The Cross Speaks To Us: by Martyn Lloyd-Jones

. . . the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:24

Has the cross of Christ ever spoken to you? Have you heard its message? The cross of Christ preaches. The cross of Christ speaks. The blood of the cross speaks. It has something to say. Have you heard it? The writer to the Hebrews thanks God that this blood speaks something better than the blood of Abel spoke. You remember the story of Cain and Abel, the first two sons of Adam and Eve, and the story of how Cain slew his brother Abel and shed his blood.

He murdered him. And the blood of Abel, spilled there upon the ground, spoke as it cried out for vengeance, punishment, and retribution. The blood of Abel spoke. And God tells us through the writer to the Hebrews that is not the blood that you and I have come to. We have come to a blood of sprinkling that “speaks better things than that of Abel.” This is why all these men in the New Testament rejoice in it. This is why the saints of the ages rejoiced in it. The blood speaks, and it speaks the best things that the world has ever heard.

Let me call your attention to some of the things that the cross of Christ, the blood of the cross, speaks and says to men and women today. In other words, let us listen to the cross speaking in the form of exposition. There is nothing that so expounds the truth of God to us as the cross of Christ. The Bible expounds the same truth. The cross of Christ lays it open before us and makes it speak to us.

Have you ever regarded it as a sermon and sat and listened to it, and have you heard what it has to say to you? What an exposition of truth there is in that cross on Calvary’s hill!

The Essential Vice: by CS Lewis

Proverbs 16:18-19 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. You may remember, when I was talking about sexual morality, I warned you that the center of Christian morals did not lie there. Well, now, we have come to the center. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

Leave Room for God: by Oswald Chambers

But when it pleased God . . . —Galatians 1:15

Have you learned how to leave space for God—to give him a little elbow room to work in your life? Too often, as we go about making our plans, we forget to leave a place for God to come in as he chooses. We say that this or that will happen, but none of our predictions leave room for the element of divine surprise.

Would we be shocked if God came into our meetings, our prayers, or our preaching in a way we’d never expected? However well we think we know God, we can never know exactly what he’ll do. What we can know is that, when it pleases him, he will break in. This is the great lesson to learn—that at any minute God may arrive. We tend to overlook this element of surprise, and yet God never works in any other way.

Keep in constant, intimate contact with God, so that his surprising power may break through at any time and any place. Always be in a state of expectancy, and remember to leave room. Do not look for God to come in any particular way, but do look for him.

HAPPY 249TH BIRTHDAY AMERICA

Psalm 33:12 states, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!"

— John Adams, 2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence “[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
— John Quincy Adams “Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?"

— George Washington, 1st U.S. President "While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian."
— John Adams "The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”

— Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President, Drafter and Signer of the Declaration of Independence "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event."
— John Quincy Adams "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this - that it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." 

— Thomas Jefferson "The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty.  A student's perusal of the sacred volume will make him a better citizen, a better father, a better husband."

— Andrew Jackson "The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests."
— Noah Webster "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed."

— Patrick Henry "It can not be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."
— Thomas Jefferson "Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"
— Noah Webster “Education is useless without the Bible”
— James Madison "We have staked the future of American civilization upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." -
— George Washington "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor."
— John Adams "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

— John Adams and John Hancock: “We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”

— George Washington’s Farewell Address: The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion" ...and later: "...reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle..."

Psalm 11:3 "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?".

Be Still & Listen: from Streams in the Desert

I heard a hushed voice. (Job 4:16)

Some twenty years ago a friend gave me a book entitled True Peace. It had an old medieval message and this one primary thought—that God was waiting in the depths of my being to speak to me if I would only be still enough to hear His voice.

I assumed this would not be a difficult thing to do, so I tried to be still. No sooner had I begun to do so than complete pandemonium seemed to break loose. Suddenly I heard a thousand voices and sounds from without and within, until I could hear nothing except these incredible noises. Some were my own words, my own questions, and even my own prayers, while others were temptations of the Enemy, and the voices of the world’s turmoil.

In every direction I turned, I was pushed, pulled, and confronted with indescribable unrest and overwhelming noises. I seemed compelled to listen to some of them and to respond in some way. But God said, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). Then my mind was filled with worries over my responsibilities and plans for tomorrow, and God said again, “Be still.”

As I listened and slowly learned to obey, I shut my ears to every other sound. Soon I discovered that once the other voices ceased, or once I ceased to hear them, “a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12) began to speak in the depths of my being. And it spoke to me with an inexpressible tenderness, power, and comfort. This “gentle whisper” became for me the voice of prayer, wisdom, and service. No longer did I need to work so hard to think, pray, or trust, because the Holy Spirit’s “gentle whisper” in my heart was God’s prayer in the secret places of my soul. It was His answer to all my questions, and His life and strength for my soul and body. His voice became the essence of all knowledge, prayer, and blessings, for it was the living God Himself as my life and my all.

This is precisely how our spirit drinks in the life of our risen Lord. And then we are enabled to face life’s conflicts and responsibilities, like a flower that has absorbed the cool and refreshing drops of dew through the darkness of the night. Yet just as dew never falls on a stormy night, the dew of His grace never covers a restless soul. A. B. Simpson

Real Rest: from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

     Rest in the stillness of My Presence while I prepare you for this day. Let the radiance of My Glory shine upon you, as you wait on Me in confident trust. Be still and know that I am God. There is both a passive and an active side to trusting Me. As you rest in My Presence, focusing on Me, I quietly build bonds of trust between us. When you respond to the circumstances of your life with affirmations of trust, you actively participate in the process.
     I am always with you, so you have no reason to be afraid. Your fear often manifests itself in excessive planning. Your mind is so accustomed to this pattern of thinking that you are only now becoming aware of how pervasive it is and how much it hinders your intimacy with Me. Repent of this tendency and resist it, whenever you realize you are wandering down this well worn path. Return to My Presence, which always awaits you in the present moment. I accept you back with no condemnation. 

Romans 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Truth Is a Person: by Henry Blackaby

And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, “Where is your faith?”      Luke 8:24-25

Truth is a Person, not a concept. Jesus said He was the Truth (John 14:6). That means that you can never know the truth of your circumstances unless you have first heard from Jesus. The disciples thought they were perishing in the storm. They were fishermen who knew the sea and knew what their condition was. They had allowed their circumstances to convince them that the “truth” was their imminent death. But they were wrong. Truth was asleep in the back of their boat!

Since some of the disciples were fishermen, they trusted in their own expertise and wisdom rather than recognizing that only Jesus knew the truth of their situation. At times, our human knowledge in certain areas of life can blind us to our desperate need to hear a word from Truth.

When Jesus spoke, the disciples saw the real truth of their situation. There was absolute calm. The disciples had seen Jesus perform other miracles, but they had not yet witnessed His power over nature in such a dimension. Often we are like the disciples. God may have recently demonstrated His power to us in a mighty way; we may have experienced many spiritual victories in the past. Yet, when a new and frightening situation comes upon us we, too, panic and say, “Lord save me. I’m perishing!” God will remind us of His provision, saying, “I can handle this situation, too, and you will know more of Me because of it.”

Have you become fearful instead of faithful? If you have, prepare for the rebuke, for it will come.