A New Year, 2018! What are your spiritual thoughts as a New Year approaches? We all want to be blessed, that’s the name of the game; and spiritually we know that we can only be blessed by and through our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 119, verse 2 is a promise, but a promise with a condition; we cannot seek Him half-heartily, the scripture reads “Blessed are they…that seek Him with the whole heart.” We would never discourage a person from applying himself to every legitimate means that would convey the Gospel of the Grace of God to his heart. I would encourage any man to put his soul under the purest form of the Gospel possible. Our sins and an awareness of them should never keep us away from the assembly where the Gospel of God’s Grace is contended for. I say the greater awareness of the soul’s sin sickness the greater the need of the health restoring medicine of the Gospel. There is “a balm in Gilead” that heals the sin-sick soul, and that balm is Christ. By all means go to the place that gathers around the Gospel, go on Sunday and every other time the opportunity affords. But keep in mind that it is not the activity of your church-going that shall save your soul, it is Christ in the Gospel, and this alone. If we once really know the power of the Gospel, we must seek the God of the Gospel; “Oh that I knew where I might find HIM” will be our wholehearted cry. The further a soul advances in grace the more spiritual and divine are its longings. An outward walk does not content the gracious soul, it reaches out in due time toward God Himself. When that soul, in a measure, finds Him still yearns for more of Him and seeks Him still. Seeking after God signifies a desire to commune with Him more closely, to follow Him more fully, to enter into more perfect union with His mind and will, to promote His glory, and to realize completely all that He is to holy hearts. The blessed man has God already, and for this reason he seeks Him. God is not sought by the cold researches of the brain; we must seek Him with the heart. Love reveals itself to love; God manifests His heart to the heart of His people. It is in vain that we endeavor to comprehend Him by reason; we must apprehend Him by affection. The heart must not be divided with many objects if the Lord is to be sought by us. God is one, and we shall not know Him till our heart is one. A broken heart need not be distressed at this, for no heart is so whole in its seeking after God as a heart which is broken and sighs and cries after Him. A sinner is accepted for Christ’s sake only as he comes to God by faith and repentance. I believe it is through the clear exposition of scripture that the Spirit makes a person sensible to the curse of sin, and Christ its cure. Therefore go to the place where the scripture has preeminence in its ministry and may the Lord of salvation bless it to the saving of your soul.
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