It's Impossible

To sow tares and reap roses.

To sow jealousy and reap love.

To think wrong and live right.

To do wrong and live right.

To dance without paying the fiddler.

To bat below par and maintain self-respect.

To be unfair and succeed for any length of time.

To make decisions tomorrow rather than today.

To carry hatred in the heart without reflecting it in the face.

12 Ways to Tell if You're Backslidden

 

When you grow bolder with sin, or with temptations to sin, than you were in your more watchful state—be sure something is wrong!

When you make a small matter of those sins and infirmities which once seemed grievous to you and almost intolerable.

When you settle down to a course of religion that gives you but little labor, and leave out the hard and costly part.

When your God and Saviour grows a little strange to you, and your religion consists of conversing with men and their books and not with God and His Book.

When you delight more in hearing and talking than in secret prayer and the Word.

When you use the means of grace more as a matter of duty than as food in which your soul delights.

When you regard too much the eye of man and too little the eye of God.

When you grow hot and eager about some disputed point, or in forwarding the interests of some party of Christians more than about those matters which concern the great cause of Christ.

When you grow harsh and bitter towards those who differ from you, instead of feeling tenderly towards all who love Christ.

When you make light of preparing for the Lord's Day and the Lord's Table and think more of outward ordinances than you do of heart work.

When the hopes of Heaven and the love of God do not interest you, but you are thirsting after some worldly enjoyment and grow eager for it.

When the world grows sweeter to you and death and eternity are distasteful subjects.

—Charles H. Spurgeon

It's Spring Planting Time

Plant five rows of peas:

preparedness, promptness, perseverance, politeness, prayer.

Next plant three rows of squash:

squash gossip, squash criticism, squash indifference.

Then plant five rows of lettuce:

let us be faithful, let us be loyal, let us be unselfish, let us love one another, let us be truthful.

No garden is complete without turnips:

turn up for church, turn up with a smile, turn up with a new idea, turn up with real determination.

Friday Funny

What is Faith?

Faith is the eye by which we look to Jesus. A dim-sighted eye is still an eye; a weeping eye is still an eye.

Faith is the hand with which we lay hold of Jesus. A trembling hand is still a hand. And he is a believer whose heart within him trembles when he touches the hem of the Saviour's garment, that he may be healed.

Faith is the tongue by which we taste how good the Lord is. A feverish tongue is, nevertheless, a tongue, and, even then, we may believe when we are without the smallest portion of comfort; for our faith is founded, not upon feeling, but upon the promises of God.

Faith is the foot by which we go to Jesus. A lame foot is still a foot. He who comes slowly, nevertheless, comes.—George Mueller

A Prayer for the United States

Let us unite in imploring the Supreme Ruler of Nations to spread His holy protection over these United States:

To turn the machinations of the wicked; to the confirming of the Constitution;

To enable us at all times to root out internal sedition and put invasion to flight;

And to perpetuate to our country that prosperity which His goodness has already conferred. Amen.

—Composed by George Washington, 1794.

What Can Worldliness do to a Christian?

1. Worldliness Destroys Christian Joy.

If sin wasn't pleasurable, people wouldn't sin. But all the Devil's apples have worms. Remember the pleasures of sin are only for a season. The results of sin will come back to haunt you. What does a Christian lose when he backslides and becomes worldly? He loses the joy of his salvation.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.—Psalm 51:12-13.

2. Worldliness is a Fog.

Worldliness is a spiritual fog that hides the presence and will of God. You will start to pray, and your prayers won't get through the ceiling. You will start to sing, but all the spirit is taken out of the song.

When your heart is out of tune with God, worldly fog hides his presence and his will for your life. When everyone else is praising God, you won't have praise to offer. 

3. Worldliness will put a damper on your zeal for the Lord.

the first thing that happens to a backsliding Christian is that he cools off. He loses his zeal. He starts missing services. He starts withholding tithes and offerings. His prayer life is interrupted. His burden to see the lost get saved is gone. He starts to find fault and criticizes and blames others for everything. 

4. A Worldy Person has his Peace Destroyed.

Peace is the absence of conflict, the absence of war. In peace there is a calmness, a serenity, a contentedness. God calls it "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding."

5. Worldliness Will Tarnish the Christian Testimony.

If you engage in the things of the world, you will have no witness for Christ. Have you ever been around a Christian who so glowed that you knew he was a Christian?

Love the Lord with all your heart. Love the Lord with all your strength. Don't just go through the motions by pretending to love God while loving the enemy of God—the world.