October 21^st 2018

9:30 am -------------------------------------Lawful, Loving Christians – Romans 13:7-14

10:00 am -----------------Children of Light Looking For The Lord – 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Wednesday: 7:00 pm ---------------------------------How Long O Lord, How Long? – Psalm 13

Look At The Promises – By Richard Sibbes, 1577-1635

A Christian complains he cannot pray. ‘Oh, I am troubled with so many distracting thoughts, and never more than now!’ But has He put into your heart a desire to pray? Then He will hear the desires of His own Spirit in you. ‘We know not what we should pray for as we ought’ (nor how to do anything else as we ought), but the Spirit helps our infirmities with ‘groanings which cannot be uttered’ (Rom. 8:26), which are not hid from God. ‘My groaning is not hid from thee’ (Psa. 38:9).

God can pick sense out of a confused prayer. These desires cry louder in His ears than your sins. Sometimes a Christian has such confused thoughts that he can say nothing but, as a child, cries ‘O Father,’ not able to express what he needs, like Moses at the Red Sea. These stirrings of spirit touch the heart of God and melt Him into compassion towards us, when they come from the Spirit of adoption, and from a striving to be better. ‘Oh, but is it possible,’ thinks the misgiving heart, ‘that so holy a God should accept such a prayer?’ Yes, He will accept that which is His own, and pardon that which is ours. Jonah prayed in the fish’s belly (Jon. 2:1), being burdened with the guilt of sin, yet God heard him. Let not, therefore infirmities discourage us. James takes away this objection (James 5:17). Some might object, ‘If I were as holy as Elijah, then my prayers might be regarded.’ ‘But,’ says he, ‘Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are.’ He had his passions as well as we, or do we think that God heard him because he was without fault? Surely not. But look at the promises: ‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee’ (Psa. 50:15). ‘Ask, and it shall be given you’ (Matt. 7:7) and other like these.

God accepts our prayers, though weak, because we are His own children, and they come from His own Spirit, because they are according to His own will, and because they are offered in Christ’s mediation, and He takes them, and mingles them with His own incense (Rev. 8:3). There is never a holy sigh, never a tear we shed, which is lost. And as every grace increases by exercise of itself, so does the grace of prayer. By prayer we learn to pray. So, likewise, we should take heed of a spirit of discouragement in all other holy duties, since we have so gracious a Saviour.

Pray as we are able, hear as we are able, strive as we are able, do as we are able, according to the measure of grace received. God in Christ will cast a gracious eye upon that which is His own.

It is more profitable and enjoyable to love than to hate, to forgive than to hold a grudge, to smile than to quarrel, to behave kindly than to act ugly. The way of the transgressor is hard, not the way of the believer. -- Henry Mahan

As Becometh The Saints

“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not once be named among you, as becometh saints.” Eph.5:3

Sin is so unbecoming, unseemly in a saint of God. Sin is the reason Christ died! Sin is the reason there is a hell! No sin is acceptable in the life of the believer! And it is even uglier to excuse sin or fail to take responsibility for it. It is equally true we must say with David, “My sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3). There is never a time when that is not the cry of our heart! How thankful we are for the prayer the Lord taught us to pray. “Forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil” (Luke 11:4).

All of these words have to do with sin! -- Todd Nibert

“. . . Make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof” —Romans 13:14