John MacDuff – Chastening Love (Christian devotional)
Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
#Love #Revelation
JOHN MACDUFF (1818 – 1895)
“For sound doctrine, presented Scripturally
and devotionally, with its application to the
Christian life, you cannot go beyond MacDuff.”
“MacDuff writes popularly, yet he is by no
means shallow. For an hour’s pleasant and
holy reading, commend us to MacDuff!”
—Charles Spurgeon
Macduff, John Ross, D.D., second son of Alexander Macduff, of Bonhard, near Perth, was born at Bonhard, May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became in 1842 parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire, in 1849 of St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 of Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and about the same time also from the University of New York. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, lived at Chislehurst, Kent and died in 1887. He has published many practical and devotional works which have attained a wide circulation. In 1857 he was appointed by the General Assembly a member of their Hymnal Committee. His 31 hymns appeared in his Altar Stones, 1853, and were also included with his later poems in his The Gates of Praise, 1876.
“Now thank we all our God,
With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom His world rejoices…”
Lyrics:
Now thank we all our God,
With heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom His world rejoices;
Who from our mother’s arms
Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours to-day.
O may this bounteous God
Through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts
And blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in his grace,
And guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all ills
In this world and the next.
All praise and thanks to God
The Father now be given,
The son, and him who reigns,
With them in highest heaven,
The one eternal God,
Whom earth and heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now,
And shall be evermore.
Pastor Martin Rinkart served in the walled city of Eilenburg Saxony, during the horrors of the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Eilenberg became the refuge for political and military fugitives, but the result was overcrowding, and deadly pestilence and famine.. At the beginning of 1637, the year of the Great Pestilence, there were four ministers in Eilenburg,. but one abandoned his post for healthier areas and could not be persuaded to return. Pastor Rinkhart officiated at the funerals of the other two. During the height of the great pestilence in 1637, Rinkart was the only surviving pastor in Eilenberg, conducting as many as 50 funerals in a day. He performed more than 4000 funerals in that year, including that of his wife.
Pastor Rinckart knew that the Holy Spirit, given to Christians after sincere repentance and belief, is the very power that made the universe. That power, being personal, can take up residence inside Christians (Ephesians 3:20; John 14:23). Such a living hope made it possible for Pastor Rinckart and his tiny flock to endure.
Translated from the German”Nun danket alle Gott”, to English by Catherine Winkworth, 1856.
O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: because His mercy endureth for ever. Psalm:118:1
Henry Francis Lyte wrote “Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven” for his congregation at Lower Brixham in Devon, England. The hymn was first published in 1834, among a collection of three hundred hymns entitled “Spirit of the Psalms.”
Unlike translations of the Psalms-commonly used in Psalters of that time-or paraphrases like those written by Isaac Watts, “Spirit of the Psalms” contained hymns that were simply inspired by the Psalms. A part of this collection, “Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven” captured the “spirit” of Psalm 103.
In the hymn, Lyte succinctly states each of the psalm’s points: “Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies” (v. 3-4) become “ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.” And enlarging on the palmist’s declaration that God is slow to anger and will not always chide (v. 8-9), Lyte declares, “Slow to chide and swift to bless.”
In his refrain, Lyte picked up on the primary theme of the Psalm: “Praise Him, praise him.” Today, some hymnals have changed these words to “Alleluia!” But either refrain fittingly calls us to join with all creation in praise of the King.
Queen Elizabeth II chose this hymn to be sung as the processional at her wedding. Interestingly, this was on November 20, 1947, exactly one hundred years after the death of Henry Francis Lyte.
Romans 7:14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
Joseph Alleine (1634-1668)
Excerpt from Meet the Puritans
by Dr. Joel Beeke and Randall J. Pederson
Born at Devizes, Wiltshire, early in 1634, Joseph Alleine loved and served the Lord from childhood. A contemporary witness identified 1645 as the year of Alleine’s “setting forth in the Christian race.” From eleven years of age onward, “the whole course of his youth was an even-spun thread of godly conversation.” When his elder brother Edward, a clergyman, died, Joseph begged that he might be educated to take Edward’s place in the ministry of the church. He entered Oxford at age sixteen and sat at the feet of such great divines as John Owen and Thomas Goodwin. Alleine began his studies at Lincoln College in 1649. Two years later, he became a scholar of Corpus Christi College, where the faculty was, in general, more thoroughly Puritan than at Lincoln. Alleine studied long hours, often depriving himself of sleep and food. He graduated from Oxford in 1653 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and became a tutor and chaplain of Corpus Christi. He also devoted much time to preaching to prisoners in the county jail, visiting the sick, and ministering to the poor.
In 1655, Alleine accepted the invitation of George Newton, vicar of St. Mary Magdalene Church, Taunton, Somerset, to become Newton’s assistant. Taunton, a wool-manufacturing city of some 20,000, was a Puritan stronghold. Shortly after moving to Taunton, Alleine married his cousin, Theodosia Alleine, whose father, Richard Alleine, was minister of Batcombe, Somerset (see below). She was an active woman who feared God deeply. Early in their marriage, she ran a home school of about fifty scholars, half of them boarders. She would later serve as her husband’s biographer after his death. Alleine rose early, devoting the time between four and eight o’clock in the morning to the exercises of private worship. His wife recalled that he “would be much troubled if he heard smiths or other craftsmen at work at their trades, before he was at communion with God: saying to me often, ‘How this noise shames me! Doth not my Master deserve more than theirs?’ ”
His ministry in Taunton as preacher and pastor was very fruitful. Richard Baxter recalled Alleine’s “great ministerial skillfulness in the public explication and application of the Scriptures—so melting, so convincing, so powerful.” Alleine was also an excellent teacher, devoting much time to instructing his people, using the Shorter Catechism. He was a passionate evangelist. One contemporary wrote, “He was infinitely and insatiably greedy of the conversion of souls, wherein he had no small success.
Ejected for nonconformity in 1662, Alleine took the opportunity to increase his public labors, believing that his remaining time was short. He preached on average one or two sermons every day for nine months until he was arrested and cast into the Ilchester prison. The night before, Alleine had preached and prayed with his people for three hours and had declared, “Glory be to God that hath accounted me worthy to suffer for His gospel!”
Alleine’s prison cell became his pulpit as he continued to preach to his people through the prison bars. He also wrote numerous pastoral letters and theological articles. Released on May 20, 1664, after about a year in prison, he resumed his forbidden ministry until arrested again on July 10, 1665 for holding a conventicle. Once more released from prison, his remaining time was “full of troubles and persecutions nobly borne.” He returned to Taunton in February, 1668, where he became very ill. Nine months later, at age thirty-four, weary from hard work and suffering, Alleine died in full assurance of faith, praising God and saying, “Christ is mine, and I am His— His by covenant.”
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Puritan Prayer – My Malady, my Monster, my Foe, my Viper!
The Old English Puritan was such an one, that honored God above all, and under God gave every one his due. His first care was to serve God, and therein he did not what was good in his own, but in God’s sight, making the word of God the rule of his worship. He highly esteemed order in the House of God: but would not under color of that submit to superstitious rites, which are superfluous, and perish in their use. He reverenced Authority keeping within its sphere: but durst not under pretence of subjection to the higher powers, worship God after the traditions of men. He made conscience of all God’s ordinances, though some he esteemed of more consequence. He was much in prayer; with it he began and closed the day. It is he was much exercised in his closet, family and public assembly. He esteemed that manner of prayer best, whereby the gift of God, expressions were varied according to present wants and occasions; yet did he not account set forms unlawful.
– John Geree (The Character of an Old English Puritan, or Non-Conformist)
The strength of Puritan character and life lay in prayer and meditation. In this practice the spirit of prayer was regarded as of first importance and the best form of prayer, for living prayer is the characteristic of genuine spirituality. Yet prayer is also vocal and may therefore on occasions be written. Consequently in the Puritan tradition there are many written prayers and meditations which constitute an important corpus of inspiring devotional literature. Too often ex tempore prayer lacks variety, order and definiteness. The reason for this lies partly in a neglect of due preparation. It is here that the care and scriptural thoroughness which others found necessary in their approach to God may be of help.
Contemporary Christian Song – Unless a Grain of Wheat(Rich Moore)
Jude 1:19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 12:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
I am a singer, guitarist, and songwriter. This is a new original contemporary Christian song (demo version) I recently wrote and recorded. May those who listen find it a great blessing, to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, in these last days…praise God. (Music and video owned and copyrighted by Rich Moore Christian Music)
Shortly before his death, Tozer wrote: “Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne.” I am convinced that Aiden Wilson Tozer himself was such a man.
In his 1948 classic The Pursuit of God, Tozer challenged the stiff and wooden quality of many Christian lives. He noted: “Complacency is the deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.” Indeed, Tozer believed that thirst for God was the sign of coming revival.
Tozer’s passion for a deeper knowledge of God led him to study the great devotional writers of the past. “These people know God, and I want to know what they know about God and how they came to know it,” he observed. Prayer and worship were the hallmarks of his life. One biographer states that his preaching as well as his writings were simply an extension of his prayer life. Another noted that Tozer spent more time on his knees than at his desk.
He called for a return to astonishment and wonder at the majesty of God. Then he added: “The God of the modern evangelical rarely astonishes anybody. He manages to stay pretty much within the constitution;very well-behaved, very denominational and very much one of us.”
In modern evangelicalism, contended Tozer, we work, we have our agendas–in fact, we have almost everything except the spirit of true worship. He defined worship as a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe, astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of the unspeakable Majesty. He reminded the pastors, “We’re here to be worshippers first and workers only second; Out of enraptured, admiring, adoring souls God does His work. The work done by a worshipper will have eternity in it.”
Tozer believed that worship rises and falls with our concept of God and that if there was one terrible disease in the modern church, it was that we do not see God as great as He is: “We’re too familiar with God. …that is why I do not believe in these half-converted cowboys who call God `the Man Upstairs’.”
In the Preface to The Knowledge of the Holy, his last book, Tozer stated how important our view of God is: “The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. .. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error.”
Tozer addressed the state of the evangelical church even more bluntly in Keys to the Deeper Life. In a chapter entitled “No Revival Without Reformation”, he stated: “A widespread revival of the kind of Christianity we know today in America might prove to be a moral tragedy from which we would not recover in a hundred years.” The imperative need of the day, he affirmed, was not simply revival but a radical reformation that went to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies: “Prayer for revival will prevail when it is accompanied by radical amendment of life; not before.”
Charles Spurgeon Sermon – The Blessing of Full Assurance
1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Psalm 57:7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.
Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 January 31, 1892) was a British Reformed Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the “Prince of Preachers.” In his lifetime, Spurgeon preached to around 10,000,000 people, often up to 10 times a week at different places. His sermons have been translated into many languages. Spurgeon was the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in London for 38 years. In 1857, he started a charity organization called Spurgeon’s which now works globally. He also founded Spurgeon’s College, which was named after him after his death.
Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including sermons, an autobiography, a commentary, books on prayer, a devotional, a magazine, and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. Arguably, no other author, Christian or otherwise, has more material in print than C.H. Spurgeon.
Puritan Thomas Watson – The Believers’ Graces (Christian devotional)
Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
Thomas Watson – (ca. 1620-1686), English non-conformist Puritan preacher and author
Watson was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was noted for remarkably intense study. In 1646 he commenced a sixteen year pastorate at St. Stephen’s, Walbrook. He showed strong Presbyterian views during the civil war, with, however, an attachment to the king, and in 1651 he was imprisoned briefly with some other ministers for his share in Christopher Love’s plot to recall Charles II of England. He was released on June 30, 1652, and was formally reinstated as vicar of St. Stephen’s Walbrook.
Watson obtained great fame and popularity as a preacher until the Restoration, when he was ejected for nonconformity. Notwithstanding the rigor of the acts against dissenters, Watson continued to exercise his ministry privately as he found opportunity. Upon the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 he obtained a license to preach at the great hall in Crosby House. After preaching there for several years, his health gave way, and he retired to Barnston, Essex, where he died suddenly while praying in secret. He was buried on 28 July 1686.
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