Thoughts and Meditations - June Archive

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Thoughts and Meditations

 

Personal comments made by David F. Reagan unless otherwise stated

 

June, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

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June 30, 2005

 

Faithfulness in Church Discipline – “It is a great fault in some of our churches to be afraid of exercising faithful discipline upon men of opulence. ‘The cause,’ they say, ‘cannot be supported without them.’ I have more than once replied to this, ‘that cause which requires thus to be supported, cannot be the cause of Christ—your business is not to support the ark with unhallowed hands—if by executing Christ’s laws you cause sinks, so be it: he will never blame you for that.’ ” –from The Armies of the Lamb (p.144) containing letters of Andrew Fuller, English Baptist Pastor (1754-1815).

 

From the Journal of Francis Asbury (lived 1745-1816) – “July 28: Arose, as I commonly do, before five o’clock to study the Bible. I find none like it; and find it of more consequence for a preacher to know his Bible well than all the books and languages in the world—for he is not to preach these, but the Word of God.” –from The Company of Preachers by David L. Larsen (p.435).

 

Peace, Peace, Wonderful Peace! – “Peace… is expressed by singing, because the peace of God when it is received into the soul by faith putteth the conscience into a heavenly and melodious frame.” –by John Bunyan from A Tinker and a Poor Man by Christopher Hill (p.260).

 

 

June 20, 2005

 

Illustrating the Truth – “The greatest preacher the world has ever known was remarkable for his use of illustrations. Our Master never preached a sermon when He did not liken His truth to some every-day, ordinary object so that the little children in His company could take in the power and sweetness of the truth He taught. There is a great difference between the illustrations of Jesus and Paul. Paul lived in the city, and his truth was colored because of his contact with the people in the great centres of population; but Jesus lived in the country, and the sparrows flying through the air, the grass growing beneath His feet, and the lilies blooming on every side furnished His illustrations. We are following in right footsteps when we pattern after Jesus and Paul in illustrating truth.” –by J. Wilbur Chapman from One Thousand Evangelistic Illustrations (p.15).

 

Secrets Opened by Distress – “Many secrets of religion are not perceived till they be felt, and are not felt but in the day of a great calamity.” –by Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667).

 

 

June 16,2005

 

Our Alabaster Box – “The noblest use for the precious ointment of love which the poorest of us bears in the alabaster box of the heart, is to break it on Christ’s head.” –from MacLaren’s 1024 Best Quotations (p.14).

 

Killed in Action; But Alive! “During the Civil War a man by the name of George Wyatt was drawn by lot to go to the front. He had a wife and six children. A young man named Richard Pratt offered to go in his stead. He was accepted and joined the ranks, bearing the name and number of George Wyatt. Before long Pratt was killed in action. The authorities later sought again to draft George Wyatt into service. He protested, entering the plea that he had died in the person of Pratt. He insisted that the authorities consult their own records as to the fact of his having died in identification with Pratt, his substitute. Wyatt was thereby exempted as beyond the claims of law and further service. He had died in the person of his representative. There we have the truth of identification in a nutshell. God’s way of deliverance is through death—through identification with our Substitute in His death and resurrection.” –from Born Crucified by L. E. Maxwell (p.13).

 

 

June 14, 2005

 

The Importance of Prayer - "The space occupied by prayer in the Sermon on the Mount bespeaks its estimate by Christ and the importance it holds in His system.  Many important principles are discussed in a verse or two.  The Sermon consists of one hundred and eleven verses, and eighteen are about prayer directly, and others indirectly."  - from The Reality of Prayer by E.M. Bounds

 

A Living Book - "The Bible is a living Book (Hebrews 4:12).  Each part of the Bible has its purpose, just as each member of the body has its assigned function.  In the center of the Bible we find body, soul and spirit.  Song of Solomon relates the love story between Solomon and his bride.  It is an intensely physical story, and an allegory of the relationship between Christ and the church, His body.  In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes we enter the very mind of God.  This is the nerve center.  We learn how God thinks.  The book of Psalms leads us into the heart of God, and Psalm 119 is the heart of the heart."  - from Psalm 119 by Jeff Adams (p. 33)

 

June 13, 2005

 

From My Palace in Culpeper - James Ireland was one of the great Baptist Church organizers in Virginia.  "On one occasion in Culpeper County, while he was praying after a preaching service, he was seized by the collar by two men and given the ultimatum of promising not to preach there any longer or going to jail.  He chose the latter alternative, and after a few days he was incarcerated in Culpeper.  Through the jail bars he preached in spite of all the efforts to disturb him and his listeners.  His detractors ran riding horses at a gallop through his hearers, urinated in his face as he preached, attempted to blow him up with gunpowder, and endeavored to suffocate him by burning brimstone and Indian pepper under the floor of his cell.  A doctor and the jailer conspired to poison him.  Ireland also was dunked in water and threatened with public whippings.  When drunken rowdies were placed in his cell to harass him, he led several to personal faith in Jesus Christ.  During this time, he wrote letters to individuals and churches which he headed "from my Palace in Culpeper."  This resulted in the salvation of many souls who heard his letters read as well as those who heard him preach.  He said, "My prison then was a place in which I enjoyed much of the divine presence; a day seldom passed without some signal token and manifestation of the divine goodness toward me."

 

Even while he preached out of prison, he continued to be threatened with beatings and dunkings.  On one occasion two women conspired to poison his family, which nearly resulted in Ireland's own death and did cause the death of one of his eight children.  He bore the burden of ill health as a result of this maltreatment until his death May 5, 1806."  - from This Day in Baptist History (p. 183-184)

 

Humility to Glory - Christ's way to glory was humility: so is ours.  His glory, indeed, was his humility; so is ours.  He that humbleth himself shall be exalted, was true of the head as well as of the members.  O that you and I may be in this conformed to him!  by William Romaine

 

June 10, 2005

 

I Must See God More - "If God is going to increase in my life, then somebody is going to decrease in it.  If I am bent on spiritual maturity, then I must see God more, and that means I am going to see others less.  If I am not going to be "ashamed at his coming", then I must pursue my high calling of God in Christ with diligence." - from Meat for Men by Leonard Ravenhill  (p. 84)

 

Double Capacity - Joshua Barnes was a preacher who was born blind.  As the God of nature would be merciful, whenever He deprives any of His creatures of one natural endowment He commonly doubles their capacity in something else.  Mr. Barnes probably possessed the most singularly retentive memory as to anything he heard, especially what was read to him, of any other man living.  He would preach a long sermon and quote an uncommon number of texts of Scripture to prove his points, of which he would always tell both chapter and verse.  He was an excellent preacher and a very pious man.  He was a native and resident of North Carolina, but traveled much in Virginia.  He died in the year 1796.  - from History of the Baptists in Virginia by Robert Baylor Semple (p.105-106).

 

 

June 9, 2005

 

Let God be God - "The challenge we hear so often today in the name of consecration is "Do more! Give more!"  Go!  Go!  Go!  But God says, "Be still, and know that I am God"!  In other words, quit the panic!  Just let God be God!

 

Moses had not learned that lesson when he saw the Egyptian smiting one of his brethren.  He rolled up his sleeves and said in so many words, "If ever there was a time when I was on call, it is now!"  and he blundered in like a bull in a china shop, smote the Egyptian, and tried unsuccessfully to bury him.  With the best intentions in the world, he became a murderer instead of a missionary!.....When Moses tried to tackle the job, he could not even bury one Egyptian successfully.  Maybe he left his toes sticking out of the sand!  When God tackled the job, He buried the whole lot of them in the Red Sea!  That is how competent God is to deal with His own business."–from The Saving Life of Christ by Major W. Ian Thomas

 

Must I Go and Empty-Handed - In 1891 Charles C. Luther was invited to assume the pastorate of the Baptist church in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he served faithfully for two years.  During his pastorate, he arranged meetings with Evangelist A. G. Upham, and the evangelist chose as his subject, "Stars for Your Crown," or "The Importance of Witnessing."  In the sermon Upham referred to a young man who, a month after his salvation, was injured fatally in an accident.  As his condition became apparent, the young man was visited in the hospital by a friend who sought to confirm his genuine trust in Christ.  The dying young man said, "No, I am not afraid to die; but oh!  If I go - must I go and empty-handed?"

 

The illustration gripped Pastor Luther's heart, and as the evangelist continued his message, the pastor took out a piece of paper and began to write the words,

 

"Must I go, and empty-handed?

Thus my dear Redeemer meet?

Not one day of service give Him,

Lay no trophy at His feet?" - from This Day in Baptist History (pg 202)

 

June 5, 2005

 

An Invaluable Guide -  John Sutton, Sr. (1732-1813), who was born in New Jersey, was educated in that colony at Eaton’s Academy, in Hopewell.  It was the first Baptist school in North America for the training of ministers.  After a two-year pastorate in his native colony, he worked as a missionary in Nova Scotia during 1766-1769.  Upon returning home, he began in 1770 a seven-year term at the Welsh Tract Church, in New Castle County, Delaware.  For a few years he served churches in the Redstone area of Virginia and Pennsylvania.  In 1788 he moved to the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky.  There in 1806, as a means of promoting the emancipation of slaves, he organized in Woodford County the New Hope Church of the “Baptist Friends of Humanity.”  John Sutton Sr. said, “But the greatest instrument of my encouragement after all was the Bible itself.  There I saw the whole will of God at once.  In point of both practice and opinion, what I saw in this Heaven-born Book I received as the voice of God to me, and [it] was the invaluable guide of my whole man both in motive and [in] actions.  To this I appeal in all controversy, and by this I expect to be judged at the Last Day – from “Baptists on the American Frontier” by John Taylor (p.141-142)

 

The Holiness of the Preacher -  Robert Murray McCheyne (1812 – 1843), was a divine, who impressed and challenged Lloyd-Jones despite the fact that the Scottish preacher died when he was scarcely thirty years old.  DML-J reminds us that when McCheyne entered the pulpit, his spirituality was so evident that his congregation would weep.  The Scotsman declared his approach to the ministry in one of the finest lines ever spoke by a pastor:  ‘My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.’ –from “The Sacred Anointing” by Tony Sargent (p.128-129)

 

For me ‘twas not the truth you taught

To you so clear to me so dim

But when you came to me you brought.

A sense of him.

 

And from your eyes He beckons me

And from your lips His truth is shed

‘Till I lose sight of you and see

The Christ instead.

                        - Author Unknown

 

 

June 3, 2005

 

I Would Be Baptized:  As a young man, Charles Spurgeon remembered the time when as an unsaved youth he had determined “that if ever Divine grace should work a change in [him], [he] would be baptized.”  But the closest Baptist pastor was eight miles away!  He began to correspond with the Reverend W. W. Cantlow, and in time, a date was set for a baptismal service.  In writing a sweet letter to his parents for permission to be immersed, young Spurgeon said, “As Mr. Cantlow’s baptizing season will come round this month, I have humbly to beg your consent, as I will not act against your will, and should very much like to commune next month.  I have no doubt of your permission.  We are all one in Christ Jesus; forms and ceremonies I trust, will not make us divided.”  “He walked from New Market to Isleham, seven miles, on May 3rd, 1850, where Rev. Mr. Cantlow buried him with Christ in baptism.”  Some time later his mother said to him, “Ah Charles!  I often prayed the Lord to make you a Christian, but I never asked that you might become a Baptist.”  With his typical humor, Spurgeon replied, “Ah mother!  The Lord has answered your prayer with His usual bounty, and given you exceeding abundantly what you asked or thought.”– from “This Day in Baptist History” by David L. Cummins and E. Wayne Thompson (p. 180-181)

 

Think For Yourself:  Early in life, John Gano professed conversion to Christ and was strongly inclined to unite with the Presbyterian church; doubting the scriptural authority for infant baptism, he entered into an elaborate investigation of the subject.  He read many books and had many conversations with Presbyterian ministers, only to become more and more convinced of the truth of Baptist principles.  He had an extensive conversation with the renowned Gilbert Tennent, who at the close of the interview said, “Dear young man, if the Devil cannot destroy your soul he will endeavor to destroy your comfort and your usefulness, and therefore, do not always be doubting in this matter.  If you cannot think as I do, think for yourself.”  Some time after this, having obtained permission from his father, who was Presbyterian, he was baptized and united with the Baptist church at Hopewell, New Jersey. –from “This Day in Baptist History” by David L. Cummins and E. Wayne Thompson (p. 178-179)

 

 

June 1, 2005

 

Go Read the Scriptures - Joan Boucher, known also as Joan of Kent in England, was a lady of note, possessing much wealth.  She was also well known at the palace in the days of King Henry VIII and King Edward VI.  Joan belonged to the Anabaptist Assembly of Kent and with her friend Anne Askew was devoted to the study and circulation of Tyndale’s translation, which had been printed at Cologne in 1534.  It is reported that she carried copies of this prohibited book under her clothing on her visits to the court and very likely to the prisons also, which she visited often and where she used her wealth to relieve those who suffered for Jesus’ sake.

 

Joan Boucher suffered amongst the flames May 2, 1550, to the eternal disgrace of all concerned.  Common decency might have spared her the mockery of having Bishop Scorey preach to her while at the stake and vilify her there under pretense of pious exhortation.  Yet possibly her last act did him a service which he needed very much and which had never been done for him previously.  Her sermon to him is immortal, while his to her has long since been forgotten.  Listening to him just before her soul ascended to heaven in the flame, she said in reply, “You lie like a rogue.  Go read the Scriptures!” –from “This Day in Baptist History” by David L. Cummins and E. Wayne Thompson (p. 178-179)

 

The Work of Carnal Wisdom - Growth in carnal wisdom is another help to sin in producing this sad effect.  “For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, none seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.”  Isaiah 47:10 So much as carnal wisdom increaseth, so much faith decays.  The proper work of it is to teach a man to trust to and in himself; of faith, to trust wholly in another.  So its labours to destroy the whole work of faith, by causing the soul to return into a deceiving fulness of its own.  How many a poor, humble, broken-hearted creature, who followed after God in simplicity and integrity of spirit, have we seen, through the observation of the ways and walkings of others, and closing with the temptations to craft and subtlety which opportunities in the world have administered unto them, come to be dipped in a worldly carnal frame, and utterly to wither in their profession! – from “The Works of John Owen” by William H. Goold. (p.302).

 

 

 

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