Hymn of the Day
(tune: "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood"p.222)
If I have anything in which,
O'er others I might boast;
If in these things I'm counted rich,
For Christ I count them loss!
What things once seemed to be my gain,
Which gave me joy and pride;
God's grace has taught me to disdain,
And made me cast aside.
They're cast aside (What glory here!)
That I the Lord might gain.
That in the awful day to come,
I may be found in Him!
Not having my own righteousness,
Which I gain through the law;
But dressed, through faith, in nothing less,
Than the righteousness of God!
O, that I may know Jesus Christ,
And know within my soul,
That power which raised Him to God's side,
And works to make me whole.
And may I learn His sufferings,
By which He made me blessed,
That like Him, in His death,
I'd be, His image on me pressed.
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Today's Hymns
Be Still My Soul - #290
How Can We Question Our Great God? - #cb14
Blessed Assurance - 255
Special Dates: Barney Drenth - 14
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A child of God is like a person in a beautiful palace; if there is light in it, he sees the splendid objects around him, and enjoys them; but if the light is removed, he is nevertheless in the palace still, and surrounded with the same splendid objects as before, though he cannot see them. So, though the believer's frames and sensible comforts may have their ebbs and flows, his state, Godward, is invariably the same. -Augustus Toplady
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When you become just nothing, when you have no good feelings, no good desires, or anything you can bring to Christ – when you come to Christ, not with a broken heart, but for a broken heart, then He will receive you, then you will be the kind of man that Christ came to save. -Milton Howard
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Oh, child of God, why do you wait to call on thy God? Why will you forfeit so many blessings and mercies and trust in the arm of your flesh that constantly fails you? Come now and cast all your cares on Him and He will give you what is appointed to Zion: Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of pray for the spirit of heaviness." (Isaiah 61:3) -Fred Evans
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My son, give me thine heart (Proverbs 23:26)
Your heart; O, what other God than this cares for it?
Not the god of Pharisaism who is more than satisfied if your body is devoted to his service-if your knee touches the ground; if your frame is wasted by fasting; if your lips have pronounced certain form of prayer; or if your hands scatter meritorious alms.
Not the god of deism who, giving life without giving himself, and creating as if to relieve himself, treats the work of his hands as the ostrich her eggs," which leaveth her eggs in the earth... and forgetteth that the foot may crush them… is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers" (Job 39:14-16).
I say nothing of the god of Mohammedanism who repays a bloody and fatalistic devotion with the base currency of selfish and corrupt pleasure; nor of the god of paganism, I should say of its thousand gods, who give back with usury to omen the lessons of impiety and injustice which they received from him; nor of the many gods which man has created, and that in his own image.
Thus, outside of Jesus Christ, no religion presents anything which resembles the invitation of my text: "My son, give me thine heart!" -copied
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And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son...And those He predestined He also called; those he called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. -Romans 8:28-30
Can a person lose his salvation? The answer to that question is very simple: It depends altogether on who it is that "saved" him.
If the salvation a person possesses is in any way dependent on what that person does, it is certain that he will lose it, and the sooner he does so, the better, for he will never have the Lord's salvation until he has lost his own! A person can no more keep his salvation than he can earn it.
However, if one's salvation is wholly dependent on God, it is impossible for him to lose it. None of the works of God can fail. Since the salvation of sinners is a work of God (Ephesians 2:10), it is impossible that such salvation should fail in any way. The above Scripture, so often used to comfort people in their trials, has a greater comfort in mind. The good for which God is working in all things is salvation. Many difficult things happen in the lives of believers for which we can see no reason or purpose, and for which we can discern no good in this life. But, we know, by the declaration of the sovereign God, that every event in the life of believer is so ordered and devised that his eternal good, his salvation, is assured. Even in those things which occurred before he was converted, God was working to bring him to Christ. And in all things after conversion, God works to keep the believer there. From God's foreknowledge in eternity past, to His glorifying of all the elect, God is at work in all the events of history to ensure the salvation of His people. Hence, Paul can say that nothing in time and space can separate us from the love that began in eternity! (vv.38,39) -Joe