Category Archives: Lord’s Day

>Celebrating His Coming

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> Today we gather, saints from here and there, to worship our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He came to die; He came to redeem His own. He came to love us. On the words of Octavius Winslow:

Like the eternity of God, we cannot fathom
where His love begins, or where it terminates.

There is no other solution to the marvelous
mysteries of His Incarnation and Sacrificial
Death but this: Christ has loved us.

Love originated all, explains all, illustrates all.

Love is the interpreter of every Divine mystery.

 

Today I am grateful that God became man and dwelt among us, and brought salvation to hopeless sinners like me.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:  ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means God with us)” Matthew 1:18- 23 ESV

Christmas lights are starting to shine everywhere, Advent is around the corner, and I am ready to celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord again. This year, however, I want to invite you to celebrate with me.

Starting  Wednesday, December 1, I will write every week in December about the doctrine of the Incarnation (what it is, how it affects me, how we celebrate it); if you want to participate, write about the Incarnation of Christ, and link to your blog post here.

Today, let us welcome the King with thanksgiving in our hearts!

>Thoughts on Reformation Day

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Stained Glass at the Wittenberg Church. We took this picture in 2006

Happy Reformation Day to all my brothers and sisters in Christ!


Today I want to share these notes taken from Practical Wisdom for Calvinists, I pray that you will be encouraged by them as I was.


1. Because all of us were Arminian in our thinking at once, let us “be patient with our brethren and recognize that both ethical and theological maturity takes time. In fact, there are some truths that, for whatever reason, we may not yet be ready to receive – as Jesus told His own disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).”


2. Let us love all saints, even our Arminian brethren. Spurgeon said:


“We give our hand to every man that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, be he what he may or who he may. The doctrine of election, like the great act of election itself, is intended to divide, not between Israel and Israel, but between Israel and the Egyptians – not between saint and saint, but between saints and the children of the world. A man may be evidently of God’s chosen family, and yet though elected, may not believe in the doctrine of election. I hold there are many savingly called, who do not believe in effectual calling, and that there are a great many who persevere to the end, who do not believe the doctrine of final perseverance. We do hope that the hearts of many are a great deal better than their heads. We do not set their fallacies down to any willful opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus, but simply to an error in their judgments, which we pray God to correct. We hope that if they think us mistaken too, they will reciprocate the same Christian courtesy; and when we meet around the cross, we hope that we shall ever feel that we are one in Christ Jesus (New Park Street Pulpit [London: Passmore & Alabaster, Vol.6] p.303).”


3. Most Arminians “are not rejecting genuine Calvinism, but distortions of it. One’s heart may be right, while one’s head may be wrong”.  

4. “Calvinism is not the Gospel.  One is not saved by a proper understanding of election, Divine sovereignty, or the extent of the atonement. These issues, no doubt, are important, but they are not the core of the Gospel; they indirectly relate to the Gospel (as do many other Biblical teachings), but are not the essence of it. The puritan, John Bradford, stated: “Let a man go to the grammar school of faith and repentance, before he goes to the university of election and predestination.” In the same way that it is wrong to detract from the Gospel message, so it is wrong to add to the Gospel message one’s particular theology. Once again, this is not to deny that the five-points of Calvinism are not important matters; but simply to point out that the minute one makes mandatory for salvation a correct understanding of election, effectual calling, or the extent of the atonement (regardless of how true they might be), they are guilty of adding to the Gospel. This is usually the error of young, zealous Calvinists (although not always), but to use the words of James, “My brethren, these things ought not to be this way” (James 3:10)”




Please, I encourage you to read the rest of this article here.




 Soli Deo Gloria!

>Sunday’s Psalm – Psalm 99-

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The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted over all the peoples.
Let them praise your great and awesome name!

Holy is he!
The King in his might loves justice.
You have established equity;
you have executed justice
and righteousness in Jacob.
Exalt the Lord our God;
worship at his footstool!

Holy is he!
Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel also was among those who called upon his name.
They called to the Lord, and he answered them.
In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them;
they kept his testimonies
and the statute that he gave them.
O Lord our God, you answered them;
you were a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
Exalt the Lord our God,
and worship at his holy mountain;

for the Lord our God is holy!
Have a most blessed Lord’s Day!

>Holy, Holy, Holy

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Holy, holy, holy

(Thomas Brooks, “The Crown and Glory of Christianity,
 or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness“, 1662)

“Who is like You, glorious in holiness?” Exodus 15:11

God is . . .
  infinitely holy,
  transcendently holy,
  superlatively holy,
  constantly holy,
  unchangeably holy,
  exemplary holy,
  gloriously holy.

All the holiness that is in the best and choicest
Christians is but a mixed holiness, a weak and
imperfect holiness. Their unholiness is always
more than their holiness.
Ah, what a great deal . . .
  of pride is mixed with a little humility,
  of unbelief is mixed with a little faith,
  of peevishness is mixed with a little meekness,
  of earthliness is mixed with a little heavenliness,
  of carnality is mixed with a little spirituality,
  of harshness is mixed with a little tenderness!

Oh, but the holiness of God is a pure holiness, it is
a holiness without mixture; there is not the least
drop or the least dreg of unholiness in God! “God
is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5

In God there is . . .
  all wisdom without any folly,
  all truth without any falsehood,
  all light without any darkness, and
  all holiness without any sinfulness.

God is universally holy.
He is holy in all His ways,
and holy in all His works.
His precepts are holy precepts,
His promises are holy promises,
His threatenings are holy threatenings,
His love is a holy love,
His anger is a holy anger,
His hatred is a holy hatred, etc.

His nature is holy,
His attributes are holy,
His actions are all holy.

He is holy in sparing;
  and holy in punishing.
He is holy in justifying of some;
  and holy in condemning of others.
He is holy in bringing some to heaven;
  and holy in throwing others to hell.

God is holy . . .
  in all His sayings,
  in all His doings,
  in whatever He puts His hand to,
  in whatever He sets His heart to.
His frowns are holy,
His smiles are holy.
When He gives, His givings are holy giving;
when He takes away, His takings are holy takings, etc.

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty!” Isaiah 6:3

God is eminently holy.
He is transcendently holy.
he is superlatively holy.
He is glorious in holiness.

There is no fathoming,
there is no measuring,
there is no comprehending,
there is no searching, of that
infinite sea of holiness, which is in God.
O sirs! you shall as soon . . .
  stop the sun in its course, and
  change the day into night, and
  raise the dead,
  and make a world, and
  count the stars of heaven, and
  empty the sea with a cockle-shell,
as you shall be able either to conceive or express
that transcendent holiness which is in God!

God’s holiness is infinite.
It can neither be . . .
  limited, nor
  lessened, nor
  increased.

God is the spring of all holiness and purity. All that
holiness which is in angels and men flows from God,
  as the streams from the fountain,
  as the beams from the sun,
  as the branches from the root,
  as the effect from the cause.
Ministers may pray that their people may be holy,
parents may pray that their children may be holy;
but they cannot give holiness, nor communicate
holiness to their nearest and dearest relations.
God alone is the giver and the author of all holiness.
It is only the Holy One who can cause holiness to flow
into sinners’ hearts; it is only He who can form, and
frame, and infuse holiness into the souls of men.
A man shall sooner make make a world—than he shall
make another holy. It is only a holy God, who can . . .
  enlighten the mind, and
  bow the will, and
  melt the heart, and
  raise the affections, and
  purge the conscience, and
  reform the life, and
  put the whole man into a holy gracious temper.

God is exemplary holy. He is the rule, example, and
pattern of holiness. “Be holy, as I am holy.” 1 Pet. 1:15.
God’s holiness is the copy which we must always have in
our eye, and endeavor most exactly to write after.

Let us bless our Holy God today.

Related Posts:

What to do With Today’s Sermon
The Lord’s Day

On the former blog:

Sunday’s Poem

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>Hallowed be Your Name

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Thomas Watson. Read His Biography at Monergism

The Lord taught us how to pray and the first petition is this,  “Hallowed by your name” Matthew 6:9
 Thomas Watson explains us how we should sanctify God’s name, and among his teaching, he says:

“We hallow and sanctify God’s name when we hallow his day.

“Hallow the sabbath day.” Jer 17:22. Our Christian Sabbath, which comes in the place of the Jews’ Sabbath, is called the Lord’s day. Rev 1:10. It was anciently called a day of light, wherein Christ the Sun of Righteousness shines in an extraordinary manner. It is an honor done to God to hallow his Sabbath.

(1) We must rest on this day from all secular works. “Bring in no burden on the sabbath day.” Jer 17:24. As when Joseph would speak with his brethren he thrust out the Egyptians; so when we would converse with God on this day, we must thrust out all earthly employments. Mary Magdalene refused to anoint Christ’s dead body on the sabbath day. Luke 23:56. She had before prepared her ointment and spices—but came not to the sepulcher until the Sabbath was past; she rested on that day from civil work, even the commendable and glorious work of anointing Christ’s dead body. 
(2) We must in a solemn manner devote ourselves to God on this day; we must spend the whole day with God. Some will hear the word—but leave all their religion at church; they do nothing at home, they do not pray or repeat the word in their houses, and so rob God of a part of his day. It is lamentable to see how God’s day is profaned. Let no man think God’s name is hallowed, while his Sabbath is broken.” (source@ Grace Gems)
Let us set apart this today to sanctify His name in all we do!

Related Posts:

 Sunday’s Psalm – Psalm 19-
A Prayer for Today
The Lord’s Day

Visit Rebecca for more hymns and devotionals for the Lord’s Day.

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What to do with Today’s Sermon?

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 A picture taken by my beautiful daughter.

“Though we cannot repeat the good sermons we have heard;
yet if through grace, our hearts and ways are purified by them, they are not lost.

But let what I have said engage you who hear and learn the forms of sound words, to hold them fast, to imprint them in your minds and memories, that you may have them ready to you at all times, as occasion requires.
In order to do this, labour to understand them;
and let your knowledge be clear and distinct, and then you will be likely to retain it;
set every truth in its proper place, and then you will know what use to make of it.
Get your hearts duly affected with things, and abide and act under the power and influence of them;
and then you will remember them.
Be often repeating them to yourselves:
Mary kept the sayings of Christ, by pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:19).”
Matthew Henry, Family Religion.

Have a most blessed Lord’s Day, dear friends.

You may like to ponder over these too (from the archives):

Sunday’s Psalm – Psalm 19
Daily On My Way to Heaven.
The Lord’s Day