"Oh that I had chosen the narrow despised way, it alone is the good way!"

    "Eternity! oh what an idea! Were I to write the largest figure on every grain of sand that lies on the sea-shore, then to reckon those numbers together, still the sum would not be eternity. And shall I be able to escape from Him who is of purer eyes than to look on iniquity, who is every where? to flee from His power who raised the dead, and to whom the devils are subject?.... Remember, death is at the door, and that event which I must meet to-morrow, you must all err long meet, though I trust not in the dreadful form in which it is before me. Hear then my last words. I have not known one hour of happiness since I forsook the paths of virtue; I have proved the truth of the Scriptures which I slighted. My soul has been 'like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. there is no peace, said my God, to the wicked.' The Lord has often made me to 'flee when no man pursued.' I have heard the vengeance of God in the winter blast, in the dreams on my bed; the Lord has scared me with dreams till my flesh has crept with horror. Oh! believe the Bible. 'God is angry with the wicked every day,' and they are made to feel it. Even in this dark prison and with only my dark hope, I have at moments experienced a feeling of peace, a little taste of a holier and purer joy, that can make me believe all that God's Word contains of promise and of blessing, and of present consolation to those who have interest in Christ. Oh that I had chosen the narrow despised way, it alone is the good way!"

                                   'The Highland Chairman'

Unbridled Affections

    "When a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and avaricious man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace. An unmortified man is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak, in a measure carnal and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires. Hence it makes him sad to forego them; he is quick to anger if reproved. Yet if he satisfies his desires, remorse of conscience overwhelms him because he followed his passions and they did not lead to the peace he sought.
    True peace of heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in satisfying them. There is no peace in the carnal man, in the man given to vain attractions, but there is peace in the fervent and spiritual man."

        The Imitation of Christ; Ch. 6.

Thoughts and Quotes

    "Having compassion on someone is having their hurt in your heart." Don't remember

    Romans 1:14-16 summary:
        I am a debtor
        I am ready to preach
        I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ

    "Between Perplexity and Peace is Prayer" Don't remember

    "The devil has no power over us, except the power we give him." Pastor Ben Burtch

    A thought on Matthew 14:23-33:
        When we find ourselves in danger and peril, we can always look to Jesus. But when we look back at our problems and take our eyes off Christ, we will begin to fall again.

    "We are not to run God's Word through our theology, but instead, we are to run our theology through God's Word." Pastor Ben Burtch

A New Heart

       Ezekiel 11:19-20
              19And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh: 20That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

       When we give our hearts to God, He will do this in us. There will be such a change in our lives that people will see something different about you. As I have read the Bible, and talked to God over the past few weeks, my love for Him has been growing so much. I praise Him for working a miracle in me and pray that He will do the same for you.

The Fruit of the Spirit

       When you think of the Fruit of the Spirit, do you think of them as separate fruits? or do you think of them as one Fruit? Yesterday I bought a book written by D.L. Moody called "The Secret of Success in the Christian Life." Towards the end of the first chapter it was talking about love, the first of the Fruit of the Spirit. (I had never heard or thought of this before, but it is good to know.) The paragraph said, "The fruit of the Spirit, as you find it in Galatians, begins with love. There are nine graces spoken of in Galatians 5, and of the nine, Paul puts love at the head of the list; love is the first thing in that precious cluster of fruit. Someone has put it in this way: that all the other eight can be put in the word love. Joy is love exulting; peace is love in repose; longsuffering is love on trial; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love at school; and temperance is love in training. So it is love all the way      love at the top, love at the bottom, and all the way along down these graces."

       Astounding isn't it? That if we only have love, it will be all we need. But this kind of love is not a love that people have on their own. It is agape love, God's kind of love. Which means that without Him, we cannot have this kind of love. So in order to have a perfect love, we must be Christ's, and we must turn everything over to Him. We cannot have this love with anything contrary to God's working.

       "Cleanse me Lord, of all things contrary to your being, so that I can know that perfect love of your Holy Spirit."

"With God All Things Are Possible"

       Over the past couple of weeks, my Father has been showing me that I can do nothing on my own. I try to fix something and it goes wrong. I try to write something and it doesn't sound right. I, I, I, me, me, me. No matter what I try to do on my own, it always goes down. So God shows me that with His help, and through His power, I can do anything. In the past I've tried to reform my life, and be a different and better person. What do you think happens? I fail. I fail miserably. God tells me in His Word, that "....With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." So I turn to my Father and he tells me that if I give Him total and complete control of my life, He will reform it. He will make me a different and better person. Not so that I will look good to my peers, parents, or anybody else. But instead, He tells me that He will do it so that He will get glory and honor and praise out of it.

       "Lord God, take my life, my will, my thoughts, and purify them. Give me a desire to please you with everything I do and say and think. And use me to glorify your name, honor your being, and praise you for being my God, and for doing a miracle in me."

God Has A Plan For Every Day

       Just the other day, after talking to God and thinking about the things He's been doing in my life, I went to read the Bible. Well, I wasn't sure exactly what to read, so I just opened it to a random place, and what do you think was the passage? It was Romans 5. So I began to read and found that it wasn't random after all. It was exactly the place that God had picked out for my day. I read chapters 5-8 and that was exactly what I needed for that day. It's amazing how things that seem to be random or by accident are really exactly what God has planned; even the little things. My God cares for every aspect of my life and that is such an encouragement to me. He has my entire life planned out, but only reveals it to me day by day.

       Proverbs 16:3 Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts(purpose/plans) shall be established.

       Matthew 6:25-34 25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, What ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.