Bulletin for 01/24/2021

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For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.

Zephaniah 3:9

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Comfort

The comfort of a believer's heart lies not in a mere "feeling" that "everything will be all right." It lies in the Spirit of God's application of truth to our hearts and minds. It is comfort based on the promises of God who cannot lie, die, change or fail in any way. Oh it does produce wonderful feelings. But these feelings are the product of the assurance of faith, faith based upon that which is given us by God's grace through the merits of Christ's righteous blood.

Gary Shepherd

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The Plan Today

The plan today is to make the church as much like the world as possible, so that unregenerate people will not feel uncomfortable and will be attracted to its ministry! Turn the church into a theater; worship into a musical display; ministers into actors and clowns to amuse and entertain; sermons into political, patriotic, or philosophical essays; and the living God into a “good buddy” whose attributes are adjustable to any culture or creed. This will attract the flesh and successfully quench the Spirit.

Scott Richardson

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They are new every morning!

Lamentations 3:22-23 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Each Christian may find in his own case, some peculiar token of God's providential kindness to him. It is in the details of each man's personal history that we find the most touching manifestations of God's providential care. None of us can refuse to acknowledge that we have been the objects of a watchfulness which has never slumbered, and of a benevolence which has never been weary in doing us good.

Were we to attempt an enumeration of all the . . . blessings which we have received at God's hand, deliverance's which He has wrought out for us, snares from which He has preserved us, manifestations of His long-suffering patience, and tender mercy, of which we ourselves have been the objects — were we to begin with the years of infancy and helplessness, and to trace our progress through the slippery paths of youth, until we reached our present state — we would soon find how impossible it is to reckon up the sum of our innumerable obligations to "the loving-kindness of the Lord."

For not only has God spared us in life, and upheld us from day to day, by His almighty power; not only has He given us our daily bread, and made our cup to run over — and that, too, notwithstanding all the ingratitude which we have displayed, and the manifold provocations which we have offered; but, in peculiar seasons, in seasons of difficulty and trial — He has often delivered . . . our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling, and our souls from death!

And as often as we have cried to the Lord in our trouble, He has delivered us from our distresses — or supported and comforted us under them. So that each of His redeemed people, on a review of God's dealings with Him, will be forced to exclaim:

"The Lord has been my Shepherd!" "I have not lacked any good thing!" "Hitherto has the Lord helped me!"

"The Lord has done all things well!" "Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life!"