That Good Part

My friend Debbie reminded me that I hadn't blogged anything since November, and that's because I spent December trying to avoid all things technological. I had sort of an electronic meltdown between three blogs, a zillion digital pictures, two new websites to work on and finicky printers and disc burners. Like most of you, December was really busy, so if I had five empty minutes, I wanted something with pages made of paper. Our women's ministry has also just begun a study in the book of Joshua, which is shaping up for me as one of those books of the Bible that is like a good action movie-lots of fights, things being demolished and the good guys always win. I'm in the teaching rotation so that has kept me from blogging, too. It's a great book to be in for a multitude of reasons, but one that hits me today is the constant example of God's faithfulness. Joshua chapter one lays a great foundation for who God is, what He promises, and how He accomplishes what He inte...

"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 1 Corinthians 10:12 It is a curious fact, that there is such a thing as being proud of grace. A man says, "I have great faith, I shall not fall; poor little faith may, but I never shall." "I have fervent love," says another, "I can stand, there is no danger of my going astray." He who boasts of grace has little grace to boast of. Some who do this imagine that their graces can keep them, knowing not that the stream must flow constantly from the fountain head, or else the brook will soon be dry. If a continuous stream of oil comes not to the lamp, though it burn brightly to-day, it will smoke to-morrow, and noxious will be its scent. Take heed that thou gloriest not in thy graces, but let all thy glorying and confidence be in Christ and His strength, for only so canst thou be kept from falling. Be much more in prayer. Spend longer time in holy adoration. Read the Scriptures more earnestly...

I'm looking out at the standing water on my back porch, left by the heavy and welcome showers overnight. The sun has broken through, and my yard is busy percolating, getting nourished in a way the sprinkler could never match. My mom has told me stories of catching rainwater in buckets to wash her hair when she was young, nothing makes your hair shine like rain water, she says. But nothing beats these showers from heaven...... "I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing" (Ezek. 34:26). What is thy season this morning? Is it a season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "As thy day so shall thy strength be." "I will give thee showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace, ...

We begin the new year with a word from Charles Spurgeon..... "We will be glad and rejoice in Thee."—Song of Solomon 1:4. We will be glad and rejoice in Thee. We will not open the gates of the year to the dolorous notes of the sackbut, but to the sweet strains of the harp of joy, and the high sounding cymbals of gladness. "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation." We, the called and faithful and chosen, we will drive away our griefs, and set up our banners of confidence in the name of God. Let others lament over their troubles, we who have the sweetening tree to cast into Marah's bitter pool, with joy will magnify the Lord. Eternal Spirit, our effectual Comforter, we who are the temples in which Thou dwellest, will never cease from adoring and blessing the name of Jesus. We WILL, we are resolved about it, Jesus must have the crown of our heart's delight; we will not dishonour our Bridegroom by mourning in H...

From Charles Spurgeon's "Faith's Checkbook" But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:25) All human teaching and, indeed, all human beings shall pass away as the grass of the meadow; but we are here assured that the Word of the Lord is of a very different character, for it shall endure forever. We have here a divine gospel; for what word can endure forever but that which is spoken by the eternal God? We have here an ever-living gospel, as full of vitality as when it first came from the lips of God; as strong to convince and convert, to regenerate and console, to sustain and sanctify as ever it was in its first days of wonder-working. We have an unchanging gospel which is not today green grass and tomorrow dry hay but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah. Opinions alter, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it. Here, then, we have a gospel to rejoi...