Why worry?

"Your Father knoweth" (Luke 12:30)

Read Luke 12:13-34

Why do we worry so much? I know that we all live with a great deal of stress. We have families to feed, children to clothe, train and educate, and bills to pay. These are all things about which we are and should be concerned. I do not suggest that we should be careless and irresponsible. That would be contrary to the gospel of Christ. But I do say that we should not worry. Our concern for these things should not make us anxious, fretful and irritable.

Worrying is a fruitless, futile exercise. What did you ever get by worrying, except headaches and ulcers? We only worry about those things that are beyond our control. We worry about things that happened yesterday. We worry about what might happen tomorrow. We worry about what other people may say, or think, or do. We never worry about things that we can control. It is a futile, pointless thing to worry. Not one of us has ever accomplished a single thing by all of our worrying combined.

But what is more important, worrying is a very evil thing that dishonors our God. I speak to you who are believers, to you who seek the glory of God. Our worrying is sinful. It reveals a lack of faith. When I worry about something, it reveals that I do not trust the wisdom and goodness of God's providence. I only worry when I am discontent and dissatisfied with what God is doing for me, or because I do not truly trust him to do what is best. In other words, to worry is to murmur against the Lord my God!

Let us understand the words of our Lord and stop worrying. He is telling us that there is no need for any believer ever to worry. Our heavenly Father will provide for us everything that is needful and protect us from everything that is harmful. Let us not concern ourselves about the affairs of this world, but only about those things that concern the kingdom of God and his righteousness. He is saying, "Don't worry." Trust the Lord, "casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (I Peter 5:7)

Don Fortner Grace For Today for October 25.

The Omnipotence of One God

With the use of radar detectors, many often break the speed limits, but the beeping and lights alert the driver of speed checks ahead.

There are no detectors that protect people from breaking any law from the all-knowing God. He sees each and every action.

The first commandment tells us that we are not to have any other gods before Him.

He wants us to fully submit ourselves to Him. He is Lord!! Anyone or anything that has control of us, our thinking, and our very being is our God!

What or who is your God?

Have a good day!
Love,
Dad

----------------

"I have purposed it, I will also do it" (Isaiah 46:11)

(Read also I Kings 18:21-40)

To declare, as many do, that God's plan has been frustrated by the entrance of sin into the world is to dethrone God. Some would have us to believe that God was taken by surprise when Adam sinned in the garden and that he is now trying to remedy and correct this unforeseen calamity in his creation. Such a notion is degrading to the character of God. It brings the Most High God down to the level of erring mortals. We are told that man is a free moral agent, that he is the determiner of his own destiny and that he has the power to resist God and hold the Almighty in check. Such a blasphemous notion would strip God of his attribute of omnipotence. Men would have us to believe that man has burst the bounds originally set by God and that God is now a spectator, more or less without power over the sin and suffering brought into the world by the fall of Adam. But such doctrine is in direct contradiction of Holy Scripture. It is written in the Word of God: "surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain" (Ps. 76:10). To put it very plainly, to deny the sovereignty of God in all things is either to make God what you want him to be, which is idolatry, or it is to enter upon a path which, if logically followed, must bring you to atheism.

My friend, the sovereignty of the God of the Bible is absolute, irresistible and infinite. In declaring God's sovereignty, I am simply affirming his right as God to govern this universe, which he has created for his own glory, just as he pleases. He is the Potter; we are the clay. We have no more power over God than clay has over the potter. God moulds the clay of Adam's race into whatever form he chooses. From the lump of fallen humanity, he makes one vessel unto honor and another into dishonor. This is his right. He is God. He is under no law, rule, or power beyond his own sovereign will and holy nature. He is God.

from Don Fortner's Grace for Today for October 13.

Digest the Manna

"I will meditate in Thy precepts." --Psalm 119:15

There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labour in His service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them. Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser's feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches, or else the juice will not flow; and they must well tread the grapes, or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted. So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom. Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it. Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God's Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning, "I will meditate in Thy precepts."

from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening for October 12.

Whatsoever Things

(written March 26, 1993)

Time to get away and enjoy a period of rest and relaxation. I hope that you have a good spring break.

It has been said that we are in actions and behavior what we habitually think. The old adage, "garbage in, garbage out" is true. Also true, "success in, success out." If we become what we think, then it would be good to think on good things.

The apostle Paul in Philippians 4:8 says to think on these things:

-whatsoever things are true
-whatsoever things are honest
-whatsoever things are just
-whatsoever things are pure
-whatsoever things are lovely
-whatsoever things are of good report

Remember these things not only next week in Florida, but continually think on these. It will do you good.

Have a good day!
Love,
Dad

Steering Through Storms

We should steer safely through every storm which we travel so long as:

-Our heart is right.
-Our intention is fervent.
-Our courage is steadfast.
-Our trust is fixed on God.

Have a good day!
Love,
Dad

------------

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." --Mark 16:16

Mr. MacDonald asked the inhabitants of the island of St. Kilda how a man must be saved. An old man replied, "We shall be saved if we repent, and forsake our sins, and turn to God." "Yes," said a middle-aged female, "and with a true heart too." "Ay," rejoined a third, "and with prayer"; and, added a fourth, "It must be the prayer of the heart." "And we must be diligent too," said a fifth, "in keeping the commandments." Thus, each having contributed his mite, feeling that a very decent creed had been made up, they all looked and listened for the preacher's approbation, but they had aroused his deepest pity. The carnal mind always maps out for itself a way in which self can work and become great, but the Lord's way is quite the reverse. Believing and being baptized are no matters of merit to be gloried in--they are so simple that boasting is excluded, and free grace bears the palm. It may be that the reader is unsaved--what is the reason? Do you think the way of salvation as laid down in the text to be dubious? How can that be when God has pledged His own word for its certainty? Do you think it too easy? Why, then, do you not attend to it? Its ease leaves those without excuse who neglect it. To believe is simply to trust, to depend, to rely upon Christ Jesus. To be baptized is to submit to the ordinance which our Lord fulfilled at Jordan, to which the converted ones submitted at Pentecost, to which the jailer yielded obedience the very night of his conversion. The outward sign saves not, but it sets forth to us our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus, and, like the Lord's Supper, is not to be neglected. Reader, do you believe in Jesus? Then, dear friend, dismiss your fears, you shall be saved. Are you still an unbeliever, then remember there is but one door, and if you will not enter by it you will perish in your sins.

Spurgeon's Morning and Evening for October 5.