Hymn of the Day
(tune: "How Firm a Foundation")
A refuge for sinners the gospel makes known,
'Tis found in the merits of Jesus alone;
The weary the tempted, the burdened by sin,
Are never exempted from entering in.
This refuge for sinners His love did ordain,
In Jesus the Lamb from eternity slain;
And if God the Spirit reveals this to you,
Take refuge in Jesus though hell should pursue.
Should conscience accuse us, as often it may,
The blood of our savior has put sin away;
In Jesus, the Savior, the sinner can view,
A city of refuge and righteousness too!
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Today’s Hymns
See the Table Spread before You – cb 8
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross – 118
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah - 291
Special Dates: Nathan and Aimee - 24
Ann Vlastuin – 28 ~ Shaina Hoogendoorn – 30
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Our sins can never come into God's presence, inasmuch as Christ, who bore them all and put them away is there instead. But if we sin, conscience will feel it, must feel it. Even the Holy Spirit will make us feel it. He will not allow so much as a single light thought to pass unjudged. What then? Has our sin made its way into the presence of god? No, the Advocate is there, "Jesus Christ the Righteous," to maintain an unbroken integrity and relationship in which we stand. Though sin cannot affect God's thoughts in reference to us, it can and does affect our thoughts in reference to Him. what are we to do? "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." By confession, we get our conscience cleared and the sweet sense of fellowship restored. The black cloud is dispersed and removed, and our thoughts of God set straight. This is the Divine method! -Scott Richardson
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God uses marriage to help us eliminate loneliness, multiply our effectiveness, establish families, raise children, enjoy life, and bless us with relational intimacy. But beyond this, marriage also shows us our need to grow and deal with our own issues and self-centeredness through the help of a lifelong partner.
You can give undeserved love to your spouse because God gave undeserved love to you - repeatedly, enduringly. Love is often expressed the most to those who deserve it the least - like ourselves.
Human nature, though fallen, has a lifelong thirst for love. Our hearts desperately need it like our lungs need oxygen. Love changes our motivation for living. Relationships become meaningful with it. no marriage is successful without it.
Love is too holy a treasure to trade in for another, and too powerful a bond to be broken without dire consequences. Fasten your love afresh on this one the Lord has given you to cherish, prize, and honor. Your life together is before you.
By God's grace take hold of it and be thankful and never let go until God himself severs you.
And love will aid us in the grace of patience. It's simple inevitable that two people living in such close proximity will irritate each other a bit, maybe a lot. So, love must be laced, not with expected perfection, but with loving patience. -copied from Bruce Crabtree’s bulletin
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As He is, so are we in this world. -1 John 4.17
John says that this is our confidence in the day of judgment. It is not that, “As He was, so are we in thig world,” as though our confidence arises from the fact that we live and act as Jesus did while on earth. It is, “as He is,” right now, as He sits at the right hand of the Father, sinless, loved, accepted, approved, blessed, and secure. Every one of God’s elect are in that condition, and that is our confidence in the day of judgment. Until those relationships with the Father can be changed concerning Jesus Christ, neither can they be changed concerning us who are in Him! -Joe
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Not all the devils in Hell could quench the feeblest spark of Grace that ever dropped into the heart of man! If God has given you faith as a grain of mustard seed, it will defy all earth and Hell, all time and eternity ever to destroy it! -Charles Spurgeon
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Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live:
and let me not be ashamed of my hope. -Psalm 119:116
A man would be ashamed of his hope if it turned out that it was not based upon a sure foundation. The Lord taught that there will be many that will learn too late that they built their hope on their own works which proved to be as a house built on sand. When the storm came that house fell. That will never be true of a child of God who built his hope on Jesus Christ. They will never be ashamed that they put their trust in Christ. They will never have a reason to be. The hope of believers rests on the sure foundation of the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus. Since it is a good hope through grace, and an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, we can be certain that those with such a hope will never be ashamed. -Larry Criss
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O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good;
for his mercy endureth forever.
~1 Chronicles 16.34
These words were written by David in response to the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. The manner in which it had been lost and the hardships and chastening which David and the Israelites had endured in getting it back might make one wonder how David cold speak of Divine goodness and mercy at it’s return. But the answer is simple: It is the Ark of God’s Covenant of mercy, and though its journey to Jerusalem had involved many hardships, it had, indeed, arrived, and nothing other than the goodness and enduring mercy of God could have accomplish that! -Joe