Call to Worship
‘Tis not that I did choose Thee, For, Lord that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee, hast Thou not chosen me.
Thou from the sin that stained me, hast cleansed and set me free,
Of old Thou hast ordained me that I should live to Thee.
Your love had no beginning, No cause in me was found;
That you should choose to save me, a sinner strongly bound.
But grace not earned or sought for, was purposed for my soul,
For me, salvation wrought for; Christ paid the dreadful toll.
‘Twas sovereign mercy called me, and taught my op’ning mind;
The world had else enthralled me, to heav’nly glories blind.
My heart owns none before Thee, for Thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing if I loved Thee, Thou must have loved me first
(Tune: The Church’s One Foundation #186)
“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength” - C.H. Spurgeon
~~~ O ~~~
“We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage” - John Newton
Confessing Christ is the whole of a person's life, revealing outwardly what God has worked inwardly. It is the confession by word, act, deed, and attitude, what God, by His Spirit, has created within our hearts. "One tree is not a forest," it has been said. So, one public act is not a confession of Christ. - Henry Mahan
~~~ O ~~~
If God saved you in light of His consideration of something in you, no matter how small, it could not be grace! No amount of immorality can hinder God in His work of grace, and no amount of morality can commend one’s self to God. If one sin or one thousand of them can hinder a soul in the reception of grace, it ceases to be grace. If any amount of morality can commend one to God, it ceases to be grace.
–A. D. Muse
~~~ O ~~~
The faith of the natural man, the unregenerate man, is reasonable, logical, and often very influential (Matt. 7:21-23); but the faith of the Christian is a gift of God, a miracle, and is always the producer of a radical change in those who possess it. A man cannot possibly possess saving faith whose thinking and attitude has not been radically changed concerning God and righteousness, man and sin, Christ and grace (II Cor. 5:14-17). The difference between the two kinds of faith is the difference between shadows and substance, words and reality; natural faith believes, but saving faith knows! Natural faith merely acknowledges what saving faith experiences!
- Pastor Maurice Montgomery
~~~ O ~~~
Preachers are more interested with telling their folks what to do, instead of telling them what Christ has done. When they know what He has done they will stop telling folks what to do. For they will be saying; "more about Jesus would I know, more of his grace to others show, more of His saving love to see, more of His love who died for me.” - Pastor
The Work of God
"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)
The Scriptures show that the most pleasing element in faith to the eye of God is the fact that it HONORS HIS SON, for God dearly loves His Son. There is no way we could ever comprehend the depth of the love of the Father towards His only begotten Son. The opposite of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is confidence in our own righteousness. This is a dishonor to the merit and salvation of Christ. But when we throw away all confidence in our own righteousness, and have no hope but in the great atonement which Christ has made, we honor the Lord Jesus Christ, God delights in it, and will honor our faith. He will not cast away a soul that clings to that great High Priest.
- Pastor Milton Howard
~~~ O ~~~
Said a minister once, when I gently hinted to him that he had not preached the Gospel that morning, "No, I did not mean to preach to sinners in the morning; but I will preach to them in the evening." "Ah!" said I, "but what if some of your congregation of the morning should be in hell before the evening.”