"Do not worry about your life....Look at the birds of the air..." (Mat. 6 : 25 + 26)

Birds don’t get together and say, “We’ve got to come up with a strategy to keep ourselves alive.” They have no self-consciousness or ability to reason. But God has planted within them the instinct or divine capacity to find what is necessary to live. God doesn’t just create life; He also sustains it.

Job 38 : 41 and Psalm 147 : 9 tell us that baby birds cry out to God for their food. Jesus said that even though they don’t sow, or reap, or gather surplus into their barns, their heavenly Father hears and provides for them. Now that isn’t an excuse for idleness. You won’t see a bird standing on the edge of a tree with its mouth wide open. Perhaps you’ve noticed: it never rains worms! God feeds birds through the instinct that tells them where to find food. They work hard for it. They’re always busy searching, gobbling up little insects, migrating with the seasons, preparing their nests, caring for their young, then teaching them to fly and pushing them out of the nest at the right time, and so on.

Birds don’t worry about where they are going to find food; they just go about their business until they find it, and they always do because God is looking out for them. Birds have no reason to worry and if they don’t, what are you worrying for? . . .

Are you not much better than a bird? No bird was ever created in the image of God; no bird was ever designed to be a joined heir with Jesus Christ; ….If God sustains the life of a bird, don’t you think He will take care of you? Life is a gift from God. If God gives you the greater gift of life itself, don’t you think He will give you the lesser gift of sustaining that life? Of course He will, so don’t worry about it.

Keep in mind, of course, that like a bird, we have to work because God has designed that people should earn their bread by the sweat of their brows (Gen. 3 : 19). If we don’t work, it is not fitting that we eat (2 Thess. 3 : 10). Just as God provides for the birds through their instinct, so God provide for people through their efforts.

Taken from the book of John MacArthur Jr., "Anxious for Nothing", pages 22 - 24

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"My cup overflows..." (Psalm 23 : 5)

There is always something "over,"
    When we trust our gracious LORD;
Every cup is overflowing,
   His great rivers are all broad.
Nothing narrow, nothing sparing,
   Ever springing from His store;
To His own He gives full measure,
   Overflowing, evermore.

There is always something "over,"
   When we, from Father's hand,
Take our portion with thanksgiving,
    Praising for the path He planned.
Satisfaction, full and deepening,
    Fills the soul, and lights the eye,
When the heart has trusted Jesus
    All its needs to satisfy.

There is always something "over,"
   When we tell of all His love;
Unreached depths still lie beneath us,
   Unscaled heights rise far above:
Human lips can never utter
   All His wondrous tenderness,
We can only praise and wonder,
   And His Name forever bless.

                                                               Margaret E. Barber

"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all -
how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8 : 32

From "Streams in the Desert", May 28th

The beauty of God's commandments, wholesome for life!

Being busy with a sermon dealing with LD 41, HC ("What does the seventh commandment teach us?) it was brought home to me again in a wonderful way how wholesome for life God's commandments are, including the seventh commandment.

In the beginning God created everything beautifully, also in creating man male and female including the special feelings that come with it, emotionally, hormonally and so on. It's good to stress this in a society which is dominated by the term 'equality', equal rights both for men and women. Today people don't want to hear about the fact that God created male and female differently with the aim that they could complement each other beautifully in perfect harmony, not only in marriage, but also beyond marriage in the wider context of society.

Playing on man's sinful desires, today's society offers nothing else but a twisted picture of what God once created beautifully. So easily this can also affect our thinking. In this context I think in particular of how society interprets the word 'love' and speaks about sexual matters in a way that is complete focused on self-pleasure.
How would you describe the word 'love'? Scripture teaches love is an unconditional, self-denying, total commitment for life in good days and bad, in health and sickness, in riches and poverty as long as husband ans wife shall live.
Considering this, are we still willing to learn and practise what Scripture teaches about the beauty of marriage? Are we willing to fight for our marriage also when there are struggles? Note that in Christ there is restoration for every broken marriage.

The seventh commandment addresses equally also those who are single. We all are called to live holy. Single people too have their sexual feelings and by the power of the Holy Spirit  they too have to control these feeling equally as much as married people.
I would like to add that in a similar way they too are called to use the gift of being created either as male or as female to the glory of God, also in their single state.

We often look at God's commandment negatively in what God forbids. Yet working on this sermon it reminded me again that we should look more at God's commandments positively, how we in honouring them we can bring glory to God, but also how in honouring them we can be a salt in the midst of today's corrupt society.

May God help all of us to stay focused on the beauty of sexual differences and also how to use these differences to the glory of God and the society we live in. Highlighting these differences has nothing to do with discriminating the female gender, instead noting these differences is wholesome for life in every respect.

When clouds cover our life....

Remember, clouds are always moving ahead of God's cleansing wind!

I cannot know why suddenly the storm
Should rage so fiercely round me in its wrath;
But this I know - God watches all my path,
            And I can trust.

I may not draw aside the unseen veil
That hides the unknown future from my sight,
Nor know if for me waits the dark or light;
          But I can trust.

I have no power across the tide,
to see while here the land beyond the river;
But this I know - I will be God's forever;
          So I can trust.

From "Streams in the Desert"

Let me finish of with one of my favourite text from Scripture, Jer. 29, 11,
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, say the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

What a great promise to hold on to.
The Lord willing, I will deliver a sermon on this text coming Sunday morning in West Albany. In the same service our special granddaughter Indi will be baptized.

As for today, I wish you all a blessed day in God's service!

Mother's Day 2012

Happy mother's day to all caring mothers who day and night have the true well-being of their children at their heart, and who keep praying for them even in the darkest hours.
A true loving mother never gives up on her children, but always keeps hoping and paying for them.
In faith we may know that these prayers will never go unheard in heaven.
What a great comfort this is, especially when we grieve about the spiritual well-being of our children.

I leave you with a quote I came accross:

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."

Washington Irving

The shadows of darkness are the shade on the road leading to our heavenly home

Poem from "Streams in the Desert" (May 8)

"The road is rough, " I said;
   "It is uphil all the way;
No flowers, but thorns instead;
   And the skies overhead are grey."
But One took my hand and the entrance dim,
And sweet is the road that I walk with Him.

"The cross is too great," I cried -
   "More than the back can bear,
So rough and heavy and wide,
   And nobody near to care."
And One stooped softly and touched my hand;
"I know. I care. And I understand."

Then why do we fret and cry;
   Cross-bearers all we go:
But the road ends by and by
   In the dearest place we know,
And every step in the journey we
May take in the Lord's own company.

Don't let the song go out of your life...

It is easier to sing your worries away than to reason them away.

Why not sing in the morning? Think of the birds - they are the first to sing each day, and they have fewer worries than anything else in creation.
And don't forget to sing in the evening, which is what the robins do when they have finished their daily work. Once they have flown their last fight of the day and gathered the last bit of food, they find a treetop from which to sing a song of praise.

Oh, that we might sing morning and evening, offering up song after song of continual praise throughout the day.

Don't let the song go out of your life;
   Although it sometimes will flow
In a minor strain; it will blend again
   With a major tone you know.

Although shadows rise to obscure life's skies
   And hide for a time the sun,
The sooner they'll lift and reveal the rift,
   If you let the melody run.

Don't let the song g out of your life;
   Though the voice may have lost its trill,
Though the quivering note may die in your throat,
   Let it sing in your spirit still.

Don't let the song go out of your life;
    Let it ring in your soul while here;
And when you go hence, it will follow you thence,
   And live on in another sphere.


From "Streams in the Desert", May 5

Next sermon in the series of sermons on the ABC of faith, which will deal with the letter X

Coming Sunday, the Lord willing, in the series of sermons on the ABC of faith, I hope to deal with the letter X, to which I have allocated the active verb ‘to examine’. I realize this verb does not actually start with the letter X. However, I chose this verb, since it is closely connected to the word X-ray. We all know what an X-ray is. It is an examination of the body or of a part of the body as a diagnostic aid to show things, which otherwise would not be picked up by a doctor. Hence, in most instances an X-ray offers help for further treatment to become healthy again. Well, in a similar way an X-ray of our spiritual life can be very helpful too in order to enhance the health of our spiritual life.

In this series of sermons on the ABC of faith, the main accent is on the aspect that we must also live our faith. In the sermon dealing with the letter X, the question addressed will be, “Do we really live our faith, not just outwardly, but also inwardly in our thoughts, in the contemplations of our heart, when making decisions, for example? In all these things, do we really live our faith? Can it stand the test, when the light of God’s Word would penetrate our life like an X-ray?” In other words, the question is not what people can see, but what God can see, when X-raying also the things, which at times we neatly hide from others.

What would the picture of your life, your faith-life, look like when it would be X-rayed this way? We all know the answer. It would show a lot of dirt, a lot of things that should not be there, sins, of which others don’t know. We are all very good in putting on a nice front.

Hence, there is reason for self-examination. The text chosen for this sermon is 2 Cor. 13, 5, where we read the following, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.” The way in which the verb ‘examine’ is used in the original Greek refers to a continual examination. It means keeping continually an eye on our life whether we really live our faith on a daily basis. From the text we learn also that we are to examine ourselves not as to whether we have faith, but whether we are in the faith, i.e. whether we live our faith.

How are we to do this? The simple answer is by letting the searchlight of God’s Word shine into our life. It is – as I read it somewhere – giving thought to your life in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and this enlightened by the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us. When doing this, the picture of our life might show up more dirt then without this thorough examination. Yet, it is needed to see who we really are, who we really are, when God would search even our inmost thoughts.

 Is this a scary thought to you, to have your life X-rayed in this way? Let me tell you there is no need to be afraid of this. There is no need to be afraid of this, if we are willing also to confess our sins and to break with them and then turn to Christ.

This turning to Christ is referred to in the second part of 2 Cor. 13, 5 the text, where Paul says, “Do you not know yourselves that Christ is in you?” In our words, are you truly aware of Christ’s presence in your life? If so, we don’t have to be afraid of the outcome of the X-ray test of our spiritual life. For what is true faith? In  Art. 22 Belgic Confession it reads, “True faith embraces Jesus Christ and all His merits, makes Him our own, and does not seek anything besides Him.” Well, in order to see that we need Christ in this very first thing we need a clear X-ray of ourselves. It’s necessary exercise but also a very comforting exercise, since it will drive us to Christ and isn’t that what faith is all about.