This weekend at our church's women's retreat, I led a breakout session on the everyday ministry of mothering little ones. In that session, I talked about the extraordinary benefit we receive from laboring to understand the grand narrative of the Bible.
Because I forgot to write a bibliography, I promised I would post a picture of some helpful resources to that effect. Here they are-- stacked up in no particular order-- I think any one of these books would be a great place to start.
Word-Filled Women's Ministry - a new book and a vision
I want to point you to an article that was written about a book that I helped to edit. And before I give you the link, let me tell you, it's more than just a book.
Word-Filled Women's Ministry: Loving and Serving the Church is the first book in a whole line of books that is the result of the "women's initiative" publishing partnership between TGC and Crossway. In my role I get to work with Kathleen Nielson in curating books written by women for the church to be published through this partnership. It just so happened that this first book out the gate is co-edited by both Kathleen and I, and we've also contributed some chapters.
And it's more than a book. It represents a prayerfully ambitious endeavour to strengthen your local church wherever you may be. At every level of involvement from the contributors on up, we're all committed to seeing God's Word lived out and loved in our ministries among women. From where I sit here in a local church that is made up of over 70 different nationalities, it is plain as day that what we all need to live by is timeless truth and not our various cultural quirks! That's what the book is all about, and that's what the regional training events are all about. Yes, you read that correctly. Regional training events!
Without further ado, here is the aforementioned article on the forthcoming book and regional trainings.
A few quick instructions... First, read the article and watch the video. Next, laugh at the goofy still shot of me that the video player randomly chose. Then, click on the picture of the book to view the list of contributors. Last, make a note of the contact details at the bottom of the article. Perhaps you could help bring a regional training event to your local church?
Bouquet of Encouragement on Mother's Day
Here's a collection of articles I noticed online this weekend to bless moms - some are new and some are making the rounds of encouragement once again:
This Mother's Day, Don't Worry - Colin Smith
Dear Birthmother - Amy Medina
Inexhaustible Grace for Exhausted Women - Jessica Thompson
The Jagged Void (a poem for grieving mothers) - John Piper
When Mother's Day is Hard - Trillia Newbell
A Mother's Testimony of Peace - an excerpt from Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full
A new book for ministry wives
The excerpt below is taken from the Preface of "The Pastor's Wife: Strengthened by Grace for a Life of Love" (Crossway). You can download free sampler and study guide from the Crossway website.
"You may read some humorous accounts in this book, but I assure you, I do not believe that ministry by the Word through the Spirit is a joke. What I aim to do here is help lift your gaze to see the supernatural nature in what we are doing as we serve alongside our husbands in ministry. We need courage, strength, faithfulness, humility, and joy. We need to see Christ as our sufficient Savior. We need childlike faith to serve in ministry alongside our husbands—faith that God is glad to give us. The life of Christ in us is our empowering, equipping, unleashing energy for personal holiness and service in God’s kingdom. It is his strength that gives us what we need in order to nurture life in the face of death and through a million deaths-toself each day. We need to remember that even the little blueberry-sized fruits produced by the Holy Spirit through Christ’s people are part and parcel of his kingdom, where his will is done. Our anchor must be cast on Christ, and our foundation must be his Word, because there’s no way we can love our Chief Shepherd, and the under-shepherd we are married to, and the bride we have been united to (Christ’s people, the church) unless we have first seen how Jesus loves us and gives us everything we need for life and godliness. We learn of Christ’s love foremost in the sufficient, authoritative, understandable Word of God, and that’s why the text of the Bible is our focus.
There’s no way a finite heart can hold all the things we face in life and ministry, but Christ can, he does, and he will. Expectations of the minister’s wife swirl all around us. The joy available to us is resplendent and everywhere. The needs press in on us from every side. The grief and horror we experience because of our sin is appalling and replete. Are you burdened not only by the needs of others in your church but by your own as well? I want to show you in this book that Jesus will carry those burdens too (Isa. 40:11; 41:10).
No matter how old you are or however long you’ve been married or served in ministry, I think we can all humbly agree that we have a need for endurance to live kingdom-oriented lives in this dark and fallen place (Heb. 10:36). The endurance we seek is no grim drudgery but a glad dependence on Jesus for a life of love strengthened by grace. That’s what I hope you find in the pages of this little book."
Escape the Day of the Lord So You Might Live for the Day of the Lord
Our church gathers for corporate worship on Friday mornings. We read God’s Word, pray God’s Word, sing in accordance with God’s Word, celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and my husband (or another elder) preaches God’s Word. That much about Friday mornings is generally predictable.
Friday afternoons vary. Sometimes we have a church potluck, member meeting, baptism, lunch together in the food court nearby, or some other activity. Sometimes I announce that the afternoon will be set apart for a “family-wide nap,” and the only other family member who agrees with me is the toddler. (A mom can hope for 100% participation someday, right?)
It was about 40 degrees Celsius this afternoon, so the kids built their own indoor playground out of couch cushions and blankets. Dave was in a coffeeshop nearby conducting some “member chats” with prospective church members along with some other elders and staff. Tonight he will be at an appreciation banquet for the children’s ministry volunteers. Today is kind of a sampling of an “ordinary” Friday for this pastor’s wife.
While the kids gathered pillows and cushions from every room in our flat, I listened to Mark Dever’s plenary session from the TGC conference on “The Day of the Lord.” That Day is not just any ordinary day, because it is the Day to which we are all headed. Dever explained how the secular mind does not expect this Day, because this life (to them) is all there is:
While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 1 Thess. 5:3
The description of this terrifying condition gave me chills. I’ve experienced those kinds of labor pains. In that particular instance I was very much aware that I could not escape. There was nothing I could do. I was in shock. I could barely speak-- much less move or help myself.
This truth should move us to pity to think that people we know will have no escape from the wrath of God. It should move our feet-- to the living room, across the street, to the other side of the world-- and it should move our lips to speak of our Blessed Hope (Titus 2:11-14). We should also “encourage one another with these words” (1 Thess. 5:4). I pray God would move in my heart in such a way that my feet follow his lead and my mouth would overflow with the gospel that I treasure in my heart.
In his talk, Dever mentioned two questions we could chat about with a friend:
- Why do you do the things you do?
- What hope is moving you?
Those are useful questions to help us “be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8). And they’re important questions because we all need encouragement to live in light of eternity. We have obtained salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, so we have the privilege of living with him both now and thirty zillion years from now.
Only Jesus has provided a way to escape God’s wrath on that Day. And because we have obtained salvation through him we can say, “There is peace and security," and long for that Day when he returns.
***All of the media from the TGC national conference is available. This is the kind of content that is going to take you months to listen to/watch-- and a lifetime to live out and enjoy!***
A brand new dispatch from China
Since we live "way over here," we usually get things late rather than early. One year a Christmas box arrived in March, for example.
So... you can imagine how thrilled I was to view a pre-release copy of Episode 8 in the "Dispatches from the Front" DVD series! Who doesn't love getting good news early?
Last year I counted down the days until I got my copy of the book, which is on my Top 5 list of books I recommend to moms. Our family has long benefitted from the DVDs-- they fuel our prayers and expand our imaginations as we see what God does through ordinary people who have a big view of his gospel. All that to say, it was exceptionally special to watch "No Retreats, No Regret" with the executive producer, Tim Keesee. Episode 8 is set in China, home to 1.35 billion souls - the highest population of God's image bearers on the planet.
The kids thought they were meeting a movie star -slash- Indiana Jones hero. He even brought "the bag," "the orange watch," and "the journal" with him. They all enjoyed Tim's famous "M&M diplomacy," his strategy for making friends with kids all over the world.
Watch the trailer for Episode 8, "No Regrets, No Retreat," then go check out the website to buy a copy and take advantage of their free US shipping.
Passed Over
Can it be that we should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?
My friend Caroline Cobb co-wrote this song with Sean Carter to tell the story.
Caroline's album, "The Blood + the Breath," was gifted to me by a friend, and is now one of the few albums that I share with others saying, "You need to listen to this." I love to listen to it from the beginning to the end, as Caroline beautifully sings the story of redemptive history.
Ministry as a Minister's Wife
I'm often asked by other pastor's wives, missionary wives, and elder's wives what they ought to do about using their gifts. In sum, I turn the questions back to them and ask: "Tell me about where has God placed you." And here's my 2-minute answer:
Check out the hashtag #PastorsWifeAppreciation and Crossway.org/PastorsWifeAppreciation to find more resources to encourage the ministry wives in your life!
Moms are not alone
Sometimes authors compare their books to babies. The subject at hand is conceived in their heart. Then it grows, kicks you in the ribs, and steps on your bladder until it is time for the book to be born. A host of helpers preside by the author as the book is born-- editors, publishers, agents, cheering friends, and if you're lucky, an anesthesiologist. :) Sometimes there’s the random groups of interns standing in the delivery room taking notes. Finally... the author holds the book in their hands for a moment, and then instinctively passes it along to share with others.
Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full turns one year old this week. Instead of renting a bouncy house, I thought I’d jot down a brief reflection. (And maybe eat a piece of cake?)
Perhaps the dominant theme of the conversations I’ve had with moms this past year is that they are not alone. Two reasons come to mind:
- We have fellowship with other moms. What do you do when you think your child may have stuck a Lego in their sinus? If you ask another mom (or ten), you’re sure to find the help you need. As odd as you feel your circumstances may be and as isolated as you feel, you are not alone. Here's an example: One common confession I heard from moms was this-- they are tempted to think of their children as obstacles to their joy, even their joy in God. (Where’s my quiet time?) The more I heard from other mothers the more obvious it became that our struggles aren’t weird or uncommon. For every little anecdote I shared in the book about my own insecurity as a mother, the weariness I feel in my body, and the anxiety that creeps into my heart, I heard from scores of mothers who feel the same way. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man...”
- We have fellowship with God. Over and above all the camaraderie that mothers can have with one another, God is with us. He is with us in our fight against sin. “...God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13). And he is with us as we serve his disciple-making purposes. Jesus said in his Great Commission that he would be with us to the end of the age. I’ve read and heard testimonies from moms all over the world that Christ’s presence in their lives is the sum and goal of all their hope and peace. They’re convinced that if he is with us to the end of the age, then he is with us to the end of a stack of adoption paperwork, to the end of a noisy carpool, to the end of a difficult third trimester, to the end of a grocery store tantrum, to the end of a thin budget month, and to every end between now and the end of the age. Christ is our sum and goal; our motherhood is worship.
I’m thankful for these reflections because they build my faith and remind me that I’m not alone. It’s all too easy for me to look to the world for hope and peace when my hands are full. But the world’s cliche encouragements really are like cheap diapers. Only the gospel can persevere your faith through a spiritual blowout.
Faith that consents to your children's earthly loss
I remember when this engagement proposal "went viral" among my friends after John Piper wrote these reflections on the life of Adoniram Judson.
Only a rock-steady hope in future grace can steady your hand to write a proposal letter like this one. And to respond to a request like this one. A young, twenty-something Adoniram Judson wrote these words to John Hasseltine, the father of his beloved Ann. In case you're not one for suspense... Dad consented and said that he would let his daughter decide. And she said yes.
I marvel at their faith and the God whom they all trusted. And, as all marveling tends to lead us to do, I reflected on my own heart. Would I, like Mr Hasseltine, reject my tendency to hover over my children in unhelpful ways and times, entrusting them to the Lord? Would I, like Mrs Hasseltine, affirm the songs my children sing of a God who is "so big, so strong, and so mighty" and shake off the fears that try to grip this mother's heart? Would I, like Judson's parents, raise my children to look to the God who raises the dead and acts for those who wait for him? Would I, like Ann Judson, plant my feet firmly in the Bible-- that burgeoning treasure chest full of God's unshakeable promises-- when faced with the prospect of certain earthly danger? As a mother, would I (do I) have faith to consent to my children's earthly loss in light of eternal gain? I pray that I would.
You can read more of Adoniram and Ann's story in the exquisite biography: To the Golden Shore.
Food that Mom AND Kids Will Love
I recently had the delightful privilege of recording some podcasts with UP, the podcast of Union (a ministry of WEST in South Wales).
They asked me several questions on the nature of motherhood and Christianity, and how the two topics intersect. One of my favorite questions was this:
How Do You Teach Your Children and Stay Spiritually Healthy Yourself?
Here's how I answered the question:
Pastor's Wife Appreciation Month
Throughout the month of March, we're hoping to pile on an avalanche of encouragement for the pastor's wives and other ministry wives in our lives.
Now, as I'm thinking of other words that end-rhyme with -ives...
Dive into this webpage to see how you can be involved in #PastorsWifeAppreciation
Screwtape vs. Moms
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.
"Those who suffer the fallout of 'the mommy wars' will be relieved to hear that their suspicions have been confirmed. There are forces at work in this world that are hell-bent against them. But this devilish letter, intercepted by the Ministry of the Defense Against the Dark Forces, reveals that their strategy is coming unhinged."
Read the rest of Screwtape's letter to the frontlines of the Mommy Wars on the Desiring God blog.
5 Best Books for Moms
The Lifeway Church Leaders blog asked me to share names of the top books that I recommend for moms and why.
So, here are five of the books I've been commending most often to moms lately. Click the link to read the "why" behind this list.
1. Mom Enough by Desiring God contributors
2. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs
3. Future Grace by John Piper
4. Dispatches from the Front by Tim Keesee
5. Taking God at His Word by Kevin DeYoung
Oh, that we may be found in him!
Ephesians 1:3-14
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."
Mom Enough - a new book from Desiring God
I don't have time for fake hope.
And if you're a busy mom like me, odds are you don't have time either.
Mom Enough: The Fearless Mother's Heart and Hope is a new book out from Desiring God aimed at encouraging moms with timeless, anchoring truth. You can download it from the DG website for free, or buy a paperback copy on Amazon.
What makes this book unique is not only the content, but the diversity of contributing writers: Rachel Jankovic, Rachel Pieh Jones, Christine Hoover, Carolyn McCulley, Trillia Newbell, Christina Fox, and yours truly.
Even the table of contents is chock-full of genuine hope:
Table of Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Preface
1. Motherhood Is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank)
2. Motherhood Is a Mission Field
3. Motherhood Is Application
4. How Eternity Shapes Our Mundane
5. Desperate, Breathless, Dependent Parenting
6. Are You Mom Enough?
7. The End of the Mommy Wars
8. Mommy Wars in the Local Church: A Parable
9. Mommy Wars Are Spiritual Wars
10. A Pregnant Woman’s Defense Against the Schemes of the Devil
11. The Everyday Question of Motherhood
12. A Treasure Greater Than Our Homes
13. Femininity: June Cleaver, Clair Huxtable, or the Valiant Woman?
14. The Amazing Calling of Motherhood
15. Grace Greater Than All Our Worries
16. The Most Frightening Prayer I Could Pray for My Children
17. It’s Good to Be a Jar of Clay
18. The Real Life of the Pro-Life Home
19. A Tantrum for My Transformation
20. Kissing the Wave
21. A Prayer for the Worried Mom’s Heart
22. Our Children for Our Joy
23. The Idols of a Mother’s Heart
24. Missional Motherhood
Endnotes
When Gathering with the Church Seems "Meh"
When we struggle to see the relevance with the week-in and week-out gatherings with the church it helps to remember the big picture. Ephesians 3 provides such perspective. Here's a devotional I wrote for the CBMW Karis blog, where they are currently doing a series on Ephesians:
Faster and faster, the world seems to be spinning out of control. Talk of cultural revolutions in the West and political instability in the East is in the air. In light of this, questions of the church’s relevance fly at us from the left and the right.
Ephesians chapter 3 answers those questions by throwing back the curtains on a mystery (3:9-10). In eternity past the mind of the Triune God conceived of the script for a grand megadrama. He created the universe to be the cosmic stage for the glory of his Son, and he predestined the church as the leading lady. In this drama, the mystery of the church is like one big “aha moment,” and it reveals God’s wisdom to those who inhabit the spiritual realm. You could say that the church is God’s cosmic booyah.
From the various stipulations of the covenants, sacrifices, feasts, and temple worship, to the priests, judges, kings, and prophets—these “copies” give way to the “true things” (Heb. 9:23-24) and shine one collective spotlight on the eternal Son. God realized his eternal purpose in Christ Jesus—in his Incarnation, sinless life, sacrificial death, triumphant resurrection, ascension back into heaven, the gift of his Spirit, and his continued work on earth through his Body, which includes believing Jews and Gentiles (3:6).
The gospel frees us to know the love of this Christ that surpasses knowledge. This love has a context—the garden of community (3:17-19). God plants us in the body of Christ where we are “filled with all the fullness of God” (this is a phrase that Paul uses to describe spiritual maturity). The context in which we grow to maturity is the garden of the local church. Jesus dwells in the hearts of individuals by faith, and it is together “with all the saints” where we explore all of the geometry of Christ’s love. How wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of Jesus?We were made to help each other discover the answers of these questions. In this garden of community we seek the flourishing of others. Seeds of envy, favoritism, arrogance, racism, and gossip will find no place to cast down their roots when we are all rooted and grounded in love.
Our membership in the church will never expire. The Spirit has descended, indwelling believers and carrying out Jesus’ work. The triumph of Jesus is displayed both to the unseen realm and to the watching eyes of our neighbors as we walk in his ways of cruciform, servant leadership. May the mysterious kingdom of God grow like a garden without borders and gracefully cover the wasteland that our sin has made of this world.
The sovereign Christ who fills all in all through his body the church is at work in the world still. Will we ask him to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think?
What did Edwards preach to kids?
Image credit: http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3802670
"Mommy and Daddy and your siblings love you so much. But guess who loves you m-o-o-o-ost of all?" This is a question we've asked our children since they were tiny, prompted by the excellent children's book by Noel Piper, "Most of All Jesus Loves You" (illustrated by the talented Debby Anderson). Our response to Christ's love is to love him with our everything. We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
This is what Jonathan Edwards preached to children in his congregation. In a sermon preached to children, Edwards gives many reasons "why children ought to love Jesus Christ above things in the world."* A few of his reasons are excerpted below:
- He is more lovely in himself. He is one that is greater and higher than all the kings of the earth, has more honor and majesty than they, and yet he is innately good and full of mercy and love. There is no love so great and so wonderful as that which is in the heart of Christ.
- He is one that delights in mercy. He is ready to pity those that are in suffering and sorrowful circumstances as one that delights in the happiness of his creatures. The love and grace that Christ has manifested does as much exceed all that which is in this world as the sun is brighter than a candle. Parents are often full of kindness towards their children, but that is no kindness like Jesus Christ’s.
- And he is an infinitely holy One. He is God’s holy child, so holy and pure that the heavens are not pure in his sight, so that he is fairer than the sons of men, as the Psalmist says. He is ‘the chiefest among ten thousand,’ and ‘altogether lovely.'
- He is so lovely and excellent, that the angels in heaven do greatly love him. Their hearts overflow with love to him, and they are continually, day and night without ceasing, praising him and giving him glory.
- Yea, he is so lovely a person, that God the Father infinitely delights in him. He is his beloved Son, the brightness of his glory, whose beauty God continually sees with infinite delight, without ever being weary of beholding it. ‘I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before Him’ (Proverbs 8:30). And if the angels and God himself love him so much above all, surely children ought to love him above all things in this world.
- Everything that is lovely in God is in him, and everything that is or can be lovely in any man is in him: for he is man as well as God, and he is the holiest, meekest, most humble, and in every way the most excellent man that ever was. He is the delight of heaven.
- There is nothing in heaven, that glorious world, that is brighter and more amiable and lovely than Christ. And this darling of heaven, by becoming man, became as a plant or flower springing out of the earth. And he is the most lovely flower that ever was seen in this world.
- There is more good to be enjoyed in him than in everything or all things in this world. He is not only an amiable, but an all-sufficient good. There is enough in him to answer all our wants and satisfy all our desires.”
*Excerpted from a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, "Children Ought to Love the Lord Jesus Christ Above All," The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 22:174ff
The Global Rhythm of Prayer and Praise
A friend of mine sent me the text of this hymn as she was going to bed on the other side of the world, encouraging me in my work of carrying on "the global rhythm of prayer and praise."
And now, at bedtime here in Dubai, I'm reminded of the profound truth that God's mercies are new every morning-- and it's always morning somewhere.
Enjoy this hymn written by John Ellerton (1870):
- The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended,
The darkness falls at Thy behest;
To Thee our morning hymns ascended,
Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.
- We thank Thee that Thy church, unsleeping,
While earth rolls onward into light,
Through all the world her watch is keeping,
And rests not now by day or night.
- As o’er each continent and island
The dawn leads on another day,
The voice of prayer is never silent,
Nor dies the strain of praise away.
- The sun that bids us rest is waking
Our brethren ’neath the western sky,
And hour by hour fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous doings heard on high.
- So be it, Lord; Thy throne shall never,
Like earth’s proud empires, pass away:
Thy kingdom stands, and grows forever,
Till all Thy creatures own Thy sway.
5 Ways to Set Your Heart on Heaven
In the intro of Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full, I confessed my ongoing struggle to set my mind on things above (Col. 3:2). When Mount Laundry is erupting cotton everywhere while the kids are fighting over the obstacle course they built in the living room and you’ve got company coming over and then you see an email that just makes your heart drop… it’s hard to keep an eternal perspective.
That’s why I’ve adopted this short prayer by Jonathan Edwards as my own heart's cry:
“Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.”
In his sermon, “Heaven, a World of Love,” Edwards gives five practical applications for how to “set your heart on heaven, that world of love, and press toward that better country.” In the spirit of “gospel meditations for busy moms,” here are the five applications summarized:
- Don’t let your heart chase worldly things as your chief good. Worldly things are not your chief good in heaven or here.
- Think often of heaven and what it is like. Communing with God is our business in heaven, likewise let it be here.
- Be content in the sufferings you undergo on your way to heaven. The joy of heaven is certain and worth it.
- Think of Christ and all that he is. Both now and forever, Christ is our motivation, example, mediator, interceder, strength, and victory.
- Live a life of love toward God and men. Even now, let us live as citizens of heaven, which is a world of love.
For those who have a few more minutes to read, I’ve abridged his points a little bit for length below. And if you’ve got about a half hour, you can read the full text of his sermon HERE.
“First, let not your heart go after the things of this world, as your chief good. Indulge not yourself in the possession of earthly things as though they were to satisfy your soul. This is the reverse of seeking heaven; it is to go in a way contrary to that which leads to the world of love. If you would seek heaven, your affections must be taken off from the pleasures of the world. You must not allow yourself in sensuality, or worldliness, or the pursuit of the enjoyments or honors of the world, or occupy your thoughts or time in heaping up the dust of the earth. You must mortify the desires of vain-glory, and become poor in spirit and lowly in heart.
Second, you must, in your meditations and holy exercises, be much engaged in conversing with heavenly persons, and objects, and enjoyments. You cannot constantly be seeking heaven, without having your thoughts much there. Turn, then, the stream of your thoughts and affections towards that world of love, and towards the God of love that dwells there, and toward the saints and angels that are at Christ’s right hand. Let your thoughts, also, be much on the objects and enjoyments of the world of love. Commune much with God and Christ in prayer, and think often of all that is in heaven, of the friends who are there, and the praises and worship there, and of all that will make up the blessedness of that world of love. “Let your conversation be in heaven.”
Third, be content to pass through all difficulties in the way to heaven. Though the path is before you, and you may walk in it if you desire, yet it is a way that is ascending, and filled with many difficulties and obstacles. That glorious city of light and love is, as it were, on the top of a high hill or mountain, and there is no way to it but by upward and arduous steps. But though the ascent be difficult, and the way full of trials, still it is worth your while to meet them all for the sake of coming and dwelling in such a glorious city at last. Be willing, then, to undergo the labor, and meet the toil, and overcome the difficulty. What is it all in comparison with the sweet rest that is at your journey’s end? …
Fourth, in all your way let your eye be fixed on Jesus, who has gone to heaven as your forerunner. Look to him. Behold his glory in heaven, that a sight of it may stir you up the more earnestly to desire to be there. Look to him in his example. Consider how, by patient continuance in well-doing, and by patient endurance of great suffering, he went before you to heaven. Look to him as your mediator, and trust in the atonement which he has made, entering into the holiest of all in the upper temple. Look to him as your intercessor, who forever pleads for you before the throne of God. Look to him as your strength, that by his Spirit he may enable you to press on, and overcome every difficulty of the way. Trust in his promises of heaven to those that love and follow him, which he has confirmed by entering into heaven as the head, and representative, and Savior of his people. And,
Fifth, if you would be in the way to the world of love, see that you live a life of love — of love to God, and love to men. All of us hope to have part in the world of love hereafter, and therefore we should cherish the spirit of love, and live a life of holy love here on earth. … Happy, thrice happy those, who shall thus be found faithful to the end, and then shall be welcomed to the joy of their Lord! There ‘they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them to living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.’”