Can You Find The Source of These Quotations?

If you like a challenge, try this. All these quotations are taken from the same source. Hint: I’ve mentioned before.

“God’s rules of action are immutable and therefore what He did to one company of His people He will do to others of them. God is Sovereign but yet He acts according to His unchanging Nature so that from one of His proceedings we may infer the rest.”

“God gave you all Covenant blessings in Christ Jesus according as He chose you, in Him, from before the foundation of the world. God saw you in Christ as His elect, His Beloved, His redeemed and therefore for you He prepared a kingdom which you inherit through His Grace. If you have now the confidence to believe in Christ Jesus and to say, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” then you shall know that in grasping gracious blessings you do but come to your own!”

“Beloved, who among us knows all that is ours in Christ? He is a case which is all ours, but we do not open its doors and take out all its treasures! Our possessions in Christ are very wide but we need to be bid, like Abraham, to lift up our eyes to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west, that we may form a clearer idea of the goodly land which the Lord our God has given us! We see the blessings of the Covenant but do we feed on them as we might! Do we drink deep into them and is our soul satisfied as with marrow and fatness by them? I fear we do not”

” it is your high privilege to have access to the Mercy Seat—but do you use that access and come often and boldly to the Throne of Grace? Do you avail yourselves of your opportunities? Do you make the utmost use of prayer?”

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A Thought on “Defiant Beauty”

I’ve been reading a book called, “Authentic Faith” by Gary Thomas. In it, he uses a term called “Defiant Beauty,” and the following is a direct quote, “In a world where people live self-centered lives, where ugly things happen, where sin seems to spread unchecked, where daily assaults take their toll, we can point to the defiant beauty of a selfless life, seeking first the kingdom of God, putting others first, and even sacrificing ourselves in the process, if need be-all to proclaim a transcendent truth that is greater than ourselves.” Right before he says this, he writes, “Beauty in the midst of chaos or ugliness is stunning. It’s onstage, and it seizes your attention.”

Within those few words is a truth that lies at the heart of what I’ve often sensed is the biggest hindrance to “Christianity” today, and with, sad to say, too many of us who call ourselves, “Christians.” Could it be that the reason “Christianity” and “Christians” are failing is because we’re failing to be the ” defiant beauty” in the midst of all the ugliness around us?

We live in a world of “ungrace” where practically everyone and everything is in direct opposition to what “grace” is, and what it’s about. We look down on and despise the concepts of “grace, forgiveness and mercy” when Jesus shows us that these are our most powerful weapons.

Jesus calls us to love, and when we do that as He has called us to, then we show the “defiant beauty” that characterized and defined His life here on earth and turned the lives of all those He touched upside down.

Psalms 103

 A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
 The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; 
 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

From “Evening Thoughts” by Winslow

“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in you: yes, in the shadow of your wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performs all things for me.” Psa_57:1-2

The exercise of faith strengthens, as the neglect to exercise, weakens it. It is the constant play of the arm that brings out its muscular power in all its fullness; were that arm allowed to hang by its own side, still and motionless, how soon would its sinews contract, and its energy waste away! So it is with faith, the right arm of a believer’s strength; the more it is exercised, the mightier it becomes; neglect to use it, allow it to remain inert and inoperative, and the effect will be a withering up of its power. Now when gloomy providences, and sharp trials and temptations, thicken around a poor believing soul, then is it the time for faith to put on its strength, and come forth to the battle. God never places His child in any difficulties, or throws upon him any cross, but it is a call to exercise faith; and if the opportunity of its exercise passes away without improvement, the effect will be a weakening of the principle, and a feeble putting forth of its power in the succeeding trial. Do not forget, that the more faith is brought into play, the more it increases; the more it is exercised, the stronger it becomes.

Some of the choicest mercies of the covenant brought into the experience of the believer, come by a travail of faith: it maybe a tedious and a painful process; faith may be long and sharply tried, yet the blessings it will bring forth will more than repay for all the weeping, and suffering, and crying, it has occasioned. Do not be surprised, then, at any severe trial of faith; be sure that when it is thus tried, God is about to bring your soul into the possession of some great and perhaps hitherto unexperienced mercy. It may be a travail of faith for spiritual blessing; and the result may be a deepening of the work in your heart, increase of spirituality, more weanedness from creature-trust, and more child-like leaning upon the Lord; more simple, close, and sanctifying knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Or, it may be a travail of faith for temporal mercy, for the supply of some need, the rescue from some embarrassment, the deliverance out of some peculiar and trying difficulty; but whatever the character of the trial of faith be, the issue is always certain and glorious. The Lord may bring His child into difficult and strait paths, He may hedge him about with thorns so that he cannot get out, but it is only to draw the soul more simply to repose in Himself; that, in the extremity, when no creature would or could help, when refuge failed, and no man cared for his soul, that then faith should go out and rest itself in Him who never disowns His own work, but always honors the feeblest exhibition, and turns His ear to the faintest cry. “Out of the depths have I cried unto You, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.” “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears.” “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him; and saved him out of all his troubles.” Here was the severe travail of faith, and here we see the blessed result. Thus true is God’s word, which declares that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” The trial of faith is a test of its degree. We know not what faith we possess, until the Lord calls it into exercise; we may be greatly deceived as to its nature and degree; to walk upon the stormy water may be thought by us an easy thing; to witness for Christ, no hard matter: but the Lord brings our faith to the test. He bids us come to Him upon the water, and then we begin to sink; He suffers us to be assailed by our enemies, and we shrink from the cross; He puts our faith to the trial, and then we learn how little we possess.

 

My Prayer to the Father, August 21, 2012

Heavenly Father
I come to You, Father
Knowing that You are the Great God;
The Eternal God.
That You are defined
By
Love
Mercy
Compassion
Forgiveness
Justice
Holiness
And Truth,
And that these are all
You;
You are all these things.

Heavenly Father
How little we know of You;
With what arrogance
Do we presume upon You.
To think with our finite
Minds that we
Can understand You
Or think we should ever
Be able to know
All You are.

Heavenly Father
My prayer is a simple one
But one I feel we all need.
Father, I ask You
To help my brothers and sisters
To know:
That Your love is bigger,
Wider, deeper,
Than we can ever imagine;
That Your mercy
Extends beyond
What we are
capable of receiving.
That Your compassion
Knows no bounds;
That Your forgiveness
Is available
To anyone who
Sincerely desires it.

Heavenly Father
Let us never forget
That You are Just.
That Your justice
Is as big, wide, and deep
And Your eternal love.
That without Holiness
We shall never see You.
And most of all,
That without Your truth,
As You have decreed it
We shall never
Know You.

In Jesus name, I pray,
Amen.

My Prayer to the Father, August 16, 2012

Heavenly Father
I come unto You,
And bow down before Your throne
To give praise and worship
Unto You who are ever
Mighty and strong,
Faithful and true,
And always love.
You are the Creator;
The Author,
You are Wonderful, and
You are from
Everlasting to everlasting.

Heavenly Father
Thank You for Your Son,
Jesus Christ,
My lord and Savior.
Thank You for Your great love;
A love that was so strong,
So true
So giving
That through it
A fallen world, and
A fallen people
Could be redeemed
If they so chose
Simply be speaking the name
Of Jesus, and by
Believing and trusting
That He was and is
All He claimed
To be.

Heavenly Father
Tonight, my prayer is
Simply for my
Brothers and sisters
To live in total submission
And obedience
To Your call upon
Their lives.
I pray Father that You
Will help them
To live
In such a way as to bring
You
Great glory and honor.

Heavenly Father
I pray that You will make
Each of
My brothers and sisters
People who will stand for Your
Truth,
Justice,
Mercy,
Compassion,
And
Love
To every single person
They know and meet…

In Jesus name, I pray.
Amen.

My Prayer to the Father, August 10, 2012

Heavenly Father
I come to You, Father,
Knowing that You
Are a God of
Truth
Understanding
Compassion
Mercy
Justice
Holiness
Perfection
And Love.

Heavenly Father
It is because I know this
That I can come before You
And bow down,
And plead with You
To have these things
Toward me.
Father, I am a sinner.
I have things in my
Mind and heart
That I don’t want
To face,
For I lack the courage
To face the answers
I’m afraid will be
There.

You, say, Father, that there is no
Temptation but such as
Is common to man,
And that You will give us
A way out
That we may be able
To bear it.
I pray You give me
That way now.
Temptation is an ugly
Thing, O Lord
And I would wish
That I should never
Have had to face this.
I am ashamed
That it has any appeal
But I will not lie
To You, nor myself.

Heavenly Father
I pray that You give me the
Strength to turn away,
To set my face in the opposite
Direction and run as
Fast as I can.
Give me the feet of a deer
So I may run swiftly
Into the arms of my Lord
who will hold me safely
And give me the security
Only He can provide.

Heavenly Father
I know that You are Perfect;
I know that though
You don’t make evil
You allow it.
You have allowed this
To touch me.
You, in all Your wisdom,
In all Your power,
In all Your truth
And compassion
Have with your
Almighty hand
Not stayed this,
But have allowed me to
Encounter it.
Is this a test, Father?
Is it an opportunity?

Heavenly Father
You have also said
Blessed is the man that
Endures temptation
For when He has been tried
He will receive
The crown of life.
You, Father are so good;
You who love us so
Not only show us love,
But teach us how
To do so.

Heavenly Father
I thank You for Your word;
I thank You for
Providing what my soul needs
What I am thirsty for
Righteousness.
You have given me that
Which I long for
Not in a place or thing,
But in a man
Made of flesh and bone
Who was made
As I,
And because He has
Tasted death for me,
Has been tempted
In the same ways
Is able to comfort me,
And who will forever be
My high priest who
Before You, O God,
Stands as my eternal
Mediator before you.

Heavenly Father
Thank You for my Lord and Savior,
Thank you for His blood that
Covers me;
Thank you for
His great love, mercy, and compassion,
And bringing to me once again the light
Of Your truth,
And the knowledge that reminds me
That he who stands beneath the tree
In the shadow of His grace
Blessed is he.

In Jesus name, I pray.
Amen.

From “Music For The Soul” by Alexander Maclaren

July 20

I’ve never seen this put better…

CHRIST’S UNSOUGHT LOVE

I am found of them that sought Me not. – Isa_65:1

Christ’s own word is a wonderful one: “The Father seeketh such to worship Him “; as if God went all up and down the world looking for hearts to love Him and to turn to Him with reverent thankfulness. And as the Father, so the Son – for us the “revelation of the Father: “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Nobody on earth wanted Him, or dreamed of His coming. When He bowed the heavens and gathered Himself into the narrow space of the manger in Bethlehem, and took upon Him the limitations and the burdens and the weaknesses of manhood, it was not in response to any petition, it was in reply to no seeking, but He came spontaneously, unmoved, obeying but the impulse of His own heart, and because He would have mercy. He who is the Beginning, and will be first in all things, was first in this. “Before they call I will answer,” – and came upon earth unbesought and unexpected, because His own infinite love brought Him hither. Christ’s mercy to a world does not come like water in a well that has to be pumped up, by our petitions, by our search, but like water in some fountain, rising sparkling into the sunlight by its own inward impulse. He is His own motive; and came to a forgetful and careless world, like a shepherd who goes after his flock in the wilderness, not because they bleat for him, since they crop the herbage which tempts them even further from the fold and remember him or it no more, but because he cannot have them lost. Men are not conscious of needing Christ till He comes. The supply creates the demand. He is like the “dew which tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.” But not only does Christ seek us all inasmuch as the whole conception and execution of His great work are independent of man’s desires, but He seeks us each in a thousand ways. He longs to have each of us for His disciples. He seeks each of us for His disciples, by the motion of His Spirit on our spirits, by stirring convictions on our consciences, by pricking us often with a sense of our own evil, by all our restlessness and dissatisfaction, by the disappointments and the losses, as by the brightnesses and the goodness of earthly providences, and often through such poor agencies as my lips and the lips of other men. The Master Himself, who seeks all mankind, has sought and is seeking you at this moment. Oh! you yield to His search. The shepherd goes out on the mountain side, for all the storms and the snow, and wades knee-deep through the drifts until he finds the sheep. And your Shepherd, who is also your Brother, has come looking for you, and at this moment is putting out His hand and laying hold of you through my poor words, and saying to you, as He said to Philip, ” Follow Me! ”

 

From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian – Lifting Those Who Fall

So how do you approach people who need help?

LIFTING THOSE WHO FALL

It’s okay to confront somebody you believe is in the wrong, but not with a self-righteous attitude.  When church leaders insisted a woman “caught in the act of adultery” be stoned (See John 8:4 NLT), Jesus replied, “Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone” (v. 7 NLT).  Ouch!  One Christian author writes: “Are we aware of other people’s mistakes because they confided in us, or have we appointed ourselves the ‘moral police’ to justify examining the blemishes in everyone else’s behavior?  Is your goal to restore prodigals,,,,or do you have a hidden agenda to evaluate yourself by condemning those around you?  I’ve been confronted twice by other Christians.  One…a red-faced stranger who was furious with me for wearing knee-high leather boots with a short skirt to her church.  She called me a ‘Jezebel.’  The second was…a good friend who tenderly pointed out my pride in a specific situation.  The name-calling left a bruise on my soul….the compassionate rebuke turned me toward the forgiving arms of our heavenly Father.  God alone has the perfect combination of holiness and mercy to stand in judgment of the human heart.  The Bible says, ‘if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.  And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.’  The only one who was worthy to condemn us, chose instead to pardon us…and in light of our own sinner-saved-by-grace (status)-when the Holy Spirit impresses you to confront someone who has messed up, do it with honesty, compassion, and humility.”

From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian, What Kind of Example Are You (4)

     Something for you to meditate upon as you go through the day.    

 

WHAT KIND OF EXAMPLE ARE YOU (4)

     Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be the sons of the Most High.  For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.  Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful” (Lk 6:35-36 NKJV).  Such words bring us to our knees, for we fall far short of practicing them.  The pastor of a large church tells of being on an elevator with a drunk man who was throwing up.  The pastor couldn’t wait to get off.  All the way to his room he kept criticizing the man.  Later that night God spoke to him and said, “You laughed at him, but I loved him enough to die for him.”  Watch your attitude!  The same sunshine that melts the butter hardens the clay.  When you constantly deal with people’s problems, it will make you either callous or compassionate.  In spite of his disappointment in people, Jesus never lost His sense of compassion.  Love isn’t a virus you catch, it’s a virtue you’re supposed to practice every day.  And there’s a divine dimension to this kind of love.  “The love of God has been poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Ro 5:5 NKJV).  You can’t reach into the well of your own emotions to find such love; you can only take the love of God that’s been poured into your heart and share it with others.  And if you are to serve God successfully you must have regular transfusions of his love.