THE Intercessor

Is it a privilege to be borne upon the affectionate and believing prayers of a Christian friend? Ah, yes! precious channels of heavenly blessing are the intercessions of the Lord’s people on our behalf. But there is a Friend still closer to the Fountain of mercy, still nearer and dearer to the Father, than your dearest earthly friend; it is Jesus, “he ever lives to make intercession for them who come unto God by Him.” (Hebrews 7:25)

Oh, how precious is that declaration upon which in any assault, or trial, or perplexity, you may calmly and confidently repose: “I have prayed for you”! Yes, when from confusion of thought, or pain of body, or burning fever, you cannot pray for yourself, and no friend is near to be your mouth to God, then there is one, the Friend of friends, the ever-skillful Advocate and never-weary Intercessor no invocating saint, nor interceding angel but the Son of God himself, who appears in the presence of God moment by moment for you. 

Oh, keep, then, the eye of your faith immovably fixed upon Christ’s intercession; He intercedes for weak faith, for tried faith, for tempted faith yes, for him who thinks he has no faith. There is not a believer who is not borne upon His heart, and whose prayers and needs are not presented in His ceaseless intercession. When you deem yourself neglected and forgotten, a praying Savior in heaven is thinking of you. When you are tried and cast down, tempted and stumble, the interceding High Priest at that moment enters within the holiest, to ask on your behalf strength, consolation, and upholding grace. 

And when sin has wounded, when guilt distresses, and unbelief beclouds, who is it that stands in the breach, that makes intercession, that removes the darkness, and brings back the smile of a forgiving Father? the Lord Jesus, the interceding Savior. 

Oh, look up, tried and assaulted believer! you have a Friend at court, an Advocate in the chancery of heaven, an Intercessor curtained within the holiest of holies, transacting all your concerns, and through whom you may have access to God with boldness. 

[Octavius Winslow] 

Hebrews 9:24 ... For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

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No Secrets

 The cat is out of the bag.

[Origin Unknown]

Luke 8:17 ...  For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. ❤

Busybodies

Busybodies have destroyed more marriages, ruined more names, and caused untold strife between a church and its pastor than anything devils could do. 

If it ain’t your business, stay out of it. 

 [Christopher Gregory]

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Proverbs 11:13 ... A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

Exodus 23:1 ... Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

2 Corinthians 12:20 ...  For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:

Ephesians 4:29 ...  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.❤

"Stand"

Stand in the heat of this trial and do not waiver in His love for you. He has your children, and nothing can separate His love from them. Focus on His love for you and do not give heed to fear. His light will expose every wicked lie. His light is dawning in your life, but remember, it is always darkest before the dawn. 

Stand fast and do not give into fear and lies. They seek to rob you of His reality that surrounds you. Heaven is here and surrounds you in your circumstance. Even in trouble He stands with you in the fiery furnace. His resurrection life is in you to face the hounds of Hell and death itself. You are His Child, and you will indeed rise from the ashes. Come closer when things get difficult, and He will whisper His love to revive your heart. 

Heaven smiles at His listening Saints. Wide is the way of the world that leads away from His life and Truth. The world has ignored the evidence of His presence and power. Wide is the way of ignorance and pride. To seek wisdom and understanding takes attentive humility. Eyes that see and understand are those that have been awakened to the truth that He (I AM) is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. 

He has given you His very life. He has taken back what sin and death has attempted to steal from Him. See His life. Eyes of faith are your good investment for eternal treasures and to see His Kingdom manifested around your earthly life. 

[Troi Nelson Cockayne]

Ephesians 6:13 ...  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

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Be Thankful!!

No matter what is happening, 

take the time to remember all the good in your life.

Ephesians 5:20 ...  Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

~ Happy Thanksgiving 2022 ~

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"Hitherto"

The word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet, "hitherto the Lord has helped us!" 

Through poverty and through wealth, through sickness and through health, at home and abroad, on the land and on the sea, in honor and in dishonor, in perplexity and in joy, in trial and in triumph, in prayer and in temptation, "Hitherto has the Lord helped us!" 

We delight to look down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves. In the same way, look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of loving-kindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received "hitherto." 

But the word hitherto also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark and writes "hitherto," he is not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traversed. More trials and more joys; more temptations and more triumphs; more prayers and more answers; more toils and more strength; more fights and more victories; and then come sickness, old age, disease and death! Is it over now? No! there is more yet: awakening in Jesus' likeness, glorious thrones, heavenly harps and songs, white clothing, the face of Jesus, the society of saints, the glory of God, the fullness of eternity, the infinity of bliss! 

O be of good courage, believer, and with grateful confidence raise your "Ebenezer," for He who has helped you hitherto will help you all your journey through! When read in Heaven's light, how glorious and marvelous a prospect will your "hitherto" unfold to your grateful eye! 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

1 Samuel 7:12 ... Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

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All The Sins of The Saints!

All the afflictions, and all the temptations, and all the oppressions, and all the oppositions, and all the persecutions which befall a godly man, shall work for his good. Every cross, and every loss, and every disease which befall the holy man, shall work for his good. Every device of Satan, every snare of Satan, every deceit of Satan, every stratagem of Satan, and every enterprise of Satan against the holy man, shall work for his good. They shall all help to make him more humble, more holy, more heavenly, more spiritual, more faithful, more fruitful, more watchful.  Every prosperity and every adversity, every storm and every calm, every bitter and every sweet, every cross and every comfort, shall work for the holy man's good. 

When God gives a mercy that shall work for his good. When God takes away a mercy that shall work for his good. Yes, even all the falls and all the sins of the saints shall work for their good! Oh, the care, the fear, the watchfulness, the tenderness, the zeal which God raises in the souls of His saints by their very falls! Oh, the hatred, the indignation, and the detestation which God raises in the hearts of His children against sin by their very falling into sin! 

Oh, what love to Christ, what thankfulness for Christ, what admiration of Christ, what cleaving to Christ, what exalting of Christ, what drawings from Christ's grace are saints led to, by their very falls!  It is the glory of God's holiness, that He can turn spiritual diseases into holy remedies! He can turn soul poisons into heavenly cordials! He can prevent sin by sin and cure falling by falling! 

O Christian! What though friends and relations frown upon you, what though enemies are plotting and conspiring against you, what though needs, like armed men, are breaking in upon you, what though men rage, and devils roar against you, what though sickness is devastating your family, what though death stands every day at your elbow yet there is no reason for you to fear nor faint, because all these things shall work for your good! Yes, there is wonderful cause of joy and rejoicing in all the afflictions and tribulations which come upon you considering that they shall all work for your good. 

[Thomas Brooks] 

Romans 8:28 ...  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.❤

"The Lord is My Shepherd"

"The Lord is My Shepherd" Psalm 23:1

The shepherd is a favorite Scriptural picture of the divine love and care. In the Old Testament, the twenty-third Psalm gathers the whole wonderful truth in exquisite lines which are dear to young and old wherever the Bible is known. Then in the New Testament, when our Lord would give His friends the sweetest revealing of His heart toward them and tell them what they are to Him and what He would be to them, He says, "I am the Good Shepherd." (John 10:14)

The Hebrew shepherd lives with his sheep. If they are out in the storm, he is with them. If they are exposed to danger, so is he. Just so, Christ lives with His redeemed people. He enters into closest relations with them. The shepherd knows his sheep. He has a name for each one and calls them all by their names. Just so, Christ knows each one of His friends. He has intimate personal knowledge of each one. He knows the best in us and also the worst. He knows our faults, our sins, our wanderings. Yet, knowing us as we are He loves us still and never wearies of us! 

The shepherd is most gentle with his sheep. He does not drive them but goes before them and leads them. When they need rest on the way he makes them lie down, and chooses for their resting-place, not the dusty road but green pastures. He is especially kind to the lambs, carrying them in His arms, holding them close to His heart. All this is an exquisite picture of the gentleness of our Good Shepherd in His care of His sheep. Whatever the need is, there is something in the heart of Christ which meets its craving and supplies it's lack! 

The shepherd defends his flock in all danger. Often, he had to risk his own safety, even his life, in protecting his sheep. Just so, the Good Shepherd gives His life for His sheep! Christ's sheep are absolutely safe in His keeping. "I give unto them eternal life," He said; "and they will never perish ever!  No one can snatch them out of My hand!" (John 10:28)  

Then at last, He will bring His own all safely home, "and they shall become one flock, with one Shepherd!" (John 10:16)

[J.R. Miller]

Isaiah 40:11 ... He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. ❤

"Jesus Wept"

Jesus Wept. (John 11:35)

The Creator of all worlds, the Author of all beings, the Upholder of the universe raining tears of human woe and sympathy upon a grave! Oh, there lives not a being in the universe who can enter into our bereavements with the sympathy, the support, and the soothing of Christ! They were tears of sympathy. His heart was touched, deeply touched, with sympathy for the sorrow of others. He wept because the mourning sisters wept. He mingled His tears with theirs. 

This is true sympathy, "weeping with those who weep," making their sorrow our own. How really our Lord does this with His people. So completely is He our Surety that He takes our sins and infirmities, our trials and sorrows upon Himself, as if they were all and entirely His own. Our sins were so completely laid upon Him that not one remains charged to the account of those who believe in Jesus. Our present griefs are so entirely absorbed in Him, that, softened by His love, soothed by His sympathy, supported by His grace the trial is welcome, the affliction is sweet, and the rod of a Father's chastening, buds and blossoms into delectable fruit. 

Bereaved mourner, the sympathy of Christ is yours! The same Savior who wept at the grave of Bethany, now shares your grief. Do not imagine that your sorrow is isolated, or that your tears are forbidden or unseen. You have a merciful and faithful High Priest who is touched with your present calamity. There exists no sympathy so real, so perceptive, so deep, so tender, so sanctifying as Christ's sympathy. 

If your heavenly Father has seen it wise and good to remove from you the spring of human pity it is but that He may draw you closer beneath the wing of Jesus' compassion, presence and love. O child of sorrow will not this suffice, that you possess Christ's sympathy as immeasurable and exhaustless as the ocean as exquisite and changeless as His being! Yield your heart to His rich compassion! 

Will Jesus be regardless of what I feel, and the sorrows under which I groan? Oh no! The sigh that bursts in secret from my heart is not secret to Him; the tear that is my food day and night and drops unperceived and unknown is known and remembered by Him! 

[Octavius Winslow]

Hebrews 4:14-15 ... Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Psalm 56:8 ... Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? ❤

Our Guide!!

Our God is our guide! He led us out of the world at first, directed us to the cross, and conducted us into the path of holiness. He has led us through all our past difficulties and trials. He leads us by the hand at present, and He will never give up His charge, for He will be our guide even unto death. He will choose our way; lead us in the paths of righteousness; kindly converse with us along the road; point out the snares and dangers in our path; keep us by His power through faith unto salvation and will patiently bear with us unto the end! 

He may hide His face, refuse communion, withhold comforts, smite us for our follies, and teach us our dependence on Himself by painful experience; but He will never forsake us, or give us up! He will guide us to the end of the journey and will go with us through the last dark valley! 

He will not only lead us to the heavenly kingdom but put us in possession of it! This He has promised, and He will faithfully perform it. Beloved, it is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom! He will guide us now, and by and by receive us to glory! 

[James Smith]

Psalm 73:24 ... Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

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In The End Times ....

When the Word of God says, ‘In the end times deceivers will get worse and worse. Deceiving and being deceived’ --- this is not the time to be heeding the voices of the world or government. This is the time to listen to the only 100% TRUSTWORTHY SOURCE, The Holy Spirit. 

[Troi Nelson Cockayne]

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2 Timothy 3:13 ... But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Matthew 24:24 ... For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

2 Timothy 3:1 ... This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. ❤