In the Gospel of Luke, chapter nineteen, verse ten, we are reminded that Jesus came to seek and to save those who were lost. Had man not been lost, He never would have had to come.  Now here is a sobering thought — to our sin we owe the incarnation! As we contemplate the Christmas season and all of it’s hustle and bustle, let us revel in the glory of the incarnation,  that moment in time when God became man,  in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. That time when God, the Invisible, appeared. Ponder it’s mystery, slight not its history, glory in it’s majesty and clarity, it is such a wonderful story to tell. One of my favorite advent poems is that by Charles Wesley, one of the great hymn writers of all time. It deserves our thoughtful meditation. [Read more…]

Then King David went in and sat before the LORD; and he said: “Who am I, O LORD God?  And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?  And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O God; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree, O LORD God.” I Chronicles 17:16-17

Yes, I am so thankful for grace!  As we approach another Thanksgiving Day and I ponder in my heart all of the blessings that have been mine, none exceeds the manifold grace of God which appeared to me when I was desperately lost in my sins.  An elderly saint was  heard to say, “I deserve to be damned, I deserve to be in hell; but God interfered!” My friend, that’s grace!  W.E. Best expresses my sentiments when he said, “The sinner, apart from grace, is unable to be willing and unwilling to be able.” Grace represents both the helpless poverty of man and the unlimited kindness of God.  Someone once said, “The grace of salvation is a gift and you can’t boast about a gift.  You can only be thankful.”
[Read more…]

In the complete writings of “Murray On Prayer,” published by Whitaker House, we read this about the author.  Andrew Murray (1828-1917) lived and ministered as both a pastor and author from the towns and villages of South Africa.  His earliest writings were written to provide nurture and guidance for Christians of all ages and were actually an extension of his pastoral work.  He wrote to give daily practical help to many of the people in his congregation who lived out in the farming communities and could only come into town for church services on rare occasions.  Most of Murray’s writings revolved around prayer and he adopted the practice of placing many of his more devotional books into thirty-one separate readings to correspond with the days of the month. [Read more…]