What God Ordains

 What God ordains is always good;

His will is just and holy.

As He directs my life for me,

I follow meek and lowly

My God indeed in ev'ry need

knows well how He will shield me;

to Him. then. I will yield me

 

What God ordains is always good;

He never will deceive me.

He leads me in His righteous way,

and never will He leave me

I take, content, what He has sent;

His hand that sends me sadness

will turn my tears to gladness

 

What God ordains is always good;

His loving thought attends me;

no poison can be in the cup

that my Physician sends me

My God is true; each morning new

I trust His grace unending,

My life to Him commending

 

 

 

What God ordains is always good;

He is my Friend and Father.

He suffers naught to do me harm

tho' many storms may gather

Now I may know both joy and woe;

some day I shall see clearly

that He has loved me dearly.

 

What God ordains is always good;

tho' I the cup am drinking

which savors now of bitterness,

I take it without shrinking

For after grief God gives relief,

my heart with comfort filling

and all my sorrow stilling

 

 

What God ordains is always good;

this truth remains unshaken

Tho' sorrow, need, or death be mine,

I shall not be forsaken

I fear no harm, for with His arm

He shall embrace and shield me;

so to my God I yield me

Every Hour

 "Let us not expect too much from our own hearts here below. At our best we shall find in ourselves daily cause for humiliation, and discover that we are needy debtors to mercy and grace every hour." - J. C. Ryle

Holy Ends

 God hath 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 ends in permitting sin, while man hath 𝘶𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 ends in committing it.

—Puritan Stephen Charnock, A Discourse on Divine Providence, Works 1:18

 God hath 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 ends in permitting sin,

while man hath 𝘶𝘯𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 ends in committing it.

—Puritan Stephen Charnock, A Discourse on Divine Providence, Works 1:18

Too Needy

 We are too needy to be satisfied by a mere creature.

-- John Owen.

We are too needy to be satisfied by the creation.

(Money, Houses, Land, Cars, Jobs, Arts, Entertainment, Amusement, Nature, Self).  

Much Alone with God

 Be much alone with God. Do not put Him off with a quarter of an hour morning and evening. Take time to get thoroughly acquainted. Talk everything over with Him. Pour out every thought, feeling, wish, plan, and doubt to Him. He wants converse with His creatures. Shall His creatures not want converse with Him? He wants, not merely to be on "good terms" with you, if one may use man's phrase, but to be intimate. Shall you decline the intimacy and be satisfied with mere acquaintance? What! Intimate with the world, with friends, with neighbors, but not with God? That would look ill indeed. Folly, to prefer the clay to the potter, the marble to the sculptor, this little earth and its lesser features to the mighty Maker of the universe, the great "All and in all!"

~ Horatius Bonar

Neck of the King

 “Even Macaulay had grudgingly to recognize the fortitude and commitment of the Puritan: ‘The Puritan was made up of two different men, the one all self-abasement, penitence, grati-tude, passion, the other proud, calm, inflexible, sagacious. He prostrated himself in the dust before his Maker; but he set his foot on the neck of the king.’

Scholarship in recent decades has recognized the vitality and power of the Puritan movement for its lasting impact not only in religion, but also in politics, education, economics, and science. The great increase in knowledge about the Puritans and the recognition of their influence has done little, however, to change the widespread perception of the Puritans as busybodies who sought to eliminate pleasure from life, by force if necessary, in the service of their arbitrary and unattractive God.

In the light of these attitudes it is truly remarkable that about fifty years ago two young scholars conceived the idea of holding a conference on Puritanism as a practical help for pastors and Christians generally. Surely a modern conference largely devoted to the study of Puritan thought as a vital resource for the contemporary church would not commend itself to many. But O.

Raymond Johnston and James I. Packer had an advantage over many: they had actually read the Puritans. They had so profited spiritually from their own study of the Puritans that they wanted others to share in the rich spiritual blessing that had been theirs.

In the late 1940s they consulted with D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, minister at Westminster Chapel, London, who enthusiastically embraced the idea and offered the chapel as a meeting place for what became known as "The Puritan Conference.’”

Puritan Papers: 1:X.

Themes for Tears

“Never let us speak of the wicked harshly, or flippantly, or without holy grief: the loss of heaven and the

endurance of hell must always be themes for tears.

----  Charles Spurgeon

Look to Christ

 If you look within for peace, you’ll only find unrest.

If you look at your performance, you’ll only find failure. But if you look to Christ crucified, you’ll find everything: Pardon, righteousness, and rest for your soul.

Jeffery Perry

Finding Rest

 To the One Worn Down by the Mix-Up:

You love Jesus. You’ve tried hard to live for Him. You love the Bible. You’ve memorized Scripture, confessed your sins, and promised to do better. But somewhere along the way, the gospel stopped feeling like good news. It started to feel like a never-ending treadmill, where you are always running, never arriving. Maybe you were told to live a holy life, but no one told you where the power comes from. You heard grace in theory… but law in tone It's no wonder you’re tired, no wonder you feel like giving up. Because you were never meant to carry what Christ already bore. Let me try to make the distinction clear: The law commands. The gospel declares. The law commands, "Do this and live.” The gospel declares, "It is finished." The law reveals your sin and inability. The gospel reveals your Savior. Both are good. Both come from God. But they’re not the same, and they must not be confused. When we mix them, we crush the weary and puff up the proud. We produce actors and burnouts. People who are faking it, and people who are fading away. But the gospel, my friend, the gospel gives life. It doesn’t demand change to earn God’s love. It gives God’s love freely… and that changes everything. Yes, we must heed the law; we need to see our need. But don’t stop there. Let the gospel ring out. Not grace with conditions, but Jesus for you, in your place. Crucified, risen, and freely given to all who believe. He did it all, everything required, and He did it all for you. If you're crushed, know that He was crushed for you. If you're tired, know that He gives rest. If you're unsure, know that He is your surety. Come to Jesus again, or maybe for the first time, fall into the arms of grace that has always been running after you. - A Fellow Sinner Who Found Rest in the Gospel

Searching for God's Will

 To the One Searching for God’s Will:

You’ve spent years chasing it... The one perfect path. The right job, the right city, the right spouse, the right major; whatever it is, you just don’t want to blow it. Maybe you were told that God has a “perfect will” for your life. And if you miss it, well… you might get put on the shelf—used less, loved less, left to wonder “what could’ve been.” So now you feel the weight of every decision. Every open one feels like a test that you forgot to study for. You ask God for a sign, but the sign never comes. If you didn't feel dumb about it, you'd throw a fleece out in the yard to see what happens. But let me tell you something that’ll breathe life into your tired soul: You are not powerful enough to ruin God's plan for your life. Stop. And read that again. You are not powerful enough to ruin God's plan for your life. The God of the universe isn’t wringing His hands in heaven, hoping you make the right move. He’s a Father, not a coach. God doesn’t bench His kids. The idea that there’s a "perfect will" and a "permissive will", like the will of God, is on a sliding scale, is found nowhere in Scripture. Here’s what the Bible does say: “And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one who seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life.” (John 6:40) Trust Jesus. That’s His will. Apart from that, the will of God as a believer is that you live a faithful, ordinary life. (1 Thes. 4, Eph. 4) You will make mistakes, but He even uses your mistakes. He’s sovereign, not reactive. You don’t need to “hear a voice” or “feel a peace.” You need what He’s already said. You’ve been given Christ. You’ve been given wisdom. You’ve been given freedom. So take the job. Move to the city. Stay single. Get married. Change careers. And trust that if you’re in Christ, you’re not outside of God’s will; and that He is working everything according to His will and your good (Rom. 8). You may mess up, but you’re not going to mess it all up. You’re not going to be shelved. You’re not one wrong move away from divine disappointment. He holds your future. And He’s holding you.