Psalm 24

Joe and I hiked up Mt. Baldy the other day.  I snapped this picture of him @ 10,064 feet - it reminded me of Psalm 24:

Ten Verses Worth Reading, Pondering, Praying, Praising God in:


"The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,

the world and those who dwell therein,

for he has founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the rivers.

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?

And who shall stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to what is false

and does not swear deceitfully.

He will receive blessing from the LORD

and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

Selah

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And be lifted up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD, strong and mighty,

the LORD, mighty in battle!

Lift up your heads, O gates!

And lift them up, O ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD of hosts,

he is the King of glory!

Selah"

Truth

Pondering some of what the Scripture has to say about the Truth:

3 John 4

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 17:17

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Psalm 19:7-9

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;

The rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.

Colossians 1:5b

Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel…

John 16:7

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

Gospelicious!

John Calvin at His Gospel-Saturated Best 


From a stunningly gospelicious preface John Calvin wrote for Pierre Robert Olivétan’s French translation of the New Testament (1534)

“Without the gospel everything is useless and vain; without the gospel we are not Christians; without the gospel all riches is poverty, all wisdom folly before God; strength is weakness, and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God. But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, fellow townsmen with the saints, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom the poor are made rich, the weak strong, the fools wise, the sinner justified, the desolate comforted, the doubting sure, and slaves free. It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe …” (66)

“It follows that every good thing we could think or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone. For, he was sold, to buy us back; captive, to deliver us; condemned, to absolve us; he was made a curse for our blessing, sin offering for our righteousness; marred that we may be made fair; he died for our life; so that by him fury is made gentle, wrath appeased, darkness turned into light, fear reassured, despisal despised, debt canceled, labor lightened, sadness made merry, misfortune made fortunate, difficulty easy, disorder ordered, division united, ignominy ennobled, rebellion subjected, intimidation intimidated, ambush uncovered, assaults assailed, force forced back, combat combated, war warred against, vengeance avenged, torment tormented, damnation damned, the abyss sunk into the abyss, hell transfixed, death dead, mortality made immortal. In short, mercy has swallowed up all misery, and goodness all misfortune.

For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in his battle against us, and the sting of death to pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn to our profit. If we are able to boast with the apostle, saying, O hell, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? it is because by the Spirit of Christ promised to the elect, we live no longer, but Christ lives in us; and we are by the same Spirit seated among those who are in heaven, so that for us the world is no more, even while our conversation [life] is in it; but we are content in all things, whether country, place, condition, clothing, meat, and all such things. And we are comforted in tribulation, joyful in sorrow, glorying under vituperation [verbal abuse], abounding in poverty, warmed in our nakedness, patient amongst evils, living in death. This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father.” (69-70)


http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/08/08/john-calvin-at-his-gospel-saturated-best/

A Prayer for Gospel Snobs and Scribes, Like Me

"And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” "  Mark 7:5-8

Dear Jesus, we tremble at the thought of you speaking these words to us. What could be more sobering and painful than to hear you say, “You talk about me a lot—using multiple Scriptures and well crafted theological language. You’re quick to recognize and correct false teaching, and you’re quite zealous to apply what you know to others. But your heart is far from me.”

It would be one thing to garner such a rebuke for mimicking the worse Pharisees and the Galatian Judaizers (Gal. 2:11-21)—putting people under the yoke of performance-based spirituality, and failing to acknowledge your work as the sole and sufficient basis for our salvation. But it would be an altogether different thing to be chided for being a gospel snob and scribe. Have mercy on us, Jesus, have mercy on me.

Forgive us when our love for the truth of the gospel and the doctrines of grace is more obvious than our love for you… as impossible as that may seem.

Forgive us when we enjoy exposing legalistic, pragmatic and moralistic teaching more than we crave spending time with you in fellowship and prayer.

Forgive us when we invest great energy in defending the imputation of your righteousness but have very little concern for the impartation of your transforming life.

Forgive us when we are quick to tell people what obedience is not, but fail to demonstrate what the obedience of faith actually is.

Forgive us when we call ourselves “recovering Pharisees” or “recovering legalists,” but in reality, we’re not really recovering from anything.

Forgive us when talk more about “getting the gospel” than we’re actually “gotten” by the gospel.

Forgive us for being just as arrogant about grace theology as we were obnoxious about legalistic theology.

Forgive us when our multiplied uses of the word “gospel” in our conversations does not translated into multiplied evidences of the power of the gospel in our lives.

Forgive us when we don’t use our gospel freedom to serve one another in love, but rather use it to put our consciences to sleep.

Forgive us for creating gospel-fraternities and gospel-posses which taste to outsiders like ingrown tribes or “clubish” elitism.

Forgive us for having a PhD in the indicatives yet only a kindergarten certificate in the imperatives of the gospel.

Forgive us when our passion for the gospel does not translate into a passion for holiness and world evangelism, and caring for widows and orphans.

Lord Jesus, with convicted and humbled hearts, we ask you to change us, by your grace and for your glory. So very Amen, we pray, in your magnificent and merciful name.