It Is Finished (Hark, the Voice of Love and Mercy)

Hark, the voice of love and mercy,
Sounds aloud from Calvary!
See, it rends the rocks asunder,
Shakes the earth and veils the sky!
“It is finished, It is finished,”
Hear the dying Savior cry.

“It is finished,” O what pleasure,
Do these charming words afford.
Heavenly blessings, without measure,
Flow to us from Christ the Lord.
“It is finished, it is finished,”
Saints the dying words record.

Finished all the types and shadows,
Of the ceremonial law;
Finished all that God had promised;
Death and hell no more shall awe.
“It is finished, it is finished,”
Saints from hence your comfort draw.

Tune your harps anew, ye seraphs;
Join to sing the pleasing theme;
Saints on earth and all in heaven,
Join to praise Immanuel’s name.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Glory to the bleeding lamb!


--Jonathan Evans, 1784 & Benjamin Francis, 1787

A Prayer--Lovely Lover of My Soul

Father, I come to you now with a repentant heart, loving my sin more than I should and asking you to help me to hate my sin and rather love you more than I do. For I can not love you more than I should. Only as I should--though to a lesser degree than would be merely proper. Proper love to you, Father, is a love which remain and endures. I Cor. 13 speak of love in a most amazing way: love is patient. Love is committed for the long hall and will wait--not merely for reciprication--but for love to overcome the unlovliness of the loved in the eyes of the lover. Love is thus kind--when kindness is odd. Love doesn't envy the loved or his circumstances. Love is not proud. Love doesn't boast--boasting by the lover is excluded, whether of the loved or lover himself. Love is not rude. Father, I am not loving. Yet I have been loved by the Lover such that love for others is now possible. I, the loved, have been so loved I can begin to be the lover. I can begin to make progress only through the Lover and because He has loved me. The Lover's love comes down and, through me, is bent outward to others--that they may see and feel and be loved too by the Lover. Father, thank you for loving the unlovely. For if you did not, I would never have been loved nor been able to love. Great Lover of my soul, you are lovely. I love you. Amen.

Saved from the Wrath of God through Christ

Last night I was struck again by these lines from the Gospel Primer:

So now God relates
to me only wiht grace--
The former wrath banished
without any trace!
And each day I'm made
a bit more as I should,
His greace using all things
to render me good.
Yes, even in trials
God's grace abounds too
And does me the good
He assigns it to do.

The text moves from propitation to sanctification to sanctification through trials--with the common theme of grace. With this view of God, I, not my circumstances, are in the greatest need of change. And God promises to change me--not my circumstances. Circumstances do change and life comes in seasons. In the midst of the seasons (which seem to move slowly when one is in the midst of them--quickly looking back), day by day God's grace is making me more like I should be.

Help My Unbelief

I know the Lord is nigh,
And would but cannot pray,
For Satan meets me when I try,
And frights my soul away.
And frights my soul away.

I would but can’t repent,
Though I endeavor oft;
This stony heart can ne’er relent
Till Jesus makes it soft.
Till Jesus makes it soft.

Chorus
Help my unbelief. Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
My help must come from Thee.

I would but cannot love,
Though wooed by love divine;
No arguments have power to move
A soul as base as mine.
A soul so base as mine.

I would but cannot rest,
In God’s most holy will;
I know what He appoints is best,
And murmur at it still.
I murmur at it still.

Chorus

--John Newton (1725-1807)

Hymn 244 - Evening

Glory to thee, my God this night
For all the blessings of the light;
Keep me, O keep me, King of Kings,
Beneath thy own almighty wings.

Forgive me, Lord, for thy dear Son,
The ill that I this day have done,
That with the world, myself and thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be.

Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed;
Teach me to die that so I may
Rise glorious at the aweful day.

O may my soul on thee repose,
And with sweet sleep my eyelids close,
Sleep that may me more vigorous make
To serve my God when I awake.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him all creatures here below,
Praise him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

--Thomas Ken (1637-1711), The New English Hymnal

Missions: Dying for Russians

Missions has not been on my mind this semester. More than on factor undoubtedly is contributing to this. But missions has been on my mind more these last few days. I've been struck by the presence of sin and its affect on cultures and life. Whole societies and whole cultures are affected by sin. Missions should not have affecting societies or cultures at its main goal. But the gospel changes people and can thus change whole countries.

Russia needs the gospel. Russians need the gospel. This may seem obvious but articles like this one by Dr. Mohler give the obvious weight. Who will see dying as gain and go to Russia? Who will seek the lost to save (and their children)?

Discipline

Discipline is the price of freedom.
Freedom is the reward of discipline.
Discipline without direction is drudgery.
The alternative to discipline is disaster.

--Don Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, p. 24, 27

Christians and Pleasures

I have found C.S. Lewis especially freeing in regard to pleasure in this life. Since I can't quote the whole section, I will use an extended quote to provoke you towards Lewis.

The original meaning of temperance "referred not to specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further. . . . One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself with wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons--marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things a re bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning. . . . A man who makes golf or his motor-bicycle the centre of his life, or a woman who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as 'intemperate' as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals."

--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, "The Cardinal Virtues"

Do you feel the freedom Christianity offers regarding pleasure--both from excess and from avoidance? How should we then live?

The Telos of Alice

Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

--Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

Though I found many versions of the above quote (and since I don't own the book), it may be best to summarize it. 'If you don't know where you are going, it doesn't matter which road you take. Any road will take you there.'