Late Night Reflections on the Gospel

This week I have been trying to start each day thinking on and soaking in the gospel. Last Saturday at our monthly PC Wives meeting, Julie Purswell shared on spiritual disciplines. It was excellent! Very encouraging, inspiring, and challenging! She shared that often times in the past, her struggles have stemmed from being to self-focused, and not gospel-focused. The gospel should always leave us with hope! She even gave all the ladies a copy of A Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent! Then, the very next day, Jeff Purswell, her husband and dean of the PC, spoke at church on 1Cor. 15:1-11 (v.3,4) "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures..." He did an excellent job in reminding us that the gospel is: essential, unchanging, and transforming! My heart was freshly awakened to the power of the gospel and its necessity in my life everyday!

Then one day this week I read in Valley of Vision a reminder, once again, of the gospel. This puritans words have truly become the cry of my heart as well.

Grant me to hear thy voice assuring me:

that by thy stripes I am healed,

that thou wast bruised for my iniquities,

that thou hast been made sin for me

that I might be righteous in thee,

that all my grievous sins, my manifold sins,

are all forgiven,

buried in the ocean of thy concealing blood.

I am guilty, but pardoned,

lost, but saved,

wandering, but found,

sinning, but cleansed.

Keep me always clinging to the cross.

My "trials" in light of the cross, don't look like much, and remind me that if the One who lives inside me can conquer sin and death, he can most certainly handle any and all of my situations.

"Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!" (2Cor. 9:15).

"...yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me." 1Cor. 15:10b)