You are my lamp, O Lord ...

"While we were lying in our blood, filthily polluted,

defiled, he passed by, and he said in the sovereignty

of his love, "Live!" and we do live. The whole must

be traced to sovereign grace! From this sacred well

of discriminating distinguishing grace we must

draw water this morning, and we must pour it

out, saying, "Oh Lord, I will praise your name,

for the first origin of my light was your sovereign

purpose, and nothing in me."

from Spurgeon's sermon: "Light, Natural and Spiritual"

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 <><

Election - Think About It ....

The motive for the salvation of the human race is to be found
in the breast of God, and not in the character or condition of man.

Two races have revolted against God-the one angelic, the other human.

When a part of this angelic race revolted against the Most High,
justice speedily overtook them; they were swept from their
starry seats in heaven, and henceforth they have been reserved
in darkness unto the great day of the wrath of God.

No mercy was ever presented to them, no sacrifice ever offered
for them; but they were without hope and mercy, forever consigned
to the pit of eternal torment.

The human race, far inferior in order of intelligence, sinned
as atrociously.

However, the God who in His infinite justice passed over angels,
and forced them forever to expiate their offences in the fires of hell,
was pleased to look down on man.

Here was election on a grand scale-- the election of manhood,
and the reprobation of fallen angelhood!

Had you and I been put upon the choice of which should have
been spared, I do think it probable we should have chosen that
fallen angels should have been saved. Are they not the brightest?
Have they not the greatest mental strength? If they had been
redeemed, would it not have glorified God more, as we judge,
than the salvation of worms like ourselves?

Those bright beings- Lucifer, son of the morning, and those
stars that walked in his train- if they had been washed in His
redeeming blood, if they had been saved by sovereign mercy,
what a song would they have lifted up to the Most High and everlasting God!

But God, who does as He wills with His own, and gives no account
of His matters, but who deals with His creatures as the potter deals
with his clay, took not upon Him the nature of angels, but took upon
Him the seed of Abraham, and chose 'sinful men' to be the vessels of His mercy.

God sees us-- abandoned, evil, wicked, and deserving His wrath;
if He saves us, it is His boundless, fathomless love that leads Him
to do it- nothing whatever in us.

- C.H. Spurgeon

Psalm 65:4 NKJV --

4 Blessed is the man You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Of Your holy temple.

Pastor Brown preached on this verse Sunday and the Spurgeon quotes
I remembered came back to me. When you read this Psalm how can
you think otherwise? How in your audacity can you stand before a
Holy, Wholly God and tell Him ... "I chose You!" ?? ((When you will
be on your face praising and thanking Him for choosing you.)) Read
it again ... Blessed is the man You (LORD God Almighty!) CHOOSE,
and CAUSE (remember my previous post on the word 'drag' in
Matt. 6:44) to approach You. Oh, thank you Lord for loving me
so much that You elected me unto salvation, You chose me, the
wretch that I am, You chose me! A gift of glory and grace.
Thank you for allowing me to dwell in Your courts for eternity,
that I shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
of Your holy temple. We should all be on our face's more ....