LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. Psalm 3:1-3
Repentance and Faith
I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:20-21).
Repentance is the hand releasing my idols; faith is an empty hand that reaches out to Christ for His gift of grace (1 Thes. 1:9).
Repentance is godly sorrow over sin; faith receives a full pardon from sin through Christ’s blood (Eph. 1:7).
Repentance cries, “God be merciful to me a sinner;” faith embraces Christ as the only Saviour of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).
Repentance is a genuine hatred for the pollution of sin; faith is seeking cleansing only in Christ (1 John 1:7).
Repentance is the leper covering his mouth and crying, “Unclean, unclean”; faith is the leper coming to Christ and saying, “Lord if you willyou can make me clean.”(Matt. 8:1-3).
Pastor Henry T. Mahan
"Behold he prayeth"Acts 9:11
Prayer could never save a sinner, but what sinner has ever been saved without it. "All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." As soon as the Lord Jesus Christ humbled Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road he began to pray. As soon as the Lord opened the thief's mind on the cross he cried out, “Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Could a man ever be saved without feeling his need of it? Prayer is the expression of that need; "God be merciful to me a sinner." Could a man know himself to be a sinner in deed, and could he know there is a Savior for sinners and at the same time remain silent? "Take with you words," the Lord says to the needy sinner, "And turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously" (Hos.14:2). Prayer is the expression of a felt need!
"The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me," David said, "I found trouble and sorrow." What did David do then? Why, "Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul" (Psalm.116:3-4).
Prayer is the expression of thanksgiving for the need being met. “The LORD heard my voice and my supplications -He delivered my soul from death.” What will David do now? “I will call upon him as long as I live - The LORD has dealt bountifully with me" (Psalm116). Another place David said, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name." (Psalm 103:1-4). Why is David blessing the Lord with all his heart? Why, the Lord had forgiven all his iniquities, and healed all his diseases, and had redeemed his life from destruction, and had crowned him with loving-kindness and tender mercies
Oh, the very fact that we forget so easily and so often should remind us of our need of continue prayer - Lord don't let us forget. Don't let us live ungrateful. "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger" (Lk17:11-18). Lord don't let me forget!
Pastor Bruce Crabtree
WHO IS SOVEREIGN: MAN OR GOD?
Before you think, why ask a question like that when the answer is obvious, hold on. If man has a free-will, it means it is free from God’s will. If man’s will is free, and can trump God’s will, then man’s will is sovereign over God’s will. The belief in free will makes man a sovereign and God’s will subject to man’s will. That makes man big and God small. That makes man’s will more powerful then God’s will. Such thinking is utterly foreign to the Scriptures, which speaks of “Him that doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what doest Thou?” (Daniel 4:35). I am so thankful that God’s will is sovereign over man’s will. He makes us willing (Psalm 110:3). He works in us both to will and do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). Who is sovereign: Man or God? The answer is easy: God.Pastor Todd Nibert
OUR COMPASSIONATE PRIEST
Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity (Heb. 5:2).
Thanks be unto God for our compassionate and faithful Great High Priest, Jesus Christ (Heb.2:17). Our blessed Saviour knows our frame; He knows that we are but sinful dust (Psalm 103:13-14). But in spite of all that we are (Psalm 39:5) and all that we have done (Rom.3:23) the Lord is longsuffering and compassionate toward His children (2 Peter 3:9). So much that He loves the unlovely (Rom. 5:8), so much that Christ justifies the ungodly (Rom.4:5), so much that the Redeemer died to save sinners (Rom. 5:6). We read that His compassions fail not and are new every morning (Lam. 3:22). We read when He saw a multitude of sinners as sheep that were scattered having no shepherd, He was moved with compassion (Matt. 9:36). What a blessed Shepherd the Lord has provided for us (Psalm 23)!
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