Happy 1st Birthday, Harrison

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
    for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

2 

Why should the nations say,
    “Where is their God?”

3 

Our God is in the heavens;
    he does all that he pleases.

4 

Their idols are silver and gold,
    the work of human hands.

5 

They have mouths, but do not speak;
    eyes, but do not see.

6 

They have ears, but do not hear;
    noses, but do not smell.

7 

They have hands, but do not feel;
    feet, but do not walk;
    and they do not make a sound in their throat.

8 

Those who make them become like them;
    so do all who trust in them.

9 

O Israel, trust in the Lord!
    He is their help and their shield.

10 

O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!
    He is their help and their shield.

11 

You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!
    He is their help and their shield.

12 

The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us;
    he will bless the house of Israel;
    he will bless the house of Aaron;

13 

he will bless those who fear the Lord,
    both the small and the great.

14 

May the Lord give you increase,
    you and your children!

15 

May you be blessed by the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth!

16 

The heavens are the Lord's heavens,
    but the earth he has given to the children of man.

17 

The dead do not praise the Lord,
    nor do any who go down into silence.

18 

But we will bless the Lord
    from this time forth and forevermore.
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 115

O house of Gray, trust in the Lord!
    He is your help and your  shield.

Happy Birthday, Harrison!!

Last night we gathered as a family on your 1st annual birthday celebration, we gathered with gratitude that He made you!   We pray you will always know His love and ours.  We desire to encourage your understanding of His goodness, and His great power and wisdom to praise. 

We are growing as a family, a family nation. 

We are all the House of Gray, who is called to trust the God of our fathers.  

I pray one day you will trust Him.  

I pray you will become a father to lead and call your family to faith and praise in the one true God!  

All glory belongs to Him, whether His created creatures praise Him or not.  Many proclaim Him god, but they believe He is one of many gods.  He has proven over and over, He is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases. 

I pray you’ll learn about His greatness and praise Him at an early age. 

Praise be to Our Father, God.

Praise ye the LORD, today and everyday! 

Harrison, you are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth.

Praise ye the LORD. 

Being the big boy you are, you are wearing your Daddy’s outfit as a one year old.  

Your Daddy wore it when he was two. 😂

Praise the LORD, He has set you apart to bring glory to Him.  He’s causing you to grow big and strong! 

Examine Your Self

Examine yourself and your life, your ordinary work, the things you do, the contacts you have to make with people. Reflect for a moment upon the extent to which self comes into all that. It is an amazing and terrible discovery to note that extent to which self-interest and self-concern are involved, even in the preaching of the gospel. It is a horrible discovery.

…But let us go one step further. I wonder whether we have ever realized the extent to which the misery and the unhappiness and the failure and the trouble in our lives is due to only one thing, namely self. Go back across the last week, consider in your mind and recall to your conscience the moments or the periods of unhappiness and strain, your irritability, your bad temper, the things you have said and done of which you are now ashamed, the things that have really disturbed you and put you off balance… Most of the unhappiness in sorrow, and most of our troubles in life and inexperience, arise from this ultimate origin and source, this self.…

[S]elf always means defiance of God; it always means that I put myself on the throne instead of God, and therefore it is always something that separates me from him. All moments of unhappiness in life are ultimately due to the separation. A person who is in real communion with God and with the Lord Jesus Christ is happy. It does not matter whether he is in a dungeon, or whether he has his feet fast in the stocks, or whether he is burning at the stake; he is still happy if he is in communion with God. Is that not the experience of the saints down the centuries? So the ultimate cause of any misery or lack of joy is separation from God, and the one causes separation from him is self… man, according to the Scriptures, was meant to live entirely to the glory of God. He was meant to love the Lord God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind and with all his strength. The whole of man was meant to glorify God. Therefore any desire to glorify self or safeguard the interests of self is of necessity a sin, because I am looking at myself instead of looking at God and seeking his honour and glory. 

~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones preaching the Sermon on the Mount

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 

Romans 6:4

Photo: A recent early Sunday morning at the beach, awaiting a baptism service. 

From the Divine Heart

"The love of man to man is sustained by something drawn from the object of love, but the Love of Christ to us has its deep springs within Himself. ... If it had to subsist upon us, and what we do, and what we merit, ah, it would always be at the lowest conceivable ebb! 

But since it leaps up from the great deep of the Divine Heart, it never changes, and by His Grace, it never shall!"

C. H. Spurgeon

❤️

They are dear, encouraging friends! 

I’m thankful, Father, they draw from You, and willingly, graciously flow into my life!  

Having Done All, To Stand Firm

 

It is not for nothing that the classic passage on the warfare of the Christian immediately follows Paul’s specific instruction about intimate human relationships:  

wives, submit; 

husbands, love; 

fathers, do not goad your children to resentment.  

These are the areas of most vicious and relentless attack.  The Christian home is a stronghold, and the enemy will never let up his attempts to undermine it or breach its sanctity. 

Elisabeth Elliot

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:11

Together, We’re Grand

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. 

Proverbs 17:6, ESV 

She asked me to hold her hand. and I knew what that meant.  I’d corrected her behavior and sadly hurt her feelings.   I’m thankful for her tender heart, that she extended it to me by way of her hand, choosing to move closer to me than away.  Ohh how I pray the LORD will preserve her sensitivity and tenderness. 

Her mommy and daddy have taught her to hold their hands while they correct and discipline her, which I, sadly, did not remember to do.  Holding hands unifies them, especially when there must be difficult conversations.  Holding hands softens the hard lessons and moments shared between them. 

I’m thankful our grandchildren have God fearing parents who desire to wisely train their children towards pleasing Him.  I’m thankful they are seeking more than their outward conformity.

The LORD has ordained my  days as Grandmama.   In the short span of almost 4 years we have shared, He has granted us many sweet moments together.  We have also shared a few tearful, reconciling moments together. 

However many days the LORD has ordained for us, I trust His purpose is GRAND and glorious.  He surely knows I will treasure these priceless, fleeting moments, while we are gathered together.  I am thankful!!

   

Father, thank you for Your wise and loving plan to knit generations of hearts and lives together.  I pray and trust You will bring fruit to bear in our lives, especially for those You’ve called us to love and influence.  Please help us to lead them and love them to You.