

          REDEEMED

     Fanny J. Crosby, 1820–1915

     Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this ---
(Psalm 107:1, 2)

     All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass—Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
--- Archibald Alexander

     The word redeemed implies the idea of a slave standing on the trader’s auction block being offered to the highest bidder. At last the price is paid by a compassionate new owner, who then gives the slave his unconditional freedom. But the freed slave, out of gratitude to his new owner, offers himself as a loving bond servant for life to his redeemer.

     Man has been separated from God by sin and has become a slave of Satan. But man has been redeemed. Because Christ paid the ransom we owed to divine justice, we have been freed from the shackles of sin’s bondage and God’s eternal wrath. Out of gratitude for this deliverance, we cling to our new master and lovingly determine to serve Him forever. A realization of redemption causes the ransomed to sing repeatedly, “Redeemed—how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb …”

     This popular gospel song by Fanny Crosby first appeared with William Kirkpatrick’s jubilant tune in the hymnal Songs of Redeeming Love, published in 1882. It is another of the more than 8,000 hymns by the blind American poetess, Fanny Jane Crosby, the most important writer of gospel hymn texts in American history.

     Redeemed—how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; redeemed thru His infinite mercy —His child, and forever, I am.
     Redeemed and so happy in Jesus; no language my rapture can tell; I know that the light of His presence with me doth continually dwell.
     I think of my blessed Redeemer. I think of Him all the day long; I sing, for I cannot be silent; His love is the theme of my song.
     I know I shall see in His beauty the King in whose law I delight, who lovingly guardeth my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night.
     Chorus: Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; redeemed, redeemed, His child, and forever, I am.

     For Today: Romans 3:24–26; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:12–14; 1 Peter 1:18, 19.

     One of the strongest evidences for the validity of the gospel is a redeemed, vibrant life. Determine with the Holy Spirit’s help to be such a demonstration. Carry this musical testimony with you as you go ---

Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions

          God’s Resurrection of Christ Our Plea

     “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Hebrews 13:20). This reference to the deliverance of Christ from the tomb I regard as the plea on which the apostle bases the request that follows. Since I consider this to be one of the most important verses in the New Testament, I shall give my best attention to every word in it, the more so since part of its wondrous contents is so little comprehended today. We should observe, first, the character in which the Savior is here viewed; secondly, the act of God in bringing him forth from the dead; thirdly, the connection between that act and His office as “the God of peace”; fourthly, how that the meritorious cause of the same was “the blood of the everlasting covenant;” and fifthly, the powerful motive that the meritorious cause provides to encourage the saints to come boldly to the throne of grace where they may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. May the Holy Spirit deign to be our Guide as we prayerfully ponder this portion of the Truth.

          That Great Shepherd of the Sheep

     This title of Christ’s was most pertinent and appropriate in an Epistle to Jewish converts, for the Old Testament had taught them to look for the Messiah in that specific function. Moses and David, eminent types of Him, were shepherds. Concerning the first it is said, “Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (Ps. 77:20). Under the name of the second God promised the Messiah to Israel: “And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant [the antitypical] David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd” (Ezek. 34:23). That Paul here made reference to that particular prophecy is clear from what it went on to say: “And I will make with them a covenant of peace” (Ezek. 34:25). Here in Hebrews 13:20, the same three things are brought together: the God of peace, the great Shepherd, the everlasting covenant, and in a manner (in perfect accord with the theme of the Epistle) that refuted the erroneous conception that the Jews had formed of their Messiah. They imagined that He would secure for them an external deliverance as Moses had done and a prosperous national state as David had set up. They had no idea that He would shed His precious blood and be brought down into the grave, though they should have known and understood it in the light of prophetic revelation.

     When Christ appeared in their midst, He definitely presented Himself to the Jews in this character. He not only declared, “I am the good shepherd:” but added this: “the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). John the Baptist, Christ’s forerunner, heralded His public manifestation in this wise: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In this dual character, or under this twofold revelation, the Lord Jesus had been prophesied in Isaiah 53 (as viewed against the backdrop of Ezek. 34): “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him [i.e. the Shepherd, whose the sheep are!] the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6, cf. Zech. 13:7). Note a wonderful congruity of expression between the next verse of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 53:7) and the prayer we are studying. Isaiah prophesies, “he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Notice how the same Spirit who inspired Isaiah prompts Paul to say in Hebrews 13:20 that God—not “raised,” but—“brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep”. The fact that God brought back again from the dead this great Shepherd signifies that the Father had previously brought Him into death as a Substitute, a propitiatory Lamb, for the sins of His sheep. How minutely accurate is the language of Holy Writ and how perfect the harmony— verbal harmony —of the Old and New Testaments!

     Peter, in his first Epistle, under the Spirit, appropriated the same wonderful prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus. After referring to Him as the “lamb without blemish and without spot:” by Whom we are redeemed (1 Peter 1:18, 19), he goes on to cite some of the predictive expressions of Isaiah 53: that which speaks of us “as sheep going astray”; that which refers to the saving virtue of Christ’s expiatory passion—“by whose stripes ye were healed”; and the general teaching of the prophecy, that in bearing our sins in His own body on the tree Christ was transacting heavenly business with the righteous Judge as “the Shepherd and Bishop of your [our] souls” (1 Peter 2:24, 25). Thus he was led to expound Isaiah portraying the Savior as a Lamb in death and a Shepherd in resurrection. The excuselessness of the Jews’ ignorance of Christ in this particular office appears still further in that, through yet another of their prophets, it had been announced that God would say, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the Shepherd. . . “ (Zech. 13:7). There God is viewed in His judicial character as being angry with the Shepherd for our sakes: since He bore our sins, justice must take satisfaction from Him. Thus was “the chastisement of our peace” laid upon Him, and the good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep as a satisfaction for the righteous claims of God.

          That Great Shepherd

     From what has been set forth above, we may the better perceive why it was that the Apostle Paul designated Him “that great shepherd”: the One not only foreshadowed by Abel, by the patriarchal shepherds; typified by David, but also portrayed as the Shepherd of Jehovah in the Messianic predictions. We should note that both of His natures were contemplated under this appellation: “my Shepherd,. . . the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD” (Zech. 13:7). As the profound Goodwin pointed out centuries ago, this title also implies all of Christ’s offices: His prophetic office—“He shall feed his flock like a shepherd” (Isa. 40:11; cf. Ps. 23:1, 2); His priestly office—“the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11); His royal office—for the same passage that announced that He should be Shepherd over God’s people also denominated Him a “prince” (Ezek. 34:23, 24). Christ Himself points out the connection between His kingly office and His being described as a Shepherd: “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” (Matthew 25:31, 32). He is indeed that “great Shepherd,” all-sufficient for His flock.

          A Shepherd Must Have Sheep

     “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” See there the relation of the Redeemer to the redeemed. Shepherd and sheep are correlative terms: one cannot properly term any man a shepherd if he has no sheep. The idea of Christ as Shepherd necessarily implies that there is a chosen flock. Christ is the Shepherd of the sheep, and not of the wolves (Luke 10:3), nor even of the goats (Matthew 25:32, 33), for He has received no charge from God to save them. How the basic truth of particular redemption stares us in the face in innumerable passages throughout the Scriptures! “He did not lay down His life for the whole herd of mankind, but for the flock of the elect which was given to Him by the Father, as He declared in John 10:14-16, 26” (John Owen).

     Observe, too, how this title intimates His Mediatorship: as the Shepherd He is not the ultimate Lord of the flock, but the Father’s Servant who takes charge of and cares for it: “thine they were, and thou gavest them me” (John 17:6). Christ’s relation to us is further seen in the phrase “our [not the] Lord Jesus.” He is therefore our Shepherd: ours in His pastoral office, which He is still discharging; ours, as brought from the dead, for we rose in Him (Col. 3:1).

          The Superiority of Christ the Great Shepherd

     The words “that great shepherd of the sheep” emphasize Christ’s immeasurable superiority over all the typical and ministerial shepherds of Israel, just as the words “a great high priest” (Heb. 4:14) stress His eminency over Aaron and the Levitical priests. In like manner, it denotes His authority over the pastors He sets over His churches, for He is “the chief Shepherd” (1 Peter 5:4) in relation to all undershepherds. He is the Shepherd of souls; and one of them is worth far more than the whole world, which is the value He sets upon them by redeeming them with His own blood. This adjective also looks at the excellence of His flock: He is the great Shepherd over an entire, indivisible flock composed both of Jews and Gentiles. Thus He declared, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this [Jewish] fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16, brackets mine). This “one fold,” a single flock, comprehends all the saints both of the Old Testament and the New Testament (see also how the Apostle Paul sets forth this unity of the people of God by his metaphor of the olive tree in Rom. 11). The phrase “that great Shepherd” also has respect to His abilities: He has a particular knowledge of each and every one of His sheep (John 10:3); He has the skill to gather, to feed, and to heal them (Ezek. 34:11-16); and He has the power to effectually preserve them. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Then how greatly should we trust, love, honor, worship, and obey Him!

     Tomorrow starts Chapter 2

Judges 7-8

Jon Courson

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06-27-2001

Judges 6-8
Who Gets The Glory?

Jon Courson

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07-01-2001

Judges 9

Jon Courson

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07-18-2001

Judges 6-8

Jon Courson

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07-25-12

Judges 9-11

Jon Courson

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08-08-12

Jon Courson

Judges 8-9
Calvary Chapel NM

Skip Heitzig | Calvary Chapel NM

Judges 8
Gideon's life unravels
Paul LeBoutillier

Judges 9
Gideon's Legacy
(The downfall of Abimelech)
Paul LeBoutillier

Paul LeBoutillier | Calvary Chapel Ontario, Oregon

Don't Be Offended Judges 8:1-3
s2-119


5-22-2016

Judges 8
m2-116


5-25-2016

Judges 9
m2-117


6-01-2016