Hymn of the Day
(tune: "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone" p.342)
When I look in my wretched heart, And there my nature see;
This is my hope, this is my joy, That Jesus lived for me.
When I behold God's Holy Law, And there my sentence see;
This is my hope, this is my joy, That Jesus died for me.
When I see how my days are mixed, With joy and misery;
This is my hope, this is my joy; That Jesus rules for me.
And when I ponder on my life, How swift its end must be!
This is my hope, this is my joy, That Jesus lives for me.
When I look out upon this world, And there, God's judgment see;
This is my hope, this is my joy, That Jesus comes for me.
And when I stand before God's throne, To hear His just decree;
This still my hope and joy shall be, Jesus sits there for me!
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Today's Hymns
Satisfied - #446 ~ Glory to His Name #489,
Unsearchable Riches #495
Special Dates: Helen Vlastuin – 28 ~ Kylee Riebeling - 30
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Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. ~Psalm 35:3
To keep water sweet, it must be perpetually running, and to keep the life of God up in the soul, there must be continual exercises. This is the reason why the Lord's people have so many conflicts, trials, painful exercises, sharp sorrows, and deep temptations - to keep them alive unto God, to bring them out of and to keep them out of that slothful, sluggish, wretched state of carnal security and dead assurance in which so many seem to have fallen asleep—fallen asleep like the sailor upon the top of the mast, not knowing what a fearful gulf is boiling up below. The Lord, therefore, "trieth the righteous." He will not suffer his people to be at ease in Zion, to be settled on their lees, and get into a wretched, Moabitish state. He therefore sends afflictions upon them - tribulations and trials - and allows Satan to tempt and harass them. And under these feelings, the blessed Spirit, from time to time, raises up in them this sigh and cry, "Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation." None but thyself, Lord, can save me; nothing short of Thy voice can whisper peace to my conscience; nothing short of thy blood can speak away guilt from lying as a heavy burden upon my heart; nothing short of thy love shed abroad by the Holy Ghost can make my soul happy in Thyself. -JC Philpot
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We have all heard the phrase, "Actions speak louder than words." That is another way of saying with James, "Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works." It is our works, our actions that prove whether or not we believe what we say. Truly, actions speak louder than words! We say to our children that the worship of God is more important than anything else! We teach them that Christ is present during public worship and emphasize how important public worship is. But what do our actions say when we allow ourselves and our families to miss public worship? We say by our actions that we really do not believe what we say we do. We tell our children that it is really not that important to us. What is so tragic about this is, in all likelihood, it will not be that important to them either. Children usually take the actions of their parents a step farther! -Todd Nibert
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The disobedient rebel is cast out of the Garden of Eden, as he should have been. A just God cast him out of His presence, but he goes out with a Savior's promise of life through the woman's seed. The wicked world was destroyed by a flood, as it should have been. A just God dealt with sin in righteousness, but high on the flood floats an ark of salvation by the grace of God, our Savior. From Sinai's mountain comes a holy law, which a just and righteous God must require, but from that mount came also a tabernacle with a mercy-seat provided by "A JUST GOD AND A SAVIOUR." "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." -Henry Mahan
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When the dust of division settles, those who are true followers of Christ will be made manifest. They may waver in the confusion, but God's saints will not be moved away from the hope of the Gospel. When the sowers of discord have had their last fling, the cause of Christ will not be hindered, and believers will still cling to Christ with stronger faith than ever before. -Don Fortner
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Jesus Christ – the same yesterday, today, and forever.
-Hebrews 13.8
We can detect no change in our Lord. There has been no change whatever concerning His love for His Father and His people or His determination to bring the saving purpose of His Father to perfect completion. Though in His days upon the earth He matured from infancy to manhood, He did not age; He would not have grown old. And even now, though He has spent nearly 2000 years at His Father's right hand, upholding all things by the word of His power, guiding all the events of the universe to their appointed end – the salvation of God's elect, there are no signs of weakness or weariness on His face; the "stress" of managing everything has not wrinkled His face or dimmed His eye. His ear is as attuned to the cries of the needy as when He heard Bartimaeus cry out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." The passage of time has not left any trace on the Son of God. He is as He has always been and ever shall be.
And I must confess that I follow Him in two of those three timeframes. I am, "Joe – the same yesterday and today." According to some of the things taught me in my early years, I expected improvement as time went by. I expected I would overcome this or that sin. I expected that temptation's power would diminish. I expected that my faith would increase to full assurance. But I am still the same wretched man I was at the beginning, still struggling with horrible doubts and falling to the same temptations. And if I have increased any in wisdom, it is only in the ever-increasing realization that what I was, I still am: a weak, faltering, worthless sinner.
But I thank my God that I will not follow my Savior in that third timeframe. I shall not forever be what I was and still am! I shall be changed! I will not remain the same as I have been to this point. God has predestined that I shall be something else – that I shall be made like His only-begotten Son. By death or by the return of the Lord, I shall leave behind all that pertains to sin and the curse that came by it. In the twinkling of an eye, I shall become what I have never been but will forever be. By the grace of God, I shall lay hold of the very thing for which Christ laid hold of me. And from that time on, it shall be, "Joe – the same forever!
Glory be to the name of Jesus, both now and evermore! -Joe