A Cup of Cold Water!

Well, I can do as much as that. I can do a kind act toward the Lord's servant. The Lord knows I love them all and would count it an honor to wash their feet. For the sake of their Master, I love the disciples. How gracious of the Lord to mention so insignificant an action even a cup of cold water! 

This I can do, however poor; this I may do, however lowly; this I will do cheerfully. This, which seems so little, the Lord notices, notices when done to the least of His followers. Evidently it is not the cost, nor the skill, nor the quantity, that He looks at but the motive. That which we do to His disciple, because he is His disciple the Lord observes, and recompenses. He does not reward us for the merit of what we do — but according to the riches of His grace. 

I give a cup of cold water, and He makes me to drink of living water. I give to one of His little ones and He treats me as one of them. Jesus finds an apology for His liberality, in that which His grace has led me to do, and He says, "He will certainly not lose his reward!" 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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Matthew 25:40 ...  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 10:42 ... And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. ❤

Fixing Someone ...

Only God can change the situation. Pray and give it to the Lord!

"Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference."

[Max Lucado]

Philippians 4:6 ...  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Proverbs 3:5 ... Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Isaiah 41:10 ... Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. 

1 Peter 5:7 ... Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.❤

For the Ungodly!

To redeem poor sinners, Jesus came down from Heaven, put on the rags of our mortality, agonized, bled, died. Jesus is made His people's substitute, burden-bearer, sin-remover, guilt-sustainer. Their debt is placed to His account. His riches pay the full amount. Sin is removed from the sinner and placed on the Sinless! 

Their curse is rolled on Him and He endures it until no more remains! God deals with Jesus as the guilty one! He, as spotless Deity, receives imputed sins, and fully expiates them all. In the vicarious victim, God's justice is satisfied, and wrath expires! Jesus, in His life, in the garden, on the cross suffers their sufferings, dies their death, and so becomes their uttermost salvation! 

His pains are their pardon! His stripes are their healing! His agony is their recovery! 

[Henry Law] 

Romans 5:6 ... For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

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The Saints Everlasting Rest

If there is such a wonderful rest remaining for us, why don't we think about it more? Has the eternal God provided us such a hope, and promised to take us up to dwell with Himself; and is it not worth thinking about? Do we believe this, and yet forget it and neglect it? Why does God condemn earthly-mindedness and command, "Set your affection on things above"? (Colossians 3:2). If God says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15), why then do we make earth our principal concern?  Where is the Christian whose concentration is really on his rest? What is the matter are we so full of joy that we need no more? 

I urge you, reader, to bend your soul to study eternity. Busy it about the life to come. Make such meditation your habit. Bathe your soul in heaven's delights; and if your backward soul begins to drag its feet and your thoughts wander, call them back. Hold them to their work. Don't put up with their laziness. When you have, in obedience to God, tried this work, and kept a guard on your thoughts until they are accustomed to obeying; then you will find yourself in the suburbs of heaven. Then the life of Christianity will be a life of joy. 

[Richard Baxter]

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Titus 2:13 ... Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Philippians 1:23 ... For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:

2 Corinthians 5:8 ... We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. ❤

Right To Live

Like toddler and adolescent, the terms embryo and fetus do not refer to nonhumans but to humans at various stages of development. It is scientifically inaccurate to say a human embryo or a fetus is not a human being simply because he is at an earlier stage than an infant. This is like saying that a toddler is not a human being because he is not yet an adolescent. 

Does someone become more human as he gets bigger? If so, then adults are more human than children, and football players are more human than jockeys. Something nonhuman does not become human or more human by getting older or bigger; whatever is human is human from the beginning, or it can never be human at all. The right to live does not increase with age and size; otherwise, toddlers and adolescents have less right to live than adults. 

[Randy Alcorn]

Psalm 139:13 ... For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

Jeremiah 1:5 ...  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Psalm 127:3 ... Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.  ❤

"Hold Me Up!"

Almighty Father, 

Conscious of our own weakness and trusting only in Your grace and power we beseech You this day to multiply Your mercy upon us. We are going forth to tread on slippery ground may You uphold us. 

Our march is through a land of which Satan is the prince may You protect us. Snares at each turn await our steps may You guide us. We look around and fear. 

We look up to You and take courage. By Your grace alone can we stand. If Your grace should fail us instantly we fall. Our earnest prayer is, "Hold me up and I shall be safe!"

[Henry Law] 

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Psalm 119:117 ... Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.

Jude 24 ...  Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

1 Peter 1:5 ... Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ❤

When a True Christian Sins, What Happens?

When a True Christian sins, what happens? 

 1. His Fellowship with God is severed. David, when backslidden, mourned, “Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” (Psalm 32:4) As clouds hide the sun for days, so sin comes between the soul and God. 

 2. The Joy of salvation is lost. One loses all relish for spiritual things: the heart is empty. David, in this condition, confessed, “My sin is ever before me” and “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit.” (Psalm 51:3, 12) 

3. Power for service is lost. The Holy Spirit’s power is essential for any real witness for Christ. It cannot be faked. David prayed, “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts” and “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:6, 10)

4. The Christian invites divine chastisement. Hebrews 12:6-7 says “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. What son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” Psalm 89:32-33 says “I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.” 

 5. There is loss of reward. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15) Out of Fellowship means out of Service out of service means that one is failing to lay up treasures in heaven. He is building of “wood, hay, and stubble” which cannot endure the test of the rewarding day. (1 Corinthians 3:12-15) Many will be chagrined in that day by suffering Loss of Reward. 

Take the Way Back Now. 

[Keith Brooks]

Psalm 32:5 ... I  acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

1 John 1:9 ... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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The Most Precious Spot!

Take your place with Mary near to the cross of Jesus. There meet and blend suffering-and love, sorrow and sympathy. Standing in faith near the cross you are near the suffering Savior, the loving Son, the sympathizing Brother born for your present grief. Jesus, in the depth and tenderness of His love, is at this moment all that He was when, in soul travail. He cast that ineffable look of filial love and sympathy upon His anguished mother. 

Likewise, He can enter into your circumstances, understand your grief, and sustain and soothe your spirit as one only can, who has partaken of the cup of woe which now trembles in your hand. Drink that cup submissive to His will for He drank deeply of it before you and has left the fragrance of His sympathy upon its brim. Your sorrow is not new to Christ. Stand close to the cross of Jesus! It is the most accessible and precious spot on this side of Heaven, the most solemn and awesome spot on this side of eternity! 

The cross of Jesus is the focus of divine love, divine sympathy, and divine power. Stand by it in suffering, in persecution, and in temptation. Stand by it in the brightness of prosperity and in the gloom of adversity. Go to Christ's cross in trouble, repair to it in weakness, cling to it in danger, and hide beneath it when the wintry storm rushes fiercely over you. Near to the cross, you are near your Father's heart, and your Savior's side you seem to enter the gate of Heaven to stand beneath the vestibule of glory! 

Nothing but love will welcome your approach to the cross of Jesus divine love that pardons all your sins, flows over all your unworthiness, heals all your soul-wounds, soothes all your sorrows, and will shelter you within its blessed pavilion until earth is exchanged for Heaven, and you lay down the warrior's sword for the victor's palm, and spring from the foot of the cross to the foot of the throne to be forever with your precious Lord! 

[Octavius Winslow] 

John 19:25 ... Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

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Thanksgiving is Never Out of Season!

Everything we enjoy should be viewed as coming from the gracious and liberal hand of our sovereign God. All was forfeited by our sin. All that we receive is by His grace. The providence that supplies us is the wisdom, benevolence, and power of God in operation for us-as expressive of His infinite love and unmerited grace! 

Our talents to provide supplies, our opportunities to obtain them, and our abilities to enjoy them, -are alike from the Lord. Every mercy increases our obligation and deepens our debt to free grace! Thanksgiving is never out of season, for we have always much to be grateful for. We must view all things as arranged by His wisdom, dependent on His will, sanctified by His blessing, according with His promises, and flowing from His love! 

[James Smith]

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ...  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. ❤

Gratitude ...

Gratitude is a handmaiden of contentment. An ever-growing attitude of gratitude will certainly make us more content since we will be focusing more on what we do have, both spiritually and materially, than on what we do not have. But contentment is more than focusing on what we have. It is focusing on the fact that all we do have; we have by the grace of God. We do not deserve anything we have, materially or spiritually. It is all by His grace.

[Jerry Bridges]

Philippians 4:11 ... Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

1 Corinthians 15:10 ... But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ... In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. ❤

"Marvelous Mercy!"

An excerpt from the diary of James Smith

December 31, 1855. 

The last day of the year 1855-a year characterized by many severe trials, many sore temptations, and innumerable mercies. In some things, it closes differently to what I expected but how differently it may have closed! I might have been in Hell! 

O terrible thought! I might have been on a sick bed, tormented with excruciating pain, or reduced to a state of infantile weakness. I might have been in great and sore troubles, tossed with tempests, and not comforted. I might have been without a pastorate and without a loving people. 

Or I might have been guilty of some heinous sin, lost my character, and been a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth! Blessed forever blessed be the Lord-that such is not my case! My health is good, my hope in Christ is steady, my congregation good, and I trust the Lord will yet work a great work by me. 

And now, Lord, I desire to confess before you the sins of this past year: I have sinned with my tongue-and with my temper. I have sinned in my heart-and in my life. I have omitted duties. I have committed sins. My motives have often been impure. My aims have not been sufficiently high and holy. I have been impatient, fretful, irritable, rash, jealous, envious, discontented and ungrateful. 

O may the blood of Jesus wash out every stain! I renounce all hope-but what centers in Jesus! I have no refuge, no hiding-place, no strong tower, no place of safety-but Jesus. Christ in His person, Christ in His finished work, Christ in His glorious intercession- is all my hope, all my confidence, all my joy! I am His servant-and wish to serve Him alone. I am His subject-and wish to be ruled by Him alone. I am His purchased property-and wish to be consecrated entirely, eternally, and altogether to Him! 

[James Smith]

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