Morning Devotionals

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Many Christians who include Charles Spurgeon's daily devotionals in their morning routine have already read this today. For you, here it is again for your enjoyment. For those who have not, let these words be an encouragement when you contemplate that day when you will finally see the Lord Jesus Christ with your own eyes and be with Him.



"Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."-1 Thessalonians 4:14

 
    Let us not imagine that the soul sleeps in insensibility. "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise," is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint. They "sleep in Jesus," but their souls are before the throne of God, praising Him day and night in His temple, singing hallelujahs to Him who washed them from their sins in His blood.

The body sleeps in its lonely bed of earth, beneath the coverlet of grass. But what is this sleep? The idea connected with sleep is "rest," and that is the thought which the Spirit of God would convey to us. Sleep makes each night a Sabbath for the day. Sleep shuts fast the door of the soul, and bids all intruders tarry for a while, that the life within may enter its summer garden of ease. The toil-worn believer quietly sleeps, as does the weary child when it slumbers on its mother's breast.

Oh! happy they who die in the Lord; they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. Their quiet repose shall never be broken until God shall rouse them to give them their full reward. Guarded by angel watchers, curtained by eternal mysteries, they sleep on, the heritors of glory, till the fulness of time shall bring the fulness of redemption. What an awaking shall be theirs! They were laid in their last resting place, weary and worn, but such they shall not rise. They went to their rest with the furrowed brow, and the wasted features, but they wake up in beauty and glory. The shrivelled seed, so destitute of form and comeliness, rises from the dust a beauteous flower. The winter of the grave gives way to the spring of redemption and the summer of glory. Blessed is death, since it, through the divine power, disrobes us of this work-day garment, to clothe us with the wedding garment of incorruption. Blessed are those who "sleep in Jesus."

Praying the Scriptures

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Plead with God the Merit and Righteousness of Jesus Christ

The merit and righteousness of my Lord Jesus Christ, which I rely upon as my main plea in my petition for the pardon of sin.

I know that as You are gracious and merciful, so You are the righteous God who loves righteousness, (Psalm 11:7) and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. (Exodus 34:7) I cannot say, “Have patience with me and I will repay You everything,” (Matthew 18:26)  for I have become like one who is unclean, and all my righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. (Isaiah 64:6)  But Jesus Christ has become to me righteousness from God; (1 Corinthians 1:30) being made sin on my behalf, though He knew no sin, so that I might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I have sinned, but I have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for my sins; and not for mine only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)

God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is even now at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for me, (Romans 8:33-34) and whose blood speaks better than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:24)

I desire to count everything as loss for the sake of Christ, and as rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having any righteousness of my own, but that which is through faith in Christ. (Philippians 3:7-9)

This is the name by which I, with Your people, will call Him: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Jeremiah 23:6)  In Him, Lord, I do believe; help my unbelief. (Mark 9:24)

Remember, O LORD, on David’s behalf, all His affliction; (Psalm 132:1) the Son of David, remember all His offerings and accept His burnt offerings; (Psalm 20:3) and do not turn away the face of Your Anointed, (2 Chronicles 6:42) who by His own blood has entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for me. (Hebrews 9:24)

Have not You Yourself displayed Your Son, Christ Jesus, as a propitiation in His blood through faith, for the demonstration of Your righteousness at the present time, so that You would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus? (Romans 3:25-26)  And I now receive the reconciliation. (Romans 5:11).

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This prayer is from the daily email sent from Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. I have selected the New American Standard Bible scripture text, and have chosen to have the prayer written in first person. To subscribe to this daily email click here.                                                            

They Loved Not Their Lives Unto The Death

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 Tony Miano wrote a blog post with a link to an article in World Magazine about a man in Afghanistan who was beheaded because he converted to Christianity. Fabio, an Italian student living in London, gave this response:

"Christians worldwide - both in the west and in the rest of the world - are merely reaping what they've been sowing for the past two millennia. Don't get me wrong, I do not condone violence, particularly when religiously motivated. Nor do I consider Islam as any worthier of respect.

However, looking at the history of Christianity, you can't deny that whatever is happening to Christians worldwide has a clearly Karmic ring to it. And I don't even believe in Karma. One can only hope Christians of all denominations will take the hint."

 Here is my response to his comment that "Christians are merely reaping what they have been sowing for the past two millenia":

"Christ's church, at the direction of her risen Lord, has been sowing the seed of the word of God for the past two millennia. This seed has been bearing fruit, as those who have received it are translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into Christ's kingdom. This puts Satan into a rage, as he wages war against the church, those whom Christ has redeemed out of his dark kingdom." 

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. (Rev. 12:11)

To Prepare Us_

Re-posted from Facets of Grace

Dynamations

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click here



click here

 These are two (my favorite) of many multi-media presentations created by Kids 4 Truth. Turn on your speakers, and click to view them. At the end of the presentation there will appear a menu where you can select other Dynamation themes and/or check out their other offers (like a screen saver). I discovered these programs three or four years ago, linked on Ron Osburn's web site "Holy, Holy, Holy" and I just got the idea of sharing them with my readers. I know you will enjoy them. -  And check out Ron's site too.

Craig

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

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The Lord's Herald: "Escape from the wrath to come. Repent and trust in Christ crucified for forgiveness and everlasting life."

The deceiver: "Relax. There is no 'wrath to come.' "

Spurgeon on How To Win Souls For Christ

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I command men in the name of Jesus to repent and believe the gospel, though I know they can do nothing of the kind apart from the grace of God.

We are sent to say to blind eyes, "See," to deaf ears, "Hear," to dead hearts, "Live," and even to Lazarus rotting in that grave, wherein, by this time, he stinketh, - "Lazarus, come forth."
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Interesting Album Cover

Inspired by "Eddie" Eddings' Calvinistic Cartoons, I decided to browse the web for old and unusual record album covers  and found this. As near as I could figure out, Rev. J.C. Crabtree was a Nazarene Revivalist Preacher and singer. He died in 2004 at the age of 83. I like the story line "Blueprint for Chaos." I guess chaos can be organized after all.





Here is another of Rev. Crabtree's albums. I can't help but wonder what the songs are like on this one. The expression on his face doesn't give me much reason to be hopeful.



PENTECOST SUNDAY

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
   ²And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
   ³And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
   ⁴And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
   ⁵And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
   ⁶Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
   ⁷And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
   ⁸And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
   ⁹Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
   ¹⁰Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
   ¹¹Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
(Acts 2:1-11)

The Collect for Whitsunday - Book of Common Prayer

"O GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end.  Amen."

The Universal Proclamation of the Gospel

The promise of the gospel is that whosoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish, but have eternal life.[1] This promise, together with the command to repent and believe,[2] ought to be declared and published to all nations,[3] and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel.

[1] Jn 3:16; 1 Cor. 1:23;     [2] Acts 2:38, 16:31;     [3] Matt. 28:19

(Canons of Dort, Second Head of Doctrine: The Death of Christ, and the Redemption of Men Thereby, Article 5)

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"The church was not the fruit of the organizational genius of a group of zealots who came to believe that Jesus had risen in their hearts as they tried to cope with the disappointment they felt once Jesus was put to death by the Romans and His glorious kingdom did not manifest itself as promised. Instead, the biblical record tells us that the church was founded by a risen Savior who appeared to His chosen witnesses the first Easter, confirming that His death on Good Friday was the ultimate triumph over human sin. The church was not organized by Jesus’ disappointed followers trying to cover-up their embarrassment. The church was founded by Jesus Christ Himself.

"This becomes clear when we consider that the post-resurrection appearances of our Lord to His disciples do not take place in a vacuum. Our Lord’s resurrection appearances take place against the backdrop of His three-year messianic ministry during which Jesus demonstrated that He was the One promised throughout the Old Testament and that He had come to establish His kingdom and found His church. Pentecost (Acts 2), which is often considered the official birthday of the church, is the culmination of all of our Lord’s promises and only makes sense against the backdrop of our Lord’s messianic ministry."                    ____Kim Riddlebarger

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Carl the Coatimundi of Colossal Cave

Joseph visited Colossal Cave, just north of Tucson, yesterday and met Carl.

MY CHURCH

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High Desert United Reformed Church



We started in 2000 as a home bible study in Oak Hills . Pastor Adam Kaloostian, from the Ontario (CA) URC, taught from the book of Hebrews, then through the Gospel of John on Tuesday nights. In 2002 we started meeting on Sunday evenings at the Korean Presbyterian Church in Victorville. We had guest preachers from URC churches in Southern Calif. as well as faculty and student/alumni from Westminster Seminary, CA. Later that year, Rev. Tom Morrison was called to assume minsterial duties.

On October 12, 2002, Rev. Morrison was oficially installed as pastor of the congregation, which was still a "church plant" under the auspices of the Ontario URC. By then we were meeting in the auditorium of the Lewis Center for Educational Research in Apple Valley. On a snowy November evening in 2004, we were officially established as a "particular" church in the federation of United Reformed Churches in North America.



The Ultimate Question Regarding Christ

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"Everyone who believes on the Son of God, and trusts their soul to Him, is at once pardoned, forgiven, justified, counted righteous, reckoned innocent, and freed from all liability to condemnation. Their sins, however many, are at once cleansed away by Christ’s precious blood. Their soul, however guilty, is at once clothed with Christ’s perfect righteousness. It matters not what they may have been in time past. Their sins may have been of the worst kind. Their former character may be of the blackest description. But do they believe on the Son of God? This is the one question. If they do believe, they are justified from all things in the sight of God.

"It matters not, that they can bring to Christ nothing to recommend them—no good works, no long-proved amendments, no unmistakable repentance and change of life. But do they this day believe in Jesus Christ? This is the grand question. If they do, they are at once accepted. They are accounted righteous for Christ’s sake."
~ J.C. Ryle

Ryle's statement carries little weight for those whose consciences have not been affected by the knowledge  that they have grievously sinned against their most Holy and Just Creator-God. But to the one who is thus affected, those words are precious as  pure water to one dying of thirst.

   "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst."
(John 6:35)

Blessent mon coeur d'une longueur monotone



"[The violins of autumn] wound my heart with monotonous languor"
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I AM BORN - AGAIN

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Thirty-seven years ago "today," at 9:00 p.m., I was born again and began to trust Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The calendar date was actually June 7th, but I have always thought of the first Friday of June as the day.

A co-worker, who was a Christian, and I had had a few conversations about Jesus. She brought a couple of books for me to read (The Late-Great Planet Earth, and In His Steps), and even loaned me her New American Standard Bible, with the provision that I return it to her on Friday so that she would have it for church that Sunday.

I thank the Lord for Dave and Margie Dalmas, and for the members of the womens' prayer group at a Presbyterian church in the city of Orange, California.

I don't know where Dave and Margie are now. Apparently, they have moved since I last contacted them. At that time, they lived in Anaheim. I never met anyone from the womens' prayer group, but unbeknown to me, they had been praying for me for some time, Margie giving them weekly reports on how things were going.

God bless every one who prays for the salvation of people and who share the Gospel.

  

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him.
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