Love

J.C. Ryle

“Man,” said a thoughtless, ungodly English traveller, to a North American Indian convert, “Man, what is the reason that you make so much of Christ, and talk so much about Him? What has this Christ done for you that you should make so much ado about Him?”

The converted Indian did not answer him in words. He gathered together some dry leaves and moss and made a ring with them on the ground. He picked up a live worm and put it in the middle of the ring. He struck a light and set the moss and leaves on fire. The flame soon rose, and the heat scorched the worm. It writhed in agony, and after trying in vain to escape on every side, curled itself up in the middle, as if about to die in despair. At that moment the Indian reached forth his hand, took up the worm gently and placed it on his bosom. “Stranger,” he said to the Englishman, “do you see that worm? I was that perishing creature. I was dying in my sins, hopeless, helpless and on the brink of eternal fire. It was Jesus Christ who put forth the arm of His power. It was Jesus Christ who delivered me with the hand of His grace, and plucked me from everlasting burnings. It was Jesus Christ who placed me, a poor sinful worm, near the heart of His love. Stranger, that is the reason why I talk of Jesus Christ, and make much of Him. I am not ashamed of it, because I love Him.”

If we know anything of love to Christ, may we have the mind of this North American Indian! May we never think that we can love Christ too well, live to Him too thoroughly, confess Him too boldly, lay ourselves out for Him too heartily! Of all the things that will surprise us in the resurrection morning, this I believe will surprise us most, that we did not love Christ more before we died.

Ryle, J.C. Holiness. Evangelical P, 1979. 245.

HT: Tony Miano.

It is not unloving to tell the truth. You can get in a lot of trouble for doing it, but it is not unloving.

Dr. Walter Martin

I have said this on a number of occasions lately, but it remains just as true, the Christian had better know what time he currently lives in. We are witnessing a blending of the pragmatic Purpose Driven Church, the postmodern Emerging Church and the worldly Word Faith Church now forming the major pillars of the Devil’s Ecumenical Church of Deceit (ECoD)—duplicitous daughter of apostate Roman Catholicism. Even just a couple years ago one would never imagine common bonds developing between them.

And at their corrupt core what each of them share is the warped psycho-babble version of “love” largely foisted upon the Body of Christ through Robert Schuller a la his man-pleasing mantra, “God loves you and so do I.” But you need to come to see that this postevangelical “Love Train” has some seriously misguided misunderstandings about God’s view of sin and how He wants His Body of Christ to react to it. Yes the Lord tells us to love our enemies; however, the Scripture also teaches we must surely also abhor what these people are doing in His Name.

Read the rest of the post at Apprising Ministries.

Some say I am harsh, unloving, and even having a “profound self-righteousness in my own denomination” as one comment puts it on another blog. I am not concerned with these brickbats though on many occasions I do re-examine to see if I was indeed being self-righteous, so please accept my thanks for those reminders.

Initially, I did get riled by the comments, but since reminding myself constantly that I don’t labor for the applause of man but of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that I must never seek gratification for my flesh, but the honor and glory of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I strive on leaning on His strength.

So, to those who wonder why I am such a Christian, seemingly harsh and unloving, please take some time to watch this sermon (104 minutes) that turned my Christian life 180 degrees away from carnality. I’ve never, prior to hearing this sermon by brother Paul, understood the holiness, love and mercy of God thus. It broke me and had me in tears the first time I heard it, and hearing it again and again never fails to break me and spur me on to seek the face of my Lord.

I pray that you, too, shall be broken, and come to live a life acceptable to God, and that even if you have to appear harsh and even be ostracized, you seek that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be honored and praised and glorified above all for He alone, and only He, is worthy.

The Greatest Words in All of Scripture

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Romans 3:23-25

An amazing story of a couple’s love for their son, and a testimony of their joy and hope in Christ Jesus.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

Romans 8:35

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Oops, I know… I’d have warned you with a tissue alert, but that’d have taken away some of the impact the video was intended to have. I personally cried buckets.

And we’d like to take the opportunity to thank a good brother, Daniel, for inviting Karen and I to to join him at his church — Convenant Evangelical Reformed Church — for worship and fellowship.

The sermon on Ezekiel 37 was quite good and I was very impressed with the welcome and the family atmosphere at the church, with special thanks going out to CC (sorry, Sir, I can’t fathom how to spell your name) and Elder John for the welcome, sister Kim for insisting that I get a book by Jonathan Edwards instead of her just because I remarked that it was good (believe me, I was chided afterwards for opening my big mouth, ha ha!), and of course, Daniel for the fellowship.

There are others whom I didn’t manage to get the names of, but who were so welcoming and made us feel so much at home, even insisting that we partake of lunch with them by serving us.

Thank you, brethren and sisters, for the welcome, your kindness and love.

I am not going to pretend to be all macho and manly — my wife and some of my closest friends know that I am a softie and some things do make me buckets, but I suppress and hold it back rather well most times, especially in public. And, perhaps like most men, I’d (try to) crack a lame joke to cover the tracks.

Oops, I am digressing…

When I read what my good brother, S.J. Walker, wrote for his marriage vow, it blew me away. It’s beautiful, Biblical and yes, it made my eyes moist. That’s the essence of a Christian marriage as God intends it to be — being a mirror of Jesus’ love for His Bride, the Church!

Thank you for sharing it, brother, and giving me the permission to share it with others as well. Much love and blessings to you and Beth!

My Vows

Given to My Bride at Our Wedding
Copyright 2006: S.J. Walker; All Rights Reserved

As God is my witness,
I promise, that I will love you my whole life,
you and no other.
I promise, that only God will come before you.
As we become one flesh, I promise
that I will love you as my own body,
“For no man ever hated his own flesh
but nourishes and carefully protects
and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church”.
I promise, that I will protect you–
even give my very life for you.

Read the rest of the vow at S.J’s blog.

This article at Apprising Ministries really got me thinking. Much of today’s evangelism methods involve what I call the “John 3:16 Approach”, telling sinners that “God loves you, Jesus loves you, accept Him into the ‘hole in your heart’ and you shall be saved!”.

Ugh!

Yet, if we look closer at how the Apostles went about preaching the Gospel, we find that (while we acknowledge that God is love and concur with what John wrote in John 3:16 not a single mention of the “feel-good” message of “God loves you, Jesus loves you” is found, but what they preached was how lost people were, bound as slaves to sin, emphasizing on forgiveness of sin by Jesus Christ the Messiah.

Reading the article also reminds me of a great quote by A.W. Pink on present-day evangelism which I very much agree with:

A.W. Pink

The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day “evangelist”.

He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin.

And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire, who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness!

The very first thing said of Christ in the New Testament is — “You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” (not from the wrath to come)

Christ is a Savior for those realizing something of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, who feel the awful burden of it on their conscience, who loathe themselves for it, who long to be freed from its terrible dominion. And He is a Savior for no others.

Were He to “save from hell” those still in love with sin, He would be a minister of sin, condoning their wickedness and siding with them against God.

What an unspeakably horrible and blasphemous thing with which to charge the Holy One!

A.W. Pink

To read the full article, visit Apprising Ministries.

A brother calling himself “Lee” left a comment in response to my testimony on the blog, urging me to “focus on love” and not to “bring division” with my previous posts on teachings at City Harvest Church.

Now, I am going to reproduce the comment here with my response, because I will be deleting it. Not because it’s any form of censorship or whatever, but that comment is inappropriate as a response to my testimony. I don’t blame Lee, though, as I gathered he couldn’t figure where it would be best to leave such a comment as there aren’t such posts on this new blog (yet).

Read the rest of this entry »

Marriage

Karen’s testimony on my old blog has been soliciting some interesting comments even though I’ve closed down the blog. One particular response caught my attention because the brother who wrote me faced the same situation as I did years ago when my wife was still a Roman Catholic and I a Protestant.

The brother, Mike, has given permission for his comment to be reproduced here, and I’ll also be sharing our email exchanges here in the hope that perhaps some of you who are better counselors than I am will be able to help. If you’d like to contact Mike directly, please write me and I’ll send you his email address.

He first wrote me with this comment:

Isaiah,

I think I am in the same situation you were in. I am in deep love with a girl who is a Catholic. (I am a Christian). She is an incredible person with high morals and a love for Christ as well. I decided to break off the five year relationship because of the differences between Catholicism and Christianity. Since the breakup, which has been almost a year I cannot seem to get over her. I have depression now and she is all I ever think about. She has inspired me in so many ways over the years, helped me achieve so many many goals, and has been an inspiration to me. She is that kind of person everyone loves who brings a smile into the room, one who is sweet and one who can be trusted. I have learned a lot from this, but my heart feels completely torn and broken since i am not with her. She still said’s to this day, “I am waiting for you” but I cannot wait forever. Hear she is able to accept me, but I am not accepting her. I learned it’s not about religion anymore, but if you believe in Christ as your savior. I am in between the rocks and would love to be able to speak with you about this situation. Hopefully by the grace of God you will read this posting or someone will pass this along to you.

Read the rest of this entry »

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever
He’s a faithful God to all generations
For the Lord is good and His mercies will not fail us
They are new each day
O lift your voice and say the Lord is good

Great is Your faithfulness O Lord
Your loving kindness fills our hearts to overflowing
Songs of rejoicing and sweet praise
They fill our hearts
They fill our days