Jesus Understands Loneliness

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” (Isaiah 53:3)

Sometimes we feel alone in the world. 

Jesus understands this feeling. 

In a very human sense, he was alone.  

Imagine what living in this world was like for Jesus. He was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). That might sound like a pleasant problem to deal with. 

I don’t think so. I think it was tormenting. Peter described sinful Lot’s experience in Sodom as being tormented day after day by the “lawless deeds that he saw and heard” (2 Peter 2:8). How much worse was it for sinless Jesus living in a world of sin?

Imagine what his childhood was like. He would have been odd, sticking out morally like a sore thumb, never quite fitting in with any group, even his own family.

Even his loving parents wouldn’t have fully understood him. Nor would they have been able to protect him from others’ stinging remarks and maybe cruel mocking over his unsullied strangeness.

I wonder how much came from his siblings? His brothers and sisters (Matthew 13:55–56) would have grown increasingly self-conscious around him, aware of their own sinful, self-obsessed motives and behavior, while noting that Jesus didn’t seem to exhibit any himself. What resentments accrued? All was not harmonious because Jesus’s own brothers didn’t believe in him (John 7:5), possibly until after his resurrection (Acts 1:14).

Jesus was a sinless person living with sinful parents, sinful siblings, sinful extended relatives and sinful neighbors. No one on earth could identify with him. No human being could put an arm around him as he sat in tears and say, “I know exactly what you’re going through.” His sorrow and grief (Isaiah 53:3) began way before Gethsemane.

But Jesus’s loneliness reached its apex the moment he became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) on the cross and was “forsaken” by his Father (Matthew 27:46). First he was estranged by sinlessness and then from being sin. Jesus knew supreme rejection and loneliness.

Which makes him perfectly suited to understand yours. He is a high priest who can sympathize with this weakness (Hebrews 4:15).

But Jesus doesn’t just understand your loneliness; he’s destroying it. Because he died on your behalf, you are no longer truly a stranger or alien, but you are a fellow citizen with the saints and a member of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19). Because Jesus was alienated from God and man, you will enjoy the full family fellowship of God and all of his redeemed saints forever.

Child of God, your loneliness is passing away. The day is nearing when you will know as you have been fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12). And the fading loneliness you still feel Jesus understands.

So “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that [you] may receive mercy and find grace to help” with every lonely need (Hebrews 4:16).  



by Jon Bloom | October 12, 2012

True Holiness Befriends Sinners

by David Mathis | September 10, 2012

The pursuit of holiness may keep you from bad company. But have you ever considered that it might also lead you to keep some pretty bad company?

Jesus is our litmus test of lived-out holiness. He is the Holy One of Israel in human flesh. His life serves as the best answer key for what divine holiness looks like when reflected in humanity. And they rightly called him “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19).

So what are we to do with a God-man who associated with the most blatant nonbelievers of his day?

Not Merely to Defy Convention or Enjoy a Party

It’s worth noting what Jesus is not doing when associating with unbelievers throughout the Gospels. He’s not just going with the flow. He’s not trying to get in with the hip crowd. He’s not just looking for a good time, or to drown his sorrows, or tag along with the social scene, or grow his reputation, or hang out because there’s nothing better to do.

Take note that there’s no passivity in Jesus’s approach. And no sin. He’s there on mission — in the unbelieving household, at the party — not aiming simply to defy conventions, but actively seeking the salvation of sinners. He sees associating with unbelievers as a strategic place to call for repentance — and is it all that surprising when he keeps running into the hardest hearts among the “believing” religious elites of his day?

Angling for Repentance

In Contagious Holiness: Jesus’ Meals with Sinners, New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg sums up the relevant texts from the Gospels like this:

Scandalously, [Jesus] associates with the notoriously wicked, but he is willing to feast with the scrupulous religious leaders as well. Jesus’ table fellowship with sinners reflects his willingness to associate with them at an intimate level, but not merely for the sake of defying convention or enjoying a party. In each case various textual clues, if not explicit statements, demonstrate that Christ is indeed calling them to repentance and summoning them to become his followers. (167)

His close proximity to sinners doesn’t mean he’s coddling sin, but that he’s getting close enough to confront unbelief with precision and grace. When he engages sinners (Mark 2:15; Luke 7:37–38), he’s honest that he sees them as such (Mark 2:17; Luke 7:47–48), and that it’s precisely for their sake that he has come. The man known as “friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19) is said, in the next verse, to “denounce the cities [that] did not repent” (Matthew 11:20).

A Contagious Holiness, Not Fearing Contamination

Jesus exhibits a “contagious holiness,” Blomberg calls it. “Jesus discloses not one instance of fearing contamination, whether moral or ritual, by associating with the wicked or impure. Rather, he believes that his purity can rub off on them, and he hopes that his magnanimity toward them will lead them to heed his calls to discipleship” (167).

Having your purity “rub off” on nonbelievers isn’t automatic, and won’t come from passivity and nonchalance. It happens through sustained intentionality to connect with nonbelievers where they are and, with God’s help, point them toward saving belief in Jesus. The power to clearly and explicitly share the gospel, and to gently but firmly call for change, won’t come from the worldly desire to nestle up to sin. It must come from holiness, true holiness.

Befriending Unbelievers Together

And here’s an important clarification in the land of lone-rangers. Jesus is the perfect, sinless God-man — and during his earthly ministry was able to go at it alone if needed — but even he always seemed to have his disciples with him. How much more do we need a team, to go at our evangelistic efforts with a solid brother or sister or two who will not let us be dragged down by the sin around us, and in us, but keep us on mission, intentional to engage and rescue sinners with the gospel of Jesus.

Don’t storm the gates of hell alone. Jesus sent out his disciples two by two (Luke 10:1). You’re wise to go with a team.

Good News Changes Bad People

So proceed with accountability, and use great caution. As the apostle Paul acknowledges in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Be warned.

But don’t miss the evangelistic impulses flowing elsewhere in the very same letter in 1 Corinthians 5:9–11.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

Don’t confuse the call to separate from an openly sinful “brother” with a summons to stay away from the lost. We call them “lost” because we hope they’ll be found. And in an increasingly post-Christian culture, they likely will not be “found” without someone risking it to take them the gospel in uncomfortable ways and places.

It’s one thing to confess Christ and embrace sin. It’s quite another thing when someone living in sin doesn’t yet confess Christ — and the Christian bent is to put ourselves in potentially dangerous situations in hope of rescuing them.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:14–15)

Yes, bad company corrupts good morals. Do beware. And don’t ever forget that God’s good news stands ready to change really bad people.

Crucified to Sin, Raised to Go Back In

Maybe the call to holiness has kept you from eating with the tax collectors and sinners of your town, and in certain circumstances, that may be all well and good. But if we’re taking our cues from the Holy One of Israel made human, eating with tax collectors and sinners could be the very thing we’re called to do more of.

Christian holiness is not the avoidance of darkness at all costs. It includes going into the darkness, letting our Light shine without compromise, and bringing people back from the darkness by the power of God.

Jesus’s true followers are not only crucified to the world, but also raised to new life and sent back in to free others. Let’s die to every sinful desire in us for bad company, and yield to the holy impulse to befriend some of the world’s worst for Jesus’s sake.

You Obey the One You Fear

Well, here is a good, deeply challenging thought for today:

by Jon Bloom | August 17, 2012

At the root of insecurity — the anxiety over how others think of us — is pride. The pride is an excessive desire for others to see us as impressive and admirable. Insecurity is the fear that they won’t, but instead they will see us as deficient. As King Saul1 shows us, it’s a dangerous fear because insecurity can lead to great disobedience.

Samuel’s heart was broken and heavy as he neared the Saul’s camp at Gilgal. Israel’s first king had failed so soon and so seriously.

And Samuel was tired. He’d been up all night prayerfully mourning the Lord’s words, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.”

And he was angry. The Lord had already severely disciplined Saul for officiating the burnt offering when he knew it transgressed the Law. But God had been gracious in giving him another chance by sending him to carry out judgment on the Amalekites. The instructions could not have been clearer. They had not been obeyed.

The old prophet trembled at the word he must deliver to an armed king who feared public humiliation more than the Holy One.

Saul was all smiles when he saw Samuel. “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

Samuel had to bite his tongue. “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?”

Saul felt immediately exposed. Alone he had figured that fudging some on the instructions really wouldn’t matter. But now he knew he had gravely presumed. He fumbled for words. “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”

This was a smoke screen. “Stop!” Samuel cried. He could not bear Saul trying to cover disobedience with cosmetic righteousness. Nor his cowardly hiding behind the people. “I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.”

Saul’s was defensive in his guilt. “Speak,” he said with a bravado disguise.

“Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?”

Then looking over at the plump livestock, the price of Saul’s kingdom, Samuel said, “Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”

Saul was defiant in his denial. “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

Samuel just hung his head in disappointment. And he shook it with a subtleness that stung Saul as much as anything the prophet had said…yet.

With teary eyes on the ground, Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

Samuel then paused and caught his breath. Slowly he looked up into Saul’s guilt-shy eyes. “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Saul nervously glanced at the wordless watching men around him. He was sweating. “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.”

Saul is a sober reminder to us that we obey the one we fear. He feared the people — he loved his reputation — and despised God. Being little in our own eyes can be either righteous or ruinous. It’s righteous if we see God as big and us as small. This actually frees us from fear. But it’s ruinous if the approval of man is what’s big to us because it always leads to disobeying God.

When we fail in this area, and all of us do at some point, God calls us not to remorse but to repentance. Saul was remorseful, but not repentant. He pursued the god of his own glory over the God who gave him that glory right to his death on Mount Gilboa. And he became lethally paranoid with insecurity.

So let us repent of our insecurities and say with Peter and the disciples, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). 

An Olympic Lesson in God's Omnipotence

Sad to see the Olympics end?

Every other year, whether Winter Games or Summer, it's thrilling when the Olympics arrive and captivate the world's collective attention for two full weeks. But most of us are at least a little glum to see them go, even if it does mean we finally get to catch up on some sleep.

There's a bigness to the Olympiad that fascinates us. It comes with a kind of transcendence that taps into a profound longing in the human soul. On display are the world's best athletes. From most of the world's geopolitical nations. The world's eye fixed on a single object as is rarely the case outside of war. From our limited vantage, few things seem to bring out humanity's oneness, and feel as globally significant in a good way, as the Olympic Games.

But as great as the Olympics are, there is something infinitely greater — Someoneinfinitely greater. The grandeur of the Games points us to the grandeur of God. The taste of transcendence they bring helps us see there's a Bigness and Magnitude that doesn't come and go for a couple weeks every couple years, but is here for our enjoyment forever — together with people from every tribe and tongue and nation.

John Piper helps us learn this Olympic lesson in the omnipotence of God:

During the Summer Olympics one of the camera maneuvers taught me something about the greatness of God. The opening and closing ceremonies were thrilling to most of the people who saw them. The sheer magnitude of the crowds and fireworks and music were a once-in-a-lifetime experience of bigness and grandeur.

Those of us who watched it on television could feel some of the thrill when the camera was high enough to take in the whole great sweep of the coliseum. But then something strange happened. The camera continued to recede into the sky where it was perched in the helicopter, and the coliseum became smaller and smaller until it was just a blurry dot on the ground.

As I watched that happen I was filled with joy in the greatness of God. I said to myself, "Look how thrilled we are with a coliseum full of color and sound. Look how we stand in wonder. Look how we shout and clap and feel excitement at the splendor of it all. But look again from God's perspective. Compared to his power and splendor, it's a blurry dot on the ground."

God puts on a minor display of his strength and splendor every morning as he brings the sun up over the horizon — 865,000 miles thick, 1.3 million times heavier than the earth, blazing on its cool edges at one million degrees Centigrade! Every morning has its opening ceremonies to thrill us with the power and the glory of God and fill us with hope that one day we will enter a land where all the wonders that have inspired us on this little earth will be like blurry dots in comparison with the magnificence of God's eternal closing ceremonies.

And every night God puts out a little puppet show of his majesty in the sky, with Perseus and Andromeda and Hercules and Orion and Leo the Lion and Draco the Dragon sporting about in the local galaxy 100,000 light years across.

"Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge." And what they teach so forcefully is that God is infinite in power. Nothing that has ever awed you can compare to him. He is God Almighty! Nothing can stay his hand. He does whatever he pleases. He is the Potter and the universe is his clay.

by David Mathis | August 13, 2012

Hosea- God's Redeeming Love

A little after the time that Amos was prophesying to the northern kingdom of Israel, another prophet divinely called by God stepped into the spotlight. 

He is the first minor prophet to be listed out of seven in the Scriptures. He often refers to Israel as Ephraim in this book. 

His name was Hosea, which means "salvation" or "deliverer". Joshua and Jesus are derived from the same name. Hosea was a prophet who lived and prophesied just before the destruction of Israel in 722 BC. He preached to the northern kingdom. The book that is titled his name is a combination of many sermons given over a period of several decades.

   Just as Amos seems like John the Baptist in his approach, so Hosea is like how Jesus approached the people. This reveals to us more of God's heart. Loving, compassionate and forgiving.

   Hosea prophesied during the reigns of 7 different kings. Most place the time of his work at 750-725 B.C. Amos and Hosea prophesied to Israel. Isaiah and Micah were prophesying in Judah who were other prophets during this time.
The northern kingdom of Israel was drying up. 

Sin was even more rampant than seen in the book of Amos. Religious, moral, and political corruption was rampant. No faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God, cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery, breaking all bounds, bloodshed following bloodshed. 

   There is much in Hosea about Baal worship. It is important to understand the thought and practice that went with Baal worship. Baal was the god of fertility. The earth was viewed as female and Baal was the male that fertilized her and was responsible for the rain and plentiful crops. The people thought that they could arouse Baal if they performed sex acts in his temple. So temple prostitutes were numerous and plentiful.

   Religious- Hosea summed up the religious activities of Israel in one word: Whoredom. As a harlot, she had prostituted herself before the false gods. The people lacked knowledge, and were ignorant of God's Commands. Idols had been set up and Israelite women were serving in the temples as cult prostitutes.

   Moral- Their conduct was the contradicting to that which God required. The picture painted in the Book of Hosea is truly that of a nation in utter rejection of the Lord their God.

   Political- It was a era of political uneasiness in Israel. Upon the death of Jereboam, several kings came to the throne but were almost immediately assassinated, some after only a few weeks. The king of Assyria came against Israel and exacted heavy tribute from them. Then in 722 BC, the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom, with many of the people being carried off as slaves. These were trying years of political conniving and intrigue, of anarchy and rebellion, of treachery and murder. God was totally out of the people's hearts at this point of time. 

   The prophet's goal was to win the thinking of the Israelites back to the Lord, but they were too deeply steeped in their idolatry to pay any attention to his words of warning. They refused to hear the loving voice of God calling them to Himself. They despised His messengers bringing the words of love for His chosen people. They killed the prophets, that He had sent to prepare the coming of Jesus. And finally when Jesus, God Himself came to his beloved, they were so far gone from the truth that they killed their Lord as the ones before.

   "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" -. Matthew 23:37

   An analogy is made between Hosea's experience with Gomer, and the Lord's experience with Israel. 

Hosea was commanded by the LORD to marry a prostitute Her name was Gomer. His life with Gomar would become an object lesson of the deep love of God for His wayward children. His marriage to the unfaithful wife is to be an example of God's relationship with the unfaithful nation of Israel. 

In the first few chapters of this book we alternate between the events in Hosea's message and God's explanation of how those events relate to the nation. She certainly would come to symbolize what Israel had become. 

God breaks Hosea's heart to prepare him for ministry. He learns that his wife is a prostitute. Certainly this broke his heart. And he learns that God's attitude toward His people is heartbreak. He learns how to have God's heart. Gomar bore three children. 

   The first son is named "Jezreel" Which means "God scatters", or "God sows". His name prefigured God's judgment on the ruling house of Israel.

   The daughter is named "Lo-Ruhamah" Which means "no mercy" Her name describes God's attitude toward Israel, though Judah still found grace in God's sight. Some suggest that the daughter and the son to follow were not Hosea's. Note it does not say she bore him (Hosea) a daughter, as before. 

   The second son is named "Lo-Ammi" His name means "not my people" God declares his rejection of Israel. Again, just a reminder of God's disowning them.

   Though cast off, God promises a restoration. Israel's restoration is described as using a wilderness, God will win her back.

God will cure her of using the language of Baal worship. God will establish a covenant of peace and safety, and betroth Israel to Him once again. God will once again bless them, and be merciful to them as His people. 

While there may be references to the restoration from captivity, it also foreshadows the age of the Messiah and His spiritual blessings.   

So what is God's reaction to Israel forgetting Him? 

After describing their sin and bringing them to the wilderness. God is also merciful and now he is enticing them back to Him. 

God uses these wilderness experiences to bring us closer to Himself. Notice in Hosea 2:14 that He leads them into the wilderness or desert.

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." - Hosea 2:14

   When God leads us into the desert, we need to understand He isn't taking good things away from us. 

He is taking away things that we thought were good for us, so that all we will have left is what really is good for us, and so we will depend on Him. Many times in our life God may stripe things of this world away, as to unblind us so we can hopefully see His deep, pure, holy and perfect love. "...for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..." - Exodus 20:5 He is jealous for you. He wants to win your heart.

   Hosea is charged to love an adulterous woman. Hosea takes her back, though with a period of probation. Symbolizing God's willingness to take Israel back. How does all this we have talked about apply to us? 

Israel was very wicked and evil in their deeds. They totally forsook God. We could compare ourselves to them and think we are not nearly so sinful and wretched. I mean, we certainly don't bow down before baal or offer our bodies for prostitution. 

Maybe we don't worship graven images, but we are all like Gomer the unfaithful wife.

   Hosea symbolizes God. Gomer symbolizes His children. We as Christians do not always stay pure and faithful before the Lord. Every time we sin, we are like the unfaithful wife, participating in other things that trump our desire to be devoted to God. Like a wife has more desire to spend time with other men rather then her husband. It's like the same thing.

So just like Hosea, what did God do for us when we ran away and were unfaithful to Him. In Romans 5:8 it states ."But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Yes, while we were still lost Jesus came seeking for us, like Hosea went out to seek after his wife who had gone astray. Just as Luke 19:10 says. "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

   And once again, just like Hosea bought Gomar back, Jesus bought us back by sacrificing His body on the cross and shedding His blood for to purchase us as His own. Then rising again three days later! This is the ultimate act of love, showing God's deep and undivided passion to be with His children. 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."- John 15:13   

Hosea is one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament because this is the whole message that God was trying to get across to the people through Hosea's life. This was a foreshadowing of how God would redeem His people to make his church the bride of Christ and to spend eternity with Him instead of separation.

 "And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. Hosea 2:19-20 

   The Bible is the greatest love story ever written! Wouldn't you agree? May God give us all a deeper understanding of His enduring love for us.

Leah Nicolette

First Things First: Making the Most of Your Morning

by David Mathis | August 9, 2012

“Do first things first” is the takeaway from Laura Vanderkam’s new e-book What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. Morning is “prime time for self-improvement,” USA Today reports in reviewing Vanderkam’s work. The article says,

Here are some of the things she says go-getters do before most people finish their first cup of coffee:

• Exercise. A dawn workout is common among CEOs and other high powered types.

• Meditate or pray. Monks aren´t the only ones who start the day on a spiritual note.

• Work, often on personal or long-term projects outside the scope of their daily duties.

• Fix a family breakfast - sometimes as a substitute for a family dinner - or play with their kids.

The counsel is to tackle the most important things first, “before the demands of the day intrude. Interruptions and emergencies tend to strike later in the day; motivation tends to wilt. And people who start the day with a win can build on the momentum all day long . . . .”

So it seems the old commonsensical proverb holds: Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Starting on a Spiritual Note

Family, work, and exercise are all important, but perhaps it’s the mention of meditation andprayer that most distinctively catches the Christian attention. Which raises the question, Vanderkam’s work aside, Is there a Christian way to make the most of your mornings?

While some may think of morning as “prime time for self-improvement,” would the Christian approach be to treat morning as prime time for sanctification — or at least as a spiritual fueling up for the day?

Early in the Morning

The history of the church is filled with men and women who put “first things first” through going Godward to start their day. This shouldn’t be that surprising given that it’s recorded of our great Hero himself that “rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35).

And, of course, his “very early” morning resurrection (Mark 16:2) is pregnant with significance.

Getting Your Soul Happy in God

George Mueller (1805–1898) is remembered for his massive ministry to orphans in England over a century ago. But here’s something else to remember about Mueller. He writes in his autobiography about the life-changing find he made about the power of mornings. His discovery was that 

the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was ... how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished ...

For Mueller, this meant that “the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, while meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.”

Obtaining Food for the Inner Man

And Mueller gets practical. He says that, after a short prayer, asking for God’s blessing on his time of reading, “the first thing I did . . . was to begin to meditate on the word of God, searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my soul.” This is not self-improvement, but feasting one’s soul at the banquet of God.

By meditation, Mueller means “not the simple reading of the word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.”

A Happy State of Heart

Mueller found the result of such Bible meditation soon became prayer in its varied forms — whether confession, thanksgiving, intercession, or supplication — and “that my inner man almost invariably is almost sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not a happy state of heart.”

In short,

... it is as plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is obtain food for the inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. ...

How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!

Encouragement and Challenge

Vanderkam’s book and Mueller’s experience should be no small encouragement for those who are naturally morning larks, bouncing out of bed before dawn, ready to face the challenges of the day with their best energies. If this is you, harness it. Make the most of your morning by seeking your soul’s happiness in God. When you think of “doing first things first,” consider going deep in the Scriptures, scouring them for fresh glimpses of Jesus, and daily rehearsing their central message — the gospel — that is always for the Christian “of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

For the in-betweeners who can do either late nights or early mornings (but not usually both in the same day!), you have your challenge — with good incentive — for taking intentional steps to seek the Spiritual discipline of getting to bed earlier. A practical key to getting up early, and getting right away to the day’s most important things, is getting to bed early. Which is so much tougher than it sounds. Vanderkam recognizes this is the deal-killer for many. "Going to bed early is not that easy for many people."

Born Again - Do you know what happened to you ?

by Jon Bloom | August 8, 2012

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God”

(John 3:3).

If you have been born again, the greatest miracle that you can ever experience in this life has happened to you. 

No healing, no deliverance, no prophecy, no Philip-like translation in the spirit (Acts 8:39-40), no George Müller-like financial provision arriving at the exact moment you need it comes close. It’s greater than what Lazarus experienced. What happened to Lazarus was a pointer, a parable for what happened to you.

That’s why when the seventy-two disciples returned from their tours of ministry and excitedly recounted the signs and wonders that occurred, including the commanding of demonic powers, Jesus said, “do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). Why? Because commanding demons can’t touch the joy of receiving everything good forever, which is what the new birth gives you.

Really understanding what being born again means fuels your joy and courage and boldness and your passion to see others receive the same gift.

... Soak in the glories of regeneration. Take an awe-filled dive into the ocean of God’s love for you that caused him to send his Son, Jesus, to die in your place to pay for your sin and then called your name and raisedyou from the spiritually dead and has given you eternal life--which has already begun for you. Immerse yourself in the refreshing and assuring clarity of how the new birth happens and what are the evidences in your life that it has.

• "O that every believer would know the glory of what has happened to him! Do you know what God has done for you and in you? You were ransomed with the imperishable blood of Christ. You were raised with Christ from the dead to an eternally living hope. You were called from death to life like Lazarus, and you saw Christ for the Treasure that he is. You were born again. You received him and were saved."

(John Piper, in his book Finally Alive) 

Come, and gaze at the glory.