Central Grace Church
3596 Franklin Street Rocky Mount, Virginia
Website: www.centralgracechurch.com Email: [email protected]
August 4th 2019
9:30 am -------------------------------------------New Garment, New Wine, Old Wine – Luke 5:33-39
10:00 am -------------------------------------------Confession and Forgiveness of Sins – 1 John 1:5-10
Wednesday: 7:00 pm ------------------------------------------- The Sinner’s Advocate – 1 John 2:1-2
Be Thus Minded – Philippians 3:15-16 (from Henry Mahan’s Bible Commentaries)
v. 15. ‘Let all of us who are spiritually mature (who are taught of God) have this same mind and hold these same convictions:
1. To count all heritage, ceremony, tradition and works of religion as rubbish that we may win Christ and be found in him.
2. To be willing to suffer the loss of all things for a knowledge of Christ.
3. To disclaim perfection in ourselves, but to aim for it.
4. To desire to be found in him, having his righteousness.
5. To desire above all things to be like Christ and press forward in perseverance to attain that incorruptible crown.’
v. 16. Nevertheless, whatever degree of the knowledge of Christ and the truth of the gospel and the light we have received, let us walk therein! As we walk in the light that God gives us, he will give more light.
“Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by thy help I'm come.”
My spiritual growth may be slow, even discouraging. Sometimes I may feel that I am standing still. But I know that God has revealed Christ in me, and I know whom I have believed. I will hold fast to this until he reveals more of himself.
The Jesus Men Do Not Hate – By Todd Nibert
When Christ walked upon this earth, men hated Him. Does not the cross speak loudly of how men hated the Christ? But there is a Jesus men do not hate. It is the Jesus that men believe they can control. The one whose will can be thwarted by our will. The one whom men can accept or reject. The one who cannot save unless we of our own free will allow Him to save us. Nobody hates a Jesus they can control. The problem is - that Jesus is an idol invented by men to take the place of the Lord Jesus Christ that they hate. He is the One who has sovereign control over all. The One over whom men have no control. The Lord Jesus Christ, in whose hand all men are. The One who can accept or reject us. This Jesus men hate because they see no safety in salvation being in His hands. But in reality, the only place of safety is in the hands of the sovereign Christ.
My Groaning!
"Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hid from Thee." Psalm 38:9
The Lord's people are very subject to carnality, darkness, hardness, deadness, barrenness, and lukewarmness. And sometimes there seems to be only just so much life in their souls as to feel these things—and groan under them. Under these feelings, therefore, they cry to the Lord—they cannot bear that carnality and darkness, barrenness and death—which seems to have taken possession of them. They come with these burdens to the throne of grace, beseeching the Lord to revive His work in their hearts. What is implied in the expression, 'my groaning'? Do we not groan under a sense of pain? It is the most natural expression of our feelings when we are under acute suffering. The woman in travail of childbirth—the patient under the keen knife of the surgeon—the man afflicted with some painful internal disease— can only give vent to their distressing feelings by groaning. And is it not so spiritually? When the Lord's people groan, it shows there is some painful sensation experienced within them—and these painful feelings they can only express by groaning aloud before the footstool of mercy! – J.C. Philpot