Project 5782 | Day 11

Dwelling Our Thoughts Aright

Scripture Portion

Deuteronomy 33.26-29

²⁶ “There is none like God, O Jeshurun,
     who rides through the heavens to your help,
     through the skies in his majesty.
²⁷ The eternal God is your dwelling place,
     and underneath are the everlasting arms.
And he thrust out the enemy before you
     and said, ‘Destroy.’
²⁸ So Israel lived in safety,
     Jacob lived alone,
in a land of grain and wine,
     whose heavens drop down dew.
²⁹ Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you,
     a people saved by the Lord,
the shield of your help,
     and the sword of your triumph!
Your enemies shall come fawning to you,
     and you shall tread upon their backs.”
– The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Quote from Reading

“On January 7, 1855, the minister of New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, England, opened his morning sermon as follows:

‘…No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God…

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. … The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of a man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.’

These words, spoken over a century ago by C.H. Spurgeon (at that time, incredibly, only twenty years old) were true then, and they are true now.”

Packer, J.I., Knowing God: 20^th-Anniversary Edition, InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, 1973:1993, pgs. 17-18

Provocative Language

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather
All must work for good to me

Soul, then know thy full salvation
Rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station
Something still to do or bear
Think what Spirit dwells within thee
Think what Father’s smiles are thine
Think that Jesus died to win thee
Child of heaven, canst thou repine
 – Francis, Lyte, Henry. Jesus, I my Cross have Taken.. Print