Saturday 27 April 2013

Shall I, for fear of feeble man,The Spirit’s course in me restrain? John Wesley

The words of this rarely sung hymn are powerful. Do they not stir the reader up to do what it says? To NOT fear feeble man that the Spirit of God would have His way in our hearts and lives! To be a true witness for God! To not  conceal God's word in our hearts!To NOT soften God's truth before others!Indeed, let Christ's love constrain us with prayers, entreaties, tears, 'To snatch them from the gaping grave'. Rather than fear man let us fear the terrors of the Lord! That God indeed would supply the strength we need to be that true witness of the Lord!AK.

Shall I, for fear of feeble man,

The Spirit’s course in me restrain?

Or, undismayed, in deed and word

Be a true witness for my Lord?



Awed by a mortal’s frown, shall I

Conceal the Word of God most high?

How then before Thee shall I dare

To stand, or how Thine anger bear?



Shall I, to soothe the unholy throng,

Soften Thy truths, and smooth my tongue,

To gain earth’s gilded toys, or flee

The cross, endured, my God, by Thee?



What then is he whose scorn I dread,

Whose wrath or hate makes me afraid?

A man! an heir of death! a slave

To sin! a bubble on the wave!



Yea, let men rage, since Thou wilt spread

Thy shadowing wings around my head;

Since in all pain Thy tender love

Will still my sure refreshment prove.



Savior of men, Thy searching eye

Doth all my inmost thoughts descry;

Doth aught on earth my wishes raise,

Or the world’s pleasures, or its praise?



The love of Christ doth me constrain

To seek the wandering souls of men;

With cries, entreaties, tears, to save,

To snatch them from the gaping grave.


For this let men revile my name.

No cross I shun, I fear no shame,

All hail, reproach, and welcome, pain!

Only Thy terrors, Lord, restrain.



My life, my blood, I here present,

If for Thy truth they may be spent,

Fulfill Thy sovereign counsel, Lord!

Thy will be done, Thy name adored!



Give me Thy strength, O God of power;

Then let winds blow, or thunders roar,

Thy faithful witness will I be:

’Tis fixed; I can do all through Thee!

John Wesley

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/i/f/siffofmn.htm

Saturday 13 April 2013

What has Rocky and St Paul got in common?

Answer: Discipline.

'Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever.

Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.

No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize'.

St Paul to the Corinthians

Thursday 11 April 2013

'My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.' ( Psalm 22.14) A Reflection by C.H.Spurgeon.

Be encouraged weary and depressed soul by these words of comfort from the pen of Charles Spurgeon. AK

Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his God, “Be not far from me,” for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness.

Believer, come near the cross today, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father’s love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus.

Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord’s countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise!

Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord’s feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.