Dear Friends, This week’s “thought” expresses one of the repeated themes of the New Testament, even though the author uses an Old Testament verse as his starting point. Of course, since the entire Old Testament in some way points forward to Him, and the entire New Testament either points back to Him, or forward to His 2nd coming and eternal reign, it matters little! This selection captures a theme I have spoken on often – the importance of Jesus in our understanding of God. It is by Martin Copenhaver, and comes from his devotional book, “The Gospel in Miniature.” Enjoy. “For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night.” - from Exodus 40:34-38 “In this passage, the presence of God is described as a cloud. That image reminds me of a parishioner’s description of his concept of God as, “a sacred blur.” When we recognize God in Jesus, however, that sacred blur is brought into stark, startling foc
Dear Friends, Today I send you a “thought” from a booklet (or lengthy 16 page tract from the 1600's!) that literally changed my life. And should you grasp what he says in it, it would change yours also. I had never seen the booklet before, nor even heard of it, until I was taking one of my doctoral classes with the well-known Christian author Jerry Bridges. In our first 3-hour-long class session, he had us read it (in the class), underline all the parts that spoke to us, and then discuss its content with his help and guidance. The problem (at least for me) was that by the time I was done reading it, 80% of the booklet was underlined! It was that good, and that jam-packed with insights and challenges to truly believe the gospel without polluting or distorting it. It was written by Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687) and was originally called, “Honey Out of the Rock” (now re-published by Chapel Library under the title “Christ is All” with a preface by Horatius Bonar). It is (despite the anti