Reflections on #TGCW14: “an adult version of VBS—in a delightful way!”

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I venture to say that most of us have either participated in a Vacation Bible School, or we are at least familiar with this popular and exciting summertime event. These Bible-based camps generally include people we know, as well as some new faces outside the scope of our neighborhoods and church body. I recently traveled to central Florida with a Blue Letter Bible co-worker and five other ministry wives from here in southern California. We made this trek across the country and were graciously welcomed among 4000 other ladies who attended The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference. READ MORE

Spurgeon: Our God Sings

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“The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17

The following is taken from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon titled “A Sermon for the Time Present,” delivered October 30th, 1887.

“The LORD will rejoice over thee with singing.’ Think of the great Jehovah singing! Can you imagine it? Is it possible to conceive of the Deity breaking into a song: Father, Son and Holy Ghost together singing over the redeemed?

God is so happy in the love which He bears to His people that He breaks the eternal silence, and sun and moon and stars with astonishment hear God chanting a hymn of joy…

If God sings, shall not we sing? He did not sing when He made the world. No; He looked upon it, and simply said that it was good. The angels sang, the sons of God shouted for joy: creation was very wonderful to them, but it was not much to God, who could have made thousands of worlds by His mere will.

Creation could not make Him sing; and I do not even know that Providence ever brought a note of joy from Him, for He could arrange a thousand kingdoms of providence with ease. But when it came to redemption, that cost Him dear. Here He spent eternal thought, and drew up a covenant with infinite wisdom.

Here He gave His Only-begotten Son, and put Him to grief to ransom His beloved ones. When all was done, and the Lord saw what became of it in the salvation of His redeemed, then He rejoiced after a divine manner. What must the joy be which recompenses Gethsemane and Calvary!

Here we are among the Atlantic waves. The Lord God receives an accession to the infinity of His joy in the thought of His redeemed people. ‘He shall rejoice over thee with singing.’

I tremble while I speak of such themes, lest I should say a word that should dishonor the matchless mystery; but still we are glad to note what is written, and we are bound to take comfort from it. Let us have sympathy with the joy of the Lord, for this will be our strength.”

View the full sermon at Blue Letter Bible.

Jonathan Edwards: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (New Resource)

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We've added a few new resources to Blue Letter Bible and will be highlighting them on the blog over the next several days. The first of these resources is a classic sermon from Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards titled, Sinners in the Hands of an … READ MORE

A Gospel Cure for Weary Hearts

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“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” Hebrews 12:3 Here the writer of Hebrews does two things: he anticipates a problem with weary hearts, and prescribes the gospel … READ MORE