Love Lustres at Calvary

My Father,
Enlarge my hear, warm my affections, open my lips,
    supply words that proclaim, 'Love lustres at Calvary.'
There grace removes my burdens and heaps them on thy Son,
    made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me;
There the sword of thy justice smote the man, thy fellow;
There thy infinite attributes were magnified
    and infinite atonement was made;
There infinite punishment was due,
    and infinite punishment was endured.
Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
    cast off that I might be brought in,
    trodden down as an enemy
        that I might be welcomed as a friend,
    surrendered to hell's worst
        that I might attain heaven's best,
    stripped that I might be clothed,
    wounded that I might be healed,
    athirst that I might drink,
    tormented that I might be comforted,
    made a shame that I might inherit glory,
    entered darkness that I might have eternal light.
My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes,
    groaned that I might have endless song,
    endured all pain that I might have unfading health
    bore a thorny crown that I might have a glory-diadem,
    bowed his head that I might uplift mine,
    experienced reproach that I might receive welcome,
    closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness,
    expired that I might for ever live.
O Father, who spared not thy only Son that thou mightest spare me,
All this transfer thy love designed and accomplished;
Help me to adore thee by lips and life.
O that my every breath might be ecstatic praise
    my every breath buoyant with delight, as I see my enemies crushed,
    Satan baffled, defeated, destroyed,
    sin buried in the ocean of reconciling blood,
    hell's gates closed, heaven's portal open.
Go forth, O conquering God, and show me
    the cross, mighty to subdue, comfort and save.

~ Valley of Vision

Reflections on God's Love and Grace

"and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." 1 Timothy 1:14-17

"My Father,
I could never have sought my happiness in thy love,
unless thou had'st first loved me.
Thy Spirit has encouraged me by grace to seek thee,
has made known to me thy reconciliation in Jesus,
has taught me to believe it,
has helped me to take thee for my God and portion.
May he grant me to grow in the knowledge
and experience of thy love,
and walk in it all the way to glory.
Blessed for ever be thy fatherly affection,
which chose me to be one of thy children
by faith in Jesus:
I thank thee for giving me the desire to live as such.
In Jesus, my brother, I have my new birth,
every restraining power,
every renewing grace.
It is by thy Spirit I call thee Father,
believe in thee, love thee;
Strengthen me inwardly for every purpose
of my Christian life;
Let the Spirit continually reveal to me my interest
in Christ,
and open to me the riches of thy love in him;
May he abide in me that I may know my union
with Jesus,
and enter into constant fellowship with him;
By thy Spirit may I daily live to thee,
rejoice in thy love,
find it the same to me as to thy Son,
and become rooted and grounded in it
as a house on a rock;
I know but little --
increase my knowledge of thy love in Jesus,
keep me pressing forward for clearer discoveries
of it,
so that I may find its eternal fullness;
Magnify thy love to me according to its greatness,
and not according to my deserts or prayers,
and whatever increase thou givest,
let it draw out greater love to thee."

-A Convert''s First Prayer, Valley of Vision

"My heart melts at the love of Jesus,

my brother, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,

married to me, dead for me, risen for me;

He is mine and I am his,

given to me as well as for me;

I am never so much mine as when I am his,

or so much lost to myself until lost in him...

Make me fruitful by living to that love,

my character becoming more beautiful everyday

If traces of Christ's love-artistry be upon me,

may he work on with his divine brush 

until the complete image be obtained

and I be made a perfect copy of him,

my Master."

-The Love of Jesus, Valley of Vision

The Early Quakers

"John 1:9 ('that was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world')...was at the core of Fox's distinctive message and that of his fellow Quakers. They understood this text to teach that every individual was born with the light of Christ, which, though darkened by sin, was never fully extinguished." -Michael A.G. Haykin in John Owen and the Challenge of the Quakers

Ah! how deceived these people were! We are all born with the light of Christ?!?! No! We are born wicked, sinners; rebellious and totally evil. We are utterly sinful. It is only by his absolutely amazing, undeserved grace that we live. It is only by his wonderful, awesome grace that he doesn't wipe us from the face of the planet at this very moment, for we deserve all of that and more.

Lord, thank you for your grace! Thank you for sending your Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Thank you for drawing us to yourself and allowing us admittance into your presence. Oh! Lord, thank you for grace!

Man's Great End

Yet another prayer from Valley of Vision. I am sorry if you are getting bored of them, but I find they're earnest words too beautiful and irresistible not to share!

There is one thing that deserves my greatest care,
that calls forth my ardent desires,
That is that I may answer the end for which
I am made-
to glorify thee who hast given me being,
and to do all the good I can for my fellow men;
Verily, life is not worth having
if not improved for this noble purpose.
Yet, Lord, how little is this the thought of mankind!
Most men seem to live for themselves,
without much or any regard for they glory,
or for the good of others;
They earnestly desire and eagerly pursue
the riches, honours, pleasures of this life,
as if they supposed that wealth, greatness,
merriment,
could make their immortal souls happy;
But, alas, what false delusive dreams are these!
And how miserable ere long will those be that
sleep in them,
for all our happiness consists in loving thee,
and being holy as thou art holy.

O may I never fall into the tempers and vanities,
the sensuality and folly of the present world!
It is a place of inexpressible sorrow, a vast empty
nothingness;
Time is a moment, a vapour,
and all its enjoyments are empty bubbles,
fleeting blasts of wind,
form which nothing satisfactory can be derived;
Give me grace always to keep in covenant with thee,
and to reject as delusion a great name here
or hereafter
together with all sinful pleasures or profits.
Help me to know continually
that there can be no true happiness,
no fulfilling of thy purpose for me,
apart from a life lived in and for
the Son of thy love.

Valley of Vision

"O, how I mourn my sin, ingratitude, vileness, the days that add to my guilt, the scenes that witness my offending tongue all things in heaven, earth, around, within,, without, condemn me- the sun which sees my misdeeds, the darkness which is light to thee, the cruel accuser who justly charges me, the good angels who have been provoked to leave me, thy countenance which scans my secret sins, thy righteous law, thy holy Word, my sin-soiled conscience, my private and public life, my neighbours, myself- all write dark things against me. I deny them not, frame no excuse, but confess, 'Father I have sinned'; yet still I live, and fly repenting to thy outstretched arms; thou wilt not cast me off, for Jesus brings me near, thou wilt not condemn me, for he died in my stead, thou wilt not mark my mountains of sin, for he levelled all, and his beauty covers my deformities. O my God, I bid farewell to sin by clinging to his cross, hiding in his wounds, and sheltering in his side."

-Valley of Vision, Divine Mercies

Ok. In case I haven't previously mentioned a new romance in my life here it is: I LOVE the Valley of Vision. The prayers are so human; I can relate to the author with everyone. The beautiful prose that the prayers are written in bring me to ages past, but are so effective in the here and now.

This specific prayer, Divine Mercies, I really enjoyed. Sin is so real and so dangerous! And yet it is a struggle everyday to hate it and it's family, the world! Everyday I fall into its snares and traps, but, by God's grace alone, I am under the grace not the law! Another thing that endeared me to this prayer was the way it brought me back to the gospel at the end. As I read I went from agonizing over all my iniquities to rejoicing in the forgiveness and love found in the cross. The last line is so beautiful; it's worth revisiting:

"O my God, I bid farewell to sin by clinging to his cross, hiding in his wounds, and sheltering in his side."

Determined to Obey God

Bruce Shelley says this of the Puritans, "...little groups of believers began to meet for worship as they felt the Bible taught them- not according to bishops and prayer books. They were determined to obey God even if their nation's leaders were not."

By looking at my previous posts on the Puritans, anyone can gather that I greatly admire their perseverance and faithfulness to God and the church. They put so much at stake! Men were being killed daily for disagreeing with the Church of England and yet they would do nothing against what the Bible taught. Some, who became known as Seperatist, were willing to go on dangerous voyages across oceans and into lands untamed and full of (sometimes) hostile natives, all for the opportunity to worship in the manner the Bible taught! Oh, what faithfulness!

I stand humbled, amazed and in awe.

Break my Pride

"O Fountain of All Good,

Destroy in me every lofty thought,

Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds,

Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness,

Implant in me true lowliness of spirit,

Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence,

Open in me a fount of penitential tears,

Break me, then bind me up..."

-Valley of Vision

The Great God

Comfort in His Sovereignty

"O God whose will conquers all,
There is no will in anything apart from enjoying thee and being engaged in thy service;
Thou art All in all, and all enjoyments are what to me thou makest them, and no more.
I am well pleased with thy will, whatever it is, or should be in all respects,
And if thou bidst me decide for myself in any affair, I would choose to refer all to the, for thou art infinitely wise and cannot do amiss, as I am in danger of doing.
I rejoice to think that all things are at thy disposal, and i delights me to leave them there.
Then prayer turns wholly into praise, and all I can do is to adore and bless thee..."

- God the All, Valley of Vision

I think this prayer should be a guide for us all. So often we want to be in control. We think we know what is best for our lives, but in fact, what is best for our lives is happening right now! "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good..." I was listening to a sermon by John Piper yesterday. He mentioned that unless a tree goes through winter seasons, it will not bear good fruit! How true this is. "Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit."

Let us all be comforted knowing that God is sovereign and is working all thing for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose!

Instruments for Righteousness

"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer had dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."

Romans 6:8-14

In response to this verse, may our prayers mirror the Puritan's from the Valley of Vision:

"Incomprehensible, great and glorious God, I adore thee and abase myself. I approach thee mindful that I am less than nothing, a creature worse than nothing. My thoughts are not screened from they gaze. My secret sins blaze in the light of thy countanace. Enable me to remember that blood which cleasneth all sin, to believe in that grace which subdues all iniquities, to resign myself to that agency which can deliver me from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Thou hast begun a good work in me and canst alone continue and complete it. Give me an increasing convicion of my tendency to err, and of my exposure to sin. Help me to feel more of the purifying, softening incluence of religion, its compassion, love pity, courtesy, and employ me as thy instrument in blessing others. Give me to distinguish between the mere form of godliness and its power, between life and a mane to live, between guile and truth, between hypocrisy and a religion that will bear thy eye. If I am not right, set me right, keep me right; And may I at last come to thy house in peace. "

Amen!

Right Way

"The hill, though high, I covet to ascend;

The difficuly will not me offend;

For I perceive the way to life lies here:

Come, pluck up hear, let's neither faint nor fear.

Better, though difficult, the right way to go,

Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe."

-Pilgrim's Progress

Taking Things for Granted

"And though they esteemed him highly whilst he lived and labored amongst them, yet much more after his death, when they came to feel the want of his help and saw (by woeful experience) what a treasure they had lost..." -William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation

How much we take for granted! We don't truly know how much something is worth until we've lost it.

A Lesson from the Puritains

"Yet seeing themselves thus molested, and that there was no hope of their continuance there, by a joint consent they resolved to go into the Low Countries, where they heard was freedom of religion for all men...But to go into a country they knew not (but by hearsay), where they must learn a new language, and get their livings they knew not how... it was by many thought an adventure almost desperate, a case in tolerable and a misery worse than death... But these things did not dismay them...for their desires were set on the ways of God, and to enjoy his ordinances; but they rested on his providence..." -William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation

Wow. This was a group of people who, being tirlessly persecuted for their beliefs, were willing to leave their lives and homes in England and go to a unknown land; to strangers. And yet, continues Bradford, "these things did not dismay them." Why? "For their desires were set on the ways of God." What faith!