What Shall We Say. . . If God Be For Us?

Romans 8:31
What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us,
who can be against us?

As if he had said:
What comfort may we derive from these doctrines?
God has called us all to holiness, and to love to him,
which is the principle of holiness.
We are persecuted and despised,
it is true, and we may be more so;
but, as God has called us to love him,
and all things work together for good to them that love him;
and, as his covenant with Abraham,
while he was in his Gentile state,
shows his gracious purpose towards us Gentiles,
whom he has foreknown,
who have been objects of his gracious foreknowledge,
as well as the Jews,
and who have now the fullest proof that we were so,
by his sending us the Gospel, and showing us, in it,
that if the Israelites were to be a holy priesthood, a royal nation,
we are no less favored, as he has predestinated,
from the beginning determined,
that we should be conformed to the image of his Son,
who is to be the first-born among many brethren,
the head and chief of all converted Jews and Gentiles,
and, in order to our final salvation,
has called, invited us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
has justified those who do believe,
and has glorified, highly honored,
and adorned them with innumerable gifts and graces,
and, if they continue to possess that faith which worketh by love,
will bring them, both body and soul, to his eternal glory,
their bodies being made like unto his glorious body:
– seeing, therefore, all these things are so,
what comfort in our tribulations shall we derive from them?
– Why this:
If God be for us, who can be against us?
He who is infinitely wise
has undertaken to direct us:
He who is infinitely powerful
has undertaken to protect us:
He who is infinitely good
has undertaken to save us.
What cunning, strength, or malice,
can prevail against his wisdom, power, and goodness?
None.
Therefore we are safe who love God;
and not only shall sustain no essential damage
by the persecutions of ungodly men,
but even these things work together for our good.
Clarke’s Commentary

Published in: on July 9, 2017 at 7:55 am  Leave a Comment  
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Abundantly Able

And being absolutely certain
that whatever promise He is bound by,
He is able to make good
Romans 4:20

We are told that Abraham could look at his own body
and consider it as good as dead
without being discouraged,
because he was not looking at himself
but at the Almighty One.
He did not stagger at the promise,
but stood straight up unbending
beneath his mighty load of blessing;
and instead of growing weak he waxed strong in the faith,
grew more robust,
the more difficulties became apparent,
glorifying God through His very sufficiency
and being “fully persuaded”
(as the Greek expresses it)
“that he who had promised was,”
not merely able,
but as it literally means “abundantly able,”
munificently able,
able with an infinite surplus of resources,
infinitely able “to perform.”

He is the God of boundless resources.
The only limit is in us.
Our asking,
our thinking,
our praying are too small;
our expectations are too limited.
He is trying to lift us up to a higher conception,
and lure us on to a mightier expectation and appropriation.
Oh, shall we put Him in derision?
–A. B. Simpson

Published in: on April 21, 2017 at 1:46 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Today’s thought – Tear Up Your Itinerary

july 15, pics from Gma c 022

july 15, pics from Gma c 021the Farmer’s grapes are  ripening

Good Morning

Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

It is by no means enough to set out cheerfully
with your God on any venture of faith.
Tear into smallest pieces your itinerary
which your imagination may have drawn up.

Nothing will fall out as you expect.

Your guide will keep to no beaten path.
He will lead you by a way
such you have never dreamed your eyes
would look upon.
He knows no fear,
and He expects you to fear
nothing while He is with you.

Joshua 1:9
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Hear the sound of ripping paper . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on July 18, 2014 at 9:31 am  Leave a Comment  
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March 21, Today’s thought – Hope Against Hope

mar 18 001 (1)The ants are circling the ‘wagons’.

Good Morning

Romans 4:18-22
Abraham, against all hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So shall thy seed be.” And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, nor yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. And therefore “it was imputed to him for righteousness.”

Abraham is knows as the father of our faith.
That title didn’t come easily!
First of all,
He left his home in a sophisticated and affluent part
of the world because
he heard God calling him to a new land.
Throughout his story in Genesis,
the one constant is that he
“picked up his tent stakes”
and moved on.

But that was just the beginning of his challenges.
When he got to the land,
it was filled with warring tribes.
Even harder to deal with,
he and his wife seemingly could not have children.
How do you become the father of a nation
when you have no land and no child?
But Abraham never gave up–
and at an old age received his reward.
Will your faith persevere
when you see no immediate results to feed your hope?
from A Daybook of Grace

Hoping . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on March 21, 2014 at 10:18 am  Leave a Comment  
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May 17, Today’s thought – Obedience

May 14 003Tomatoes staked.

Good Morning

And Abraham took Ishmael his son, . . . in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. Genesis 17:23

Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is, delayed obedience is disobedience. Every time God calls us to any duty, He is offering to make a covenant with us; doing the duty is our part, and He will do His part in special blessing.

The only we can obey is to obey “in the self-same day” as Abraham did.To be sure, we often postpone a duty and then later on do it as fully as we can. It is better to do this than not to it at all. But it is then at the best, only a crippled, disfigured, half-way sort of duty-doing; and a postponed duty never can bring the full blessing that God intended, and that it would have brought if done at the earliest possible moment.

It is a pity to rob ourselves, along with robbing God and others, by procrastination. “In the self same day” is the Genesis way of saying, “Do it now.” ~~Messages for the Morning Watch

Accepting God’s correction. . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on May 17, 2013 at 4:31 am  Leave a Comment  
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