dependence

  • Ascension Day: "He went up, scattering blessings; & he has done nothing but bless them ever since"

    Luke 24:51  And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51  And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 52  And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53  And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

    "April 1, 1816.

    "I am so worn down with constant cares and labors, that my affections seem to be all dried up, 'and I am withered like grass.' However, I hope you have received, ere this, a few lines, as a proof that I have not quite forgotten, or ceased to love my mother.

    "Our revival still lingers: it, however, increases slowly. I have conversed with about forty who entertain hopes, and with about sixty more who are inquiring. Twenty-three have joined the church since the year commenced. The work is evidently not over; but whether it will prove general, is still doubtful. There is quite a revival at Bath, below us. Nearly two hundred have been awakened. In Philadelphia, seventy one were added to a single church at one time, a few weeks since. In New York and Baltimore, also,  there are revivals. You have probably heard, that there have been revivals among the Hottentots. Two hundred were added to the church in one year, and ten Hottentot preachers ordained. There is much more good news of a similar nature. Surely we live in a good day, and I believe you will yet see good days in Rindge. Their liberality in raising father's salary, is a token for good; and I rejoice in it more for that reason than for any other. Those who are most willing to pay for the gospel, are most likely to have it blessed to them.

    "We go on very happily in every respect. I have been favored with a long calm, or rather sunshine. Every thing is easy; I am careful for nothing; Christ is so precious and so near; my cup runneth over. Every day I expect a storm, but it does not come. Doubtless I have many bitter, trying scenes to pass through yet; worse than any I have heretofore experienced. But I care not. He will carry me through. I wish to mention to you some passages, which have been peculiarly sweet of late. One is this: 'He caused them to be pitied of all them by whom they were carried away captive.' Scarcely any passage of Scripture seems to me so expressive of God's goodness to his people as this. After they had provoked him, till he banished them from the good land, still he pitied them, and made their enemies pity them. It sounds like David's language— 'Deal gently with the young man Absalom for my sake.'

    "Another is the account of our Saviour's ascension, in the last chapter of Luke: 'And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And while he blessed them,' &c. Observe 'while he blessed,' &c. The last thing he was ever seen to do on earth, was to bless his disciples. He went up, scattering blessings; and he has done nothing but bless them ever since."

    Psalm 68:7  O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah: 8  The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. 9  Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. 10  Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor...

    19  Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. 20  He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death. 21  But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.
        

    From Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Psalm 68:

    The glory of Zion's King is that he is a Saviour and benefactor to all his willing people and a consuming fire to all those that persist in rebellion against him, 19-21. We have here good and evil, life and death, the blessing and the curse, set before us, like that (Mark xvi. 16), He that believes shall be saved; he that believes not shall be damned.

          1. Those that take God for their God, and so give up themselves to him to be his people, shall be loaded with his benefits, and to them he will be a God of salvation. If in sincerity we avouch God to be our God, and seek to him as such, (1.) He will continually do us good and furnish us with occasion for praise. Having mentioned the gifts Christ received for us ( 18), fitly does he subjoin, in the next words, Blessed be the Lord; for it is owing to the mediation of Christ that we live, and live comfortably, and are daily loaded with benefits. So many, so weighty, are the gifts of God's bounty to us that he may be truly said to load us with them; he pours out blessings till there is no room to receive them, Mal. iii. 10. So constant are they, and so unwearied is he in doing us good, that he daily loads us with them, according as the necessity of every day requires. (2.) He will at length be unto us the God of salvation, of everlasting salvation, the salvation of God, which he will show to those that order their conversation aright (Ps. l. 23), the salvation of the soul. He that daily loads us with benefits will not put us off with present things for a portion, but will be the God of our salvation; and what he gives us now he gives as the God of salvation, pursuant to the great design of our salvation. He is our God, and therefore he will be the God of eternal salvation to us; for that only will answer the vast extent of his covenant-relation to us as our God. But has he power to complete this salvation? Yes, certainly; for unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. The keys of hell and death are put into the hand of the Lord Jesus, Rev. i. 18. He, having made an escape from death himself in his resurrection, has both authority and power to rescue those that are his from the dominion of death, by altering the property of it to them when they die and giving them a complete victory over it when they shall rise again; for the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And to those that shall thus for ever escape death, and shall find such an outlet from it as not to be hurt of the second death, to them surely deliverances from temporal death are mercies indeed and come from God as the God of their salvation. 2 Cor. i. 10.

          2. Those that persist in their enmity to him will certainly be ruined (21): God shall wound the head of his enemies,--of Satan the old serpent (of whom it was by the first promise foretold that the seed of the woman should break his head, Gen. iii. 15), --of all the powers of the nations, whether Jews or Gentiles, that oppose him and his kingdom among men (Ps. cx. 6), He shall wound the heads over many countries),--of all those, whoever they are, that will not have him to reign over them, for those he accounts his enemies, and they shall be brought forth and slain before him, Luke xix. 27. He will wound the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses. Note, Those who go on still in their trespasses, and hate to be reformed, God looks upon as his enemies and will treat them accordingly. In calling the head the hairy scalp perhaps there is an allusion to Absalom, whose bushy hair was his halter. Or it denotes either the most fierce and barbarous of his enemies, who let their hair grow, to make themselves look the more frightful, or the most fine and delicate of his enemies, who are nice about their hair: neither the one nor the other can secure themselves from the fatal wounds which divine justice will give to the heads of those that go on in their sins.

    Lamentations 3:2  It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24  The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25  The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. 26  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28  He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. 29  He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. 30  He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. 31  For the Lord will not cast off for ever: 32  But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33  For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. 34  To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 35  To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, 36  To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

    Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

    Psalm 73:1
    Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
    Deuteronomy 33:25b
    ... as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
    Psalm 31:19
    Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee;
    which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!


    O God of Bethel, by Whose Hand
    (Philip Doddridge, verses 1-4; unknown Scottish author, verse 5)

    O God of Bethel, by Whose hand
    Thy people STILL are fed,
    Who through this weary pilgrimage
    Hast all our fathers led.

    Our vows, our prayers, we now present
    Before Thy throne of grace;
    God of our fathers, be the God
    Of their succeeding race.

    Through each perplexing path of life
    Our wandering footsteps guide;
    Give us each day our daily bread,
    And raiment fit provide.

    O spread Thy covering wings around
    Till all our wanderings cease,
    And at our Father’s loved abode
    Our souls arrive in peace.

    Such blessings from Thy gracious hand
    Our humble prayers implore;
    And Thou shalt be our chosen God,
    And portion evermore.

    Proverbs 30:8b (ESV)
    ... feed me with the food that is needful for me.

    Luke 11:9  And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11  If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12  Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?


    Are     you importunately asking, seeking, and knocking,
    that God the Father might feed you,
    that He might supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus...
    or have your turned your back on God because your current circumstances are causing you to doubt the goodness of God?

    Of Christ's fullness, are you expecting to receive...
    from mercy to mercy (~ Lam. 3:22-23),
    from grace to grace (~ John 1:16),
    from glory to glory (~ II Cor. 3:12-18),
    from light to light (~ Prov. 4:18)?

    When was the last time you blessed God for His blessings to you, as David did?

    "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation."

    Related:

    My letters on assurance & fighting for joy including:

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

    Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Work found at http://www.pitts.emory.edu/dia/detail.cfm?ID=10992 / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

  • "Your business is to trust, and go forward." (Edward Payson)

    After posting Andrew Fuller's words about The Dangerous Tendency of Delay in the concerns of religion last night, this morning the Holy Spirit brought these words of Edward Payson to my heart:

    Your business is to trust, and go forward.



    Through that loving Fatherly discipline, I was strongly encouraged to trust and to go forward. Job 5:17  Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18  For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.  Psalm 16:7  I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

    To explain... over the past several weeks, on many, many occasions, I've been tempted to distrust and to shrink back, rather than to trust and to go forward. I'd fallen headfirst into the deadly snare of fixing my eyes on the visible obstacles and impossible situations – instead of setting my affections on the invisible God Who can do the impossible.

    I love the Bible, and God has provided many, many encouragements to me through His Word. However, once again, I must take the opportunity to commend to you the reading of well-chosen Christian biography. Though the words are not infallible and inspired as the Scripture is, the Holy Spirit can take the stories and the words of the saints and use them to strengthen and refresh our weak and thirsty souls, for these men and women are part of that great cloud of witnesses which surrounds us.*

    Here's the full context of Payson's words (from "Memoir, Select Thoughts and Sermons of the Late Rev. Edward Payson, Volume 1" by Edward Payson (1783-1827) and Asa Cummings, 329-330, emphasis mine). Please note:  though Payson's words were written to a man who is called to the ministry of Gospel preaching, they are helpful and applicable to any believer who is struggling to press on in obedience to the will of God in the face of great temptations and difficulties. If you're not struggling today, soon enough you will be. Though Satan is a defeated foe, he still prowls and seeks to work us woe!

    To a brother, who shrunk from his duty, through depression of mind, and an erroneous opinion of his own qualifications for the ministry.  Lest any should use the authority of Dr. Payson's name to urge men to assume the sacred office without the requisite qualifications, it ought to be stated, that the person addressed in the following letter, besides possessing decided piety, had passed through a regular course of preparatory studies at a theological seminary:

    "My dear brother:  Your letter found me more than ordinarily hurried; but I feel it to be so important that you should be licensed this fall, that I must snatch a moment to answer it.  Your feelings, as you describe them, are just like mine, only less aggravated by long continuance.  I mention this that you may pay more regard to my advice.  I am as certain that it is best for you to take license immediately, as I can be of any thing.   Rely upon it, that, if you delay, your difficulties will increase, and you will feel more and more as if it as impossible to preach.  Your only safety lies in placing yourself in circumstances which will make exertion necessary, and which will secure divine assistance.  Never mind your infirmities.  You have nothing to do with them.  Your business is to trust, and go forward.  If you wait till the sea becomes land, you will never walk on it.  You must leave the ship, and, like Peter, set your feet upon the waves, and you will find them marble.  Christ is a good Master.  He won't suffer you to sink; and you will, at length, glory in your infirmities.  I would not give up the precious proofs which I have received, in consequence of my weakness, of his power, faithfulness, and love, for all the comforts of good health.  But be assured, that, if you remain as you are, Satan will weave a net round you, which you will never break.  Every mental and religious effort will become more difficult and painful; your mind will be like the body of a rickety child; you will live a burden to yourself and friend, and die without the consolation of having been made useful.  This would infallibly have been my fate, had I not been thrust into the ministry before I well knew what I was about.  Yet you see I have, somehow or other, been carried along, and so will you be.  Do not then, my dear, dear brother, stand hesitating.  A feeble, nervous man must not deliberate, but act; for his deliberation will not be worth a straw, but his activity may be, and probably will be, useful both to himself and others.

    "When Christ told his disciples to feed the multitude with five loaves, they did not hesitate, and say, Lord, let us first see the bread multiplied; if we begin and have not enough, we shall be put to shame; but they distributed what they had, and it increased with the distribution. So you will find it.  You just, therefore, go forward.  There is no reason why you should not.  If you delay, indolence will steal upon you, and bind you in chains, which you will never break.

    "I charge you, then, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to be up and doing. There are fifty places in this State [Maine], where the most unconnected things, which your lips could utter, would do good, and be well received.  You have no conception by what apparently feeble means God often works wonders.  Let the next tidings I hear from you be, that you have crossed the Rubicon; or, rather, let me see you here forthwith, in the character of a preacher."

    Matthew 16:9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

    The God Who calls us to walk on the water, will sustain us to walk on the water,
    no matter how high the waves, no matter how deep, how broad, how cold, or how turbulent the water may be!

    Can the height or depth or breadth or chill or turbulence of any water separate us from
    the height and depth and breadth and warmth and steadfastness of Christ's love for His elect?!

    Our time of insufficiency is a God-ordained opportunity for us to come to know Christ Himself as our sufficiency!

    II Corinthians 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God

    O, for a Faith That Will Not Shrink
    (Words: William H. Bath­urst, Psalms and Hymns, 1831)

    O, for a faith that will not shrink,
    Though pressed by every foe,
    That will not tremble on the brink
    Of any earthly woe!

    That will not murmur nor complain
    Beneath the chastening rod,
    But, in the hour of grief or pain,
    Will lean upon its God.

    A faith that shines more bright and clear
    When tempests rage without;
    That when in danger knows no fear,
    In darkness feels no doubt.

    That bears, unmoved, the world’s dread frown
    Nor heeds its scornful smile;
    That seas of trouble cannot drown,
    Nor Satan’s arts beguile.

    A faith that keeps the narrow way
    Till life’s last hour is fled,
    And with a pure and heavenly ray
    Lights up a dying bed.

    Lord, give me such a faith as this,
    And then, whate’er may come,
    I’ll taste, e’en here, the hallowed bliss
    Of an eternal home.

    O, for a faith that will not shrink!

    Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

    Mark 10:27 And Jesus looking upon them saith,
    With men it is impossible, but not with God:
    for with God all things are possible.

    May the Holy Spirit impart to us understanding
    and bring to our remembrance the five loaves of the five thousand,
    and how many baskets were taken up,
    so we might trust in God and go forward in faith
    and expect to receive divine assistance as we go.

    John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
    he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
    whatsoever I have said unto you.

    Isaiah 54:4a Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded;
    for thou shalt not be put to shame...

    On what water is Jesus bidding you to walk?
    Will you ask Him to strengthen your faith to trust Him more, so you might go forward?

    Please note: Today's post is an edited/adapted version of a post I originally published here on October 2, 2011.

    * Please check out John Piper's biographical messages. God used these to whet my appetite for reading Christian biography, and I pray God might use them similarly in your life if you've not yet come to appreciate the treasure of Christian biography.

    Related posts...

    on Christian biography...

    on God's sufficiency...

    Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

    Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Po_vodam.jpg | {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

  • Jeremiah's Lament ... my lament: "My throat is parched, this place so dry"

    The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
    “Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say,
    Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD.
    Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
    Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.
    Do not trust in these deceptive words:
    ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
    (Jeremiah 7:1-4)

    My throat is parched, this place so dry
    With fear and trembling, I bow and cry

    O! Spark! O! Blessed fire of grace
    Come and kindle, my need is great!

    The lions roar, the dogs do tear
    Where is our rescue? Are You there?

    In dust and ashes, no comfort found
    The heavens brass - nary a sound

    Tempted to despair, to make shipwreck
    To stop contending for precious faith

    Author of faith, finish what You began
    Our help is in You; vain is help of man

    Like a lonely sparrow, I lie awake
    Have mercy on us for Your name's sake!

    My friends all scattered, on You I rely
    In Your majesty, ride through the skies!

    The earthly cisterns futile and vain
    O visit us! Doctrine drop like rain!

    The wicked encircle me all around
    Beguile, confuse, and confound

    Truth has perished, cut off from their lips
    How can I stand? How can I persist?

    Seeking teachers to suit their own passions
    Unsound preachers robed in current fashion

    A fountain of tears are my eyes
    Their ears itch, entertaining lies

    Wolves in sheep's clothing: Satan's disguise
    They bend their tongues like bows for lies

    A horrible thing has happened in the land
    Lightly esteemed the Christ, built on sinking sand

    Scoffed at the Rock of our salvation
    Provoked You with our abominations

    We kicked, we forsook our God who gave us birth
    Trusted our beauty, exalted human worth

    But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:
    thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness;
    then he forsook God which made him,
    and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
    They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods,
    with abominations provoked they him to anger.
    They sacrificed unto devils, not to God;
    to gods whom they knew not,
    to new gods that came newly up,
    whom your fathers feared not.
    Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful,
    and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
    (Deuteronomy 32:15-18, KJV)

    “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood,
    I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’

    You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.
    And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty,
    for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you,
    declares the Lord GOD.

    “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore
    because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby...
    (Ezekiel 16:6, 13b-15a)

    Their trumpet blasts uncertain in the air
    Have You not heard? Do You not care?

    O! Spark! O! Blessed fire of grace
    Come and kindle, our need is great!

    The strange and earthly, I do disdain
    I seek gladd'ning oil, Your shining face

    Unless I believed, I surely would faint
    In Thee I trust. On Thee alone I wait!

    To finish my course, to stand in the gate,
    To proclaim Thy truth, I need Thy grace

    No one understands, no not one –
    Except my Advocate, God's only Son!

    Having received this sentence of death
    Beyond all measure I am pressed

    God forbid I waver and compromise
    Shrink back from speaking the words of Life

    You said to ask, and You said to knock
    Living Water, burst from flinty rock!

    Not a liar, Your promises You keep
    You never fail to feed Your sheep

    O! Spark! O! Blessed fire of grace
    Come and kindle, my need is great!

    From glory to glory, grace to grace
    Inflame me in my flickering race

    Hurry over Bether, the mount so high
    Hasten to me! Come! Swiftly fly!

    Be not a stranger! Do not forsake!
    O my God! Arm of the LORD, awake!

    To look upon Your goodness in desert land
    To feel the embrace of Your right hand

    To sup again, to taste Thy grace
    To enter Thy courts, see Thy face

    My greatest ambition, one thing I seek
    To dwell with Thee, see Thy beauty

    Good Shepherd, cast me not away,
    I am Your sheep, called by Your Name

    By Thee alone can I stand unashamed
    For Your glory and renown of Thy Name

    To proclaim in Your temple Your sovereign grace
    Grant me grace that I might not shrink or faint!

    O! Spark! O! Blessed fire of grace
    Come and kindle, my need is great!

    My throat is parched, this place so dry
    With fear and trembling, I bow and cry

    You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus...
    (II Timothy 2:1)

    I had fainted,
    unless I had believed
    to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
    Wait on the LORD:
    be of good courage,
    and he shall strengthen thine heart:
    wait, I say, on the LORD.
    (Psalm 27:13-14, KJV)

    From John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress":

    Then I saw in my dream, that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and led him into a place where was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it, to quench it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter.

    Then said Christian, What means this?

    The Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the devil: but in that thou seest the fire, notwithstanding, burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that. So he had him about to the back side of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast (but secretly) into the fire.

    Then said Christian, What means this?

    The Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually, with the oil of his grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart; by the means of which, notwithstanding what the devil can do, the souls of his people prove gracious still. 2 Cor. 12:9. And in that thou sawest that the man stood behind the wall to maintain the fire; this is to teach thee, that it is hard for the tempted to see how this work of grace is maintained in the soul.

    Related:

    John Piper's message at the 2012 Together for the Gospel Conference: Glory, Majesty, Dominion, and Authority Keep Us Safe for Everlasting Joy
    one woman's (not so secret) addiction
    I can't keep walking on eggshells here (more on Revelife, Calvinism, the Body of Christ and self)
    As the Visible Disappoints
    "Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation" by Joseph Hart
    The Shepherd's Examination (Dear shepherds...if you're not feeding the flock, then who will?)
    the shepherds' confession: may Christ and His Gospel become a joy and delight to us once more
    Happy Birthday, Richard Baxter: Reforming pastoral ministry
    Combatting the creepy guys (Sola Scriptura + priesthood of believers)
    O, Church, to whom are we listening: the frogs or the nightingale?
    never underestimate the prowling lion
    the church reformed, always being reformed, lest we become deformed (Reformation Day)
    A famine of hearing the words of the Lord
    Wake up and tremble, rightly ascribe
    "Consider your ways" (Haggai 1)
    The Glory of God in Sovereign Electing Grace
    the lost treasures of Christianity & the call to pray for revival (Bible reading: Ezra 1)
    Reformation Rebels: Are you willing to be a rebel for the sake of the Church?
    even among the voices (Bible reading: Nehemiah 6:1-14)

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

    Photo credits:

naphtali_deer

About me...

Christian hedonist in training. Pressing on to know more and more of the joy of the LORD. Pleading with God to rend the heavens and revive and refresh my own soul, as well as His Church, to His praise, honor and glory.

Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures. ~ Alan Redpath

My other websites

tent of meeting: Prayer for reformation & revival

(See also Zechariah821. Zechariah821 is a mirror site of tent of meeting, found on WordPress)

deerlifetrumpet: Encouragement for those seeking reformation & revival in the Church

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