Central Grace Church

3596 Franklin Street Rocky Mount, Virginia

Website: www.centralgracechurch.com Email: [email protected]

January 5^th . 2020

9:30 am -------------------------------------------------- Perfect Love – 1 John 4:13-21

10:00 am --------------------------------A Sower, the Seed, the Fruit – Luke 8:4-15

Wednesday: 7:00 pm -------- Unto the Churches, part 4, Thyatira – Revelation 2:18-29

 Birthdays, Cleaning Schedule and Nursery Schedules are posted on the bulletin board. Please check them regularly.

 Listen to live audio of services on: www.mixlr.com/centralgracechurch

 Listen to: WYTI Radio – Rocky Mount, VA - 8:00 AM – Sundays -- 1570 AM / 104.5 FM,

God's Perfect Will – by J.C. Philpot

"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.

Was any portion of your worldly substance taken away? It was that you might be taught to live a life of faith in the providence of God. Have your fondest schemes been marred; your youthful hopes blighted; and you pierced in the warmest affections of your heart?

It was to remove an idol, to dethrone a rival to Christ, to crucify the object of earthly love, so that a purer, holier, and more enduring affection might be enshrined in its stead. To tenderly embrace God's perfect will is the grand object of all gospel discipline.

The ultimatum of gospel obedience is to lie passive in His hand, and know no will but His . . . “That good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

Some Thoughts on Suffering Slander-- C.H. Spurgeon

It is a fine thing, when you are slandered, not to hear it. And it is a better thing to never reply to it. I have always tried to possess one deaf ear and one blind eye; and I believe that the deaf ear is the better ear and the blind eye by far the more useful of the two. Do not remember the injury that is done to you; try to forget it and pass it over. Do not go about the world determined to grasp every red-hot iron that any fool holds out before you. Let it alone! It will be for your own good and for God's glory to be very patient under the slander of the wicked.

Leave your character with God; it is safe there. Men may throw mud at it, but it will never stick long on a true believer; it shall soon come off and you shall be the more glorious for men's slander.

All the dirt that falls upon a good man will brush off when it is dry; but let him wait until it is dry and not dirty his hands with wet mud. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils."

There may be an evil spirit in yonder bottle, but nobody will get drunk on it if you keep the cork in! So there may be evil thoughts in your hearts, but they will not injure other people if you do not, as it were, draw the cork by uttering them! It is always well to think twice before you speak once.

"For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is accepted with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guilt found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously," 1 Peter 2:20-23