Praying With The Puritans

The Precious Blood

Blessed Lord Jesus,
Before thy cross I kneel and see
The heinousness of my sin,
My iniquity that caused thee to be
Made a curse,
The evil that excites the severity
Of divine wrath.
Show me the enormity of my guilt by
The crown of thorns,
The pierced hands and feet,
The bruised body,
The dying cries.

Thy blood is the blood of incarnate God,
Its worth infinite, its value beyond all thought.
Infinite must be the evil and guilt
That demands such a price.
Sin is my malady, my monster, my foe, my viper,
Born in my birth,
Alive in my life,
Strong in my character,
Dominating my faculties,
Following me as a shadow,
Intermingling with my every thought,
My chain that holds me captive in the
Empire of my soul.

Sinner that I am, why should the sun give me light,
The air supply breath,
The earth bear my tread,
Its fruits nourish me,
Its creatures subserve my ends?
Yet thy compassions yearn over me,
Thy heart hastens to my rescue,
Thy love endured my curse,
Thy mercy bore my deserved stripes.
Let me walk humbly in the lowest depths of humiliation,
Bathed in thy blood,
Tender in conscience,
Triumphing gloriously as an heir of salvation.

- Taken from "The Valley of Vision" A Collection of Puritan Prayers

The Cross - The Pinnacle of Thought and Meaning

The Cross of Jesus Christ is the height of revelation, wisdom, and emotive expression.  No humanly conjured thoughts, philosophic ideas, nor scientific discoveries can attain the same majestic altitude or ultimate relevance as the Son of God substituting His life on a wooden cross for the salvation of lost souls.  Consider one of the most awe-inspiring feats that has been undertaken by Man in recent history; the breakthrough of space travel.  Although it is a great accomplishment indeed, in what way can the idea of Man walking on the Moon even compare to the sinless Son of God walking on the road to Calvary carrying a cross which had our own names written on it as guilty and hell-deserving malefactors?

Even if and when Man accomplishes the feat of building actual habitats on other planets (such as Mars), what good would that serve mankind if all those inhabitants bring with them their sinful, darkened, depraved and enslaved hearts?  There would still be a continuance of evil actions from Man against both God and fellow-men.  This would in turn make space travel utterly useless except to serve the curiosity of astronomers, engineers, and those whose lives revolve around technological advances.

Man entering into space cannot compare in significance with the Lord of that same universe entering into human flesh to take the sins of the world unto Himself.  Traveling in space means nothing for Man if he has not first traversed the treacherous steps of Jesus to Calvary's Cross, for it is the Cross that brings meaning and significance to every other endeavor in life.  Without it, life itself is rendered an arbitrary abyss where meaning and significance are confined to illusion and self-delusion.

You can substitute space travel with every other pursuit of Man, whether it is business, politics, philosophy, science, music, even humanitarianism itself.  None of them have the capacity nor the innate properties to rise to the level of thought and meaning found in the divine essence of the Son of God dying for the sons of men.  All earthly pursuits are devoid of purpose if they are not intricately linked to the eternal purposes of the Cross of Jesus Christ, where the Creator and His creation are wholly reconciled, and results in an infusion of Man's creative enterprises with eternal substance and intrinsic value.

"We should not glory so much in the Cross, were we not convinced that it is the greatest moral power in all the world.  We glory in the Cross because it gets at men's hearts when nothing else can reach them.  The story of the dying Savior's love has often impressed those whom all the moral lectures in the world could never have moved."

- Charles Spurgeon, from the sermon - "Three Crosses"

"I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

- 1 Corinthians 2:2