Jesus - "Father Forgive Them"

By R.B. Jones


Golgotha is the place where the contrast between the Savior's heart of grace and man's heart of rebellion is most striking. Golgotha is the focal point of revelation and history and experience. There God did His best and man did his worst. There faith is justified, hope assured, and love conquers.

Crucifixion was the invention of depraved minds determined to make death as painful as possible. . . . No one ever thought of this as the perfect place for prayer.

But the first word of Jesus was a prayer--and His fourth, and His seventh! . . . Notice that He did not pray, "Father, forgive Me." He was the spotless Lamb, without blemish, being offered for the sin of the world. He knew it.

The phrase of His praying that stirs my heart more than all else can only be seen in the Greek original. "Then Jesus said" might be changed to "Then Jesus kept saying," for the verb is imperfect, indicating continuous action in past time. . . .

Can you reconstruct the picture?

Arriving at the place of the skull, Jesus looked about and prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." As the centurion crushed Him to the ground and tied His arms to the crossbeam, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." When the blunt spikes tore through each quivering palm, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." When they elevated Him to the cross, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." When the crowd cursed and reviled, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." When the soldiers parted His garments and gambled for the seamless robe, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." How many times that prayer pierced heaven's blue that day no one knows. It was not an ejaculatory petition shot into heaven in a moment of mercy. Rather the Surety was storming the Throne of Grace with a barrage of burning appeal. Jesus kept saying, "Father, forgive them . . . "

. . . The One who prayed like that is the One I need and want for my Savior.

HOW beauteous are their feet

By A Collection of Hymns
S.M. Isaiah lii. 7 - 10.

1 HOW beauteous are their feet
Who stand on Zion's hill;
Who bring salvation in their tongues,
And words of peace reveal!

2 How cheering is their voice,
How sweet the tidings are!
"Zion, behold thy Saviour King;
He reigns and triumphs here."

3 How blessed are our ears
That hear this joyful sound,
Which kings and prophets waited for,
And sought, but never found!

4 How blessed are our eyes
That see this heavenly light!
Prophets and kings desired long,
But died without the sight.

5 The watchmen join their voice,
And tuneful notes employ;
Jerusalem breaks forth in songs,
And deserts learn the joy.

6 The Lord makes bare his arm
Through all the earth abroad:
Let all the nations now behold
Their Saviour and their God.

The Bishop of Souls

By Bible Names of God

"For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." 1 Peter 2:25

The elders of the early church were "overseers"-called to care for the flock as under-shepherds. Here Christ is set before us as the One who directs the under-shepherds. He is The Bishop. He is the imparter of life which is eternal, which He purchased for us by His own sacrifice. His eye is upon us. He is the One whose heart goes out in love to the lost, straying sheep and who never fails in His own good way and time to bring them back to the fold (the true church)> God help those who selfishly seek and faithlessly serve as under-shepherds. "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not."

Lord, help us to recognize Thee as our Bishop and be subject to Thy guidance. Hold us. Keep us. Feed us. Amen.

Vineyards in the Wilderness

By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

"I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness...And I will give her her vineyards from thence" (Hosea 2:14-15).

A strange place to find vineyards--in the wilderness! And can it be that the riches which a soul needs can be obtained in the wilderness, which stands for a lonely place, out of which you can seldom find your way? It would seem so, and not only that, but the "Valley of Achor," which means bitterness, is called a door of hope. And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth!

Yes, God knows our need of the wilderness experience. He knows where and how to bring out that which is enduring. The soul has been idolatrous, rebellious; has forgotten God, and with a perfect self-will has said, "I will follow after my lovers." But she did not overtake them. And, when she was hopeless and forsaken, God said, "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." What a loving God is ours! --Crumbs

We never know where God hides His pools. We see a rock, and we cannot guess it is the home of the spring. We see a flinty place, and we cannot tell it is the hiding place of a fountain. God leads me into the hard places, and then I find I have gone into the dwelling place of eternal springs. --Selected

"He himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a juniper tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 1 Kings 19:4

Miller's Year Book

J. R. Miller, 1895

"He himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a juniper tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 1 Kings 19:4

He was sorely discouraged. It seemed to him that all he had done, had come to nothing. There are few things we need more to guard against than discouragement. When once we come under its influence, it makes us weak, robbing us of our hope and making cowards of us. Many a life is discrowned and drawn down to failure, through discouragement.

It is surely a sad picture: this greatest of the old prophets lying there under the little bush, in the wilderness, longing to die! If he had died then and there, what an inglorious ending it would have made of his life! As it was, however, he lived to do further glorious work and to see great results from his contest with idolatry. God was kinder to him, than he knew.

It is wrong to wish ourselves dead. Life is God's gift to us, a sacred trust for which we shall have to give account. While God keeps us living—he has something for us to do. Our prayer should be for grace to do our duty bravely and well unto the end. 

From Elijah's after-experience, we learn that we would never be cast down by any discouraging experiences. The things we think have failed are often only slowly ripening into rich success. We have only to be faithful to God and to duty, and we may always rejoice. What seems failure—is often best success.

"I lie in the dust, completely discouraged; revive me by your word." Psalm 119:25

Octavius Winslow, MORNING THOUGHTS
"I lie in the dust, completely discouraged; revive me by your word." Psalm 119:25

Ah! how many whose eye scans this page may take up and breathe David's words. You feel a deadness, a dullness, and an earthliness in spiritual enjoyments, and duties, and privileges, in which your whole soul should be all life, all fervor, all love. You are low where you ought to be elevated; you grovel where you ought to soar; you cleave to the earth where you ought to be embracing the heavens. Your thoughts are low; your affections are low; your feelings are low; your spirits are low; and you seem almost ready to question the existence of the life of God in your soul. 

But even in this sad and depressed state may there not be something cheering, encouraging, hopeful? There was evidently in David's–"My soul cleaves unto the dust: quicken me." This was the cheering, encouraging, hopeful feature in the Psalmists's case–his breathing after the requickening of the Divine life of his soul. 

Here was that which marked him a man of God. It was a living man complaining of his deadness, and breathing after more life. It was a heaven-born soul lamenting its earthliness, and panting after more of heaven. It was a spiritual man mourning over his carnality, and praying for more spirituality. It is not the prayer of one conscious of the low state of His soul, and yet satisfied with that state. 

"I lie in the dust, completely discouraged; revive me by your word." Perhaps no expression is more familiar to the ear, and no acknowledgment is more frequently on the lips of religious professors, than this. And yet where is the accompanying effort to rise above it? Where is the putting on of the armor? Where is the conflict? Where is the effort to emerge from the dust, to break away from the enthrallment, and soar into a higher and purer region? 

Alas! many from whose lips smoothly glides the humiliating confession still embrace the dust, and seem to love the dust, and never stretch their pinions to rise above it. But let us study closely this lesson of David's experience, that while deep lamentation filled his heart, and an honest confession breathed from his lips, there was also a breathing, a panting of soul, after a higher and a better state. 

He seemed to say–"Lord, I am prostrate, but I long to rise; I am fettered, but I struggle to be free; my soul cleaves to the dust, but quicken me!" Similar to this was the state of the Church, so graphically depicted by Solomon in his Song–"I sleep, but my heart wakes."

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." Ephesians 1:17

DAILY PORTIONS

(Selected from the writing of Joseph Philpot by his daughters)

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." Ephesians 1:17

Revelation means literally an uncovering or unveiling of a concealed or covered-up object. It is used, therefore, sometimes in the sense of manifesting, making known, or bringing to light, what had before been hidden in darkness and obscurity. This revelation is, therefore, either outward in the word, or inward in the soul, and the two strictly correspond to and are counterparts of each other. 

Immediately when, by the power of divine grace, a poor Gentile sinner turns to the Lord, the Spirit of revelation removes the veil off the Scriptures, and off his heart. Have we not found it so? What a sealed book was the word of God once to us! How we read or heard it without one real ray of light to illuminate the dark page; and what a thick veil was there of ignorance, unbelief, prejudice, self-righteousness, and impenitence on our heart. 

But the gracious Spirit of revelation took this double veil away, and by giving us the light of life, made the word of God a new book, and gave us a new heart; and ever since the day when the entrance of his word gave us light, God's word has been a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path.

But the Spirit of revelation is chiefly given to lead us into a spiritual, experimental, and saving knowledge of Christ. Without this blessed Spirit of revelation Christ cannot be effectually or savingly known. 

When, therefore, Peter made that noble confession of his faith in Christ as "the Son of the living God," our Lord said to him--"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah; for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven."