Perfect Poverty Alone...

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”--Matthew 9:10-13

The Pharisees RESENTED the healing of those sinners God Himself desired to heal!  The Pharisees proved themselves here to be the sickest of all...dead spiritually and willfully unaware of their own depravity.  

Spurgeon says this: "Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy."  "But when sin is seen and felt, it has received its deathblow and the Lord looks with mercy upon the soul afflicted with it.  Nothing is more deadly than self righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition."

What comfort there is then when a man sees himself as altogether lost and ruined...totally defiled by sin and without hope..it is THIS very state that signifies hope!!  "A thorough sense of sin is one of the earliest works of grace in the heart."  

My God's ways are NOT my ways...so often I become discouraged as the Lord opens the eyes of my heart more and more and I see so much ugliness and pride.  But in Christ, I can rejoice in this very thing...a sign of a very hopeful state!

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!--Romans 11:33

Mercy is welcome news indeed,
To those that guilty stand:
Wretches that feel what help they need,
Will bless the helping hand.

Who rightly would his alms dispose,
Must give them to the poor:
None but the wounded patient knows
That comfort of his cure.

We all have sinned against our God:
Exception none can boast:
But he that feels the heaviest load,
Will prize forgiveness most.

No reckoning can we rightly keep;
For who the sums can know?
Some souls are fifty pieces deep;
And some five hundred owe.

But let our debts be what they may,
However great, or small;
As soon as we have naught to pay,
Our Lord forgives us all.

'Tis perfect poverty alone,
That sets the soul at large;
While we can call one mite our own,
We have no full discharge.

The Christian's duty, exhibited in a series of hymns, 1791

God's Fatherly Pity by Charles Spurgeon

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.--1 John 4:18

Over the past several days I have been meditating on 1 John 4:18 in conjunction with Psalm 103:13  Reading Spurgeon's sermon really helped connect the dots for me and heal my heart with the balm of Christ's love.  Hoping it blesses you as you read. 

Father, 

I confess to holding much fear in my heart...fear that causes pain, torture and loss. Fear that shrinks both my world and my heart and limits Your  love.  Praying that as I confess it and surrender it to You, I can grow and walk in Your love and grace knowing that because You ARE Perfect love...I have no reason to fear anything.  Perfect Love created me. Perfect Love died for me.  Perfect Love dwells with me. Perfect Love lives to make intercession for me. Perfect Love has prepared a place for me.  Perfect love pities me as I journey through this life...Perfect love will receive me in glory.   I have no reason to fear.  

Spurgeon's Sermon #1650 "God's Fatherly Pity"

“As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him." --Psalm 103:13.

In the former part of this Psalm, the Psalmist sang of God’s deeds of love, His gifts, His benefits and His acts of kindness. But here he goes deeper into the Divine motive and, therefore, he finds sweeter incentives to devout gratitude. There is a fullness of consolation in the fact that the heart of God is towards His people. He not only dispenses bless- ings—so does the sun, so do the clouds, so do the fruitful fields—but He takes a warm interest in our welfare and has a feeling towards us of kindly, gentle affection. And that of such intensity that one of the highest forms of earthly love is here used as a figure to set forth the tender mercy of our God towards us. I have always been taught as an axiom in theol- ogy that God has no griefs—that He is “without parts or passions”—I think was the definition. But I have often in- wardly objected to such statements. They seemed to me so inconsistent with the tone and tenor of Scripture, for He ap- pears to take pleasure in His people and to be “grieved” with their ill manners.

Surely, metaphors that are Inspired must have a meaning that is instructive! If the Father’s “heart yearns.” If our Lord and Savior is “moved with compassion.” And if the Holy Spirit is “vexed,” there must be something analogous to what we call emotion, among ourselves, in the acknowledged attributes of the Most High! At least He appears to sympa- thize with us, so that “in all our afflictions He is afflicted,” and He pities us, “as a father pities his children.” “That is speaking after the manner of men,” somebody says. True. And it is exactly the way I do speak. In no other way do I know how to speak! And until I learn to speak after the manner of angels, you must pardon me and accept an apology—not only for my own ignorance of any other tongue than that in which I was born—but also for the incapacity of my hearers to understand any other than human language.

Neither do I know anything, so limited is my intelligence, except after the manner of men. It seems to me that if there is any other manner or means of communicating thoughts and emotions, it must belong to some other being than man. And if it is correct to speak after the manner of men, then be it understood I do speak after that manner, and I am per- fectly satisfied that I am able so to speak the truth as shall give a faithful and adequate impression to your minds. There is a feeling which has a measure of pain in it, familiarly known to us as, “pity.” It is a love which so sympathizes with its objects that, in a manner, it makes itself one with them—and if it should involve suffering, pity shares the pang. If there is any kind of grief in the one that is pitied, he that pities becomes a partaker of that grief.

I believe in a God who can feel. As to Baal and the gods of the heathen, they may be passionless and without emotion, or without anything that is akin to feeling. Not so do I find Jehovah to be described. How did His anger kindle when He gave His people over to the sword and was angry with His inheritance! And how transporting is His love to the daughter of Zion when He rejoices over her with joy! He has a pity, yes, and a sorrow, too, according to this Book. I dismiss, there- fore, the theology of the schoolmen—I am quite satisfied with the Divinity that I find in these Scriptures! Believe it then, dear Friends, with all your hearts, that God has kindly feelings towards them that fear Him, such as a father has towards his children!

This is a Truth of God of which I feel jealous and I do not wish to see it toned down. There is a sentiment abroad that sounds plausible and is accepted by many Christian people, that God puts us to much sorrow, wisely and for our good, while His own heart is unaffected or callous to our suffering because He foresees, according to His own purpose, the good that will come out of it. Some kind of analogy might, in that case, be suggested between our gracious God and a skillful surgeon, who cuts and cuts deeply, when he would remove a cancer from the flesh. Or a physician who administers potent drafts of medicine, which, perhaps, cause excruciating pain. The surgeon would be too intent on the success of his operation, or the physician would watch with too much anxiety, the effect of his prescription on the patient to bestow much thought or sympathy on those present sufferings which he confidently anticipates will effect a permanent cure.

So he calmly looks on, intent upon the result in the future, as he ignores, to some extent, the anguish of the passing hour. But I pray you not to think that it is exactly so with God. Of course, in a higher scale, He has all the wisdom of the physician and He views our afflictions that we now endure in the light of that hereafter when He will heal all our diseases, give unto us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Still, He does not steel His heart to the immediate and the present trouble of His people, but, “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.”

I can understand the surgeon looking at the patient, while causing him acute pain under the operation, with the bravery of a man whose nerves cannot easily be shaken. But the father must leave the room! He cannot bear it. The mother cannot look on—they are carried away with the immediate grief. And so it is with God, albeit that the splendor of His wisdom and His foreknowledge enable Him to see the end as well as the beginning, yet, believe me, like as a father is pitying his children, so the Lord is pitying them that fear Him! For it is in the present tense and carries the idea of con- tinuity—at this very moment He is pitying them that fear Him! Though He knows your trials will work for your good, yet He pities you! Though He knows that there is sin in you, which, perhaps, may require this rough discipline before you are sanctified, yet He pities you!

Though He can hear the music of Heaven—the songs and glees that will ultimately come of your present sighs and grief—yet He still pities those groans and wails of yours, for, “He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.” In all our distresses and present grief, He takes His share. He pities us as a father pities his children. Let us look at the text, then, believing in its meaning and not frittering it away by saying, “That is after the manner of men.” For again, I say, there is no other manner in which we can speak and no other manner in which God, Himself, can speak if He means us to understand Him.

There is, doubtless, some high and vast meaning which, like the covering cherub, stands high over all, but, for all that, I am but a child and cannot reach it. I am content with what I can reach; satisfied with what is obviously the mean- ing of this text, “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.” Hear it, dear Friends, first, for your encouragement, and hear it, next, for your imitation. Hear it that you may be encouraged! God is not unfeelingly afflicting you, but He is pitying you! Hear it that you may be impelled to go into the world with a like pitying eye. If you ever have to say a rough word in fidelity, or are required to utter a stern rebuke, do it after the manner of your heavenly Father, pitying even if you have to blame, and gently delivering the expostulation which it grieves you to have to deliver at all!

I am not, tonight, able to preach to you much by way of set discourse, for I am one of those children, just now, who needs his Father’s pity! I half think He would have bade me go home and not speak to you at all, had it not been that the sight of this assembly stirs my spirit and makes it imperative that when you come together to hear, I should have some- thing to say to you—therefore, as best I can, I shall simply call attention to some things in our condition and our cir- cumstances which make us resemble children towards whom God has pity. Will you please observe, on the outset, that the pity of the Lord extends to all those that fear Him. There are none of them that are not fit objects of His compassion— the very best and brightest of His saints, the brave heroes, the well-instructed fathers, the diligent workers—God pities you, my dear Brothers and Sisters! Will you take that home to yourselves because there is a beautiful lesson of humility in so accounting ourselves as pitiable creatures in the eyes of the Lord—even when we are at our best estate.

I have seen some Brothers and Sisters that really did not seem at all good subjects for pity because they imagined that the very roots of sin had been eradicated out of their hearts. Their character and their conduct were akin to perfection in their own esteem. I forget how many weeks they had lived without a sin except they had some wandering thoughts, once or twice—but they could hardly remember or refer to that as a fault! Yes, but I venture to say I pity people that talk so! If they are God’s children, all that God does with them is pity them and well He may, for He says to Himself, “Poor dear creatures! How little they know of themselves and how different their estimate of perfection is from Mine!” He still pities them, but that is as far that He goes. I do not find Him admiring them or exalting and extolling them. The biggest child He has, the child that is most like His Father and has learned most of Jesus, may come to this text and see himself depicted in it, “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.” 

As for us who are not so big and are still among His little children, I am sure the Lord, first, pities our childish igno- rance. He is not angry with us because we do not know everything. He is not angry with us because the little we do know we mostly turn topsy-turvy, upside down. He is not angry with us because what He has taught us we are very apt to for- get by reason of our fickle memory. No—He pities us! Schoolmasters of the olden type used to think that the boys must do all the lessons that were given them and learn everything that was contained in their school books. Then they asked them questions which, if the pupils could answer, there would be no need for any teachers. But if the boys did not know the answers, there was nothing for them but a fierce word and a hard blow!

That is not how fathers teach—true fathers—but when their children do not know, they tell them. If they cannot quite understand them, they watch their faces and they put the thing into another shape. And if the child has not got it then, they try again and, at last, they find the keyhole of the child’s understanding and put the key in! And straightway the mind is opened and the truth, like a precious treasure, is stowed therein! A father does not act like a schoolmaster, but he pities his children and he is willing, patiently, to teach them. Does the father expect his child to know as much as himself? Does the politician expect the little boy to understand the secrets of the Cabinet? Does the tradesman expect his child to come into his shop and perceive the intricacies of his business? Certainly not!

And when the child makes many mistakes, at which others laugh and mock and make some bitter jest till the tears rise in his tender eyes and roll down his little cheeks, the father feels the affront and pities his child. He, too, smiles at the strange things—the freaks of the child’s mind—yet there is not an atom of scorn in that smile! He loves him too much to ever think of him in that way and he goes on to teach him more. “Why did you tell your child that piece of information 20 times?” asks one. “Why,” said the mother, “I told him 20 times because when I had told him 19 times he did not know it—so I went on to 20 times.” And that is how God does with us! He has taught, some of us, 19 times and we do not know it—so He will teach us 20 times, for He pities us.

Oh, if He were to treat us as some lads have been treated at schools—where they dismiss a boy as incorrigible, too dull, too stupid ever to shine—some of us would have been turned away long ago! But He takes us, dull scholars as we are, and He tires not of teaching, as He gently insinuates one Truth after another—not too much at a time—for He says, “You cannot bear them now, though I have many things to say unto you.” And so by degrees He does get a little into us. Blessed be His name for that little! It is worth all the world! One thing 1 know, whereas I was blind, now I see! I have got that drilled into me. To know Him and to know something of the power of His Resurrection, and something of confor- mity to His death—these are lessons we are going on to learn with a sweet prospect of being taught yet more and more! And we need never fear of being dismissed because of our dullness, for, “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.”

Let us take a word of admonition from this instance of pity before we go any further. Do not let us think that we have not the privileges of children because we do not know as much as more experienced saints, or because we cannot en- gage in the devotion at Prayer Meetings, or conduct a Bible class, or, perhaps, can hardly understand the creed of the Church well enough to give a clear account of it! Do not let us think our heavenly Father does not love us; that He will refrain from keeping His eyes upon us, or cease to watch our growth in Grace and in the knowledge of Christ until He shall have more fully instructed us. Do not let us begin to condemn those of God’s children that do not know as much as we do. We have not got far ourselves.

Still, there is a tendency in some to say, “Why, this cannot be genuine Grace, for it is accompanied with such little knowledge.” Well, now, if that suspicion shall lead you to give more instruction, it is well! But if it shall lead you to set aside the uninstructed one, it is evil. In the Church of God it behooves us to have the same pity on the ignorant as our heavenly Father has shown towards us in our ignorance—and we ought to have even more, seeing He has no ignorance of His own and we have much! Let us, therefore, be very compassionate and exceedingly pitiful towards those of our Broth- ers and Sisters who as yet know but little.

Another thing in which our heavenly Father shows Himself pitiful to us is in our weakness. Children cannot do much; they have but little strength, especially little children too young, too helpless to run alone. The mother does not despise—she rather dotes on the babe whose little body is a burden she has to carry because it cannot walk. Her heart is not hardened against her infant because the wee baby is unable to help itself! Our heavenly Father knows our weaknesses! Some of you know something of your own lack of strength. You are bowed down under a sense of your infirmity tonight. 

Now, do not let your weakness lead you into any unbelief or mistrust of God. He knows our frame—He remembers that we are but dust. An infant’s incapacity never excites a parent’s ire. You, being evil, know how to be tender with your offspring—how much more shall the Father of Spirits sympathize with such weakness as He knows we are all prone to experience!

Possibly the weakness that distracts you comes from languor of body. I have been, sometimes, so sorely sick as scarcely able to pray, that is to say, not to express my desires in a consecutive prayer. And I remember one who said to me, “I appeal to you, as a father, were your child suffering from a fever, his mind wandering and his speech delirious, would you reproach him because he did not address you just as he has been accustomed to do when he was in health?” I felt I should have rather commiserated his sickness than complained of his frenzy. Neither will our heavenly Father devi- ate from the instincts that He has implanted in the nature of His creatures! He has revealed to us as an illustration of His own emotions toward those that fear Him!

If you who have been accustomed to guide your class in their studies, cannot find anything instructive to teach them. Or if you are a minister and it should seem to you that the tide runs out when you looked for your thoughts to flow freely—and that the words fall frozen when you hoped they would fire volleys from your lips—there may be some ra- tional solution for your languor. If there is any wrong in your heart or in your habits, you may well blame yourselves! But if it is pure weakness—whether it comes from the body or from the mind that you are weary, disorganized, depressed and bowed down—do not think of aggravating your distress by self-reproach, but hear the text say, “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”

Some of our Brethren seem to think we are made of cast iron. They would have us preach all day and all night long. At times they are so thoughtless as to make use of very bitter language when some servant of Christ cannot, through physical or mental weakness, do all they want of him. “So-and-So does it,” they say. A man in perfect health and strength may joyfully accomplish what another man cannot even think of undertaking. So are God’s servants misjudged by the sterner sort. But they are not misjudged by God, for He pities the weakness of His people and blames them not! I wish I could speak a word that would be encouraging to any here that would go about Christ’s service if they could, but cannot.

I remember John Bunyan’s little picture of the man that is sent for the doctor and he has to go on a horse. He has to go as quickly as he can, but the horse is a sorry jade and cannot go very fast. “Oh,” he says, “look at the man, how he kicks, how he tugs at the bridle and his Master knows he would go if the horse would only carry him.” Under such cir- cumstances the messenger could not, surely, be to blame! So sometimes God sees the efforts of His servants to work for Him. Why, they would drive the Church before them and pull the world behind them if they could! And if they do not seem to be able to do it, does He blame them? No, verily, but He pities the weakness of them that fear Him! We will go a step further now. In children there is something much worse than ignorance and weakness—and that is their childish follies. There are some persons who have a great affection for children and find great pleasure in being with them by the days together.

I confess I find a larger portion of pleasure when they are out of the way. Perhaps it is because I need quiet and still- ness that I am better able to bear with them a little at a time. But there are persons who seem to take a delight in all their childish pranks and game, and all their romps and frolic. Well, that is good, and I hope you will have plenty of it, you that like it. But the father is the one who can bear with his children when other people cannot. I have occasionally been in houses where I have felt that I was glad the father could bear with them, for I did not feel inclined to be very patient with their play, myself, however proper I may think it for young people to be lively! And you know a father and mother will put up with a thousand little things in their children that strangers would frown at.

Those dear, kind mothers, with a little tribe about them—they do not seem wearied and worn out! And if anybody says, “Oh, look what he is doing.” “Ah, well,” says the mother, “he is only a boy.” “Oh, but see that girl.” “Oh, well, she is so young, she must have her little frolics.” There are all sorts of excuses made on their behalf and it is right enough that it should be so. It is not weakness in the child, it is just childishness. And when we were children, we did the same, and others bore with us—and so parents bear with their children. But oh, how God our Father bears with us! We think we are very wise—it is highly probable that we are never such fools as when we think we are displaying our wisdom! We think we are pleasing God, sometimes, and in that very act we are displeasing Him, though we know it not! There are sins in our holy things—oh, how strange must some of the things that we do seem to our great God! We have gotten so accustomed to them! We have seen them in others. We have come to put up with them in others and others put up with them in us!

Now, we who talk, sometimes, about our doubts and fears, why, there must be much in them that must be very de- pressing to the mind of the great Father. Do we doubt Him? Do we distrust His promises? We try to make out that we do not, but if you sift it thoroughly, it does come to that! Oh, the Father knows that we do not mean it; that we shrink in a moment from the idea of making Him to be a liar! And if anybody else were to put forward the very doubt which we have been entertaining, we should be horrified with it! And I believe it is a great part of our heavenly Father’s pity that He should thus look on us and often construe what we do in such a kind and tender way. You know how Jesus prayed for His murderers—“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And the Son is very like the Father—our Father does the same with us—He forgives us because we “know not what we do.”
It was very beautiful of our Lord, even with Pilate, to say, “He that delivered Me unto you has the greater sin.” It was the best He could say for Pilate, that though his sin was great, yet there was a greater. And our Father has all those kind thoughts ready, we may be sure, for His children’s wild and wayward deeds. Jesus had them ready, even, for His most fierce and wicked adversaries. Yes, He pities our follies and still bears with us! But children have something worse than follies—they have faults to be forgiven. Now, our Father pities the faults of His children and He shows His pity by this fact—that He has provided for their cleansing and He freely gives them the use of that provision—and readily for- gives them their iniquities.

A good child, when it has done wrong, is never satisfied until it gets to the father and says so, and asks the father’s forgiveness. Some fathers, perhaps, think it wise to withhold the forgiving word for a little time and so may our great Father. But as a rule is it not wonderful how readily He forgives? He does, for a little time, perhaps, make us smart under the sin, for our good, but it is not often. As a rule, the kiss is on our cheek almost before the confession has left our lips! Oh, have we not gone to Him and we have thought, “He will chasten me for this. I may expect to be put in the dark and to be without communion with Him for many days.” But we have just ingenuously opened up our heart and told Him that we grieved—and asked Him to make us even more grieved that we might hate the fault—and never fall into it again. And almost at once He has said, “I have blotted out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities; go and sin no more.”

Do you not think that Peter ought to have been thrown out of the Church a good long while after denying his Mas- ter with oaths and cursing? Well, perhaps he would have if we had been consulted in the matter, but when Jesus Christ was here on earth, by a kind look or a gentle word He could set very crooked things straight! So we see Peter in company with John and the rest of the Brothers within two or three days of his committing that serious trespass. The Lord is very ready to forgive—it is the Church that is unmerciful, sometimes, but not the Master—He is always willing to receive us when we come to Him and to blot out our transgression. Come along, then, you that have erred and gone astray, you backsliders that are sensible of sin—you, His children that did walk in the light but a few days ago, and have got into the dark by some sad slip—come along!

You are very ready to forgive your children, are you not? Do you not remember, you that are too old to have them about the house, how readily, in your younger days, you picked up your little ones in your arms and said—“Dear Child, do not cry any more, you must not do it again, but father fully forgives you this time”? Just so does your heavenly Father wait to pick you up and to press you to His bosom and say, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Not, “with a love that can soon be set aside by your fault.” “I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore, I will blot out, again, your transgression—and set your feet on a rock and strengthen you to sin no more.” Oh, it is a sweet, sweet thought— our Father pities us in our faults!

Go a step further. A father’s pity tenderly lifts up those that fall. When your child falls down, as children are very apt to do, especially when they first begin to walk, do you not pity them? Is there a nasty cut across the knee? It cries and the mother takes it up in her arms, directly. And look, she has some sponge and water to take the grit out of the wound! And she gives a kiss and makes it well. I know mothers have wondrous healing lips! And sometimes, when God’s servants do really fall, it is very lamentable. It is very sad and it is well that they should cry. It were a pity that they should be will- ing to lie in the mire! But when they are up again and begin crying, and the wound bleeds—well, let them not keep away rom God, “For as a father pities his fallen children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him.” Have you come in here to- night with that cut knee of yours? I am sorry you should have fallen, but I am glad that our blessed Master is still willing to receive you! Come and trust in Him who is mighty to save, just as you did at first, and begin, again, tonight! Come along! Some of us have had many times to begin again. Do the same! If you are not a saint, you are a sinner—and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Put your trust in Him and you shall find restoration and, maybe, through that very fall you shall learn to be more careful—and from now on you shall walk more uprightly to His honor and Glory!

But how the pity of a father comes out to a child in the matter of pain! With what exquisite tenderness a child’s pains are soothed by a parent! It is very hard to stand by the bedside and see a dear child suffer. Have not some of you felt that you would gladly take your children’s pains if they might be restored? You have one dear one at home now, the tears are in your eyes as I mention it—a life of suffering she has. Well, it may be others of you have children who have mental troubles—the body is healthy, but the little one has a fret and a worry. I hope you sometimes have seen your children weeping on account of sin—it is a blessed grief, and the sooner it comes, the better. In such a grief as that, as, indeed, in all others, I am quite sure you pity your children. So does your Father pity you! Broken heart, God’s heart is longing to heal you! Weeping, weeping for your transgressions, the Father longs to clasp you to His bosom.

Tried child of God, you that are often despondent and always ailing, God would not send this to you if there were not a necessity for it! And in sending it, He shares it as far as this text goes—and it goes blessedly far, for He pities you! Sometimes hard-hearted persons do not pity those that suffer and some forms of suffering do not awaken sympathy. But all the sufferings of God’s people touch the heart of Jesus and sympathy comes to them at once. I know some of you say, “I am quite alone in the world and I have much sorrow.” Please revise that hard saying! You are like your Master, of whom it is written that He said, “You shall leave Me alone: yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” Your Father is with you!

I wish you had some Christian friend to speak with you as a companion, but in the absence of such a social confidant, there is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother! And there is One above who is a Father to you. Oh, believe it, there is no poverty, there is no reproach, there is no sorrow of heart, there is no pain of body in this world among them that fear God, but what the Lord sees it and knows all about it, and has a pity to them that endure it! Still passing on, our chil- dren have our pity when anybody has wronged them. I have heard say that there are some men that you might insult, al- most with impunity, and should you even give them a blow they would stop to ask the reason before showing any resent- ment. But, if you put a hand on their children, you shall see the father’s blood come up into his face and the most patient man will, all of a sudden, become the most passionate!
There was a livid blue mark where you struck the child and the father looks as though he could forgive you if that were on his own body—but on his child? No, that he cannot endure! He turns it over and over and he cannot resist his indignation, that his child should be wantonly made to suffer! The wrongs of children call loudly for redress in the ears of every sensitive man or woman, but they are sure to awake a thrilling echo in a father’s heart. “And shall not God re- venge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him?” I tell you that He will avenge them speedily, though He bears long with the adversary.

That cry of Milton’s—when he prayed God to avenge God’s elect among the valleys of Piedmont for all the accursed persecutions of the Church of Rome—was certainly heard and answered! Look at Spain to this day—degraded among the nations because she was chief in the army of inquisitors and crushed out the Word of God from her midst. She cannot rise, the blood of saints is on her! And other nations, too, that have shed the blood of the righteous like water, have had to smart for it. That revolution in France, when blood flowed at the guillotine, was God’s reply to St. Bartholomew, for He remembered it and took vengeance for His saints! And so He will till the end of the world shall come! There is no wrong done to His people but it is registered in God’s archives. “He that touches you touches the apple of My eye.” Christ seemed to sit still in Heaven till He saw the blood of His saints shed. And then He stood up as in indignation when they stoned Stephen. You remember how He cries, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” It was Jesus that suffered, though His saints were made to die. Leave, then, your wrongs with God. “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord,” and let your reply be always gentleness and kindness towards those who hate you for righteousness’ sake. 

And now, once more, the father will pity his children so as not only to set right their wrongs, but to remove his chil- dren’s dreads. There are some people in the world that seem to take delight in frightening children with old bogey stories so that they hardly dare go out at night. But a kind father, if he finds his child frightened so, explains it all to him—he does not like to see him blanched with fear or haunted with terror. It may be that some here present are suffering, just now, because they are sorely afraid. Are any of you under a dread of some boding evil, as though the dark shadow of a calamity you cannot define were flitting before your eyes? Be sure of this—your heavenly Father pities you!
There are some of our hymns that always speak of death as associated with pains and groans and agonizing strife. Very much of that is old bogey—

“Imagination’s fool and error’s wretch,
Man makes a death which Nature never made! Then on the point of his own fancy falls,
And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one.”

How many of God’s people have we seen die without pains or groans or dying strife! I remember one who used to be, all her life, subject to fear of death. She retired as usual to bed one night and when they went to call her in the morning, there she lay with a sweet smile upon her face—she had gone to Heaven in her sleep—it was evident she never knew any- thing at all about it. Are God’s people, by their observation of other saints, driven to conclude that death is always the terrible thing the world says it is? I think not!

There may be some whom God puts to bed in the dark, as we sometimes do our children, but usually He takes the candle with Him and sits and talks with His child till he falls asleep. And when he wakes up, there he is among the angels! God kisses the souls of His saints out of the bodies—

“One gentle sigh, the fetter breaks— We scarcely can say, ‘they’re gone!’ Before the ransomed spirit takes Her mansion near the Throne.”

Go to your heavenly Father and tell Him you are frightened and He has ways of taking away these fears, for though they may be ridiculous to some, a child’s dreads are never too frivolous for the sympathy of a loving father! He meets them as if there were some great reality in them and so sets them aside. Whatever your needs, your woes, your griefs, fly away to your great Father’s Mercy Seat and spread them there and He will give you comfort! Believe, from this night forward, that God pities all them that fear Him and whatever He sees of weakness in their nature and of sorrow in their lot He will help them. So may you find it now and evermore, for Christ’s sake. Amen. 

Desiring Truth in the Inward Part...

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.--Psalm 51:5-6

Prayer to My Father in Heaven---

"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?  It cannot be done." --Job 14:4

 I am made, Father, in the likeness of sinful, fallen man. For by one man's offense death has reigned but by one Man's obedience the free gift of righteousness and eternal life came to all men.   I was born in sin...You sent Your Son to die so I could be born again in the Spirit.  I rejoice, Father, in the gift of Your Son.

I walked in times past according to the lusts of my flesh..fulfilling its desires and was by nature a child of wrath.  But You, O God, You who are rich in mercy and who love me with so great a love even when I was dead in my trespasses and sins....You have quickened me and made me alive by Your grace.  I am bound for heaven!  Not because of anything I did but because of what You did at the cross at Calvary.  I am your workmanship.  I have nothing to boast about.  Whatever I am that is good is from You.  Whatever I do that is good comes from You.

You, Father, do no see me as man sees me.  Man looks at the outward...but You look at my heart.  You desire in me the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.  This is what is great and precious in Your sight. This is what pleases You.

Examine me Father, try my innermost heart and soul.  These are the seat of all my desires and affections.  Try me and test me in the night seasons.    You give understanding to my heart...You make me to know wisdom.  You write Your law upon my heart.  Father, I want to worship You in Spirit and in truth.  I want nothing false in my life.  You God, are the God who sees.  Search me and know my heart.  Lead me in the way of righteousness...keep my feet from slipping and set me in a broad place.

I want to seek You with all of my heart.  I desire to please You, Father.  I pray that as I seek You and You search my heart that I will receive Your correction and my heart will be enlarged with Your goodness and grace.  My desire is to draw near to You....to humble myself before You and allow You to lift me up.

Edges of His Ways...

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.--Psalm 139:6

Many, O Lord, my God, are Your wonderful works.  Your thoughts toward me are precious and great is the sum of them.  More in number than the sand.  I am never forgotten...Whether I wake or sleep I am always with You.  Even when I made my bed in the depths of hell...you were there.  You are my infinite God!   I cannot search out the depths of You, nor can I find Your limits.  Your measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.  You do as You please...No one can hinder You. You gather the wind in Your fists and bind up the waters in a garment and establish the very ends of the earth.  How little a portion of You do I understand!!   I am as a beast before You.   I see only the edges of Your ways and hear but a small whisper of Your power.  O the depths of the riches of both Your wisdom and knowledge.  How unsearchable are Your judgments and Your ways past finding out. 

Forgive me, Father, when I arrogantly talk of things which I understand not.  You are the God of knowledge and by You actions are weighed.  Before You formed me, You knew me and ordained all of my days.   You made Your goodness and mercy to follow me and overruled all in my life for my good and Your glory.   I was your treasure....ME!!!   You loved me with an everlasting love even when I was yet Your enemy.  I am a woman who has been forgiven much...Help me, Father, to love much!   You possessed and guarded my heart even before my eyes saw the light of day.  You granted me life and favor and Your care has preserved my spirit.   Truly, I am but a child before you, without understanding. 

I will not be afraid then, for You are with me....You have hedged me behind and before.  You take my hand in Yours and Your truth sets me free.  You even make my darkness light about me and in the multitude of my thoughts within,Your comforts delight my soul.  I want to know Your love, Father, which passes knowledge...I want to  know Your fullness in the depths of my soul!!   How wonderful is Your lovingkindness, O God!  Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.  I will be satisfied with the fatness of Your house and I will drink of the rivers of Your pleasures.  With You is a fountain of life and in Your light, I see light.  

Worry - The Short of It

Which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life's span?--Matthew 6:27

"You can worry yourself to death, but not to life."

Someone has said "Worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind, which, if encouraged, will cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drained out."

Worry cripples our thinking and can shorten our life.  Worry is not from faith and therefore it is sin.  It is distrusting God...His promises and His providence. 

The answer:  Fill your heart and your life with Him.  

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.--Proverbs 14:27 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.  For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you.--Proverbs 9:10-11  

Jesus came to give us abundant life...His truth sets you free. 

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.--John 10:10

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”--John 8:31-32

Philippians 4:4-6

1 Peter 5:7

First in My Heart...Thou and Thou Only....My Treasure Thou Art

Father,

Give me a single minded devotion of heart to You.  Help me to put away any double-minded thinking and see life and whatever circumstances or people it brings, through Your eyes of love, mercy and grace.   Help me to trust You and You alone.  You have hedged me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me.  You...the Eternal God...are my refuge and underneath are Your everlasting arms.  You will thrust out the enemy before me and shall say, destroy!   I want Your wisdom!  I seek Your counsel, Your knowledge and Your instruction!  Make my crooked places straight and make it my delight to know and walk in Your ways.  You know the way I take and when you have tested me,  I shall come forth as gold.  Blessed is every one who who fears You and walks in Your ways.  

Help me to surrender my fear of loss and time passing to you...trusting each moment to You...knowing You will restore to me the years that the swarming locusts ate.  Help me to live always in the present... surrendering to You and doing what you would have me do in the moment...for the moment is what You have given me...the moment is the window to eternity.  

Charm is deceitful and beauty passing but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.  Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates.  Let You be my one desire, Father...let my heart be united with You in Your Son.   I want to be a fruitful vine in the heart of this house...give me energy to do those things that are important and especially those that have eternal consequences.  May my children walk in Your truth desiring to love and serve You all of their days.

Help me to walk by faith...to be like that cloud of witness from Hebrews 11.  May I esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of this world....looking always to the reward...to that which is eternal in the heavens.  By faith help me to see the invisible,  to knock down the walls of fear that at times envelop me.  Make me valiant in battle, Father, and out of weakness, make me strong in You.  AND most especially, Father...bring those I love that do not know You, to life in You.  

Therefore I do not and will not lose heart.  Even though my outward man is perishing, yet my inward man is being renewed day by day.  For my light affliction is but for a moment and is working for me a far more exceeding weight of glory. 

On thee each moment I depend.  If thou withdraw, I die.  O may I ne'er that God offend who is forever nigh. --Isaac Watts

May I pause today long enough to marvel at the glory of my ever present God. 

WHATEVER !!!

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.--1 Corinthians 10:31

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.--Colossians 3:17

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.--Colossians 3:23-24

Father, 

That is what I want!  I want that kind of heart and that kind of mindset!  Whatever comes my way...whatever situation befalls me...let me see it through your eyes...through the lens of the eternal!  WHATEVER IT MAY BE!!---Let my first thought be of You.  Let me relate all that touches my life to You....considering your precepts in light of my own words and actions.  I want my heart to care about the things that You care about.  I don't want my life to consist in the abundance of what I possess...may I instead lay up treasure in Heaven.   Allow me Father, to do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit but help me to esteem others better than myself.  May my habitual aim in all that I do and say be to your glory always. 

ENVELOPED...

O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.--Psalm 139: 1-3

O Lord, You have searched me and known me!  YOU are intimately acquainted with MY ways!! You, my God, know all about me...every aspect.  There never was a time when I was not known to You...I am and have never been beyond Your observation and care.  You are intimately connected to me.  Contemplating that  thought hurts my brain...it boggles my mind.  Who am I that You are mindful of me???  Nevertheless, You are.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain it.

You never forget me...I am inscribed in the palms of your hands.  My tears you have placed in a bottle and all my days are written in Your book.   You see all my ways and know all my thoughts.  You bring to light all my hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsel and imaginations of my heart.  Nothing is concealed from You.  Nothing is accidental.  You are never surprised!  You make me to inherit the iniquities of my youth and place my feet in the stocks.  You watch closely all my paths and set a limit for the soles of my feet.  My days are numbered and my boundaries appointed.  You are my Keeper...my shade at my right hand.  You preserve me from evil and protect both my going out and my coming in.  You, Father, are with me, and will keep me in all places wherever I go...

I am encircled within your very Being.  In fact, it is in You that I live and move and have my being.  Whether I sleep or wake I am with You.  There is no where I can flee from You.  Even if I make my bed in the depths of hell,  You are there.   I sleep and You are outside of my awareness, but You who keep me do not slumber nor sleep...You are always aware!!!  I am watched over ....Your love and grace envelops me. 

Because of all this, Father, I stand in awe!!  I tremble before this kind of knowledge.  What hope this brings my heart.  You know me completely and yet you love me!  And not only love me....You died for me when I was unloveable and still your enemy.  Even now You live to make intercession for me.  I stand with courage because You, my God, encompass me.  Nothing can happen to me outside of Your awareness and providential care.  I stand with joy because this life is temporary and You my God are mindful of me and will see me through!

What a Mother Is...by Rebecca

"What A Mother Is"

She's the one who brings you into the world;

She the one who spends her life on yours.

Her arms once held you, a baby curled,

And though you grow, you she always adores

She's a comforting hand, a loving heart;

She teaches you the good, the right the true.

When being a mother becomes my part, 

I hope, Mom, that I'll be as good as you.  

Happy Birthday.

Love,

Rebecca

ALWAYS BEFORE HIM...

I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices.  My flesh also will rest in hope.--Psalm16:8-9

To My Beautiful Daughters in Him,

These two verses are so beautiful and instructive.  My God tells me in Psalm 139 that He knows everything about me.  My rising up, my sitting down, my path, my words, my ways...and even my thought afar off. My God knows it all.  He created me...He hedges me behind and before and has laid His hand upon me.  I am never alone...I am always with Him.  He never leaves me nor forsakes me.  Are you getting where I am headed. I AM ALWAYS BEFORE HIM.  He has inscribed me on the palms of His hands.  My "walls" are continually before Him!

Because of this...Because of the great love He has for me...Because I am continually before Him and His thoughts toward me are precious and cannot be counted, I WANT TO SET HIM BEFORE ME ALWAYS. I want my heart and my mind so saturated with my God that my every waking moment is interpreted and referenced in His light.   Look at the reward...therefore my heart is glad, my glory rejoices and my flesh can rest in hope!  Setting Him before me will bring me great joy and peace. Why?  Because instead of seeing all that happens to me through the filter of "Jean" and how it affects "Jean" I see it through the lenses of my God.  My view is now filtered through the divine.  My heart and mind are now in the heavenlies focuses on those things that are above and eternal...the things that you know...last.  I will then react differently to each and every situation I face because I will not be looking at it in my flesh but in my spirit.  I can then handle whatever this life may throw at me because it is not about me...it is not mine to handle...it is God's.  My life is not about me...what happens to me is not about me...it is ALWAYS about Him.  I died and my life has been hidden with Christ in God.  I live for Him...I live to do His will and glorify Him.  To put it practically when someone hurts "my" feelings...it is not me they are hurting then it is Christ. My reaction will be to see it only as an opportunity to glorify my God. The me, myself and I...the trinity of stupidity...as Pastor Lloyd Pulley calls it, has been removed from the equation and oh what peace that brings.  My heart can rejoice and be glad...My God is in charge and control.  His will for me is from His heart of love.  I am His beloved...I am always before Him.  He cares for me.  Come magnify the Lord with me!  

I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

I sought the Lord, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.

Psalm 34:1-5