WOW #5

I commit my soul to my gracious God and Saviour, who mercifully spared and preserved me, when I was an apostate, a blasphemer, and an infidel, and delivered me from that state of misery on the coast of Africa into which my obstinate wickedness had plunged me; and Who has been pleased to admit me, though most unworthy, to preach His glorious gospel.  I rely with humble confidence upon the atonement, and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, God and Man which I have often proposed to others, as the only foundation whereupon a sinner can build his hope, trusting that He will guard and guide me through the uncertain remainder of my life, and that He will then admit me into His presence in His heavenly kingdom. -- John Newton

And the face shines bright

With a glow of light

From His presence sent

Whom she loves to meet.

Yes, the face beams bright

With an inner light

As by day so by night,

In shade as in shine,

With a beauty fine,

That she wist not of,

From some source within,

      And above.

Still the face shines bright

With the glory-light

From the mountain height,

Where the resplendent sight

Of His face

Fills her view

And illumines in turn

First the few,

Then the wide race.

-- Unknown

Wherefore it is every profitable for us to have always before our eyes this sweet and comfortable sentence, and such-like, which sets out Christ truly and lively, that in our whole life, in all dangers, in the confessions of our faith before tyrants, and in the hour of death, we may boldly and with all confidence say: O law, thou hast no power over me, therefore dost thou accuse and condemn me in vain.  For I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whom the Father sent into the world to redeem us miserable sinners oppressed with the tyranny of the law.  He gave His life, He shed His blood for me.  Therefore, feeling thy terrors and threatening, O law, I plunge my conscience in the wounds, blood, death, resurrection and victory of my Saviour, Christ.  Besides Him I will see nothing, hear nothing. -- Martin Luther

Upon Thy Word I rest

   Each pilgrim day.

This golden staff is best

   For all the way.

What Jesus Christ hath spoken,

   Cannot be broken!

Upon Thy Word I rest;

   So strong, so sure,

So full of comfort blest,

   So sweet, so pure:

The charter of salvation:

   Faith’s broad foundation.

Upon Thy Word I stand:

   That cannot die.

Christ seals it in my hand.

   He cannot lie.

Thy Word that faileth never:

   Abiding ever.

-- Frances Ridley Havergal

When there is real weakness, especially of the kind that surprises and humiliates us, it is our opportunity to learn what Paul had to learn through his “thorn”: the grace of God is all we need, for “…power comes to its full strength in weakness…” -- Elisabeth Elliot

If I am to love the Lord my God with all my mind, there will not be room in it for carnality, for pride, for anxiety, for the love of myself.  How can the mind be filled with the love of the Lord and have space left over for things like that? -- Elisabeth Elliot

To ask for the guidance of God is to make a choice, and this takes faith.  It must be faith of a far higher kind than the breezy “if I like what I see I’ll take it.”  It is the faith that has strength to wait for the rewards God holds, strength to believe they are worth waiting for, worth the price asked.  Our prayers for guidance (or for anything else) really begin here: I trust Him.  This requires abandonment. We are no longer saying, “If I trust Him, He’ll give me such and such,” but, “I trust Him.  Let Him give me or withhold from me what He chooses.” -- Elisabeth Elliot

Lord, give to me a quiet heart

That does not ask to understand,

But confident steps forward in

The darkness guided by Thy hand.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

Jesus slept on a pillow in the midst of a raging storm. How could He?  The terrified disciples, sure that the next wave would send them straight to the bottom, shook Him awake with rebuke. How could He be so careless of their fate?

   He could because He slept in the calm assurance that His Father was in control.  His was a quiet heart.  We see Him move serenely through all the events of His life—when He was reviled, He did not revile in return.  When He knew that He would suffer many things and be killed in Jerusalem, He never deviated from His course.  He had set His face like flint. He sat at supper with one who would deny Him and another who would betray Him, yet He was able to eat with them, willing even to wash their feet.  Jesus in the unbroken intimacy of His Father’s love, kept a quiet heart. -- Elisabeth Elliot

Sin and despair like the sea waves cold

Threaten the soul with infinite loss;

Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold

Points to the refuge, the Mighty Cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.

What can avail to wash it away?

Look! there is flowing a crimson tide.

Whiter than snow you may be today.

-- Julia H. Johnston

None of us likes pain.  All of us wish at times we did not need to 'go through all this stuff.'  Let us settle it once and for all: we cannot know Christ and the power of His resurrection without the fellowship of His suffering. -- Elisabeth Elliot


A spirit of restlessness and resistance never waits, but one who believes he is loved with an everlasting love, and knows that underneath are the everlasting arms, will find strength and peace. -- Elisabeth Elliot


He is not all we would ask for (if we were honest), but it is precisely when we do not have what we would ask for, and only then, that we can clearly perceive His all-sufficiency.  It is when the sea is moonless that the Lord has become my Light. -- Elisabeth Elliot

WOW #4

From moral weakness of spirit; from timidity; from hesitation; from fear of men and dread of responsibility, strengthen us with courage to speak the truth in love and self-control; and alike from the weakness of hasty violence and weakness of moral cowardice,

Save us and help us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.

From weakness of judgment; from the indecision that can make no choice; from the irresolution that carries no choice into act; and from losing opportunities to serve Thee,

Save us and help us, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord.

-- The Southwell Litany for the Personal Life

Holy friendship has no looks but what are simple and modest, no caresses but those that are pure and sincere, no sighs but for heaven, no familiarities but those of the soul, no complaints but that God is not loved, the infallible signs of purity.

Worldly friendship confuses the judgment…  Holy friendship has a clear light and does not seek to hide itself, appearing willingly before good men.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Stand Still and See

   I’m standing, Lord:

There is a mist that blinds my sight.

Steep, jagged rocks, front, left and right,

Lower, dim, gigantic, in the night.

   Where is the way?

   I’m standing, Lord:

The black rock hems me in behind,

Above my head a moaning wind

Chills and oppresses heart and mind.

   I am afraid!

   I’m standing, Lord:

The rock is hard beneath my feet;

I nearly slipped, Lord, on the sleet.

So weary, Lord! and where a seat?

   Still must I stand?

He answered me, and on His face

A look ineffable of grace,

Or perfect, understanding love,

Which all my murmuring did remove.

   I’m standing, Lord:

Since Thou hast spoken, Lord, I see

Thou hast beset—these rocks are Thee!

And since Thy love encloses me,

   I stand and sing.

-- Betty Stam

Always you renounce a lesser good for a greater; the opposite is what sin is . . . The struggle to submit . . . is not a struggle to submit but a struggle to accept with passion.  I mean, possibly, with joy.  Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy—fully armed too as it's a highly dangerous quest. -- Flannery O'Connor

For Christmas is not merely a day like any other day.
It is a day made holy and special by a sacred mystery.
It is not merely another day in the weary round of time.
Today, eternity enters into time, and time, sanctified,
is caught up into eternity.

-- Thomas Merton

The Carol of Seven Signs

The briar in a dry land grows;
Mary shall wear the blood red rose,
Her Son shall wear the thorn.

Saint Joseph cut the cherry tree
Whose fruit he gave to his lady.
then what was left? The stone.

Saint Joseph cut mahogany
To make the babe a crib—but He
Was to the manger born,
To wood already worn.

One father split the cedar tree
And made two beams: A house! cried he;
A cross, the other mourned.

Shepherds brought wool to the royal stall
For the mother a robe, for her darling a pall
for sleeping both cold and warm.

Three gentlemen offered three measures of myrrh,
A drop to perfume, a sponge to blur,
A tun to embalm the Lord.

And gold is lovely to the eye
But cold as stone to him who lies
Behind the golden door.

Now these—the briar and the cherry,
Wood and wool and gold—did Mary
Ponder when Christ was born.

Within her breast she kept it all,
A thorn, a cross, a stone, a pall,
And they herself adorned—

For the pain was His, but He was hers,
Her child, the treasure of her purse,
By whom her womb was torn:Et eius Salvator.

-- Walter Wangerin, Jr.

WOW #3

I've been reading "Keep A Quiet Heart" by Elisabeth Elliot, and I wanted to include today just quotes from that book, whether hers or others whom she quotes in the book.  Enjoy!

A cup brimful of sweetness cannot spill even one drop of water, no matter how suddenly jarred. -- Amy Carmichael

Several Ways to Make Yourself Miserable

1. Count your troubles, name them one by one—at the breakfast table, if anybody will listen, or as soon as possible thereafter.

2. Worry every day about something.  Don’t let yourself get out of practice.  It won’t add a cubit to your stature but it might burn a few calories.

3. Pity yourself.  If you do enough of this, nobody else will have to do it for you.

4. Devise clever but decent ways to serve God and mammon.  After all, a man’s gotta live.

5. Make it your business to find out what the Joneses are buying this year and where they’re going.  Try to do them at least one better even if you have to take out another loan to do it.

6. Stay away from absolutes.  It’s what’s right for you that matters.  Be your own person and don’t allow yourself to get hung up on what others expect of you.

7. Make sure you get your rights.  Never mind other people’s.  You have your life to live, they have theirs.

8. Don’t fall into any compassion traps—the sort of situation where people can walk all over you.  If you get too involved in other people’s troubles, you may neglect your own.

9. Don’t let Bible reading and prayer get in the way of what’s really relevant—things like TV and newspapers.  Invisible things are eternal.  You want to stick with the visible ones—they’re where it’s at now.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

 

Father, let our faithful mind
Rest, on Thee alone inclined;
Every anxious thoughts repress,
Keep our souls in perfect peace.
-- Charles Wesley

Human life is full of trouble, which doesn’t come from the dust, said Job’s friend Eliphaz, nor does it sprout from the ground.  Man is born to trouble.  Compare your list of troubles with one famous man’s:

1. He had a difficult childhood

2. Less than one year of formal schooling

3. Failed in business as age 31

4. Defeated for legislature at 32

5. Failed again in business at 33

6. Elected to the legislature at 34

7. His fiancée died when he was 35

8. Defeated for speaker at 38

9. Defeated for electorate at 40

10. At 42 married a woman who became a burden, not a help

11. Only one of four sons lived past age 18

12. Defeated for congress at 43

13. Elected to congress at 46

14. Defeated for congress at 48

15. Defeated for senate at 55

16. Defeated for vice president at 56

17. Defeated for senate at 58

18. Finally elected president.

He was Abraham Lincoln, of course.  When I look at his list of setbacks, I wonder if I’ve ever had a problem.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

How To Forfeit the Peace of God

1. Resent God’s ways.

2. Worry as much as possible.

3. Pray only about thing you can’t manage by yourself.

4. Refuse to accept what God gives.

5. Look for peace elsewhere than in Him.

6. Try to rule your own life.

7. Doubt God’s word.

8. Carry all your cares.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

How To Not Forfeit the Peace of God

1. “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165 KJV).  “Circumstances are the expression of God’s will,” wrote Bishop Handley Moule.

2. “Don’t worry about anything whatever” (Philippians 4:6, PHILLIPS).

3. “In everything make your requests known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving.  Then the peace of God…will guard your hearts” (Philippians 4:6, 7, NEB).

4. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me…and you will find rest” (Matthew 11:29, NIV).

5. “Peace is My parting gift to you, My own peace, such as the world cannot give” (John 14:27, NEB).

6. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15, NIV).

7. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13, KJV).

8. “Cast all your cares on Him for you are His charge” (1 Peter 5:7, NEB).

-- Elisabeth Elliot

Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;

Not by the wine drunk but by the wine poured forth;

For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice,

And whoso suffers most hath most to give…

-- Ugo Bassi

“But these strange ashes, Lord, this nothingness,

This baffling sense of loss?”

Son, was the anguish of My stripping less

Upon the torturing cross?

Was I not brought into the dust of death,

A worm, and no man, I;

Yea, turned to ashes by the vehement breath

Of fire, on Calvary?

O son beloved, this is thy heart’s desire:

This, and no other thing

Follows the fall of the Consuming Fire

On the burnt offering.

Go on and taste the joy set high, afar,—

No joy like that to thee;

See how it lights the way like some great star.

Come now, and follow Me.

-- Amy Carmichael

A Prayer Before Trial

O merciful God, be Thou unto me

A strong Tower of defence,

I humbly entreat Thee.

Give me grace to await Thy leisure,

And patiently to bear

What Thou doest unto me;

Nothing doubting or mistrusting

Thy goodness towards me;

For Thou knowest what is good for me

Better than I do.

Therefore do with me in all things

What Thou wilt;

Only arm me, I beseech Thee,

With Thine armor,

That I may stand fast;

Above all things taking to me

The shield of faith;

Praying always that I may

Refer myself wholly to Thy will,

Abiding Thy pleasure, and comforting myself

In those troubles which it shall please Thee

To send me, seeing such troubles are

Profitable for me; and I am

Assuredly persuaded that all Thou doest

Cannot but be well; and unto Thee

Be all honor and glory.  Amen.

-- Lady Jane Grey

WOW #2

So, back in January I wrote this post, fully intending to post things like it regularly.  Ha!  I'll try to be more consistent this time around.  Here's some quotes, poems, etc., that I hope will bless you today.

Positive Character Traits (1 Cor. 13:4-5)

• I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you.
• I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you.
• I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best.
• I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours.
• I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself.
• I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings.
• I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs.
• I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses.
• I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you, and “love covers a multitude of sins.”

-- Jerry Bridges

Make your complaint, tell Him how obscure everything still looks to you, and beg Him to complete your cure. He may see fit to try your faith and patience by delaying this completion; but meanwhile you are safe in His presence, and while led by His hand, He will excuse the mistakes you make and pity your falls. But you will imagine that it is best that He should at once enable you to see clearly. If it is, you may be sure He will do it. He never makes mistakes. But He often deals far differently with His disciples. He lets them grope their way in the dark until they fully learn how blind they are, how helpless, how absolutely in need of Him.

What His methods will be with you I cannot foretell. But you may be sure that He never works in an arbitrary way. He has a reason for everything He does. You may not understand why He leads you now in this way and now in that, but you may, nay, you must believe that perfection is stamped on His every act. -- Elizabeth Prentiss

To always be intending to live a new life, but never find time to set about it—this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking from one day to another till he be starved and destroyed. -- Sir Walter Scott

The Lord be praised for all His tender mercies and loving-kindnesses—unceasing and unwearying as His love. My continual shortcomings, and oftcoming for forgiveness again and again, does not exhaust Him. I should have wearied out the whole host of heaven before this; but Jesus is never wearied with hearing the cries of His poor tried and tempted saints. Always are they welcome, and I think the oftener I go the more welcome I am. Not a frown upon that countenance towards one who really feels his need of Him. A smiling welcome, fraught with mighty blessings, which, while it gladdens the heart, fills the soul with a humbling sense of its own vileness, humbled in self, exalted in Christ. -- Mary Winslow

Light Shining Out of Darkness

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

-- William Cowper

O Lord, if it is not springtime in my chilly heart, I pray You make it so, for I am tired of living at a distance from You. When will You bring this long and dreary winter to an end? Come, Holy Spirit, and renew my soul! Quicken me, restore me, and have mercy on me! This very night I earnestly implore you, Lord, to take pity upon Your servant and send me a happy revival of spiritual life! -- Charles Spurgeon

Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend. -- Charles Spurgeon

O gift of gifts! O grace of faith!
My God! how can it be
That Thou, who has discerning love,
Shouldst give that gift to me?

How many hearts Thou mightest have had
More innocent than mine!
How many souls more worthy far
Of that sweet touch of Thine?

Oh, grace! Into unlikeliest hearts
It is thy boast to come,
The glory of Thy light to find
In darkness spots a home.

Oh, happy, happy that I am!
If thou canst be, O faith
The treasure that thou art in life
What wilt thou be in death?

-- Elizabeth Prentiss

In this, the hour of our calamity and peril, to whom shall we resort . . . but to the God of our fathers? -- Abraham Lincoln

Always add, always walk, always proceed; neither stand still, nor go back, nor deviate; he that standeth still proceedeth not; he goeth back that continueth no; he deviateth that revolteth; he goeth better that creepeth in his way than he that moveth out of his way. -- Augustine

Lord, evermore Thy face we seek:
Tempted we are, and poor, and weak;
Keep us with lowly hearts, and meek.
Let us not fall. Let us not fall.

-- Charles Spurgeon

For helping and hiding the Jews, my father, my brother’s son, and my sister all died in prison. My brother survived his imprisonment, but died soon afterward. Only Nollie, my older sister, and I came out alive.

So many times we wonder why God has certain things happen to us. We try to understand the circumstances of our lives, and we are left wondering. But God’s foolishness is so much wiser than our wisdom.

From generation to generation, from small beginnings and little lessons, He has a purpose for those who know and trust Him.

God has no problems—just plans!

-- Corrie ten Boom