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[reformedbits]

Jesus dines with sinners so that he can get close enough to touch us, so that he can participate in the intimacy of table fellowship as a healer and a helper. Jesus comes to change us, to transform us, so that after we have dined with Jesus, we want Jesus more than the sin that beckons our fidelity.

- Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World

[reformedbits]

Father of mercies bind the wounds of this broken heart. Grief comes knocking on the doors of our homes unexpectedly. It broke down the fortified walls. My entire camp was conquered by that unwanted reminder of sorrow. The rain came when I was asleep and I awoke. Just like the clouds in the dreary sky, I poured heavy rain. Engulfed by the flood of grief, Your word echoed. Your name is the God of all comfort. From the beginning, You comforted the weak, poor, and defenseless. Your steadfast love endures to the end. I need not be afraid of this grief. The process takes time, and I am aware of this now. Your word O Lord reminded me of the need to cry. Your faithfulness is a comfort within itself. You are Almighty and I can cry in Your arms. I'm able to pour myself out before You. I can trust in the Lord my God. I may not be healed today of this sorrow, but I am sure of my God. Father, give me strength to stand in the night. When I cannot stand Lord, let my weight fall on You. I am weak but You sustain me. I have no strength and yet You hold me. I lay my head upon Your tender mercies, knowing I am not forsaken. I can rest in Thee.

Amen.

[reformedbits]

Now, what is it to be tempted? It is to have that proposed to a man’s consideration which, if he close withal, it is evil, it is sin unto him. This is sin’s trade: Ἐπιθυμεῖ—“It lusteth.” It is raising up in the heart, and proposing unto the mind and affections, that which is evil; trying, as it were, whether the soul will close with its suggestions, or how far it will carry them on, though it do not wholly prevail. Now, when such a temptation comes from without, it is unto the soul an indifferent thing, neither good nor evil, unless it be consented unto; but the very proposal from within, it being the soul’s own act, is its sin.

— John Owen, Temptation and Sin 🕯🍂🕯

[reformedbits]

Today's Verse

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ⏤ Romans 10:9-10

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Anxious is not your name. Depressed is not your name, Christian. Shame is not your name. Tired is not your name, Christian. Look to His holy mountain and call upon the name of the Lord. For Christ has given you a new name, and you've been adopted into a new kingdom.

Are you weary? The Lord is able to carry you.

Are you tired? Our compassionate God grants you rest. A rest from the sore displeasure, a peace in the certainty of God, and a calm in His blessedness.

Are you overwhelmed? Remember YHWH, who stills the raging wind and seas. The worries that inundate the mind are only dark clouds. His light pierces through. He is the radiance of God’s glory, brighter than seven suns. Think of His lovely person. Jesus is the wonderful counselor, the One who loves well. The mind is tired, so rest in His truth. Sorrows may lie and cause you to neglect God's truths.

Holy Spirit, grant us peace of mind this hour, this day. Help us to turn to the Lord in our brokenness.

Just as the blanket comforts one's head, so does the swift words of the Lord calm our aching souls. Life is in this fountain. Therefore, we beseech You, aid us to overcome the inward battle.

Remember, you are in Christ. You are in Him who rules the heavens and the earth. You belong to Him, and He is a faithful Shepherd. His gentle hand has never left you, even now when the storm causes you and I to fret. Jesus is here, and the weather even bends to His command. Do not fret. Do not be afraid, only believe.

[reformedbits]

“It is a mystery of Christ’s secret union with the devout which is by nature incomprehensible. If anybody should ask me how this communion takes place, I am not ashamed to confess that that is a secret too lofty for either my mind to comprehend or my words to declare. And to speak more plainly, I rather experience than understand it” (Institutes, IV, 17, 32). J. Calvin

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[reformedbits]

As I grow older, I can only say that I am more and more convinced that one great secret of Christian peace is to keep our eyes steadily fixed on the second coming of Christ. JC Ryle.

[reformedbits]

If you might go to Heaven and hold communion with some person whom you dearly loved, you would often be found there. But here is Jesus, the King of Heaven, and He gives you that which can open the gates of Heaven and let you in to be with Him, and yet you live without meditating upon His work, meditating upon His person, meditating upon His offices, and meditating upon His glory. Ah! there is nothing that can so console your spirits, and relieve all your distresses and troubles, as the feeling that now you can meditate on the person of Jesus Christ.

- Charles Spurgeon 🫶🏽✨️🕯🎻

[reformedbits]

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,

in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,

most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,

almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,

nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;

thy justice like mountains high soaring above

thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all life thou givest, to both great and small;

in all life thou livest, the true life of all;

we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,

and wither and perish but naught changeth thee.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,

thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;

all praise we would render, O help us to see

'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.

Walter C. Smith based this text on 1 Timothy 1: 17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever." The six-stanza text was published in Smith's Hymns of Christ and the Christian Life (1867) and, after having been revised by Smith, in W. Garrett Horder's Congregational Hymns (1884). Further revisions were made by the Psalter Hymnal Revision Committee.