New URL

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A Reminder About a Year’s End

Silent Monks Singing Handel’s Messiah “Hallelujah” Chorus

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZCFCeJTEzNU&hl=en&fs=1

I'm hoping I do not get into trouble with Dr. Wilson for posting this.

Prayer for a Friend

Praying this for a friend at his request:

Turn to me and be gracious to me, 

for I am lonely and afflicted.

The troubles of my heart are enlarged; 

bring me out of my distresses.

Consider my affliction and my trouble, 

and forgive all my sins.

Consider how many are my foes, 

and with what violent hatred they hate me.

Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! 

Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

May integrity and uprightness preserve me, 

for I wait for you.

 

Redeem Israel, O God, 

out of all his troubles.

(Psalm 25:16-22 ESV)

I'm including this as my part: 

The LORD is the strength of his people; 

he is the saving refuge of his anointed.

Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!

Be their shepherd and carry them forever.

(Psalm 28:8-9 ESV)

Boys & Their Beds

The Faith Song by JMEjr

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150366588535273

Earthy Faces?

The more familiar acquaintance we have with God the more do we partake of him. He that passes by the fire may have some gleams of heat, but he that stands by it has his colour changed. It is not possible that a man should have any long conference with God and be no whit affected. If we are strangers to God it is no wonder that our faces become earthy. – William Bramwell

Marks of the New Birth – JC Ryle

From Ryle's Expository Thoughts on John 3:1-8

But whatever mystery there may be about the wind, its presence may always be known by its sound and effects. "You hear the sound thereof," says our Lord. When our ears hear it whistling in the windows, and our eyes see the clouds driving before it, we do not hesitate to say, "There is wind." It is just the same with the operations of the Holy Spirit in the new birth of man. Marvelous and incomprehensible as His work may be, it is work that can always be seen and known. The new birth is a thing that "cannot be hidden." There will always be visible "fruits of the Spirit" in every one that is born of the Spirit.

 

Would we know what the marks of the new birth are? We shall find them already written for our learning in the First Epistle of John. The man born of God:

•  "believes that Jesus is the Christ,"
• "does not commit sin,"
• "does righteousness,"
• "loves the brethren,"
• "overcomes the world,"
• "keeps himself from the wicked one." 

This is the man born of the Spirit! Where these fruits are to be seen, there is the new birth of which our Lord is speaking. He that lacks these marks, is yet dead in trespasses and sins. (1 John 5:1; 3:9; 2:29; 3:14; 5:4; 5:18.)

 

And now let us solemnly ask ourselves whether we know anything of the mighty change of which we have been reading? Have we been born again? Can any marks of the new birth be seen in us? Can the sound of the Spirit be heard in our daily conversation? Is the image and superscription of the Spirit to be discerned in our lives? Happy is the man who can give satisfactory answers to these questions! A day will come when those who are not born again will wish that they had never been born at all.

Supper Out @ S&S – Family Friendly

An Article about a Dad’s Blessing

My brother posted this on his blog today in light of my nephew's birthday today. My brother is most excellent at knowing his children and parenting each one by a different spoon.
Enjoy.

Sleeping Styles

Comfort & Cheer from Having & Knowing the Scriptures

It is a comfortable and cheering thought, that the same kind of thing that happened to the disciples is often going on at the present day. The sermons that are preached to apparently heedless ears in churches, are not all lost and thrown away. The instruction that is given in schools and pastoral visits, is not all wasted and forgotten. The texts that are taught by parents to children are not all taught in vain. There is often a resurrection of sermons, and texts, and instruction, after an interval of many years. The good seed sometimes springs up after he that sowed it has been long dead and gone. Let preachers go on preaching, and teachers go on teaching, and parents go on training up children in the way they should go. Let them sow the good seed of Bible truth in faith and patience. Their labor is not in vain in the Lord. Their words are remembered far more than they think, and will yet spring up "after many days." (1 Cor. 15:58; Eccles. 11:1.)

JC Ryle's Expository Thoughts on John 2