His Ways
As the heaven is high above,
So great is God's mercy.
Far as the east is from the west,
He hath removed our sin.
His chosen are made willing in
The day of His great pow'r.
The Father drew us to His Son.
We came to Him that hour.
As heavens are higher than earth,
So are His ways to me.
How God could take this sinful man,
And made him His to be.
It was the Covenant He made
With His own precious Son,
Who satisfied God's just demands:
Abundantly pardons.
How could the Lord become a man?
This is beyond my thought.
But this He did do for His own
To free them from their lot.
He shed His blood. Their sin atoned.
He made our peace above.
Our standing is in Jesus Christ;
His mercy, grace, and love.
By Gary Spreacker
(Tune: ‘My Faith Has Found A Resting Place‘, #228)
Two Things You Can Not Afford
In these hard economic times, we often hear the phrase, “I can’t afford….” followed generally by some material desire of sought after pleasure. The truth is if I can’t afford it I most likely don’t need it! Two vital things the believer actually can’t afford are: I can’t afford to neglect the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ; and I can’t afford to neglect my brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Lord enable us to be given over to those desires and pleasures. “ Having food and raiment let us therewith be content.”
- Bob Coffey
Hath Christ drunk off all the cup of God’s wrath and left none for us? How should we be but cheered? Precious souls! Why are you afraid? There is no death, no hell, “no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,” (Rom. 8:1). There is no divine justice for them to undergo, that have their share in this death of Christ; oh! the grace and mercy that is purchased by this means of Christ! oh! the waters of comfort that flow from the sufferings and obedience of Christ! Christ was amazed that we might be cheered, Christ was imprisoned that we might be delivered; Christ was accused that we might be acquitted; Christ was condemned that we might be redeemed; Christ suffered the Father’s wrath, and came under it, that the victory might be ours, and that in the end we might see Him face to face in glory: is not here a matter of joy?
-Ambrose
The world cannot make a right judgment of believers. Only the spiritual person discerns the things’ Of God (I Cor. 2:14). The faults and failings of the Godly are seen, by EVERYONE" but their graces are too often UNSEEN. "The royal; daughter is all glorious within" (Ps: 45:1-3). When you are able to make a RIGHT JUDGEMENT of other true believers, you will want nothing, better than to be one of them and forever to be in their company. “To the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight” (Ps. 16:3). - Copied
Eph. 1:6
A poet wrote “Grace! ‘Tis a charming sound, harmonious to the ear”. To everyone who has tasted the bitterness of their own sin and has come to know and feel their own depravity, grace is indeed a charming sound. However, it is not so with everyone. There are those to whom the word and the doctrine are bitter to their taste and unpleasant to their ears. Grace is such a singular and absolute principle that it will countenance no rival and will stand for no mixture with it. It resides alone as the means by which God saves sinners. No words can do grace justice! No song can encompass its true melody. No sermon or theological treatise can expound the depths or heights of its glory. Every redeemed person rests in it and is motivated to work by it. It is the source of comfort and conviction, of joy and tears, of desire and fulfillment, of meekness and boldness and those who have experienced the wonder of it are forever enamored with it. Those who have experienced the beauty and the power of it find their mind and heart consumed by it. It is mystery and revelation. Their language is salted with it. Their relationships are monitored and measured by it. Their very soul is permeated with it. They are possessed with a kind of “tunnel vision” that, to the world, seems to border on fanaticism. Their conversation is so singularly taken with grace that religion often refers to them as “gracers” or “sovereign gracers” and usually in an effort to disallow them, to mock them. But the recipient of grace can not help himself. He gladly takes up the banner and wears the disdain of the world as a badge of honor.
God’s grace is part and parcel of His glory. “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy” (Exodus 33:19).
- Pastor Tim James
The GLORY OF GRACE