July 8^th 2018

9:30 am---------------------------------------------The Stumblingstone of Truth – Romans 9:22-33

10:00 am -----------------------The Ark (hidden) Among The Flags – Exodus 2 / Hebrews 11:23

An Honest and Pure Heart -- “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart,

and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” -- I Timothy 1:5

Several times when I was growing up and had done something I was not supposed to have done or had failed to do something I was supposed to have done, and was trying to keep it hidden, my mom (whom I often thought was a mind reader!) would remind me of that old adage, “Honesty is always the best policy.” And she was right.

In the kingdom of God, however, honesty is not merely the best policy, honesty is the only policy! There is no place in the kingdom of God for pretense, deceitfulness, or hypocrisy. God gives those whom He saves a new heart (Ezek.36:26), an honest heart (Matt. 5:8; Luke 8:15). Having been given a saving knowledge of God (John 17:2, 3; I John 5:20), the saints know that “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4:12, 13). They are conscious of the fact that their God knows their words before they speak them and their thoughts before they come to mind (Ps. 139:1-4). Who would dare pretend or practice hypocrisy before such a God? God’s people are honest before their God and with each other. They are God-conscious people, and are not moved by the smiles or frowns of the world. They are not trying to impress men, but seeking to please God. And “honesty is the only policy!” -- Maurice Montgomery

God's Perfect Will -- "That good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." -- Romans 12:2

God's will is "perfect". In it, there is no spot, no stain, no weakness, no error, no instability. It is and indeed must necessarily be as perfect as God Himself; for it emanates from Him who is all perfection; and is a discovery of His mind and character. But when God's perfect will sets itself against our flesh, thwarts our dearest hopes, overturns our fondest schemes, we cannot see that it is a perfect will. But rather, are much disposed to fret, murmur, and rebel against it.

God's perfect will may snatch a child from your bosom; strike down a dear husband; tear from your arms a beloved wife; strip you of all your worldly goods; put your feet into a path of suffering; lay you upon a bed of pain and languishing; cast you into hot furnaces or overwhelming floods; make your life almost a burden to yourself!

How can you, under circumstances so trying and distressing as these, acknowledge and submit to God's perfect will; and let it reign and rule in your heart without a murmur of resistance to it? Look back and see how God's perfect will has, in previous instances, reigned supreme in all points, for your good. It has ordered or overruled all circumstances and all events, amid a complication of difficulties in providence and grace. Nothing has happened to your injury; but all things have worked together for your good.

Whatever we have lost, it was better for us that it was taken away. Whatever property, or comfort, or friends, or health, or earthly happiness we have been deprived of, it was better for us to lose, than to retain them.

Was your dear child taken away? It might be to teach you resignation to God's sacred will. Has a dear partner been snatched from your embrace? It was that God might be your better Partner and undying Friend.