Tried With Fire

What do you want to experience, to have, to do, to enjoy, and be preserved from in the New Year? James Smith, Spurgeon's predecessor at the New Park Street Chapel, has a few suggestions, and I couldn't ask for anything better for my loved ones or myself. Read more  here .

Christmas vacation is over. Time to go back to work.

God kept His promise from Genesis 3:15: "The New Testament witnesses to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the One in whom and through whom all the promises of God find their fulfillment. These promises are only to be understood from the Old Testament; the fulfillment of the promises can be understood only in the context of the promises themselves. The New Testament presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament. Everything that is a concern to the New Testament writers is part of one redemptive history to which the Old Testament witnesses. The New Testament writers cannot separate the person and work of Christ, nor the life of the Christian community, from this sacred history which has its beginnings in the Old Testament." The Goldsworthy Trilogy: Gospel and Kingdom by Graeme Goldsworthy, 2011, Paternoster Press, pp. 18-19.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  John 1:29

Oh Saviour of our fallen race, Oh brightness of the Father’s face Oh Son Who shared the Father’s mind Before the world knew day or night Oh Jesus very light of light Our constant star in sin’s deep night Now hear the prayers Your people pray Throughout the world this holy day You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown Remember Lord of life and grace How once to save our fallen race You put our human vesture on And came to us as Mary’s son You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown For from the Father’s throne You came His banished children to reclaim And earth and sea and sky revered The love of Him who sent You here Oh Christ redeemer, virgin born Let songs of praise your name adore And with the Father be adored And Holy Spirit evermore You came down You came down You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown Words ...