New Year

I came across the above in my great

 Grandma's remembrance book and

 thought it was a helpful reminder. 

Personally I seem to have mixed feelings

 about new years, so I'm very glad for this

 promise from Matthew 28. "lo, I am with

 you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen." "

No matter what happens in 2020, we don't 

face it alone. 

The Lord has promised to be with His 

people and His plans really are the best!

Now...

I always loved this verse. I think it's such a great encouragement that no matter how frequently we mess up, our God is the One who is able to keep us and present us faultless with exceeding joy. What a glorious day of rejoicing that will be! God and the angels and redeemed mankind will all rejoice greatly at the Lord's great loving kindness and mercies and gracious dealings with His people. 

When you're struggling to hold on to that, remember this:

"The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth." Psalm 145:17-18. 

Whether it feels like that or not is another matter but our feelings do not dictate truth. 

He is gracious, and worthy of all the praise we can give, even in the hardest circumstances. We have many examples of this all through the Scriptures. 

Make Your face shine...

Echoes of the Aaronic blessing here. I don't recall ever giving much thought to what it means to have His face shine upon one, but what an amazing thing it must be. I'm reminded by this verse that He doesn't save us for any reason other than because He is merciful and gracious. We certainly can't earn salvation; it's a gift that cost the Lord Jesus Christ His very life!

Because He gave everything for us, we should certainly be willing to be His servants. As Romans 12 puts it, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

I've always found these verses a great challenge.

The conclusion of the whole matter...

Despite the fact that Solomon lived nearly 3000 years ago, this piece of advice is still extremely relevant today!

Obviously because it's God's Word which is living and active. 

If everyone always tried to live with God and eternity as our highest priority, I think life would be rather different. 

Would you agree?

K...

Obviously we all know we can't physically, literally kiss the Son. There may be lots of other interpretations of this, but I heard years ago that it's a term meaning to worship. Do we who are blessed because we trust in Jesus live our lives in a constant attitude of worship? Or do we so often "forget" or become busy doing too many other things He never intended us to do and relegate worship to Sunday mornings?
In case you need the reminder, here it is.
We have been given the awesome privilege of being His children, and He has richly blessed us in countless ways. He saved us from our sins which would have led us to destruction. He gave us the glorious hope of eternal life with Him, which will be far more wonderful than you or I can imagine. For all this and so much more, He alone is worthy of all praise, glory, honour, and our lives should be completely dedicated to Him for His good pleasure.

(I'm definitely preaching to myself here, I think typing it out helps me process it better.)

Born again?

Discovery

"Be patient - wait God's time. He knows the best. 

Though plans are crossed, unanswered your requests.

Even when you suffer from the stunning blow,

When He to your petition answers, "no."

When all is dark around, just kneel in prayer.

Tell Him you're trusting. He will bless you there."

By Mrs Clara Simpson

" Make every day a walk with Thee.

New glory shall the sunshine gain.

And all the clouds shall lightened be

Go with me on life's dusty road

And help me bear the weary load.

Talk with me, Master, by the way.

The voices of the world recede

The shadows darken o'er the land.

How poor am I, how great my need.

Speak to my heart disquieted.

Till it shall lose it's fear and dread.

Bide with me, Master, all the way.

Though to my blinded eyes unknown.

So shall I feel a presence near

Where I had thought I walked alone.

And when, far spent, the day decline

Break Thou the bread, dear Guest of mine."

(the Sunday companion April 1959)

What a treat to find this book that used to belong to my great Grandma (who I never knew). There are some poems in its pages which I found quite moving. 

Hope you're blessed when I share them. 

If...

Jesus presents us with a choice.
Will you follow and serve Him?
Or do you insist on doing things your own way?
Even though it's so obvious that His way is going to be far better than ours could ever be, sometimes we still have doubts, and don't trust His plan.
Let's choose to remember that His plans are higher than ours and that He really does know what He is doing.
Let Him have His way.
It really is the best way!
He even promised that the Father will honour those who serve Him!

Do you believe this to be true?

I think this is self explanatory and I believe it's the Truth, because Jesus said it.
If you want to see life, you need to believe in the Son of God, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you reject Him, you will not see life.

God is great.

Well, this verse doesn't need explaining. I believe I should meditate on it more and start praising more too! We're never going to be able to plumb the depths and heights of just how great He is, but for what we do know of Him and all His goodness towards us, we should be eternally grateful. I think in Heaven we'll have a better understanding of all the ways He's been so wonderful to us; we might not even have known about many of them. But let's trust Him without seeing all the evidence.

Faith

What is the thing that you are hoping for the most? Have you based your hope on something that will definitely take place or is it merely the "wishful thinking" kind of hope?
I'm so glad we have the blessed glorious hope of being with the Lord forever.
We can be confident that He will take care of His people. He never forsakes those who have cried to Him for mercy!
I call that really good news.

Every good gift

Yet again, this verse reminds me of the Lord's great faithfulness.

What a blessed reassurance that our God never varies in the slightest. 

He always gives good, perfect gifts, and He is light, in Whom is no darkness at all. 

We can and should trust Him completely, and we should never stop thanking Him for His marvellous loving-kindness to us.

What a privilege to be called His own dear children!

Delight

Some quotes from George Muller. 

"The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord."

"There were few people, perhaps, more passionately fond of travelling, and seeing fresh places, and new scenes, than myself; but now, since, by the grace of God, I have seen beauty in the Lord Jesus, I have lost my taste for these things."

"At last I saw Christ as my Saviour. I believed in Him and gave myself to Him. The burden rolled from off me, and a great love for Christ filled my soul. That was more than fifty years ago. I loved Jesus Christ then, but I loved Him more the year after, and more the year after that, and more every year since. "


Truly when we see the King in His beauty (Isaiah 33:17) , we should be filled with the greatest delight. The One who is far above all principalities and powers and every name that is named has chosen to reveal Himself to us in such a way as to restore fellowship between God and man through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. What love and grace! What condescension and mercy! What a price He paid for sinners to be forgiven of every thing that offended the Holy God! He made us His children when we used to be enemies! What tremendously blessed privileged people He has made us!

Christ has redeemed us

How precious is this truth that Christ has redeemed us! He paid a very high price to make us His own dear children!

B

A command and a promise...

I hope you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you have, you can rejoice in the salvation He gives.

If you haven't, please don't leave it too late!

He promised to save all who believe on Him. 

He is the only One who is completely reliable. 

You can depend on the One who never fails! 

He will always be faithful!