The Wood's Secret Garden

http://songsandhymns.org/player/?hymn=ah-holy-jesus-how-hast-thou-offended The Lyrics to read as you listen: Ah, Holy Jesus Ah, holy Jesus, how hast Thou offended, That man to judge Thee hath in hate pretended? By foes derided, by Thine own rejected, O most afflicted. Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon Thee? Alas my treason, Jesus, hath undone Thee. ’Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied Thee. I crucified Thee. For me, kind Jesus, was Thy incarnation, Thy mortal sorrow, and Thy life’s oblation; Thy death of anguish and Thy bitter passion, For my salvation. Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered; The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered; For our atonement, while he nothing heedeth, God intercedeth. Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay Thee, I do adore Thee, and will ever pray Thee. Think on Thy pity and Thy love unswerving, Not my deserving.

Now this is a Valentine! Psalm 45 To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah; a love song. My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make...

How sweet and awful is the place With Christ within the doors While everlasting love displays The choicest of her stores. While all our hearts and all our songs Join to admire the feast Each of us cry with thankful tongues, “Lord, why was I a guest?” “Why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there’s room, When thousands make a wretched choice And rather starve than come?” ‘Twas the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in; Else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin Pity the nations, O our God, Constrain the earth to come; Send thy victorious Word abroad and bring the strangers home. We long to see thy churches full, that all the chosen race may with one voice and heart and soul sing thy redeeming grace. Isaac Watts

I think that we (the church) should give the world back their holiday. After studying early church history and the history of "Christmas" in both the church and the world, I have to ask myself, "how can an honest Christian want to be part of any of this man-made and man-centered holiday?". There is nothing wrong with celebrating the incarnation; but, to mix that celebration with this holiday is more than just compromising, it is hypocrisy. I think we kid ourselves when we think that we can avoid mixing our affections for Christ with our affections for all the other things that this holiday offers; and, that would include family. I think, if we are honest with ourselves, we like the things about Christmas that feed the flesh and we really do not want to give those things up, so we justify it. We love the "feeling" we get; we love the gifts under the tree; we love the idea of family being all together; we love the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes. Nothing ...

"No Confidence in the Flesh” a Biblical Reflection by John Hendryx In chapter 3 of The Epistle to the Philippians Paul gives us one of the best definitions of a Christian available in the Bible. He also contrasts this with the marks of false teachers. Paul begins the chapter by contrasting the wondrous gift of grace against the hopeless pit of sin. He warns the Philippians against false teachers; those, he says, who have confidence in themselves. That is, anyone who adds conditions for salvation, in addition to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul likens to Gentile dogs, those who fail to recognize that salvation is wholly of Jesus. But then in stark contrast to false teaching, Paul defines what a Christian looks like: "For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh" He calls true Christians “the real circumcision”, i.e. the true covenant people of God. Then he gives three characteristics of...

"Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name." —Psalm 100:4 "OUR Lord would have all His people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning His blessed person. Jesus is not content that His brethren should think meanly of Him; it is His pleasure that His espoused ones should be delighted with His beauty. We are not to regard Him as a bare necessary, like to bread and water, but as a luxurious delicacy, as a rare and ravishing delight. To this end He has revealed Himself as the "pearl of great price" in its peerless beauty, as the "bundle of myrrh" in its refreshing fragrance, as the "rose of Sharon" in its lasting perfume, as the "lily" in its spotless purity. As a help to high thoughts of Christ, remember the estimation that Christ is had in beyond the skies, where things are measured by the right standard. Think how God esteems the Only Begotten, His unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of Him, as they count i...

"Now, sometimes when you talk about God being a God of wrath, certain people get disturbed. And they don’t understand how God can be a God of anger and God can be a God of wrath and God can be a God of fury, a God of terror. But that’s because they don’t understand God. Let’s see if we can’t help ourselves to a deeper understanding of His wrath in perspective with all of His other attributes. God’s attributes are balanced in His divine perfection. And they are perfectly balanced. If God did not have wrath and God did not have anger then He would not be God. God is perfect in love, on the one hand, and He is equally perfect in hate, on the other hand. Just as totally as He loves, so totally does He hate. As His love is unmixed, so is His hate unmixed. Of Christ, it says in Hebrews 1:9, “Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.” And there is that perfect balance in the nature of God. As I mentioned, one of the tragedies of Christianity in our time is a failure to preach the...

"Instead of music allowing us an active, personal response to God's truth, it has become background noise--filler to keep us occupied while the offering plates are passed. Instead of elevating our thoughts of God beyond what we would or could do alone, it's a mindless routine we hardly notice. Instead of extracting us from the trappings of daily life and drawing our thoughts upward, it's a seventh-inning stretch just before the preaching. Instead of glorifying God, it's a stroke to the egos of a few performers. Instead of engaging our minds to the truth of who God is and what He has done, it's an emotional merry-go-round we jump on and off at will. But is the secret to making worship music more meaningful simply a matter of choosing older songs or a different style? Not necessarily. Martin Luther said music is a servant created and given by God. He was right . The music itself--the notes, the sounds, the rhythm--is merely a tool to help communicate truth. As lo...

Oh! put sin to death--for sin was the cause of Christ's death! If someone killed your father--would you hug him and embrace him as your friend, and let him eat at your table? Would you not rather hate and detest the very sight of him! If a snake should sting your dearly beloved spouse to death--would you preserve it alive, warm it at the fire, and hug it in your bosom? Would you not rather stab it with a thousand wounds! And were not our sins the cause and instrument of Christ's death? Were not they the whips that scourged Him; the nails, the cords, the spear, the thorns that wounded Him, and fetched the heart-blood from Him! And can we love our sins--which killed our Savior? Can a wife truly love her husband--and still embrace an adulterer? We complain of the sins of Judas, and seem to hate them, and shudder at their mention! And can we love our Judas sins--which put Christ to death? And yet how many are there--who had rather have sinful-self satisfied, than to have sinful-s...

"I used to know, years ago, a poor laboring man; he was a Methodist of the good old-fashioned school. I never met him, or spoke with him, without finding that, wherever he was, he was always singing. He was up in the morning at half-past five to get out to his farm work, and, he sang while he was dressing. He sang as he pulled on his corduroys, he sang as he put on his smock, he sang as he walked downstairs, he sang as he tramped off down the street, and he sang all day as he was at his work. He did not keep on singing while I was preaching, but he seemed almost as if he wanted to do that; and every now and then he would burst out with "Hallelujah!" or "Praise the Lord." He was so full of thanksgiving to God that he was obliged to give expression to his feelings sometimes even when it would have been more proper if he had kept quiet. He was one of the holiest men I ever knew, and I used to account very much for his simple gentleness, integrity, and happiness by...

Whole congregations bowed at the same moment beneath the mighty power of Divine truth, looking as with a single eye upon the realities of eternity, and feeling, as with a common emotion, the powers of the world to come; so that a thoughtless stranger, coming into the assembly, is made to feel as if, by stepping over the threshold of the house, he had passed the boundary-line between things seen and temporal and things unseen and eternal, and entered a region where though surrounded by thronging multitudes, he was left alone with God and his conscience—of scenes where hundreds of heart-stricken, anxious inquirers after salvation, just awakened from the long deep slumber of an unregenerate state, and musing on thoughts too deep for utterance, were asking by their looks, rather than their words, what they should do to be save. Whole churches blending their common and fervent supplications at the footstool of the divine throne, with such oneness of intense desire as caused them to feel tha...

Our problem is that we tend to fall to one extreme or the other. We can continue adding to our list and expanding our definitions of these attributes without ever engaging or responding to God. We perceive (and too often take pride in) that we are learning more and deepening our knowledge of God. Or we can take a cursory, superficial look at the list, nod our assent or dismiss the “head knowledge,” and seek an experience or emotional peak that is deeper than just mere words or doctrines. Both of these approaches start with a correct but incomplete perspective. One overvalues, the other undervalues God’s propositional revelation as a key part of His personal revelation. We need both His written Word and the incarnate Word. Unfortunately, the two extreme views often appear to be reactions to each other. Superficial disregard of doctrinal truth drives us to more emphasis on theological clarity. Cold, impersonal theological outlines seem unimportant and anemic compared to the pro...

As I arrived home from evening Communion, I was greeted by an email from a very beloved friend. In that email, he shared the highlights of his day; and, among those highlights, he shared a few verses from one of the hymns sung during his local churches worship service that the Lord had used to feed and bless his soul. Is it not lovely that one can praise and worship the Lord and then continue that praise and worship by sharing in a portion of another churches worship that very day? Now, that is such a beautiful example of the far reaching power of the body of Christ. After hearing him talk about the hymn (which I could not recall ever hearing) I looked it up and simply had to post it --in its entirety. What gifts our Lord has given to His church--a never ending fountain of beauty and grace to drink from. May He use it to bless many others as it has blessed me and provided another means in which to worship my Lord this evening. In Immanuel’s Land The sands of time are sinking, The...

When the American evangelist D. L. Moody spoke in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in October 1892, he recalled an earlier visit twenty-five years previously. He had come four thousand miles, he said, to hear C. H. Spurgeon, but what impressed him most was not the sermon, nor the singing of the great congregation, but Spurgeon’s prayer. Such was his access to God that he seemed to be able to bring down power from heaven. This was the great secret, Moody believed, of Spurgeon’s influence and success. Spurgeon came into the presence of God with deep reverence, yet with unquestioning child-like confidence, to plead God's promises in Scripture and to revel in the nearness to God into which Christ has brought all who believe. Following is just one of Spurgeon's prayers (from the book referenced at the close of this post). I would highly recommend the book to everyone; but, especially to Pastors. “Oh, to love the Saviour with a passion that can never cool; Oh, to believe in God with a con...

No longer intrigued by this dark passing world, His banner of love, over me, He unfurled. Protecting my soul by His sovereign divide Through the blood of His cross, spilled forth from His side. Crucified in my Jesus; all glory to Him Who ransomed my soul from destruction and sin. The world cannot have me—I belong to my King, Therefore I will praise Him; therefore I will sing. No glory I find in one thing I can do; With wondrous affection, His mercies are new. And look to the day that my faith will be sight— My perfection is sure, to my Father's delight. He sees me in Jesus, in glory so bright; And hidden in Him, I’m concealed in His light. Chosen to be with my lover and friend; And give Him the glory—to this be my end. Michael E. Wood 05/12/2009

Give me freedom to open the sorrows of thy people, and to set before them comforting considerations. Attend with power the truth preached, and awaken the attention of my slothful audience. May thy people be refreshed, melted, convicted, comforted, and help me use the strongest arguments drawn from Christ's incarnation and sufferings, that men might be made holy. I myself need thy support, comfort, strength, holiness, that I might be a pure channel of thy grace, and be able to do something for thee; Give me then refreshment among thy people, and help me not to treat excellent matter in a defective way, or bear a broken testimony to so worthy a Redeemer, or be harsh in treating of Christ's death, its design and end, from lack of warmth and fervency. And keep me in tune with thee as I do this work. [Bennett, Arthur G. The Valley of Vision A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2003, 348-349.]

Enraptured by His Precious love I feel my love so small. And yet He bids me grace and peace, His Patience doth enthrall. Oh, for a heart to give to Him With every single breath, The glory due His Precious Name, The LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. I dare not trust one single thought Of all that I might give, For nothing LORD compares to You, In love with You, we live. What great affections You doth stir, In this poor faltering mind, Through blessed servants of Your grace, In love with You we find; All hail the Pow'r of Jesus Name, We at Your feet doth fall, And humbled by Your matchless love With strength from You we call-- Oh, give to us more love For Thee, In every word and deed, To walk in every grace You give, To meet our every need. With joy we press more upward still, In light and love we stand; Provoke to all Your Immanence, To dwell in Canaan's land. (Jer.23:23,24 ; Col. 1:17) Michael E. Wood

My hopes were high, as I awoke On such a Glorious day-- Your Victory to celebrate The Truth, The Life, The Way! I looked around with hope to find A light, a spark, a glimmer But all I saw were lifeless forms O’ could it get much dimmer? Apathy has filled Your house; But, I will worship You Blank, bored faces and empty stares— In almost every pew. I often wonder, “Why do they come?” “Why do they sit for an hour? Is it because they like the form of God But have never felt Your power? Why do you come? Why not stay home? Is this a wasted hour? What should be sweet, to your soul Just seems to leave you sour. Protect me from the awful plague Don’t let my heart succumb The world, the flesh, the dull routine Is that what makes them numb? Forgive me Lord, if I am wrong Dead bones is all I see. O’ breath Your life into those bones And set the captives free. Apathy has filled Your house; O’ shake it with Your might So when we gather in Your Name There is Joy, and Love and Light. D.L. Kane (Easter...

Now this is a day to celebrate! What beauty! What power! What joy fills my soul! "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." In Christ alone my hope is found, He is my light, my strength, my song This Cornerstone, this solid Ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease! My Comforter, my All in All, here in the love of Christ I stand. In Christ alone! Who took on flesh, fulness of God in helpless babe! This Gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save Till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied For every sin on Him was laid; here in the death of Christ I live. There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain Then bursting forth in glorious Day, up from the grave He rose again! And as He stands...