The Power of the Cross

From Justin Taylor's blog post this morning:

The Inexhaustibility of the Cross

“The cross is so extensive a field for meditation, that, though we traverse it ever so often, we need never resume the same track: and it is such a marvellous fountain of blessedness to the soul, that if we have ever drunk of its refreshing streams, we shall find none other so pleasant to our taste.”
—Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae (1832), vol. 8, p. 323.

“The cross is the foundation of the Bible: If you have not yet found out that Christ crucified is the foundation of the whole volume, you have hitherto read your Bible to very little profit. Your religion is a heaven without a sun, an arch without a keystone, a compass without a needle, a clock without a spring or weights, a lamp without oil. It will not comfort you; it will not deliver your soul from hell.”
—J.C. Ryle, Old Paths (London, 1977), p. 248.

“There is no end to this glorious message of the cross , for there is always something new and fresh and entrancing and moving and uplifting that one has never seen before.

—D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross: God’s Way of Salvation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1986), xiii.
“Oh that I could have the cross painted on my eyeballs, that I could not see anything except through the medium of my Savior’s passion! Oh, Jesus . . . let me wear the pledge forever where it is conspicuous before my soul’s eyes.”

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Lord’s Supper—Simple But Sublime!” (1866), Sermon #3151, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit.

All cited in James M. Gordon, Evangelical Spirituality (SPCK, 1991; Wipf & Stock, 2006).

Our Real Need

“The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them…providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church…the need is for Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that it sets men aflame.”
- CH Spurgeon

Exalted Above All Things

I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love
            and your  faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.     Psalm 138: 1 - 3
The exaltation of God's Name and God's Word is above all things... "All things" means all  things... God thinks His Name and His Word is more important than anything else in all the universe. God's Name and God's Word is more important than my opinions, likes, dislikes. He says it's more important than my moods swings, my doubts, my fears, my most devastating defeats, and greatest victories... God's Name and God's Word are exalted ABOVE all things... 
When the psalmist remembered this, He called on God... When He called on God, God answered... And in God's answer the psalmist's soul was strengthened (v.3) 
> Lord, help me to remember that your Name and your Word are my most treasured possession... Remind me to call on you to strengthen my soul... Amen 

Instead Of Thorns...

Isaiah 55 highlights the compassionate love of God for the worn out, sinful, idolatrous people of Israel.. They had failed God miserably, yet God calls them to return to Him.. to SEEK Him while He may be found. God doesn't operate the way that we do...verses 8 - 9 explain God's ways, thoughts, and love are higher ... greater.. than man's.... verse 13 contains a great promise for His people... Instead of thorns, God will give cypress... Instead of briers, a myrtle... wonderful plants and trees instead of the thorns and briers brought into the world by Adam's (and our) sin (Genesis 3:17)... God in His glorious compassion offers us the same promise as well... Seek the Lord... Call upon Him... He will take the thorns and briers our sins have caused and through the death of His Son, make beautiful, life - giving trees reflecting His glory... Abundant pardon and forgiveness is found there... 

“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
  (Isaiah 55:6-13 ESV)

The World Could Not Contain the Books

"Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." 
                                                                                                - John 21:25 (ESV)