Colossians 2:14 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross;” ~~ The sinners medicine and physician is not the same, yet they go together. Christ is our medicine, the Holy Spirit our physician. Christ for us; the Holy Spirit in us. --Scott Richardson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Psalm 147 Author: Henry Francis Lyte
Tune: Just as I am * 1. O PRAISE the LORD, ‘tis sweet to raise The grateful heart to God in praise; When fallen raised, when lost restored, Oh! it is sweet to praise the Lord! * 2. Great is His power, divine His skill, His love diviner, greater still; The sinner’s Friend, the mourner's stay, He sends no suppliant sad away. * 3. The lions roar to Him for bread, The ravens by His hand are fed; And shall His chosen flock despair? Shall they mistrust their Shepherd’s care? * 4. His church is precious in His sight; He makes her glory His delight; His treasures on her head are pour’d; O Zion’s children, praise the LORD!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sovereignty “The LORD reigneth!” Psalm 93:1 No rainbow of promise in the “dark and cloudy day” shines more radiantly than this. God, my God, the God who gave Jesus orders all events, and overrules all for my good! “When I,” says He, “send clouds over the earth.” He has no wish to conceal the hand which shadows for a time, earth’s brightest prospects. It is He alike who “brings the cloud,” who brings us into it, and in mercy leads us through it! His kingdom rules over all. “The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.” He puts the burden on, and keeps it on, and at His own time will remove it! Beware of brooding over second causes. It is the worst form of atheism! When our most fondly cherished gourds are smitten; our fairest flowers lie withered in our bosom; this is the silencer of all reflections, “The Lord prepared the worm!” When the temple of the soul is smitten with lightning, and its pillars rent: “The Lord is in His holy temple!” Accident, chance, fate, destiny, have no place in the Christian’s creed. He is no unpiloted vessel left to the mercy of the storm. “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters!” There is but one explanation of all that befalls him: “I will be mute, I will open not my mouth, because You O Lord, did it.” Death seems to the human spectator the most capricious and severe of all events. But not so. The keys of death and Hades are in the hands of this same reigning God! Look at the parable of the fig-tree. Its prolonged existence, or its doom as a cumberer (obstruction), forms matter of conversation in Heaven; the axe cannot be laid at its root until God gives the warrant! How much more will this be the case regarding every “Tree of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord?” It will be watched over by Him, “Lest anyone hurt it.” Every trembling fiber He will care for; and if made early to succumb to the inevitable stroke, “Who knows not in all these things, that the hand of the Lord has wrought this.” Be it mine to merge my own will in His; not to cavil (make unnecessary) at His ways, or to seek to have one jot or tittle of His will altered; but to lie passive in His hands; to take the bitter as well as the sweet, knowing that the bitter cup is mingled by One who loves me too well to add one ingredient that might have been spared! Who can wonder that the sweet Psalmist of Israel should seek, as he sees the rainbow spanning the lower heavens, to fix the arrested gaze of a whole world on the softened tints of this Rainbow of Comfort, “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice!” --John MacDuff
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Daily Readings SEPTEMBER 22-28 22- Ecclesiastes 10-12; Galatians 1 23- Song of Solomon 1-3; Galatians 2 24- Song of Solomon 4-5; Galatians 3 25- Song of Solomon 6-8; Galatians 4 26- Isaiah 1-2; Galatians 5 27- Isaiah 3-4; Galatians 6 28- Isaiah 5-6; Ephesians 1
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