And My Portion

Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. Psalm 73:25-26.

Oh how I love these two verses of Scripture. They have been a balm to me for many a year. I have to say that in the world of uncertainty that we find ourselves, these words drive me on. Indeed, that which pertains to this person who is me, will fail, but in the midst of failure, pain, sorrow, confusion, and all else that has or will come to this frail being, He is my strong tower and my portion. Someone else said it so much better than I ever could:

. . .God is not only my rock to defend me from those tempests which assault me, and, thereby, my freedom from evil; but he is also my portion, to supply my necessities, and to give me the fruition of all good. Others, indeed, have their parts on this side the land of promise, but the author of all portions is the matter of my portion. My portion doth not lie in the rubbish and lumber, as theirs doth whose portion is in this life, be they never so large; but my portion containeth him whom the heavens, and heaven of heavens, can never contain. God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever; not for a year, or an age, or a million of ages, but for eternity. . . Without alteration, this God will be my God for ever and ever, my guide and aid unto death; nay, death, which dissolves so many bonds, and unties such close knots, shall never part me and my portion, but give me a perfect and everlasting possession of it. ~ George Swinnock.

A Charge Given to Us

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. I Timothy 2: 1-2.

"A charge given to Christians to pray for all men in general, and particularly for all in authority. Paul does not send them any prescribed form of prayer. Paul thought it enough to give them general heads; they, having the scripture to direct them in prayer and the Spirit of prayer poured out upon them, needed not any further directions. The disciples of Christ must be praying people. There must be prayers for ourselves in the first place; this is implied here. We must also pray for all men. See how far the Christian religion was from being a sect, when it taught men this diffusive charity, to pray for all men. Pray for kings (v.2); though the kings at this time were heathens, yet they must pray for them. For kings, and all that are in authority. We must give thanks for them, pray for their welfare and for the welfare of their kingdoms, that in the peace thereof we may have peace. He does not say, "That we may get preferments under them, grow rich, and be in honour and power under them"; no, the summit of the ambition of a good Christian is to lead a quiet and peaceable life. . . Christians are to be men much given to prayer. In our prayers we are to have a generous concern for others as well as for ourselves; we are to pray for all men, and to give thanks for all men. Kings themselves, and those who are in authority, are to be prayed for. They want our prayers, for they have many difficulties to encounter, many snares to which their exalted stations expose them." ~ Matthew Henry

Thank you, Mr. Henry. Thank you for reminding me of a solemn duty which I have as a child of God. It's the desire of my heart that I and my children and their children may lead a quiet and peaceable life. May it be so, Lord Jesus.

Vote and Pray

We have the wonderful privilege extended to us once again to vote. Please do so, praying all the while. And when it's all said and done, the political hoopla behind us, we'll keep on trusting in our Savior.

"Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners...

"In Time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." ~ Thomas Jefferson

We Rest On Thee

Hello! I'm finally back! I didn't mean to be gone so long, but time got away from me, and well. . . it's a long story.

Yesterday, once again, was a lovely Lord's Day. Actually the whole weekend was a blessing, except for my cold that's been hanging on. It was our annual fall missions conference and our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, as well. A precious time of fellowship had by all. The following hymn, which we sang yesterday, ministered to my heart more than anything else the whole weekend. The words of our pastor as he introduced it (we've never sung it before), as well as the lyrics, were needful to me. I think I've mentioned before that I've had a tendency to fret over this election, so I needed to hear these things. He told us that we must remember who our real king is, no matter who becomes President. So, once again, I've been reminded that my king is Jesus, and I will continue to rest in Him, not any man, and no matter what state our union is in.

This beautiful hymn is sung to the same tune as "Be Still My Soul", which is "Finlandia" by Sibelius.


We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.

Yes, in Thy Name, O Captain of salvation!
In Thy dear Name, all other names above;
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
Our Prince of glory and our King of love.

We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”

We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender!
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.

~ Edith Cherry

Now Two Granddaughters

God has seen fit to allow the safe arrival of our second granddaughter, Shana Elizabeth, born October 10,2008, at 4:45 pm, weighing in at seven pounds. So now Selena is a big sister and she loves it. Just wanted to tell the good news here at this blog--It's already been announced at my Nanna's Reflections blog.

Those who his gracious cov'nant keep

The Lord will ever bless;

Their children's children shall rejoice

To see his righteousness.

Am I a Samaritan?

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. Luke 10:33-34

You probably can tell from recent posts that I've been reading in the parables of Jesus these days. This one, so familiar to us all, was my reading today. I just wanted to post a part of what Mr. Ryle said about the Good Samaritan, which hopefully will cause you and me to think about a few important things:

What are we ourselves? Let us not forget to put that question to our hearts. What are we doing, each in our own station, to prove that this mighty parable is one of the rules of our daily life? What are we doing for the heathen, at home and abroad? What are we doing to help those who are troubled in mind, body, or estate? There are many such in this world. There are always some near our own doors. What are we doing for them? Anything, or nothing at all? May God help us to answer these questions!

No more needs to be said, I think.

Love Beyond Degree!

I heard this playing this morning and it blessed me so much, so I'm posting it here. Oh, how I love the hymns! How rich they are with the gospel! How beautifully they express the truths of the Word of God! The tune which I like is here.

Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,
And did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I!

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree!
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died
For man the creature's sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt mine eyes in tears.

But drops of grief can ne'er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
'Tis all that I can do.

~Isaac Watts, 1707

One Pearl

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:44-46.

The merchant went looking for pearls (plural) but he only found one. But the pearl that he found was of such quality that he sold all else for it. That's what it is to find Christ. When you do, you forsake all to follow Him. And what else do you do when you find the best treasure that is ever to be found?

"It is not a string of pearls that is discovered; one pearl rewards the seeking of a lifetime, and the one pearl gives perfect satisfaction. Now, brethren, in the Kingdom of our Lord we see what at once recalls to us both parables. No treasure hidden in any field can be more various than the Kingdom's riches. And yet the joy of the Kingdom is just this, that all its riches are treasured up in Christ, and that everything that the heart needs for satisfaction is to be found in Him and Him alone." ` George H. Morrison

Sunday Snippet - The Thought of Jesus

Jesus, the very thought of thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far thy face to see,
And in thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the mem'ry find,
A sweeter sound than thy blest Name,
O Saviour of mankind.

O Hope of ev'ry contrite heart,
O Joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind thou art!
How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show:
The love of Jesus, what it is
None but his loved ones know.

Jesus, our only Joy be thou,
As thou our Prize wilt be;
Jesus, be thou our Glory now,
And through eternity.

We took communion at our service tonight, which is always a blessing to the people of God. He knew what He was doing, didn't He, by leaving this ordinance for His church? How quickly we'd get caught up in the things of this world and think too little about all that He's accomplished for us at Calvary. "Do this in remembrance of Me," He said, and so we do, or we would indeed be prone to forget. I'm thankful and privileged each time I can partake with the other saints.

We also sang this hymn during the service. It wasn't one of the ones we would sing in the church I grew up in, but now it has become a favorite of mine. The thought of Jesus--what sweetness that brings to our hearts. Our only Joy, our Prize, our Glory now and through eternity.

Shut In or Shut Out?

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Matthew 25:1

There were ten of them. One half of them were wise and one half foolish. You know about these ten, don't you? If not, I would encourage you to read about them in the first thirteen verses of Matthew 25. I've been thinking about them a lot this week, primarily because they were mentioned quite a bit in the sermon we had on Sunday, and partly because this is a favorite parable of mine.

Soon my granddaughter Selena will be learning about opposites, as young children usually do. She'll learn up/down, over/under, big/little, and so on. I think of this parable as an illustration of two opposites. Only these two opposites are the most important that any of us will ever encounter. You see, these ten virgins all had lamps, but the key factor was the oil that needed to be in the lamps. The five wise had it; the others didn't. The oil represents salvation, or as some refer to it, the Holy Spirit within. So what we have here are five virgins who had true religion burning in their hearts and we have five who had only the outward profession. The latter were hypocrites. Hypocrisy is ever present in the Church at large. That's why this parable should make us look within, as the Apostle Paul exhorts us in 2 Corinthians 13:5.

About opposites, think on these from this parable: Besides wisdom/foolishness, we have oil/ no oil; we have grace/no grace; we have forgiven/unforgiven; we have converted/unconverted, we have mercy/judgment. Shall I go on? But more scary than any of the others--we have shut in and shut out (verses 10-12).

Think about it, please. Your soul depends on it: Is your profession real or are you a hypocrite? Do you have oil in your lamp or is it empty? Are you wise or are you foolish? And finally, when the Lord Jesus comes to claim His own, will you be shut into the marriage feast or will you be shut out for all eternity? It all depends on where you stand with Jesus. Are you really His?

Ahh, I must again quote my dear Mr. Ryle:

"True Christians shall alone be found ready at the second advent. Washed in the blood of atonement, clothed in Christ's righteousness, renewed by the Spirit, they shall meet their Lord with boldness, and sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb, to go out no more. Surely this is a blessed prospect.

"They shall be with their Lord: with Him who loved them and gave Himself for them; with Him who bore with them, and carried them through their earthly pilgrimage: with Him whom they loved truly and followed faithfully on earth, though with much weakness and many a tear. Surely this is a blessed prospect.

"The door shall be shut at last: shut on all pain and sorrow; shut on an illnatured and wicked world; shut on a tempting devil; shut on all doubts and fears; shut to be opened again no more. Surely we may again say, this is a blessed prospect."