Dear CSOPC brothers and sisters,
- OUR APPLICATION to Birkes was approved! We will be moving early in September, likely the weekend after Labor Day. We will let you know as soon as this is finalized.
- TONIGHT, we will meet at the Pastorek’s home at 7:00 for Bible study. Their address is 15810 Mesa Gardens Drive, Houston, 77095.
- PLEASE NOTE the following dates for the summer and fall:
- August 22 – church pool party at the VanTubergens
- September 13 – possible first Sunday in new location at Birkes Elementary School
- September 26 – Houston Reformed Fall Theology Conference with Dr. John Currid
- Finally, today’s devotion is a reflection from the great Thomas Brooks on the glory of Christ’s condescension for his people.
From the Pastor’s Desk
Mid-week Devotional
“Riches to Rags”
2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake be became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
To appreciate the glory of the gospel, we must understand both the heights from which Jesus came and the depths to which he went, in order to purchase our salvation. The great Puritan Thomas Brooks powerfully captures this truth:
“That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father to a region of sorrow and death; that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature; that he who was clothed with glory should be wrapped with rags of flesh; he who filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled in a manger; that the almighty God should flea from weak man – the God of Israel into Egypt; that the God of the law should be subject to the law, the God of the circumcision circumcised, the God who made the heavens working at Joseph’s homely trade; that he who binds the devils in chains should be tempted; that he, whose is the world, and the fullness thereof, should hunger and thirst; that the God of strength should be weary, the Judge of all flesh condemned, the God of life put to death; that he who is one with his Father should cry out of misery, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’ (Matt 27:46); that he who had the keys of hell and death at his belt should lie imprisoned in the [tomb] of another, having in his lifetime nowhere to lay his head, or after death to lay his body; that the HEAD, before which the angels do cast down their crowns, should be crowned with thorns, and those EYES, purer than the sun, put out by the darkness of death; those EARS, which hear nothing but hallelujahs of saints and angels, to hear the blasphemies of the multitude; that FACE, which was fairer than the sons of men, to be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews; that MOUTH and TONGUE, which spoke as never man spoke, accused for blasphemy, those HANDS, which freely swayed the scepter of heaven, nailed to the cross; those FEET, ‘like unto fine brass,’ nailed to the cross for man’s sins; each sense pained with a spear and nails; his SMELL with stinking odor, being crucified on Golgotha, the place of skulls; his TASTE, with vinegar and gall; his HEARING, with reproaches, and SIGHT of his mother and disciples bemoaning him; his SOUL, comfortless and forsaken; and all this for those very sins that Satan paints and puts fine colors upon! Oh! How should the consideration of this stir up the soul against sin, and work the soul to fly from it, and to use all holy means whereby sin may be subdued and destroyed.”
(from “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices”)
Dear brothers and sisters, today may we reflect on the glory of the gospel – the glory of the Incarnation – the glory of God becoming man for us and for our salvation! And may we resolve to flee from our sin and to pursue holiness in all we do!