Using the Rod for Conversion!

William Grimshaw was pastor in Haworth, England in the mid-18th century. There was a great revival under his pastorate. Many amazing conversions took place. A woman refused to go to church with her converted husband. One day this man forcefully dressed her in her Sunday best and he took a rod and he drove her the 6 miles to Haworth to church. She said "as men drive a beast to market and I went, cursing Grimshaw all the way." She was converted, and returned the next week going of her own accord. Grimshaw soon came to their farmhouse and returned regularly to preach.

Spurgeon on Philippians 3:21

Often when we are racked with pain and unable to think or worship, we feel that this indeed is “the body of our humiliation.” And when we are tempted by the passions which rise from the flesh, we do not think the word “vile” at all too vigorous a translation. Our bodies humble us, and that is about the best thing they do for us. Oh, that we were duly lowly, because our bodies ally us with animals, and even link us with the dust!
But our Savior, the Lord Jesus, shall change all this. We shall be fashioned like His own body of glory. This will take place in all who believe in Jesus. By faith their souls have been transformed, and their bodies will undergo such a renewal as shall fit them for their regenerated spirits. How soon this grand transformation will happen we cannot tell, but the thought of it should help us to bear the trials of today and all the woes of the flesh. In a little while we shall be as Jesus now is—no more aching brows, no more swollen limbs, no more dim eyes, no more fainting hearts. The old man shall be no more a bundle of infirmities, nor the sick man a mass of agony. “Like unto his glorious body.” What an expression! Even our flesh shall rest in hope of such a resurrection!

Flavel on Justification

How dangerous it is to join anything of our own to the righteousness of Christ, in pursuit of justification before God! Jesus Christ will never endure this; it reflects upon His work dishonorably. He will be all, or none, in our justification. If He has finished the work, what need is there of our additions? And if not, to what purpose are they? Can we finish that which Christ Himself could not complete? Did He finish the work, and will He ever divide the glory and praise of it with us? No, no; Christ is no half-Savior.
It is a hard thing to bring proud hearts to rest upon Christ for righteousness. God humbles the proud by calling sinners wholly from their own righteousness to Christ for their justification.
- John Flavel

Flavel

It is easier to cry against one-thousand sins of others than to kill one of your own.

John Flavel

Three Christmas Hymns

This week we are singing three Christmas hymns that aren’t as familiar to 21st century American ears, but are rich in beauty & theological depth. See, amid the Winter’s Snow was written by Edward Caswall in 1851. Caswall was an Anglican convert to Catholicism who is much more famous in Catholic circles as a translator of Latin texts. However, we often sing two of his famous translations: When Morning Gilds the Skies (167) and Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee (645). Note how Caswall’s text focuses on the humiliation of Christ: “Lo, within a manger lies he who build the starry skies” and “… thus to come from highest bliss down to such a world as this.” His final verse and chorus calls us (as does our recent study in Philippians) to imitate Christ is his humility (“teach us to resemble thee, in thy sweet humility”) and to proclaim the good news of his birth through the world.

Twentieth century missionary Frank Houghton (1894 – 1972) spent his entire career working to advance the kingdom in China. He wrote Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Spendor in 1934, a particularly difficult time for the China Inland Mission (founded by Hudson Taylor). While visiting churches there, he contemplated 2 Cor. 8:9, “Christ … was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor” and later wrote this contemplative Christmas hymn. Note the stark contrast between Christ’s rightful glory and his willing humiliation for our sake: “thrones for a manger didst surrender”, “sapphire paved courts for stable floor”, and “stooping so low, but sinners raising heavenward by thine eternal plan.”

As with Gladness Men of Old by William Chatterton Dix is a poetic call to imitate the shepherds pursuit and proclamation of Christ. Unlike many hymn writers, Dix was not a clergyman. He sold insurance for his entire career, but he inherited a love of poetry from his surgeon father who wrote a biography of the poet Thomas Chatterton (the source of William’s middle name.) Dix wrote more than 40 hymns , including What Child Is This (213) and Come unto Me, Ye Weary (462) which are included in our hymnal. Verses 1-3 encourage us to pursue Jesus in this life (“As with joyful steps they sped to that lowly cradle bed … so may we with willing feet ever seek thy mercy seat”) while the final two verses point us to heaven where we will find rest in him and “there forever may we sing alleluias to our king.”

Kenneth Jackson

Edwards as a Young Christian

Jonathan Edwards talks about his early life as a Christian:

"I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break . . . I spent most of my time thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in ejaculatory prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent."

Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley was born this day in 1707. He never wrote words more appropriate to the season than the following:

Hark the herald angels sing, "Glory to the new-born king." Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!