"O Omnipresent One, beneath whose all-seeing eye our mortal lives are passed, grant that in all my deeds and purposes to-day I may behave with true courtesy and honour. Let me be just and true in all my dealings. Let no mean or low thought have a moment's place in my mind. Let my motives be transparent to all. Let my word be my bond. Let me take no unchivalrous advantage of anybody. Let me be generous in my judgement of others. Let me be disinterested in my opinions. Let me be loyal to my friends and magnanimous to my opponents. Let me face adversity with courage. let me not ask or expect too much for myself.

Yet, O, Lord God, let me not rest content with such an ideal of manhood as men have known apart from Christ. Rather let such a mind be in me as was in Him. Let me not rest till I come to the stature of His own fullness. Let me listen to Christ's question: What do ye more than others? And so may the threefold Christian graces of faith, hope, and love be more and more formed within me, until all my walk and conversation be such as becometh the gospel of Christ."

Amen

"A Diary of Private Prayer" by John Baillie

Joy

I have been reading the book "The Fruitful Life" by Jerry Bridges with my devotions.  It has been a great book! One day this week I read the chapter on joy.  It was so helpful for me that I had to go back to it today and soak up some more.  Here is what I have so far...

 

   Romans 14:17 "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

  John 10:10 "I came that they may have life, and have it to the full." God came so that our lives might be full of joy!

  Mr Bridges says, "The fact is, only Christians have a reason to be joyful, but it is also a fact that every Christian should be joyful."

  Hmmm. I never thought of it that way.  That's right!  Only Christians have a reason to be joyful because we have a Saviour who died for us!

  Then Mr Bridges says, "We are not to sit around waiting for our circumstances to make us joyful, we are commanded to be joyful always." Paul says, "I will say it again:Rejoice!" Yet if we are honest, most of us must admit that life is so often anything but joyful.  It often seems that at best life is dull, and at worst it is filled with anxiety, conflict, and tension.  What is it that blocks joy in our lives?"

  The Stumbling Blocks:

1. Sin in our lives or sinful attitudes in our hearts. Christian joy is essentially the enjoyment of God, the fruit of communion with Him. Our sin breaks that communion.

2. Misplaced confidence.  Putting our confidence in ourselves instead of in the Lord.  Confidence in our personal disciplines, our job, etc...  Our confidence must be in the Lord and in the fact that our names are written in Heaven forever! "The circumstances of this life rise and fall, but the assurance of being with Christ one day never changes.  It is in this fact that our joy must be grounded."

   I need to remind myself of this often. Gees I am so self-reliant!

3. The chastening or discipline that God often administers to His children.

  John Sanderson, "If we only knew how bad we are, we would welcome chastening because this is God's way of getting rid of sin and its habits.  But chastening is resented because we cannot believe that we have done anything worthy of it."

  Yes how incredibly prideful I am!  To think that I couldn't possibly need discipline.  Or please don't let it hurt Lord.

  But God disciplines those he loves!

4. Experiencing trials of faith is a fourth hindrance to joy.

  The purpose of trials is to exercise our faith.  He allows them to develop perseverance in us and cause us to fix our hopes on the glory that is yet to be revealed. "Our faith and perseverance can only grow under the pain of trial."  

  That is so true!  I see this for me with health trials.  I must lean on the Lord to provide for me and my family.  I am grateful for what God has taught me through the medical trials. I must persevere.  I must trust that God has my best at heart.  And now with Jordan, all the more these things apply.

  "Frequently our reaction to trial is like Job's.  At the beginning of his testing he reacted positively...but as time wore on and the trials, aggravated by the false accusations of his friends, continued, Job's faith and patience gave out.  But though Job's faith wore out, God's faithfulness did not. He stayed with Job until Job had learned the lesson of God's sovereignty, and then He gave Job twice as much as he had before.

  There's so much to rob me of joy if I entertain it.  I am so selfish and inward focused.  If I only had salvation in God, that is enough to be constantly joyful!  Yet He has given me even more than that in his kindness.  I deserve none if it!  Zero! Zilch!

  More tomorrow on the stepping stones to joy...

Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace

What do you think about when you read that title? I just finished a commentary with that title, written by Iain Duguid. It's about the lives of Isacc and Jacob. I wish I could just quote the whole book here, but I can't so you should buy it. I used it in my devotions as I studied different parts of Genesis.
The book and of course the Bible point me to the fact that God uses wretches like me to do amazing things. Isaac and Jacob were conniving, dishonest men who manipulated their way through life. Jacob stole Esau's blessing, and wandered around for years when God had specifically told him where he should settle down (Bethel), just to name a few things. YET, he is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel!
Here is what Mr Duguid says.. "The doctrine of election is a difficult one for many people. They struggle with the justice of the idea that God chooses some for salvation and passes over others. Some people, therefore, have argued that it is a matter of God's foreknowledge. God knows in advance which people are going to choose him, and therefore he responds by choosing them. The Bible, however, is clear. God's love for his chosen people existed long before their birth, all the way back to the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4-5). God does not love us because he foresaw we would love him. Rather, we love God because he loved us from the first (1 John 4:10). In this way, our salvation is seen to rest on God's mercy and not on anything in us (Romans 9:16)."
"We should also notice, however, that Jacob is not chosen because, in contrast to Esau, he is such a wonderful person. Jacob shows himself to be a scheming, conniving, calculating little rat, especially during the first part of his life. Nonetheless, because God's choice rests upon him out of his sovereign mercy, God is going to work on Jacob, reshaping him, purifying him into a son he can use. Neither Jacob nor Esau deserves God's grace in his life, but God's sovereign mercy rests upon Jacob for his blessing, and so his grace begins the transforming work in his heart."
WOW! God did not choose me based on my merit! Thank goodness for that. I'd surely be sitting in hell. Thank you Lord for continuing to work on me, to reshape me and purify me!

Here's another one.."God's purposes for man's ultimate good will stand; they cannot be frustrated by human failures. This is a tremendously important biblical principle: your sin, even while it may have real and lasting earthly consequences, cannot derail God's gracious purpose for your life!!"
And this, "We see that Jacob was not instantaneously transformed into a holy person by his encounter with God. In spite of God's promise of protection, when trouble seems to be looming, he will continue to try to scheme his way out of it. Old habits die hard. The road to sanctification for Jacob was long and gradual and ultimately incomplete in this life. So it is also with us. We are faced daily with the choice between trusting the promise or falling into habitual patterns of sin. How frequently in our experience sin wins out over faith in the promise! Doubtless, during those times of life, Jacob would have had to return frequently to Bethel in his mind and recall the reality of God's grace. So also we should frequently remind ourselves of the grace of God shown to us in the cross of Christ, especially when we have sinned. This is a spiritual journey upon which we have been given the Lord's Supper as a vital help. As Paul tells us, "Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of Christ not simply as the general answer to the sins of the world but also to ourselves as the particular answer to our sin. Our hunger to be reminded of grace should make us long to come to the Lord's table often and should make our experience of God's grace there deep and precious."
Amen!!!
This seems to be a theme that God has been continually pointing me to lately-that he has chosen me based on his rightousness alone and that he will accomplish his purposes through me. Through doing this study, life's circumstances, and the book we are reading in care group "The Big Picture," I have come to this conclusion. So I have decided to change my blog title to reflect that. Surely I do live in the Grip of Relentless Grace. Glory to God.

Devotions

I haven't forgotten that I am going to do posts on this subject so dear to me and many of you! Seems like everytime I try to sit and write on it, I end up needing to do something else. So it's still in draft form.
BUT I would love for you to read on Yoursacredcalling about devotions today. It is a post she wrote on Monday, so just scroll down to it. It's chapter 4 of her book Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, which I recommend!
I promise you won't be sorry for taking time to read it. It WILL encourage you. Especially those of us with small children.
ENJOY!

The Wonder of the Word

"I must have a Bible of my own! I must have one, if I have to save up for it for ten years!"
"The year was 1794. For as long as she could remember, little Mary Jones had yearned to hold a Bible in her hands so that she might read it for her herself. For years, she had sat at night on her weaver father's lap and listened to him tell stories of Abraham, Joseph, David, and Daniel. But her family was far too poor to afford a Bible, even if one had been available, for Bibles could scarcely be found in all of Wales during those days.
Two years earlier, Mrs. Evans, the wife of a nearby farmer, having learned of Mary's longing to read the Bible, had promised the child that when she learned to read, she could come to their house and read their Bible. As soon as the first school opened in a neighboring village, Mary had eagerly set about Learning to read.
Now, the ten-year-old girl had just walked two miles from North Wales village to Llanfihangel to the Evanses' farm. The distance was no object to the eager child:"I'd walk farther than that for such a pleasure, ma'am!" she said to Mrs Evans.
When once Mary finally was left alone in the room with the Bible, she reverently lifted off the white napkin that covered and protected the cherished book. Then, with trembling hands, she opened the book to the fifth chapter of John where her eyes lit on the words "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life:and they are they which testify of me." Confident that God had spoken to her directly, she earnestly vowed to search HIs Word with all her heart.
Every Sat from that point forward she made the journey to the Evanses' farm, where she read, studied, and memorized entire chapters from the borrowed Bible. All the time, however, her heart ached, so great was her yearning to have a Bible of her own. She purposed that she must have a Bible, at any cost.
For the next six years, in addition to her studies at school and the many chores to be tended to at home, Mary used every available moment to do odd jobs for friends and neighbors. Every penny she earned was carefully laid aside, until at long last she saved enough money to buy a Bible of her own.
When she learned that the closest place a Bible could be purchased was 25 miles away, there was no question what she must do. With hope in her heart, she started out early one morning, walking barefoot so as not to ruin her one pair of shoes. Before she reached her destination, her feet were blistered and cut from the stones in the road.
Physically weary, but barely able to contain her excitement that her lifelong goal should be so nearly realized, Mary finally arrived in Balam where she poured out her story to the minister, Mr Charles. When she finished, Mr Charles reluctantly informed her that the last of the Bibles available for sale had already been sold and that the handful of remaining ones had been promised to others. Furthermore, the Society that had printed the small quantity of Welsh Bibles did not intend to print anymore.
So great was Mary's disappointment that she began to sob uncontrollably. Touched by the intensity of her passion to have a Bible of her own, Mr Charles decided that she must have one of the few Bibles left in his possession. Words cannot describe the ecstasy that Mary felt as Mr Charles placed into her hands the precious treasure for which she had prayed, wept, and hoarded all these years. Her heart sang as she walked the 25 miles back home, carrying her very own Bible, the book that would remain her dearest friend and companion throughout her life."

I read this story this morning from Nancy Leigh DeMoss' book "A Place of Quiet Rest" and it so pricked my heart! Wow what an example of how precious the Word of God should be to me. I don't know about you but I have tons of Bibles in my house. Many days I can't get my lazy tail out of bed to walk to the den to read it, let alone walking two miles!! Do we really realize what a gift we hold in our possession? That the God of the universe speaks to us!!! And He is willing to meet with us any day, any time, any where? ALL we have to do is open His word and He will meet us!
My next few posts are going to be on one of my most passionate subjects, spending time with the Lord. Devotions are such an important part of the life of a believer. We just can't get by without spending time communing with our Savior. He is our best friend!
I hope the posts minister to you and encourage you in your walk with the Lord. If you are an unbeliever and read this blog, may your heart be stirred afresh as to why you were created and Who you were created for!

Ruth

I have been studying Ruth the past couple of days. It is part of the commentary that I was reading on Esther by Iain Duguid. And once again, it is fantastic! Ruth is one of my favorite books of the Bible. But, once again I have learned so much more about it than I previously knew. First of all Naomi and Elimelech decided to leave the promised land and their God due to the trials there-famine, etc... In doing so they disobeyed God and Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion all died. Leaving Ruth with her two daughter-in-laws in a foreign land, and they were Moabites (sons weren't supposed to marry anyone from Moab)! Talk about consequences-losing your husband and sons because they chose not to trust God and remain with their people. So here's Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah with noone to care for them, no way to get daily bread. Naomi decides to ponder going back to Israel, where her family was. Israel had repented and there was food in the land again. Maybe someone would take her in? Here is what Mr Duguid says,"Such a positive outcome was certainly not inevitable. Naomi, along with her husband and children, had set out on a road of disobedience, and they had experienced the reality of God's judgement. Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion were all dead as a result. There was no hope of repentance and return for them. Yet God in his grace had not left her family completely without survivors. A remnant remained, giving hope that there might be a future after all. God's judgement on sin is reliable, for His word is faithful, but even more consistent is God's desire to restore wandering sinners to himself. GRACE IS ALWAYS GOD'S LAST WORD (emphasis mine)." Then he goes on to say "God's grace transcends our rebellion, and not only leaves the door open for us to retrace our steps, but stirs our hearts to see our folly and the welcoming arms that await our return. So the Spirit of God stirred in Naomi's heart to leave the land of rebellion, swallow her wounded pride, and start out at last on the long road home." There's so much more....