My 80 odd years surviving in a world gone haywire have taught me that John Bunyan's character in Pilgrim's Progress was the man I would like to be. All the things I have done in my life, all the experiences, the joys, the sorrows, have confirmed one thing in my mind; this world is not my home. So I do what I think the Lord desires and await my ticket to be punched and step on that train to glory.
- Retired
- Studied Accounting at Chadron State CollegeClass of 1993
- Lives in Hillsboro
- From Hillsboro
- Male
- Married
- 09/12/1938
- Followed by 51 people
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- 16 JUNE (1878)
Encouragement to trust and pray
‘He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.’ Isaiah 30:19
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 26:69–27:5
Refuse despair. When a man sees that his confidences are broken up like a potter’s vessel till, to use the expressive figure of the prophet, there is not a piece left large enough ‘to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit’, then he is apt to exclaim, ‘Now it is all over with me and I must perish.’ You loved your wife; she was all the world to you, but alas, she is dead, and you cry, ‘Let me die also.’ You hugged your wealth; it has melted; that speculation has dissolved it and left you a beggar: and now you cry, ‘What is there worth living for?’ Beware of dark thoughts which may beset you just now. In your worst moment, should Satan whisper in your ear a suggestion concerning rope, or knife, or poison bowl, or sullen stream, flee from it with all your soul. Obey the apostolic word, ‘Do thyself no harm’.’ Nothing could be worse for you than to break the law, which says expressly, ‘Thou shalt do no murder.’
Self-destruction, if done by a man in his senses, is a daring defiance of God and the sealing of damnation. This is to leap from measured trouble into infinite woe, the depth of which none can guess. Why should you do this? Turn unto your God; that is a wiser thing for a man to do than to destroy his own life; there is something braver for a man to do than to rush upon the pikes of the foe because the battle waxes too hot for him. Go to your great Captain, even to him whom God has given to be a witness, a leader and a commander to the people, and he will make you more than a conqueror. There are brighter days in store for you yet.
FOR MEDITATION: Suicide is generally the ultimate act of despair in a life of disobedience to God, as in the cases of Saul (1 Samuel 31:4), Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23), Zimri (1 Kings 16:18–19) and Judas (Matthew 27:5). Samson is the exception which proves the rule (Judges 16:28–30). The Jews thought that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to commit suicide (John 8:21–22), but even he, in laying down his life for our sins (John 10:17–18), did not crucify himself. The Philippian jailer was spared to discover the best answer to despair (Acts 16:27–34).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 178.16 JUNE (1878) Encouragement to trust and pray ‘He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.’ Isaiah 30:19 SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 26:69–27:5 Refuse despair. When a man sees that his confidences are broken up like a potter’s vessel till, to use the expressive figure of the prophet, there is not a piece left large enough ‘to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit’, then he is apt to exclaim, ‘Now it is all over with me and I must perish.’ You loved your wife; she was all the world to you, but alas, she is dead, and you cry, ‘Let me die also.’ You hugged your wealth; it has melted; that speculation has dissolved it and left you a beggar: and now you cry, ‘What is there worth living for?’ Beware of dark thoughts which may beset you just now. In your worst moment, should Satan whisper in your ear a suggestion concerning rope, or knife, or poison bowl, or sullen stream, flee from it with all your soul. Obey the apostolic word, ‘Do thyself no harm’.’ Nothing could be worse for you than to break the law, which says expressly, ‘Thou shalt do no murder.’ Self-destruction, if done by a man in his senses, is a daring defiance of God and the sealing of damnation. This is to leap from measured trouble into infinite woe, the depth of which none can guess. Why should you do this? Turn unto your God; that is a wiser thing for a man to do than to destroy his own life; there is something braver for a man to do than to rush upon the pikes of the foe because the battle waxes too hot for him. Go to your great Captain, even to him whom God has given to be a witness, a leader and a commander to the people, and he will make you more than a conqueror. There are brighter days in store for you yet. FOR MEDITATION: Suicide is generally the ultimate act of despair in a life of disobedience to God, as in the cases of Saul (1 Samuel 31:4), Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23), Zimri (1 Kings 16:18–19) and Judas (Matthew 27:5). Samson is the exception which proves the rule (Judges 16:28–30). The Jews thought that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to commit suicide (John 8:21–22), but even he, in laying down his life for our sins (John 10:17–18), did not crucify himself. The Philippian jailer was spared to discover the best answer to despair (Acts 16:27–34). C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 178.0 Comments 0 Shares - Today on TruNews, Edward Szall and Lauren Witzke examine the accumulation of cash by JPMorgan, as major banks respond to concerns of massive inflation and investigations by ordering employees to preserve texts and WhatsApp messages.
https://www.trunews.com/liveToday on TruNews, Edward Szall and Lauren Witzke examine the accumulation of cash by JPMorgan, as major banks respond to concerns of massive inflation and investigations by ordering employees to preserve texts and WhatsApp messages. https://www.trunews.com/live0 Comments 0 Shares1 - U.S. keeps pushing at Russia's southern flank.
https://southfront.org/hts-friends-start-a-new-war-in-nagorno-karabakh/U.S. keeps pushing at Russia's southern flank. https://southfront.org/hts-friends-start-a-new-war-in-nagorno-karabakh/0 Comments 0 Shares1 - Common sense, not conspiracy theory.
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1649-james-corbett-destroys-the-china-war-propaganda/Common sense, not conspiracy theory. https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1649-james-corbett-destroys-the-china-war-propaganda/0 Comments 0 Shares1 - On the other hand, greedy men are poor, always grasping for more and always in need. They can never be other than indigent in their abundance, however much money they own.
https://thepilgrimjournal.com/the-city-of-god-book-7-chapters-12-14/On the other hand, greedy men are poor, always grasping for more and always in need. They can never be other than indigent in their abundance, however much money they own. https://thepilgrimjournal.com/the-city-of-god-book-7-chapters-12-14/0 Comments 0 Shares1 - Thou art everywhere, Whom no place encompasseth! and Thou alone art near, even to those that remove far from Thee.
https://thepilgrimjournal.com/the-confessions-of-st-augustine-book-5-chapters-1-3/Thou art everywhere, Whom no place encompasseth! and Thou alone art near, even to those that remove far from Thee. https://thepilgrimjournal.com/the-confessions-of-st-augustine-book-5-chapters-1-3/0 Comments 0 Shares1 - 15 JUNE (1876)
Good cheer for outcasts
‘He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.’ Psalm 147:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 40:1–17
If Jesus Christ received some of us when we felt ourselves to be outcasts, how we ought to love him! It does you good to look back ‘to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged’. We get to be very top-lofty at times, my brethren. We are wonderfully big, are we not? Are we not experienced Christians now? Why, we have known the Lord these five-and-twenty years. Dear me, how important we are! Perhaps we are deacons of churches, or, at any rate, we have a class in the Sunday-school, and we pray in the prayer-meeting: considerable importance attaches to us, and we are high and mighty on that account.
I have heard say of a man worth his thousands that once he had not a shirt to his back, and, if he recollected from what he sprang, he would not carry his head so high. I do not see much in that, but I do see something in this—if we recollected the time when we ‘were dead in trespasses and sins’, when we had not a rag to cover us, when we were under God’s frown and heirs ‘of wrath, even as others’, if we recollected our lost and ruined state by nature, I am sure that we should not lift our heads so very loftily, and want to have respect paid to us in the church, or think that God ought not to deal so very hardly with us, as if we had cause for complaint. Dear friends, let us remember what we used to be, and that will keep us low in our own esteem. But how it will fire us with zeal to remember from what a depth he has lifted us up. Did Jesus save such a wretch as I was? Then for him would I live and for him would I die. This ought to be the utterance of us all. We ought to live in that spirit. God grant we may!
FOR MEDITATION: When Christians begin to glory in their own characters and achievements, they are thinking like unbelievers and forgetting the ground on which they stand before God (Ephesians 2:8–9). The apostle Paul knew how to burst the pride of arrogant Christians. Consider some of the questions he asked one proud church (1 Corinthians 4:6–7; 5:1–2, 6). He had to remind them of the various pits from which God had lifted them (1 Corinthians 1:26–29; 6:9–11).
C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 177.15 JUNE (1876) Good cheer for outcasts ‘He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.’ Psalm 147:2 SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 40:1–17 If Jesus Christ received some of us when we felt ourselves to be outcasts, how we ought to love him! It does you good to look back ‘to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged’. We get to be very top-lofty at times, my brethren. We are wonderfully big, are we not? Are we not experienced Christians now? Why, we have known the Lord these five-and-twenty years. Dear me, how important we are! Perhaps we are deacons of churches, or, at any rate, we have a class in the Sunday-school, and we pray in the prayer-meeting: considerable importance attaches to us, and we are high and mighty on that account. I have heard say of a man worth his thousands that once he had not a shirt to his back, and, if he recollected from what he sprang, he would not carry his head so high. I do not see much in that, but I do see something in this—if we recollected the time when we ‘were dead in trespasses and sins’, when we had not a rag to cover us, when we were under God’s frown and heirs ‘of wrath, even as others’, if we recollected our lost and ruined state by nature, I am sure that we should not lift our heads so very loftily, and want to have respect paid to us in the church, or think that God ought not to deal so very hardly with us, as if we had cause for complaint. Dear friends, let us remember what we used to be, and that will keep us low in our own esteem. But how it will fire us with zeal to remember from what a depth he has lifted us up. Did Jesus save such a wretch as I was? Then for him would I live and for him would I die. This ought to be the utterance of us all. We ought to live in that spirit. God grant we may! FOR MEDITATION: When Christians begin to glory in their own characters and achievements, they are thinking like unbelievers and forgetting the ground on which they stand before God (Ephesians 2:8–9). The apostle Paul knew how to burst the pride of arrogant Christians. Consider some of the questions he asked one proud church (1 Corinthians 4:6–7; 5:1–2, 6). He had to remind them of the various pits from which God had lifted them (1 Corinthians 1:26–29; 6:9–11). C. H. Spurgeon and Terence Peter Crosby, 365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 4), (Leominster, UK: Day One Publications, 2007), 177.0 Comments 0 Shares1 -
UPON THE FLINT IN THE WATER
This flint, time out of mind, has there abode,
Where crystal streams make their continual road.
Yet it abides a flint as much as ‘twere
Before it touched the water, or came there
Its hard obdurateness is not abated,
‘Tis not at all by water penetrated.
Though water hath a soft’ning virtue in’t,
This stone it can’t dissolve, for ‘tis a flint.
Yea, though it in the water doth remain,
It doth its fiery nature still retain.
If you oppose it with its opposite,
At you, yea, in your face, its fire ‘twill spit.
Comparison
This flint an emblem is of those that lie,
Like stones, under the Word, until they die.
Its crystal streams have not their nature changed,
They are not, from their lusts, by grace estranged.
John Bunyan, A Book for Boys and GirlsUPON THE FLINT IN THE WATER This flint, time out of mind, has there abode, Where crystal streams make their continual road. Yet it abides a flint as much as ‘twere Before it touched the water, or came there Its hard obdurateness is not abated, ‘Tis not at all by water penetrated. Though water hath a soft’ning virtue in’t, This stone it can’t dissolve, for ‘tis a flint. Yea, though it in the water doth remain, It doth its fiery nature still retain. If you oppose it with its opposite, At you, yea, in your face, its fire ‘twill spit. Comparison This flint an emblem is of those that lie, Like stones, under the Word, until they die. Its crystal streams have not their nature changed, They are not, from their lusts, by grace estranged. John Bunyan, A Book for Boys and Girls0 Comments 0 Shares1 - The Gestapo makes an example of another uppity Christian!
https://protestia.com/2021/06/14/breaking-pastor-tim-stephens-arrested-after-police-helicopters-find-secret-church-location/The Gestapo makes an example of another uppity Christian! https://protestia.com/2021/06/14/breaking-pastor-tim-stephens-arrested-after-police-helicopters-find-secret-church-location/0 Comments 0 Shares - They're back!
https://www.trunews.com/stream/rick-wiles-and-edward-szall-are-back-with-doc-milo-and-laurenThey're back! https://www.trunews.com/stream/rick-wiles-and-edward-szall-are-back-with-doc-milo-and-lauren0 Comments 0 Shares
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