Borrowed Light

Taking Off Our Fancy Dress

December 11, 2010Mike Leake

My God! how perfect are thy ways!

But mine polluted are;

Sin twines itself about my praise,

And slides into my prayer.

When I would speak what thou hast done

To save me from my sin;

I cannot make thy mercies known

But self–applause creeps in.

Divine desire, that holy flame

Thy grace creates in me;

Alas! impatience is its name,

When it returns to thee.

This heart, a fountain of vile thoughts,

How does it overflow?

While self upon the surface floats

Still bubbling from below.

Let others in the gaudy dress

Of fancied merit shine;

The LORD shall be my righteousness

The LORD for ever mine.

Olney Hymns, Hymn 67, from Jeremiah 23:6

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This is a great hymn (poem) from Newton. The reason that Newton trust so deeply in “the Lord my righteousness” is because he has experienced so deeply his depravity.

In that third stanza Newton is saying that God gives him a holy desire, but when Newton gets his hands on the thing it quickly turns into impatience. Pastors especially should take this stanza to heart. It is a holy desire to see our churches become enamored with Christ. But so often this holy desire turns into impatience when people do not “get it” as quickly as we wished. At the end of the day our only hope is in the Lord’s righteousness given to us.

What a wonderfully horrendous picture is painted in the fifth stanza: “the gaudy dress of fancied merit”. How often do we try to paint ourselves in such a wonderful light when in reality we have self “still bubbling from below”. Newton would rather be stripped bare and only have the Lord’s righteousness.

Let us today cast off this “gaudy dress of fancied merit” and trust in the Lord alone.

The Most Important “Element” of a Worship Service

December 10, 2010Mike Leake 2 Comments

“What any people must have is the presence of the living God. It is not enough in any church simply to have the right rituals and the right sermons and the right kind of music. If God does not manifest himself in some way, if he is not present, then what is the point of the whole exercise? Is religion merely some sort of structured ritual heritage? Or is it bound up with being reconciled to the God who made us, who holds us to account?” (D.A. Carson, The God Who is There, 67)

Yes. Amen and Amen. Makes me wonder why we have such a disproportionate amount of time spent in prayer.

If God doesn’t “manifest himself in some way” it would have probably been better for our people to have stayed home and watched Hee-Haw. May this encourage me, as a pastor, to have absolute dependence upon the Lord.