Hymn of the Day
(tune: "Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed "p.110)
Alas! and did my Savior bleed,
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head,
For such a worm as I?
Thy body slain, sweet Jesus,
Thine, And bathed in its own blood,
While all exposed to wrath divine,
The glorious Sufferer stood!
Was it for crimes that I had done,
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man, the creature's, sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.
But drops of grief can ne'er repay,
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
'Tis all that I can do.
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Today's Hymns
His Matchless Worth - #48 ~ Sweet Hour of Prayer - #361
Look and Live - #195 ~ Pass Me Not - #235
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Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
John 15.4
It is true that once a man is saved by God's grace through faith, he will remain saved forever; yet the Scriptures are full of warnings to believers against unbelief (Hebrews 3:12-14), against drawing back (Hebrews 10:38-39), and against neglecting the Word of God (Hebrews 2:1-3). Abiding in Christ is abiding in His Word, abiding in his Love, and abiding in His Spirit, and in Faith. This abiding in Christ is not a condition a man fulfills before receiving life, rather, abiding in Christ is the result of Christ's gift of life and is true evidence that we have the life of Christ. Branches on a grapevine do not bear fruit of themselves, but from the vine. Neither can any man bear, produce, nor possess any spiritual knowledge, life, gift, grace, nor His holiness except through Christ's abiding in him and his abiding in Christ. -Henry Mahan
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Mercy and truth are met together;
righteousness and peace have kissed each other."
Psalm 85:10
When I read this verse of divine inspiration, I can only think of one person and one thing: — Christ and Him crucified. Mercy I could never deserve and truth I could never see have met together for me in Christ my Lord. For you see, Christ alone is Truth. God's mercy that I so desperately need is only found in Him. In Christ alone have mercy and truth met together in perfect harmony for me an undeserving sinner. And because God caused them to meet together, now perfect righteousness I could never perform or provide and peace I could never buy or embrace have kissed each other in Him. Christ is truly made unto me all I need, and He is all that God requires. -David Eddmenson
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
1 John 1.9
The Scriptures give us many declarations of God's great forgiveness, each one showing us the freeness and fulness of Divine forgiveness. There is not a particle of Scripture – not a verse or a single word – that returns the child of God to that yoke of bondage that requires him to produce a righteousness of his own in order to receive the fulness of Divine blessing.
But, while the Scriptures tell us of the full and free forgiveness of sins, it never once excuses sin. The Bible does not have a verse or even a single word that even slightly implies that the grace of God has made the conduct of our lives irrelevant. We may always plead the blood as atonement for our souls, but the sin that we do is still offensive to God and hurtful to others. In truth, there is no message that teaches the great sinfulness of our sin more powerfully than the gospel of Christ. Our sin nailed our Savior to the cross. It is certain that the message that proclaims this truth would not also declare sin to be excusable. -Joe
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Be not deceived; God is not mocked:
for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6.7
If you pursued the things of this world with the same level of ambition and determination as you pursue the things of God, how well would you be doing? -Joe
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When God, in His providence, has given us sensible proofs of His care for our bodies, and has given us, in His grace, manifest proofs of His good-will to our souls, and good work upon them, we should be ashamed of our distrusts, and not dare to question that which He has left us no room to question. Groundless doubts must be stifled, and not started. -Matthew Henry
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What will happen in the days to come? Everything the Lord has wisely decreed in His eternal purpose for us to experience (Romans 11:36; Ephesians 1:11). The Lord gave David these words in Psalm 37:23, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way." Our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples in their day; "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). The apostle Paul declares that every believer has won the victory of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ forever, "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57). We can be assured by the word of our blessed God and Savior that every promise of God will be fulfilled (Joshua 23:14; 2 Peter 1:3-4), that our gracious Lord will provide for our every need (Philippians 4:19), and that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6). As the old writers used to express it; "The Lord will give us all grace now and glory forever. We don't know what the future holds but we know who holds the future (Psalm 31:15). -Tom Harding