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“His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

From Octavius Winslow’s, “Christ, the Mighty God”

Because Jesus is the Almighty God, His
people have an Almighty Burden Bearer.

We are a burdened people.

Every believer carries a burden peculiar to himself.

What is your burden, O believer?
Is it indwelling sin?
Is it some natural infirmity of the flesh?
Is it a constitutional weakness?
Is it some domestic trial?
Is it a personal or relative trial?
Is it the loss of property?
Is it the decay of health?
Is it soul anxiety?
Is it mental despondency?

Come, oppressed and burdened believer,
ready to give up all and sink! Behold Jesus,
the Almighty God, omnipotent to transfer
your burden to Himself, and give you rest!

It is well that you are sensible of the pressure,
that you feel your weakness and insufficiency,
and that you are brought to the end of all your
own power.

Now turn to your Almighty Friend, who is
the Creator of the ends of the earth, even
the everlasting God, who does not faint,
neither is weary.

How precious is the promise addressed to you!
“He gives power to those who are tired and worn
out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths
will become exhausted, and young men will give up.
But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.
They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run
and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”

Oh, what strength there is in Jesus for the
weak, and faint, and drooping of His flock!

You are ready to succumb to your foes,
and you think the battle of faith is lost.

Cheer up! Jesus, your Savior, friend, and brother,
is “the Almighty God,” and will perfect His strength
in your weakness. The battle is not yours but His!

Jesus sustains our infirmities, bears our
burdens, supplies our needs, and encircles
us with the shield of His Almightiness!

What a Divine spring of consolation and strength
to the tired and afflicted saint is the Almightiness
of Jesus. Your sorrow is too deep, your affliction
too heavy, your difficulty too great for any human
to resolve. It distances in its intensity and magnitude
the sympathy and the power of man.

Come, you tossed with tempest and not comforted;
come, you whose spirit is wounded, whose heart is
broken, whose mind is bowed down to the dust, and
hide for a little while within Christ’s sheltering
Almightiness!

Jesus is equal to your condition.

His strength is almighty!
His love is almighty!
His grace is almighty!
His sympathy is almighty!
His arm is almighty!
His resources are infinite, fathomless, measureless!

And all this Almightiness is on your side, and will
bring you through the fire and through the water.

Almighty to rescue, He is also your Brother and Friend
to sympathize. And while His Divine arm encircles,
upholds, and keeps you; His human soul, touched
with the feeling of your infirmities, yearns over
you with all the deep intensity of its compassionate
tenderness.

The secret of our great strength is not in the orthodoxy of articles,
nor in denominational organization,
nor in prelatical interference,
nor in ecclesiastical courts, nor in human legislation,
nor in the learning,
or gifts, or piety of Christ’s ministers-
these are alone but ropes of sand
with which to bind the great leviathan of the day.
The secret of our strength is- the power of Christ, 
the Almighty God. 
Oh, let us take hold of this power in prayer and faith,
and we may gaze upon the ark tossed amid the broken waves
without a solitary fear.

We want stronger faith in,
and more incessant dealing with,
the almighty power of Jesus.

All your real power is in Christ.
In His strength you can do great things for God,
and suffer great things for Jesus.
Bring your strong corruptions to His grace,
and your little strength to His omnipotence,
and your very weakness shall turn to your account
by drawing you into a closer alliance with the Lord
in whom you have righteousness and strength.
Thus you will be taught to understand the apostle’s sacred paradox-
“When I am weak, then am I strong.”

Come, you of fearful heart, of sorrowful spirit, 

burdened and wounded, 

and hide beneath the outspread wing of this Almighty Savior. 

His Omnipotence is engaged to uphold you through the wilderness, 

to guide you with its counsel, 

and afterwards to receive you to glory. 

Consecrate your noblest powers to Him 

who spreads the shield of His omnipotent power around you. 

Battle with sin, mortify the flesh, resist Satan, 

overcome the world, fight the good fight of faith, 

and before long you will wear the victor’s crown, 

wave his palm, and chant his song forever! 

“And now, all glory to God, who is able to keep you from stumbling, 

and who will bring you into his glorious presence innocent of sin and with great joy. 

All glory to him, who alone is God our Savior, 

through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Yes, glory, majesty, power, and authority belong to him, 

in the beginning, now, and forevermore. Amen.” 

“Though here the storms of sorrow roar,
And raise in cares a troubled sea;
Yet when I land on yonder shore,
There shall he calm enough for me.
Why then for tempests need I care,
Since they but drive me sooner there.”

This is the time of the year when we set a time apart to ponder on the greatest miracle, the Incarnation of the Lord; The Mighty God in a manger. Let us dare to go beyond the carols, the lights, the candles, let us go to the Word of God and see Him fully. Let us study the Word of God, my dear friends, if we want to find Him we shall only find Him there. If we want to really know the Mighty God, let us go to the Scriptures, He is there.

Today I am happy to share with you the last giveaway of the year in this place. I want to give you a book that will help you study about the Deity of Jesus; a book that will take you through the Scriptures so that you may see Him as Mighty God. I have read this book twice and I really recommend it to you. The book is: Putting Jesus in His Place; The Case for Deity of Christ by Robert M. Bowman Jr. & J. Ed Komoszewski. If you are interested in entering this giveaway, just leave a comment here. The providential winner will be announced on December 24th. (I would love it if you help me share the goodness among your friends).

Monergism Books

Under His sun and by His grace,

You are most welcomed to read a complementary series on The Names of God.
Part one, The Name of God is found here, 
Part 2, Taking Refuge in the Name of the Lord, here.
Part three, The Fullness of the Name of Jesus Christ is here.

Jesus, our Great High Priest

(This was a difficult post to write. How do you summarize Jesus’ office as high priest when scripture speaks so clearly on the subject? How do you encapsulate something which encompasses so many aspects of His ministry? It was tempting to write “Read Hebrews. The end.” However, I hope you will be encouraged by these few words and that our hearts will be drawn to worship our Great High Priest.)

Like the priestly system instituted by the law, Jesus was the chosen representative of His people before God. To represent man, He took on the likeness of sinful flesh.

Earthly priests were required to make sacrifice for their own sins for they were fallen men. But unlike His predecessors, Jesus need not make atonement for His own sins for He had none.

Animals were slain day after day, year after year, but the sacrifice Jesus offered was not the blood of a blemish-free animal. He offered up Himself.

Only on one day of the year could the high priest enter the holy of holies. He would then withdraw from God’s presence, and the veil would fall, continuing to separate man from God. Our Great High Priest entered once for all, presented the Sacrifice that would end all sacrifices forever, and the veil was torn in two from top to bottom.

All the priests of old would eventually die. Jesus lives forever making intercession for us.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:19-24

“How deeply thankful should every Christian be for such a priest. The eternal Word became flesh. The Lord of glory stooped to become man. As the God-man, He mediates between the ineffably holy God and sinful creatures. The Saviour is none other than Immanuel (Matt. 1: 21, 23). In His humanity, He suffered, bled and died. But in His Divine-human person, He Himself quickened that humanity (John 2:19, 10:18). We profess not to understand the mystery, but by grace, we believe what the Scriptures record concerning Him. The “Life” that was given to Christ as the Mediator (unlike that of His humanity) was an indestructible one. Therefore, He is “a Priest forever”, and therefore, “He ever liveth to make intercession” (Heb. 7:25). Hallelujah!”

About the author: Persis is a sinner saved by the grace of God. She’s also a homeschooling mom and bit of a reformed nerd who lives in Virginia with her daughter, books, and bunnies. You can find her at Tried by Fire where she writes about theology, books, and life with snippets of humor added to the mix.

Romans 8:3
Hebrews 7:26-28
Hebrews 9:11-14
Hebrews 10:11-14, Luke 23:44-49
Hebrews 7:23-25
An Exposition of Hebrews, A.W. Pink, Baker Book House, pg. 389.

Browse through the series here. You are most welcome to read a complementary series on The Names of God.  Part one, The Name of God is found here; Part 2, Taking Refuge in the Name of the Lord, here. And part three, The Fullness of the Name of Jesus Christ is here.

Source Art for Christ

The following is from Spurgeon’s, Christ’s Incarnation, the Foundation of Christianity.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Galatians 1:3-5

Proverbs 18:10

Browse through the series here

You are most welcomed to read a complementary series on The Names of God. Part one here, 
Part 2, Taking Refuge in the Name of the Lord, here.
Part three, The Fullness of the Name of Jesus Christ is here.

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“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life!” John 8:12

I spent the greater part of the past week researching, reading and studying to write this. I had snippets of brilliant insights from the great minds of Christendom past, glorious words from commentaries and the few lines I penned myself all ready to go. I sat down today after a long frustrating day at work and realized I was going to delete all of that and just start over. I never seem to honor God in my own vain efforts, but I always find some sort of inspiration when it seems like I have nothing much to say.

I came across the words to one of my favorite Christmas songs and I think it sums up so simply what my heart wanted to say. No lengthy brilliance about why Jesus spoke about himself as “the Light of the World” in the Court of the women not long after the feast of Tabernacles, no deep digging into the Greek. Just simple words beautifully written by Phillips Brooks, the rector of Boston’s famous Trinity Church. A writer of books and poetry. His prose says so much to me.

O little town of Bethlehem,

How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light–
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

Bethlehem. A quiet little town, nothing much going on there before now. A dreamless sleep, dark streets. Much like the streets of my town right now. People frustrated and hopeless in more ways then they realize. Sinners even. The stars are silent in this sad town. What a place for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords to be born! But He was…for average, everyday people like you and me friend. In that little dark stable, the hope of the world, the “Light of the World” came to illuminate those dark streets and give eternal hope to those dark lives. That hope still lives on.

For Christ is born of Mary–
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wond’ring love.

Almost everybody was asleep we suppose, except the shepherds. They were the ones who were awake in the fields watching their flocks. And so it was to them that the angels came. But while the rest of mortals were sleeping, the angels kept their watch of wondering love.

O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God our King,
And peace to men on earth.

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is giv’n
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming,
But, in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still
The dear Christ enters in.

“Meek Souls” Not weak ones, humble ones. I know this is not deep theology, but the message that Jesus came without pomp or fanfare, to quiet streets and lowly shepherds is such a comfort to my soul…it humbles me and gives me peace. I want to share that peace and comfort of everlasting life, the light that shines on sins and breaks hearts but gives hope everlasting.

James Smith speaks with such clarity of that simple message of “Good news” and the light of truth found only in Jesus Christ.

“Do you enjoy the light — then point others to it. Tell poor dark miserable sinners of it; invite them to look to it, urge them to come to Jesus for it; and be sure to let the light you receive from Jesus, so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Lost sinner, Jesus is the light of the world, if therefore you want knowledge, comfort, holiness, or salvation — come to him, look to him, ask of him, expect from him, and believe his word, “If any man,” no matter who he is, or what he is — “if any man follows me, he shall not walk in darkness — but shall have the light of life.”

This Christmas I want to communicate the simple truth of eternal hope, peace and redemption found only my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope that in someway this post humbly points the way to the light found only in Jesus and brings honor and glory to Him.

About the author: Teresa Cassle lives in West Virginia and enjoys hiking, nature photography, traveling and serving the Lord at her local Church. Teresa blogs at “Music from Broken Chords”, and just as a side note,  today is her birthday! I love you, dear friend!

Browse through the series here

You are most welcomed to read a complementary series on The Names of God. Part one here, and part 2, Taking Refuge in the Name of the Lord, here. Part three, The Fullness of the Name of Jesus Christ here.

“The Light of the World”

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace
we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7

Of all the celebrations, the most wonderful beyond words is to celebrate the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ – “The Light of the World.” This vivid name is one of many beautiful names regarding Christ. We all know that this metaphor is referring to Jesus, but what was He really saying when He called Himself that? There are multiple different reasons behind this name. “The Light of the World” signifies a symbol, Christ’s Deity and the promised Savior. (John 8:12)

The Light of the World first emphasizes a symbol of light. The Word of God tells us that this “light” is one of the things God is said to be. I John 1:5 states, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (ESV). This phrase relates to His character. Light is the emblem of His holiness and righteousness!¹ Whereas darkness refers to error or falsehood and most of all sin, which is not able to overcome or overpower light. There is no evil or darkness in our blessed hope, Christ. We, as Christians, can be comforted in knowing that “if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7, ESV). Wow, that is certainly something to celebrate! What grace and mercy it is for us to have been shown the Light! For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost (Matthew 18:11). Not only is Christ the Light, but if we are in Him, we participate with Him in His life and message of the Gospel (John 14:20; 12:36).

“In Him was life, and the Life was the light of men.” John 1:4

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:5

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Also, when Jesus spoke to them saying, “I am the light of the world” he was expressing His Deity. The “I am” directs us to just that – His deity. “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ ” (Exodus 3:14) He is the self-existent One. No one created Him; He always was, always is and always will Be. Therefore, Jesus is God manifested in the flesh. Only someone who is God can be the Light of the World. Christ is also the light of the next world too (Rev. 21:23). And, what a glorious appearing that will be!

Because man had fallen into a sinful state in the garden and became spiritually blind, God promised to send a redeemer as the perfect sacrifice, one without spot or blemish. God, in His mercy and love, provided Himself in the flesh as that perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is God manifested in the flesh, who is our One and only source for forgiveness of sins and spiritual security.

“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

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Here in the flesh is the incarnate God of Divine and human natures, who was the long awaited fulfillment of the promised Messiah of the Old Testament – Jesus (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6). How thrilling it is for us to be on this side of the Cross where we are can look back at the promised Savior and to Him now as the resurrected Savior.

“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh,
God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin…” Romans 8:3

“The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ).
“When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”John 4:25

All in all, the Light of the World signifies three things, a symbol, Christ’s deity and Savior. In our season of celebrating the greatest gift to man let us rejoice that The Light of the World stooped down from Heaven and sacrificed Himself for us. We once lived in darkness, but because Christ has shown us the light of Himself – the Truth, forgiveness of sins and the way of eternal life in Him – we no longer have to stumble around in the dark. We have been set free to honor, worship and glorify Him. We can take joy in His beautiful name as we celebrate this wonderful Advent season. To God be the glory forever and ever!

Love this prayer!

THE GREAT DISCOVERY
The Valley of Vision

GLORIOUS GOD,
I bless thee that I know thee. I once lived in the world, but was ignorant of its Creator,
was partaker of they providences, but knew not the Provider,
was blind while enjoying the sunlight, was deaf to all things spiritual, with voices all around me,
understood many things, but had no knowledge of thy ways, saw the world, but did not see Jesus only.
O happy day, when in thy love’s sovereignty thou didst look on me, and call me by grace.
Then did the dead heart begin to beat, the darkened eye glimmer with light, the dull ear catch thy echo,
and I turned to thee and found thee, a God ready to hear, willing to save.
Then did I find my heart at enmity to thee, vexing thy Spirit;
Then did I fall at thy feet and hear thee thunder, ‘The soul that sinneth, it must die’,
But when grace made me to know thee, and admire a God who hated sin,
thy terrible justice held my will submissive.
My thoughts were then as knives cutting my head.
Then didst thou come to me in silken robes of love, and I saw thy Son dying that I might live,
and in that death I found my all.
My soul doth sing at the remembrance of that peace;
The gospel cornet brought a sound unknown to me before that reached my heart – and I lived –
never to lose my hold on Christ or his hold on me.
Grant that I may always weep to the praise of mercy found, and tell to others as long as I live,
That thou art a sin-pardoning God, taking up the blasphemer and the ungodly,
and washing them from their deepest stain.

References
¹ Pink, AW. Exposition of the Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation, 1975. Print.
The New Geneva Study Bible. Sproul, R.C.: Nashville, 1995

About the author: The Lord has blessed Christina Lum with a wonderful husband of 23 years and they have one son by God’s tender mercy. The family is of the Reformed faith and they reside in Las Vegas, NV. Christina enjoys studying the Word of God and Reformed Theology. She also continues to make use of her trade as a graphic artist at home.

Browse through the series here

You are most welcomed to read a complementary series on The Names of God. Part one here, and part 2, Taking Refuge in the Name of the Lord, here.