Enter Into His Gates

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name." Psalm 100:4

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving" . . . So long as we are receivers of mercy we must be givers of thanks. Mercy permits us to enter his gates; let us praise that mercy.  

"And into his courts with praise." Into whatever court of the Lord you may enter, let your admission be the subject of praise: thanks be to God, the innermost court is now open to believers, and we enter into that which is within the veil; it is incumbent upon us that we acknowledge the high privilege by our songs.

"Be thankful unto him." Let the praise be in your heart as well as on your tongue, and let it all be for him to whom it all belongs.

"And bless his name." He blessed you, bless him in return; bless his name, his character, his person. Whatever he does, be sure that you bless him for it; bless him when he takes away as well as when he gives; bless him as long as you live, under all circumstances; bless him in all his attributes, from whatever point of view you consider him.

~ From The Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon

I Will Be With Thee

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:2

What better promise is there than that? "I will be with Thee." Not only will He strengthen, help, and uphold us, but when we pass through the waters of affliction and fires of adversity, we will come through these trials unscathed. At least spiritually. But these promises were made to Israel, you say. Yes, indeed they were. But aren't you thankful that if you and I are His children by faith, as was Abraham, we have been grafted in? Romans 11 says so and I believe what it says, don't you? So these promises are ours too, and I am eternally grateful.

Handel's Reflection

Think on this as we enjoy the Hallelujah chorus this Christmas season.

"What a wonderful thing it is to be sure of one's faith! How wonderful to be a member of the evangelical church, which preaches the free grace of God through Christ as the hope of sinners! If we were to rely on our works--my God, what would become of us?"

~ George Frideric Handel

Sweet Friends

Isn't it nice to have friends? Sometimes these friends are people whom we've never met personally but our hearts are knit together in the common bond found in Christ. There are two sister bloggers who fit into that category. Cathy of Melodies and Hymnsongs is one of them. We've gotten to know each other through our blogs and through emails and find we're quite like minded in the things we enjoy and love. Her blog is such a pleasant place to visit, music, art, and helpful links among other things. Visit her please. Then there's my newer friend, Lorie of Encouragement from My Heart, who writes lovely poetry and other posts from her heart. Go there, too, and be blessed by this beautiful woman from Hawaii. Both stopped by today to tell me they were passing on these two awards, and I thank them!

I want to pass these on to those of you who frequent this place and help to make blogging more of a pleasure for me. I wish I had time to post more often, because I enjoy it so, but I have to put first things first in my life. Thanks for your friendship--there are some of you who brighten my countenance as soon as I see the email with your name on it, even before I read the comment itself. Thanks, sisters in the Lord, and also the occasional brother who stops by!

Update: I just found out from Cathy that Crystal, at Memoirs of a Mommy created the lovely Sharing the Love award in Honor of the Donor that saved her precious son, Noah's Life. This makes this award even more special.

Easter Thoughts

Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: and they shall scourge him, and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again. Luke 18:31-33

Even though it's early this year (it really sneaked up on me), Easter has been filling the thoughts of most folks this week. Some are thinking about jelly beans, bunnies, coconut eggs, colored eggs, baby chicks, baskets, new clothes, colored "grass", and many other pretty things. Today is the first day of spring, and this is the holiday that brings us to the thoughts and pleasures of the season. (You may like this YouTube video that was made by a member of one of my Yahoo groups. I must say they did a fantastic job of bringing this all home. Try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZVlheNkQFo)

But I choose to bring my thoughts captive to the Passion of my Lord. We as Christians like to read about His life. The gospel accounts are lively and interesting as we read about His journey here on earth. We enjoy learning about His miracles and the accounts about the many encounters with His enemies. We see Him as our Prophet and King. But one of the reasons I like Easter so much is that it's the time when we particularly focus on His office as our Priest, making the ultimate sacrifice for us: Himself. Some months back, I wrote a post reflecting on His determined journey to Jerusalem. We all have our favorite posts that we wrote, and that was one of my mine. Please read it if you ever get a chance; it's here.

At any rate, when the above verses were included in my daily readings one day a couple of weeks ago, my mind was directed to Jerusalem as it was before. Once again, I have a quote by Ryle on this passage:

The love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards sinners is strikingly shown in His steady purpose of heart to die for them. All through His life He knew that He was about to be crucified. There was nothing in His cross and passion which He did not foresee distinctly, even to the minutest particular, long before it came upon Him. He tasted all the well-known bitterness of anticipated suffering. Yet He never swerved from His path for a moment. He was straitened in spirit till He had finished the work He came to do. Such love passeth knowledge. It is unspeakable, unsearchable. We may rest on that love without fear. If Christ so loved us before we thought of Him, He will surely not cease to love us after we have believed. ~ J.C. Ryle

What a Savior. And He is alive. May these wonderful truths about Him fill your thoughts during this Easter season and always. Have blessed holiday weekend, friends.

Our Jesus, Our Emmanuel

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet , saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew 1: 21-23

The baby born that night was called "Jesus." That was His mission; that's why He came. To save a people unto Himself. To bear their sins and give them a place in heaven. To cleanse them by His own blood. This name of Jesus is a precious name to all of us who know Him as our own. It is our only hope in a weary, sin-cursed world.

The baby born that night was to be called "Emmanuel." That was His Person; He's God with us. He is God in the flesh, a union of two natures, divine and human. He is perfect God and perfect man. He had a nature like our own, yet without sin. He can identify with our pain and sorrows. But then again, He is Almighty God. He has all power in heaven and earth and no one can pluck us out of His hand.

In the words of my dear "friend", J.C. Ryle: "This is glad tidings. This is indeed good news. Let us feed on these truths in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving." Amen.

From my house to yours this Christmas season:

Rejoice with me in the first coming of the Lord Jesus, our Savior, Our Emmanuel. May you and yours be blessed by Him this season.

With love and best wishes,

Maxine

Love Offering

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. I John 4:9-10

Dearest Heavenly Father,

Of all the riches that I could possess while dwelling here on earth, your love is the most precious. Oh, how I pray that you will keep my heart so that it will desire nothing above your love, which you have so abundantly provided in Christ. He is a treasure beyond measure. He is more precious than anything that money can buy. As Mary poured out her spikenard love offering upon our Lord, so you poured out your love offering in the sacrifice of our Saviour. Above all that I am thankful for this season, your love surpasses all else. Thank you, Lord--I am blessed.

All my love,

Maxine

Thank You

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Philippians 1:3-5

I am very thankful. I have been given another opportunity to tell my friends who visit here how grateful I am to have met you all. Since my tentative steps in April when I began this blog, there have been more and more people who have come into my blogging life who have been encouragers in the faith and have given every indication of being true disciples of the same Savior who I am trying to serve here at this little corner of the internet.

Well, Kathy at Sumballo, one of those true disciples, has been a dear and passed on to me the Mathetes Award, which originated at Management by God. It is given to those acting in the role of a disciple of Christ. Kathy serves God by doing helpful and in depth Bible studies, as well as sweet and reflective devotionals which will touch your heart. I appreciate her so much and she's one of the reasons I enjoy blogging so much. Thanks so much, Kathy.

And I must say that those of you who have been so faithful to the little "ministry" going on here are also on my list of blessings. So, I am not going to NAME people to pass this award to as I am supposed to. You might be interested in reading my response to the award last week when it was given at my other blog. That helps to explain things. So, ALL of you sweet sisters who come by from time to time are hereby awarded this badge from me. EACH of you deserves it! In every visit I make to your respective corners, I see proof of your discipleship, which is evident in a way that is peculiar to YOU. I cannot bring it into my heart to just pick out just five of you. (Hopefully, someday I'll have a few brothers to add on too.) I love you all and appreciate each one of you and hope we can keep visiting each other this way!

Sunday Snippet - True Greatness

Thanks for your birthday wishes for my granddaughter. Her birthday party was enjoyable, and as is usual for many guests of honor who are turning one, she had no clue what was going on. As far as a one year old can reason it out, she probably was wishing that we'd all go home. But she did enjoy her cake!

It was good to meet today with the people of God , to once again praise our God, as well as share in our grief over our slain friends (see last post), who we've in times past been pleased to have come to our church to minister, whose prayer letters we've read for many years, and whose niece and nephew are members of our body. Many embraces and tears were shared with them today.

These two dear saints whose passing we mourn, would fit into a description of greatness by J.C. Ryle which I've read time and again. Indeed, I would include their names in the list of those given by Mr. Ryle in his commentary on Mark 10:35-45. Friends, these are the people whom I look to as heroes:

"...true greatness does not consist in being an admiral, or a general,--a statesman, or an artist. It consists in devoting ourselves, body, and soul, and spirit to the blessed work of making our fellow men more holy and more happy. It is those who exert themselves by the use of Scripture means to lessen the sorrow, and increase the joy, of all around them,--the Howards, the Wilberforces, the Martyns, the Judsons of a country,--who are truly great in the sight of God. While they live they are laughed at, mocked, ridiculed, and often persecuted. But their memorial is on high. Their names are written in heaven. Their praise endureth for ever. Let us remember these things, and while we have time do good unto all men, and be servants of all for Christ's sake. Let us strive to leave the world better, holier, happier than it was when we were born. A life spent in this way is truly Christlike, and brings its own reward."

So today's snippet is a tribute to these two well spent lives.

Blogger Reflection Award

In April of this year I made what was then a tentative decision to start a third blog. Not being sure about it for several reasons, including time constraints, I kept it private for a while. I wanted this blog to be mostly devotional in nature, as well as being a forum for discussing my writing projects, hopes and dreams. After a bit, I decided I'd go ahead with it and make it public, even if just a few people would read it.

It was through and because of this venture that I have "met" some of the sweetest folks that one could hope to encounter on a journey of any kind. I have received more encouragement from these ladies than I've ever had in anything I've written. One of these ladies, Mishel at Seasons of Life has honored me here at Scraps with a Blogger Reflection Award. I want to thank her for this award, but then turn around and give one to her for being one of those special people I just spoke about. As she said, we haven't known each other long, but she's one of those bloggy folks whom I wish I could someday meet personally.

The same would hold true for each of the following ladies. There is something in their spirits when they comment that lets me know theirs are kindred with mine. I see in each of them a love for God and a selfless desire to help another sister along the way. Thank you ladies. This award is for your encouragements to me and I'm sure to others.

1. Cami at Lindenville Devotions - Like me, Cami is a lover of devotional writings and she does it well over at her place. She is a wife and mother who loves her family and God. She owns the Lindenville Cafe blogring, which she takes seriously while showing heartfelt care and concern for each of its members. She's very supportive of us all. I'm sure everyone in the ring feels the same.

2. Carol at Musings from Down Under - Talk about talent--this lady has it. If you want to be refreshed and renewed by poetry that touches you in the inner man, then visit Carol often. She's quite popular with her writings, and understandably so. Most of the poems are short and sweet, but packed with so much meaning! Most of us know that poetry can express something in a unique way that prose never can. Carol has a gift for doing just that. Go there and be blessed.

3. Jodi at The Deputy Domain - Who of us does not like beauty? This is one lady who gives us beautiful portraits, music and writings. She puts them all together in a way that makes her blog an absolute pleasure to visit. As a wife and mother of five, I am always amazed that she has the time to put together such a charming, cozy and God-glorifying site. I would imagine that her home is the same way!

4. Kathy at Sumballo - This is a lady whose blog is worth visiting if you hunger and thirst for a deeper walk with God. Her knowledge of the Word is consistent and biblical and she humbly shares it with all of us. She recently has started a weekly feature which others can do with her to dive deeper into Scriptures, with "tools" to help accomplish this. She knows what she's doing, and does it well, at a level which most of us can understand. She's just getting started with this, so go over and check it out when you can.

5. Patty at Beside Still Waters - Yes, I know Mishel awarded her already, but my list would not be complete without her. Her blog is absolutely lovely. It caught my eye when I randomly went there one day and we've been bloggy friends since. She has such sweet quotes and little devotions that touch the heart. Like me, she is a wife, mom and grandmom and loves home. She also has another blog where you can go and find tasty recipes! Hope you can visit her because you won't find a nicer lady anywhere.

(Honorable mention: I know this is cheating, but I do want to thank my daughter Beverly and our friend Beka for often coming here to encourage their mama/friend.)

Also, I believe I'm supposed to mention in this post that this Blogger Reflection Award is to be awarded to five other bloggers and that it originated here, where you may find more information about it.

Celebrations

June and July are busy months of celebrations in our family. Each year, we enjoy them as God provides, thankful to Him for allowing them to come. Life is full of trials, and they have and will come to us, so these special observations are welcome. For our family, these are the special occasions and dates for this year:

June 12th - Observance of 36 years of marriage for me and my dear husband.

June 15th - My dear younger daughter graduates eighth grade in our homeschool and has now progressed to high school. She has become a good, hard working student, and we commend her.

June 17th - Father's Day. We give our thanks for the years of faithfulness in fatherhood by my hubby and now, my son-in-law begins his journey.

June 17th - I mark another year, sixty-six now, of my pilgrimage here on earth.

July 10th - My husband's pilgrimage here will be seventy years, if God is gracious to allow him to reach that date. We hope so--we have a big dinner event planned!

July 20th - My dear older daughter, now a wife and mother, celebrates birthday number twenty-seven.

We take each of these events as a generous provision from our Father's hand. But will we be just as thankful to Him when the hard times come? I have been reading many blogs of people who are undergoing extreme trials, but yet they rejoice in the blessings of their God in the midst of these times. On my sidebar, you will see a recent post of a such a woman. I was touched immensely by this post. If you have any time at all, read it. Every week I link to a particular post that has been a blessing, at least to me, and this is the one for this week.

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: . . . A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance . . .Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4