‘As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart.’

(Ac 16:14) 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. ESV

     Some of us think that successful people are difficult to win to Christ because they don’t have the same needs as others. But they do. Everyone has an emptiness within them that only God can fill, and He wants to use you to fill it. Consider the story of Lydia. ‘One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth…As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. She and her household were baptised, and she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we agreed’ (vv. 14-15 NLT). Not only did Lydia respond to the gospel, she opened her home so that others could come and hear it too. In many cases it’s easier to reach successful people with the gospel. Why? Because they know that to be successful you must be open to new ideas and concepts. And they understand that in order to enjoy continued success, you must stay open to change. Don’t let the fact that someone is not your social peer keep you from telling them about Jesus. Note the words, ‘As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart.’ It’s your job to tell them, and it’s God’s job to open their heart! So sow the seed of His Word into their life when you have an opportunity, and believe that the ‘Lord of the harvest’ will do the rest.

Hab 1-3
Rev 12

UCB The Word For Today

     Driven into Pennsylvania by the British, it was on this day, December 19, in the freezing winter of 1777, that the Continental Army set up camp at Valley Forge. Lacking supplies, soldiers died at the rate of twelve per day. General Washington, who was seen kneeling in prayer in the snow, recorded: “To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes, by which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet… and at Christmas taking up their… quarters within a day’s march of the enemy… is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled.”

American Minute

     Chapter 19  December 19

     Tell Betty that if you hadn't whisked me off onto the subject of repentance, I was just going to say the very thing she blames me for not saying. I was going to say that in adoration, more than in any other kind of prayer, the public or communal act is of the utmost importance. One would lose incomparably more by being prevented from going to church on Easter than on Good Friday. And, even in private, adoration should be communal-"with angels and archangels and all the company," all the transparent publicity of Heaven. On the other hand, I find that the prayers to which I can most fully attend in church are always those I have most often used in my bedroom.

     I deny, with some warmth, the charge of being "choosy about services." My whole point was that any form will do me if only I'm given time to get used to it. The idea of allowing myself to be put off by mere inadequacy-an ugly church, a gawky server, a badly turned-out celebrant-is horrible. On the contrary, it constantly surprises me how •little these things matter, as if

  never anything can be amiss
  When simpleness and duty tender it.

     One of the golden Communions of my life was in a Nissen hut. Sometimes the cockney accent of a choir has a singularly touching quality. A tin mug for a chalice, if there were good reason for it, would not distress me in the least. (I wonder what sort of crockery was used at the Last Supper?)

     You ask me why I've never written anything about the Holy Communion. For the very simple reason that I am not good enough at Theology. I have nothing to offer. Hiding any light I think I've got under a bushel is not my besetting sin! I am much more prone to prattle unseasonably. But there is a point at which even I would gladly keep silent. The trouble is that people draw conclusions even from silence. Someone said in print the other day that I seemed to "admit rather than welcome" the sacraments.

     I wouldn't like you and Betty to think the same. But as soon as I try to tell you anything more, I see another reason for silence. It is almost impossible to state the negative effect which certain doctrines have on me-my failure to be nourished by them-without seeming to mount an attack against them. But the very last thing I want to do is to unsettle in the mind of any Christian, whatever his denomination, the concepts-for him traditional-by which he finds it profitable to represent to himself what is happening when he receives the bread and wine. I could wish that no definitions had ever been felt to be necessary; and, still more, that none had been allowed to make divisions between churches.

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.
--- Charlotte Elliott

                What to Concentrate On

     I came not to send peace, but a sword. --- Matthew 10:34.

     Never be sympathetic with the soul whose case makes you come to the conclusion that God is hard. God is more tender than we can conceive, and every now and again He gives us the chance of being the rugged one that He may be the tender One. If a man cannot get through to God it is because there is a secret thing he does not intend to give up—‘I will admit I have done wrong, but I no more intend to give up that thing than fly.’ It is impossible to deal sympathetically with a case like that: we have to get right deep down to the root until there is antagonism and resentment against the message. People want the blessing of God, but they will not stand the thing that goes straight to the quick.

     If God has had His way with you, your message as His servant is merciless insistence on the one line, cut down to the very root, otherwise there will be no healing. Drive home the message until there is no possible refuge from its application. Begin to get at people where they are until you get them to realize what they lack, and then erect the standard of Jesus Christ for their lives—‘We never can be that!’ Then drive it home: ‘Jesus Christ says you must.’ ‘But how can we be?’ ‘You cannot, unless you have a new Spirit’ (Luke 11:13).

     There must be a sense of need before your message is of any use. Thousands of people are happy without God in this world. If I was happy and moral till Jesus came, why did He come? Because that kind of happiness and peace is on a wrong level; Jesus Christ came to send a sword through every peace that is not based on a personal relationship to Himself.

My Utmost for His Highest

                Directions

          1

In this desert of language
     we find ourselves in,
with the sign-post with the word 'God'
     worn away
     and the distance ...?

Pity the simpleton
     with his mouth open crying:
          How far is it to God?

And the wiseacre says: Where you were,
friend.
     You know that smile
          glossy
as the machine that thinks it has outpaced
     belief?
          I am one of those
who sees from the arms opened
     to embrace the future
the shadow of the Cross fall
     on the smoothest of surfaces
          causing me to stumble.

The Poems of R.S. Thomas

     God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. --- Acts 17:27.

     That there is much more near us than we understand or know, that we are every hour on the brink of doing things and being things that we never do or are gives life a restlessness and inspiration.  Phillips Brooks, “The Nearness of God,” downloaded from the Web site The Unofficial Episcopal Preaching Resource Page, at www.edola.org/clergy/episcopalpreaching.html, accessed Aug. 21, 2001.  We seem to ourselves, sometimes, like people who walk in the dark up and down a large, richly furnished house.

     There comes in life to most people a sense of fumbling, a consciousness of this vague living in the dark. And out of it there come the universal characteristics of the human race—the unquenched hope, the sense that nothing is quite impossible, the self-pity and pathos with which people regard their own lives when they are thoughtful, the self-reproach that lies in wait just under the surface of our complacent vanity. All of these come from people vaguely knowing that they are always missing the things that they need most, things lying in the dark that they cannot see.

     And suppose it were possible for a being with a sight that could see through the darkness to watch our fumbling. What would his feeling be about this humanity forever missing helps and chances it needed, often only by a finger’s breadth? How solemn his sight of us would be! He saw how hearts came and went in this world, always just touching on, just missing, the great comforting truths of a personal immortality, till Christ with his Gospel brought it to light. He has seen how souls have gone through life burdened, distressed, perplexed, when the river flowed so close that it seemed as if they could not move without finding their hot and tired souls bathed in its rich waters—the faith they wanted, the Water of Life that their deaths were crying out for.

     What must be the feeling of such a being about human life? Pity and awe. A blended sense of the vast endowment humanity has and, at the same time, of the terrible thing it is to miss so much. There is not merely pity for the sinner who can be so wicked, but reverence for the child of God who might be so good, blended into that perfect unity of saving love with which Jesus stoops to lift even the vilest and most insignificant of us out of our sin.
--- Phillips Brooks

Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

     Hugh Latimer, English Reformer, was asked to preach on December 19, 1529 at St. Edward’s in Cambridge. The students loved playing cards, so Latimer decided to preach about the cards God deals us, using the example of John the Baptist. He suggested that we must all answer the question the Jews asked John—Who are you? Without Christ, the answer is: “I am under condemnation because of sin.” But through repentance and forgiveness, we can answer, “I am a Christian.” Then as we study the New Testament, it is like turning over cards, one at a time, to learn how God wants us to live.

     Latimer ascended the little hexagonal pulpit in the church on December 19. His clear voice pealed out the Scripture in Latin, translated it into English, then plunged into his sermon.

     A friar named Buckenham preached a counter sermon using the idea of a pair of dice. He called it “Cinque-quatre”—Five, Four—saying that God’s dice have landed with five on one and four on the other. He attacked the Reformation using five Scripture passages and four church doctors: Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. Buckenham ridiculed Latimer’s call for an English translation of Scripture. “The common man will not understand the figurative language of Scripture,” Buckenham asserted. For example, when the Bible speaks of plucking out one’s eye, some may do it literally.

     Latimer assured Buckenham that the English were smart enough to understand metaphors. To laughter, he said, “For example, when a painter pictures a fox in a friar’s cowl, no one supposes an actual fox preaching. What he means is the hypocrisy, craft, and subtle dissimulation that often lie hidden in a friar’s cowl.”

     John Foxe later said: Friar Buckenham with this sermon was so dashed that never after he durst peep out of the pulpit against Master Latimer.

     Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life.
--- Romans 5:9,10.

On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

     Human Beings Become Human
     Because God Became Human

     The figure of Jesus Christ takes shape in human beings. Human beings do not take on an independent form of their own. Rather, what gives them form and maintains them in their new form is always and only the figure of Jesus Christ himself. It is therefore not an imitation, not a repetition of his form, but their own form that takes shape in human beings. Human beings are not transformed into a form that is foreign to them, not into the form of God, but into their own form, a form that belongs to them, not into the form of God, but into their own form, a form that belongs to them and is essential to them. Human beings become human because God became human, but human beings do not become God. They could not and cannot bring about that change in their form, but God himself changes his form into human form, so that human beings -- though not becoming God -- can become human.

     In Christ the form of human beings before God was created anew. It was not a matter of place, of time, of climate, of race, of the individual, of society, of religion, or of taste, but rather a question of the life of humanity itself that it recognized in Christ its image and its hope. What happened to Christ happened to humanity.

     The whole Christian story is strange. Frederick Buechner describes the Incarnation as "a kind of vast joke whereby the creator of the ends of the earthcomes among us in diapers." He concludes, "Until we too have taken the idea of the God-man seriously enough to be scandalized by it, we have not taken it as seriously as it demands to be taken.

     But we have taken the idea as seriously as a child can. America is far from spiritually monolithic, but the vast backdrop of our culture is Christian, and for most of us it is the earliest faith we know. The "idea of the God-man" is not strange or scandalous, because it first swam in milk and butter on the top of our oatmeal decades ago. At that age, many things were strange, though most were more immediately palpable. A God-filled baby in a pile of straw was a plesant image, but somewhat theoretical compared with the heart-stopping exhilaration of a visit from Santa Claus. The way a thunderstorm ripped the night sky, the hurtling power of the automobile Daddy drove so bravely, the rapture of ice cream -- how could the distant Incarnation compare with those?

     We grew up with the Jesus story, until we outgrew it. The last day we walked out of Sunday School may be the last day we seriously engaged this faith.

At the Corner of East and Now: A Modern Life in Ancient Christian Orthodoxy

     "The Government upon the Shoulders of a Child," Christmas 1940

(1 Co 1:11–12) 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

     “A great crisis experience of Jesus Christ, as important and eternally valuable as this is, is not a shortcut to emotional health. It is not a quickie cure for personality problems.”

      “Isn’t it true that by their fruits ye shall know them? (Matt. 7:16) Yes, but it is also true that by their roots you shall understand, and not judge them.”

Healing for Damaged Emotions (David Seamands Series)

     The Bible opens up a whole new world to its readers; one with which it often finds itself unfamiliar. The biblical world is populated by spiritual beings-angels, cherubim, demons and monsters. Because our own world is so different from the ancient one, we will have trouble appreciating the horror that these images aroused in those who heard about them. The ancient Near Eastern cultural background to the imagery of the Bible is particularly evident in its references to monsters.
     In the Old Testament three terms are found for monsters that symbolize the threat to the divine order of the world: Leviathan (liwyātān), Rahab (rahab) and dragon or sea monster (tannîn). Rahab (boisterous one) is not found in any text outside the Bible; the biblical parallels suggest it is another name for Leviathan. Leviathan is described as the coiling and twisting serpent (Is 27:1), as is Rahab (Job 26:12–13); Rahab is also parallel to dragon (Is 51:9), a term also used for Leviathan in Isaiah 27:1. This imagery is significant for understanding biblical language about creation, God’s wars against the nations, and the ultimate conflict that will lead to a new created order.
     The Threat of the Sea Monster. In the ancient Near East a monster is a common symbol to represent a watery chaos that threatens life in the world. The chaos monster is variously depicted as a composite creature (half lion and half eagle), as a serpent or as a seven-headed monster. In a cylinder seal from Mari in the Akkadian Period (2350–2150 B.C.), a god (possibly El) is seated on a mountain in the midst of the sources of the two oceans. Two goddesses embodying vegetation rise out of the two rivers that originate at the foot of the mountain, while another god (possibly Baal-Hadad, god of the storm) combats the unruly waters with his spear. In a Syrian cylinder seal (18th-17th centuries B.C.) the tree of life, depicting the world, is attacked by a chaos serpent, which is killed by Baal-Hadad as he strides over the mountains brandishing a mace. In a Hittite limestone relief the coiled fiery serpent, whose body depicts the breaking of the mighty waves, is attacked by the god of storm and fertility with the help of the celestial rain gods. In a gray stone cylinder seal from the Akkadian period, two gods attack a seven-headed dragon; three of the seven heads are limp, one is being attacked, and three other heads hiss dangerously. The flames rising from the dragon’s back indicate that he simultaneously symbolizes searing heat and destructive masses of water.
     In Egypt the monstrous serpent Apophis is the embodiment of the dark sea, the Evening clouds and the Morning haze. A papyrus of the twenty-first dynasty (1085–950 B.C.) portrays the sun god Re at the point of leaving the sky; a serpent stylized as wild waves pits himself against Re but is rendered harmless by Seth, the helper of Re. Helpful jackal and cobra demons draw the ship of the sun across the sluggish floods of the netherworld. In the ancient Near East the empirical world points beyond its superficial reality to spheres of divine intensive life and bottomless devastating lostness. The symbolism of the chaos threat indicates that there was no ultimate basis for security in the present sphere of existence.
     The ancient Near Eastern depictions of creation provide a background for its iconography and language. The Egyptian view is known only from fragments in the alien setting of texts of the dead or from hymns and similar texts. There are numerous and varied Egyptian conceptions of creation from the primal sea, the Nun, which was unbounded, unmoved and full of potential fertility without being creative. Four pairs of gods, whose names vary, embody the world before creation: unboundedness, lightlessness, timelessness and nothingness. All take part in creating from the sea, beginning with a first piece of firm land, the “primal hill.” In another version a god flew over the water in the form of a bird and laid the primal egg upon it. Very little is said about the creation of humans, other than that they arose out of the creators’ tears.
     The Akkadian creation epic Enu̱ma elish (“When on High”), consisting of almost 900 lines on seven tablets, introduces us to the battle with chaos in creation. It first reports the creation of the gods by the primal couple Apsuï (primeval sweet-water ocean) and Tiaïmat (salt water ocean), whose waters mingled in an immense undefined mass. The uproar among the younger gods robbed aged Apsuï of his repose, and he decides to destroy them; but he encounters the opposition of Tiaïmat. Apsuï is killed, and Tiaïmat then seeks to take vengeance for her consort. Marduk enters into combat with Tiaïmat and out of her slain body creates the cosmos, the heavens and the earth. As the reward for his victory, he is made lord over the gods and the cosmos. In this version of creation the primeval waters are a dangerous and threatening force.
     A variation of the battle with the sea is found in the Ugaritic Baal myth (c. 15th century B.C.). The reconstruction of the epic is uncertain due to the fragmentary state of the tablets, but it seems to consist of six tablets that follow the cycle of Baal according to the annual seasons, beginning in the fall. If this is correct, Baal, the god of the storm and fertility, loses his rule to Yam (sea), the god of the winter storms. Baal enters into battle with Yam, gains the victory and builds a palace for his rule, providing for the spring rains. Baal then succumbs to Mot (death), the season of summer heat and harvest. Finally Baal escapes the realm of the netherworld and again ascends his throne at the time of the new year. The new year is a microcosmic reflection of the first day of creation and may be regarded as a repetition of the conquering of the primordial chaos.
     Myth and ritual in the ancient Near East in similar ways portray the threat of chaos to the ordered fertility of creation. It is possible that elements of the Baal myth have influenced the Babylonian epic of creation, which is a composite of various influences. Various similarities exist between Baal’s battle with the sea and the battle of Marduk with Tiaïmat: both incorporate elements of the storm, and the name Marduk seems to have the meaning “son of the storm.” In the Syrian (Ugaritic) texts there is no mention of the splitting of the sea or the creating of heaven and earth out of it as in the Mesopotamian epic. The sea is considered a continuous danger in present times, as it was when the world was created; the enemy is presently an entity on earth. It is this distinct language and imagery of the Ugaritic texts that is found in the Bible to describe God’s providence in creation.

Dictionary of Biblical Imagery

          Morning - December 19

     “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." Proverbs 16:33.

     If the disposal of the lot is the Lord’s whose is the arrangement of our whole life? If the simple casting of a lot is guided by him, how much more the events of our entire life—especially when we are told by our blessed Saviour: “The very hairs of your head are all numbered: not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father.” It would bring a holy calm over your mind, dear friend, if you were always to remember this. It would so relieve your mind from anxiety, that you would be the better able to walk in patience, quiet, and cheerfulness as a Christian should. When a man is anxious he cannot pray with faith; when he is troubled about the world, he cannot serve his Master, his thoughts are serving himself. If you would “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” all things would then be added unto you. You are meddling with Christ’s business, and neglecting your own when you fret about your lot and circumstances. You have been trying “providing” work and forgetting that it is yours to obey. Be wise and attend to the obeying, and let Christ manage the providing. Come and survey your Father’s storehouse, and ask whether he will let you starve while he has laid up so great an abundance in his garner? Look at his heart of mercy; see if that can ever prove unkind! Look at his inscrutable wisdom; see if that will ever be at fault. Above all, look up to Jesus Christ your Intercessor, and ask yourself, while he pleads, can your Father deal ungraciously with you? If he remembers even sparrows, will he forget one of the least of his poor children? “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

     My soul, rest happy in thy low estate,
     Nor hope nor wish to be esteem’d or great;
     To take the impress of the Will Divine,
     Be that thy glory, and those riches thine.


          Evening - December 19

     “And there was no more sea.” --- Revelation 21:1.

     Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean: the new heavens and the new earth are none the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, literally there is to be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly shores. Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the prejudice with which the Oriental mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea it is mournful to imagine, it would be an iron ring without the sapphire which made it precious. There must be a spiritual meaning here. In the new dispensation there will be no division—the sea separates nations and sunders peoples from each other. To John in Patmos the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work: there shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling billows lie between us and many a kinsman whom to-night we prayerfully remember, but in the bright world to which we go there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea. The sea is the emblem of change; with its ebbs and flows, its glassy smoothness and its mountainous billows, its gentle murmurs and its tumultuous roarings, it is never long the same. Slave of the fickle winds and the changeful moon, its instability is proverbial. In this mortal state we have too much of this; earth is constant only in her inconstancy, but in the heavenly state all mournful change shall be unknown, and with it all fear of storm to wreck our hopes and drown our joys. The sea of glass glows with a glory unbroken by a wave. No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of paradise. Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings, and changes, and storms shall be ended! Jesus will waft us there. Are we in him or not? This is the grand question.

Morning and Evening

          WHILE BY OUR SHEEP

     German carol, Translated by Theodore Baker, 1851–1934

     The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:20)

     It was a cold, clear night. The stars twinkled above and an air of peaceful serenity settled calmly over the field outside of Bethlehem. The fire was burning low as the shepherds sprawled out to rest among their sheep. “What is the meaning of that star?” asked one of the younger boys. As some turned to look, the star seemed to sparkle with a glorious glow, almost hanging over Bethlehem. Then suddenly they were blinded by a brilliant light! They cried out in fright and hid their faces on the ground. The consoling voice of an angel calmed their spirits as they listened in rapture to the blessed announcement of the long-awaited Messiah. How great was their joy!

     Have you ever wondered why these simple, uncouth shepherds without wealth, power, or social position were the first to receive heaven’s glorious message? Prophecy foretold that salvation would be offered first to Israel. Thus the Jewish shepherds were allowed to adore the Savior before the arrival of the Gentile wise men. Perhaps the humble shepherds were also chosen to receive the angels’ message because God wanted to send His only Son to be associated with the seemingly unimportant of this world rather than among the proud and wealthy. Also God knew that these lowly shepherds would receive His news of salvation with open hearts and would return with great joy to share what they had heard and seen.

     Originating as it does from 17th century Germany, this vivid description of the first Christmas night reminds us of the various lands and cultures that have provided our many lovely carols, giving us a rich musical and spiritual heritage.

     While by our sheep we watched at night, glad tidings bro’t an angel bright:
     There shall be born, so he did say, in Bethlehem a Child today:
     There shall the Child lie in a stall, this Child who shall redeem us all:
     This gift of God we’ll cherish well—Jesus, our Lord Emmanuel:
     Refrain: How great our joy! (Great our joy!) Joy, joy, joy! (Joy, joy, joy!) Praise we the Lord in heav’n on high! (Praise we the Lord in heav’n on high!)

     For Today: Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 31:10; Luke 2:8–20

     Take your place with the shepherds when the heavenly announcement was given. Move with them to the manger and worship in awe. Return with the song of praise upon your lips (hear the gentle echo in the night’s stillness). Share your joy with others.

Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions

     2. It would make us diligent in worship. The consideration of God, as the Supreme Lord, is the foundation of all religion: “Our Father, which art in heaven,” prefaceth the Lord’s prayer; “Father” is a name of authority; “in heaven,” the place where he hath fixed his throne, notes his government; not “my Father,” but “our Father,” notes the extent of this authority. In all worship we acknowledge the object of our worship our Lord, and ourselves his vassals; if we bear a sense that he is our Sovereign King, it would draw us to him in every exigence, and keep us with him in a reverential posture, in every address; when we come, we should be careful not to violate his right, but render him the homage due to his royalty. We should not appear before him with empty souls, but filled with holy thoughts: we should bring him the best of our flock, and present him with the prime of our strength; were we sensible we hold all of him, we should not withhold anything from him which is more worthy than another. Our hearts would be framed into an awful regard of him, when we consider that glorious and “fearful name, the Lord our God” (Deut. 28:58). We should look to our feet when we enter into his house; if we considered him in heaven upon his throne, and ourselves on earth at his footstool (Eccles. 5:2), lower before him than a worm before an angel, it would hinder garnishness and lightness. The Jews, saith Capel, on 1 Tim. 1:17, repeat this expression, מלך העולם, King of worlds, or Eternal King; probably the first original of it might be to stake them down from wandering. When we consider the majesty of God, clothed with a robe of light, sitting upon his high throne, adorned with his royal ensigns, we should not enter into the presence of so great a Majesty with the sacrifice of fools, with light motions and foolish thoughts, as if he were one of our companions to be drolled with. We should not hear his word as if it were the voice of some ordinary peasant. The consideration of majesty would engender reverence in our service; it would also make us speak of God with honor and respect, as of a great and glorious king, and not use defaming expressions of him, as if he were an infamous being. And were he considered as a terrible majesty, he would not be frequently solicited by some to pronounce a damnation upon them upon every occasion.

     3. It would make us charitable to others. Since he is our Lord, the great Proprietor of the world, it is fit he should have a part of our goods, as well as our time: he being the Lord both of our goods and time. The Lord is to be honored with our substance (Prov. 3:9); kings were not to be approached to without a present; tribute is due to kings: but because he hath no need of any from us to bear up his state, maintain the charge of his wars, or pay his military officers and hosts, it is a debt due to him to acknowledge him in his poor, to sustain those that are a part of his substance; though he stands in no need of it himself, yet the poor, that we have always with us, do; as a seventh part of our weekly time, so some part of our weekly gains, are due to him. There was to be a weekly laying by in store somewhat of what God had prospered them, for the relief of others (1 Cor. 16:1, 2); the quantity is not determined, that is left to every man’s conscience, “according as God hath prospered him” that week. If we did consider God as the Donor and Proprietor, we should dispose of his gifts according to the design of the true owner, and act in our places as stewards entrusted by him, and not purse up his part, as well as our own, in our coffers. We should not deny him a small quit rent, as an acknowledgement that we have a greater income from him; we should be ready to give the inconsiderable pittance he doth require of us, as an acknowledgment of his propriety, as well as liberality.

     4. It would make us watchful, and arm us against all temptations. Had Eve stuck to her first argument against the serpent, she had not been instrumental to that destruction which mankind yet feel the smart of (Gen. 3:3): “God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it;” the great Governor of the world hath laid his sovereign command upon us in this point. The temptation gained no ground till her heart let go the sense of this for the pleasure of her eye and palate. The repetition of this, the great Lord of the world hath said or ordered, had both unargumented and disarmed the tempter. A sense of God’s dominion over us would discourage a temptation, and put it out of countenance; it would bring us with a vigorous strength to beat it back to a retreat. If this were as strongly urged as the temptation, it would make the heart of the tempted strong, and the motion of the tempter feeble.

     5. It would make us entertain afflictions as they ought to be entertained, viz., with a respect to God. When men make light of any affliction from God, it is a contempt of his sovereignty, as to contemn the frown, displeasure, and check of a prince, is an affront to majesty: it is as if they did not care a straw what God did with them, but dare him to do his worst. There is a “despising the chastening of the Almighty” (Job 5:17). To be unhumbled under his hand, is as much, or more, affront to him, than to be impatient under it. Afflictions must be entertained as a check from heaven, as a frown from the great Monarch of the world; under the feeling of every stroke, we are to acknowledge his sovereignty and bounty; to despise it, is to make light of his authority over us; as to despise his favors is to make light of his kindness to us. A sense of God’s dominion would make us observe every check from him, and not diminish his authority by casting off a due sense of his correction.

     6. This dominion of God would make us resign up ourselves to God in everything. He that considers himself a thing made by God, a vassal under his authority, would not expostulate with him, and call him to an account why he hath dealt so or so with him. It would stab the vitals of all pleas against him. We should not then contest with him, but humbly lay our cause at his feet, and say with Eli, (1 Sam. 3:18), “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good.” We should not commence a suit against God, when he doth not answer our prayers presently, and send the mercy we want upon the wings of the wind; he is the Lord, the Sovereign. The consideration of this would put an end to our quarrels with God; should I expect that the Monarch of the world should wait upon me; or I, a poor worm, wait upon him? Must I take state upon me before the throne of heaven, and expect the King of kings should lay by his sceptre, to gratify my humor? Surely Jonah thought God no more than his fellow, or his vassal, at that time when he told him to his face he did well to be angry, as though God might not do what he pleased with so small a thing as a gourd; he speaks as if he would have sealed a lease of ejectment, to exclude him from any propriety in anything in the world.

     7. This dominion of God would stop our vain curiosity. When Peter was desirous to know the fate of John, the beloved disciple, Christ answereth no more than this: (John 21:22), “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” Consider your duty, and lay aside your curiosity, since it is my pleasure not to reveal it. The sense of God’s absolute dominion would silence many vain disputes in the world. What if God will not reveal this or that? the manner and method of his resolves should humble the creature under intruding inquiries.

     Use V. Of exhortation.

     1. The doctrine of the dominion of God may teach us humility. We are never truly abased, but by the consideration of the eminence and excellency of the Deity. Job never thought himself so pitiful a thing, so despicable a creature, as after God’s magnificent declamation upon the theme of his own sovereignty (Job 42:5, 6). When God’s name is regarded as the most excellent and sovereign name in all the earth, then is the soul in the fittest temper to lie low; and cry out, What is man, that so great a Majesty should be mindful of him? When Abraham considers God as the supreme Judge of all the earth, he then owns “himself but dust and ashes” (Gen. 18:25, 27). Indeed, how can vile and dusty man vaunt before God, when angels, far more excellent creatures, cannot stand before him, but with a veil on their faces? How little a thing is man in regard of all the earth! How mean a thing is the earth in regard of the vaster heavens!

     How poor a thing is the whole world in comparison of God! How pitiful a thing is man, if compared with so excellent a Majesty! There is as great a distance between God and man, as between being and not being; and the more man considers the Divine royalty, the more disesteem he will have of himself; it would make him stoop and disrobe himself, and fall low before the throne of the King of kings, throwing down before his throne any crown he gloried in (Rev. 4:10).

     (1). In regard of authority. How unreasonable is pride in the presence of majesty! How foolish is it for a country justice of peace to think himself as great as his prince that commissioned him! How unreasonable is pride in the presence of the greatest sovereignty! What, is human greatness before Divine? The stars discover no light when the sun appears, but in a humble posture withdraw in their lesser beams, to give the sole glory of enlightening the world to the sun, who is, as it were, the sovereign of those stars, and imparts a light unto them. The greatest prince is infinitely less, if compared with God, than the meanest scullion in his kitchen can be before him. As the wisdom, goodness, and holiness of a man is a mere mote compared to the goodness and holiness of God, so is the authority of a man a mere trifle in regard of the sovereignty of God: and who but a simple child would be proud of a mote or trifle? Let man be as great as he can, and command others, he is still a subject to One greater than himself. Pride would then vanish like smoke at the serious consideration of this sovereignty. One of the kings of this country did very handsomely shame the flattery of his courtiers, that cried him up as lord of sea and land, by ordering his chair to be set on the sand of the sea shore, when the tide was coming in, and commanding the waters not to touch his feet, which when they did without any regard to his authority, he took occasion thereby to put his flatterers out of countenance, and instruct himself in a lesson of humility. [See,] saith he, [how I rule all things, when so mean a thing as the water will not obey me!] It is a ridiculous pride that the Turk and Persian discover in their swelling titles. What poor sovereigns are they, that cannot command a cloud, give out an effectual order for a drop of rain, in a time of drought, or cause the bottles of heaven to turn their mouth another way in a time of too much moisture! Yet their own prerogatives are so much in their minds, that they jostle out all thoughts of the supreme prerogative of God, and give thereby occasion to frequent rebellions against him.

     (2). In regard of propriety. And this doctrine is no less an abatement of pride in the highest, as well as in the meanest; it lowers pride in point of propriety, as well as in point of authority. Is any proud of his possessions? how many lords of those possessions have gone before you! how many are to follow you! Your dominion lasts but a short time, too short to be a cause of any pride and glory in it. God by a sovereign power can take you from them, or them from you, when he pleaseth. The traveller refresheth himself in the heat of summer under a shady tree; how many have done so before him the same day he knows not, and how many will have the benefit after before night comes, he is as much ignorant of; he, and the others that went before him and follow after him, use it for their refreshment, but none of them can say, that they are the lords of it; the property is invested in some other person, whom perhaps they know not. The propriety of all you have is in God, not truly in yourselves. Doth not that man deserve scorn from you, who will play the proud fool in gay clothes and attire, which are known to be none of his own, but borrowed? Is it not the same case with every proud man, though he hath a property in his goods by the law of the land? Is anything you have your own truly? Is it not lent you by the great Lord? Is it not the same vanity in any of you, to be proud of what you have as God’s loan to you, as for such a one to be proud of what he hath borrowed of man? And do you not make yourselves as ridiculous to angels and good men, who know that though it is yours in opposition to man, yet it is not yours in opposition to God? they are granted you only for your use, as the collar of esses and sword, and other ensigns of the chief magistrate in the city, pass through many hands in regard of the use of them, but the propriety remains in the community and body of the city: or as the silver plate of a person that invites you to a feast is for your use during the time of the invitation. What ground is there to be proud of those things you are not the absolute lords and proprietors of, but only have the use of them granted to you during the pleasure of the Sovereign of the world!

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