4 months

4 months today... I miss you.
I miss my baby girl.
What a great hope to know that the Lord will reunite me to her one day. That we will recognize each other and worship together!
What a hope and a joy comes with sorrow fo those who love Him. As much as I miss her today, just as much I hope for the day to come. When I see my Savior!, when I see Faith... and when the tears will never return.

Can't wait!!

Lord hasten the day of your return! and prepare my heart to meet You.

Valley of the Vision

"I could never have sought my happiness in thy love, unless you had'st first loved me. Your Spirit has encouraged me by grace to seek thee, has made me known to me thy reconciliation in Jesus, has taught me to believe it, has helped me to take thee for my God and portion.

May he grant me to grow in the knowledge and experience of thy love, and walk in it all the way to glory. Blessed for ever be thy fatherly affection, which chose me to be one of thy children by faith in Jesus:

I thank thee for giving me the desire to live as such.
I know but little, increase my knowledge of thy love in Jesus, keep me pressing forward for clearer discoveries of it, so that I may find eternal fullness."

Valley of the Vision

Heavenly Father, if I should suffer need, and go unclothed, and be in poverty, make my heart prize Thy love, know it, be constrained by it, though I be denied all blessings. It is Thy mercy to afflict and try me with wants, for by these trials I see my sins, and desire severance from them. Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows, temptations, if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil, and be delivered from it with gratitude to Thee, acknowledging this as the highest testimony of Thy love.

When I am afraid of evils to come, comfort me by showing me that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch, but in Christ I am reconciled and live; that in myself I find insufficiency and no rest, but in Christ there is satisfaction and peace; that in myself I am feeble and unable to do good, but in Christ I have ability to do all things. Though now I have His graces in part, I shall shortly have them perfectly in that state where Thou wilt show Thyself fully reconciled, and alone sufficient, efficient, loving me completely, with sin abolished. O Lord, hasten that day.

Like the Sun

Like the sun, He is free to all. All may look at Him and drink health out of His light. If millions of mankind were mad enough to dwell in caves underground, or to bandage their eyes, their darkness would be`their own fault, not the sun. So likewise, if millions of men and women love spiritual  "darkness rather than light", the blame must be laid on their blind hearts, and not on Christ. J. C. Ryle *The gospel of John.

O for a better heart! O for a heart to love God more; to hate sin more; to walk more evenly with God. Lord! deny not to me such a heart, whatever thou deny me; give me a heart to fear thee, to love and delight in thee, if I beg my bread in desolate places.
(Keeping the heart)

The Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
You realize you're morally bankrupt.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
You mourn because of your sin.

Blessed are the meek, for the will inherit the earth.
You become meek and humble

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
You develop a thirst to be righteous

Blessed be the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.
You become merciful realizing you deserve hell and mercy is applied

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.
Your purity comes from being justified as the poor tax collector who cried out, "be merciful to me oh Lord",

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
You become a peacemaker seeking the reconciliation of man to God in others and from man to man.
 
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Then you also have to deal with persecution from the world.
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/...eatitudes.html (sermon)

The Way of Salvation

by

J. C. Ryle
(1816-1900)

Where must a man go for pardon? Where is forgiveness to be found? There is a way both sure and plain, and into that way I desire to guide every inquirers feet.

That way is simply to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. It is to cast your soul with all its sins, unreservedly on Christ - to cease completely from any dependence on your own works or doings, either in whole or in part - and to rest on no other work but Christ's work, no other righteousness but Christ's righteousness, no other merit but Christ's merit as your ground of hope.

Take this course and you are a pardoned soul. "To Christ", says Peter "give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins". (Acts 10:43). "Through this Man," says Paul at Antioch, "is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." (Acts 13:38). "In Him," writes Paul to the Colossians, "we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:14).

The Lord Jesus Christ, in great love and compassion has made a full and complete satisfaction for sin, by suffering death in our place upon the cross. There He offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, and allowed the wrath of God which we deserved, to fall on His own head.

For our sins, as our Substitute, He gave Himself, suffered, and died - the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty - that He might deliver us from the curse of a broken law, and provide a complete pardon for all who are willing to receive it . And by so doing, as Isaiah says - He has borne our sins; as John the Baptist says - He has taken away sin: as Paul says - He has purged our sins, and put away sin; and as Daniel says - He has made an end of sin and finished transgression.

And now the Lord Jesus Christ is sealed and appointed by God the Father to be a Prince and a Savior, to give remission of sins to all who will have it. The keys of death and hell are put in His hand. The government of the gate of heaven is laid on His shoulder. He Himself is the door, and by Him all that enter in shall be saved.

Christ, in one word, has purchased a full forgiveness, if we are only willing to receive it. He has done all, paid all, suffered all that was needful to reconcile us to God. He has provided a garment of righteousness to clothe us. He has opened a fountain of living waters to cleanse us.

He has removed every barrier between us and God the Father, taken every obstacle out of the way, and made a road by which the vilest may return. All things are now ready, and the sinner has only to believe and be saved, to eat and be satisfied, to ask and receive, to wash and be clean.

And faith, or simple trust is the only thing required, in order that you and I may be forgiven. That we will come by faith to Jesus as sinners with our sins - trust in Him - and forsaking all other hope, cleave only to Him - that is all and everything that God asks for. Let a man only do this, and he shall be saved. His iniquities shall be found completely pardoned, and his transgressions completely taken away.

Who, among all the readers of this paper, desires to be saved by Christ, and yet is not saved at present? Come, I beseech you: come to Christ without delay. Though you have been a great sinner, COME - Though you have long resisted warnings, counsels, sermons, COME - Though you have sinned against light and knowledge, against a father's advice and a mother's tears, COME - Though you have plunged into every excess of wickedness, and lived without a Sabbath and without prayer, yet COME - The door is not shut, the fountain is not yet closed. Jesus Christ invites you. It is enough that you feel laboring and heavy- laden, and desire to be saved. COME: COME TO CHRIST WITHOUT DELAY!

Come to Him by faith, and pour out your heart before Him in prayer. Tell Him the whole story of your life, and ask Him to receive you. Cry to Him as the penitent thief did, when He saw Him on the cross. Say to Him, "Lord save me also! Lord remember me!" COME: COME TO CHRIST!

Lv.13:13-17

On Sunday, the elder of my church read and explained this at church. I have read Leviticus before... yet when he read it, is was as if I have never read it before... seriously! I do not remember ever reading this.

Any how...  it reads as follows:
"... the priest is to examine him, and if the desease has covered his whole body, he shall pronounce him CLEAN. Since it has all turned  white, he is clean. But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean. When the priest sees the raw flesh, he shall pronounce him unclean..."

Well, the sick person, in order to be pronounced clean, the desease had to be ALL OVER THE BODY!, showing no raw skin. He made the similarity to our sin... we have nothing to boast about... we are ALL covered.. no raw skin is exposed!.. if we see anything of "cleanness"in us... we are unclean.. we need to see ourselves covered completely. Sin from head to toe... to be clean completely! We have nothing to cling to and say: but this part was not infected... this part was ok... NO!.

How much I need this, and to be remended that NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in me, was clean.. that in order to be called "clean", I need Jesus and His blood!

Oh, His precious blood!

God, have mercy on me, a sinner!