Hymn of the Day
Can there be a time or season,
When our thanks must silent lie?
Times when saints can find no reason,
To lift up their praise on high?
No, there’s always blessing flowing,
Even when our tears flow too!
For His mercy is ongoing,
Grace is given each day, anew.
Oft, we find our tongue is ready,
To sing out our grateful song;
When the pantry, filled with plenty,
Speaks of food for days to come.
Then we must not trust the blessing,
For ‘tis but the Blesser’s store.
Our dependence still confessing,
Let us thank Him all the more!
When the stall and store are empty,
And it seems there’ll be no more;
When, with doubting, Satan tempts thee,
Loudly sounds His frightening roar,
With still louder thanks and praises,
List those everlasting goods:
He our sin fore’er erases,
Fills our souls with heav’nly food.
Are we stunned with grief expressless,
For the Lord has taken away,
One our heart held close and precious?
One whose presence brightened our days?
Thank the Lord for, though He’s taken,
He it was Who first did give!
And, though weeping, thanks be making,
And our joy again shall live.
Measure not the Lord’s great blessings,
By conditions of the day;
In all things - His will expressing -
All, for good, He’ll work His way.
Everything for us is blesséd,
Not one thing shall bring us ill.
Whether it pleases or distresses,
All is good within His will!
-----0-----
Today’s Hymns
Nothing But the Blood – 212
See the Table Spread before You – cb8
Hallelujah, God Has Saved Me – cb11
Special Dates
Odiah Hoogendoorn – 25 ~ Bob Vande Hoef – 27
-----0-----
"My sins are ever before me," we cry with the fathers. What is to be done about my sins? It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. It is evident that no man is justified by the law. The tears of Esau would not restore his birthright. The water of baptism left Simon Magus in the gall of bitterness. Judas' confession that he had betrayed innocent blood only led him to suicide. The wonderful works professed in Matthew 7 were called "works of iniquity" by Christ. "How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" Here is the answer: "HE (the Lord of glory) APPEARED (came to earth in flesh) TO PUT AWAY SIN (all sin--past, present, and future) BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF." "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (I Peter 3:18). -Copied
-----0-----
O, that the Lord would send forth real power in our midst! We need not great talents or intense excitements; with what we already have the battle may be won if the Lord will put His Spirit in us. The ox-goad, the jawbone, the sling-and-stone, and the ram's horn trumpet have each been made an irresistible weapon; with God, the instrument is little. His might is everything. Only let us be strong in faith, full of zeal, and very courageous for the Lord and our God, and the Lord will bless us. -Charles H. Spurgeon
-----0-----
Salvation by grace is a doctrine that is true, must be preached, and should be believed. But, like the doctrine of God's existence, just believing that salvation is of the Lord and by His grace does not save! This grace must be experienced in the heart and received by faith! I'll never get across a river by simply believing that a certain bridge can take me across, or that others have been successful in using it. I must experience the bridge's deliverance and power. Depravity is not a doctrine to the redeemed, it is an experience. Christ the savior is not a doctrine to the redeemed: He is the One who had delivered us! -Henry Mahan
-----0-----
Now God, who sees through all deceptions, knows that there is no goodness whatever in us. He says that "there is none righteous, no not one." He knows that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;" and, therefore, the Lord Jesus did not come into the world to look after goodness and righteousness among men, but to bring goodness and righteousness with Him and to bestow them upon persons who have none of them. He comes, not because we ARE just, but to make us so; He justifies the ungodly! -Charles H. Spurgeon
-----0-----
For if someone comes to you and preaches
a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached,
or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received,
or a different gospel from the one you accepted..."
-2 Corinthians 11:4
From time to time there arises a debate on what constitutes "another gospel". We all know that there are differences among true and honest believers over various doctrines. When do these differences cross the line from mere differences to heresy? When must we cry, "That is another gospel!"? The answer is so simple that there should never again be a debate on the issue. It is "another gospel" when the message is of "another Jesus!" This is the only issue worth dividing over, and on this issue we must divide with all who disagree. Who is the true Jesus? Of all the adjectives I could use to describe our Lord in the gospel, the one that seems most fitting to me is "the successful Jesus." The true Jesus is the one who "by Himself (actually did) purge our sins" (Heb. 1:3), the one in whose hand the will of Jehovah prospered (Is. 53:10), the one who is the Word from God that does not return to God empty but actually accomplishes what God sent Him to do (Is.55:11), the one who has already successfully "obtained eternal redemption for us, (Heb. 9;12) That Jesus, and only that Jesus in the Jesus of the gospel! Other Jesus's may be very nice and kind; they may fill your heart with warmth and your eyes with tears, but they cannot save your soul! Only the Jesus of definite, successful, and therefore, particular redemption can deliver your soul to God without spot and blemish. Trust Him, and tolerate no other! Fix your soul fast to Him and your soul shall live! Trust any other Jesus and you shall perish. -Joe