Read. Seen. Heard. Bits of wisdom.

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Octavius Winslow

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Job An Exemplary Father
by
M.J. Hancock

Feb 20, 2024

God has set before us an extensive tapestry of characters throughout Biblical history for our consideration and imitation. He calls us to follow these men where they excelled and take heed of where they failed (Rom. 4:12; 1 Cor. 10:6, 11). Many of the fathers throughout Scriptures teach us more from their failures than their successes, but the Lord has preserved a handful of positive examples for our hope and endurance. One of the most outstanding examples of a godly father is briefly portrayed for us in the life of Job.
Read this column:

https://www.growingfathers.com/job-an-exemplary-father/


May the Lord bring a spiritual renewing in our houses like this.

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Come thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of God's redeeming love
Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here by Thy great help I've come
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Bought me with His precious blood
Oh to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
Here's my heart Lord, though it's weakened
Hold me in Your precious arms




From Doubt to Worship: The History and Significance of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"
https://imperfectdust.com/blogs/news/fr ... 20minister

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We can never minimize sin, and we can never say, this is just who I am. - Rosaria Butterfield

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Liquid prayers!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Treasury of David")

"The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping." Psalm 6:8

Is there a voice in weeping? Does weeping speak? In what language does it utter its meaning? Why, in that universal tongue which is known and understood in all the earth, and even in Heaven above. When a man weeps, whether he is a Jew or Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free — it has the same meaning in it. Weeping is the eloquence of sorrow. It is an eloquent orator, needing no interpreter — but understood by all.

It is sweet to know that our tears are understood, even when words fail. Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers, and of weeping as a constant dropping of importunate intercession which will surely wear its way right into the very heart of God's mercy, despite the stony difficulties which obstruct the way. My God, I will "weep" when I cannot plead, for You hear the voice of my weeping!

"It is a sight fit for angels to behold, tears as pearls dropping from a penitent eye!" Thomas Watson

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Compel them to come in
Luke 14-23

“You can do the Lord no greater pleasure than to come in. Will you exalt him this day? then come on His call, you want to put the crown on Christ's head? would you make it a "day of the gladness of his heart"? then come in! This, to come in, is the great all inclusive duty: If you do this, you do it all! If you don’t do this, you do nothing! What gain you have worrying and trying to keep His law and neglecting this command to come in? Would you, all at once, be wise, righteous, and holy? then come in to Christ,
You that can do nothing, come to Christ, and so you shall do all, Will you honor God? Will you honor His law? then come to Christ. But if you don’t come to Christ first and foremost, do what you will, you do nothing.”

Thomas Boston

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Remember that how we treat the church is how we treat Jesus, for the church is His body. Therefore, the stakes are high. How dreadful were Christ’s words to Saul in Acts 9:4: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” If you abuse Christ’s body, you abuse Christ. If you neglect Christ’s body, you neglect Christ. On the other hand, what unspeakable joy faithful servants will experience when the King of kings comes with His holy angels, sits upon His throne, calls them by name, recounts their acts of service to His people, and says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:40). Strive therefore to be faithful members of the body of Christ!

Read: https://joelbeeke.org/be-faithful-to-ch ... -his-body/

[KDD]

Years ago at a gathering, I heard a tried and experienced child of God say: “My watch always runs fast”. And when he said that, there was no smile on his face, but I saw tears in his eyes. I have never forgotten that expression. The man who said that is above all strife for a few years already, but those are expressions, which are called foolish in our days, but they are impressed and imprinted, and we must experience them later on in our life, as never before. It is really a similar expression as that of a deceased minister who said: “The devil teaches us to figure, but God teaches His people to follow after.” We continually want to go before. Abraham, the father of all the faithful, also had to learn that; neither did Rebekah understand anything of it at first. When Moses was 40 years old he also rushed matters too much, thinking that his brothers would understand that God was going to deliver them by his hand, but they understood it not. And then having been so hasty, he was sent to Midian, to sit by the sheep for forty years. All his zeal must have been quenched, all his courage sank away. And when it was God’s time he sought all kinds of excuses to be relieved of the task.

Rev. W.C. Lamain

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When Elisabeth Elliot left for a boarding school in Orlando, Florida at age 14, her mother sent her this poem.

AS ANY MOTHER TO THE SAVIOUR

As Thou didst walk the lanes of Galilee,
So, loving Savior, walk with her for me,
For since the years have passed and she is grown,
I cannot follow; she must walk alone.
Be Thou my feet that I have had to stay,
For Thou canst comrade her on every way;
Be Thou my voice when sinful things allure,
Pleading with her to choose those which endure.
Be Thou my hands that would keep hers in mine,
And all things else that mothers must resign.
When she was little, I could walk and guide,
But now I pray that Thou would be at her side.
And as Thy blessed mother folded Thee,
So, loving Savior, fold my girl for me.

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Dagboekstukje

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Reader, you may be sure that Paul was the last man in the world to build his assurance on anything of his own. He could write himself down “chief of sinners” (1 Tim 1:15), had a deep sense of his own guilt and corruption. But then he had a still deeper sense of the length and breadth of Christ’s righteousness imputed to him. He, who would cry, “O wretched man that I am!” (Rom 7:24), had a clear view of the fountain of evil within his heart. But then he had a still clearer view of that other Fountain which removes all sin and uncleanness. He, who thought himself “less than the least of all saints” (Eph 3:8), had a lively and abiding feeling of his own weakness, but he had a still livelier feeling that Christ’s promise, “My sheep shall never perish” (John 10:28), could not be broken. Paul knew, if ever a man did, that he was a poor, frail bark, floating on a stormy ocean. He saw, if any did, the rolling waves and roaring tempest by which he was surrounded. But then he looked away from self to Jesus, and was not afraid. He remembered that anchor within the veil, which is both sure and steadfast; — he remembered the word, and work, and constant intercession of Him that loved him and gave Himself for him. And this it was, and nothing else, that enabled him to say so boldly, “A crown is laid up for me, and the Lord shall give it to me”; and to conclude so surely, “The Lord will preserve me: I shall never be confounded.”

JC Ryle

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1 Father, God, who seest in me
Only sin and Misery,
Turn to thy anointed One,
Look on thy beloved Son;
Him, and then the sinner, see;
Look thro' Jesus' wounds on me.

2 Heavenly Father, Lord of all,
Hear, and show thou hear'st my call;
Bow thine ear, in mercy bow,
Smile on me a sinner now:
Now the stone to flesh convert;
Cast a look, and melt my heart.

3 Lord, I cannot let thee go,
Till a blessing thou bestow;
Hear my Advocate divine,
Lo, to his my suit I join,
Join'd with his, it cannot fail;
Let me now with thee prevail.

4 Turn from me thy glorious eues
To his bloody sacrifice,
To the full atonement made,
To the utmost ransom paid;
And, if mine thro' him thou art,
Speak thy mercy to my heart.

5 Jesus, answer from above;
Is not all thy nature love?
Pity from thine eye let fall;
Bless me, whilst on thee I call;
Am I thine thou Son of God?
Take the purchase of thy blood.

6 Father, see the victim slain,
Offer'd up for guilty man;
Hear his blood's prevailing cry;
Let the bowels then reply:
Then thro' him the sinner see;
Then, in Jesus, look on me.

Charles Wesley

[J.C. Philpot]

The best of all is, God is with us.

Dying (last) words of John Wesley