July 12^th - 2020

9:30 am --------------------------------------------------------------The Lord of (my) Life – Psalm 71

10:00 am ---------------------------------------------Is My Name Written in Heaven? – Luke 10:20

** NO WEDNESDAY SERVICE THIS WEEK **

Trust and Rest

I once heard someone say, "I am a born worry­wart." This is true of all of us. Whatever failure or sin we have, we were born with it. But since we have been born again in Christ by the grace of God, we have certain qualities and graces we did not have before. One of these graces is TRUST. We TRUST our Heavenly Father as a small child trusts his earthly father. Our Heavenly Father loves us much more than we are capable of loving our children, and He has all power and authority over any demon or danger we may encounter! A natural father does not have such power and is limited in his ability to protect or care for the child of his love. Do you and I not realize that no person, no power, no disease, no death can touch one of His own without His permis­sion? Did not Satan himself say of Job, "God, have you not put a hedge about him, and his house, and all that he has, on every side"? Did not David write, "A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you"? Dear believer, whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever danger you may imagine, TRUST your Father and REST in His arms. "He will not leave you nor forsake you, so that you may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I WILL NOT FEAR." – Henry Mahan

For The Wages Of Sin Is Death -- Romans 6:23

Sin is always very sinful, but in our prosperity we are not so aware of it. The dust of the world fills our eyes that we cannot see it clearly. God frequently uses affliction to teach his children the great evil that is in sin. It shows sin as an evil in itself. It not only brings evil, but is evil. It not only works bitterness, it is bitterness. It has a bitter root as well as bitter fruit. God leads the sinner by affliction to take notice not only of what sin does, but what it is. It is a pure, unmixed evil. The whole being of sin is evil. It has the devil for its author, and death for its end. Not only is it evil in itself, it is evil against God. It departs from God and turns to the world: ‘For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water’ Jer. 2:13. Sin is also a twisted multiplied evil. It is a departure from the fountain of life and glory, and a turning to a broken vessel, which leaks out as fast as it is poured into. There is an exceeding sinfulness in sin since it is an evil against God. God supported Israel with his everlasting arms; he led them, and provided for them, but without a cause, they forsook the Lord. They lacked nothing, but they willfully departed. Affliction is one of God’s tribunals where the sinner is arraigned, convicted, and condemned. Truly in affliction sin is laid open before a man’s eyes in such a way that he is forced to plead guilty. God sits as judge, conscience is witness, sin the indictment, and affliction both evidence and execution. Sooner or later the soul sees sin a greater evil than affliction, and forgetting its affliction, it begins to mourn only for the sin. Sin now lies heavier upon a man than all his sufferings, and he cries as Job cried in the dust: ‘I have sinned. What shall I do? (Job 7:20) --Thomas Case 1598-1682

GOD’S ELECTION (2 Thess. 2:13)

“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”

Knowing something of the wickedness of my own heart; knowing that I would have never come to the Christ of the scripture on my own; knowing that I would have chosen destruction, and loved darkness more than the salvation and light of life with Christ. That makes God’s election to be the sweetest, kindest, most loving thing I have ever heard in my life. -- Gabe Stalnaker

A Vain Claim