Mar 14
1
My beloved
(Octavius Winslow, “None Like Christ” 1866)
“How is your beloved better than others?”
Song of Solomon 5:9
Does the world challenge– “How is your beloved
better than others?” Your answer is at hand–
“My beloved bore my sins, and opened in His heart
a fountain in which I am washed whiter than snow!
My beloved . . .
sustains my burdens,
counsels my perplexities,
heals my wounds,
dries my tears,
supplies my needs,
bears with my infirmities,
upholds my steps, and
cheers my pathway to the tomb.
My beloved will be with me in the valley of
the shadow of death, and with His presence
I shall fear no evil.
My beloved has gone to prepare a place for me
in the many-mansioned house of my Father, and
will come again and receive me to Himself, that
where He is, I may be also.
My beloved will walk with me in the gold-paved
streets of the new Jerusalem. He will lead me to
fountains of living waters, and will wipe every
tear from my eyes! He is altogether lovely!
This is my beloved, and this is my Friend!”
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I saw where someone wrote recently, “there’s a lot more in the word of God, than Christ.” That is a sad and horrible statement. If I tell you that I grew up in Deer Park TX, my first car was a Plymouth Duster and I worked at Houston Independent School District, this is not a treatise on cities, cars or companies. It is all about me. The scriptures have some things to say about Heaven, Hell, Bethlehem and even heresy, but we need to understand that the word of God concerns His Son Jesus Christ, all Him, only Him, always Him. Every other person, place, thing and subject are included, only as they relate to, reveal and glorify Him.
When it comes right down to it, He is all there is. Anyone who does not, by God’s grace, know this, has no business saying or writing anything about God or His word. If God will ever reveal anything to you, it will begin right there; Christ is all. If God is ever going to use you for His glory, in His ministry, in any capacity, He will cause you to determine to know nothing, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Chris Cunningham
*******
Christ is All
Colossians 3: 11
The apostle Paul writes to believers who “have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man.” By the “old man” is meant the corrupt nature of our first birth; by the “new man” is meant the new nature of the new birth created of God in God’s image and renewed in the knowledge of God.
Paul’s objective in writing the letter to the Colossians is mine to you. He wanted them to ignore will-worshippers and philosophers who claimed Christ is not all that they might make themselves to differ by something in or by them. All fleshly, carnal distinctions by which men think they are righteous in themselves and despise others mean nothing in Christ.
There is “neither Greek nor Jew.” Those born of God are taught of God that man’s race by his first birth has nothing whatsoever to do with his salvation. There is “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision.” Those recreated after the image of God are taught of God that true righteousness and true holiness is not in the externals of religion. (2 Cor 5: 17-18) There is “neither Barbarian or Scythian.” In the new man we are taught of God that we are no better than the unwise, unlearned, uneducated, crude and uncivilized for Christ is our Wisdom. There is “neither bond nor free.” In Christ, the believer’s standing is not based on civil law. If he is bound under civil law then spiritually he is Christ’s free man; if he is free under civil law then spiritually he is Christ’s willing bond servant.
“But Christ is All and in All.” I have had men say to me, “Christ is not all.” Can you imagine saying, “God is not all?” What ignorance, arrogance and shame! Let it be settled here and now, God the Holy Spirit says through the apostle Paul, “Christ is All!”
Note how many times throughout this letter the Holy Spirit repeatedly connects the word “all” with Christ. He begins declaring Christ is God, the Head of Creation, the Head of the Church and by him are ALL things. (Col 1: 15-19) Then declares Christ is the salvation of God’s elect: who reconciled ALL to himself, who has ALL riches, in whom are ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, who is ALL the fullness of the Godhead bodily, who has forgiven us ALL trespasses. (Col 1: 20-23, 27; 2: 2-3; 8-13)
Scripture declare God our Savior Jesus Christ is the believers: High Priest & Lamb (Heb 2: 17; 4: 14), Advocate & Propitiation (1 Jn 2: 1-2); Way, Truth & Life (Jn 14: 6), Bread (Jn 6: 35), Door (Jn 10: 7-9), Shepherd (Jn 10: 11), Resurrection (Jn 11: 25), Master & Lord (Jn 13: 13), Vine (Jn 15: 5), Light (Jn 8: 12), Foundation (1 Cor 3: 11), Root & Ensign (Is 11: 10), Raiment (Rev 3: 18) Head (Eph 4: 15), Hope (1 Ti 1: 1), Refuge (Ps 46: 1), Peace (Eph 2: 14), Passover (1 Cor 5: 7), Portion (Ps 16: 5), Freedom (Jn 8: 36), Fountain (Jer 17: 13), Example (1 Pet 2: 21), Dew (Ho 14: 5), Sun & Shield (Ps 84: 11), Strength & Song (Is 12: 2), Rock, Shield, Horn, High Tower, Refuge & Savior (2 Sa 22: 3), Supply (Php 4: 19), Ladder (Gen 28: 12) Treasure (2 Cor 4: 7), Temple (Rev 21: 22), Ark (Heb 9: 4; Ps 40: 8; Rev 11: 19), Altar (Heb 13: 10), Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, & Redemption. (1 Cor 1: 30)
Reader, ignore every man who insists that except a believer add to Christ we cannot be saved. That is the old man and his deeds that God makes the believer put off. Carnal distinctions are nothing. Christ is the one thing needful! (Lu 10: 41-42) We are commanded to seek him, come to him, believe him, rest in him, abide in him, follow him, let nothing turn us from him, watch and be ready for his return, and in the last day be found in him. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 Jn 5: 11)
Since Christ is All and in All the loss of anything in this world is really no loss at all!
Clay Curtis.
A friend whose door is always open!
(John MacDuff, “Brief Thoughts for the Followers of Jesus” 1855)
“Yes, He is altogether lovely! This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!” Song of Songs 5:16
A Friend! How endearing the title! There is music in the very sound. But if there is something so sweet and precious in having an earthly friend — then what is it to have a Heavenly one! It is of such, that the spouse is here speaking, even of Him who is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely one! O my soul, let me think of the Lord Jesus as my friend —
my true friend,
my loving friend,
my faithful friend,
my powerful friend,
my seasonable friend,
my unchanging friend,
my friend who sticks closer than a brother,
my friend who loves me at all times, and on all occasions!
In the enjoyment of the Savior’s friendship, there are many precious privileges involved. One is, freedom of access to Him at all seasons, and under all circumstances. In our fellowship with strangers, it is proper that some degree of reserve should be maintained. But it is not so with a well-known and thoroughly tested friend — his heart and home are always open! Just so, Jesus is always ready to receive us, just as we are — guilty, polluted, and wretched!
Christian, the Lord Jesus is a friend whose door is always open! Knock whenever you will — you are sure to be welcome. It is true — He sits upon a throne — but it is the throne of grace; and you are called upon to approach it, not in a spirit of fear and trembling — but with filial confidence, that you may receive from His fullness, and find grace to help in time of need.
O my soul, what a friend have you in Christ!
“I have called you friends!” John 15:15
Your Almighty Friend!
(From Octavius Winslow’s, “Christ, the Mighty God”)
Because Jesus is the Almighty God, His
people have an Almighty Burden Bearer.
We are a burdened people.
Every believer carries a burden peculiar to himself.
What is your burden, O believer?
Is it indwelling sin?
Is it some natural infirmity of the flesh?
Is it a constitutional weakness?
Is it some domestic trial?
Is it a personal or relative trial?
Is it the loss of property?
Is it the decay of health?
Is it soul anxiety?
Is it mental despondency?
Come, oppressed and burdened believer,
ready to give up all and sink! Behold Jesus,
the Almighty God, omnipotent to transfer
your burden to Himself, and give you rest!
It is well that you are sensible of the pressure,
that you feel your weakness and insufficiency,
and that you are brought to the end of all your
own power.
Now turn to your Almighty Friend, who is
the Creator of the ends of the earth, even
the everlasting God, who does not faint,
neither is weary.
How precious is the promise addressed to you!
“He gives power to those who are tired and worn
out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths
will become exhausted, and young men will give up.
But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.
They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run
and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”
Oh, what strength there is in Jesus for the
weak, and faint, and drooping of His flock!
You are ready to succumb to your foes,
and you think the battle of faith is lost.
Cheer up! Jesus, your Savior, friend, and brother,
is “the Almighty God,” and will perfect His strength
in your weakness. The battle is not yours but His!
Jesus sustains our infirmities, bears our
burdens, supplies our needs, and encircles
us with the shield of His Almightiness!
What a Divine spring of consolation and strength
to the tired and afflicted saint is the Almightiness
of Jesus. Your sorrow is too deep, your affliction
too heavy, your difficulty too great for any human
to resolve. It distances in its intensity and magnitude
the sympathy and the power of man.
Come, you tossed with tempest and not comforted;
come, you whose spirit is wounded, whose heart is
broken, whose mind is bowed down to the dust, and
hide for a little while within Christ’s sheltering
Almightiness!
Jesus is equal to your condition.
His strength is almighty!
His love is almighty!
His grace is almighty!
His sympathy is almighty!
His arm is almighty!
His resources are infinite, fathomless, measureless!
And all this Almightiness is on your side, and will
bring you through the fire and through the water.
Almighty to rescue, He is also your Brother and Friend
to sympathize. And while His Divine arm encircles,
upholds, and keeps you; His human soul, touched
with the feeling of your infirmities, yearns over
you with all the deep intensity of its compassionate
tenderness.