M&E Thursday

Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
by C. H. Spurgeon
Thursday Morning, March 24

He was heard in that he feared.
Hebrews 5:7

Did this fear arise from the infernal suggestion that he was utterly forsaken. There may be sterner trials than this, but surely it is one of the worst to be utterly forsaken? See, said Satan, thou hast a friend nowhere! Thy Father hath shut up the bowels of his compassion against thee. Not an angel in his courts will stretch out his hand to help thee. All heaven is alienated from thee; thou art left alone. See the companions with whom thou hast taken sweet counsel, what are they worth? Son of Mary, see there thy brother James, see there thy loved disciple John, and thy bold apostle Peter, how the cowards sleep when thou art in thy sufferings! Lo! Thou hast no friend left in heaven or earth. All hell is against thee. I have stirred up mine infernal den. I have sent my missives throughout all regions summoning every prince of darkness to set upon thee this night, and we will spare no arrows, we will use all our infernal might to overwhelm thee: and what wilt thou do, thou solitary one? It may be, this was the temptation; we think it was, because the appearance of an angel unto him strengthening him removed that fear. He was heard in that he feared; he was no more alone, but heaven was with him. It may be that this is the reason of his coming three times to his disciples--as Hart puts it--

Backwards and forwards thrice he ran, As if he sought some help from man.

He would see for himself whether it were really true that all men had forsaken him; he found them all asleep; but perhaps he gained some faint comfort from the thought that they were sleeping, not from treachery, but from sorrow, the spirit indeed was willing, but the flesh was weak. At any rate, he was heard in that he feared. Jesus was heard in his deepest woe; my soul, thou shalt be heard also.

Evening, March 24

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.

Luke 10:21

The Saviour was a man of sorrows, but every thoughtful mind has discovered the fact that down deep in his innermost soul he carried an inexhaustible treasury of refined and heavenly joy. Of all the human race, there was never a man who had a deeper, purer, or more abiding peace than our Lord Jesus Christ. He was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. His vast benevolence must, from the very nature of things, have afforded him the deepest possible delight, for benevolence is joy. There were a few remarkable seasons when this joy manifested itself. At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Christ had his songs, though it was night with him; though his face was marred, and his countenance had lost the lustre of earthly happiness, yet sometimes it was lit up with a matchless splendour of unparalleled satisfaction, as he thought upon the recompense of the reward, and in the midst of the congregation sang his praise unto God. In this, the Lord Jesus is a blessed picture of his church on earth. At this hour the church expects to walk in sympathy with her Lord along a thorny road; through much tribulation she is forcing her way to the crown. To bear the cross is her office, and to be scorned and counted an alien by her mother's children is her lot; and yet the church has a deep well of joy, of which none can drink but her own children. There are stores of wine, and oil, and corn, hidden in the midst of our Jerusalem, upon which the saints of God are evermore sustained and nurtured; and sometimes, as in our Saviour's case, we have our seasons of intense delight, for There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of our God. Exiles though we be, we rejoice in our King; yea, in him we exceedingly rejoice, while in his name we set up our banners.

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MORNING THOUGHTS, or
DAILY WALKING WITH GOD

By Octavius Winslow

"By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." 1 Cor. 12:13.

The Church of God is equally one in the Holy Spirit. One Spirit regenerating all, fashioning all, teaching all, sealing all, comforting all, and dwelling in all. Degrees of grace and "diversities of gifts" there are, "but the same Spirit." That same Spirit making all believers partakers of the same divine nature, and then taking up his abode in each, must necessarily assimilate them in every essential quality, and feature, and attribute of the Christian character. Thus, the unity of the Church is an essential and a hidden unity. With all the differences of opinion, and the varieties of ceremonial, and the multiplicity of sects into which she is broken and divided, and which tend greatly to impair her strength, and shade her beauty, she is yet essentially and indivisibly one- her unity consisting, not in a uniformity of judgment, but better far than this, in the "unity of the Spirit." Thus, no individual believer can with truth say that he possesses the Spirit exclusively, boasting himself of what other saints have not; nor can any one section of the Christian Church lay claim to its being the only true Church, and that salvation is found only within its pale. These lofty pretensions, these exclusive claims, this vain-glory and uncharitableness, are all demolished by one lightning touch of truth, even by that blessed declaration, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body."

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http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/MP3-Audio--Multimedia/All-Speakers-Lectures-and-Sermons/Bob-Kauflin/

Bob Kauflin

Bob Kauflin grew up as a Roman Catholic and planned to become a missionary priest in a third world country. Didn't happen. When I was a freshman in college, someone from Campus Crusade shared the Gospel with me and for the first time I realized that the death of Jesus on the cross paid for ALL my sins. I turned from my sin and put my complete trust in Jesus Christ to save me from God's wrath. After receiving a piano performance degree from Temple University in 1976, I traveled for 8 years with the contemporary Christian group GLAD, as a song writer, speaker, and arranger. I left the group in 1984, but continued writing and arranging for them. Our most well known recording is The A Cappella Project, released in 1988. I left GLAD to pursue active involvement in the local church. In 1997, after 12 years as a pastor in churches related through Sovereign Grace Ministries, I moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland to serve as Director of Worship Development for Sovereign Grace. I presently equip pastors and musicians in the theology and practice of congregational worship, contribute to Sovereign Grace recordings, and am one of the congregational worship leaders at Covenant Life Church, led by Josh Harris. In August, 2006, I marked 30 years of being married to the most precious woman in my life, Julie. We have six children, three of whom are married, and four grandchildren.

He blogs at Worship Matters. http://www.worshipmatters.com/

 

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