Free to Believe God is Sovereign

If God's sovereignty is limited by man's freedom, then who is sovereign?
R. C. Sproul

Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. Psalm 135:6

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
Proverbs 19:21

The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
Proverbs 21:1

In The Beginning God...

"To understand the meaning of womanhood we have to start with God.  
If He is indeed "Creator of all things visible and invisible: He is certainly in charge of all things, visible and invisible, stupendous and miniscule, magnificent and trivial.  
God has to be in charge of details if He is going to be in charge of the overall design."  
Elisabeth Elliot, Let Me Be a Woman

 

Reaching For Maturity In Christ

"It appears that God has deliberately left us in a quandary about many things.  Why did He not summarize all the rules in one book and all the basic doctrines in another?  
He could have eliminated the loopholes, prevented all the schisms over morality and false teaching that have plagued His Church for two thousand years.  
Think of the squabbling and perplexity we would have been spared.  
And think of the crop of dwarfs He would have reared!  
He did not spare us.  He wants us to reach maturity.  He has so arranged things that if we are to go on beyond the "milk diet" we shall be forced to think."   
Elisabeth Elliot 

12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.
13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.  
I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.  
I write to you, children, because you know the Father.  
14 I write to you, fathers, becaues you know him who is from the beginning.  
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and
you have overcome the evil one.  
1 John 2:12-14, ESV 

Ohh, that we would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.  
May we walk in such a way that demonstrates to a lost world that He is all we need. 
May we always count the LORD most precious, most valuable, and our loved ones, our friends as the gifts He intended, always ready to give them back when He asks us to relinquish them.
As painful a trial and grievous a loss, may our hearts yearn more for His fellowship than that which we were only given to enjoy with others for a season.  
May we never forget our deepest longings can only be satisfied in Christ!  

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be! 
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, 
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, 
Seal it for Thy courts above.  
Words: Robert Robinson, 1758

Trusting God To Do ... Better Than I Know

We are always held in the love of God.  

We are never wholly at the mercy of other people-they are only "second causes," and no matter how many second or third or fiftieth causes seem to be in control of what happens to us, it is God who is in charge, He who holds the keys, He who casts the lot finally into the lap.  Trusting Him, then, requires that I leave some things to be decided by others.  

I must learn to relinquish the control I might wield over somebody else if the decision properly belongs to him.  

I must resist my urge to manipulate him, needle and prod and pester until he capitulates.  

I must trust God in him, trust God to do for both of us better than I know."

Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity:  Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

I must...
I must...
I must..


Praise the LORD!
Praise the name of the LORD, give praise, O servants of the LORD, 
2 Who stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God!  
3 Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant! 
4 For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.  

5 For I know that the LORD is great,  and that our Lord is above all gods.  
6 Whatever the LORD pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, 
in the seas and all deeps. 
7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.  

8 He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast; 
9 who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants; 
10 who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, 
11 Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kigndoms of Canaan, 
12 and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel.  

13 Your name, O LORD, endures forever, your renown, O LORD, throughout all ages.  
14 For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.   
Psalm 135: 1-14

Praise the LORD!
Praise the name of the LORD...give praise, ...
Praise the LORD, ...sing to his name, for it is pleasant!    

A Real Girl!!

"It seems to be the fashion nowerdays for a girl to behave as much like a man as possible. 

Well I won't! 

I'll make the best of being a girl and be as nice a specimen as I can: sweet and modest, a dear, dainty thing with clothes smelling all sweet and violety, a soft voice and pretty, womanly ways.

Since I'm a girl I prefer to be a real one!"

Mrs George de Horne Vaizey

Fill This Home with Love and Laughter

 "Some houses just deteriorate out of loneliness." 
 A. J. 

The Waltons: Season 1, Episode 11

The Literary Man

This quote reminds me of a house I once lived in.  Though this is not the exact house, the one standing is on the same lot as the original, and is a close replica in its appearance.  Both houses tell a story, but my short story is about the house that stood long ago.  

My grandparents purchased the original white house that stood at 1246 Market Street in the '40s during a time of economic regrowth.  A family with two young girls, my mom being the oldest and three years older than her sister, lived in this house.  However, hard times would lead the family to eventually split up, so my mom returned with her father to the family home place in south GA, seventy miles away, where he would work and she would attend school.  His wife worked here and the youngest daughter attended school.  Their family reunited on the weekends in GA, but not surprising, their relationships suffered from the weekly separation and stresses from living apart from one another.  Sadly, not long after my mom married, her parents divorced, which left my grandmother with a greater responsibility to maintain both homes.  She continued to travel back and forth for many years, and this was the story of her life.  

Skipping ahead a few years...
In late 1968, my father retired following 20 years of service with the U. S. Air Force.  Upon graduating with a business degree from Bellevue College in Nebraska (now known as Bellevue University) shortly thereafter, our family of five returned to the south to live closer to our extended family.  My grannie was very gracious to welcome us to live with her for several months until my dad was able to secure a job, and then purchase a home for our family.  I don't think Grannie Thelma would have said she was ready for us to leave, but I can imagine how challenging it must have been for her to share her tight living space with a family of five after making the decision to divide the upstairs from the downstairs so she could rent out the downstairs apartment for some extra income.  That renovation work took place while we lived with her.  To add to that, Grannie experienced the sad and sudden loss of her 2nd husband several months before our arrival.  He'd experienced a fall which resulted in a serious head injury and then his subsequent death.  While the house must've seemed lonely and empty following Mr. Gaskins' death, I'm not sure Grannie's grief was resolved in the short period of time prior to us moving 'home'.  I surely look back on her hospitality and think how giving she was to us, and my parents said, she would have had it no other way.   

Grannie lived alone in her house on Market Street for many years after we moved out.  She eventually retired from her longstanding employment, and then made the difficult decision to sell her home here, and move her permanent residence back to the family home place in south GA.  She enjoyed the much larger and peaceful piece of acreage in the country, and she was within walking distance of her sisters, where they all grew up. 
 
My family later learned the house on Market Street had been overcome by drugs and left abandoned for a season of time, so the city demolished it.  The thought of such was sad, but I'm sure the condition of the house was devastated by the abuse it received, then it was left abandoned without anyone's care for repair.  

When I drive down Market Street today, it appears Grannie's house has been resurrected.  You can't imagine how this thrills me.  A builder purchased many, if not all, lots on the street and rebuilt each of the houses to appear as close to the original houses that once occupied that street.  None of this had been accomplished before Grannie passed away in 2001, but  if Grannie were with us today, she'd marvel as I do.  It's exciting to see the house on Market Street occupied and lit up again, and this time, I am hopeful many lasting days of love and laughter have returned. 

  

A Wife's Influence

"...[Her] aid and sympathy were invaluable in the moulding of her husband's character and life, so that he never could have been what he was without her. 
His mind was finely balanced, so was hers. 
His common sense was large, hers was equally so.
His heart throbbed with love to God and mankind, and hers glowed in fully as warm a flame.
He was equal to the perfecting and execution of every form of benevolence, and in this she was a true yoke-fellow, at every step.  
While at every turn in his public life he was the target for many a rude attack, she, next to God, was his shield and helper.  
Notwithstanding her feebleness of health, she was the real founder of the Woman's Missionary Society in his church, and of that Book Fund which has circulated about two hundred thousand volumes of valuable books amongst the poor ministers of Great Britain of all sects who were smitten with poverty and book hunger.  
Her ripening and soothing influences upon his rugged nature were semi-angelic.  
Having known her since the second year after her marriage, the writer can say intelligently that she is a lady of excellent literary accomplishments, deep piety, great energy, and determined purpose.  Spurgoen's history will now be an open book for all time; but without a carefully written chapter on her influence upon his life, it will at the best be but an imperfectly written portrait of him." 
 H. L. Wayland, Charles H. Spurgeon, His Faith and Works
Susannah Spurgeon's influence on her husband, page 135-136.  
  
I could have never fully imagined God's call on my life when I married this man, but I am blessed to be his bride.  Oh, that I may be the kind of wife to Mark, as Susannah was to Charles.
Give me a true love story over a fairy tale any day, and I am inspired! 

His Mercies Are Greater

No sin is so great but the satisfaction of Christ and His mercies are greater; 

it is beyond comparison. 

Fathers and mothers in tenderest affections are but beams and trains 

to lead us upwards to the infinite mercy of God in Christ. 

Richard Sibbs

 

What We So Keenly Long For

"Heaven is not here, it's there.  
If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle 
for this world rather than the next.  God is forever luring us up 
and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still 
invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we 
so keenly long for."  
Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart

 

A Spring of Conscious Love

"It is only as we go on in a life of surrender that the blessed joy of pouring forth upon Him our costly things dawns on us.  The giving sets free, as has been well said, a spring of conscious love, and the love in its turn, inspires to fresh giving;  and though the pain involved is still pain, such a strange sweetness becomes interwoven with it that we wonder whether heaven can be perfect without the possibility of suffering loss for Him."
Lilias Trotter

Drawn to You

Oh Lord, Sovereign God, Creator and Giver of every good and perfect gift!  

You have ordained that all created beings praise you.  
You provide circumstances and testing in our lives that will fulfill your purpose, for your glory, and for our sanctification!! 

Please help me to welcome what you have allowed... that which seems unfaithful, unloving, grievous and painful as just and right, holy and good so that I may be conformed to the image of your Son, Jesus.  

By faith I ask that you will renew my mind and restore my soul in a way that is timely and praiseworthy. Please help me to wait for you, to accept what you say is true and faithful.
I ask for wisdom to discern and reject every lie the enemy taunts and whispers, the grace to believe his efforts are vain to destroy the work you have started.  

Please help my family to better understand the necessary means by which you are teaching us to deny ourselves, to pick up our crosses, and follow you!  Thank you for every encouragement and strength you continue to give us so that we may trust you more.  Thank you for unifying our hearts and for renewing confident hope within!

Please bless and establish in faith and righteousness those we miss and love.  
May every longing of their hearts be satisfied and accomplished according to your Word.

Please purify our hearts that we may pray more earnestly for their spiritual encouragement. We ask that you would meet their need for lasting, faithful friends who will courageously communicate and unashamedly build them up in your faithful, relentless, perfect love.  I pray their faith will be strengthened and secured according to the deep riches of your holy, living, infallible Word!

I long for the day when I ache and cry no more, when JOY will overflow for knowing through this trial we have been drawn closer to you and conformed to your likeness.    

Karen C Gray, 07/15
"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 
4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. 
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.  Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 
6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing---as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 
7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant.  He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.  
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.  
11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 
12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities---all things were created through him and for him.  
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.  
Colossians 1:3-20, ESV

Amen.   

His Robes For Mine

HIS ROBES FOR MINE 
(Text by Chris Anderson; Tune by Greg Habegger

http://youtu.be/WNJGhq8PPRs

His robes for mine: O wonderful exchange!
Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered ‘neath God’s rage.
Draped in His righteousness, I’m justified.
In Christ I live, for in my place He died.
Chorus:
I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost:
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God.
Bought by such love, my life is not my own.
My praise-my all-shall be for Christ alone.

His robes for mine: what cause have I for dread?
God’s daunting Law Christ mastered in my stead.
Faultless I stand with righteous works not mine,
Saved by my Lord’s vicarious death and life.

His robes for mine: God’s justice is appeased.
Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father’s pleased.
Christ drank God’s wrath on sin, then cried “‘Tis done!”
Sin’s wage is paid; propitiation won.
Chorus:
I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost:
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God.
Bought by such love, my life is not my own.
My praise-my all-shall be for Christ alone. 

His robes for mine: such anguish none can know.
Christ, God’s beloved, condemned as though His foe.
He, as though I, accursed and left alone;
I, as though He, embraced and welcomed home! 
Chorus:
I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost:
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God.
Bought by such love, my life is not my own.
My praise-my all-shall be for Christ alone. 
My praise-my all-my praise-my all- 
Shall be for Christ alone.  

Copyright 2008 ChurchWorksMedia.com. All rights reserved.


We learned today that our friends, Richard and Yvonne, are grieving deeply for their 22 year old son  who is addicted to drugs and alcohol.  Sadly, he is living on the streets of our city tonight.  Our hearts are soo heavy. 
It's easy to ask, "How does this happen to a young man who was raised in a Christian home and a soul-winning church that catered every function to sharing the seed of the Gospel.  It seems the seed was plucked away by the enemy who is known for none other than his crafts to steal, kill, and destroy. 
My heart is wrenched for realizing that the best efforts of godly parents are not enough to save their children.  If the salvation of a sinful son depended on the imperfect deeds of sinful, imperfect (not sinless) parents, then no one's children could be saved!!   I am thankful a sinless Savior died so that the sin of men who cry out to Him can be justified.  

Only a Holy, Holy, Holy, Righteous God can justify and redeem a life from destruction!

Only an All Consuming Fire, as God is, can ignite a flame in a person's heart, in His perfect time, and burn up every righteous effort, act, word, and deed and replace the ashes with a heart made pure to receive the Truth that "...there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12).  

I am praying the LORD will magnify his Gospel light in the dark heart of a deceived young man who seeks only darkness and does not have an appetite for the light of righteousness.  All he knows now is an all consuming desire and appetite for destruction.  I am praying the LORD will remove the scales from his eyes, so that he will comprehend his depraved and grave state, that the LORD will quicken his spirit and give him ears to hear the Truth.  Ohh, LORD, please cause H to be blinded to every false idol and god of deception and destruction in his life, that he will not be satisfied in anything or anyone other than Jesus.   

LORD, through this difficult storm I also ask that you will be a refuge for Richard and Yvonne.  Please hear their cries for mercy and grace to endure.  Please help them to be faithful in reaching out as they are able to find their son, to speak Truth into his life.  Please show yourself strong on their behalf, and defeat every scheme of the enemy to rule in their hearts through doubt and despair, and give them confident hope for the salvation of their son's life.  Please cause their cries and fears to be turned to rejoicing as they long to witness their son adorned with the robe of righteousness that only You can place on him when he returns home. 

Addendum: On 07-21-15, one week later, H has been court ordered to a drug treatment program provided through JSO.  He will be transferred to the facility when space becomes available for him.  The program is usually 4 months long, but H has been ordered to six months of treatment, and then he will receive an additional year of 'aftercare'.  Please pray for him, and for his parents and family.  Upon asking some of our friends to join us in praying there has been those who have stated they would like to visit and do what they can to invest in this young man's life. 
What a blessing it is to be surrounded by those who know and love the LORD, and who want to share His love and care with those who have spiritual and physical needs.  My heart is lifted to see the LORD working on H's behalf. 

1Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!  
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

3If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?  
4But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

5I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;  
6my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

7O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption. 
8And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

Psalm 130