Counting The Cost

Random thoughts on walking with Jesus in this turvy-topsy world

Rock of Ages

Excerpted from

the Christian History Institute:

 

 

“As the young minister traveled through the rugged country near England's Cheddar Gorge, the clouds burst and torrential sheets of rain pummeled the earth. The weary traveler was able to find shelter standing under a rocky overhang. There, protected from the buffeting wind and rain, Augustus Toplady conceived one of the most popular hymns ever written, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee."

 

 

In March, 1776 Toplady published the hymn as part of an article in The Gospel Magazine, which he edited. He wrote that just as England could never pay her national debt, so man could never by his own merits satisfy the justice of God. In the middle of the article he burst into song, printing for the first time the hymn "Rock of Ages", which so ably describes Christ, the Rock of Ages, as the remedy for all our sin.

 

 

Augustus Toplady died of consumption at the age of 38. As he neared the end Toplady proclaimed, ‘My heart beats every day stronger and stronger for glory. Sickness is no affliction, pain no cause, death itself no dissolution...My prayers are now all converted into praise.’”

 

 

 

Rock of Ages

A hymn by Augustus Toplady, 1776

 

 

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

 

 

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

 

 

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

 

 

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click HERE to read other great

stories of faith

posted by: Jrobbins at 15:50 | link | comments |
hymns i love

Important things

"When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want?
.. Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will
you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car?
Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of
course not. What will matter then will be people.

If relationships will matter most then,

shouldn't they matter most now?"

      -- Max Lucado

posted by: Jrobbins at 14:36 | link | comments |
quotes i love

Some comforting thoughts on death

“It is not darkness you are going to, for God is Light. It is not lonely, for Christ is with you. It is not an unknown country, for Christ is there.”

-Charles Kingsley

 

 

 

“You cannot find in the New Testament any of those hateful representations of dying which men have invented, by which death is portrayed as a ghastly skeleton with a scythe, or something equally revolting. The figures by which death is represented in the New Testament are very different. There are two of them which I think to be exquisitely beautiful. One is that of falling asleep in Jesus. When a little child has played all day long, and becomes tired out, and the twilight has sent it in weariness to its mother’s knee, where it thinks it has come for more excitement, then, almost in the midst of its frolicking, and not knowing what influence is creeping over it, it falls back in the mother’s arms, and nestles close to the sweetest and softest couch that ever cheek pressed, and, with lengthening breath, sleeps; and she smiles and is glad, and sits humming unheard joy over its head. So we fall asleep in Jesus. We have played long enough at the games of life, and at last we feel the approach of death. We are tired out, and we lay our heads back on the bosom of Christ and quietly fall asleep.”

-H. W. Beecher

posted by: Jrobbins at 15:34 | link | comments |
quotes i love

What's the point of discipline?

From John MacArthur’s sermon

“Fundamental Christian Attitudes:

Self-Discipline, Part 1”:

 

 

 

“…I'm convinced that until you understand that you don't own you, that somebody else has complete mastery and right over your life, you will not have the motivation to be a self-disciplined person. I am God's man. I belong to Him. And you are God's man and God's woman and you belong to Him and to no one else, least of all yourself. You are not your own. That is so very important. And the Lord paid such an infinite price to purchase us because He wanted the pleasure of having us with Him for eternity in His presence. Our obedience to His lordship, our submission to His fatherhood is not grievous because it brings about blessing in time and eternal reward in the life to come. We have been purchased at such a high cost. And you will begin to seek a holy life when you begin to understand the price that Jesus Christ paid for you.

 

 

 

I think one of the things that compelled the Apostle Paul was the fact that he knew that he was such a rotten and wretched sinner. Called himself the chief of sinners. He was out, you know, persecuting Christ, as it were, persecuting Christians, throwing them in prison and even executing them. Going through all of that, he was such a wicked man from the standpoint of God's perspective. And when he was saved by Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus in an act of sovereign supernatural power, it was so overwhelming to him that he never ever ever got over the fact of his salvation. And it was that very fact alone that I think was at the root of his tremendous dedication, that there was such a price paid for such a rotten, unworthy, wretched person. And when you begin to understand what God has gone through to purchase you to make you His servant and to purchase you and adopt you and make you His son and that He is in charge of you and you understand the fullness of the richness of that reality, that's going to have an impact on the way you order your life….”

 

 

 

 

 

Click HERE to read

this great message

posted by: Jrobbins at 16:49 | link | comments |
go in the strength of the lord

More than a symbol

An excerpt from Pastor Greg Laurie’s

Daily Devotional

 

 

Why the Cross?

by Pastor Greg

 

 

A true story was reported about a couple that was visiting a jewelry store. As the jeweler showed them various cross necklaces, the woman commented, "I like these, but do you have any without this little man on them?"

That is what so many people want today: a cross without Jesus. They want a cross without any offense, one that will look cool with their outfits. But if we could travel back in time and see the cross in its original context, we would realize that it was a bloody and vile symbol. It would have been the worst picture imaginable to see someone hanging on a cross.

The Romans chose crucifixion because it was meant to be a slow, torturous way to die. It was designed to humiliate a person. Crucifixions outside Roman cities served as warnings to anyone who would dare oppose the rule of Rome.

If there was any other way, do you think that God would have allowed His Son to suffer like this? If there had been any other way we could have been forgiven, then God surely would have found it. If living a good moral life would get us to heaven, then Jesus never would have died for us. But He did, because there was and is no other way. He had to pay the price for our sin. At the Cross, Jesus purchased the salvation of the world.

If you were ever tempted to doubt God's love for you, even for a moment, then take a long, hard look at the Cross. Nails did not hold Jesus to that cross.

 His love did.

 

 

Click HERE to read more

from Pastor Greg

posted by: Jrobbins at 15:45 | link | comments |
ah dearest jesus

Unschooled, ordinary heroes of the faith

 

"The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

 

The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"

 

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

 

He is
   " 'the stone you builders rejected,
      which has become the capstone.^[a]'^[b]

 

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

 

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name."

 

 

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

Acts 4:1-20

posted by: Jrobbins at 14:30 | link | comments |
bold as a lion

God's Word

A Devotional by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

From Revive Our Hearts Ministry

 

Hungry Souls

 

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: When Margaret Nikol was a child, she studied the Bible. Well, actually she studied the one, treasured page she owned from a Bible while she was growing up in communist Bulgaria. After Dr. Margaret Nikol was exiled to the United States, she visited a bookstore. Overwhelmed by the display of Bibles, she describes her reaction. She says she "wept and wept and wept for joy."

Margaret Nikol's story reminds us of how precious a gift the Word of God really is. Proverbs says, "He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet." A lot of people in the world are hungry for the Word of God but can't get a single copy.

 

The next time you start to read the Bible, remember what an incredible treasure it is. Let's all approach the Word of God with hungry hearts. With Seeking Him, I'm Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

 

 

 

Click HERE to read more from Nancy

posted by: Jrobbins at 15:57 | link | comments |
bible reading plans

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