Serving Christ, A Letter

Faithful, God-glorifying service to Christ truly is the best this life can give.

I read a quote from Samuel Rutherford this morning that I found helpful:

"Venture through the thick of all things after Christ, and lose not your Master, Christ, in the throng of this great market."

This helped me in my meditations today, as I remembered The Lords' words:

"seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness"

and the following proverbs:

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."

"Commit thy works unto The Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established."

I want to serve Him with thankfulness, in my single estate. I want to submit to His wise, loving, inerrant, fatherly will, in all things. I'm actually glad that He's left me single at this particular moment in time. I desire a wife, but I'm content with Christ, and can trust Him to provide, if it be His will. He's also shown Himself able to sustain me amid temptation, and deliver me from evil. This Gospel proclaims help for the helpless, and it's worth believing, living for, walking in the light of, and publishing to the world.

So, it's all good. I was remarking to a female coworker today how I was glad to not have a valentine this year. I probably wouldn't have been able to afford my new laptop (to help with the preaching of The Gospel). 


Peace, bro.

brae

Utterly Darkened (Zech 11:16-17)

“For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that stands still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idol shepherd that leaves the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.”

God delivers us from false shepherds and then punishes liars who deceive the people. This shepherd is called a “foolish shepherd”, and he preaches everything but Christ’s finished work in the gospel (Zech 11:15). John 10:13, says, “The hireling flees, because he is a hireling, and cares not for the sheep.” He preaches a god who cannot save, unless you and I, sinners, do our part.

God’s grace sets the Good Shepherd over us who laid down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). To save the elect, He did everything required of Him by God, giving His blood to redeem us from sins. God exacted vengeance on Christ for us, and now He gives us what His Son earned, without possibility of failure. The ransom was paid by God’s Son, and He will have all for whom He died. He says, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). He did not fail, and God shall not fail to deliver everyone that He died for, no matter how helpless we are, we are safe and secure. The false shepherd will not help the “cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that stands still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces”, making himself strong on the souls of others while neglecting to help sinners meet God (Zech 11:17). Yet, the Good Shepherd comes to these helpless sinners, and by blood and power, redeems us from every distress unto the end.

The Good Shepherd teaches the sheep to worship properly, delivering us from lawless godliness – “And you shall say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, and brings it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the Lord; even that man shall be cut off from among his people”, so He makes us see that the blood reconciled us to God for Him to save as He sees fit (Lev 17:8-9).

Everyone else values Christ the same way Judas did, for “thirty pieces of silver”, or a price well below His infinite worth (Zech 11:12). Zech 11:17 says, “Woe to the idol shepherd that leaves the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye:” - he didn’t value Christ, so Christ refuses him - “his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened”. He led others to hell, and he goes now himself.

Yet, to you that believe He is precious. He is what I need to worship God unto good works. By giving Christ to God, God gives me the salvation I need.

Thank God He spared you and me by setting the Shepherd over us who saves. He calls us to Himself by stripping us of everything else, and then He gives the power and peace His gospel proclaims – “so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord” (Zech 11:11)!