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The Calvinist is the Christian who confesses before men in his theology just what he believes in his heart before God when he prays. He thinks and speaks at all times of the sovereign grace of God in the way every Christian does when he pleads for the souls of others, or when he obeys the impulse of worship that rises unbidden within him, prompting him to deny himself all praise and to give all the glory of his salvation to his Savior.
Quoted from:
Give Me Jesus
In the morning, when I rise
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.
When I am alone,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.
When I come to die,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this world,
Just give me Jesus.
Lord Jesus I must have you
I must hear of your virgin birth
I must hear of your compassion for the sick and tormented
I must hear of your forgiveness for the woman caught in adultery
I must hear your sharp rebuke of the externally religious
I must hear that those that hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied
I must hear how you had compassion on those who hated and killed you
I must hear that you are Very God of Very God
I must hear of your cross and how you died to bring me to God
I must hear that though my sins are as scarlet they are now washed white as snow
I must hear of your resurrection and your victory over sin and death
I must hear of your return one day to bring me home to you
I must have you Lord Jesus
Give me Jesus
Zeal is a colossal waste of energy if its aim is anything other than Christ. Spirituality is a sham if Christ is not its substance. Passion, no matter how intense or well-intended, is a meaningless vapor in the human soul if it is not awakened by the beauty and splendor of Christ and has for its goal the glory and praise of Christ. There simply is no value in religious activity that is not Christological at its core. – Sam Storms
This meditation by C.H Spurgeon is Christian Hedonism at its finest.
“Delight thyself also in the Lord.” —Psalm 37:4
The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the inculcation of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described as a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand further apart than “holiness” and “delight.” But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them. They who love God with all their hearts, find that His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so far from serving Him from custom, they would follow Him though all the world cast out His name as evil. We fear not God because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our delight.
Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels glittering side by side in a setting of gold.
“’Tis when we taste Thy love,
Our joys divinely grow,
Unspeakable like those above,
And heaven begins below.”
“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,”
(Colossians 1:19-22 ESV)
Who did the blood of the Cross bring peace to?
First and foremost it was to reconcile God to us. Until we understand this we have only a partial understanding of the gospel. Notice that God reconciles to Himself. God the Father made peace with us through God the Son. Not that we loved God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins ( 1 John 4:10). God was our enemy because of our sins and we where His enemy because we wanted to be our own god. But in love, God the Father righteously and voluntarily declared peace with us through God the Son to all who repent and place their trust in Christ alone.
The Solution is glorified by the size of the problem it solves.
The Grand Solution of the cross is most glorified when we see it most clearly. The clear gospel truth is that God would have been a just and righteous judge if he had killed us for our sins. We where hostile towards Him and he was hostile towards us because of our sins. This is not something we like to believe, but until we do, the wonder of the gospel and the glory of our Savior and His Cross will be diminished. God our enemy loved us and took upon himself His own just punishment so that we could have Him forever. This is the grand, glorious, and central theme of the gospel.
If I could ponder that wonderful Cross for ten thousand thousand years I will never grow tired of thinking of it and the glory of my Savior. Divine justice mixed with divine love creating praise in our hearts forever. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!
