St. Patrick's Day

Kidnapped?

A Slave?

A Missionary?

Do you have any idea who this shamrock fellow was?

If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee

If thou but suffer God to guide thee
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days.
Who trust in God’s unchanging love
Builds on the rock that naught can move.

What can these anxious cares avail thee
These never ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help if thou bewail thee
O’er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press
The heavier for our bitterness.

Be patient and await His leisure
In cheerful hope, with heart content
To take whatever thy Father’s pleasure
And His discerning love hath sent,
Nor doubt our inmost want are known
To Him who chose us for His own.

God knows full well when time of gladness
Shall be the needful thing for thee.
When He has tried thy soul with sadness
And from all guile has found thee free,
He comes to thee all unaware
And makes thee own His loving care.

Nor think amid the fiery trial
That God hath cast thee off unheard,
That he whose hopes meet no denial
Must surely be of God preferred.
Time passes and much change doth bring
And set a bound to everything.

All are alike before the Highest:
’Tis easy for our God, We know,
To raise thee up, though low thou liest,
To make the rich man poor and low.
True wonders still by Him are wrought
Who setteth up and brings to naught.

Sing, pray, and keep His ways unswerving,
Perform thy duties faithfully,
And trust His Word: though undeserving,
Thou yet shalt find it true for thee.
God never yet forsook in need
The soul that trusted Him indeed.

Georg Neumark

Helpful Hymns

Hymns have been particularly sweet to my soul as of late. Here is one that was sent to me at some point in the last 2 months. The author is John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace.


Begone unbelief, my Savior is near,
And for my relief will surely appear:
By prayer let me wrestle, and He wilt perform,
With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.

Though dark be my way, since He is my Guide,
’Tis mine to obey, ’tis His to provide;
Though cisterns be broken, and creatures all fail,
The Word He has spoken shall surely prevail.

His love in time past forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.

Determined to save, He watched o’er my path,
When Satan’s blind slave, I sported with death;
And can He have taught me to trust in His Name,
And thus far have brought me, to put me to shame?

Why should I complain of want or distress,
Temptation or pain? He told me no less:
The heirs of salvation, I know from His Word,
Through much tribulation must follow their Lord.

How bitter that cup, no heart can conceive,
Which He drank quite up, that sinners might live!
His way was much rougher, and darker than mine;
Did Jesus thus suffer, and shall I repine?

Since all that I meet shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, the medicine is food;
Though painful at present, wilt cease before long,
And then, O! how pleasant, the conqueror’s song!

Romans 8:28

We often quote this verse, don’t we:

“For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God”

But, so often our reciting it is because of our desire to have all things orbiting around us and our assuming that if God is about doing us good we ought to join Him in making all things good for us.

So, what about difficult times? Heartaches? Real Loss?

“Ergo, shipwreck, losses, etc. work together for the good of them that love God. Hence I infer that losses, disappointments, ill-tongues, loss of friends, houses or country, are God's workmen, set on work to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you. Let not the Lord's dealing seem harsh, rough, or un-fatherly because it is unpleasant. When the Lord's blessed will bloweth across your desires, it is best, in humility, to strike sail to him, and to be willing to be led any way our Lord pleaseth. It is a point of denial of yourself, to be as if you had not a will, but had made a free disposition of it to God, and had sold it over to him. And to make use of his will for your own is both true holiness, and your ease of peace. You know not what the Lord is working out of this, but you shall know it hereafter."

S. Rutherford

One Office of Christ

"If your Lord calls you to suffering...there shall be a new allowance of the King for you when you come to it... God hath called you to Christ's side, and the wind is now in Christ's face in this land...He delighteth to take up fallen bairns (children) and to mend broken bows: binding up of wounds is his office."

Samuel Rutherford

It is well, with my soul

Before reading the well known hymn below,
you should consider the circumstance from which
Horatio Spaford penned these remarkable lines:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

"The Lord is my portion...

...therefore I have hope in Him." Lamentations 3:24

"For your Maker is your husband--the Lord Almighty is his name--the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth." Isaiah 54:5

Thoughts from Octavius Winslow:

How many--appropriate to our circumstances, and endearing to our hearts--are the titles and relations of God! Is there one more sacred or precious to the Christian widow than this--"Your Maker is your HUSBAND." The Lord brings us into a gracious and experimental acquaintance with Himself by the circumstances in which He places us. Just as we learn certain lessons in certain schools, so we learn the relationships which the Lord sustains to us in the positions in life to which those divine relations are the most appropriate. Thus, He may have written you a widow, a "widow indeed," that He might stand to you in a new and more endeared relation--even as you stand to Him in a new and more dependent character--the relation of a HUSBAND--the character of a widow. As such He is your portion. Your bereavement is so crushing, your grief so profound, your desolation so vast, your loss so irreparable, the pen shrinks from even the attempt to describe it. The strong and beautiful staff is broken, the earthly counselor is perished, the tongue is mute that blessed you, the bosom cold that pillowed you, the eye dim that smiled upon you, and the whole landscape of life is draped in wintry coldness and gloom.

But the Lord is your Portion. "For your Maker is your husband--the Lord Almighty is his name." Divorced by death from an earthly husband, you are united more especially and closely to a Divine and heavenly Husband--even to God in Christ, who stands now in a new and more endeared relation to you, as you have now a new and more sacred claim upon Him. The widow is an object of His especial regard. No being has He more closely fenced, none for whom He has discovered more tender care. Listen to some of His touching injunctions respecting you. "You shall not afflict the WIDOW." "Plead for the WIDOW." "He will establish the border of the WIDOW." "He relieves the fatherless and the WIDOW." Such is the divine Portion, under whose sheltering wing you have now come to rest. "Your Maker is your HUSBAND." All, and infinitely more, that the fondest, most powerful, and faithful husband ever was, the Lord is to you. Let Him, as none other can, fill the vacant place. He can make even your solitary and desolate heart sing for joy. Espouse Christ afresh. Renew your 'first love' to Him, the love of your earliest union.

Trace nothing but love in the removal of a human object so dear; and know that love--divine, tender, unchangeable love--will guard, guide, and comfort you until wedded hearts, sundered by death, shall meet to renew a fellowship of love in the glorified presence of Jesus never to be sundered more.

Blessed Jesus! heavenly Husband! let me now be united only and forever to You! Give me Your Spirit to seal the sacred union. Enable me, as enjoined in the word, "to trust in God, and to continue in supplication and prayer night and day, to lodge strangers, to wash the saints' feet, to relieve the afflicted, and diligently to follow every good work" (1 Tim. 5:5, 10). And thus striving by Your grace to glorify You in the solemn character of a God-fearing, God-trusting widow, enable me to rejoice in You as my portion--my Husband--believing that You will shield me in temptation, supply me in need, comfort me in sorrow, be with me in death, and give me a place at the marriage-supper of the Lamb.

In addition to the loneliness of widowhood, there may be the heavy charge and anxious responsibility of the parent. Your children, are half orphans--fatherless. Be it so. You have now a double claim on God's care and provision; and that claim, offered in the prayer of faith, He will acknowledge. His promise is--and on that promise you must rely--"Leave your FATHERLESS CHILDREN, I will preserve them alive--and let your widows trust in me." God will now be, in its fullest sense, your children's Father. He will preserve them alive; in other words, He will provide for the life that now is, and will make them partakers of the life that is to come in the sovereignty of His grace.
Have faith in God! He never yet broke a promise to a saint--He never will to you!

Jesus. In verse.

Immortal honors rest on Jesus’ head;
My God, my portion, and my Living Bread;
In Him I live, upon Him cast my care;
He saves from death, destruction, and despair.

He is my Refuge in each deep distress;
The Lord my strength and glorious righteousness;
Through floods and flames He leads me safely on,
And daily makes His sovereign goodness known.

My every need He richly will supply;
Nor will His mercy ever let me die;
In Him there dwells a treasure all divine,
And matchless grace has made that treasure mine.

O that my soul could love and praise Him more,
His beauties trace, His majesty adore;
Live near His heart, upon His bosom lean;
Obey His voice, and all His will esteem.

William Gadsby

Jesus.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Colossians 1:15ff

Astounding!
Have you considered recently these amazing attributes that are ascribed to Jesus in this short little paragraph?
According to God, Jesus is everything!
Nothing else compares! It is all about HIM!
His honor, His renown, His reputation, His glory!

Don’t you agree?

However, one does not have to look very far or wide upon this earth to see an apparent contradiction with this passage and with what seems like reality.
Do you see clear evidence of ALL things being created by Jesus?
Is there any evidence of Christ holding all things together by the word of His power?
Is there overwhelming evidence that He is the Head of His church?

Jesus will have first place in everything!
Is this true for you? Really true?
Have you yet to be reconciled to Him?
Has lasting peace been made between you and your creator Who shed His blood to make it happen?

Daily Light - February 28

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; 1 John 4:8-11

Live in Love :: The Love of God

2 Thessalonians 3:5
May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.

Live in the Love of God.
There is a vast difference between understanding that God loves sinners, and actually making your home in His love. Most of us believe that God loves us and sent His Son to die for us. But some of us have yet to get up out of our pitiful make-shift shanties and laid down to rest in the immense love of God. We are still trying to prove to ourselves or to others that we are capable of being satisfied on anything but God. We are still spending our inheritance on what doesn’t satisfy. We are still living in miserable conditions disappointed with ourselves because we are uncertain of God’s love.

Today could be a moving day. Today could be the day you fold up the cardboard box and make the journey home. Today could be the day you throw your sins and self-reliance in the dumpster. Today could be the day you leave your unhappiness and uncertainty in the back alleys. Today could be the day you come empty-handed to a Father who loves you and will welcome you home. Today is the day to move in and set up house in the love of God.

Live in Love...Live today and forever in the Love of God.

"The song that my soul still sings with joy"

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Edward Mote

From Amber's Pen :: Concerning Her Conversion

The following was taken from the journal of conversions at our Church. Amber recorded her account in Spring 2003.

I first came to Christ Community Church in a miserable condition. Though most of my past consisted of morality and religion, I had spent the months prior to coming in open rebellion to the commands of Jesus Christ, which I had claimed to know so well. Therefore, when we came to the church I was already asking the question, “Is it possible to sin in such a way and really be a Christian?” As I kept asking this question I realized that I only wanted God to answer me with a simple “yes” and to allow me to move on with my new life at a new church in a new town, away from all that tempted me before.

However, God chose not to answer me in such an easy way. Instead, He increased my anxiety by giving me glimpses into my own heart and by showing me that my problem was much deeper than I had first imagined. I began to see evil in everything I tried to do. My terrible state before God was not a result of my outward sins, but of my evil heart that sought to satisfy self in every action. The lives of others at the Church also troubled me as I saw a real humility and selflessness in their walks with God.

God also used Richard Owen Roberts’ book Repentance to deepen the anxiety I already felt. In one chapter Mr. Roberts exposes seven myths of repentance, stating clearly that sorrow over sin, self-preservation, and reformation did not equal repentance. Upon finishing the chapter I thought, “If repentance is not summed up in those seven points, then I have no idea what it is.” As I continued to seek, I began to understand further that my problem was not merely my actions but my heart and I began to agree that I was fully deserving of hell with no right to expect mercy from God on the basis of myself.

Feeling some of the danger of my condition I began to seek counsel from my pastor. Through his counsel and teaching, God showed me that repentance and faith are gifts and that I could do nothing to earn them. I read the following hymn by Horatius Bonar daily to remind me of this:

Not what these hands have done
Can save this guilty soul;
Not what this toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.

Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God
Not all my prayer, and sighs, and tears
Can bear my awful load.

Thy work alone, O Christ
Can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God
Can give me peace within.

Thy love to me, O God,
Not mine, O Lord to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest.
And set my spirit free.

Thy grace alone, O God,
To me can pardon speak;
Thy power alone, O Son of God,
Can this sore bondage break.

I began to pray this hymn to the Lord and to ask Him for these gifts, believing for the first time that I did not deserve them and that He did not owe them to me just because I asked. Suddenly I was overcome with the fear that God would choose not to grant these gifts.

I turned again to my pastor who kept pointing me to the One who was able to rescue my soul from death. I can still hear him say, “Look to Christ.” He told me that I was spending too much time looking inward to weigh my thoughts and motives. He once said, “If you are seeking to know Christ, do you really think that God will allow you to miss salvation?”

That thought was freeing to me, and God used it to shift my focus from myself to Him. Not long after that he recommended the book The Inner Life of Christ by William Blakey, wherein I saw the beauty of Jesus. I was caught up in His humility and perfections yet still doubting that He was willing to save me.

One morning I awoke in desperation and fear, and I begged God to use the books that I was reading to help me. The chapter that I was reading in The Inner Life of Christ pointed me to Luke 5 where the man with the leprosy looked to Jesus and said “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus responded, “I am WILLING, be cleansed.” The Holy Spirit spoke these words to my soul to erase my fears of being rejected by Christ. The same day I also read the chapter on faith in The Anxious Inquirer by John Angell James, which again confirmed God’s willingness to save me because of the righteousness of Christ.

That afternoon God put in my heart the song that my soul still sings with joy:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.

Divine Sovereignty vs. Human Responsibilty

In the mind of Ellie: a 4-year old.

What does this age old question look like in her little mind?

Yesterday, while we were on our lunch 'date', and discussing some of the details in our life right now, she said...

"Daddy, is God going to give us a car OR are we going to buy one?"

We have been praying about a vehicle, and she knew that it was close to coming to fruition. She wanted to know exactly how this answer to prayer was going to happen.
---Was God going to answer the prayer by 'giving' it or by 'providing' for it?---

So, did God 'give' us a car or did we 'purchase' one?

Here is my answer to Ellie: YES!

Remember Lot's Wife (4th & Final)

You may be tempted to say:

"I am convinced of the danger that hangs over me"
Lot's wife was convinced, and it was NOT enough.

"I am escaping the danger, I am fleeing the wrath to come"
Lot's wife was escaping too, she was fleeing, yet it was NOT enough.

"I am near the place of refuge. I can see it in the near distance."
Lot's wife was quite near to Zoar and could see the mountains. It was NOT enough.

You must not be content with mental knowledge of the danger, with some past experience of escape (like the sinner's prayer or baptism), or even with the sight of hope in the foreground. You must not stop. Do not halt. Don't even slow in your pace. Definitely do not rest now, and please do not consider ever looking back.

Surely you are not willing to live and die as living proof that sinners may be almost saved, yet NOT really saved at all.
Surely you are not willing to starve to death at the threshold of the feast that has been offered to us in Jesus Christ.
Surely you are not willing to die of thirst and the base of the fountain of salvation because you would rather turn away and dig broken cisterns that can hold no water.

This is what letting up will get you!
Not finishing well and pulling up short will earn for you eternal perishing. Nothing less.
If this is the end you want, the death you long for, then look back to Sodom, stretch out your hands to the world around you. Turn back now to become a lifeless, white, shiny, column of salt.

But, if this is not the end you desire, then...

Escape for your life! Do not look back! Do not stay anywhere in the valley!
Escape to the Mountains, or be consumed!

When the temptations arise and the urge to look back comes...Do not yield to it.
Let memory do the work of sight. Instead of looking back to perish without hope...

Remember Lot's wife.

Remember Lot's Wife (3)

Having considered Lot's wife, her history, and her frightful end, we must now turn to the question that really ought to be plaguing us all. WHY? Why remember this no-named sinner from several thousand years ago?

Because we, like Lot's wife may also merely be 'almost saved'. Sure, you may have fled the outright Atheism of our day. You may not dwell in the land of the Sodomites. It may even appear that you are hand in hand with your family and friends escaping the 'apparent' destruction to come.
Do you feel 'safe' from the heathens and 'soundly secure' from the pagans among you? If this completes your spiritual resume then you are indeed lingering in the valley just like Lot's wife, and it is NOT SAFE. God said to them, "do not stay anywhere in the valley". He says to you as well, "you must not stay anywhere in the valley".
It does not matter one iota how 'safe' you feel. You must not hesitate in this journey through the valley. Yes, you do have to enter the valley called life, but it is safe for traveling only, not for lingering. You must press on through the valley, press in to the mountains of refuge that we have in Jesus.

"Run in such a way as to obtain the prize"

Lot's wife was almost saved, but perished ultimately in the end. She was following safe guides. She was headed in the correct direction. BUT, she hesitated, and looked back, and she was no more! It will be the same for you if you attempt to set up a comfortable camp here in this valley. If you stop, yield, or linger, you too will perish. No matter with what motive you 'look back', you will perish.

"Do not look behind you"
"Do not stay anywhere in the valley"

Both of these commands are required. Not one or the other. Not one to a greater degree. Both.

Remember Lot's wife!

Remember Lot's Wife (2)

The first thing that we ought to remember about Lot's wife is that she was 'almost' saved.
The second thing that we ought to remember is that she perished.

1. She experienced extraordinary deliverance. She had undergone an unexpected escape. She was in certain safety. In expectation and probability, she was in fact saved already. In actual experience she was even almost saved. The burning city was behind. She had been led out by angelic hands. Her husband and children were at her side. The assigned refuge was in clear sight ahead of her. Consider what she had in her favor: her family one side and the Savior on the other...Sodom behind, and Zoar ahead...who would not consider her 'saved'? She could have been left in Sodom a suicidal victim of her own unbelief, but the Lord was merciful to her and was slow about his anger with her. Think of the mercy extended to her: the cry of the angel in one ear, the crackling of the flames in the other...both impelling her onward, to that refuge in the mountains. All these incentives and still she was ONLY almost saved.

2. She perished, that is certain, but the major issue for us to take note of is where she perished. If we could ask her she might say that she perished from absolute safety. She had indeed escaped the obvious danger, right? Yet, in the very moment of deliverance, she perishes and is no more!

Remember Lot's wife.
Remember that she was 'almost' saved.
Remember that she was NOT.

More thoughts forthcoming.

"Jesus was with us in the wreck"

This is 'new' information that was divulged to me today by Ellie.

We were in the car, and many times these days in the car Ellie inquires about 'tumping' over or another car 'hitting' us. In answering her each time I try to assure her that no matter what happens Jesus is with us. Well, today I had only completed half of my 'usual' answer and then she chimed in with her own rendition of the second half.

Ellie said, "We will not tump over, the other cars will not hit us, and Jesus is with us. Jesus was with us in the wreck. Mommy didn't even cry, because Jesus was with us. Mommy even went to be with Him after that, because He was with us in the wreck. But me and Isaac did not go to be with him. But when God says it is time for us to leave earth, we will go to be with Jesus too, and then we can hug our Mommy again. Daddy...you will have to help Isaac hug her because he is just a baby, he it too little to hug her by himself. But I can hug her."


What can I say? But, thank You Jesus, for being there in the wreck, for being here even now, and for being You forever. Thank You.