Category Archives: Doctrines_In_The_Kitchen

In This I Rest by Lisa Spence

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Take a cup of coffee (or tea if you happen to live in UK), and enjoy a wonderful time reading what an “ordinary woman, living an ordinary life…” shares with us today. Thank you, Lisa, for preparing something so precious for us. Thank you, for being in the Kitchen with us, what a joy it is to have you here!

Annie Pliego Photography
I live in north Alabama where tornado watches and warnings are part and parcel to our spring season. A couple of years ago I wrote a post musing on God’s sovereignty while under one such warning. Looking back on that post is an exercise in irony since a year later the possibility of which I wrote became heartbreaking reality. On a Saturday night last April a tornado cut a swath through my community wreaking destruction on much of our small town including our schools (though our home was spared). No lives were lost but the devastation was just that, devastating. Pondering the sovereignty of God moved from the abstract and the academic to the real and the personal.
Looking over the tornado damage, my eyes full of tears as I realized the extent of the destruction, I knew the kind of peace and comfort that accompanies a trust in a faithful, sovereign God. In the days following I wrote of the comfort and the security that come with knowing that God is sovereign.
It is one thing to affirm God’s sovereignty while sitting in front of my laptop in my comfortable home. It is another thing entirely to consider the omnipotence of a sovereign God when one is reeling from the aftermath of a tornado…or a tsunami…or a heartache…or an overwhelming loss…or any other disappointment, large or small. In the throes of struggles and trials the providence of God can seem mysterious and perhaps even confusing. Where is He? Does He care? Does He see? How can He allow such pain? Why?
Through the years of my journey with Christ with its many twist and turns, ups and downs, I have asked these same questions, and more. My assertion in God’s sovereignty that stormy night last April did not suddenly manifest itself upon hearing the damage reports on the radio. No, I knew it to be true because the Bible told me so.
No serious student of the Bible can deny God is sovereign. The truth of His reign and His rule is emphatically and unwaveringly declared throughout Scripture. In Daniel 4:34-35, we read that His dominion is everlasting, that He does according to His will and that none can stay His hand! Ephesians 1 emphasizes the truth that He works all things (ALL things) according to the counsel of His will and Psalm 135:6 tells us that whatever He pleases, He does. He is Almighty God, possessing all power and all authority. He has total control over all that occurs; He determines a man’s steps; He upholds the universe by the word of His power. All aspects of our lives and universe are under His providential care.
Sometimes we resent and resist His sovereignty, thinking it’s not fair, that we deserve–or don’t deserve–this or that. Ultimately, whether I find His sovereign control a source of refuge or resentment depends on what I know of His character. His Word tells me He is good, that His mercy endures forever, that He works all things according to His will for our good and His glory, that He has a purpose and a plan. There are no surprises to Him. I can trust Him no matter my situation. What grace!
This reminds me of how critical it is to be engaged in a diligent study of His Word. Listen, trials come. I don’t have to tell you that. Life is hard. Sooner or later you and I will both be faced with the sort of difficulty that will tempt us to doubt the Lord’s gracious providence. What then? How do we gain the knowledge of God’s character and His ways that will sustain through the trials that come? In His Word! We must study it, know it, meditate on it, live it, apply it, hunger for more of it, submit to it. Our ability to faithfully persevere will be directly influenced by our pursuit of the revelation of the knowledge of God in the pages of His living Word.
Becky has asked us to consider how various doctrines affect our real lives, how these precious truths of the faith make a difference in the kitchen as it were. One may think that a growing understanding of the Lord’s sovereignty could lead to fatalism, that mindset that says since God’s in total control and what He says will happen will happen, why does it matter what I do? In fact, quite the opposite has proven true. Belief in God’s providence grants me boldness. Rather than sitting back in some fatalistic non-action, I am compelled to act, to go, to tell, to pray, to move forward in courageous confidence because I know my Lord works and wills to achieve His purposes.
Not only that, but the sovereign rule of God is also a comfort. I can rest because I know that no matter what comes—tornado, trial or temptation—He is sufficient. He is working it out. His glory is my chief desire and I can trust that through every circumstance He is at work according to the counsel of His will and His good pleasure. It is not in vain! He will be faithful! He will be glorified! What peace!
Considering God’s sovereignty also reminds me of my own helplessness. He is God and I am not; this truth reveals my desperate need in humiliating and devastating clarity. I cannot save myself. I know that my sin condemns me. In my depravity and rebellion, I deserve death. That I have breath for this day is only due to the grace of my sovereign God. Apart from His grace I am helpless and lost; I need a Savior. God is all-powerful, He is sovereign, and He has saved me to the uttermost; nothing and no one can snatch me from His hand.
I wouldn’t dare presume to minimize the very real heartache and grief behind some of our very real and very painful struggles. Yet I am confident of this: there is hope. Even in the most difficult of circumstances and the most heartbreaking of pains, there is a plan. There is a purpose. God is good. He holds all things in His omnipotent, sovereign hand. He loves His children and will not allow anything to separate them from His love in His Son. Though I do not understand fully, it is enough. In this I rest.
Lisa
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>A Book Goes to the UK

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Dear friends, Diane at Theology for Girls, hosted a wonderful giveaway of the book The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink and it is our joy to announce the winner:

Thank you, Diana for participating. What a joy is to have you as our friend in this wonderful Kitchen!
And just in case you missed it, Diane Bucknell wrote a wonderful post on The Love of God, that you really don’t want to miss.
And Diana, who blogs at Waiting for Our Blessed Hope,  wrote another one that moved us to tears as she shared about the glorious doctrine of Christ (Christology) entitled, My Eyes Were Lifted Up.
Remember, ladies, that we still have more giveaways:
* Christina is giving away the wonderful book The Doctrines of Grace: Rediscovering the Evangelical Gospel, to enter the drawing, read her post entitled, Why I Love the Doctrines of Grace,  and leave a comment there. (click here)
* You can also enter the drawing of a Systematic Theology  (choose from either Horton’s or Grudem’s) that Monergism Books is hosting. To enter leave a comment here or follow us on Facebook.
*  On our resources page, you can enter the “big” giveaway that will be held at the end of the month. We are posting new resources each day that correspond to the daily posts. And at the end of the month we will randomly choose four winners who will be able to choose one resource from the list. If you wish to have your name thrown in the “mixing bowl” leave a comment on the page (click here).
Thank you for visiting us, we are grateful for you!
Under His sun and by His grace,

Seek God, Not Joy

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Thursday of Borrowed Words in the Kitchen is special when you can have a lady from the 19th century  sharing at the table. Today I am honored to introduce you to Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss*. (via Grace Gems)

Karen Reyburn Photography
There is certainly enough in our Savior, if we only open our eyes that we may see it, to solve every doubt and satisfy every longing of the heart; and He is willing to give it in full measure. If a glimpse of our Savior here on earth can be so refreshing, so delightful, what will it be in Heaven?
When my mind strives to grasp this love of Christ, it seems to struggle in vain with its own littleness, and falls back weary and exhausted, to wonder again at the heights and depths which surpass its comprehension.
In proportion to your devotion to the Savior will be the blessedness of your life.
I am persuaded that real humility dwells deep within the heart, and that it is only to be gained by communion with our blessed Savior, who, when He was reviled, reviled not again.
The greatest saint on earth has got to reach Heaven on the same terms as the greatest sinner; unworthy, unfit, good-for-nothing; but saved through grace.
In proportion to our love to Christ, will be the agony of terror lest we should sin and fall, and so grieve and weary Him.
One minute of nearness to the Lord Jesus contains more delight than years spent in communion with any earthly friend.
If the loss of your earthly fortune gains Christ for you, it will be a beautiful loss.
The more we love Him, the more we see how sinful sin is, and the more sorry we are to have been guilty of it.
I entreat you to turn your eyes away from self, from man, and look to Christ.
Let us never allow anything to come between our hearts and our God.
It is sweet to be in the sunshine of the Master’s smile, but I believe our souls need winter as well as summer, night as well as day.
Let us take our lot in life just as it comes, courageously, patiently, and faithfully, never wondering at anything the Master does.
I have lived to see that God never was so good to me as when He seemed most severe.
God never places us in any position in which we cannot grow. We may imagine that He does. We may fear we are so impeded by fretting petty cares that we are gaining nothing; but when we are not sending any branches upward, we may be sending roots downward. Perhaps in the time of our humiliation, when everything seems a failure, we are making the best kind of progress. Look on and look up. Lay hold on Christ with both your poor, empty hands. Let Him do with you what seems good to Him. Though He slay you, still trust in Him, and I dare in His name to promise you a sweeter, better life than you could have ever known, had He left you to drink of the full dangerous cups of unmingled prosperity.
O if the unseen presence of Jesus can make the heart to sing for joy in the midst of its sorrow and sin here, what will it be to dwell with Him forever!
We never know, or begin to know, the great Heart that loves us best, until we throw ourselves upon it in the hour of our despair. Friends say and do all they can for us, but they do not know what we suffer or what we need; but Christ who formed, has penetrated the depths of the crushed heart. He pours in the oil that no human hand possesses, and “as one whom his mother comforts, so will He comfort you.”
Lay down this principle as a law– God does nothing arbitrary. If He takes away your health, for instance, it is because He has some reason for doing so. This is true of everything you value, and if you have real faith in Him, you will not insist on knowing this reason.
What are trials, but angels to beckon us nearer to Him.
What does it matter, after all, from what point of time or space, we go to our eternal home. O how we shall smile after we get there, that we ever gave it one moment’s thought.
All your tears will soon be wiped away. You will see the King in His beauty. You will see Christ your Redeemer, and realize all He is, and all He has done for you. As I think of these things my soul is in haste to be gone. I long to be set free from sin and self, and to go to the fellowship of those who are done with them forever, and are perfect and entire, lacking nothing.
She is at home; she is well, she is happy, she will never know a bereavement or a day’s illness, or the infirmities and trials of old age. She has the secret of perpetual youth! The only real comfort is that God never makes mistakes, and that He would not have snatched her from us if He had not had a reason that would satisfy us if we knew it. Next to dying and going home one’s self, it must be sweet to accompany a Christian friend down to the very banks of the river. Isn’t it strange that after such experiences we can ever again have a worldly thought, or ever lose the sense of the reality of divine things!
God delights to try our faith by the conditions in which He places us.
Dying grace is not usually given until it is needed. Death, to the disciple of Jesus, is only stepping from one room to another and far better room of our Father’s house. And how little all the sorrows of the way will seem to us, when we get to our home above.
You never will be really happy until Christ becomes your dearest and most intimate friend.
Seek God, not joy.
How transcendently good He is, when He brings me down to that low place, and there shows me that that self-renouncing, self-despairing spot is just the one where He will stoop to meet me.
Those words, “daily nearer God,” have an inexpressible charm for me. I long for such nearness to Him that all other objects shall fade into comparative insignificance; so that to have a thought, a wish, a pleasure apart from Him, shall be impossible.
I am not sure that it is best for us, once safe and secure on the Rock of Ages, to ask ourselves too closely, what this and that experience may signify. Is it not better to be thinking of the Rock, not of the feet that stand upon it? It seems to me that we ought to be unconscious of ourselves, and that the nearer we get to Christ the more we shall be taken up with Him. We shall be like a sick man who, after he gets well, forgets all the symptoms he used to think so much of, and stops feeling his pulse, and just enjoys his health, only pointing out his physician to all who are diseased.
REST! What an infinite, mournful sweetness in the word. How perfectly sure I feel that my soul can never rest in itself, nor in anything of earth. If I find peace, it must be in the bosom of God. I know myself to be perfectly helpless. I cannot promise to do, or to be, anything; but I do want to put everything else aside, and to devote myself entirely to the service of Christ.
The thorny path bears some of the sweetest flowers that adorn life. And when with naked, bleeding feet we walk upon a flinty soil, we often find diamonds.
A cup of cold water given in Christ’s name, if that is all one can give, is just as acceptable as the richest offering; and so is a teaspoonful, if one has no more to give. Christ loves to be loved, and the smallest testimony of real love is most pleasing to Him, and love shown to one of His suffering disciples, He regards as love to Himself. So a little child carrying a flower to some poor invalid, may thus do Christ honor and become more endeared to Him.
Let my life be an all-day looking to Jesus. Let my love to God be so deep, earnest, and all-pervading, that I cannot have even the passing emotion of rebellion to suppress. There is such a thing as an implicit faith in, and consequent submission to, Christ. Let me never rest until they are freely mine.
I believe that there is no happiness on earth, as there is none in heaven, to be compared with that of losing all things to possess Christ.
There may come a period when God says, virtually, to the soul, “You clung to Me when I smiled upon and caressed you. Let Me see how you will behave when I smile and speak comfortably no more.”
It matters very little on what paths we are walking, since we find Him in every one.
I have seen the time when I could hide myself in Him as a little child hides in its mother’s arms, and so have thousands of aching hearts.
Let us take our lot in life just as it comes, courageously, patiently, and faithfully, never wondering at anything the Master does.
We love God more than we are aware; when He slays us, we trust in Him; when He strikes us, we kiss His hand.
The longer I live the more conscious I am of human frailty, and of the constant, overwhelming need I have of God’s grace.

Why I Love the Doctrines of Grace by Christina Langella

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>If you have not met Christina Langella, you have missed the opportunity of meeting one of the most joyous persons I know. She is a wonderful friend, passionate for the Word of God, and always ready to share God’s love with those around her. It is my privilege to have her sharing with us today.

 

First of all, a very BIG “Thank you!” to Becky for her labor of love in coordinating this special series. I know that I am not alone when I say that I am so grateful to our sister for her sincere love and service to the saints.
In the first post of this series, sister Norma discussed the importance of studying doctrine. Doctrine, she explained, is not just for the seminarian, the professor, the pastor, or the missionary. It is rather, the responsibility of every person who wears the name of Christ.
The title of our series, “Doctrines in the Kitchen” reminds us of the very practical nature of the Word of God. It confirms that our faith encompasses the whole of our being and affects every sphere of our life – both public and private.
A.W. Pink, in his book, Practical Christianity explains it nicely. “Some of us are single, others married; some are children, others parents; some are masters, others servants. Scripture supplies definite precepts and rules, motives and encouragement for each alike. It not only teaches us how we are to behave in the church and in the home, but equally so in the workshop and in the kitchen…”
As someone who embraces Reformed/Calvinistic Theology, I point to the doctrines of grace, also known as the five points of Calvinism, as the system of theology that has put me on the most solid theological footing ever.
Calvinism, in and of itself, is not the Gospel, however when these doctrines come together they provide the theological framework for what is the gospel. In the gospel God saves totally depraved sinners, He chooses them unconditionally, He draws them irresistibly, and He preserves them until the end. If you remove one of these pillars then you will have succeeded in diminishing the gospel.
While the doctrines of grace are rightly associated with John Calvin, and the Reformers, the truth is that these doctrines are woven all throughout the pages of Scripture. We see them in the Psalms, they were taught by Jesus himself, and were further upheld by the apostle Paul in Romans and Ephesians, to name just a couple of books.
I find myself in good company when I concur with the sentiments of Charles Spurgeon who said, “There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do, and if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer—I wish to be called nothing but a Christian; but if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply, I do in the main hold them, and rejoice to avow it.”
So, what is a Calvinist? Once again, I will let the Prince of Preachers answer that: “He is one who says,’ Salvation is of the Lord’ ”
My primary purpose in this post is not so much to explain, or even make a defense (although I welcome the opportunity) for these doctrines. My purpose is to share briefly with you why I have come to cherish them so. It is my prayer that you, too, will come to treasure these precious doctrines that not only changed my life, but daily transform me into the image of my Savior.
Although I had been serving the Lord for many years before God opened my eyes to these doctrines I was, in many ways, like the “infant” that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4:14 who is “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine”. Today that is no longer the case. My feet rest on level ground and I stand on the firm and solid rock of God’s Word.
As many of you are already aware, the doctrines of grace are most commonly associated with the acrostic TULIP. Let us briefly touch upon each of these doctrines that, when joined together, form the basic framework or structure for God’s great plan of salvation for sinners!
Total Depravity: I used to think that I was a good Christian with a few problems here and there. The scriptures tell a different story. In fact, not only do they confirm a few problems, they make clear I am the problem! The doctrine of total depravity teaches that as a consequence of “The Fall” every aspect of our being has been infected by sin. Even our seemingly good and honorable actions cannot be understood apart from the context of a will that is bondage to sin. Did you know that even the ability to even respond in faith to the gospel is a gift of grace? It was not until I began to understand my own depravity that I could start apprehending the grace and mercy of God. In this doctrine God has demolished and utterly obliterated any possibility of boasting. Salvation is of the Lord!
Unconditional Election: Many of us think that we found God because we were searching. As lovely as this may sound, this thinking doesn’t square with scripture. If any of us are ever searching for Truth, we can be sure that it is the power of God at work in us and certainly nothing of our own. John Newton, author of Amazing Grace said it best. “Ah! Sir,” he said, “The Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else He would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards.” The doctrine of unconditional election teaches that God elected us unto salvation before the foundation of the world. God chose us before we ever did anything good or bad. He did this because He is sovereign and He has declared, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy” (Romans 9:15). Why, in eternity past, He ordained that I should be an object of mercy and not wrath, I will never know. All I know is that it humbles me to the dust. Salvation is of the Lord!
Limited Atonement: Jesus did not die on the cross so that I would merely have the opportunity to one day be saved. He did not die on the cross to make my salvation merely possible. He did far more than that! As C. H. Spurgeon said, “The doctrine of Holy Scripture is this, that inasmuch as man could not keep God’s law, having fallen in Adam, Christ came and fulfilled the law on the behalf of his people; and that inasmuch as man had already broken the divine law and incurred the penalty of the wrath of God, Christ came and suffered in the room, place, and stead of his elect ones, that so by his enduring the full vials of wrath, they might be emptied out and not a drop might ever fall upon the heads of his blood-bought people.” (Sermon 310 – “Christ our Substitute – New Park Street, Southwark). What does that mean? It means that when Jesus said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), he meant exactly that. We can add nothing to his finished work. Salvation is of the Lord!
Irresistible Grace: I have heard it said somewhere that the only ones who don’t get what they want are Christians! Oh, how I bless God for that! The doctrine of irresistible grace teaches that all those who have been predestined for eternal life will come freely because they have been made willing by His grace. John Piper says it like this, “What the sovereignty of grace and the sovereignty of the Spirit mean is that when God chooses, he can overcome the rebellion and resistance of our wills. He can make Christ look so compelling that our resistance is broken and we freely come to him and receive him and believe him.” (Online Source). Because it is God’s almighty power at work, and not my own, I can be sure that the grace of God unto salvation in my life will not be without effect. Salvation is of the Lord!
Perseverance of the Saints: Of the five doctrines of grace, this one has proven to be the most stabilizing. This doctrine teaches that if God redeemed us then He will keep us! The great Puritan William Secker said it well, “Though Christians be not kept altogether from falling, yet they are kept from falling altogether.” Yes, various kinds of troubles and temptations will come but this our confidence: “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Our perseverance does not depend on our good works but on God who never changes and who is faithful! Isn’t that good news? Salvation is of the Lord!
Do you see how these doctrines teach that God is sovereign over our salvation? Do you see how they exalt Christ and dethrone man? Pastor John Samson of King’s Church, Phoenix, and writer at reformationtheology.com and of his own blog at effectualgrace.com, captures the simple and elegant glory of these great doctrines. He writes, “Grace at the start, grace to the end, grace in the middle, grace without fail, grace without mixture, grace without addition, grace that allows no boasting, grace that precludes all glorying but in the Lord.” Isn’t that beautiful? It is, in every sense of the word, at all time, in all places, all of grace.
There was a time when embedded deep within my theology, was the proud and lofty notion that there was something inherently good in me that merited salvation. Maybe He saw my “heart” or perhaps He saw me “searching.” Subsequent to salvation there was the sense that if I wanted to maintain His pleasure my efforts and my performance were what mattered most. If that’s not a terrifying thought, I don’t know what is! Not only does such thinking lend to an unstable and schizophrenic kind of Christian experience, but it is an absolute affront to the sovereignty and grace of an almighty God!
Today, I can look back, even upon my darkest days, and see the sovereign hand of God at work. The sovereignty of God encompasses everything that comes to pass — including sin. These precious doctrines assure me that there was never a time when I was outside of the perfect knowledge and will of God for my life. Even if my deliverance from error to truth took longer than I would have liked, I know that even that is of the Lord. If He kept my eyes closed for as long as He did, well, then it was for His sovereign and gracious purposes, and I can say that it is good.
The journey has not always been easy. He has taken every idol in my “Christian” world and smashed it to smithereens. What has been left in the aftermath – what has been left in the wake of all of this ripping and demolishing is nothing but the cross of my crucified Savior.
It is my prayer that you too, will come to know and fall in love with these beautiful doctrines that, when brought together, point to one gracious and glorious truth: Salvation is of the Lord!
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. 
And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” 
Ephesians 2:8
Christina
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1.A.W. Pink, Practical Christianity, (Michigan: Baker House, 1974) 183.
2. C.H. Spurgeon, A Defense of Calvinism, (Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008) 15.
3. C.H. Spurgeon, A Defense of Calvinism, (Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008) 23-24.
4. William Secker, The Nonsuch Professor in His Meridian Spledor or, the Singular Actions of Sanctified Christians. (New York: Fleming Revell) 114.

A Way Out of Sin

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back view of a person carrying a backpack looking into the ocean

Photo by Kristina Nor on Pexels.com

There is a vast ocean before us. Each of the doctrines taught in the Scriptures, is like a drop of water in the ocean. Each one is precious. Each one is a gem. Each one has brought life to me.

Today, however, I want to give thanks to my God for one specific doctrine, one that gives God’s children a way out of sin. I am grateful because God has given his children the possibility to mortify sin every day.

This is a doctrine that reaches down into my heart and pierces my soul, and enables me to walk in holiness in my home, in my kitchen, in the city, in the farm, in the office, in the school, wherever I go.

We are saved by grace, our justification is a decree from God. He makes us righteous without any merit on our part. He saves us by grace through faith. I didn’t choose God; I couldn’t have chosen Him simply because I was dead in my sins. But when He came and by His infinite grace He called my name, and gave me life, He set me free from the terrible and cruel hands of the Devil, the father of all sinners. Now I am free.Free, free indeed. Free from sin

Isn’t this wonderful news? Isn’t this something that sets your feet on dancing and makes you raise your hands toward God, the great Deliverer of His people? I am so grateful, grateful for this wondrous miracle!

God has set the feet of His own people free from bondage and has set them on a new path. A path which is not always smooth. During this journey, Satan will try to make us fall, he will try to deceive us, he will promise us the world, all the satisfactions and power, if only we would bow before him and what he has to offer. But now, we are free… now we can truly say no to his schemes.

Now, because God has called us out of darkness into His admirable light, now we can by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, so that we may live.

“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:12-13

Octavius Winslow said it well,”To the flesh we owe nothing but uncompromising hatred; to Jehovah we owe undivided and supreme affection.”

It is concerning this doctrine, the Mortification of our flesh, our sinful desires (Sanctification) that we are called to action.

It is here where we have no other option but to do something, to be “doers”, to act. It is here where God expects us to obey, to die to self, and carry our cross

But I am grateful, yes, I am grateful because even though this is not easy, the Lord is on our side; it is He who enables us to walk in holiness, it is He who strengthens our weary souls, and renews our strength and gives us the victory! We are indeed more than over-comers in Him who has called us! A.W. Pink reminds us that “mortification is not optional but imperative.” He continues to say:

“The imperative necessity for this work of mortification arises from the continued presence of the evil nature in the Christian. Upon his believing in Christ unto salvation he was at once delivered from the condemnation of the Divine law, and freed from the reigning power of sin; but “the flesh” was not eradicated from his being, nor were its vile propensities purged or even modified…”

“Mortification is a task to which every Christian must apply himself with prayerful diligence and resolute earnestness. The regenerate have a spiritual nature within that fits them for holy action, otherwise there would be no difference between them and the unregenerate.”

I am forever grateful that God works in me day after day, He who began the good work in me will bring it to completion at the Day of Jesus Christ. I am grateful that I am in the process of becoming more like Christ every day, and that it is because of Him, because of His grace that I can press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. How glorious is this truth!

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

The Flame of My Life is to Worship You

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Katie Lloyd Photography

 

GLORIOUS GOD
It is the flame of my life to worship thee,
the crown and glory of my soul to adore thee,
heavenly pleasure to approach thee.
Give me power by thy Spirit to help me worship now,
that I may forget the world,
be brought into fullness of life,
be refreshed, comforted, blessed.
Give me knowledge of thy goodness
that I might not be over-awed by thy greatness;
Give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God,
that I might not be terrified,
but be drawn near with filial love,
with holy boldness;
He is my mediator, brother, interpreter,
branch, daysman, Lamb;
him I glorify,
in Him I am set on high.
Crowns to give I have none,
but what thou hast given I return,
content to feel that everything is mine when it is thine,
and the more fully mine when I have yielded it to thee.
Let me live wholly to my Saviour,
free from distractions,
from carking care,
from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way.
I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus-
give me a new sense of it,
continue to pardon me by it,
may I come every day to the fountain,
and everyday be washed anew,
that I may worship thee always in spirit and in truth.
The Valley of Vision
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