Gracious Lord, Thy People Meet

Author: Unknown Tune: Doxology
1. We have Thy promise, gracious Lord,
Thou wilt be where Thy people meet;
O then fulfill Thy precious Word,
And make our joy and rest complete.

2. We ask Thy holy presence here,
The sweet enjoyment of Thy love;
From carnal thoughts, O keep us clear,
And set our hearts on things above.

3. We ask for faith a sweet increase,
While we engage in prayer and praise,
To feel the powerful reign of peace,
To be supplied with every grace.

4. We ask to feel a union sweet,
We ask Thy blessings on Thy Word;
We ask - but all our asking's meet
In this - WE ASK THY PRESENCE, LORD.

Daily Readings February 25-March 3, 2018
Sunday - Num. 9-11; Mark 5:1-20 Monday - Num. 12-14; Mark 5:21-43
Tuesday - Num. 15-16; Mark 6:1-29 Wed.- Num. 17-19; Mark 6:30-56
Thursday - Num. 20-22; Mark 7:1-13 Friday - Num. 23-25; Mark 7:14-37
Saturday - Num. 26-28; Mark 8

True Excellency!
Jesus Christ has true excellency, and so great an excellency, that when you come to truly see Him, you look no further, but your mind rests there.
There is a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in Christ.
You see that you had been pursuing shadows, but now you have found the substance. You realize that you had been seeking happiness in the stream, but now you have found the ocean.
The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill its capacity.
Christ has an infinite excellency, such as the mind desires, in which it can find no bounds; and the more the mind contemplates Him, the more excellent does He appear.
Each new discovery of Christ makes His beauty appear more ravishing, and the mind can see no end to His excellency. There is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper, and never come to the bottom.
Christ's excellency is always fresh and new, and will as much delight us, after we have beheld Him a thousand, or ten thousand years, as when we have seen Him the first moment. The soul is exceedingly ravished when it first looks on the beauty of Christ. It is never weary of Him. --Jonathan Edwards

He Will Sustain You!
“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee:
He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Ps. 55:22).
The promise is not that the Lord will remove the load we cast upon Him, nor that He will carry it for us--but that He will sustain us so that we may carry it. He does not free us from the duty - but He strengthens us for it. He does not deliver us from the conflict - but He enables us to overcome. He does not withhold or withdraw the trial from us - but He helps us in trial to be submissive and victorious, and makes it a blessing to us. He does not mitigate the hardness or severity of our circumstances, taking away the difficult elements, removing the thorns, making life easy for us - but He puts Divine grace into our hearts, so that we can live sweetly in all the hard, adverse circumstances.
"And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:
for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9).
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"
(Phil. 4:23). -- Unknown

Your Strength Shall Be!
Afflicted saint, to God draw near,
Your Savior's gracious promise hear;
His faithful word declares to thee,
That as your day your strength shall be.

Let not your heart despond, nor say,
How shall I stand this trying day?
He has engaged by firm decree,
That as your day your strength shall be.

Your faith is weak, your foes are strong;
And if the conflict should be long,
Your Lord will make the tempter flee;
For as your day your strength shall be.

When called by Him to bear the cross-
Reproach, bereavement, painful loss,
Or deep distress and poverty-
Still as your day your strength shall be.