A Sweet Supper {With Christ That Night}

It was 1651. An Englishman named Christopher Love was sentenced to death.

He was to be beheaded as a martyr for Christ. On July 14, 1651-- the night before he was to die-- Christopher's wife, Mary Love, wrote this letter to him. At the time, she was eight months pregnant with their third child-- yet if you read the letter, she shows no thought for herself, but an infinitely unselfish love that desired to put Christ ahead of all else.

Lord, make my heart this beautiful.

My Dear Heart,—Before I write a word further, I beseech thee, think not that it is thy wife, but a friend now that writes to thee. I hope thou hast freely given up thy wife and children to that God, who hath said, in Jeremiah 49:11, ‘Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widow trust in me.’ Thy Maker will be my husband, and a father to thy children. O that the Lord would keep thee from having one troubled thought for thy relations! I desire freely to give thee up into thy Father’s hands, and not only look upon it as a crown of glory for thee to die for Christ, but as an honour to me, that I should have an husband to leave for Christ. I dare not speak to thee, nor have a thought within my own heart, of my unspeakable loss, but wholly keep my eye fixed upon thy inexpressible and inconceivable gain. Thou leavest but a sinful, mortal wife, to be everlastingly married to the Lord of glory: thou leavest but children, brothers and sisters, to go to the Lord Jesus, thy eldest brother: thou leavest friends on earth to go to the enjoyment of saints and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory: thou dost but leave earth for heaven, and changest a prison for a palace. And if natural affections should begin to arise, I hope that spirit of grace that is within thee will quell them; knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison of those things that are above. I know thou keepest thine eye fixed on the hope of glory, which makes thy feet trample on the loss of earth.

My dear, I know God hath not only prepared glory for thee, and thee for it; but I am persuaded he will sweeten the way for thee to come to the enjoyment of it. When thou art putting on thy clothes that morning, O think, I am now putting on my wedding garments, to go to be everlastingly married to my Redeemer! And when the messenger of death comes to thee, let him not seem dreadful to thee; but look on him as a messenger that brings thee tidings of eternal life. When thou goest up the scaffold, think (as thou saidst to me) it is but thy fiery chariot, to carry thee up to thy Father’s house. And when thou layest down thy precious head to receive thy father’s stroke, remember what thou saidst to me, though thy head were severed from thy body, yet in a moment thy soul should be united to thy head, the Lord Jesus, in heaven. And though it may seem something bitter, that by the hands of men we are parted a little sooner than otherwise we might have been; yet let us consider, it is the decree and will of our Father; and it will not be long ere we shall enjoy one another in heaven again. Let us comfort one another with these sayings. Be comforted, my dear heart, it is but a little stroke, and thou shalt be there where the weary shall be at rest, and where the wicked shall cease from troubling. Remember, though thou mayst eat thy dinner with bitter herbs, yet thou shalt have a sweet supper with Christ that night. My dear, by what I write unto thee, I do not hereby undertake to teach thee; for these comforts I have received from the Lord by thee. I will write no more, nor trouble thee any further, but commit thee into the arms of that God with whom, ere long, thou and I shall be. Farewell, my dear, I shall never see thy face more, till we both behold the face of the Lord Jesus at the great day.

Mary Love, July 14, 1651.

Back to the Heart

These last few months, I've been particularly convicted about my motives for doing things.

I mean, it's one thing to do the right thing. Sometimes it almost seems like a lot of disciples of Jesus almost "have that down." Not that most strong Christians I know appear to be perfect, but sometimes it can seem pretty close.

To take it a step further, it seems as if lots of us "good-little-church Christians" who have been raised in homes with the gospel know all the right things to do. We've read the entire Bible. We've memorized Bible verses. We've been involved in the church, Bible studies, mission trips, teaching Sunday School/AWANA/VBS, and tons of other things. We know we're supposed to be holy, because God is holy. We're not supposed to be involved in things that most teenagers are. I mean, God called us Christians to be different! C'mon. We already know that.

But we've become Christians in a little box. We've become immune to the amazing, life-changing power of Christ. It's as if we think that because we've studied the Bible and we're trying to live like Jesus, that's enough.

However, I recently took a trip to Washington (AMAZING!) and I had a blast. A few days after getting there, I spent the night with these incredible girls:



(Me, Hannah, Grace, Sophia)

Now, I can honestly say that these three girls are a few of the most exceptional Christian young ladies I know. (Of course, I do know lots of others!) But these girls are such godly encouragements to me.


And before we went to bed that night, we started talking about some struggles in our Christian walk. One thing that particularly stuck out to me was the aspect of motives.

Sure, you can do all the right things (to an extent). But it's completely different to them simply because you see Christ's love. We say that Jesus is all we want, but don't we sometimes contradict that in the way that we live our lives? I know I do. I say I only want to please Christ, yet I find myself longing for things such as praise, admiration, and even flattery. My heart isn't always right, because I'm longing for the praise to go to myself rather than the ultimate purpose of my life: to glorify God and serve Him only.


The Lord speaks against those who claim to love Him but whose love goes no deeper than lip service in Isaiah 29:13, "The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.'" (NIV)


Here's a specific example. In His book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Joshua Harris wrote about how he and his wife saved their first kiss for marriage. I don't have the book, but he said something to the extent of 'Saving kissing for marriage is another act that, if done without the intention of glorifying God, is completely useless.' It all depends on your motive. Many things, if not done only to glorify God, can become sources of spiritual pride. I mean, I often say "Well, all the glory goes to God," but in my heart I'm congratulating myself for giving God the glory, or, even worse, hoping that some of the glory still goes to me.


Dr. John Piper said,

"There is no doubt that man could perform more evil acts toward his fellow man than he does. But if he is restrained from performing more evil acts by motives that are not owing to his glad submission to God, then even this 'virtue' is evil in the sight of God."

I can try to live like Christ, but the real question is do I let Christ rule my life... and my heart?

Lord, please forgive me for all those times I say it's all about Jesus, but I live as if it's all about me...

There is No More Fear

Tonight, we attended our church's Christmas Eve service.

The message was on fear. At first, it seems a strange connection. It seems that Christmas is more of a "peaceful" holiday. Even the birth of the Messiah is something we often picture as more quiet and lovely then it probably was.

The birth of this child was to set us free from fear. Hebrews 2:14-15 says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy Him who holds the power of death-- that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." How I love these verses! Jesus Christ became a child so that He could set us free from fear. It's hard for me to imagine that the birth of a baby could set so many free from fear.

There is no more fear here.

Romans 8:15 says, "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of Sonship. And by Him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'"

There is no more fear here.

Luke 2:10-11 says, "But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.'"

There is no more fear here.

I love Christmas Eve, almost more then Christmas Day, because it's the perfect time to pause. Reflect on Christ's birth and remember-- there was a time in my life that I had fear. Everyone, even those who have grown up in Christian homes, have had periods of fear. However, I now have no more fear. Because of that little baby, whom the world did not recognize, my fear is gone.

I love this song we heard in church tonight.



I especially love

You're the Savior we have been praying for
In our humble hearts You will dwell...
You are in us
You are for us
You are with us
Emmanuel

If we were born before the Messiah, would we be praying that God would send Him? I'd like to think we would be. And so imagine the great joy, that He had finally come...

And there is no more fear.

Sold out for Jesus

A few months ago, I was thinking about Vacation Bible School. That's not so strange. You think to yourself. She's ALWAYS talking about VBS. Why shouldn't she think about it? But bear with me a moment. This was one of the rare times that I was thinking of VBS in a non-positive way. In fact, you might almost call it a negative way. Why? Well, because, I bought into this lie that you and I both have heard everywhere. I was thinking that the lie was truth. I was thinking one day, that if only someone else would lead this VBS, he or she could do such a better job than I could. For instance, if someone who was really musically talented led the VBS, the kids could sound like a professional choir! Or if someone who was really talented at crafts led the VBS, she could help us save a ton of money on crafts and they would look great! Or if someone who knew his neighbors well led the VBS, we could have more neighbor children join in. These thoughts went on in my mind, and as you can probably imagine, I thought of more and more scenarios in which people who had talents that I don't have led the VBS, which would help it be better.

This, my friends, is not only ridiculous considering I can't really help the fact that I don't live around here and know neighbors here or that I'm not very great with crafts, but it's also one of the worst lies that Christians could ever believe! Think about it. If we believe that God can only use us when we have certain talents or abilities, we'll think twice about volunteering both in the community and in the church body. You'll stop telling people about God if you don't think you're a great evangelist. You'll stop teaching Sunday School if you don't think you're a natural-born teacher. If you're not incredible with toddlers, you'll stop volunteering in the nursery. If you don't have a "passion" for cooking, you might stop setting up snacks after church or for Bible Study. You don't think you're great at traveling, so you stop going on mission trips. Imagine, even, if everyone who didn't think that he was a great listener stopped attending the Sabbath day service!

These may sound like extreme cases, but it's the truth. What if we waited for God to give us the full dose of talent that we would like before serving Him? Listen to the wise words of the apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1:26, "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised thing-- and the things that were not-- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him." God has chosen those who are FOOLISH (me) and WEAK (me again) so that He can show His perfect power clearly, if I am only willing to be used by Him. As 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

If God can delight in using my insufficiency to show His aptitude and sovereignty-- then the least I could ever do is be willing to serve Him.

I don't just want to serve God-- I want to be sold out for Him. I want to be so sold out for the Lord that, no matter what else, my talent doesn't matter, my resources don't matter, my strength doesn't matter-- but that all these things pale in comparison to how great and awesome my God is!

I suppose I made it sound above as if I don't think it's important to have gifts. That's not it at all! God is the giver of all good gifts. He gives us all talents and abilities to SERVE HIM. But. If we're always concerned with waiting for someone with more talent to step up to the plate, we'll stop serving God where He wants us. One of my favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

I don't think the author is saying that being able to speak well is bad, but rather that it's not where our faith should be. Our faith shouldn't rest on the fact that someone says or does things well, or in our abilities, or even how well we think some ministry opportunity will go.

Where, then, shall we put our faith?

In Christ Alone.

A Revival

For Easter I received a book called Though Waters Roar. All in all it was interesting, but far too sad for my taste. Anyway, that's not the point of this post. In fact, I only bring this up because the last few pages of the book are more than worth reading. Basically, this book is about a girl during prohibition helping her poor friend who was tricked into transporting alcohol from Canada to a saloon in the States. However, the friends have two young children and they cannot risk getting thrown in jail because the husband will never get a job and they are broke already. Long story short, that's where the heroine-- Harriet-- comes in. Harriet volunteers to deliver the alcohol herself under the condition that they agree to never, EVER, do anything like that again. Gratefully, her friends accept her offer, but in an unfortunate turn of events, Harriet is caught with the alcohol on her way to the saloon and thrown in jail. After she proves that she is not in to make money for herself by helping the police capture the still, she is freed and she goes to her grandma to tell her about what has happened. The problem? Her grandmother has fought for prohibition and against alcohol almost her entire life because her husband was an alcoholic.


All right, sorry that took so long. Now we have finally arrived to the part that really matters. At almost the end of the book, Harriet's grandmother tells her, "Jesus' harshest words were for the moral guardians of His day-- the Pharisees. They wanted to dictate morality, too, but Jesus called them hypocrites and whitewashed tombs. It isn't our calling as Christians to write laws that force people to live moral lives. As much as our communities might need it, and as bad as things are, imposing our morality on others isn't the answer. It doesn't work. People may be forced to give up alcohol, but they are still going to hell. That's our calling-- to bring people to Christ-- not to force them to behave the way we want them to or to solve all their external problems." She goes on to tell Harriet about different laws in the past that couldn't make people's hearts change. The Emancipation Proclamation set the slaves free, but it couldn't make people treat the former slaves as their equals. Prohibition could make drinking illegal, but if people's hearts were evil then it wouldn't really make a difference. They would still be wicked.

Now, please don't get me wrong, I do not say this or repeat this because I believe we should never have laws. God has laws, and I believe that our country should hold laws that uphold the laws that God gave. I believe this sincerely. What I am saying, however, is that laws do not change people's hearts. If one made all the laws in the world, it would not change the hearts of the people whose responsibility it was to uphold these laws. Only God can change hearts, and we must be willing to share the incredible news of the gospel with others, through evangelism and discipleship. Do you think that it's possible that sometimes Satan might distract us by getting us so involved in other causes, whether noble or not, that distract us from our ultimate goal-- to tell people about Christ and become like Christ?

I used to pray sometimes that God would change some laws in America. That He would change American's standards-- because it's always nice to live in a more moral society, right? But you know what I'm praying for now?

A revival.

Will I Be His Disciple?

A friend of mine is involved with an online writing class/ forum. It's called the One Year Adventure Novel program, and from what I've seen, it's really neat. Some of the students (or authors, I should say :) really are amazing. Sometimes my friend will tell me about things that various students post on the forum for everyone to read and enjoy. One young lady, named Ashley Jones, on the forum wrote a poem that really sticks out as something we as Christians should think about more often.

Muslims and American Christians

"The Muslims bow to the floor
Their voices all in one accord.
They shout in unison, to Allah they pray
All their lives, five times a day.
They even bow in a certain direction,
Facing Mecca with flawless perfection.
The people honor the month of Ramadan
By giving up the food they rely upon,
By abstaining from ignoble deeds,
And not adhering to their every need.
Don't you find there behavior sort of odd?
Since they serve a false god?

So-called ‘American Christians’ hardly pray.
Not even close to five times a day!
Attendance levels look kind of bleak
They go to church maybe once a week.
The self-styled Christians live their own lives
Not paying mind to another’s strife,
Nor giving to the needs of the poor,
Wanting for themselves more and more!
Scorning Jesus Christ’s name,
Playing their silly little Christian game.
Don’t you find their behavior sort of odd?
Since they serve the true God?"

~Ashley Jones, Copyright 2010


Now, no matter how much one agrees or disagrees with the theological views of the Muslims, you have to admire that kind of commitment! Fasting, ignoring thier own personal preferences, and praying upwards of five times throughout the day.

Wow.

What if Christians in America (an avowed 81% of Americans) had a commitment like that?

The last two lines of the first stanza ring true with me. "Don't you find their behavior sort of odd? Since they serve a false god?" My answer: a resounding 'YES!' It's easy for me to say this because I have been redeemed and loved by the true amazing, all-powerful, loving, rational, merciful God-- the One and Only.

BUT-- am I willing to give Him the same kind of complete, total, and absolute devotion that the most devout Muslim would give to Allah? It's a silly question, really, but it's a valid one. Isn't it only right if I do?

Will I serve my God no matter what expectations I'm surrounded by? No matter who I'm with? No matter where I am? Will I love Him with the kind of love with which He first loved me? Will I give Him my trust; my whole heart?

Would I give everything up for the One and Only?


Luke 14:27, "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, he cannot be My disciple."