A Greater Mercy

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you." ― I Thessalonians 5:18

"God has never meant this world to be a comfortable nest for us. If we try to make it such for ourselves, He will plant thorns in it so that we may be compelled to mount and find our soul's true home somewhere else, in a higher and nobler sphere than this poor world can give!" ― Charles Spurgeon

"It's really hard to get bitter about your situation when you are constantly giving thanks to God for those things. It changes your whole mindset. It's all for your good. God's in it! God has a plan. God has a purpose." ― Pastor Jeff Paget

"Let us mark this well. There is nothing which shows our ignorance so much as our impatience under trouble. We forget that every trial is a message from God – and intended to do us good in the end. Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible, to drive us to our knees. Health is a good thing. But sickness is far better, if it leads us to God. Prosperity is a great mercy. But adversity is a greater one, if it brings us to Christ." ― J.C. Ryle

"Remember, there is nothing that happens in your daily life, but what was first of all devised in eternity, and counselled by Jesus Christ for your good and in your behalf, that all things might work together for your lasting benefit and profit. Oh, how strange providence seems to you and to me! Does it not look like a zig-zag line, this way and that way, backward and forward, like the journeyings of the children of Israel in the wilderness? Ah! my brethren, but to God it is a straight line. Directly, God always goes to his object. And yet to us, he often seems to go round about. Let us learn to leave providence in the hand of the Counsellor." ― Charles Spurgeon

The Beauty of Holiness

Robert McCheyne was a saintly man of God, who, in his comparatively short life, won many souls to the Lord. After he died, a letter addressed to him was found on his desk. It was from a person he had led to Christ and said, "It was nothing you said that first made me wish to be a Christian. It was the beauty of holiness which I saw in your face."

A Friend Who Cares

 

"A friend loveth at all times, and a brother
is born for adversity." ― Proverbs 17:17  

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” ― Henri Nouwen

My Prayer

 

More holiness give me, more strivings within,
More patience in suff’ring, more sorrow for sin,
More faith in my Savior, more sense of His care,
More joy in His service, more purpose in prayer.

More gratitude give me, more trust in the Lord,
More pride in His glory, more hope in His Word,
More tears for His sorrows, more pain at His grief,
More meekness in trial, more praise for relief.

More purity give me, more strength to o’ercome,
More freedom from earth-stains, more longing for home.
More fit for the kingdom, more used would I be,
More blessed and holy—more, Savior, like Thee.

― Philip P. Bliss

He Gives Himself

"If you want to get warm, you move near the fire.
If you want joy, peace, eternal life, you must get close 

to what has them." ― C.S. Lewis

 

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God came near us in the life, but God became ours in the death, of His dear Son. Incarnation was needed for that great privilege ― "We beheld His glory;" but the crucifixion was needed in order to make possible the more wondrous prerogative ― "Of His fulness have all we received."

What do we receive? Christ is more than all His gifts. All His gifts are treasured up in Him and inseparable from Him. We get Jesus Christ Himself.

The blessings that we receive may be stated in many different ways. You may say we get pardon, purity, hope, joy, the prospect of Heaven, power for service; all these and a hundred more designations by which we might describe the one gift. All these are but the consequences of our having got the Christ within our hearts.

He does not give pardon and the rest, as a king might give pardon and honors, a thousand miles off, bestowing it by a mere word, upon some criminal, but He gives all that He gives because He gives Himself.

The real possession that we receive is neither more nor less than a loving Savior, to enter our spirits and abide there, and be the spirit of our spirits, and the life of our lives.

― Alexander MacLaren

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"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
― John 1:14

The Link Between My Soul and Christ

"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost." ― Luke 19:10 

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"The first link between my soul and Christ is, not my goodness, but my badness; not my merit, but my misery; not my standing, but my falling; not my riches, but my need. He comes to visit His people, yet not to admire their beauties, but to remove their deformities; not to reward their virtues, but to forgive their sins." ― Charles Spurgeon