Friend of All Who Come to God

That same Jesus who once died for sinners, still lives at the right hand of God, to carry on the work of salvation which He came down from heaven to perform.

He lives to receive all who come unto God by Him, and to give them power to become the sons of God.

He lives to hear the confession of every heavy-laden conscience, and to grant, as an almighty High Priest, perfect absolution.

He lives to pour down the Spirit of adoption on all who believe in Him, and to enable them to cry, Abba, Father!

He lives to be the one Mediator between God and man, the unwearied Intercessor, the kind Shepherd, the elder Brother, the prevailing Advocate, the never-failing Priest and Friend of all who come to God by Him.

He lives to be wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to all His people—to keep them in life, to support them in death, and to bring them finally to eternal glory.

 

— J. C. Ryle
Old Paths

Confess....Rejoice

If you are truly trusting in Christ, you can’t confess a sin for which God has not provided forgiveness in Jesus.

Indeed, if you work at the discipline of confessing your sin, it should not lead to despair at all, but rather to rejoicing over the extent of God’s love to you in Christ.

—Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence,  
 It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement

The Day(s) after Christmas....

A Prayer About the Day After Christmas is a post from: Heavenward by Scotty Smith

    The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20

Heavenly Father, it’s reasonable to assume that life just on the other side of Christmas day is as varied as imaginable. For some of us, this was the “greatest” Christmas ever, in terms of healthy, caring relationships… incredible “eats”… thoughtful gifts, both given and received… and above all,  fresh gratitude for the indescribable gift of your Son, Jesus.

For others of us, it was a really difficult day. Palpable tensions… dashed hopes… brokenness abounding. For still others, it was the first Christmas with an empty chair where a loved one used to sit, or a day spend all by ourselves in excruciating loneliness.

Father, my prayer today is for all of us, no matter what yesterday was like. For even our best days are in need of the gospel and none of our worse days are beyond the reach of the gospel.

When the shepherds left Jesus’ manger, they were still shepherds… they still couldn’t worship at the temple… they still couldn’t give testimony in a court of law… they still were stereotyped as thieves by many in their community.

And we shouldn’t romanticize what Joseph and Mary did the day after Jesus was born. As though, all of the sudden, a 5-star Inn in Bethlehem did open up… as though Mary’s body would’ve been spared all the normal chaos and pain of birthing and afterbirth… as though angels started showing up as round the clock wet nurses.

Father, thank you that we’re Christians, not Gnostics. We don’t have to pretend about anything. Christmas isn’t a season in which we’re supposed to be transported into a super-spirituality, rising above reality. The gospel isn’t about denial, but learning to delight in you… no matter what’s going on. We praise you that Jesus came into a real world where everything is broken, but he came to make all things new… starting with us.

Please give each of us the special and the common grace you gave shepherds. Let us hear and let us see more of Jesus, even if we remain “shepherds” the rest of our lives. Enable us to glorify and praise you, Father, for you are not a man that you would lie about anything. Everything you’ve promised us in your Word will come to pass. The gospel really is true. Jesus really is making all things new. Your grace really is sufficient. This is good news for shepherds, kings and us alike. So very Amen, we pray, in Jesus’ faithful and loving name.

Morning and Noon and Night

In The Necessity of Prayer, E. M. Bounds quotes this advice, giving credit only to "an eminent old divine":

Would you be freed from the bondage to corruption? Would you grow in grace in general and grow in grace in particular? If you would, your way is plain.

Ask of God more faith. Beg of him morning, and noon and night, while you walk by the way, while you sit in the house, when you lie down and when you rise up; beg of him simply to impress divine things more deeply on your heart, to give you more and more of the substance of things hoped for and of the evidence of things not seen.

“Fear not.”

Fear Not

Desiring God Blog

And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people' (Luke 2:10).

The Bethlehem shepherds were afraid of the holy angel. That’s understandable. Holy glory naturally strikes terror into the heart of sinful people.

But the angel told them they did not have to fear. He was bringing them good news! Christ the Lord, their Savior, had been born in the city of his father, David. And this Savior would bring peace among those with whom God was pleased—peace with God (Romans 5:1) through the forgiveness of their sins (Luke 1:77).

God had sent his holy Son into the world not to condemn it, “but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). “For our sake he [would make] him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). And that would mean “no condemnation for all who [would be] in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

That wonderful night the herald angel proclaimed the beginning of the end of our terror of God’s holiness. More than that, it was the beginning of the end of all our fears. “God is love” (1 John 4:16), and “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

“Fear not.” This is God’s Christmas message to you if you are in Christ Jesus. God is completely for you (Romans 8:31) and he will conquer all your fears and all your foes (Romans 8:35-39).

You have nothing to fear. That is good news of great joy!

Hell's Terror

 

“‘Immanuel, God with us.’  It is hell’s terror.  Satan trembles at the sound of it. . . . Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word, ‘God with us,’ back he falls, confounded and confused. . . . ‘God with us’ is the laborer’s strength.  How could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, how could the confessor own his Master, how could men labor if that one word were taken away? . . . ‘God with us’ is eternity’s sonnet, heaven’s hallelujah, the shout of the glorified, the song of the redeemed, the chorus of the angels, the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky. . . .

Feast, Christians, feast; you have a right to feast. . . . But in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem.  Let him have a place in your hearts, give him the glory, think of the virgin who conceived him, but think most of all of the Man born, the Child given.

I finish by again saying, A happy Christmas to you all!”

                          C. H. Spurgeon

Immanuel is a post from: Ray Ortlund

Immanuel (God With Us)

Great quote for today as we approach the day where we celebrate Immanuel - "God with us"

 

Near to God and near to us

Of First Importance

“Would you have your Savior to be one who is near to God, so that his mediation might be prevalent with him? And can you desire him to be nearer to God than Christ is, who is his only-begotten Son, of the same essence with the Father? And would you not only have him near to God, but also near to you, that you may have free access to him? And would you have him nearer to you than to be in the same nature, united to you by a spiritual union, so close as to be fitly represented by the union of the wife to the husband, of the branch to the vine, of the member to the head; yea, so as to be one spirit? For so he will be united to you, if you accept him.… What is there wanting or what would you add if you could, to make him more fit to be your Savior?”

— Jonathan Edwards

Doing All Things Well

 A Prayer About Jesus’ Perfect Birthing Experience is a post from: Heavenward by Scotty Smith

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.     Galatians 4:4-7

Dear Jesus, like others, I often criticize and sentimentalize the circumstances of your birth. Judging Jerusalem for missing “her moment”… condemning inn-keepers for gross inhospitality… and pitying Mary for having to endure such an ignoble and unsanitary birthing room. Yet everything happened in keeping with the decrees and delights of heaven. “Doing all things well” didn’t just start happening after your resurrection. From cradle to cross to crown, it’s all one big gospelicious story of sovereign grace.

Jesus, you arrived, “when the time had fully come”… not a day early, and not a day late. As humbling as it was to be born under the ceiling of a stable, being born under the weight of the law was a far greater burden. Yet that’s exactly why you came into the world—to take the full weight of God’s law upon yourself in order to redeem us… to redeem me from sin’s penalty, power and presence.

There’s no way we could’ve ever fulfilled the demands of God’s righteous and holy law. Only you could and only you did… and you did it all for us, Jesus. Your life of perfect obedience is now considered to be ours. Your death upon the cross is also considered to be ours—a death by which you exhausted the judgment we deserve for our sin. Because you lived in our place and died in our place, we’re no longer slaves, but fully-righted and much beloved children of the living God. We dance before you and delight in you, Jesus, for such over-the-top good news—for such a glorious gospel.

Abba, Father has already robed us with your righteousness and has sent his powerful Spirit to live in our hearts, and our future looks spectacular, as well. For we will co-inherit the new heaven and new earth with you, and with our whole pan-national family. O my… what is left to say but “Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a salvation!”

If someone should ask us what we got for Christmas this year and we don’t answer, “More of the gospel!”, have mercy on us, Jesus, have mercy on us. Indeed, we won’t judge inn-keepers this Advent season, but we will rejoice in the God of our salvation. So very Amen, we pray, in your merciful and matchless name.

A New Kind of Man

“God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.”
           — C. S. Lewis

Come down to the manger

Come down to the manger, see the little stranger
Wrapped in swaddling clothes, the prince of peace
Wheels start turning, torches start burning
And the old wise men journey from the East

How a little baby boy bring the people so much joy
Son of a carpenter, Mary carried the light
This must be Christmas, must be tonight