Come Down, Lord!

  Years ago, Martyn Lloyd-Jones met with T.T. Shields and, in the course of their conversation, confronted him about his ministry. At one point he said, “ Dr. Shields, you used to be known as the Canadian Spurgeon, and you were. You are an outstanding man—in intellect, in preaching gift, in every other respect—but over the McMaster University business in the early twenties, you suddenly changed and became negatory and denunciatory. I feel it has ruined your ministry. Why don’t you come back? Drop all this; preach the gospel to people positively and win them ( Iain H. Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years (1899–1939) !”  What happened to Shields can happen to any one of us. And by “us,” I mean especially preachers - though it can be true of laypeople as well. I’m not entirely sure how or why it happens, except that it is a very real temptation, and one to which many of us have succumbed. During a visit with friends the other night, I found myself reflecting o...

I’ve been thinking about the words of that old gospel song, “The longer I serve Him the sweeter He grows.” I believe that must be the testimony of every believer. Find a man who has served Jesus seventy years, and he will tell you he has discovered Jesus to be better and sweeter and more lovely with every passing year. That’s certainly been my experience. As the years pass, I am less pleased with what I see when I look in the mirror, but I am increasingly amazed by the person of Jesus. The truth is, others disappoint us, and we disappoint both ourselves and others. Whatever we may have resolved when we first began to follow Jesus, none of us are anywhere near as faithful as we would like to be. We are inconsistent, often distracted, sometimes lukewarm, and never as we ought to be. But Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is always kind, always merciful, always good, always holy, always true to everything He has ever said.   Sometimes we don’t call on...

* The following is an edited excerpt from a sermon I preached several years ago. Like the older writers, I believe the Song of Solomon is allegorical. It is ultimately about the “ greater than Solomon,” who is Jesus. It gives us a picture of the relationship between the Groom -  our Saviour -  and the bride, which is His church.    What He - the beloved - says here to His bride He says to His people. One of my favourite sections is found in chapter two.  There the bride says,  “My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.   For lo the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth the time of the singing of the birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” "Rise up and come away," He says.  Why?  Because the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, and now come the flowers and the singing of birds.  Everyone can relate to this. Some people despise the...