Author Archives: Matt Jury
Christ Who Suffered in Our Place
My thoughts and prayers are with the grieving families in Newtown, CT. The Christmas season was the beginning of the life of the one who can best identify with them, being the one who Himself is a man of sorrows and well-acquainted with grief. Jesus knows and understands, and He is present with those who suffering at this time. God bless them all!
Sometimes it is when we suffer, when we observe the universality of death’s decree, when we are debilitated, when we observe an extraordinarily barbaric bit of cruelty, when we are sidelined by a chronic illness, that we are impelled to pause and reflect on the love of God to sinners and rebels such as we are. We serve the Lord Christ, who suffered in our place, who learned obedience through the trials that he suffered. The trinkets and baubles that otherwise capture so much of our attention fade away, and the eternal things assume their rightful place. Then we know what it means to confess that God’s love is ‘as shoreless and endless as eternity.’
D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1992), 194.
Enjoying God Forever
Our enjoyment of Christ, our spiritual strength and fruitfulness, our nearness to God, and our experience of His working in us, all depend, not upon the single, isolated acts of faith, but upon the state of the heart.
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
I became familiar with this carol a year ago. It is apparently sung commonly in the New England region during the Christmas season. The lyrics are provide below the video.
1. The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
2. His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.
3. For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.
4. I’m weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.
5. This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.
Good and Evil Increase at Compound Interest
God and evil increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1952), 117.
An Outpost of Heaven
The church is to see itself as an outpost of heaven. It is a microcosm of the new heaven and the new earth, brought back, as it were, into our temporal sphere. We are still contaminated by failures, sin, relapses, rebellion, self-centeredness; we are not yet what we ought to be. But by the grace of God, we are not what we were. For as long as we are left here, we are to struggle against sin, and anticipate, so far as we are able, what it will be like to live in the untarnished bliss of perfect righteousness. We are to live with a view to the day of Christ.
D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1992), 135-136.
Infinite Regard for God’s Justice
He manifested an infinite regard to the attribute of God’s justice, in that, when he had a mind to save sinners, He was willing to undergo such extreme sufferings, rather than that their salvation should be to the injury of the honor of that attribute.
The Work of the Son and the Spirit
It is the office of the Son to purchase heaven for the heirs. And it is the office of the Spirit to prepare the heirs for heaven.
Thomas Guthrie, Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints, p. 15
The Beauty of Christ
Love grows out of faith by the discoveries of beauty in Christ which faith is sure to make.
The Zither Carol
I heard this delightful little carol for the first time this week. Beneath the video are the lyrics.
Girls and boys – Leave your toys – Make no noise
Kneel at his crib and worship him
At thy shrine – Child divine – We are thine
Our Savior’s here
Chorus:
“Hallelujah” the church bells ring
“Hallelujah” the angels sing
“Hallelujah” from everything
All must draw near
On that day – Far away – Jesus lay
Angels were watching ’round his head
Holy Child – Mother mild – Undefiled
We sing thy praise
repeat 3 lines of chorus
Our hearts we raise
Shepherds came – At the fame – Of thy name
Angels their guide to Bethlehem
In that place – Filled with grace – Saw thy face
Stood at they door
repeat 3 lines of chorus
Love evermore
Wise men too – Haste to do – Homage new
Gold, myrrh and frankincence they bring
As ’twas said – Starlight led – To thy bed
Bending their knee
repeat 3 lines of chorus
Worshipping thee
Oh, that we – All might be – Good as he
Spotless, with God in unity
Savior dear – Ever near – With us here
Since life began
repeat 3 lines of chorus
God head made man
Cherubim – Seraphim – Worship him
Sun, moon and stars proclaim his power
Every day – On our way – we shall say
Hallelujah
repeat 3 lines of chorus
Hallelujah
Life Is Worship 