Hymns often are a great source of theology. This Lord’s Day’s Song for the Bread was no different. Written by Isaac Watts, whenever I sing this hymn, if you can call it singing, I am undone. Typically, I end up reading along through blurry, tear-filled eyes.

 

How sweet and awesome is the place

With Christ within the doors,

While everlasting love displays

The choicest of her stores.

 

While all our hearts and all our songs

Join to admire the feast,

Each of us cries, with thankful tongue,

“Lord, why was I a guest?’

 

Why was I made to hear Thy voice,

And enter while there’s room,

When thousands make a wretched choice,

And rather starve than come?

 

‘Twas the same love that spread the feast

That sweetly forced us in;

Else we had still refused to taste,

And perished in our sin.

 

Pity the nations, O our God,

Constrain the earth to come;

Send Thy victorious Word abroad,

And bring the strangers home.

 

We long to see Thy churches full,

That all the chosen race

May, with one voice and heart and soul,

Sing Thy redeeming grace.

 

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“Preaching should break a hard heart and heal a broken one.”

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September of 2007, my husband, Larry, and I attended a conference that was put on by the West Coast Evangelical Alliance, called, Transforming the Mind; Reviving the Heart. The speakers for the conference were W. Robert Godfrey; Michael Horton; Rev. Jason Allen; Rev. Ken Jones; and Rev. Don Chalmers. Michael Horton and Rev. Ken Jones are from The White Horse Inn; Rev. Jason Allen is from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; W. Robert Godfrey, President of Westminster Seminary California, and Rev. Don Chalmers who put the conference together.

The days we spent at the conference were encouraging. To see such top notch speakers willing to come and address the local church body in the San Francisco Bay Area was heartwarming. One thing that really stuck with me was the view of the West Coast. The West Coast of the U.S.A. is considered to be a missionary field within Evangelical denominations. Through my blog reading today, I stumbled upon this map. The map confirmed that the West Coast is, indeed, a missionary field.

We are minorities, swimming in a sea of Roman Catholicism. Historically, this make sense when you consider that much of the west was discovered by Spaniards. If I drive for an hour north, south, or east of our home, we would reach a mission founded by Junipero Serra. There is a mission in the town that we live in as well, but it was not founded by Serra.

The good news is, we don’t have to travel to be on a mission field; the bad news is, we were not evangelized by our Protestant brethren. Are any Evangelical denominations waking up and sending missionaries to the west coast of the U.S.A.?

Where does your state fit in? Click on the map to enlarge it.

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When conversations turn to the topic of non-Christians, this phrase often rolls off the tongues of Christians: hate the sin, love the sinner. Where did this phrase originate? It is certainly not a quote from the bible.

 

Psalm 5:5 , “The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;

You hate all who do iniquity.”

 

 

 

Psalm 139:22, “I hate them with a perfect hate.”

 

 

 

Luke 6:45, are the words of our Lord, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”

 

 

 

We sin because we are sinners. It is our fallen nature. Sins cannot exist without the sinner. God hates killing, lying, stealing, sinning, and the list goes on, but all these things point to the sinner. Lying cannot exist without the one who is lying.

 

 

 

God does not have a pleasure or affection for the rebellious. The sinner hates God, is ungrateful, disobeys God, and would kill God if he could. Sinners are slaves to sin, John 8:34; also servants of the devil, Ephesians 2:2.

 

 

 

But, God is good! Even to the sinner with His benevolent common grace! He sustains the lives of both Christians and non-Christians. He is benevolent in His love for the sinful, giving us time alive on earth, to experience his benevolence; also giving us time to repent.

 

 

 

Romans 2:4, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness

and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the

kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

 

 

If a person dies unrepentant, God removes this benevolent love, and pours out the full wrath of his perfect hate.

 

 

 

What should a Christian’s reaction be to the unsaved? We are told to love and pray for our enemies.

 

 

 

Matthew 5:44-45, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

 

 

 

Hat tip: Mahatma Ghandi for the quote.

 

 

 

 

If you are not a Christian reading this, today is the day for salvation! Repent from your disobedience, and believe that Jesus Christ, fully man and fully God, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for your sins, rose again on the third day, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Ask God to help you believe, cry out in repentance to Him.

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written by Julie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Holy Spirit is like our General in this war, and the sharper the soldier, with readied weapons, the more powerfully He will be able to use us, with greater damage to the Enemy of our soul.

Of the weapons He has provided for doing battle, the sword of the Word and prayer are the ones for offense. The rest of the armor parts are for protection, for defense, but the Scriptures are to be wielded in attack, often through prayer.

Among the various ways and means that the spiritual soldier can gain and maintain a state of readiness, sword continually sharpened, memorization of the Word is the best.

Psalm 119:11 provides the most basic, foundational motive for memorizing the Scriptures — “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.” As Charles Spurgeon noted astutely, it is the best thing in the best place for the best purpose.

As a seasoned Seminary professor I admired once said, “It is amazing the affinity the Holy Spirit has for a trained mind.” In context he was encouraging Seminary training, but there is needed application related to Scripture memory, as well.

The more of the Bible that is lovingly stored away by the Christian soldier, the greater the ammunition available to the blessed Spirit for warfare.

And He is so faithful to bring to one’s remembrance a pertinent verse, or even part of one, at the exact time it is needed most. It would be grievous to know how many times we have succumbed to temptations, or acted un-biblically, or made foolish decisions simply because we didn’t know the Word.

Like Elisha’s servant in II Kings 6:17, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see the ongoing warfare that is happening in the spiritual realms even at this moment. Would that He would impress upon us the urgency of having un-rusted swords, by hiding His Word in our hearts for use at any given moment!

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