He Owns Me for His child

April 4

April 4, 2013 • By Charles H. Spurgeon; revised and edited by William C. Neff (c)2003-2005

"[God] made [Jesus], who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."-- 2 Corinthians 5:21

Dear mourning Christian! Why are you crying? Are you sorrowful over your own corruption? If so, then look to your perfect Lord, and remember that you are complete in Him. You are in God's sight as perfect as if you had never sinned— in fact, even better than that! The Lord our righteousness has put a divine garment upon you, so that you wear the very righteousness of God.
If you are mourning because of your continued sinfulness, remember that none of your sins can condemn you. You have learned to hate sin, but you have not learned that your sin is no longer yours-- it was laid upon Christ's head. Your acceptance in God’s presence is not based in yourself, but in your Lord; you are as much accepted by God today with all your sinfulness as you will be when you stand before His throne free from all corruption.
I beg you today to lay hold on this precious thought— that you are perfect and complete in Christ! With your Savior’s garment on you are as holy as the Holy one. Who can possibly condemn you? Christ died and was raised for you, and he is now at God’s right hand interceding for you.
So, Christian, rejoice! You are "accepted in the Christ who loves you." What do you have to fear? Smile! Live near your Master today, and know that when your time has come you will rise up where your Jesus sits now, and you will reign at His right hand.  All of this is true because the divine Lord "was made to be sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." ~Morningandevening.org

Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
"Forgive him, O forgive," they cry,
"Forgive him, O forgive," they cry,
"Nor let that ransomed sinner die!"

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;
His Spirit answers to the blood,
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And "Father, Abba, Father," cry.

~Charles Wesley

2013 Fellowship Conference

Here are the links to the messages from the 2013 Fellowship Conference.  I would encourage anyone who was not there to listen to the messages, they were truly life changing.
What a blessing it was to be there and to learn more about the lovingkindness of God!

Session 1 - Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:00pm CDT

Session 2 - Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:30am CDT

Session 3 - Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:00pm CDT

Session 4 - Sat Mar 30, 2013 9:30am CDT

Session 5 - Sat Mar 30, 2013 7:00pm CDT

Session 6 - Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:30am CDT

Did you think to Pray?

Did you think to Pray? 

Ere you left your room this morning,
Did you think to pray?
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Did you sue for loving favor,
As a shield today?

Refrain

O how praying rests the weary!
Prayer will change the night to day;
So when life seems dark and dreary,
Don’t forget to pray.

When you met with great temptation,
Did you think to pray?
By His dying love and merit,
Did you claim the Holy Spirit
As your guide and stay?

When your heart was filled with anger,
Did you think to pray?
Did you plead for grace, my brother,
That you might forgive another
Who had crossed your way?

When sore trials came upon you,
Did you think to pray?
When your soul was bowed in sorrow,
Balm of Gilead did you borrow
At the gates of day?

-M. A. Kidder

I was thinking of this Hymn the past couple of days as I have been convicted on the busyness of my life and how it affects my prayer life.  

Care of Our Feet

Faith's Check Book, Daily Entry

C. H. Spurgeon

---

January 24

Care of Our Feet

He will keep the feet of his saints. (1 Samuel 2:9)

The way is slippery and our feet are feeble, but the Lord will keep our feet. If we give ourselves up by obedient faith to be His holy ones, He will Himself be our guardian. Not only will He charge His angels to keep us, but He Himself will preserve our goings.

He will keep our feet from falling so that we do not defile our garments, wound our souls, and cause the enemy to blaspheme.

He will keep our feet from wandering so that we do not go into paths of error, or ways of folly, or courses of the world's custom.

He will keep our feet from swelling through weariness, or blistering because of the roughness and length of the way.

He will keep our feet from wounding: our shoes shall be iron and brass so that even though we tread on the edge of the sword, or on deadly serpents, we shall not bleed or be poisoned.

He will also pluck our feet out of the net. We shall not be entangled by the deceit of our malicious and crafty foes.

With such a promise as this, let us run without weariness and walk without fear. He who keeps our feet will do it effectually.

Encouragement of Desire

"We read the Word, we listen to the Word as an act of worship. It is not really Biblical to say that we are going to do worship and then after worship we are going to have the reading of the Word and preaching because everything is supposed to be worship...When you and I listen, even if we are not comprehending and even if there's a battle raging in our minds in the sense that we are being distracted but every time we are distracted we pull ourselves back to the text and we try to listen that much harder do you realize what you are doing? You are loving God with your mind. You are declaring that yes there is still an aspect of me that is very fallen, yes I struggle through this Christian life but yes because the Holy Spirit has regenerated me I understand these are the Words of life and by faith I am going to fight to keep my mind centered upon on this text that is being read... And when we stand and we read the Word of God we don't allow our minds just to stray unhindered. We pull it back and we say no, I will bring you into subjection, I will bring every thought in subjection to Christ."

~ Paul Washer

The Impossibility of the Christian Life

There are many times when I am in a Church meeting and I am more discouraged by the fact that I am being distracted than I am encouraged by the fact that I get to listen to God's word and that I have a desire to listen to God's word.  It is sometimes hard not to get discouraged by my sin, but the joy and wonder of it is that my sin bothers me! I am a new creation! I DO want to listen to God's word, to read it, to meditate on it.  Yes, my flesh often sneaks in and hinders my mind from really gleaning things from the word, but praise the LORD that I even want to be in the word. Praise Him that I want to pray, that I want to know Him more.  

I shouldn't be discouraged that there's a battle, I should be encouraged that there's a fight against sin! 

The Magnitude of Grace by C.H. Spurgeon

My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Our weakness should be prized as making room for divine strength. We might never have known the power of grace if we had not felt the weakness of nature. Blessed be the Lord for the thorn in the flesh, and the messenger of Satan, when they drive us to the strength of God.

This is a precious word from our Lord's own lip. It has made the writer laugh for joy. God's grace enough for me! I should think it is. Is not the sky enough for the bird and the ocean enough for the fish? The All-Sufficient is sufficient for my largest want. He who is sufficient for earth and heaven is certainly able to meet the case of one poor worm like me.

Let us, then, fall back upon our God and His grace. If He does not remove our grief, He will enable us to bear it. His strength shall be poured into us till the worm shall thresh the mountains, and a nothing shall be victor over all the high and mighty ones. It is better for us to have God's strength than our own; for if we were a thousand times as strong as we are, it would amount to nothing in the face of the enemy; and if we could be weaker than we are, which is scarcely possible, yet we could do all things through Christ.

Loving Your Neighbor

This was shared at our small group tonight and I thought it was to good not to share with y'all!

"You Shall Love Him--Whoever He is

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:31

What is it to love our neighbor? It is the loving that is hard. We could do almost anything else, short of loving unpleasant neighbors.

But love is the word--and no revised version changes it. No matter how disagreeable, unlovely, unworthy, our neighbors may be--still the commandment persistently and relentlessly says to us, "You shall love him!"

Our neighbors are around us all the time, needing our love. Indeed, they touch our lives so continually, that we must guard our every look, word, and act--lest we hurt some sensitive spirit. 

Some people seem to forget that other people have feelings. They are constantly saying words and doing things which give pain. True love is thoughtful. We ought to train our hearts to the most delicate sense of kindness, that we may never, even jokingly, give pain to any other human being.

Our neighbors have hearts, and we owe to every one of them--the beggar we meet on the street, the degraded wretch we find crawling in the mire of sin's debasement, the enemy who flings his insults in our face--to every one, we owe the love that is thoughtful, gentle, and gives no hurt.

Our love ought also to be patient. Our neighbor will have his faults. But we are taught to bear with one another's infirmities. If we knew the story of men's lives, the hidden burdens they are often carrying, the unhealed wounds in their heart--we would have most gentle patience with them. Life is hard for most people, certainly hard enough without our adding to its burdens--by our criticisms, our jeering and contempt, and our lack of love."

- J. R. Miller