Arthur Says …

The weather today, in my neck of the woods, was just beautiful. It was in the low 70s, sunny, with only a few of those little “wispy” clouds to just break up the blue sky. In fact, this evening, even now at nearly 10:30, has been just great. Yet the last several hours my old friend Arthur has been informing me that rain is on the way.

I have arthritis in a couple of my joints but the last several months my wrist has bothered me more than it ever has and more than any other place I have it. A few years ago I slipped on the ice on our back deck and fractured my left wrist: that hurt. The pain that it has caused me lately has been, it seems, much worse than the injury though.

Knowing how much the original injury hurt and how much the after effects hurt, I just can’t imagine how much pain our Savior suffered having spikes driven through His wrists and ankles. I’d never have volunteered to break my wrist or ankle; He willing allowed to be nailed to a rough cut timber cross, for you and for me. And that is only a very small part of what He suffered in our stead.

When was the last time you considered, I mean really pondered upon, just those last hours of His life and all He suffered? If you are like me, probably not often enough or long enough. Just think, while we were still enemies to God, Christ Jesus loved us to death, literally. As the old hymn says “O! What a Savior!”.

Family

Matthew 23:8 …ye are all brethren.

This past week the association that my home church belongs to held it’s annual revival. It is a full week of meetings, Monday through Saturday evenings, with business meetings and worship services during the day on Friday and Saturday, culminating on Sunday with Sunday school and a memorial service in the afternoon. At some point most, if not all, of the 37 churches of the association are represented, along with folks visiting from other churches and associations from as far away as Alabama and Missouri. It is a wonderful opportunity to worship and fellowship with folks you don’t see often and ones that you meet for the first time. It is also a great blessing to see how this diverse body comes together as one in the Lord during this time.

I was blessed to attend almost all of the events, missing Saturday evenings service. As I said, the worship, fellowship and the songs of praise were just outstanding. We were truly in one mind and one accord, so much so that each night the choir, which was never made up of the same folks, sounded like a group that sang together regularly for years. The Spirit of God flowed through out the week in all aspects of the meetings.

As enjoyable as this week was, I have to tell you I’m looking so very forward to Wednesday night this week. You see, due to the weeks meeting and other church events prior to that we’ve not met in our home church in about two weeks. And though I greatly enjoyed the fellowship of the brothers and sisters from the other churches, I miss my “family” at Gethsemane something terrible. It’s so sweet to have brothers and sisters in Christ that you (I) feel are truly family. Though I love all the brethren, that little group of Christians that makes up the Body of Gethsemane United Baptist Church holds an extra dear spot in my heart. I hope and pray that each of you are as blessed with a home church and “family” as I am. And I thank my God for each of them and for planting among them.

It’s Got to be More

Psalm 42:1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

I heard a portion of a song on the radio the other day. I don’t know who the artist was, the name of the song, or even the exact lyrics. But a portion of the chorus stuck with me.

The point of the song, as I understood it, was speaking about our Christian lives and what they should be like. It said something to the effect that “it’s got to be more like falling in love, not just something to believe in. More like giving my heart, not just following a cause”. (I’m sure the actual words were a bit different, but you get the general idea.)

I can’t help but to think how true this thought is. Our walk with Christ isn’t/should not be just about a cause or tradition, an idea or mere belief. No, our lives are anew in Christ Jesus. We are new creatures after our new birth. Our walk of faith is one of reality, of an intimate, personal nature with intimate, personal, Living Savior. Our souls should truly, as the psalmist wrote, pant and long for God’s presence and touch in our lives. If we are lacking that deep yearning we need to find an alter of prayer and stay there until He shows us why it is lacking. And then cry out to Him so as to set our relationship right with Him so we can re-kindle that passion. When it all boils down, this is all about love: Love for Christ, love for another.

God bless,

Greg

Wesley on Love

Found this a few minutes ago and it seemed to go so well with the previous post I had to share it:

The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful heart.

Then let us adore and give Him His right,
All glory and power, all wisdom and might,
All honor and blessing, with angels above,
And thanks never ceasing for infinite love. —Wesley

What Do We Think?

I was reading something the other day that caught my thoughts. I can’t recall who the author was but it was someone from the 19th century who had written a hymn about a verse from Job.

How often do we stop to think what we are in the sight of God Almighty? And when we do, what is our answer? Oswald Chambers wrote that anyone who proclaimed that they were unworthy in God’s sight, of His mercy had grossly overstated the obvious (paraphrased). And how right Chambers was.

Our “good” compared to God’s holiness is as filthy rags. We can’t truly comprehend just how far from His standard we really are. And the lost person, if we can’t totally grasp this, is even further from understanding how very ungodly he is.

How blessed we are to have a Savior to give us the chance to right our fellowship with our Father! Each follower of Jesus Christ should contemplate just how to communicate this to our friends, family, and others we care about and meet. A good beginning might be to meditate upon the verse the author mentioned at the opening of this emal had in mind:

Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

Little is Much

You are probably familiar with the saying “little is much when God’s in it”. I want to say how true I believe that is.

I manage an email list and send out devotions Monday through Friday to the list members. Many, but not all, of these I post here. And many, but not all, I write myself. This morning I had planned on sending out the Spurgeon piece I posted. I had forgotten that Friday I got an email from a list member and had formatted it and scheduled it to go out today. So it went out as planned and I posted the other piece here.

About fifteen minutes after the original piece went out I got an email from a member and dear friend. In it he thanked me for sharing that piece, saying he needed that today. What a wonderful God we have. He knew that today my friend would need those words. And He had me set it in place Friday for him to get them today when they were needed. It really is amazing to me how something so small, so seemingly insignificant to me would be used in the way it was by God Almighty to uplift one of His children. Oh, if only I got out of the way more often and let Him work through me as He sees fit! How much more effective could I be for Him through and by Him? That is a question each Christian could and should ask themselves.

Calm Assurance

Yesterday we had the pleasure of watching our grandson. Connor, for several hours and to our surprise he spent the night with us, too.  He’s on a bit of a different schedule then we are; he is late to bed lat to rise, Maw-maw and Papaw, not so much.  In fact, as I write this he is still asleep.

Watching the little fellow lay there so peacefully, without a care in the world, is a something I enjoy a lot.  But the thought comes to mind as to what he will have to face in his life time and it is not quite as an enjoyable thing.  I know how much I have seen the world change, and not mostly for the better, in my lifetime and can only wonder how many different things the young ones we have now will have to face as they grow up.

There is one thing I know for sure amidst the doubts and cares of this world: We serve an unchanging God and He will be there for those children as He is for us.  As the old song says:

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days because He Lives!

Calm assurance it certainly is to have the comfort of knowing that Jesus will be there to help us, our children, and grandchildren and so on through the all of the uncertain times.

Heb 13:5b-6  …for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  (6)  So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Lord Jesus,

I am so thankful to know that You are with us always.  Your constant presence gives me the strength to go on toward the prize that awaits me.

The Old Ship

Though I can’t recall for certain, I believe that the hymn The Old Ship of Zion traces its roots back to African-American spiritual songs.  Where ever it originated it is a beautiful old song that I dearly love to hear and sing.  Though I love the entirety of it, the third verse has some very profound thought to it:

At the stern of the ship was the captain
I could hear as He called my name
“Get on board, it’s the old ship of Zion
It will never pass this way again”

I believe that when Jesus calls us we should head His call.  When He calls to you, you must make the decision to answer ‘yea’ and yield your life to Him or ‘nay’ and walk away from Him.  We do not know what one minute from now holds for us, let alone tomorrow.  The call you hear may be the last one you will ever receive.  He implores us to say yes while the opportunity is at hand (Rev. 3:20).

2Co 6:2b …behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

O God,

I pray that those that have not yet placed their total trust in Christ Jesus will be deeply burdened to do so.  It is my solemn plea that You might use these words to bring the realization to some lost soul their desperate situation and need of a Saviour.

Greg Wolford

©2009

I Surrender

Image via Wikipedia

To finish out the week’s topic of hymns, today’s selection is I Surrender All. This is another song that I believe is most often thought of as an invitational. But I think there is much to the idea ‘surrendering all’ that can pertain to Christians, too.

Over the years I have heard on many occasions, and probably been guilty of saying, things along the lines of:

· When you are trying to live as a Christian…

· I’m trying to live my life as a Christian…

· I am trying to live my life right…

You will notice the emphasis on the word ‘trying’ in those statements. Just like the lost person that says they can’t do it, neither can we. I don’t believe there’s any ‘trying’ about our walk of faith. I don’t believe that God wants us to ‘try’ to walk on the straight and narrow path; He wants us to follow Jesus and do it. There is no trying, no in-between with Him. Jesus wants us to surrender all to Him and give Him our all.

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Father God,

I submit my entire life, in all aspects, to You. I love You, Lord, and want to do what ever You want of me at all times, in all situations. I pray You will be done in my life, Lord, not mine.

Greg Wolford
©2009

Old Ship

Though I can’t recall for certain, I believe that the hymn The Old Ship of Zion traces its roots back to African-American spiritual songs.  Where ever it originated it is a beautiful old song that I dearly love to hear and sing.  Though I love the entirety of it, the third verse has some very profound thought to it:

At the stern of the ship was the captain
I could hear as He called my name
“Get on board, it’s the old ship of Zion
It will never pass this way again”

I believe that when Jesus calls us we should head His call.  When He calls to you, you must make the decision to answer ‘yea’ and yield your life to Him or ‘nay’ and walk away from Him.  We do not know what one minute from now holds for us, let alone tomorrow.  The call you hear may be the last one you will ever receive.  He implores us to say yes while the opportunity is at hand (Rev. 3:20).

2Co 6:2b …behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

O God,

I pray that those that have not yet placed their total trust in Christ Jesus will be deeply burdened to do so.  It is my solemn plea that You might use these words to bring the realization to some lost soul their desperate situation and need of a Saviour.

Greg Wolford

©2009