Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Love of God!

The Love of God, this is one of my favorite hymns, it just fills me up with joy and conviction at the same time, knowing that God the Creator of all the universe, the thrice Holy Yaweh would love a sinner like me!



Oh Amor De Dios!

¡Oh amor de Dios! Su inmensidad,
el hombre no podría contar
Ni comprender la gran verdad,
que Dios al hombre pudo amar.
Cuando el pecado entró al hogar
de Adán y Eva en Edén;
Dios les sacó, mas prometió
un Salvador también.
Coro:
¡Oh amor de Dios! Brotando está,
Inmensurable eternal;
Por las edades durará,
Inagotable raudal.
Si fuera tinta todo el mar, y todo el cielo un gran papel,
Y cada hombre un escritor, y cada hoja un pincel.
Nunca podrían describir el gran amor de Dios;
Que al hombre pudo redimir de su pecado atroz.
Y cuando el tiempo pasará con cada reino mundanal,
Y cada reino caerá con cada trama y plan carnal.
El gran amor del Redentor por siempre durará;
La gran canción de salvación su pueblo cantará.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Grace Gems: Our Conception of Christian Living

This Grace Gem reminded me a lot of one of today's sermons:

Our conception of Christian living
(J. R. Miller, "Being Christians on Weekdays" 1888)

True religion is intensely practical. Only so far as it dominates one's life--is it real. We must get the commandments out of God's Word--and give them a place in the hard, dusty paths of our earthly toil and struggle. We must get them off the tables of stone--and have them written on the walls of our own hearts! We must bring the Golden Rule--into our daily, actual life.

We are too apt to imagine, that holiness consists in mere good feeling toward God. It does not! It consists in obedience in heart and life to the divine requirements. To be holy is, first, to be set apart for God and devoted to God's service, and it necessarily follows that we must live for God.

Our hands are God's--and can fitly be used only in doing His work; our feet are God's--and may be employed only in walking in His ways and running His errands; our lips are God's--and should speak words only that honor Him and bless others; our hearts are God's--and must not be profaned by thoughts and affections that are not pure.

True holiness is no vague sentiment--it is intensely practical. It is nothing less than the bringing of every thought and feeling and act--into obedience to Christ! We are quite in danger of leaving out the element of obedience, in our conception of Christian living. If we do this, our religion loses its strength and grandeur--and becomes weak, nerveless and forceless.

Our religion must touch every part of our life--and transform it all into the beauty of holiness.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Grace Gems: He Chose You to Be Trophies of His Grace!

I thought it would be good to begin the year with a grace gem:

He chose you to be trophies of His grace!

"You yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:5

God builds a palace for Himself in heaven, made of 'living stones'. Where did He get them? Has He brought forth the richest and the purest marble from the fine quarries of Paris? No! Christians, look to "the hole of the pit where you were dug out of, and to the rock where you were cut from!" You were full of sin. Far from being stones that were white with purity--you were black with defilement, seemingly utterly unfit to be stones in the spiritual temple, which would be the dwelling-place of the Most High God. And yet, He chose you to be trophies of His grace!

Goldsmiths make exquisite jewelry from precious materials; they fashion the bracelet and the ring from gold. But God makes His jewels out of base materials. From the black pebbles of the defiling brooks--He has taken up stones, which He has set in the golden ring of His immutable love, to make them gems to sparkle on His finger forever. He has not selected the best--but apparently the worst of men--to be the monuments of His grace!