His Lovingkindness

Awake, my soul, to joyful lays,
And sing thy great Redeemer’s praise;
He justly claims a song from me,
His lovingkindness, oh, how free!

He saw me ruined by the fall,
Yet loved me notwithstanding all;
He saved me from my lost estate,
His lovingkindness, oh, how great!

Tho’ num’rous hosts of mighty foes,
Tho’ earth and hell my way oppose,
He safely leads my soul along,
His lovingkindness, oh, how strong!

When trouble, like a gloomy cloud,
Has gathered thick and thundered loud,
He near my soul has always stood,
His lovingkindness, oh how good!

- Samuel Medley

Source unknown

Songs for Morning and Night

While attending Wheaton College, one of my roommates, Kimberly Long (Wyckoff), and I would sing “His Lovingkindness” while we walked the six blocks to campus in the morning. In the evenings when we walked home, we sang heartily, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” The idea came to us from Psalm 92:2: “To show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, Ruth Bell Graham, 1991,

Focus on the Family Publishing, p. 104.

Unmerited Favor

When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award—yet receives such a gift anyway—that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God.

Clip-Art Features for Church Newsletters, G.W. Knight, p. 53

The Free Gift

During the late 1800s English evangelist Henry Moorhouse made several trips to America to preach. On one of these occasions, he was taking a walk through a poor section of the city when he noticed a small boy coming out of a store with a pitcher of milk. Just then, the boy slipped and fell, breaking the pitcher and spilling the milk all over the sidewalk. Moorhouse rushed to the youngster’s side and found him unhurt but terrified. “My mamma’ll whip me!” he cried. The preacher suggested that they try to put the pitcher back together, but the pieces of glass would not stay together. The boy kept crying. Finally Moorhouse picked up the youngster and carried him to a nearby store where the preacher purchased a new pitcher. Then he returned to the dairy store and had the pitcher washed and filled with milk. With that done, he carried both the boy and the pitcher home. Putting the youngster down on his front porch, Moorhouse handed him the pitcher and asked, “Now will your mama whip you?”

A wide smile spread upon his tear-stained face, “Aw, no sir, ‘cause it’s lot better pitcher than we had before.”

Source unknown

The Net

During the building of the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay, construction fell badly behind schedule because several workers had accidentally fallen from the scaffolding to their deaths. Engineers and administrators could find no solution to the costly delays. Finally, someone suggested a gigantic net be hung under the bridge to catch any who fell. Finally in spite of the enormous cost, the engineers opted for the net. After it was installed, progress was hardly interrupted. A worker or two fell into the net but were saved. Ultimately, all the time lost to fear was regained by replacing fear with faith in the net.

Source unknown

We Paid Nothing

As we paid nothing for God’s eternal love and nothing for the Son of His love, and nothing for His Spirit and our grace and faith, and nothing for our eternal rest...What an astonishing thought it will be to think of the unmeasurable difference between our deservings and our receivings. O, how free was all this love, and how free is this enjoyed glory...So then let “Deserved” be written on the floor of hell but on the door of heaven and life, “The Free Gift”. - Richard Baxter

Source unknown

More to Follow

A large sum of money was given to Rowland Hill to dispense to a poor pastor. Thinking that the amount was too much to send all at once, Hill forwarded just a portion along with a note that said simply, “More to follow.” In a few days the man received another envelope containing the same amount and with the same message, “More to follow.” At regular intervals, there came a third, and a fourth. In fact, they continued, along with those cheering words, until the entire sum had been received.

C. H. Spurgeon used this story to illustrate that the good things we receive from God always come with the same prospect of more to follow. He said:

“When God forgives our sins, there’s more forgiveness to follow. He justifies us in the righteousness of Christ, but there’s more to follow. He adopts us into His family, but there’s more to follow. He prepares us for heaven, but there’s more to follow. He gives us grace, but there’s more to follow. He helps us to old age, but there’s still more to follow.”

Spurgeon concluded, “Even when we arrive in the world to come, there will still be more to follow.”

Source unknown

Much Grace

It does not matter where He places me or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me. For the easiest positions, He must give grace; and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient. So, if God places me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance? In positions of great difficulty, much grace? In circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone. His resources are mine, for He is mine!

- J. Hudson Taylor

Source unknown

God’s Forgivness

You’re worried about permissiveness—about the way the preaching of grace seems to say it’s okay to do all kinds of terrible things as long as you just walk in afterward and take the free gift of God’s forgiveness. . .While you and I may be worried about seeming to give permission, Jesus apparently wasn’t. He wasn’t afraid of giving the prodigal son a kiss instead of a lecture, a party instead of probation; and he proved that by bringing in the elder brother at the end of the story and having him raise pretty much the same objections you do. He’s angry about the party. He complains that his father is lowering standards and ignoring virtue—that music, dancing, and a fatted calf are, in effect, just so many permissions to break the law. And to that, Jesus has the father say only one thing: “Cut that out! We’re not playing good boys and bad boys any more. Your brother was dead and he’s alive again. The name of the game from now on is resurrection, not bookkeeping.”

Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three

Strength for Ministry (2 Tim. 2:1)

1. Saved by grace Eph. 2:8-9

2. Stand by grace Rom. 5:2

3. Serve through grace I Cor. 15:10 (illustration of wick and oil. If the oil runs out, the wick burns. As long as there is oil, the wick doesn’t burn. The question to ask: what’s burning'

4. Sustained by grace II Cor. 12:9

5. God can minister grace through my speech Eph. 4:29

6. God gives grace to grow II Peter 3:18

- (Colin Seitz)

Source unknown

You Just Get it!

True story. Two pastors were on their way to Alanta, Ga. for a large Christian mens gathering. One of them had never been in the south before. After staying in a motel overnight, they stopped at a nearby restaurant for breakfast. When their meal was delivered, the pastor who had never been south before saw this white, mushy looking stuff on his plate. When the waitress came by again he asked her what it was. "Grits", she replied. "Ma'm I didn't order it and I'm not paying for it". "Sir, down here you don't order it and you don't pay for it, you just get it." How like the grace of God! Ray Raycroft

Sign on Plumbers van

I saw this advertisement on the side of a pulmber's van in South Africa:  There is no place too deep, too dark or too dirty for us to handle.  What a wonderful explanation of the Gospel!