Let us pray

by Patte Smith on Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 2:55pm ·

My spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! I will sing to the LORD, for Je is highly exalted. The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him. I will exalt Him! Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him. Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for you are God My Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. The LORD is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid? God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.

Luke 1:47:Romans 5:2-3;Phil 4:4;Ex 15:1-2;Job 15:13;Ps 25:5;27:1;46:1;Is 12:2;61:10;Joel 2:23

What is the summary Message of the Bible?

by Patte Smith on Sunday, June 24, 2012 at 10:14am ·

God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, His image-bearers. Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite His forbearance, attracts His implacable wrath.

But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of His character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of His own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what He expects.

In the fullness of time His Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in the first instance, to judge but to save: He dies the death of His people, rises from the grave and, in returning to His heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift He has secured for them—an eternity of bliss in the presence of God Himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

The only alternative is to be shut out from the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel (Romans 10:16;2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17).

~ D.A. Carson
excerpted from For Such a Time as This: Perspectives on Evangelicalism, Past, Present and Future.

by Patte Smith on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at 11:24pm ·

The preacher of the gospel is like the sower (of Luke 8:4-8). He does not make his seed; it is given him by his divine Master. No man could create the smallest grain that ever grew upon the earth, much less the celestial seed of eternal life. The minister goes to his Master in secret, and asks him to teach him his gospel, and thus he fills his basket with the good seed of the kingdom. He then goes forth in his Master's name and scatters precious truth. If he knew where the best soil was to be found, perhaps he might limit himself to that which had been prepared by the plough of conviction; but not knowing men's hearts, it is his business to preach the gospel to every creature—to throw a handful on the hardened heart, and another on the mind which is overgrown with the cares and pleasures of the world. He has to leave the seed in the care of the Lord who gave it to him, for he is not responsible for the harvest, he is only accountable for the care and industry with which he does his work. If no single ear should ever make glad the reaper, the sower will be rewarded by His Master if he had planted the right seed with careful hand. If it were not for this fact with what despairing agony should we utter the cry of Esaias, "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" ~ C.H. Spurgeon

Glorious vs Vainglorious Labor

by Patte Smith on Sunday, June 10, 2012 at 5:24pm ·

Those who serve God
must serve Him in His own way,
and in His strength,
or He will never accept their service.
That which man doth,
unaided by divine strength,
God can never own.
He will only reap that corn,
the seed of which was sown from heaven,
watered by grace,
and ripened by the sun of divine love.
God will empty out all that thou hast
before He will put His own into thee;
He will first clean out thy granaries
before He will fill them with the finest of the wheat.
The river of God is full of water;
but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs.
God will have no strength used in His battles
but the strength which He Himself imparts.
Are you mourning over your own weakness?
Take courage,
for there must be a consciousness of weakness
before the Lord will give thee victory.
Your emptiness
is but the preparation for your being filled,
and your casting down
is but the making ready for your lifting up.
~ Charles Spurgeon

Are you lonely tonight?

by Patte Smith on Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 10:15pm ·

THE LONELINESS OF THE CHRISTIAN By A.W. Tozer

The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone.

The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way. The man [or woman] who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens.

He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart. It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else.

What is Christian discernment?

by Patte Smith on Sunday, May 27, 2012 at 8:19am ·

People do not see issues clearly and are easily misled because they do not think biblically. But, sadly, one cannot help reflecting on how true that is of ourselves, in the church community too.

...True discernment means not only distinguishing the right from the wrong; it means distinguishing the primary from the secondary, the essential from the indifferent, the permanent from the transient, the good and the better from the best.

Thus discernment is like the physical senses; to some it is given as a special grace gift (1Cor. 12:10), but a measure of it is essential for us all, and must be constantly nourished. The Christian must take care to nourish his “sixth sense” of spiritual discernment. This is why the psalmist prays, “Teach me knowledge and good judgment” (Ps. 119:66).

But what is discernment? In Scripture (as Ps.119:66 indicates) it is the ability to make discriminating judgments, to distinguish between, and recognize the moral implications of, different situations and courses of action. It includes, apparently, the ability to “weigh up” and assess the moral and spiritual status of individuals, groups and even movements. Thus, while warning us against judgmentalism, Jesus urges us to be discerning and discriminating, lest we cast our pearls before pigs (Matt. 7:1, 6).

The most remarkable example of such discernment is described in John 2:24-25: “Jesus would not entrust himself to them . . . for he knew what was in a man.” This is discernment without judgmentalism. It involved our Lord’s knowledge of God’s Word (he, supremely had prayed, “Teach me . . . good judgment, for I believe in your commands” [Ps. 119:66]) and his observation of God’s ways with men. Doubtless his discernment grew as he himself experienced conflict with, and victory over, temptation and measured what is by what ought to be.

Christ’s discernment penetrates to the deepest reaches of the heart, but it is of the same type as the discernment the Christian is to develop, for the only discernment we possess is that which we receive in union with Christ, by the Spirit, through God’s Word.

Discernment is learning to “think God’s thoughts after him,” practically and spiritually; it means having a sense of how things look in God’s eyes, and seeing them in some measure “uncovered and laid bare.”

How should this discernment affect the way we live? It acts as a means of protection, guarding us from being deceived spiritually. We are not blown away by the winds of teaching that make central an element of the gospel that is peripheral, or treat a particular application of Scripture as though it were Scripture’s central message.

Discernment also acts as an instrument of healing, when exercised in grace. I have known a small number of people whose ability to offer a diagnosis of the spiritual needs of others has been remarkable. They have diagnosed others’ spiritual condition better than the people themselves could ever do. When exercised in love, discernment can be the healing knife in spiritual surgery.

Again, discernment can function as the key to Christian freedom. The zealous but undiscerning Christian becomes enslaved—to others, to his own uneducated conscience, to an unbiblical pattern of life. From such bondage, growth in discernment sets us free, enabling us to distinguish practices that may be helpful in some circumstances from those that are mandated in all circumstances.

In a different way, true discernment enables the freed Christian to recognize that the exercise of freedom in any given respect is not essential to the enjoyment of it.

Finally, discernment serves as a catalyst to spiritual development: “The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning” (Prov. 14:6). Why? Because the discerning Christian goes to the heart of the matter. He knows something about everything, namely that all things have their common fountain in God. Increase in knowledge therefore does not lead to increased frustration, but to a deeper recognition of the harmony of all God’s words.

How is such discernment to be obtained? We receive it as did Christ Himself—by the anointing of the Spirit: through our understanding of God’s Word, by our experience of God’s grace and by the progressive unfolding to us of the true condition of our own hearts. That is why we should pray; “I am your servant, give me discernment” (Ps. 119:25).


Excerpted from:
Discernment:
Thinking God's Thoughts after Him

By Sinclair Ferguson

http://www.alliancenet.org/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID307086_CHID560462_CIID1930190,00.html

Life or Death

by Patte Smith on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 9:38am ·

For this commandment
which I command you today
is not too mysterious for you,
It is not too hard for you,
it is not hidden from you,
nor is it afar off.
It is not in heaven...
Nor is it beyond the sea...
But the Word is very near you,
in your mouth
& in your heart,
that you may do it.
See, I have set before you today
life & good,
death & evil,
in that I command you today
to love the Lord your God,
to walk in His ways,
& to keep His commandments,
His statutes,
& His judgments,
that you may live & multiply...
that you may love your God,
that you may obey His voice,
& that you may cling to Him,
for He is your life...