Soul-Healing

Toward the end of the year my blogging has been light. For a lot of people, me included, December is frantic with obligations and pressures, most of which are supposed to be infused with holiday joy. So I’m hoping to write a little more regularly in this new year, Lord willing.

But I wanted to end this year by reflecting on a small book I've been reading. John Bunyan, best known for The Pilgrim’s Progress, wrote a great deal on prayer. I've been slowly reading his The Throne of Grace, first published in 1692. Bunyan spends 100 pages on one verse of Scripture:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

The other night I was reading how he distinguished the “throne of grace” from other thrones. What he said was so encouraging. Here's a quote (my emphasis).

It is with the throne of grace, as it is with the waters of Bath, and other sovereign and healing waters; they are most coveted by them that are diseased…So, I say, is the throne of grace; its waters are for healing, for soul-healing; that is their virtue (Ezek. 47.8,9). Wherefore, as at Nature’s waters, the lame leave their crutches, and the sick such other tokens of their recovery as may be a sign of their receiving health and cure there, so at the throne of grace, true penitents, and those that are sick for mercy, do leave their sighs and tears…(pp. 89-90)

If you find your soul…

• Stained by sin, the throne of grace is soul-cleansing.
• Ragged with the sickness of this broken world, the throne of grace is soul-healing.
• Struggling with weariness, the throne of grace is soul-refreshing and -renewing.
• Parched and dry, the throne of grace is soul-satisfying.

In this new year, may you draw near, over and over again, to the throne of grace, and may you find all that your soul needs in Christ!

The Loveliness of Christ (Rutherford)

A couple weeks ago I posted some quotes from The Loveliness of Christ, a little book excerpted from the letters of Samuel Rutherford. Like our Lord, Rutherford was a man of sorrows. The pain of losing his first wife and of outliving all but one of his children gave him a longing for heaven and a winsome way of helping others in their suffering.

I hope some of you ordered his little book. I think you’ll be glad you did. Click here for the link.

To whet your appetite (hopefully), here are a few more quotes.

Every day we may see some new thing in Christ. His love hath neither brim nor bottom.

When I look over beyond the line and beyond death, to the laughing side of the world, I triumph, and rise upon the places of Jacob…

Our fair morning is at hand, the daystar is near the rising, and we are not many miles from home; what matters the ill entertainment in the smoky inns of this miserable life? We are not to stay here, and we will be dearly welcome to him when we go to.

The sea-sick passenger shall come to land; Christ will be the first that will meet you on the shore.

She is not sent away, but only sent before, like unto a star, which going out of your sight, doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere; ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country.

The Loveliness of Christ

Sam was the oldest child of a wealthy farmer. He was a good student, and got a master’s degree by the time he was 21. His family was religious without really knowing Christ.

He ended up becoming a teacher, but after only two years, was forced to resign. He was said to have “behaved inappropriately” with a young woman. He married the girl.

This scandal led to Sam’s becoming a Christian, going back to school, and entering the ministry. He spent nine years as the pastor of a country church, and an older colleague said of him, “”He seemed to be always praying, always preaching, always visiting the sick…I thought he would have flown out of the pulpit when he came to speak of Jesus Christ. He was never in his right element but when he was commending him.”

This young man was, like Jesus, a man of sorrows. His wife died after a long and painful illness. Except for one daughter, all the children she and Sam had died at an early age.

His own suffering led him to be a comfort to thousands of others. When the government forced him out of his church, he wrote many letters to his former church members. These letters are remarkable for their wisdom about life, suffering, and especially about the sweetness of communion with Christ.

Sam’s full name is Samuel Rutherford, and he lived in Scotland from 1600 – 1661. (The biographical info I took from Joel Beeke's Meet the Puritans, pp. 721ff).

Here are a few beautiful quotes from some of Samuel Rutherford's letters.

The great Master Gardener, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with his own hand, planted me here, where by his grace, in this part of his vineyard, I grow; and here I will abide till the great Master of the vineyard think fit to transplant me.

They are not lost to you that are laid up in Christ’s treasury in heaven. At the resurrection ye shall meet with them: there they are, sent before but not sent away. Your Lord loveth you, who is homely to take and give, borrow and lend.

I have little, little of him; yet I long for more.

He taketh the bairns [children] in his arms when they come to a deep water; at least, when they lose ground, and are put to swim, then his hand is under their chin.

Let him make anything out of me, so being he be glorified in my salvation: for I know I am made for him.

My dear brother, I will think it comfort if ye speak my name to our Well-Beloved wherever ye are. I am mindful of you.

Rutherford “admired Christ,” and his writings from so long ago are helping me to admire Him, too. Maybe you’d like to get a copy of the little book I took the above quotes from. It’s called The Loveliness of Christ. (Click here for the link.)

The Weekly Puritan: Longing for Heaven

Have you ever noticed that secular books and movies about heaven don’t have anything to do with Jesus? Heaven is supposed to be like a trip to Mardi Gras or like entering a witness protection program. Lots of adventure and new experiences. But no Jesus.

We believe that heaven will include adventure and new experiences. And thankfully it will mean a reunion with Christian loved ones who have gone on ahead. But preeminently, heaven is Christ.

I think that’s why the Psalmist said, Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you (Psalm 73:24, ESV).

The Puritans knew this. I’ve been quoting from John Owen’s The Glory of Christ. Here’s another one about how our admiring Christ makes us long for heaven. (I’ve highlighted my favorite sentence in this paragraph.)

We ‘who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body’ (Rom. 8:23). The more we grow in faith and spiritual light, the more we groan for deliverance. The nearer we are to heaven and to Christ, the more earnest is our desire to be there, and to be with Christ. Groaning implies a strong desire, mixed with sorrow, because we do not yet have what we long for. The desire has sorrow in it, but the sorrow has joy in it, like a heavy shower of rain falling on us on a Spring day while we are in a garden. We get wet, but when we smell and see what the shower has done, we are happy even though we groan because we are soaked through! So groaning shows we long to be delivered from our present state and be lifted up to that heavenly glorious state (p. 105).

The Weekly Puritan

How we admire Christ for taking our place, bearing our sins, and turning away the wrath of God! But the other, mind-bogglingly wonderful side of it is that He also bestows upon us His righteousness.

The Puritans saw this glorious truth as well as anyone ever has. Here's John Owen again. Do yourself a favor and read it out loud. And when you get to that second paragraph, how can you not worship!

  Christ is glorious in that perfect obedience to the law of God on behalf of his church. This obedience was absolutely necessary to exalt the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of God in giving the law. When man fell he could no longer keep the law. But through the obedience of Christ, by virtue of his mystical union with the church, the law was perfectly obeyed in us by being obeyed for us.

 One view of Christ’s glory by faith will scatter all the fears, answer all the objections and disperse all the depressions of poor, tempted, doubting souls. To all believers it is an anchor which they may cast within the veil, to hold them firm and steadfast in all trials, storms, and temptations, both in life and in death (The Glory of Christ, p. 81).

The Weekly Puritan

Okay, my plan is to have a Puritan quote every week. So this is two weeks in a row. John Owen again. And remember my tip about reading Owen out loud.

So, in reading and studying the Bible, we ought to make every effort to search for the revelations of the glory of Christ in it as did the prophets of old. The glory of Christ is the ‘pearl of great price’ which we should make every effort to find (Matt. 13:45-46). And the Scripture is the ocean into which we dive to discover this pearl, or the mine in which we dig for its precious treasures (Prov. 2:1-5). Every sacred truth that reveals something of the glory of Christ to our souls, is a pearl or precious stone which enriches us. But when the believer discovers this pearl of great price itself, then his soul cleaves to it with joy. The Glory of Christ, p. 33.

Why do you read the Bible? Inspiration? Help to make it through the day? Principles for success? The Bible helps us with many things, but it is not primarily a book of inspirational quotes, a counseling text, or a self-help manual.

Jesus said “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me…” (John 5:39, ESV). Not just the New Testament, but all the Old Testament, too. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, ESV).

Let’s read the Bible, looking for Jesus. He’s all over the place, and always worthy of our admiration, praise, and worship.

The Puritans--Admiring Jesus

Nobody loved and admired Jesus Christ more than the Puritans. And among the Puritans no man had a greater love for Jesus, or a greater depth of insight into the Bible, than John Owen.

Owen lived in 17^th century England, graduated Oxford at age 19, and became a Christian in his early 20’s. He went on to be a pastor, chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and a respected educator. He is known today for his books on theology and Christian living. He's still in print 320 years after his death.

Owen is hard to read, but he’s worth the effort. Here’s a quote about the glory of Christ from his book by the same name. See what you think. (Hint: it helps me to read him out loud.

So we may see how excellent, how beautiful, how glorious and desirable he [Christ] is as the presentation of God’s loving nature. He who does not behold the glory of Christ as the representation of God’s love is utterly ignorant of these heavenly mysteries. He does not know either God or Christ. He has neither the Father nor the Son. He does not know God, because he does not know the holy properties of his nature in the chief way designed by infinite wisdom for their revelation. He does not know Christ because he does not see the glory of God in him. So, whatever ideas men may have gleaned from nature or from the works of providence that there is love in God, yet apart from them no one can know for sure that “God is love.” Apart from Christ no man can come to a true understand of God’s love. (The Glory of Christ, p. 19)

How often have you heard somebody talk about how they “accepted God” into their life, with nary a mention of Jesus Christ. What do you think Owen would say to that?