YES!

JESUS IS ALIVE.


(It might be basic but it's not boring. It might be simple but it's life changing.)

Make Thy Pleasure Mine

"O LORD, my best desire fulfil,

And help me to resign

Life, health, and comfort to thy will,

And make thy pleasure mine.

Why should I shrink at thy command,

Whose love forbids my fears?

Or tremble at the gracious hand

That wipes away my tears?

No, rather let me freely yield

What most I prize to thee;

Who never hast a good withheld,

Or wilt withhold, from me.

Thy favor, all my journey through,

Thou art engaged to grant;

What else I want, or think I do,

'Tis better still to want.

Wisdom and mercy guide my way,

Shall I resist them both?

A poor blind creature of a day,

And crushed before the moth!

But ah! my inward spirit cries,

Still bind me to thy sway;

Else the next cloud that veils the skies

Drives all these thoughts away."

William Cowper

So Close Yet So Far

BMW's motto is the Christian's principle, and God's rule. Joy does not settle for anything less than the best. The best is not a car. It is Christ.
Ht John Piper

Don't Worry, Let Dad Be Dad.

I'm proud.

How do I know? One of the reasons is that I worry about things. Worrying isn't often seen as a sin, more often it's regarded as a symptom of our oppression by sin. However the latter isn't strictly true. Peter writes;

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5: 7)


God says that a very real part of humility is trusting God with all our burdens, worries and cares.
What is the cause for this trust? Because He cares.

Because He cares for you. (Due to, in view of, given that, in light of)
Because He cares for you. (Almighty God, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, King, Father)
Because He cares for you. (Nurtures, sustains, knows, protects, develops, grows, loves)
Because He cares for you. (Personally, not abstractly, individually.)
Because He cares for you! (All of you. Despite your sin. You who He has placed in Christ.)

It doesn't getter more practical than this. It doesn't get any better than this. Our Father in heaven wants us to know Him as Father, and ourselves as His children. What is the first phrase out of a good father's mouth when his son comes running in crying? "Don't worry".

Don't worry. Let our Dad be King and our King be Dad.

Who Can Plumb The Depths?

(I don't claim to be a poet of any skill, but I enjoy writing these little poems. Sometimes I find it easier to tell of God's grace to me in poorly rhyming verse than in prose. I long for the day when as Cowper put it

"Then in a nobler, sweeter song,

I'll sing thy pow'r to save;

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue

Lies silent in the grave")

Gazing Into The Well
(Phil 3: 8)

Who can plumb the depths of my sinful heart?
In Satan's wicked warrings I have had my part,
Foul hater of God and justly condemned,
When the offended Judge became this sinner's Friend,
Divine purity and holiness Jesus gave to me,
My sin and God's wrath I on Him see,
As He bled and died at Calvary.

Unmerited mercy is for ever my joyful lot,
(Tho' I should have suffered for my vile rot.)
Once object of wrath, I have now become,
Through Christ's free gift, with God one;
atoned, reconciled, befriended in grace,
So I will gaze on glory for endless days.


To know my self-righteousness as dung,
To plead that from me it may far be flung,
All my own works and pride to me cling,
They all to Thy cross I must bring.
Strip me there of my rags of dirt,
That I may know grace's tender hurt,
Let the blood that from Thy wounds did flow
Cut through sin's sick scabs to my heart below.

Cut away my vain love for self,
That my soul will find Christ is its health.

Worldliness

"We must then try to realise that it is terribly possible to live a careless, easy-going, half-worldly life, and at the same time maintain evangelical principles, and call ourselves evangelical people! ... Let us see that sin is far viler, and far nearer to us, and sticks more closely than we supposed..."

J C Ryle, Holiness

Reading that prompted this;

Worldliness.

Oh Lord save me from this sin,
That Christ I may at any cost win.
Plush comforts, pampered choices,
Borne to my fickle ear by soft voices;
"Sweet is their song, "compromise, compromise";
A siren's call to unending demise.
Let me recognise their breed to be from hell,
And know their promises to be a bitter shell.
Christ is a supremely better Treasure
Than all and every passing poisoned pleasure.


I cannot keep myself from worldliness,
Strengthen me with grace from Your richness,
Till my heart after idols no more lusts
Placing in its sovereign Christ all its trust.


For a long life I do not ask,
But beg that You would keep me faithful to my task
To my life no value to accord, (Acts 20: 24)
Solely to seek that You be by all adored.
If missions is bidding others with us to sing,
Then make my heart always to ring,
And peal with delight in You alone.
Vain heart, prostrate yourself before Christ's throne,
There He shall make His pleasures mine,
Till the day I see His face divine.