In Christ, My Rock, My Cleft

Michael E. Wood
April 7, 2011

1st Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. 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.

Sins are not merely outward manifestations openly displayed before men, but are a matter of the heart and of the mind which are openly naked before God. Even the heathen can manifest a form of godliness which is not godliness at all but in actuality a matter of self love and or self preservation which puts many professing Christians to shame.

As children of God, on the one hand we are given the instruction by the Spirit of God through the Word of God to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On the other we are warned by the same Spirit that knowledge puffs up and that if anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known of God.

Remember the seventy two that returned to Jesus with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your Name.” As Jesus spoke to them concerning the fact that it was He that had given them such authority, He also said to them, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

It is the kindness of God through the forgiveness of sins to lead us into a lifestyle of perpetual repentance by virtue of the atonement of Christ. Likewise it is the kindness of God that rebukes us and corrects in those places of temptation when we think that anything we have received as a free gift is somehow attributed to anything we have done, and has provided for us the Way of escape unto the glory of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, He alone is our boast and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God as He continues to reveal to us the remnants of sin within and empowers us by His love to fight the good fight of faith laying hold of eternal life.

When contemplations make me think
Much more than what I should
Of who I am, or what I am
Or what I’ve understood,
I thank You Holy Father
For Your mercies as my Maker
That You take greater pleasure
Then to use as undertaker
Of my soul to make me much
More humble than before
And show to me more clearly
Your provision by the Door,
Who is the Way and great Escape
Of sin with all it’s guilt
And cause me by Your Spirit
To think more on Whom we’re built.


Oh may my meditations be
More pleasing in Your sight
And show me more of Jesus
Where there is no dark of night.
For as You write more clearly
By Your Word upon my mind
You cause me then to walk in truth
And in Your love I find
There is no greater pleasure
Than Your glory to project
And thank You for the grace
By which my soul You do perfect.
Oh how love is so much more
Than outward acts displayed
But never more than when
The Captain of my soul was slayed.
For though He is in fact our God
Who among us tabernacled,
He by His blood did purchase us
And freed from sin once shackled.


And as You do more shape me
By the death that Jesus died
To know that by Your pleasure
I with He was crucified.
Oh help me know more fully
In Your presence now I live
And give You praise for this free gift
By grace through faith You give.
And as You are so faithful
To reveal remaining lusts,
Give strength to take with feeble hands
Your sword with mighty thrusts
And kill with passion all remains
Of pride with nothing left
At end of day be found alone
In Christ, my Rock, my Cleft!

“You that have good evidence that you have grace in your hearts, have, then, all that you need to encourage you. The Captain of your salvation will assuredly conduct you to victory in the end. He who is able to uphold you has promised that you shall overcome, and his promise shall never fail. Resting on that promise, be faithful to your part, and ere long the song of victory shall be yours, and the crown of victory he will place, with his own hands, upon your head.”
 – CHARITY AND ITS FRUITS, Jonathan Edwards