Guarding the Depost ... our priceless treasure ...

challies.com

"God has given us the gospel in trust. He has deposited it to our account and expects that we will guard this priceless, precious treasure. God has entrusted to us something of infinite worth and unsurpassed beauty. He has not left us to our own devices, but he has provided for us the Holy Spirit, that with his help we may be faithful in guarding the gospel of Jesus Christ. Spiritual discernment allows us to keep the gospel central and allows us to see and guard against error. Spiritual discernment is absolutely crucial to the one who would understand and heed the gospel. Nothing less than the gospel is at stake."

I would ask that whomever you are to please take the time to go to the above link and read Tim Challies excerpt from his book "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment" It has taken my breathe away in that it challenges me to "guard the deposit of the priceless treasure, Jesus Christ, whom my Father in Heaven has chosen for me to receive. As I set here pondering how much I sometimes take for granted "the Deposit" tears well up in my eyes.

Sometimes you read posts and they touch you, sometimes they make you chuckle, sometimes they make you hungry, sometimes they make you angry and sometimes they cut you to the quick. Scripture, the Word of God, does the same thing through the working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who are His. This post is one such read ... read it and ponder over it and ask yourself the question "Am I guarding the Deposit?"

I would highly recommend Tim's book as a must have .... after reading this posting I can only imagine what is written within the rest of the pages from the pen and the heart of one who is a man after God's own heart.

thank you Tim ... you have cut me to the quick for my own good. Forgive me Father ...

Have a Blessed Day in the Lord!

Pam <><

Song's In The Night - This Lord's Day ...

"God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night."

-- Job 35:10

“Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow-the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by-who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless he himself give me the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon him for the music. O thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.” ~~ CH Spurgeon

Lead Us, Heavenly Father, Lead Us

Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us,

Over the world’s tempestuous sea;

Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us,

For we have no help but thee;

Yet possessing every blessing,

If our God our Father be.

Saviour, breathe forgiveness over us,

All our weakness Thou dost know;

Thou didst tread this earth before us,

Thou didst feel its keenest woe;

Lone and dreary, faint and weary,

Through the desert thou didst go.

Spirit of our God descended;

Fill our hearts with heavenly joy;

Love with every passion blending;

Pleasure that can never cloy;

Thus provided, pardoned, guided,

Nothing can our peace destroy,

By James Edmeston -- 1791-1867

Father to Thy holy keeping

Humbly we ourselves resign;

Saviour who has kept our sleeping,

Make our workdays real as thine.

Blessed Spirit, living in us,

Chase the darkness of our night.

Till the perfect Day before us,

Breaks in everlasting Light.

By Henry Edward Bickersteth -- 1825-1906

Have a Blessed Day in the Lord!

Pam <><

from Gram's Composition book ...

Sweet Summer's Gone Away ....

There's a purple tint on the woodland leaves,
And the winds are up all the day.
There's a rustling heard in the yellow sheaves,
And it seems to sadly say

CHORUS --
Sweet Summer
Sweet Summer
Sweet Summer's gone away.
Sweet Summer
Sweet Summer
Sweet Summer's gone away!

In the wrinkled brook no roses peep,
And the bees no longer stay.
And the butterflies have gone to sleep
and the locust trills all day.

On the browning fields the spider spins,
Where the lambs no longer play.
And the cricket now his chirps begins
And the quail is whistling gay.

There are loving arms for baby dear.
Though the skies are chill and gray.
And a cozy home nest all the year
And sweet kisses every day.

taken from Gram's composition book
dated October 1926

O Lord My God, You Are Very Great

Psalm104:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2 covering yourself with light as with a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent.
3 He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
he makes the clouds his chariot;
he rides on the wings of the wind;
4 he makes his messengers winds,
his ministers a flaming fire.

5 He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.

10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
11 they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
15 and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man's heart.

16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

19 He made the moon to mark the seasons; [1]
the sun knows its time for setting.
20 You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21 The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until the evening.

24 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it. [2]

27 These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
28 When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your Spirit, [3] they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.

31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works,
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more!
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!

Have a Blessed Day in the Lord …

Pam <><