New Year : some thoughts and a poem

 For many, 2021 has not been a happy year, but rather an extremely difficult one. While there are no guarantees 2022 will be any happier, we who have trusted in the LORD Jesus Christ have the assurance that our life and times are in His hands, and that is the safest place for everything.

 We can rest in His faithfulness and rejoice that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We can remember how He has shown us His goodness numerous times and we should always praise Him for His great mercy and grace, as without these, we would not have survived.

  At the beginning of 2021, I did something  silly (I'll spare you the details so none of you are tempted to try it yourself 😉) which gave me the idea that I might not still be around in 2022. Yet we've reached the final day of 2021 and I'm still here. Yet, none of us know how soon our life may be taken. I hope that I will learn not to take anything for granted, but to be grateful to the Lord for every day He sees fit to keep me alive.

 I'm glad we don't have the ability at the beginning of a year to know all that will happen through it. I'm very glad the Lord invites us to walk with Him, each day, step by step and if we can learn how to do that, we will be greatly blessed. He has proven Himself trustworthy throughout the generations past, and He never changes!  Despite our fickleness and wayward wanderings, the Lord continues to lovingly draw us closer to Himself.

 Hebrews 8:12 says, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” How good and kind the Lord has promised to be.

 I'm so glad He has chosen to forgive and forget my sins because I trust Him that His death on the Cross paid the price I owed. Thank You Lord Jesus that You were willing to take my place so I can have a restored relationship with the Holy God!

 I was catching up reading a few devotionals and these verses from Psalm 116 "jumped out" at me. 

"What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?
13 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord."

Later that evening a dear friend read excerpts from that same Psalm to me, including:

"Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. Return to your rest, O my soul, For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." 

He has truly dealt with me far more bountifully than I even realise! I need to choose every day to remember His goodness and forget the other stuff that would drag me down. 

I'll leave you with a poem, and pray, (whether you have a Happy New Year or not,) that the Lord will bless you. 

Cling to the Mighty One

 What a blessed privilege we have when the Lord God is our Heavenly Father and He invites us to trust in and cling to Him. 

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness

 https://youtu.be/6exvEk4rSQY

If you'd like to listen to me singing a song, feel free to click on the link. 

The parable of the rotten mangoes

While you won't find this one in Scripture, I hope you will be as challenged as I was.

Imagine my delight when I received some beautiful looking large mangoes. I was looking forward to enjoying the delicious fruit. Cutting into them revealed that was not going to happen.

They were rotten! 

As I pondered the rotten mangoes I was reminded how the Lord looks for good fruit in our lives. How disappointed He must be when He sees what outwardly to others may appear beautiful but He sees the hidden inner depths and so often they are not a pretty sight. 

Lord, please don't let me fall into the trap of being such a hypocrite that people may say I have good fruit, if I have not repented of the corruption of malice or any other evil thing still lingering in my heart. Please make my fruit good and pleasing to You. Amen! 

The hymn "I asked the Lord" written by John Newton

https://youtu.be/tdDDmDFpgK8

Here is a beautiful rendition of a song/hymn I heard as a poem several years ago.

A poem by Lily Gaynor

Lily was a missionary friend of my Granny. 

It was my privilege to meet her a few times.

I love this poem she wrote. 

It's a matter of life and death

 Yesterday I had a short but interesting conversation with a lady who I met several years ago.

She was asking me if I wouldn't mind not being alive much longer.

I replied that that was perfectly alright by me.

Earlier today I came across this quote... 

"But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me." Psalm 31:14-15.

I thank God He has drawn me to Himself and given me the gift of eternal life... However short or long my sojourn on earth may be, I am fully convinced that Heaven will be far more glorious than anything I could ever imagine and I will enter only because of the Lord's amazing grace, mercy and lovingkindness. 

"We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him." 2 Corinthians 5:8-9.

Hell's Best Kept Secret

https://youtu.be/Ucnf4rm75Fk

If you've never seen or heard this before, you may find it a little offensive but apparently people find most things offensive these days. Truth can be hard to hear. 

Trust and rest, a poem by A. B. Simpson

I came across this poem in a devotional and quite like it so thought I would share, although I'm sure it won't be everyone's style. I'm so glad we can trust our Saviour; He's the only One who is always totally trustworthy. 

Trust and rest in Christ forever,

Lean thy head upon His breast;

Nothing from His love can sever

Those who simply trust and rest.

Trust and rest in hours of sorrow;

Every wrong shall be redressed,

In some happy, bright tomorrow,

If you only trust and rest.

Trust and rest when all around thee

Puts thy faith to sorest test;

Let no fear nor foe confound thee,

Wait for God and trust and rest.

Trust and rest with heart abiding,

Like a birdling in its nest,

Underneath His feathers hiding;

Fold thy wings and trust and rest.

Trust and rest till gentle fingers

Fold thy hands across thy breast,

While the echo softly lingers,

Everlasting trust and rest.

Trust and rest, trust and rest,

God is working for the best.

A. B. Simpson 

A precious truth in poem form.

I came across this and hope it will encourage you as much as it encourages me.

This was written in 1932 by a pastor in Mississippi named A. M. Overton, who had a wife and three small children. His wife was pregnant with their fourth child but when it came time for delivery, there were complications and both she and the baby died. During the funeral service, the preacher officiating the service noticed my grandfather writing something on a piece of paper. After the service the minister asked him about it, and he handed him the paper with a poem he had just written which he titled, “He Maketh No Mistake”

He Maketh No Mistake

"My Father’s way may twist and turn,

my heart may throb and ache.

But in my soul I’m glad I know,

He maketh no mistake.

My cherished plans may go astray,

my hopes may fade away,

but still I’ll trust my Lord to lead,

for He doth know the way.

Tho’ night be dark and it may seem

that day will never break;

I’ll pin my faith, my all in Him,

He maketh no mistake.

There’s so much now I cannot see,

my eyesight’s far too dim;

but come what may, I’ll simply trust

and leave it all to Him.

For by and by the mist will lift

and plain it all He’ll make.

Through all the way, tho’ dark to me,

He made not one mistake."

I'm so glad we can trust Him and rest in the knowledge that He works all things for good, even though it may often hurt terribly at the time. In eternity with the Lord, all tears having been wiped away, we will only remember His great faithfulness.

Some of John Macduff's thoughts on the topic of Grace

“Throne of Grace”

It is the work of the blessed Spirit to take of the things of Christ, and to show them to the soul; to reveal to us the precious benefits of redemption, and the riches of Divine grace--and to present them to us in such a transforming, and convincing, and penetrating form, as that they shall not only become sources of abiding comfort to the heart--but active, operating, influential principles of the life!

It is the work of the blessed Spirit to be the Comforter of the children of God. Yes . . .

wherever a believer is afflicted;

wherever he sheds a sorrowful tear;

wherever he is pained by some heart-rending grief;

wherever he is bowed beneath some oppressive burden--

there is the Comforter to cheer, to solace, to sustain; pointing him . . .

from the wound--to its balm,

from the grief--to its ultimate cure,

from present suffering--to eternal rest at God's right hand!

The Holy Spirit is not a traveler to sojourn for a season, but He is a Friend to abide and dwell with you--a spiritual mentor to be always near . . .

to guide you--in all seasons of perplexity,

to strengthen you--in all times of weakness,

when you are discouraged--to uphold you,

when you are wandering--to lead you back,

when you are nearly overcome in your spiritual conflict--to bring you more of His divine strength and grace.

"The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress." Romans 8:26

"By the grace of God--I am what I am!" 1 Corinthians 15:10

This is the believer's eternal confession!

Grace found him a rebel against God--it leaves him a son of God! 

Grace found him wandering at the gates of Hell--it leaves him at the gates of Heaven! 

Grace devised the scheme of Redemption. 

Justice never would; reason never could. 

And it is grace which carries out that scheme. 

No sinner would ever have sought God--but "by grace." The thickets of Eden would have proved Adam's grave--had not grace called him out! Saul would have lived and died the haughty self-righteous persecutor--had not grace laid him low! The thief on the cross would have continued breathing out his blasphemies--had not grace arrested his tongue and tuned it for glory! 

"Out of the knottiest timber," says Rutherford, "God can make vessels of mercy for service in the high palace of glory!" 

"I came, I saw, I conquered!" may be inscribed by the Savior on every monument of His grace. "I came to the sinner; I looked upon him; and with a look of omnipotent love--I conquered him!"

Believer, you would have been this day a wandering star, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever! You would have been Christless, hopeless, and portionless; had not grace constrained you! And it is grace which, at this moment, "keeps" you. 

You have often been a Peter--forsaking your Lord--but brought back to Him again. Why have you not been a Demas or a Judas? "I have prayed for you--that your faith fail not!" Is not this your own comment and reflection on life's retrospect: "Yet not I--but the grace of God which was with me!" 

Seek to realize your dependence on this grace every moment. 

"More grace! more grace!" needs to be your continual cry. 

His infinite supply--is commensurate with your infinite need. 

The treasury of grace, though always emptying--is always full. 

The key of prayer which opens it--is always at hand! 

And the Almighty Bestower of the blessings of grace--is always "waiting to be gracious." 

The recorded promise can never be cancelled or reversed: "My grace is sufficient for you." 

The grace of God is the source of lesser temporal blessings--as well as of higher spiritual blessings. Grace accounts for the crumb of daily bread--as well as for the crown of eternal glory! 

But even in regard to earthly mercies, never forget the CHANNEL of grace: "through Christ Jesus!" It is sweet thus to connect every blessing, even the smallest and humblest token of providential bounty--with Calvary's cross--to have the common blessings of life stamped with "the print of the nails!" It makes them doubly precious to think, "All this flows from Jesus!"

"By the grace of God--I am what I am!" 

Reader! seek to dwell much on this inexhaustible theme!"

Praise the Lord for His keeping grace! Without it I'd be totally lost!

Thank you to the friend who shared these with me! 

#WEREMEMBER

 Today is Holocaust Memorial Day 2021.

Will you join me in taking a few minutes to reflect on the atrocities man perpetrated on their fellow man? 

Four scenes from Auschwitz - Birkenau

(just at this one camp!) 

"Work makes free": the slogan at the entrance to the camp. 

If we forget, we risk letting similar things occur again. 

We must not let that happen!!!