I was driving to Mother’s Day Out to drop off our two youngest daughters for my wife today, when the line of a hymn came into my mind: Fading is the worldlings pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show, Solid Joys and Lasting treasure, none but Zion’s children know. What I thought about will not be new or ground breaking, or even earth shattering for any of you, but I found that as I meditated on these words, and rolled them around in my mind, that the power of them and the truths they contain came home to my heart in a way that was very pleasurable and full of joy. The “knowing” of these truths in our minds is important, but the “feeling” of them in our hearts with power is much more necessary. And that only comes through prayer and meditation.

Here is what brought me such delight this morning:

So much of our lives is in the pursuit of joy and pleasure. This is not wrong in and of itself. We were created with these capacities by our Creator. We were created for this by Him and I believe it is part of the image of God in us, the capacity and proper pursuit of joy and pleasure. The problem is that so often we, as fallen and rebellious creature, pursue these things in selfish and sinful ways. Because we are living in a fallen world, under God’s curse, the “law” of diminishing returns comes calling very quickly in this pursuit. When we are hungry we know that that first slice of pizza is far more pleasurable and delicious than the eighth slice. This is the law of diminishing returns. The joy and pleasure of so many things in this life is fleeting, passing, ephemeral, transitory. It leaves an echo behind of itself that often creates melancholy in us and a yearning for its return. We often think we know what will make us permanently happy, what can give us lasting joy and pleasure, but once attained we find very soon, the law of diminishing returns and the melancholy yearning pays us another visit. We may even think that others have what eludes us and if we only had the money, status, power, situation (whatever) that they had, then we would be happy too. We look at the lives of the rich and famous and how they always seem to be smiling and yet we read in the tabloids and blogs of their need for counseling or drug rehab, or their suicide attempts and depression, and we can’t figure it out. It is just as the hymn states, “fading is the worldlings pleasure, all their boasted pomp and show.” It is as solid as the fog and just as quickly dissipated and gone. Everything here below is subject to futility and cannot deliver what the advertising promises. Moths and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal…the law of diminishing returns kicks in and we begin the elusive hunt all over again.
BUT, (and this is the really good part), those who know God and find joy and pleasure in Him find that the, so called, “LAW” of diminishing returns has no power, it utterly disappears as we find in Him pleasures forevermore at His right hand. We taste and see that the LORD is good and each draught from Him is sweeter and better than the one before. The Joys that He gives are “lasting”. As lasting as He is…therefore, eternal. They are REAL and SOLID and cannot fade away. No moth, no rust, no thief, nothing can diminish or destroy the joys and pleasures that are treasured up in Him. They are as certain and firm as His promise and covenant. They are as eternal as He is, they cannot be abridged or negated. Our capacity to enjoy and relish Him and His joys and pleasures (which are not sinful, but holy) will increase for all eternity. We will be able to drink and drink and drink from the river of His delights, and we will be always refreshed and yet never find that drinking becomes less delightful. We get a foretaste of these joys and pleasures in the means of grace here below (Scripture, prayer, worship, fellowship, the sacraments etc.), all which point us to the eternal joys and pleasures of the marriage supper of the lamb.
Like I mentioned before, none of this is earth shattering or new, but the sweetness and power of it reside in our ability to meditate on it and feel the power of it in our hearts as we realize and anticipate and sip here below what awaits us eternally in His presence.
We should not envy those who seem to “have it all”. If their joys and pleasures are rooted in only the things of this life and are unconnected from Christ and faith in Him, then the law of diminishing returns, the futility of the curse, and the moths, rust and thieves all take their toll. Let us treasure the solid joys and lasting pleasures of Christ, of sins forgiven, of eternal life, of fellowship with the Living God. Let us take the living Water that Christ freely gives and delight ourselves in Him!

“I will love them freely.”—Hosea 14:4.
THIS sentence is a body of divinity in miniature. He who understands its meaning is a theologian, and he who can dive into its fulness is a true master in Israel. It is a condensation of the glorious message of salvation which was delivered to us in Christ Jesus our Redeemer. The sense hinges upon the word “freely.” This is the glorious, the suitable, the divine way by which love streams from heaven to earth, a spontaneous love flowing forth to those who neither deserved it, purchased it, nor sought after it. It is, indeed, the only way in which God can love such as we are. The text is a death-blow to all sorts of qualification: “I will love them freely.” Now, if there were any qualification necessary in us, then He would not love us freely, at least, this would be a mitigation and a drawback to the freeness of it. But it stands, “I will love you freely.” We complain, “Lord, my heart is so hard.” “I will love you freely.” “But I do not feel my need of Christ as I could wish.” “I will not love you because you feel your need; I will love you freely.” “But I do not feel that softening of spirit which I could desire.” Remember, the softening of spirit is not a condition, for there are no conditions; the covenant of grace has no conditionality whatever; so that we without any qualification may venture upon the promise of God which was made to us in Christ Jesus, when He said, “He that believeth on Him is not condemned.” It is blessed to know that the grace of God is free to us at all times, without preparation, without qualification, without money, and without price! “I will love them freely.” These words invite backsliders to return: indeed, the text was specially written for such—”I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely.” Backslider! surely the generosity of the promise will at once break your heart, and you will return, and seek your injured Father’s face.

I haven’t posted anything in a while, but I wanted to get some thoughts down about two things that came together in my head last Saturday night while at the symphony with my beautiful wife. All of the music played was completely new to me (though I was familiar with one of the composers). As I sat listening to the music, letting it wash over me, I found that it had a deep and profound affect on me, both emotionally and intellectually. Music often affects me this way. My emotions seem to run in the current created by the music (in fact sometimes, I will feel a certain way, or want to feel a certain way, and will select music appropriate to that emotion (or desired emotion)).
This is not new, mankind has known for thousands of years the effects of music on our emotions. Plato wrote about it in Utopia, that certain types of professions should be allowed only certain types of music as it would aid their particular profession. Music has the capacity to elude and bypass our rational minds and go directly to the core of who we are. It impacts us on a different and deeper level than mere cognition. Advertisers know and count on this fact. This is why they spend so much time and money on musical jingles. If I could start singing certain songs, many of you could immediately join in and sing with me, but many of the things we “heard” and learned in school are almost impossible to recall (thus, the reason for the show “are you smarter than a 5th grader”). The things that were very much “front and center” during our elementary school days, are no longer a part of our daily life and we have a difficult time recollecting those facts and information. But if someone starts to sing or hum a song that we knew then (tv commercial, tv show theme song, etc) we would instantly recall it. For example, how many of you could sing the entire theme song to Gilligan’s Island? It may have been decades since you last saw the show or heard the theme song, but that doesn’t matter, music has the ability to penetrate our minds and lodge within us whether we want it to or not (ever get a tune/song stuck in your head that you couldn’t stop singing?)

Now, here is what came together in my head while this amazing music was penetrating my mind and soul…this article by John Piper in World Magazine: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15989

Here is the specific quote I want to draw on: “That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of the universe in ruins. . . . Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built (Why I Am Not a Christian [Bertrand Russell], editor Paul Edwards [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957], p. 107).”

I find no reason within the atheist worldview for the production of beautiful symphonies. I find nothing within their worldview to explain the amazing effect that music produced in me as I sat there listening. I’m not saying they can’t come up with some sort of explanation, that they would have to sit there with dumb looks on their faces. Not at all. I know they will do their best to come up with all sorts of rational explanations for both the motive to produce such music and the effect it had on me as I sat there and listened. Here is what I am trying to get at. If all we are is matter in motion, if it is true that there is nothing more to human beings that atoms that have randomly come together with no purpose or meaning, then there is no reason to create such music or listen to it. It is all ultimately meaningless. The effect it had on me, they would contend, is nothing more than a bio-chemical reaction and also ultimately devoid of value or meaning. Listening to “beautiful” music and digestion have more in common in this view (the chemicals may be different but the value is the same).
This post could have been about eating too for that matter. Why do I take “pleasure” in the taste, texture, and sensation of eating certain foods? In the atheist’s world view, there is no reason I should and my sense of “pleasure” is also nothing more than a bio-chemical reaction. It goes no deeper.

I am not doubting that we can see and test for these bio-chemical reactions. I do not doubt that when someone says they are in love that we can chart changes in their body’s chemistry. I do not doubt this in the least, because we are not disembodied souls. We are a body-soul unity (psycho/somatic union: a psyche and a soma joined and thus interdependent). What affects my soul has an effect on my body and what affects my body has an affect on my soul. But in Russell’s worldview, there is no soul, only the body. There is no psyche apart from the soma, only the atoms, only the matter, come together in chance form to create us.

This convinced me that if everyone bought into Russell’s worldview, if we all resigned ourselves to his “unyielding despair” we would never have the kind of music I listened to last Saturday night. It is either a Christian worldview (or the unthinking and unknown adoption of some of it foundational presuppositions) that makes music like that possible. It is the only thing that can make sense of the production of that music and its enjoyment. Even atheist can make beautiful music (but they do it in spite of, not because of, their worldview). Their “slip” continues to show. They cannot help it. In the quote above, even Russell is unable to keep from making use of my worldview to try and explain and forward his.

People may say they believe there is no God. They may do this to try and hide from their conscience and comfort themselves that they do not have to answer for their thoughts, words and deeds someday. But no one yet (except perhaps some of the ugliest and worst monsters of the human race in history) has been able to consistently live out an atheistic worldview. Their lives would be unbearable. They constantly borrow just enough to make life worth living (see the article I linked to above and even in the quote you can see where Russell can’t help but make use and borrow that which he is trying to deny). And even an atheist has to admit that some of the greatest music and achievements among mankind have come from someone who believed in the God of the Bible. (I also know that we could point to many bad examples, but the sinfulness of mankind, no matter their worldview, is a given by me, so please don’t bother to try and “refute” what I am saying by pointing to man’s inhumanity to man.)

The worldview that says we are made in God’s image (though marred by sin) is the only one, in my understanding, that can account not only for the creation of the beautiful music I listened to and experienced Saturday night, but also the profound affect it had upon me. Man made in the image of God (who is the Creator) reflects that image in a small, broken way, when he creates too. In debates and discussions the atheist may try to assert to the contrary (and usually in so asserting, proves my point), but the world they paint is not bright with promise, but full of futility and despair, without hope, purpose or joy. I’m glad that most people, even if they deny the true God, are not willing to live that way. We are better for it.

Either: “life’s hard and meaningless then you die” or else “we were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Which universe would you rather live in?

“But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. “—Exodus 34:20.

EVERY firstborn creature must be the Lord’s, but since the donkey was unclean, it could not be presented in sacrifice. What then? Should it be allowed to go free from the universal law? By no means. God admits of no exceptions. The donkey is His due, but He will not accept it; He will not abate the claim, but yet He cannot be pleased with the victim. No way of escape remained but redemption—the creature must be saved by the substitution of a lamb in its place; or if not redeemed, it must die. My soul, here is a lesson for you. You are that unclean animal; you are justly the property of the Lord who made you and preserves you, but you are so sinful that God will not, cannot, accept you; and it has come to this, the Lamb of God must stand in your place, or you must die eternally. Let all the world know of your gratitude to that spotless Lamb who has already bled for you, and so redeemed you from the fatal curse of the law. Must it not sometimes have been a question with the Israelite which should die, the donkey or the lamb? Would not the good man pause to estimate and compare? Assuredly there was no comparison between the value of the soul of man and the life of the Lord Jesus, and yet the Lamb dies, and man the donkey is spared. My soul, admire the boundless love of God to you and others of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! What a doom would have been mine had not plenteous redemption been found! The breaking of the neck of the donkey was but a momentary penalty, but who shall measure the wrath to come to which no limit can be imagined? Inestimably dear is the glorious Lamb who has redeemed us from such a doom.

- C.H. Spurgeon

“Able to keep you from falling.”—Jude 24.
In some sense the path to heaven is very safe, but in other respects there is no road so dangerous. It is beset with difficulties. One false step (and how easy it is to take that if grace be absent), and down we go. What a slippery path is that which some of us have to tread! How many times have we to exclaim with the Psalmist, “My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped.” If we were strong, sure-footed mountaineers, this would not matter so much; but in ourselves, how weak we are! In the best roads we soon falter, in the smoothest paths we quickly stumble. These feeble knees of ours can scarcely support our tottering weight. A straw may throw us, and a pebble can wound us; we are mere children tremblingly taking our first steps in the walk of faith, our heavenly Father holds us by the arms or we should soon be down. Oh, if we are kept from falling, how must we bless the patient power which watches over us day by day! Think, how prone we are to sin, how apt to choose danger, how strong our tendency to cast ourselves down, and these reflections will make us sing more sweetly than we have ever done, “Glory be to Him, who is able to keep us from falling.” We have many foes who try to push us down. The road is rough and we are weak, but in addition to this, enemies lurk in ambush, who rush out when we least expect them, and labour to trip us up, or hurl us down the nearest precipice. Only an Almighty arm can preserve us from these unseen foes, who are seeking to destroy us. Such an arm is engaged for our defence. He is faithful that hath promised, and He is able to keep us from falling, so that with a deep sense of our utter weakness, we may cherish a firm belief in our perfect safety, and say, with joyful confidence,

“Against me earth and hell combine,
But on my side is power divine;
Jesus is all, and He is mine!”

- C.H. Spurgeon

One of my favorite poems is Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

This poem by british poet Percy Shelley captures something that I believe most human beings refuse to face squarely. We know intuitively that things are not the way they are supposed to be and there are echoes in our souls of eternity. Most of us will never have the ability, opportunity, money or power to leave behind anything that would make us “immortal”. Yet, even though we are constantly reminded on all sides of our mortality and uncertainty of life, we constantly drown out these messages with distraction, pleasures, vices, drink or drugs or anything else we can find to try to keep us from facing what this poem so clearly portrays.
The utter futility of the words of Ozymandias: “look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” What works? There is nothing but barren sand as far as the eye can see all around your inscription!
We strive to build our little kingdoms and it amounts to no more than a grasping after the wind. As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, it is emptiness and futility.
It is one more futile attempt to achieve what cannot be achieved, but has haunted us as a race since the beginning. We were told that we could be as God. Yet we cannot, there is only One God and we are not Him. We are creatures, made in His image, and suited for His purposes, but we are not and cannot be God. Our vain attempts at immortality are as solid and lasting as the fig leaves that Adam and Eve wove their first clothing from.
This is why the Gospel comes with such encouragement. We are given the gift of eternal life by faith in Christ alone. Though this is simple and gifts are often received with great delight, this particular gift is not prized by many. It is because we must humble ourselves before God, admit that we are wrong and rebellious and disobedient children. Our inner bent has much more in common with Ozymandias and his proud but vain boast. How reluctant we are to admit our sin, our failure, our need. We keep striving in a futile effort to produce something that only God can do, to get something only God can give. But like the people that Jesus described in his parable, “we will not have this man to rule over us.” We will not humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
I think another poem properly captures on the positive side what Shelley so ably demonstrates on the negative side.

Psalm 103: 15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children’s children-with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. The LORD has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. Praise the LORD, all His works everywhere in His dominion. Praise the LORD, O my soul.

“An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes!” Psalm 36:1

Why is it that, today, the masses are so utterly unconcerned about spiritual and eternal things, and that they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? Why is it that defiance of God is becoming more open, more blatant, more daring? The answer is, because “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).

Again, why is it that the authority of the Scriptures has been lowered so sadly of late? Why is it that even among those who profess to be the Lord’s people, that there is so little real subjection to His Word, and that its precepts are so lightly esteemed and so readily set aside?

Ah! what needs to be stressed today—is that God is a God to be feared! Happy is the person who has been awed by a view of God’s majesty, who has had a vision of . . .
God’s unutterable greatness,
His ineffable holiness,
His perfect righteousness,
His irresistible power,
His sovereign grace!

Time was, when it was the general custom to speak of a believer as “a God-fearing man”. That such an appellation has become extinct—only serves to show where we have drifted. Nevertheless, it still stands written, “Like as a father pities His children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him!” Psalm 103:13

When we speak of godly fear, of course, we do not mean a servile fear, such as prevails among the heathen in connection with their gods. No! We mean that spirit which Jehovah is pledged to bless, that spirit to which the prophet referred when he said, “To this man will I look—even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My Word.” Isaiah 66:2

Nothing will foster this godly fear, like a recognition of the sovereign majesty of God!

“I tell you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you—this is the One to fear!” Luke 12:4-5

(Arthur Pink, “Fearing God in His Sovereign Majesty”)

“Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through Thy work.”—Psalm 92:4.

Do you believe that your sins are forgiven, and that Christ has made a full atonement for them? Then what a joyful Christian you ought to be! How you should live above the common trials and troubles of the world! Since sin is forgiven, can it matter what happens to you now? Luther said, “Smite, Lord, smite, for my sin is forgiven; if You have forgiven me, smite as hard as You desire”; and in a similar spirit you may say, “Send sickness, poverty, losses, crosses, persecution, what You will, You have forgiven me, and my soul is glad.” Christian, if you are thus saved, while you are glad, be grateful and loving too. Cling to that cross which took your sin away; serve Him who served you. “I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Do not let your zeal fizzle slowly away. Show your love in expressive tokens. Love the brothers of Him who loved you. If there is a Mephibosheth anywhere who is lame or crippled, help him for Jonathan’s sake. If there is a poor tried believer, weep with him, and bear his cross for the sake of Him who wept for you and carried your sins. Since you are forgiven freely for Christ’s sake, go and tell to others the joyful news of pardoning mercy. Do not be contented with this unspeakable blessing for yourself alone, but publish abroad the story of the cross. Holy gladness and holy boldness will make you a good preacher, and all the world will be a pulpit for you to preach in. Cheerful holiness is the most forcible of sermons, but the Lord must give it to you. Seek it this morning before you go into the world. When it is the Lord’s work in which we rejoice, we need not be afraid of being too glad.

- C.H. Spurgeon

“And I will remember My covenant.”—Genesis 9:15.

MARK the form of the promise. God does not say, “And when ye shall look upon the bow, and ye shall remember My covenant, then I will not destroy the earth,” but it is gloriously put, not upon our memory, which is fickle and frail, but upon God’s memory, which is infinite and immutable. “The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant.” Oh! it is not my remembering God, it is God’s remembering me which is the ground of my safety; it is not my laying hold of His covenant, but His covenant’s laying hold on me. Glory be to God! the whole of the bulwarks of salvation are secured by divine power, and even the minor towers, which we may imagine might have been left to man, are guarded by almighty strength. Even the remembrance of the covenant is not left to our memories, for we might forget, but our Lord cannot forget the saints whom He has graven on the palms of His hands. It is with us as with Israel in Egypt; the blood was upon the lintel and the two side-posts, but the Lord did not say, “When you see the blood I will pass over you,” but “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” My looking to Jesus brings me joy and peace, but it is God’s looking to Jesus which secures my salvation and that of all His elect, since it is impossible for our God to look at Christ, our bleeding Surety, and then to be angry with us for sins already punished in Him. No, it is not left with us even to be saved by remembering the covenant. There is no mixture here—not a single thread of the creature mars the fabric. It is not of man, neither by man, but of the Lord alone. We should remember the covenant, and we shall do it, through divine grace; but the hinge of our safety does not hang there—it is God’s remembering us, not our remembering Him; and hence the covenant is an everlasting covenant.

– C.H. Spurgeon

“The bow shall be seen in the cloud.”—Genesis 9:14.

The rainbow, the symbol of the covenant with Noah, is typical of our Lord Jesus, who is the Lord’s witness to the people. When may we expect to see the token of the covenant? The rainbow is only to be seen painted upon a cloud. When the sinner’s conscience is dark with clouds, when he remembers his past sin, and mourneth and lamenteth before God, Jesus Christ is revealed to him as the covenant Rainbow, displaying all the glorious hues of the divine character and betokening peace. To the believer, when his trials and temptations surround him, it is sweet to behold the person of our Lord Jesus Christ—to see Him bleeding, living, rising, and pleading for us. God’s rainbow is hung over the cloud of our sins, our sorrows, and our woes, to prophesy deliverance. Nor does a cloud alone give a rainbow, there must be the crystal drops to reflect the light of the sun. So, our sorrows must not only threaten, but they must really fall upon us. There had been no Christ for us if the vengeance of God had been merely a threatening cloud: punishment must fall in terrible drops upon the Surety. Until there is a real anguish in the sinner’s conscience, there is no Christ for him; until the chastisement which he feels becomes grievous, he cannot see Jesus. But there must also be a sun; for clouds and drops of rain make not rainbows unless the sun shineth. Beloved, our God, who is as the sun to us, always shines, but we do not always see Him—clouds hide His face; but no matter what drops may be falling, or what clouds may be threatening, if He does but shine there will be a rainbow at once. It is said that when we see the rainbow the shower is over. Certain it is, that when Christ comes, our troubles remove; when we behold Jesus, our sins vanish, and our doubts and fears subside. When Jesus walks the waters of the sea, how profound the calm!

- C.H. Spurgeon