Anne Steele, 1760

I don’t know what’s happened, but we’ve had more cold and ice and snow than usual during the past month. Having single digit degree temperatures in the daytime isn’t common. Until now. The snow doesn’t usually last very long either, but because of the cold temperatures, it’s hanging around and everything is still covered in mounds of snow. Our solution is to light a big fire, watch football (the Colts won–hurrah, hurrah!), and eat our supper in front of the fire. Not bad, not bad at all.

The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
My God, no hymn for thee?
My soul’s a shepherd too; a flock it feeds
Of thoughts and words, and deeds.
The pasture is Thy Word; the streams, Thy Grace
Enriching all the place
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
Out-sing the daylight hours.

If we would talk less and pray more about them, things would be better than they are in the world; at least, we should be better enabled to bear them. –John Owen

You can get more juice from a dried-up lemon or lime if you heat it for 5 minutes in boiling water before you squeeze it.

Hmm. I think there might be a spiritual analogy somewhere in there…

Three Persons and one God, I bless and praise Thee,
for love so unmerited, so unspeakable,
so wondrous, so mighty to save the lost
and raise them to glory.
Father, I thank thee the in fullness of grace
thou hast give me to Jesus, to be his sheep,
jewel, portion;
O Jesus, I thank the that in fullness of grace
thou hast accepted, espoused, bound me;
O Holy Spirit, I thank thee that in fullness of
grace thou hast
exhibited Jesus as my salvation,
implanted faith within me,
subdued my stubborn heart,
made me one with him forever.

So let our lips and lives express
The holy Gospel we profess;
So let our works and virtues shine,
To prove the doctrine all divine.

Thus shall we best proclaim abroad
The honors of our Savior God,
When the salvation reigns within,
And grace subdues the power of sin.

Our flesh and sense must be denied,
Passion and envy, lust and pride;
While justice, temperance, truth, and love,
Our inward piety approve.

Religion bears our spirits up,
While we expect that blessèd hope,
The bright appearance of the Lord,
And faith stands leaning on His Word.

Isaac Watts, 1707

Look away from yourself. Seek from God what he alone can do for you. Moral improvement of the old you is not what you need. –John Piper

It was last year on January 4 that I read a sentence from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional book that floored me: Abide hard by the cross, and search the mystery of His wounds. The words may as well have been highlighted. I was drawn to them, startled by them, and knew that I had to go about finding out what they meant.

Those words have followed me through the year. No, they have prodded me, pulled me. They have been God’s call, loud and clear. He made it his business to arrange life throughout the year so that I would, of necessity, learn more of what it means to abide hard by the cross. Abiding there, I could begin to search the mystery of His wounds.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God; and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6).

Abiding hard by the cross speaks to me of endurance, steadfastness, pressing upon it with all the might of him who works in me. Searching the mystery of his wounds–the breathtaking reality of all they represent–I find myself wordless as I try to write something of the tremendous agony and the supreme joy that comes from meditating on the cross and what Jesus provided for us there. There’s a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes, but words seem completely inadequate.

Only this: nearness to Jesus draws my eyes to him. The things of earth grow strangely dim, as the old gospel song says. My perspective changes from my favorite focus, me, to the concerns of the mind of Christ. Eternity is in view, and I must be about the Father’s business.

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:12-17.

Can you imagine what a difference it would make in the church and in the world if we would live according to this passage, if we really took it as a mandate not only for the coming year, but for the rest of our lives? Please God, may it be so in my life.