Ave Redemptor, Sancte Redemptor

Ave redemptor, Domine Jesus:
Cuius ob opus
Superatur mors, enim salvatio
Nunc inundavit super universam terram.

Sancte redemptor, reputata
Fides est nobis peccatoribus,
Nunc et in morte, ad iustitiam.

- Ave Redemptor

On Christology, Union With Christ And Glorification

‎So I hold out my arms to my Redeemer, who, having been foretold for four thousand years, has come to suffer and to die for me on earth, at the time and under all the circumstances foretold. By His grace, I await death in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to Him. Yet I live with joy, whether in the prosperity which it pleases Him to bestow upon me, or in the adversity which He sends for my good, and which He has taught me to bear by His example.

- Blaise Pascal, Pensées, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (Great Britain: Penguin Group, 1966), #737.

On Grace, Worship And Love

I was blessed to remember this hymn.

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief to bear!

What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer.

O what a peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear

All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer!

- Joseph Scriven, "What A Friend We Have in Jesus," 1855.

C.f. Jesus' words to his disciples:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

- John 15:16f

On Sin And Grace

"Who O Lord could save themselves -their own soul could heal? Our shame was deeper than the sea, Your grace is deeper still..."

On Perseverance

"great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me"

On Longing, Satisfaction, And Love

My soul today is thirsting for living streams divine,
To sweep from highest Heaven to this poor heart of mine;
I stand upon the promise, in Jesus’ Name I plead;
O send the gracious current to satisfy my need.

Like a mighty sea, like a mighty sea,
Comes the love of Jesus sweeping over me;
The waves of glory roll, the shouts I can’t control;
Comes the love Jesus sweeping o’er my soul.

- A.I. Zelley and Henry L. Gilmour, "Like A Mighty Sea"

On Worship And Theology Of The Cross

May the words of Christ be on hearts and on our lips. Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his 1life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 16:24f).

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee

E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me

Still all my song would be nearer, my God, to thee

- Sarah F. Adams (1805-1848)

On Joy, Worship, And God

‎"This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

- Psalm 118:24

On Trinitarianism And Islam

Whenever I hear people say, "Christians and Muslims worship the same God," I think to myself:

This not only offends me but it should also deeply offend Muslims.

I am tired of hearing this claim. And anyone who tries to throw this out is simply lazy or ignorant. Christianity, in its very essence, is Trinitarian. A Muslim should be extraordinarily offended that Christians believe in one God in three persons. Namely while Christians sing praises, "God in three persons -blessed Trinity." Muslim's should be shouting, "Shirk!"

On Suffering, Sovereignty And Worship

In heaven will we sing songs about suffering and pain? Piper argues that suffering and sovereignty are at the very essence of worship because they are at the very essence of the cross. Therefore, indeed, there will songs about suffering and pain -especially in heaven.

"Good Friday did not happen to be forgotten..."

- John Piper, "The Supremacy of Christ in Suffering" May 8, 2010

On Holiness, Glory And The Trinity

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,

Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,

Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;

Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,

Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;

Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!

God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

- Reginald Heber, "Holy, Holy, Holy," 1826.

On The Glory of Christ

1 Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!


Sing, O Earth, His wonderful love proclaim!


Hail Him! hail Him! highest archangels in glory;


Strength and honor give to His holy Name!


Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children,


In His arms He carries them all day long: 



Refrain:


Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness.


Praise Him! Praise Him! Ever in joyful song! 



2 Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!


For our sins He suffered, and bled, and died.


He our Rock, our hope of eternal salvation,


Hail Him! hail Him! Jesus the Crucified.


Sound His praises! Jesus who bore our sorrows,


Love unbounded, wonderful, deep and strong. 



3 Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!


Heavenly portals loud with hosannas ring!


Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever.


Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet, and Priest, and King!


Christ is coming! over the world victorious,


Power and glory unto the Lord belong.

- Fanny J. Crosby 1869, comp. Chester G. Allen, "Praise Him!"

On The Glory Of Christ

Come, Thou long expected Jesus Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation,

Hope of all the earth Thou art;

Dear Desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,

Born a child and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever,

Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit,

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

- Charles Wesley (1707-1788), "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus"

On Good Hymns For Jesus, Our Worthy God and Saviour

To God be the glory, great things He hathdone;
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life, an atonement for sin,
And opened the lifegate, that all may go in.

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer, the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see!

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He hath done!

- Fanny J. Crosby, "To God Be The Glory," (1820-1915)

On Perseverance

I need reminders:

Jesus, keep me near the cross,

There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream
Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.

In the cross,in the cross,

Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find

Rest beyond the river.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,

Love and Mercy found me;

There the bright and morning star

Sheds its beams around me.

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,

Bring its scenes before me;

Help me walk from day to day,

With its shadows o’er me.

Near the cross I’ll watch and wait

Hoping, trusting ever,

Till I reach the golden strand,

Just beyond the river.

- Frances J. Crosby, "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross,"1869.

On The Love Of God

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!

What wondrous love is this, O my soul!

What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss

to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul!

to bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

- Alexander Means, "What Wondrous Love Is This?"

On War And Worship

Experience has a way of refining (not defining) theology. To experience suffering has a way of reascending the reality that theology is far more than an assortment of theory. And, that faith is no mere, mental ascent. It is one thing to understand, beleive and agree the Jesus' words:

"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it."

- Luke 9:23ff

Yet, it is another thing all together to have faith that leads to trust and obedience in times of trial and tribulation. I may agree with Jesus, for the sake of Him being God (and therefore He is infinitely true, good, beautiful, holy and loving), yet I may wince during times where I must literally deny myself. My flesh is weak. It is selfish and it struggles to deny Jesus of my devotion. My flesh seeks my comfort; it cheapens His suffering on the cross. To only be the inner, spiritual man. How much humility and mercy did the Jesus Christ my Lord live and die in the flesh. Sadhu Sundar Singh's anthem encourages me to press on:

The world behind me, the cross before me
The world behind me, the cross before me
The world behind me, the cross before me
No turning back, no turning back.

On Wisdom's Relation to the Torah: Creation and Redemption

In a recent article, C. Hassell Bullock argues that wisdom literature (along with the prophets) is "an affirmation of the fundamental moral principles of the torah . . . [Wisdom] is, indeed, the 'amen' of the Torah." What follows is a fragment that is worthy of reflection:

"the theological spokespersons of the OT were keenly aware that creation was the platform of the religions to the ancient Near East, and they could not permit those religions to abscond with the doctrine of creation and leave Israel with a truncated theology. Redemption, as central as it was in their thinking, was a privilege of none other than the Creator, a theme that Isaiah sounds, and one with which John prefaces his Gospel: only the creator God could redeem. Redemption presupposed ownership, so the doctrine of creation was the necessary complement to the doctrine of redemption. One wonders how the two doctrines could have stood apart. The Ten Commandments give witness to their complementarity by associating the LORD's Sabbath rest with both creation (Exod 20:11) and redemption (Deut 5:15). To restrict Israel's faith to redemption would have been to neglect God's claim on the world and would have been a restriction on redemption itself, for, in the final analysis, God's redeeming acts flow out of his creating acts."

- C. Hassell Bullock, "Wisdom, the 'Amen' of Torah," in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 52, no. 1 (2009).

On Humble Orthodoxy And True Orthopraxy

St. Augustine notes:

"That the Platonists, though knowing something of the Creator of the universe, have misunderstood the true worship of God, by giving divine honor to angels, good or bad: this being so, if the Platonists, or those who think with them, knowing God, glorified Him as God and gave thanks, if they did not become vain in their own thoughts, if they did not originate or yield to the popular errors, they would certainly acknowledge that neither could the blessed immortals retain, nor we miserable mortals reach, a happy condition without worshipping the one God of gods, who is both theirs and ours.

To Him we owe the service which is called in Greek Latreia (adoration), whether we render it outwardly or inwardly; for we are all His temple, each of us severally and all of us together, because He condescends to inhabit each individually and the whole harmonious body, being no greater in all than in each, since He is neither expanded nor divided.

Our heart when it rises to Him is His altar; the priest who intercedes for us is His Only-begotten; we sacrifice to Him bleeding victims when we contend for His truth even unto blood; to Him we offer the sweetest incense when we come before Him burning with holy and pious love; to Him we devote and surrender ourselves and His gifts in us; to Him, by solemn feasts and on appointed days, we consecrate the memory of His benefits, lest through the lapse of time ungrateful oblivion should steal upon us; to Him we offer on the altar of our heart the sacrifice of humility and praise, kindled by the fire of burning love.

It is that we may see Him, so far as He can be seen; it is that we may cleave to Him, that we are cleansed from all stain of sins and evil passions, and are consecrated in His name. For He is the fountain of our happiness, He the end of all our desires. Being attached to Him, or rather let me say, re-attached for we had detached ourselves and lost hold of Him; Being, I say, re-attached to Him, we tend towards Him by love, that we may rest in Him, and find our blessedness by attaining that end.

For our good, about which philosophers have so keenly contended, is nothing else than to be united to God. It is, if I may say as, by spiritually embracing Him that the intellectual soul is filled and impregnated with true virtues. We are enjoined to love this good with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength. To this good we ought to be led by those who love us, and to lead those we love.

Thus are fulfilled those two commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul;' and 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself' (Matt. 28:37-40). For, that man might be intelligent in his self-love, there was appointed for him an end to which he might refer all his actions, that he might be blessed. For who loves himself wishes nothing else than this. And the end set before him is 'to draw near to God' (Ps. 123:28). And so, when one who has this intelligent self-love is commanded to love his neighbor as himself, what else is enjoined than that he shall do all in his power to commend to him the love of God?

This is the worship of God, this is true religion, this is right piety, this the service due to God only. If any immortal power, then, no matter with what virtue endowed, loves us as himself, he must desire that we find our happiness by submitting ourselves to Him, in submission to whom he himself finds happiness. If he does not worship God, he is wretched, because deprived of God; if he worships God, he cannot wish to be worshipped in God's stead. On the contrary, these higher powers acquiesce heartily in the divine sentence in which it is written, 'He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed' (Ex. 22:20)."

- St. Augustin, The City of God, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. II ed. Philip Shaff (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), X: 3.