Sorrow Is a Minister
Sorrow is a minister, creating character for those who dwell in the Will of God; for such, sorrow is turned into joy.
Exchanging a Diadem for a Cross
Eternal love moved the heart of Jesus to relinquish heaven for earth—a diadem for a cross—the robe of divine majesty for the garment of our nature; by taking upon Himself the leprosy of our sin. Oh, the infinite love of Christ! What a boundless, fathomless ocean! Ask the ransomed of the Lord, whose chains He has dissolved, whose dungeon He has opened, whose liberty He has conferred, if there ever was love like His!
How Can I Keep from Singing?
Trying To Be Holy without Christ
I pity those who try to be holy without Christ! Your labor is all in vain. You are putting money in a bag with holes. You are pouring water into a sieve. You are rolling a huge round stone uphill.
Every Man Needs a God
Every man needs a god. There is no man who has not, somewhere in his heart, in his life, in the essentials of his being, a shrine in which is a deity whom he worships.
Worship Is at the Heart of Obedience to God
Worship is also at the heart of obedience to God. God’s commands are not arbitrary. He didn’t just sit down one day and decide to make up a list of rules. The commands for us in Scripture are rooted in the very character of God. His justice and holiness and splendor demand such things from His creation. Therefore, to disobey God’s commands is an affront to the very character and glory of God. Because God’s laws flow from His character, when we do something against those laws, we are acting against His character. God is worthy of our worship, and we should not do anything against the character and glory of God. On the flipside, when we obey God’s commands, we magnify the glory of God, thereby worshiping Him. We should be constantly striving to follow the Lord’s commands for our lives, because He is worthy of our worship. Romans. 12:1-2 tells us that our reasonable service of worship is to not be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Scott Aniol, Worship in Song (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 2009), 243-244.
A Total Saviour
Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, became like us to be a total Savior, sufficient for the whole range of our need. How hollow, then, ring the world’s complaints against our God. People are saying all the time today, lamenting in this world of woe, ‘Where is God? Why doesn’t he do something?’ Meanwhile, he has done everything, indeed, more than ever we could ask or imagine. God has entered into our world. He has walked through the dust of this earth. He who is life has wept before the grave, and he who is the Bread of Life has felt the aching of hunger in his belly.
Is there anything more lovely in all of Scripture than the scenes of Jesus supping with the weak and the weary, the sinners and the publicans? He has taken the thorns that afflict this sin-scarred world and woven them into a crown to be pressed upon his head. And he has stretched open his arms in love, that the hands that wove creation might be nailed to a wooden cross. Then he rose from the dead, conquering all that would conquer us, setting us free to live in peace and joy before the face of God.
Putting Sermons into Hearts
The Minister, that does not manifestly put his heart into his sermon, will never put his sermon into the hearts of his people. Pompous elocution, attempts at theatrical display, or affected emotions, are indeed most repugnant to the simple dignity of our office. A painted fire may glare, but will not warm.
Violent agitations, without correspondent tenderness of feeling, will disgust instead of arresting the mind. Preaching is not (as some appear to think it) the work of the lungs, or the mimicry of gesture, or the impulse of uncontrollable feeling; but the spiritual energy of a heart constrained by the love of Christ, and devoted to the care of those immortal souls, for whom Christ died.
Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1830/2005), 320.
How Great Thou Art
Life Is Worship 