Category Archives: Devotionals

Maundy Thursday: The Commandment

Last Supper

John 13:31-35: A New Commandment

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Free Audiobook of the Month – November

Free Audiobook of the Month:
Calvin: Of Prayer and The Christian Life

Prayer as Calvin describes it is not giddy, and he goes on to give Scriptural definitions of proper thought, engagement, and attitude. What do the roles of patience and self-denial play in the role of the Christian life and what does Christian piety look like? What should our views be of the present life and the future life? These two sections of The Institutes guide us ever so thoughtfully and gracefully into his theology and practice of Christian living.

Just use the coupon code NOV2008 during checkout. Add the download format of Calvin: Of Prayer and The Christian Life to your cart and then enter the coupon code NOV2008 when prompted during checkout.

Merry Christmas!

May the Lord bless you all as you celebrate the joy and wonder of the birth of His only begotten Son, full of passion, truth, and love! To God be all the glory and, on earth, may peace and happiness be upon all those with whom God is pleased because of His Son, Jesus, the Messiah!

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, almighty!

In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,

Free Audio Book from ChristianAudio.com!

This month’s free audio book is available from Christianaudio.com. It’s called Dark Night of the Soul and it was written by St. John of the Cross. Use the coupon code DEC2007 to redeem this month’s free audiobook download from Christianaudio.com.

Dark Night of the Soul

Here is some more info about the book:

With His gentle hand He wounded my neck And caused all my senses to be suspended.

Part poetic masterpiece, part mystic treatise, The Dark Night of the Soul by 16th century Carmelite monk, St. John of the Cross, addresses the feeling of being forgotten by the Presence of the Almighty that every Christian desirous of walking more closely with God must pass through in order to learn to walk by faith and not by sight.

Spiritual persons suffer great trials…by reason…of the fear which they have of being lost on the road, thinking that all spiritual blessing is over for them and that God has abandoned them since they find no help or pleasure in good things. Then they grow weary, and endeavor to concentrate their faculties with some degree of pleasure upon some object of meditation, thinking that, when they are not doing this and yet are conscious of making an effort, they are doing nothing.

Perhaps one of the most widely recognized of the mystical writings, St. John’s classic Dark Night of the Soul is not only practical theology but a beautiful balm of healing to anyone whose heart has ever echoed the words of Christ, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”

Athanasius’ Creed

Whoever wills to be in a state of salvation, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith, which except everyone shall have kept whole and undefiled without doubt he will perish eternally.

Now the catholic faith is that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is One, the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; the father infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet not three eternals but one eternal, as also not three infinites, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one infinite. So, likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet not three almighties but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; and yet not three Gods but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet not three Lords but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be both God and Lord; so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say, there be three Gods or three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. So there is one Father not three Fathers, one Son not three Sons, and one Holy Spirit not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less, but the whole three Persons are coeternal together and coequal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity is to be worshipped. He therefore who wills to be in a state of salvation, let him think thus of the Trinity.

But it is necessary to eternal salvation that he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The right faith therefore is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. He is God of the substance of the Father begotten before the worlds, and He is man of the substance of His mother born in the world; perfect God, perfect man subsisting of a reasoning soul and human flesh; equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who although He be God and Man yet He is not two but one Christ; one however not by conversion of the Godhead in the flesh, but by taking of the Manhood in God; one altogether not by confusion of substance but by unity of Person. For as the reasoning soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life eternal, and they who indeed have done evil into eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith, which except a man shall have believed faithfully and firmly he cannot be in a state of salvation.

Free Audio Book of the Month!

It’s September! You know what a new month means… Christian Audio has made another free audio book available for download. 🙂 Just add the “download” version of the audio book to your shopping cart on their web site and use the following coupon code to get it for free: SEPT2007

Here is this months free offer: Teresa of Avila‘s devotional classic, Interior Castle

Interior Castle

Here some information about the author and book…

WHILE I was beseeching Our Lord to-day that He would speak through me, since I could find nothing to say and had no idea how to begin to carry out the obligation laid upon me by obedience, a thought occurred to me which I will now set down, in order to have some foundation on which to build. I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.

Thus begins Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, one of the most celebrated books ever written by a mystic on abiding in union with Christ. Writing in obedience to the requests of two of her superiors, the humble 16th century Spanish sister protests “…for the love of God, let me get on with my spinning and go to choir…like the other sisters…I am not meant for writing; I have neither the health nor the wits for it.”

However, in her pre-coffee-house conversational style, Teresa of Avila charmingly proves to her readers that she does have the wits for conveying that “the most essential thing is that we should love God…” as she takes us by the hand and lead us on a visually beautiful spiritual journey into the soul, that Interior Castle where Christ abides, and where we may abide with Him in holy, intimate communion.

Wedding Dress

If you could love me as a wife

And for my wedding gift, your life

Should that be all I’ll ever need?

Or is there more I’m looking for

And should I read between the lines

And look for blessings in disguise

To make me handsome, rich, and wise

Is that really what you want?

(Chorus) ‘Cause I am a whore I do confess

But I put you on just like a wedding dress

And I run down the aisle, I run down the aisle

I’m a prodigal with no way home

But I put you on just like a ring of Gold

And I run down the aisle

I run down the aisle to you

So could you love this bastard child?

Though I don’t trust you to provide

With one hand in a pot of gold

And with the other in your side

‘Cause I am so easily satisfied

By the call of lovers so less wild

That I would take a little cash

Over your very flesh and blood

(Chorus)

Because money cannot buy

A husband’s jealous eye

When you have knowingly deceived his wife

(Chorus 2x)

————

Words and Music by Derek Webb
Copyright 2002 Niphon, Inc.

————

Well, what do you think? Can you honestly make this confession to God? Can you admit that your sin against God is whoring around? Have you ever really considered what sin is? And just how horrid and detestable to God it is? Do you know the holiness of God? How He cannot look upon sin or let it go unpunished?

These are some things that everyone must consider if they are ever to have the chance to understand reality and the situation humanity is in.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-26)

This is how we know that God is holy and just and a punisher of sin and at the same time full of grace and mercy unto His precious people whom He foreknew and sought to redeem for Himself – God’s unrighteousness in passing over sin (Proverbs 17:15) was made righteousness in Christ and His death on the cross.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The Gospel is so precious to my eyes. For once I was blind but now I see and once I was lost but now I have been found! I once was dead, but Christ said, “Live!” and I came to Him and received eternal life! I cannot turn back, I cannot be condemned, I cannot be ashamed – for Christ has saved me, He has justified me, He has done that which I could not do for myself! He made me, who was unwilling and unrepentant, to be willing and one who diligently seeks after Him – turning away from my sins and loving Him with all that I am.

If God is for me, then who can be against me? If Christ has satisfied the wrath of God for me, then how can wrath still be upon me? No one can and it cannot be, I respectively answer.

After writing Hebrews 11, the author says this in 12:1-3, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”

Therefore, let us draw near unto the Throne of Grace – with a true heart that has been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies that have been washed with pure water! For all who are in Christ know and trust Him in all that He has promised. But for all who are outside of Christ, there is nothing but wrath and indignation in which to await.

On the day of judgment I hope your conscience is clean and that eternal joy in Christ is your sole comfort! Therefore, be patient in this life until He comes or until you pass from this earth, and seek always to be found in Him on that great and awful Day and great will be your reward!

In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,

What Is Your Focus?

Christian’s these days don’t seem to make much of their salvation. They don’t seem to have a focus on the proper thing, namely the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They don’t seem to realize that the supremacy of Christ is suppose to be their ultimate priority and focus in every breath they take. Daily, we go about our lives wondering what exactly the next buzz will be that will allow us to enjoy the season. We are all-too-often seeking our own sensational pleasure instead of being satisfied in and pleased with the God who has saved us. He alone is who we are to live for and anything less than that is sinful and unholy. Anyone who thinks that they will be saved from this fallen world without holiness has not learned from the Father. “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14, KJV)But you may then ask why does the Christian “world” (at large today) not seek to be holy and find their fulfillment in Christ and His greatness? Well, the answer is simple… we don’t know God as we should know Him. We have not sought Him where He can be found.

But then you may ask “where can He be found?” The answer is simple once again… we can find Him in His revelation of Himself, namely His spoken word – the Old and New Testament. The Bible must forever be the Church’s sole infallible rule of faith for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) If it does not hold that position then anyone who claims the name of Christ will never know Him as they should and some may even find out on the Day of Judgment that they never knew Him at all, but even more so, that Christ never knew them. He will say to them, “Depart from me, you who work iniquity, for I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23)

————————————–

Hebrews 3 – NASB

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house — whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,

And saw My works for forty years.

Therefore I was angry with this generation,

And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,

And they did not know My ways’;

As I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.'”

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said,

“Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

————————————–

Now, understand the thrust of this entire passage with all its richness and power… We know that all who hold fast their confidence and hope in Christ to the end of their mortal life have already been made partakers of Christ. But to any who fall away, they prove themselves to have never been partakers of Christ to begin with. Their ‘enlightenment’ was nothing more than a winsome show that inevitably results in greater punishment being delivered to them on the Day of Judgment. This is why we are to encourage one another and fellowship with one another, unless we should find that one of us is not really part of Christ and His people.

It is the failure of so many churches to encourage one another and confront each other when their brother or sister is fulfilling the desires of the flesh. Yet, all-too-often, it is us who is also listening to the sin that is in us and not able to help our brother or sister because of the “plank” in our own eye.

Therefore, we must seek this day to seek Christ through His revelation – the Bible – in order that we may remove the plank from our own eye and exhort one another toward Godliness that we may be holy and blameless on the Day of Judgment, knowing that we have been made partakers of Christ and His Kingdom!

————————————–

A Prayer from The Valley of Vision

Continual Repentance

“O GOD OF GRACE,

Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,

and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul,

clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe,

decking me with jewels of holiness.

But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;

my best prayers are stained with sin;

my penitential tears are so much impurity;

my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;

my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.

I need to repent of my repentance;

I need my tears to be washed;

I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,

no loom to weave my own righteousness;

I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,

and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,

for thou dost always justify the ungodly;

I am always going into the far country,

and always returning home as a prodigal,

always saying , Father, forgive me,

and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.

Every morning let me wear it,

every evening return in it,

go out to the day’s work in it,

be married in it,

be wound in death in it,

stand before the great white throne in it,

enter heaven in it shining as the sun.

Grant me never to lose sight ofthe exceeding sinfulness of sin,

the exceeding righteousness of salvation,

the exceeding glory of Christ,

the exceeding beauty of holiness,

the exceeding wonder of grace.”

————————————–

“Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21 NASB)