Tender Love

I love reading the Puritans and John Durant's entry for September 17 in DAY BY DAY with English Puritans touched my heart. His thoughts were so encouraging to me, I decided to share them with you. His devotion brought to my mind Matthew 11:28-30:

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

I am highly impressed with the tenderness and gentleness of Jesus. His patience with the weak is unbelievable. Let me share today's scripture in its context — Prophecy of the coming Messiah — from Isaiah 42 in the New Living Translation.

"Look at My Servant {Jesus}, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth."

Jesus has a tender determination to make the weak stronger. Christ does not despise weakness, but He does not intend to leave us in our weak condition. A bruised reed is already damaged; a smoking flax is a wick whose flame is almost gone — or as the NLT says, a flickering candle. Most people would discard both and treat them as damaged goods. Jesus does not discard weak believers. He strengthens them. We are prone to think, "My faith is so weak. My love is so imperfect. My obedience is so inconsistent," but Christ sees those weak beginnings of grace and cherishes them rather than crushing them. Christ doesn't merely preserve the smoking flax. He fans it into a flame. Based on Psalms 18, Durant illustrates Christ's work of sanctifying believers as transforming us from the weakness of a lamb to the strength of a deer. Sheep are not known for their leaping ability. They don't jump fences. Deer on the other hand can jump walls. A fence is nothing to a deer; they leap over them with ease. When it comes to overcoming obstacles, deer are vastly superior to sheep. So the LORD is at work in us to strengthen us to overcome any obstacle. It is a picture of Christian growth.

There are sins, temptations, fears, and trials that once seemed like mountains. As Christ strengthens us, things that once overwhelmed us no longer have the same power. This doesn't mean we become self-sufficient. Quite the opposite. The stronger the Christian becomes, the more he realizes where his strength comes from — and that is Christ.

Psalm 84:7 fits perfectly: "They go from strength to strength." Note: the scripture does not say from weakness to perfection, but from strength to strength. Grace has a very small beginning but it grows. Actually, it gets bigger every day. Durant also uses the analogy drawn from Proverbs 4:18: "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day." During this heat wave, I begin outside work right at dawn. Dawn is not sunrise; it is the dim light before the sunrise, but it is not darkness. The dawn doesn't last long; as the sun rises, the day gets brighter and brighter. This is a picture of our sanctification.

We will be taking our final offering for THE WORD FOR THE WORLD project this Sunday. We lack $1,103.00 reaching our goal of 108 verses. We can do this folks; if our givers will give just one more verse, we can do it.

Monday October 26…we are hosting THE MORGAN BAPTIST ANNUAL MEETING here at the POINT. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I doubt that we have more than 60 people total. The Annual meetings are poorly attended these days. I have asked the 49ers to help and this will be our October 49er gathering. You do not have to attend the meeting. Just bring your food and join us for lunch. We will get the KFC, drinks and rolls but we need your help with the other things. It will work if we have a servant's heart!

A little extra/extra for those who are intent on growing — Principles and Insight from Durant's Devotion:

Have a great Friday and thanks for reading the blog!!!!