A Heart To Praise God

Posted by jerrywhite on Apr 26, 2010

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
Psalm 145:1-3 (ESV)
~~~

Oh for a heart to praise my God
A heart from sin set free,
A heart that’s sprinkled with the blood
So freely shed for me.

A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My dear Redeemer’s throne;
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.

A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
Believing, true, and clean,
Which neither death nor life can part
From Him that dwells within.

A heart in every thought renewed
And filled with love divine;
Perfect and right, and pure and good,
A copy, Lord, of Thine.

Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart,
Come quickly from above;
Write Thy new name upon my heart,
Thy new, best name of Love.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
~~~

While sitting quietly at the feet of the Lord Jesus, your soul is nurtured if you pray over the Scriptures you meditate upon. The same is true with  significant hymns from the ages.

God’s Voice Through His Word

Posted by jerrywhite on Jan 4, 2010

“Many neglect the precious Word of God altogether. They have no theology, no doctrine, no objective revelation of truth.
Others, I fear, are legalistic about biblical truth. They have extensive and profound knowledge of the Scriptures, but their hearts are barren and their creed leaves them cold and formal.
How can we be liberated on the one hand from no creed at all, and on the other from a frozen dogma that imparts no freshness or vitality to our hearts?
Dear friend, may the good Lord help us perceive the organic union between the Word of God and the voice of God. By the Word of God I mean the revelation of God in the person of the Lord Jesus in the Scriptures. The Bible is the Word of God. The voice of God which comes through the Word of God is also a revelation, an illumination. It is a revelation of the revelation.
The Word of God is objective; the voice of God is subjective. The voice of God is the special revelation of the Lord Jesus in the Bible brought home by the Holy Spirit to our hearts.
The voice of God in the Word of God makes the Bible ‘living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.’ The naked Scriptures alone do not search the spirit, dividing joints and marrow and the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It is the voice of God that unveils the Christ of the Bible, and says to us (in Hebrews 3),
Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.
If we would indeed be grounded in the Word of God, we must become increasingly sensitive to the voice of God. Bible memory, systematic study, extensive research, or a workable knowledge of the original languages will never by themselves impart a warm and living creed; only the voice of God can do that. God must speak through His Word by the Holy Spirit of truth, who reveals and glorifies the Lord Jesus by taking what is His and making it known to us (John 15:26, 16:13-14).
There is life only in Him who is the Truth. If we are grounded in His voice, we will be grounded in His Word.”
Edward Miller
Letters to the Thirsty, 75-76

The Secret of Spiritual Freshness

Posted by jerrywhite on Nov 17, 2008

“In my teens I knew a man, a miner by trade, whose spiritual freshness and radiance was responsible for turning many people to Jesus Christ. Just before he died, and in the company of several other Christians, I asked him: ‘What is the secret of your spiritual freshness? You always seem to be on top of things, always radiant…tell me how you maintain this inner poise and power.’ He replied in one word—meditation.
I pressed him for some further thoughts on the subject. This is not a verbatim quotation, but as far as I can remember, this is what he said: ‘Meditation is letting your heart become the workshop of the unseen Sculptor who chisels in its secret chambers the living forms that contribute to character development and an increasing likeness to Jesus Christ.’ That old man, now in heaven, was one of the greatest illustrations I have ever known of the spiritual freshness and fruitfulness that comes from meditating on God’s Word. This experience can be ours—if we meditate.
Selwyn Hughes
Every Day Light: Water for the Soul
~~~

He [the one who delights and meditates day and night in the law of the Lord, v. 2]
is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.
Psalm 1:3 (ESV)
~~~

There is no sweeter sound than to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus through His written Word when His Spirit speaks it to your heart and applies it to your life.
Is meditation on God’s Word a priority in your daily schedule? Does Psalm 1 describe the kind of person you are—one who is planted by streams of water (plural for abundance) in a dry, arid desert, one who is always spiritually fresh and fruitful? Oh, how the enemy likes to attack the weakness of our flesh through busyness in our lives and thereby distract us from meditating on God’s Word day by day. The enemy hates for us to become the blessed, happy person who is radiant to those around us.