If you are given modern machinery in a science lab, what is the best way to get the air out of a glass beaker?

A thoughtful person might say, "The best way is to suck the air out and create a vacuum. You use some kind of pump to do it. You put a lid on it, you put a hose through the lid, and then with a powerful vacuum you pump and strain to get all the air out." Of course, you can't create an absolute vacuum, and if you are not careful, you will simply cause the beaker to implode and you destroy the container.

But a more thoughtful person might say, "The best way to get the air out of the beaker is... to fill it with water! That's right, fill it with something else.

In the early 1800s Thomas Chalmers wrote a most amazing treatise entitled "The expulsive power of a new affection." He was thinking of the command in the Bible that says "Do not love the world or the things of the world." And he posits the question we have all dealt with, which is, "How do we expel the sins, the idols, the love of this world from our lives – because these are the things that are destructive to our souls?"

And just like in the beaker illustration above, he says you could try and pump out the sins and the idols through self-discipline, and by persuading yourself that your love of your sin and your worldliness isn't really good for you. But he goes on to say that by tomorrow, the busyness of this world, and the glitter of those sins and the attractiveness of the world will so entice your heart that they will draw you to embrace them just like they did before. You can't merely vacuum them out. Thomas Chalmers says "The heart cannot be prevailed upon to part with the world, by a simple act of resignation." What do you need?

He tells us: You and I need to fill it with something better. We need God to pour into our heart "a new affection."

What do Thomas Chalmers, John Piper, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, the apostle Paul, and King David all suggest? It is captured in Psalm 27 and Psalm 34 "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" "One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord."

It is the beauty of the Lord – the Lord himself – who becomes our "new affection." He is like the living water that gets poured into the beaker of our soul, to flush out and replace the putrid sins and idols of our life.

Is Jesus Christ attractive to you? I hope he is.

Majesty and meekness.

Sovereign authority and a servant's heart.

Righteous hatred of sin and yet forgiving.

The beautiful one becomes ugly so that we may become beautiful to God.

The clean one becomes dirty so that we may be clean before God.

The living one loses his life so that we may have eternal life with him.

Is Jesus Christ attractive to you? I hope he is.

Today, will you “Gaze upon the beauty of the Lord“ with the eyes of your heart and find Him to him to be your “new affection?” Today let’s welcome Him as the one who comes to us in His saving, forgiving grace and becomes that which dislodges and flushes out the idols and sins and love of the world from our lives and replaces these former loves with an exquisite love for himself.

Musing’s from Pastor John, August 15, Click to Email Pastor John