Sin Murdered Christ

What an accursed thing is sin, which crucified the Lord Jesus! Do you laugh at it? Will you go and spend an evening to see a mimic performance of it? Do you roll sin under your tongue as a sweet morsel, and then come to God’s house, on the Lord’s-day morning, and think to worship Him? Worship Him! Worship Him, with sin indulged in your breast! Worship Him, with sin loved and pampered in your life! O, if I had a dear brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I treasured the knife which had been crimsoned with his blood? – if I made a friend of the murderer, and daily consorted with the assassin, who drove the dagger into my brother’s heart? Surely I, too, must be an accomplice in the crime! Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it? Oh, that there was an abyss as deep as Christ’s misery, that I might at once hurl this dagger of sin into its depths, whence it might never be brought to light again!

~ Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Your Morning Incense

“Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning…”

~ Exodus 30:7 (NKJV)

Under the Old Covenant, the Lord anticipated the sweet incense of the morning offering and worship of His people. He desired them to come before Him early and often. And their worship every morning was a blessing to Him. God anticipates your morning incense as well. He looks forward to each new day with His beloved people. May you not disappoint. Every morning with the rise of the sun, may the Lord find the sweet incense of your worship, prayers and praise. May we, like Aaron, come early and often before the Lord.

~ apl

With The Heart

Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering.

~ Exodus 25:2 (NKJV)

The Christian religion has always been a matter of the heart. Form and fashion means very little to the Lord if the follower of God does not approach Him “with his heart”. Yes, we are commanded to bring our offerings. Certainly we should seek diligently to worship and serve the Lord. But even higher and greater than these lofty tasks is the willingness of the child of God to perform them from a love for the Lord with his whole heart.

~ apl

Everything Becomes Formal

You will always observe that when forms of service become formal, the Spirit is less in evidence, and you move further away from the New Testament. The very characteristic of the New Testament Church was this spontaneity, this life, this living quality, this vivacity. But, as you fall away from the Spirit and his influence, everything becomes formal.

~ Martin Lloyd Jones (1899-1981)