Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.
— Proverbs 28:14
We have all seen the person who begins all arguments with the unassailable proposition that he is right and reasons from there. We have received a few letters which purported to settle all questions, not by bringing forth reasons, but by establishing the writer's qualifications to pronounce judgment. "How dare you question my actions," he says. "I am the foremost leader in my field. I have written this many books and spoken to this many people over a long period of this many years." Ergo, I am not to be trifled with, nor are my opinions to be questioned.
If I do it, it is right. Ispe dixit. He has said it. This kind of thing would be comical if it were not tragic. We mention it only to point up the truth under present consideration and to show by horrible example what long continued self-assurance will do to a human character. Let the public accept a man as unusual, and he is soon tempted to accept himself as being above reproof. Soon a hard shell of impenitence covers his heart and chokes his spiritual life almost out of existence. The cure, if there is to be a cure, would be simple, of course. Let him look to his past and to the cross where Jesus died. If he can still defend himself after that, then let him look into his own heart and tell what he finds there. If after that he can still boast, close the coffin lid. We might point out a danger here (for there will always be perils in the way of spiritual progress): it is that we become morbidly introspective and lose the legitimate happy cheer from our souls.
This we must never do, and we can avoid it by permitting Christ to engage our attention, rather than our own souls. The safe rule is, whenever we look at ourselves, be penitent; when we look at Christ, be joyous. And look at Christ most of the time, looking inward only to correct our faults and grieve for our imperfections.
thought
Hardening our hearts places us in extreme danger. Failure to fully receive God's forgiveness or forgive ourselves is also threatening. Fixing our gaze upon Christ reveals our weaknesses and our strength.
prayer
O Lord, may my heart be tender and fixed upon You ? not upon my misconceived strength or my human weakness. In Jesus' name.
. . . let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus . . .
— Hebrews 12:1b-2a
The rapidity with which improvement is made in the life will depend altogether upon the degree of self-criticism we bring to our prayers and to the school of daily living. Let a man fall under the delusion that he has arrived, and all progress is stopped until he has seen his error and forsaken it. Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" (Philippians 3:12). Some Christians hope in a vague kind of way that time will help them to grow better. They look to the passing of the years to mellow them and make them more Christlike.
This is such a tender and pathetic thought that one hesitates to expose its essential error. But we had better know the facts now while we can do something about them rather than go on moist-eyed and dreamily hopeful ? and wholly wrong. A crooked tree does not straighten with age; neither does a crooked Christian. All this is to say that a growing Christian must have at his roots the life-giving waters of penitence. The cultivation of a penitential spirit is absolutely essential to spiritual progress. The lives of great saints teach us that self-distrust is vital to godliness. Even while the obedient soul lies prostrate before God, or goes on in reverent obedience convinced that he is carrying out the will of God with a perfect conscience, he will yet feel a sense of utter brokenness and a deep consciousness that he is still far from being what he ought to be. This is one of the many paradoxical situations in which the humble man will find himself as he follows on to know the Lord.
thought
Let's run the life race with perseverance and our eyes fixed on Jesus, throwing off that sin that so easily entangles us and throwing aside various hindrances. The throwing off calls for honest self-criticism without which we won't make much progress.
prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for the utter stupidity of trying to run the race while weighed down with that special sin that trips me up and the hindrances that slow me down.
But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.
— First Corinthians 11:31
All things else being equal, a Christian will make spiritual progress exactly in proportion to his ability to criticize himself. Paul said, "But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment" (1 Corinthians 11:31). We escape the critical judgment of God by exercising critical self-judgment. It is as simple as that. We often hear the axiom "Practice makes perfect." The fact is that practice, far from making perfect, actually confirms us in our faults unless it is carried on in a humble, self-critical spirit. The whole philosophy of instruction rests upon the idea that the learner is wrong and is seeking to be made right. No teacher can correct his pupil unless the pupil comes to him in humility. The only proper attitude for the learner is one of humble self-distrust. "I am ignorant," he says, "and am willing to be taught. I am wrong and am willing to be corrected." In this childlike spirit, the mind is made capable of improvement.
thought
Isn't it better to judge ourselves before somebody else does it? The criticism of others is not always accurate but God sometimes criticizes us through other people.
prayer
Lord, may I be more sensitive to the Spirit as You seek to expose my sin and weakness through Your Word and people.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
— Colossians 3:16
Sometimes our hearts are strangely stubborn and will not soften or grow tender no matter how much praying we do. At such times, it is often found that the reading or singing of a good hymn will melt the ice jam and start the inward affections flowing. That is one of the uses of the hymnbook. Human emotions are curious and difficult to arouse, and there is always a danger that they may be aroused by the wrong means and for the wrong reasons. The human heart is like an orchestra, and it is important that when the soul starts to sound its melodies, a David or a Bernard or a Watts or a Wesley should be on the podium.
Constant devotion to the hymnbook will guarantee this happy event and will, conversely protect the heart from being led by evil conductors. Every Christian should have lying beside his Bible a copy of some standard hymn book. He should read out of one and sing out of the other, and he will be surprised and delighted to discover how much they are alike. Gifted Christian poets have in many of our great hymns set truth to music. Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley (possibly above all others) were able to marry the harp of David to the Epistles of Paul and to give us singing doctrine, ecstatic theology that delights while it enlightens.
thought
Amazing Grace; Be Still My Soul; Great is Thy Faithfulness; I am His, and He is Mine; Jesus, Lover of My Soul; Life a River Glorious; Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus; When He Shall Come. Just a few of the great hymns that ignite and lift the heart in worship and reflection. Sing them!
prayer
How often You have spoken to me through hymns, Father, teaching, admonishing and encouraging me. Thank You!
. . . Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
— Ephesians 5:19b-20
One of the serious weaknesses of present-day evangelicalism is the mechanical quality of its thinking. A utilitarian Christ has taken the place of the radiant Savior of other and happier times. This Christ is able to save, it is true, but He is thought to do so in a practical across-the-counter manner, paying our debt and tearing off the receipt like a court clerk acknowledging a paid-up fine. A bank-teller psychology characterizes much of the religious thinking in our little gospel circle. The tragedy of it is that it is truth without being all the truth. If modern Christians are to approach the spiritual greatness of Bible saints or know the inward delights of the saints of post-biblical times, they must correct this imperfect view and cultivate the beauties of the Lord our God in sweet, personal experience.
In achieving such a happy state, a good hymnbook will help more than any other book in the world except the Bible itself. A great hymn embodies the purest concentrated thoughts of some lofty saint who may have long ago gone from the earth and left little or nothing behind him except that hymn. To read or sing a true hymn is to join in the act of worship with a great and gifted soul in his moments of intimate devotion. It is to hear a lover of Christ explaining to his Savior why he loves Him; it is to listen in without embarrassment on the softest whisperings of undying love between the bride and the heavenly Bridegroom.
thought
Great hymns form footprints of past saints who have walked through the valleys and on the mountain-tops of the Christian life. They assure us of God's grace and love. They aid us in verbalizing our praise, worship and prayer.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, for access to the heart expressions in word and music of those who have walked with You in the past. Their songs teach me of You.
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. . . .
— Ephesians 5:19a
In order to express myself more freely on a matter that lies very near to my heart, I shall waive the rather stilted editorial we and speak in the first person. The matter I have in mind is the place of the hymnbook in the devotional life of the Christian. For purposes of inward devotion, there is only one book to be placed before the hymnal, and that of course is the Bible. I say without qualification, after the Sacred Scriptures, the next best companion for the soul is a good hymnal.
For the child of God, the Bible is the book of all books, to be reverenced, loved, pored over endlessly and feasted upon as living bread and manna for the soul. It is the first-best book, the only indispensable book. To ignore it or neglect it is to doom our minds to error and our hearts to starvation. After the Bible, the hymn book is next. And remember, I do not say a songbook or a book of gospel songs, but a real hymnal containing the cream of the great Christian hymns left to us by the ages.
thought
Have you used a hymnal lately ? in church or at home? A good hymnal contains the musical heart-expressions that have survived the years and express the experience of believers through the centuries.
prayer
You have reminded me, Lord, of the devotional treasure nestled in the hymnal. Therein are songs to live by.
. . . Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, 'Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.'
— Matthew 2:1c-2
Christmas will come and go again this year as it has done through the lost centuries and, after a brief moment of kindness felt, they of the cold, hard world will go on killing and hating and contriving to outwit and outfight each other. Things are no better, the cynics will say, no better than they were before. The whole thing is a childish myth. We know what they think, and we know what they will say. And God knows the facts seem to give support to their ideas. But the end is not yet.
The world has not seen the last of the Christ Child. That there is yet in fallen human hearts enough traces of spiritual desire to stir them to brief tribute when the chastely beautiful story of Christmas is told is sufficient answer to the cynic's charge. Men who can want to be good, if even for a day, can become good when their desire grows strong enough. And all this is not mere theory. Thousands each year find their desire for salvation and holiness becoming too acute to bear, and turn to the One who was born in a manger to die on a cross. Then the fleeting beauty that is Christmas enters their hearts to dwell there forever. For who is it that imparts such beauty to the Christmas story? It is none other than Jesus, the Altogether Lovely.
thought
From the millions of earth's inhabitants the magi came from afar to worship the Christ child. So today there are those few who travel from spiritually afar to find Christ at Christmas.
prayer
O Christ, I worship You!
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
For those nations of the earth which have known the story of Jesus, Christmas is undoubtedly the most beautiful time of the year. Though the celebration of the Savior's birth occurs in the dead of winter, when in many parts of the world the streams are frozen and the landscapes cold and cheerless, still there is beauty at the Christmas season ? not the tender beauty of spring flowers or the quiet loveliness of the full-blown summer, or yet the sad sweet graces of autumn colors. It is beauty of another kind, richer, deeper and more elevating, that beauty which considerations of love and mercy bring before the mind.
Though we are keenly aware of the abuses that have grown up around the holiday season, we are still not willing to surrender this ancient and loved Christmas Day to the enemy. Though those purer emotions which everyone feels at Christmas are in most hearts all too fleeting, yet it is something that a lost and fallen race should pay tribute, if only for a day, to those higher qualities of the mind ? love and mercy and sacrifice and a life laid down for its enemies. While men are able to rise even temporarily to such heights, there is hope that they have not yet sinned away their day of grace. A heart capable of admiring and being touched by the story of the manger birth is not yet abandoned, however sinful it may be. There is yet hope in repentance.— Matthew 1:21
thought
Fleeting though it may be amidst all the commercialism and secularsim, there is the gentle breeze reminding celebrants of the true meaning of Christmas. Christ has come! In Him there is forgiveness and life.
prayer
O God, may we see Christ in Christmas ? the baby in a manger who lived and died for our sins, rose again and lives today as King of kings and Lord of lords.
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'
— 1 Peter 1:15-16
"Your calling," said Meister Eckhart to the clergy of his day, "cannot make you holy; but you can make it holy." No matter how humble that calling may be, a holy man can make it a holy calling. A call to the ministry is not a call to be holy, as if the fact of his being a minister would sanctify a man; rather, the ministry is a calling for a holy man who has been made holy some other way than by the work he does. The true order is: God makes a man holy by blood and fire and sharp discipline. Then he calls the man to some special work, and the man being holy makes that work holy in turn.
The anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing sets this truth sternly before his readers: "Beware, thou wretch . . . and hold thee never the holier nor the better for the worthiness of thy calling . . . but the more wretched and cursed, unless thou do that in thee is goodly, by grace and by counsel, to live after thy calling." Our whole point here is that while good deeds cannot make a man good, it is likewise true that everything a good man does is good because he is a good man. Holy deeds are holy not because they are one kind of deed instead of another, but because a holy man performs them. "Every good tree bears good fruit . . . a good tree cannot bear bad fruit" (Matthew 7:18). Every person should see to it that he is fully cleansed from all sin, entirely surrendered to the whole will of God and filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he will not be known as what he does, but as what he is.
He will be a man of God first and anything else second: a man of God who paints or mines coal or farms or preaches or runs a business, but always a man of God. That and not the kind of work he does will determine the quality of his deeds.
thought
What a difference it would make in this world if all believers exuded holiness whatever their daily tasks in life. Godly merchants, teachers and students, attorneys and judges, politicians, police and military persons ? men and women of God first then wh...
prayer
Deliver me from the deception, Father, of thinking of myself as what I do rather than what I am.