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The One

September 9, 2020 jakin7

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. “Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”Psalm 2:1-3

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath,..

Psalm 2:4.5

“Vex them;” either by horror of conscience, or corporal plaques;

one way or the other he will have his pennyworths of them, as he always

has had of the persecutors of his people.

-John Trapp (1601-1669)

When Pontius Pilate and the Jews conspire to destroy the cause of God, the Lord not only has them in derision but over-rules even their malice and violence to promote that very cause they attempted to destroy; so that it is a very wrong maxim, and argues great ignorance in us, to imagine that God never brings about his designs by the means and instrumentality of wicked men.

This is the Papists’ objection against the Reformation; great pains have been taken to blacken the reformers, and to make it believed that a reformation could not be good, that was begun by people of bad character, and a king of an immoral life. But so far is this from eclipsing, that it illustrates the wisdom and goodness of divine Providence, in obliging the wicked to do what they never designed, and over-ruling their counsels for the fulfilling God’s holy, wise, and sovereign decree.

George Whitefield (1714-1770)

“The severest punishment awaits the despisers of the Gospel, since the ancients

under the law did not despise it with impunity.

John Calvin (1509-1564)

When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding;
but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.
Proverbs 28:28

Hear My Voice

September 7, 2020 jakin7

Give ear to my words, O Lord,

consider my sighing.

Psalm 5:1

“It is certain that the greater part of men, as they babble out vain, languid, and inefficacious prayers, most unworthy the ear of the blessed God, so they seem in some degree to set a just estimate upon them, neither hoping for any success from them, nor indeed seeming to be at all solicitous about it, but committing them to the mind as vain words, which in truth they are. But far be it from a wise and pious man, that he should so foolishly and coldly trifle in so serious an affair; his prayer has a certain tendency and scope, at which he aims with assiduous and repeated desires, and doth not only pray that he may pray, but that he may obtain an answer; and as he firmly believes that it may be obtained, so he firmly, and constantly, and eagerly urges his petition, that he may not flatter himself with an empty hope.”

Robert Leighton, D.D.(1611-1684)

The Treasury of David Classic Reflections on the Wisdom of the Psalms

by Charles H Spurgeon page 49.

Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God,

for to you I pray.

Morning by morning, O Lord, you hear my voice;

morning by morning I lay my requests before you

and wait in expectation.

Psalm 5:2-3

“If you do not believe, why do you pray? And if you believe, why do you not expect? By praying you seem to depend on God; by not expecting, you again renounce your confidence. What is this, but to take his name in vain? O Christian, stand to your prayer in a holy expectation of what you have begged upon the credit of promise…. Mordecai, no doubt, had put up many prayers for Esther, and therefore he waits at the king’s gate, looking what answer God would in his providence give thereunto.

Do thou likewise.”

William Gurnall (1616-1679)

The Treasury of David Classic Reflections on the Wisdom of the Psalms

by Charles H Spurgeon page 51.

Beginning To See

August 21, 2020 jakin7

Dear (fill in the blank),

We are beginning to see what it looks like when the intellectually blind grasp for a
shadow to embrace. Where is the modern day Deborah singing “March on, my soul; be strong!” Where is the spiritual Anne Sullivan to teach

a nation that is deaf, dumb, and blind?

Not all, but too many pastors are sleeping
the sleep or blowing with the breeze or
knocking with the knees. Not all,
but too many professors are
continuing to do as
they please–groping in
personal darkness
when the spotlight
shines on them from above.

Stand up – stand now or
you will find yourselves
shining the boots of those
handing out your
bamboo slippers

as they march you off to
the gulag camps of your reeducation.

Sincerely – Walley

P.S. read Judges Chapters 4 and 5 – particularly 4:9
….consider the voice of the singers at the watering places…

The Days Are Evil

August 18, 2020 jakin7

Be very careful, then,

how you live-

not as unwise but as wise,

making the most of every opportunity,

because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15,16

The World Rising In Hostility

August 17, 2020 jakin7

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:10-12

“Happy are they who suffer persecution The disciples of Christ have very great need of this instruction; and the more hard and disagreeable it is for the flesh to admit it, the more earnestly ought we to make it the subject of our meditation.

We cannot be Christ’s soldiers on any other condition, than to have the greater part of the world rising in hostility against us, and pursuing us even to death. The state of the matter is this. Satan, the prince of the world, will never cease to fill his followers with rage, to carry on hostilities against the members of Christ. It is, no doubt, monstrous and unnatural, that men, who study to live a righteous life, should be attacked and tormented in a way which they do not deserve.

Yet, in consequence of the unbridled wickedness of the world, it too frequently happens, that good men, through a zeal of righteousness, arouse against them the resentments of the ungodly. Above all, it is, as we may say, the ordinary lot of Christians to be hated by the majority of men: for the flesh cannot endure the doctrine of the Gospel; none can endure to have their vices reproved.”

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Calvin, John. “Commentary on Matthew 5:10”. “Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible”