A Note to all Veterans, Military Servicemen, and their families.

     I just want to take a monent to express my gratitude, my respect and admiration for you, and your families, for your continued service, and the faithful carrying out of your duty.  Most of all my heart-felt sorrow for those of you who have lost loved ones in service to our country.  There are no words to truly express the debt our country owes you and your families.  Your courage, your willingness to sacrifice, to give all on behalf of our country and it’s citizen’s deserves no less than the highest praise we can give. 

     If it were up to me, every single one of you who has served our military, and your famlies would be given the absolute best that we’re capable of giving you in every way possible.  The best housing, education, equipment, training, and care that can be provided to you.  You deserve no less, and I am personally ashamed of our country and it’s leadership for failing to not only provide those things, but for failing to give you clear direction in the carrying out of your goals and objectives when deployed.  You are worthy of great leadership, and the fact that you have served with honor and dignity those undeserving of your commitment only elevates and speaks eloquently to the faithful execution of your duty.

     To those of you who have been spit upon, maligned, treaded upon by those who aren’t deserving of the freedom you’ve sacrificed to give them, I apologize on their behalf.  To all of you and your families, I thank you.  You are in my thoughts and prayers  every day, and stand in my estimation as shining examples of what makes America great.

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From the Writings of A.W. Pink

     Often what we lack in life is a proper perspective toward the trials, struggles, and obstacles that come to us in living our lives in this world.  It’s not the problems we face that are the issue for most of us.  It’s how we face them, our attitude toward them, and our ability to look beyond them.  The problem for most of us is that we have poor vision; we don’t see very well.  As people who have poor eyesight go to the eye doctor and get glasses and find their vision much improved by the lens they look through, so does our when we look at things with a heavenly perspective.

Affliction and Glory

“For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2Co_4:17)

These words supply us with a reason why we should not faint under trials nor be overwhelmed by misfortunes. They teach us to look at the trials of time in the light of eternity. They affirm that the present buffetings of the Christian exercise a beneficent effect on the inner man. If these truths were firmly grasped by faith they would mitigate much of the bitterness of our sorrows.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” This verse sets forth a striking and glorious antithesis, as it contrasts our future state with our present. Here there is “affliction,” there “glory.” Here there is a “light affliction,” there a “might of glory.” In our affliction there is both levity and brevity; it is a light affliction, and it is but for a moment; in our future glory there is solidity and eternity! To discover the preciousness of this contrast let us consider, separately, each member, but in the inverse order of mention.

1. “A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” It is a significant thing that the Hebrew word for “glory”-kabod-also means “weight.” When weight is added to the value of gold or precious stones this increases their worth. Heaven’s happiness cannot be told out in the words of earth; figurative expressions are best calculated to convey some imperfect views to us. Here in our text one term is piled up on top of another. That which awaits the believer is “glory,” and when we say that a thing is glorious we have reached the limits of human language to express that which is excellent and perfect. But the “glory” awaiting us is weighted, yea it is “far more exceeding” weighty than anything terrestrial and temporal; its value defies computation; its transcendent excellency is beyond verbal description. Moreover, this wondrous glory awaiting us is not evanescent and temporal, but Divine and eternal; for “eternal” it could not be unless it were Divine. The great and blessed God is going to give us that which is worthy of Himself, yea that which is like Himself-infinite and everlasting.

2. “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.”

 

(1) “Affliction” is the common lot of human existence; “Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward”

 

(Job_5:7)  This is part of the entail of sin. It is not meet that a fallen creature should be perfectly happy in his sins. Nor are the children of God exempted; “Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God” (Act_14:22).

 By a hard and rugged road does God lead us to glory and immortality.

 

(2) Our affliction is “light.” Afflictions are not light in themselves for ofttimes they are heavy and grievous; but they are light comparatively! They are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us. As said the same apostle in another place, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”

 (Rom_8:18).

 

(3) “Which is but for a moment. Should our afflictions continue throughout a whole lifetime, and that life be equal in duration to Methuselah’s, yet is it momentary if compared with the eternity which is before us. At most our affliction is but for this present life, which is as a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Oh that God would enable us to examine our trials in their true perspective.

3. Note now the connection between the two. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, “worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” The present is influencing the future. It is not for us to reason and philosophize about this, but to take God at His Word and believe it. Experience, feelings, observation of others, may seem to deny this fact. Ofttimes afflictions appear only to sour us and make us more rebellious and discontented. But let it be remembered that afflictions are not sent by God for the purpose of purifying the flesh: they are designed for the benefit of the “new man.” Moreover, afflictions help to prepare us for the glory hereafter. Affliction draws away our heart from the love of the world; it makes us long more for the time when we shall be translated from this scene of sin and sorrow; it will enable us to appreciate (by way of contrast) the things which God had prepared for them that love Him.

Here then is what faith is invited to do: to place in one scale the present affliction, in the other, the eternal glory. Are they worthy to be compared? No, indeed. One second of glory will more than counterbalance a whole lifetime of suffering. What are years of toil, of sickness, of battling against poverty, of persecution, yea, of a martyr’s death, when weighed over against the pleasures at God’s right hand, which are for evermore! One breath of Paradise will extinguish all the adverse winds of earth. One day in the Father’s House will more than counterbalance the years we have spent in this dreary wilderness. May God grant unto us that faith which will enable us to anticipatively lay hold of the future and live in the present enjoyment of it.

 

 

 

　

 

 

 

 

 

From the Writings of F.B. Meyer

     There’s an old saying that goes, “People won’t care how much you know until they see how much you care.”  This reminds me of how I should express what I think and feel.

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT–GENTLENESS

 

“The Lord’s servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all… forbearing.”–

 2Ti 2:24

 

IT IS not easy to cultivate this fruit of the Spirit because it has many counterfeits. Some people are naturally easy-going, devoid of energy and ambition, at heart cowardly, or in spirit mean. Many of us are characterized by a moral weakness and decrepitude that make it easy for us to yield rather than contest in the physical or intellectual arena.

 

But in gentleness there must be the consciousness of a considerable reserve of force. The gentleness of God is combined with omnipotence. The movements of creation, in which there is neither voice nor language, prove the infinite forces which are at work. When a boy is trying to lift or carry a heavy beam, as likely as not there will be a great crash when he reaches the end of his task, and puts it on the ground. His strength is so nearly exhausted that he is only too glad to get rid of his burden, anyhow, and at any cost. But if a strong man shoulders the same burden, and carries it for the same distance, he puts it down gently, because he has not taxed his strength and has plenty left.

 

It is the prerogative of great strength to be gentle. Always remember that you are linked with the Infinite God, and that all things are possible to you. There must also be infinite pity. We must be tolerant and pitiful to those who abuse us, or have been embittered by disappointment, or have been ill-used. It must be our aim to make allowances for such, and always to be sweetly reasonable towards any brusqueness, rudeness and bad manners of their behaviour. Let us be willing to admit that much is due to congenital moroseness. Therefore, we bear gently with the erring, and with those who are out of the way, because we also are encompassed with infirmity.

 

It is necessary also that there should be a deep humility. Thomas a Kempis says: “If thou wilt be borne with, bear also with another. Endeavour to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, what sort soever they be: for that thyself also hast many failings which must be borne by others.” Our resentment against others should be always tempered by our remembrance of our own sins. So shall we be God’s own gentlefolk.

 

PRAYER

 

O God, our behaviour has not manifested all the fruits of the Spirit, or been full of the graciousness and gentleness of Christ. Forgive us, and enable us so to live that His beauty may be on our faces, the tone of His voice in our speech, the gentleness of His tread in our steps, the unselfishness of His deeds in our hands. AMEN.