Category Archives: Borrowed_Words

What to do with Today’s Sermon?

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 A picture taken by my beautiful daughter.

“Though we cannot repeat the good sermons we have heard;
yet if through grace, our hearts and ways are purified by them, they are not lost.

But let what I have said engage you who hear and learn the forms of sound words, to hold them fast, to imprint them in your minds and memories, that you may have them ready to you at all times, as occasion requires.
In order to do this, labour to understand them;
and let your knowledge be clear and distinct, and then you will be likely to retain it;
set every truth in its proper place, and then you will know what use to make of it.
Get your hearts duly affected with things, and abide and act under the power and influence of them;
and then you will remember them.
Be often repeating them to yourselves:
Mary kept the sayings of Christ, by pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:19).”
Matthew Henry, Family Religion.

Have a most blessed Lord’s Day, dear friends.

You may like to ponder over these too (from the archives):

Sunday’s Psalm – Psalm 19
Daily On My Way to Heaven.
The Lord’s Day

Offering up Thanksgivings

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Today, a day in which I love to write my favorite list, a list of thanksgivings,  I am writing a different kind of post.

As my farmer friends have taught me, I am gleaning, gleaning questions and then I am bringing them to my quiet time to answer. Paper and pen are my instruments and to my Lord are my words directed.He knows my heart. He knows I am still learning contentment, (because gratitude is that, it is all about contentment, right?) and sometimes I need questions that will help me see clearly where my heart is on this matter.

These questions are not my idea, these I gleaned while reading Matthew Henry’s book, some are textual and some I wrote inspired on his. I invite you to read and re-read them and meditate and then, would you join me in offering up thanksgivings for all God’s goodness and the many blessings we have received from Him?

1. Has not God made a hedge of protection about you and your house, and all that you have?

2. Have you not health in your family, sickness kept or taken from the midst of you?

3. Does not God bring plentifully into your hands, and increase your substance?

4. Have you not your table spread, and your cup running over, and manna rained about your tents?

5. Is the vine by the house-side fruitful and flourishing, and the olive plants round the table green and growing?

6. Are the family relations comfortable and agreeable, not broken nor embittered, and shall not that God be acknowledged herein who makes every creature to be that to us that it is?

7. Shall not the God of your mercies, your family mercies, be the God of your praises, your family praises, and that daily?

8. Have you not a name better than any other name, “Child of God”?

9. Have you not joy and peace that the world cannot quench?

10. Have you not the Gospel?

11. Have you not within your home not only one, but many Bibles to read and study?

12. Have you not time given to you to do what God asks you to do?

13. And if you are going walking through the Valley of Death, have you not precious promises given by your Heavenly Father who never fails?

14. Did not God opened a way for us to His presence through His Son?

15. Shall not the God and Savior be praised and thanked every day?

16. Have you not seen His eyes watching over you?

“Whatever is a matter of our care, let it be the matter of our prayer; and let us allow no care which we cannot in faith spread before God. And whatever is the matter of our rejoicing, let it be a matter of our thanksgiving; and let us withhold our hearts from all those joys which do not dispose us for the duty of praise”    Matthew Henry

May we learn contentment while offering up thanksgivings to our God today.

Under His sun and by His grace,

On Prayer -From my Reading Corner-

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 John Bunyan in Bedford Jail

I am reading a great book by John Bunyan, Prayer; and I  would like to share with you some of the lines that must be written down, and remembered, and lived.

“With God is plenty of grace, even as in a river there is plenty of water. 
A pond, a pool, a cistern, will hold much, but a river will hold more. 
From this throne {of grace} come rivers and streams of water of life, 
to satisfy those that come for life to the throne of God. 
Further, as by a river is showed what abundance of grace proceeds from God through Christ, 
so it shows the unsatiable thirst and desire of one that comes indeed aright to the throne of grace for mercy. 
Nothing but rivers will satisfy such a soul; 
ponds, pools, and cisterns, will do nothing…
They that are saved, are saved to receive abundance of grace; 
‘They which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, 
shall reign in life by One, 
Jesus Christ’-
Rom 5:7″

And he continues saying,

“What comes from this throne of grace is pure grace, 
and nothing else; 
clear grace, free grace, grace that is not mixed, 
nor need be mixed with works of righteousness which we have done; 
it is of itself sufficient to answer all our wants, 
to heal all our diseases, and to help us at a time of need. 
It is grace that chooses, 
it is grace that calls, 
it is grace that preserves, 
and it is grace that brings to glory: 
even the grace that like a river of water of life proceeds from this throne. 
And hence it is that, 
from first to last, 
we must cry, 
‘Grace, grace unto it!’ 
(Zec 4:7)”

The Lord’s Day

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Today we, God’s own people, come to the Lord’s Table. People from all nations, ransomed by His blood, today we come and gather and remember.

Today is the Lord’s Day. Let us remember to keep it holy.

J.C Ryle says on his book, Practical Religion, the following about the Lord’s Supper:

“In eating that bread and drinking that cup, such a man will have his repentance deepened, his faith increased, his knowledge enlarged, his habit of holy living strengthened. He will realize more of the “real presence” of Christ in his heart.” (p. 153)

Ryle then proceeds to “offer some warnings required by the times…

“1. Do not neglect the Lord’s Supper.

2. Do not receive the Lord’s Supper carelessly, irreverently, and as a matter of form.

3. Do not make an idol of the Lord’s Supper.

4. Do not use the Lord’s Supper irregularly.

5. Do not do anything to bring discredit on your profession as a communicant. The man who after attending the Lord’s Table runs into sin, does more harm perhaps than any other sinner.

6. Do not despond and be cast down, if with all you desires you do not feel to get great good from the Lord’s Supper.”

Read more about J.C Ryle teaching on the Lord’s Table here.
Another resource worth reading is, Private Meditations After Communion

Happy Lord’s Day, Let us remember, let us feast!

Gratitude Monday -Borrowed Words-

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Words are a gift from God. Words have roots and meanings, words heal or bring death, words are powerful, and yet, sometimes, seem to be weak. 
Through words we have walked into covenants, with words we have started our families; a simple “yes” turned my life into somehing beautiful. 
Words are like a stair, one by one we climb steps until we find the exact one, the one we are looking for to reach that place we long to go.
Today, my gratitude list today (# 581- 599) is with borrowed words, words that I found in my prayer corner, words that seem to say what I could not say better. Words with a meaning, words, that I have made my own, words that I have prayed:

“Now unto thee, O heavenly Father, be all praise and glory that by day Thou dost richly fill my life with various blessings:

A home to share, kindred love, and friends to cherish;
A place to fill and a work to do;
A green world to live in, blue skies above me, and pure air to breathe;
Healthy exercise and simple pleasures;
My race’s long history to remember and its great men to follow;
Good books to read and many arts and crafts to delight in;
So much that is worth knowing and the skill and science to know it;
Those high thoughts that sometimes fill my mind and come I not know whence;
Many happy days, and that inward calm that Thou givest me in days of gloom;
The peace, passing understanding, that comes from thine indwelling in my soul;
The faith that looks through death and the hope of a larger life beyond the grave.

I thank Thee, O Lord God, that though with liberal hand Thou hast at all times showered Thy blessings upon our human kind, yet in Jesus Christ Thou hast done greater things for us than ever didst before;

Making home sweeter and friends dearer;
Turning sorrow into gladness and pain into the soul’s victory;
Robbing death its sting;
Robbing sin its power;
Making peace more peaceful and and joy more joyful and
   faith and hope more secure. Amen”

*Words borrowed from A Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baillie.

Sunday’s Psalm -Psalm 103-

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Psalm 103: 17-18 says,

“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.”

What a precious promise! What a joy to read this and know that is God’s inspired Word speaking to us.
I love what John Calvin (1) has to say regarding these verses;

“By taking our children’s children into His care, He shows how precious to Him is our Salvation”

He is the God of the Covenant and  He wisely rules over us, making us able, through Christ’s Saving Grace, to “respond to His calling with faith and prayer to the Covenant of Grace”.

But we must remember, He expects us to remember. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy and remember to do His commandments. Calvin says,

“Many are quick to talk about God’s laws, but their feet are slow and their hands are heavy when it comes to the reality of spiritual service”

So, today, I found myself pondering about this, it seems so simple…remember…and even to do so, I need Him, I cannot do it myself. I forget; and being forgetful will not lead me to a godly life under the covenant.

Let us remember this day His commandments.

Let us rejoice in them.

Let us rejoice in the Lord of the Covenant, who delights to take care of our children’s children!

 

(1) Commentary on The Psalms John Calvin.Abridged by David C. Searle.
Psalm's Book image from here.