Meditations

Oct
15th

Sat

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

— Romans 15:4

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Blessed Be Your Name, by Matt Redman. Sung and preformed by myself. This is the first song I learned on guitar.

Oct
13th

Thu

There’s a place where the streets shine
With the glory of the Lamb.
There’s a way, we can go there,
We can live beyond time.

Because of You, because of You
Because of Your love, Because of Your blood.

No more pain, no more sadness
No more suffering, no more tears.
No more sin, no more sickness
No injustice, no more death

Because of You, because of You
Because of Your love, because of Your blood.
All our sins are washed away,
And we can live forever…

— Because of You by Paul Oakley

Aug
30th

Tue

Joy is a great deal more difficult to express than pain…if you look at contemporary music, nobody at all expresses joy… there’s neither joy nor light. That comes with color… I’ve written very few poignant pieces. I’m not made for that. I love Light, Joy, and Glory in the divine sense.

— French composer Olivier Messiaen

Aug
13th

Sat

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for fall men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

— Romans 5:18-21

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from othe wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

— Romans 5:9-10

Jul
27th

Wed

Suffering is one experience here on earth that we won’t have in heaven. And that in itself is a remarkable opportunity. It is the opportunity to glorify God in spite of our suffering — you won’t ever have this opportunity again — so glory in God.

Jan
2nd

Sun

The doctrine of the Trinity calls us to recognize, and ponder, and rejoice in the sheer reality of who God essentially is, at home in the happy land of the Trinity above all worlds. To recognize this is to come face-to-face with the final foundation of all God’s ways and works. And when we have carried out the thought experiment of thinking away everything we can (both redemption and creation), leaving nothing but God, we are not left with a formless and solitary divine blur. Instead we confess that God exists essentially and eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christians have much to say about grace. But the ground of grace is God’s absolute triune self-sufficiency.

— Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God

This opened secret is the gospel. It has such a profound and divine character that even to make it known, God must give himself over for its revelation. That revelatory self-giving is perfectly in line with the content of the thing revealed, which is that God gives himself to us to be our salvation.

— Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God

Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, now it is His Word;
Once His gift I wanted, now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.

— A.B. Simpson, from the hymn, Himself

He does not give us some thing that makes us blessed, but he blesses us by giving us himself.

— Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God

In each act of worship, each step of growth, and each blessed experience of grace, all the Three Persons [of the Trinity] are actively engaged… Would you apply this in the life of holiness? Let faith in the Holy Trinity be a living practical reality. In every prayer to the Father to sanctify you, take up your position in Christ. And do it in the power of the [Holy] Spirit within you.

— Andrew Murray

The most subtle idolatry and image-worship is when the soul rests in doctrine, however true. When delighted with the profound and comprehensive scheme of Scripture truth, it forgets that this is but the abstraction, the theory, the shadow of great and living realities.

— Adolph Saphir

When God designed the great and glorious work of recovering fallen man, and the saving of sinners, to the praise of the glory of his grace, he appointed, in his infinite wisdom, two great means thereof: The one was the giving his Son for them, and the other was the giving his Spirit to them. And hereby was way made for the manifestation of the glory of the whole blessed Trinity; which is the utmost end of all the works of God.

— John Owen

Dec
7th

Tue

When Heaven and Earth were yet unmade
When time was yet unknown,
Thou, in Thy bliss and majesty,
Didst live, and love, alone.

— Frederick W. Faber