Psalm 65 is a hymn of praise to God, and it is very clear that God has worked awesome deeds (65:5). It is amazing to see how God blesses his people and cares for them, but what I want us to see this morning is the first words of verse 2:

O you who hear prayer,

That’s it. A stunningly simple statement, but yet farther reaching than we can imagine. God hears our prayers. Is that not a massive encouragement? Is that not a shot in the arm? God, the one who created all things, hears the prayers of his people!

Not only that but the Lord Jesus taught us to pray. Look at Luke 11 and what we call the Lord’s Prayer. We see prayers throughout Scripture: from Moses to Paul and everywhere in between. The reason they all prayed is because God hears our prayer. They prayed and confessed sin. They sought strength in the midst of daunting circumstances. They prayed thanksgiving and praise. They prayed laments. In essence, they poured out their hearts to God because they knew that apart from God they could do nothing (cf. John 15:4,5).

So then - here is the simple encouragement today. Let us pray. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence because we have a great high priest who has gone before us and it is in him that we draw near (Hebrews 4:14-16). So pour out your heart before him…he delights to hear from his children.

Here is a song for this morning. It is called “A Christian’s Daily Prayer.”

As morning dawns and day awakes,
To You I bring my need
O gracious God, my source of strength,
In You I live and breathe
Each hour is Yours by wisdom planned,
Each deed empowered by sovereign hands
Renew my spirit, help me stand;
Be glorified today

As day unfolds, I seek Your will
In all of life's demands
And though the tempter tries me still,
I cling to Your commands
Let every effort of my life
Display the matchless worth of Christ
Make me a living sacrifice;
Be glorified today

As sun gives way to darkest night
Your Spirit still is here
And though my strength fades like the light
New mercies will appear
I rest in You; abide with me
Until our trials and suffering
Give way to final victory
Be glorified, today

Get the song: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-christians-daily-prayer-live/1300512803?i=1300513221 Free sheet music: http://sovereigngracemusic.org/music...

And since I love the sound of thousands of men singing - here is another version of it live.

Provided to YouTube by Absolute Marketing International Ltd A Christian's Daily Prayer [Live] · Sovereign Grace Music · Bob Kauflin Together for the Gospel I...

Lately I have been thinking more about the nature of Jesus…not his divinity per se, but his character and his heart. It has been challenging, comforting, and convicting. When I tend to think of the Lord I gravitate towards the high and lofty. Passages like Hebrews 1:1-4:

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

That is well and good to consider and to ponder and to be used to generate praise and adoration in our hearts. But it is not the full story. As I prepared the sermon for today, one of the phrases in Ephesians 4:13 is that believers are to attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The place I went to was Colossians 1:15-19 (another lofty passage on the grandeur of Christ). However, that felt incomplete - and perhaps so lofty that we could easily forget about it.

As believers we are being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). How is Jesus portrayed in the incarnation? In his ministry on earth? He was compassionate (Matthew 9:36). He is gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29). He is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). He is fully resolute in and submissive to the will of the Father (Luke 22:39-44). Even now, risen and ascended he is our high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:14-16).

There is certainly more. We cannot exhaust the grandeur and the beauty of Christ. Take some time today and think through this beautiful reality: we who are united to Christ are being conformed to this image (and I have not scratched the surface of who Jesus is and who he is for us!). [I may likely have more posts related to this topic as the book “Gentle and Lowly” has been the catalyst for this thinking - I do highly recommend it.]

Whatever I need in Jesus dwells and there it dwells for me as I’m being confirmed to his image!

Provided to YouTube by TuneCore Jesus the Lord My Savior Is [Sandra McCracken] · Indelible Grace Music Beams of Heaven: Indelible Grace IV ℗ 2008 Indelible G...

Jesus, the Lord, my Savior is, 
My Shepherd, and my God; 
My light, my strength, my joy, my bliss; 
And I His grace record.

Whate’er I need in Jesus dwells, 
And there it dwells for me; 
’Tis Christ my earthen vessel fills 
With treasures rich and free.

Mercy and truth and righteousness, 
And peace, most richly meet 
In Jesus Christ, the King of grace, 
In Whom I stand complete.

As through the wilderness I roam, 
His mercies I’ll proclaim; 
And when I safely reach my home, 
I’ll still adore His name.

“Worthy the Lamb,” shall be my song, 
“For He for me was slain;” 
And me with all the heavenly throng 
Shall join, and say, “Amen.

My daily routine in the morning has been much the same for many years. I started a habit of Bible reading when I was younger (thankful for my mother encouraging that), and by God’s grace, I continue in that habit (though honestly it is constantly a fight to make sure it’s not just reading, but also devotional in nature). One of my standard approaches to reading Scripture is to use the M’Cheyne Reading Plan and along with that D.A. Carson’s devotional books called For the Love of God (you can find the books [there are two volumes] here or go to the daily blog). This is a great resource that helps connect the readings and points your heart to Christ. As an aside - I know it’s already over halfway through April, but if you don’t have a plan to read God’s Word - it’s never too late to start, and today is always a good day.

All that to say as I was reading this morning one of the readings was 2 Timothy 3. We are probably all very familiar with verses 16 & 17:

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The divine nature and value of Scripture in our lives is something we should know. Scripture is God’s ordinary means of grace: which means this is how God has set forth for us to grow (at least one of his key methods).

But aside from that what I want to point out is the two verses prior:

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Paul is charging Timothy to continue in what he has learned and in what he has believed. He knows the character of those he has learned it from and how, since his childhood, he has known the Scriptures - the sacred writings. Look at that last phrase: which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

It is in the Scriptures that we are made wise to salvation. It is not through nature or common sense (see Psalm 19), but through God’s revelation of himself. And what do the Scriptures do? They reveal Christ Jesus. The Scriptures do not save - it is Christ who saves. If in our reading of Scripture we miss Jesus, we have missed the point (see the interaction between Jesus as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection). As we see Jesus thought Scripture we see the heart of God and we see the glory of God.

This reminds me of something I saw from Dane Ortlund:

Let’s not just stop at our salvation, our faith in Christ, let us press on to know him…to know his heart and his love. Let our gaze into the face of our God transform us (2 Cor. 3:18).

Two songs this morning. First is Wes King simply saying that he believes in the Word of God.

And the second is this beautiful song from Fernando Ortega:

From "Live in St. Paul"-DVD. Eternal God, Unchanging Mysterious and Unknown Your boundless Love, unfailing In Grace and Mercy shown. Bright Seraphim in endle...

Today I am turning over the blog to a guest post - Tristan has written an excellent devotional in regard to what happened on this day.

“Maundy” is derived from the Latin word mandatum, translated “commandment.” It refers to Jesus’ words in John 13:34: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” Jesus said this on the day he instituted the Lord’s Supper, prayed in Gethsemane, and was given over to be crucified. But with so much action, why do we define the Thursday of Holy Week simply by Jesus’ words to his followers in the hours before his death? I think it is because these words serve two functions. 

First, they summarize what has come before. When Jesus spoke to his disciples in John 13, it’s not as though he was springing something entirely foreign on them. The Old Testament had clearly commanded love of neighbor (Lev. 19:18). So why did Jesus call his commandment “new”? Well, in all of Israel’s history, no one had seen obedience to this commandment modeled perfectly. The Israelites had a sense of what it required, based on all of the other commandments that God gave them, but they’d never seen this neighbor-love on full display. Now, Jesus tells his disciples that they are to love one another “just as I have loved you.” In other words, Jesus’ life and ministry are intended to give us a picture of what obedience to the law looks like. On Maundy Thursday, we remember that Jesus didn’t just fulfill the law; he perfected our understanding of it.

Second, Jesus’ words also foretell what would come to pass in the next 24 hours. In John 15, Jesus says, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (v. 12). Notice that Jesus repeats what he said just a few chapters earlier. But then he offers an even more radical notion of love. He continues, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (v. 13). Self-sacrifice, Jesus says, is love on display. In the past, Jesus had instructed crowds of followers to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mt. 5:44). He had told a parable about a Samaritan who was a neighbor to a Jew (Lk. 10:25–37). And just that night, he had knelt down in the presence of his disciples and washed their feet, setting an example of humility and servitude (Jn. 13:1–20). All along, Jesus had shown in his life and ministry what love for one another looked like in the day-to-day, but it is in his death that he offers the greatest example of love. On Maundy Thursday, we anticipate the lengths to which our Savior went to show his love for us.

Maundy Thursday invites us to reflect on the life of Christ, to learn to imitate him, to obey him. But it also invites us to marvel. No one had ever seen love like this. No one had ever known love like this. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God (I Jn. 3:1a).

And for your listening pleasure: O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus

Holy Week, Day 5: Thursday Thursday, April 2, AD 33. To continue through the week, follow the link below for Friday: https://vimeo.com/89429101 The link for Palm Sunday: vimeo.com/89013208 The link for Monday: https://vimeo.com/89117797 The link for Tuesday: https://vimeo.com/89651201 The link for Wednesday: https://vimeo.com/89420035

The Wednesday of Holy Week does not have a great deal recorded. Jesus continued to teach in the temple and the people continued to come to hear him. This of course continued something else - in that it further added to the distaste that the religious leaders had for Jesus. They were now in full swing plotting how to eliminate this interloper. However, they were afraid to do it in the open because they feared the people (Luke 22:2).

This is such a telling statement. It reveals so much. And it reveals the nature of the human heart. There is such a tendency in our hearts to prefer the accolades of people over the glory that comes from God and is given to God (cf. John 12:42,43). Our family has been reading through Proverbs together and the thrust of that book is to learn the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7). That is the wisdom that we are called to gain, to seek after, to call out for (Prov. 2:1-14).

Proverbs 29:25: The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.

Thankfully our Savior did not fall to the fear of man, but gave his life for sinners so that we who have too often feared man rather than God can find hope and redemption.

For the song for mediation today, one of my favorites in this season, “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted.” This version by Fernando Ortega carries just the right emotion and tenor.

Holy Week, Day 4: Wednesday Wednesday, April 1, AD 33. To continue through the week, follow the link below for Thursday: https://vimeo.com/89420081 The link for Palm Sunday: vimeo.com/89013208 The link for Monday: https://vimeo.com/89117797 The link for Tuesday: https://vimeo.com/89651201

It is Tuesday of Holy Week and it sure seems as though things are ramping up in the interactions between Jesus and the religious leadership. What happened the day before was not something that sat well with the Jewish leadership. Jesus was illegitimate in their eyes and he was taking the attention away from them…he was usurping their authority and power in the eyes of the people.

Tuesday was filled with interaction - much of it involved the religious leaders seeking to trap Jesus in his words. But they couldn’t do it. You can’t trick perfection. You cannot trip up the Holy One of God. In fact, they were consistently shut down in their attempts through the gracious and pointed words of Jesus.

There is much to read and consider in this day, and I certainly cannot write on all it, so let me briefly highlight the parable of the tenants.

33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” 

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: 

“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected 

has become the cornerstone; 

this was the Lord’s doing, 

and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” 

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. (Matthew 21:33-46)

Clearly the tenants are the Jewish leaders who are fighting against Jesus. But they have rejected the truth. They have rejected the stone upon which everything is built. There is fulfillment of prophecy here - Isaiah 8:14 and Daniel 2:44, but more importantly the call is to see Jesus as who he is. He is not some usurper of authority; he is the ultimate authority He is the one upon which all stands or falls. And he is asserting what is rightly his. He is the cornerstone, chosen and precious (1 Peter 2:6-8). He is the one we are called to believe and to realize that there is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:11,12).

It is amazing that the perfect Son of God gave himself to be wounded for us so that we could know life and salvation.

Here is a song to meditate on this day - “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.”

Holy Week, Day 3: Tuesday Tuesday, March 31, AD 33. To continue through the week, follow the link below for Wednesday: https://vimeo.com/89420035 The link for Palm Sunday: vimeo.com/89013208 The link for Monday: https://vimeo.com/89117797

It’s Monday of Holy Week. What we see on this day in this last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry is that he curses a fig tree and he cleanses the Temple. Why? Why does he do this?

Well, he comes upon a fig tree and he sees it in leaf. The presence of leaves signified that there should be fruit (even out of season), but there wasn’t. It looked as though it would have fruit, but it didn’t. And so Jesus cursed the tree.

Next he comes to the Temple. Let’s look at Mark’s account in chapter 11.

15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

There is a relation between these two events. Jesus judged the fig tree for showing forth the signs of fruit, but not producing any. He judged the Temple for not being the place of prayer, the place of worship. It had the appearance of a place of worship and holiness, but it was not functioning in that manner. In a sense, both the tree and the Temple were hypocritical - they had the appearance of the right thing, but weren’t producing the fruit that was to be present…and he judged them both.

Isn’t that too true of all of us? Are we not all hypocrites? Do we not all deserve the judgment of God?

Praise God for the work of Christ to die for sinners and to take the judgment we deserve upon himself!! Without that work, without Christ, we would all be without hope. But by the grace of God, the love of God, we have a sure hope in what Christ did for sinners.

2 Corinthians 5:21: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This week I’m going to try and highlight hymns/songs about the passion of Christ. For our first installment, the great hymn “Alas! And did My Savior Bleed?”

Holy Week, Day 2: Monday Monday, March 30, AD 33. To continue through the week, follow the link below for Tuesday: https://vimeo.com/89651201 The link for Palm Sunday: https://vimeo.com/89013208

This is the start of Holy Week. It doesn’t have the same feel that we would expect, but it doesn’t take away the reality of what we celebrate and remember. This is a week set aside to remember the final week of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Though we celebrate the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus daily as believers, there is something that feels a bit more special about this week. Not only is it more on the mind of believers, but the whole world seems to know that this is Holy Week, no matter what they actually know about it.

For this week I’m mainly going to post a little bit about each day (I may say something else related to what we are all going through right now - so I have to say ‘mainly’). A number of years ago Crossway put together some great graphics and short videos about each day of Holy Week. We generally understand what happened on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter morning - but what about the rest of the week? These videos and graphics will help guide you through those days. Take the time and read the Scriptures and mediate on this final week of Jesus’ life.

Remember, in the midst of a global pandemic, there is nothing more solid, nothing that needs to be remembered more clearly, nothing that needs to be celebrated more than the solid and life-giving truth of Jesus and all he went through on behalf of his children. Let the pain of this time point to the beauty and sure hope of our resurrection with our Lord. Let the despair and anxiety lead us to the hope and surety of Christ. Let the disrupted nature of our lives point to what Jesus gives us with his life - peace with God (Luke 24:36; cf. Isaiah 9:6; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14; Colossians 1:20).

Let’s take time this week and focus on who Christ is and what he has done for us (let us do it as together as we possibly can though we are ‘socially distanced’ from each other). Let this truth be the true anchor of our soul - and let us pray for and find ways to share that truth with others.

Holy Week, Day 1: Palm Sunday Sunday, March 29, AD 33. To continue through the week, please follow the link below for Monday: https://vimeo.com/89117797