His Jewels

Written by James A. Frost

One night an angel
came to visit me,
Took me by the hand,
saying, “Come I’ve
something I want you to see.”
Up through the pearl cleaved
air, of every tint and shade,
This angel carried me to the city
of beauty that God’s hands made.
Straight to the treasure room
-close to the throne,
Where He bade me to enter
and look, I caught the
excitement of His tone.
There in a crystalline box was
God’s greatest treasure,
that made Gethsemane, and
Calvary, love beyond measure,
His jewels were the diamonds
formed from penitent tears,
and I joined Heaven’s chorus
of hallelujah cheers!

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Luke 15:3-7 says “So he told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Penitent tears.  We don’ hear much on repentance these days.  Today we blame the drunk’s sin on alcoholism, or the drug addict’s sin on chemical addiction.   Nothing is anyone’s fault  these days, that is, few accept personal responsibility for their sins, whatever they may be.  What is “repentance?”  True repentance comes upon our acknowledging our sin before God, and turning away from it.  Repentance is the prerequisite to true conversion.   Some think repentance IS conversion.  However, we know that repentance is not the conversion because  Acts 3:19 says “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” Luke 24:46-47 says we have a responsibility as Christians to call sinners to repentance: “…Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Mark 6:12 says “And they went out, and preached that men should repent.”

We Christians can do unbelievers a disservice as we share the gospel with them. If we say, ‘just believe’ we are missing the whole Gospel because in James 2:19 it says that even ‘the devils believe and tremble’? When sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ, we often tell people to just admit that they are a sinner and believe in Jesus. Then we go on to stress other verses of assurance. What we need to be stressing is REPENTANCE from dead works. To spend half our time on assurance without the need for repentance from sin and dead works is wrong. It is okay for somebody to be scared when they are living in sin. That’s called the “fear of the Lord” or working it out “with fear and trembling.” People need to stop doing evil and be holy like the Lord. Yet sometimes we believe ourselves, or imply to others, you can become a follower of Christ and live any old way you want. So, many “converts” today think falsely they can sin as much as they want and not worry about God’s commandments. However, this flies in the face of scriptures like these:

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

Romans 11:22 “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”

~Samuel Lawrence

Be Careful Little Eyes What You See

I remember a little song from Sunday School when I was a child. The lyrics go like this:

“Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see.
Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see.
There’s a Father up above, looking down in tender love,
So be careful little eyes, what you see.”

Watch this video:

What’s a Parent to Do?

The role parents play in the lives of their children cannot be minimized, it is paramount in importance.  Contrary to Hillary Clinton’s premise, it doesn’t “take a village” to raise a child, it takes godly parents making godly choices for their children.  This includes the images they see broadcast to them in multiple formats.  Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” This proverb gives great advice for parents to follow.

The tendency is often to assume this is an eternal promise rather than a proverb.  When you raise a child in a godly home, teaching them from God’s Word and then that child, having rebellious will, chooses not to follow the training he or she was taught as a child, it often brings confusion.  Rest assured that the Lord hears the prayers of godly parents whose children have strayed from their godly upbringing.  Having rebellious children is more a sign of the fallen world we live in and the total depravity of the heart of mankind, rather than a failing on the part of a godly parent.

If you have young children, then follow Proverbs 22:6.  If your children are older teens or are grown, continue to show them the love of Jesus and pray for them daily.  If you raise them to know and love Christ, and they turn away for a while or forever, remember our Heavenly Father, who is perfect and Holy in every way, also has children who are rebellious and turn away.

~Samuel Lawrence

I heard the most amazing statement today. At first, I thought I heard it incorrectly. Maybe, I thought I heard this, but surely not.  It was too profound and yet it stopped me cold with its simplicity. As I was cruising through my friends’ updates on Facebook, I noticed a video post.  The word my friend posted below it merely said, “Speechless.” Needless to say, I was intrigued. I clicked on the link that led to a video called, God’s Chisel.

It was a very simple video, only two guys, one portraying God and one portraying, well, it could have been any one of us. The man cried out to God to make him more like Him. Then he confessed that he was afraid he couldn’t live up to being like God. He was terrified of letting God down. God said plainly, “You never held me up.” Wow! That’s when it hit me: when we cry out to God for forgiveness of our sins, we beg Him to forgive us for letting Him down. We attach human qualities and attributes to the love of God, as if He judges by the same pitiful standards that we do. We believe that by our sin, we’ve caused God to think less of us, feel less for us, or love us less. Impossible! There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can cause God to be ‘let down’ by us.

The notion of being let down comes from the idea of holding someone up. We have never been the ones to hold God up and, therefore, cannot let Him down. We hold Christians, preachers, teachers, police officers, parents, children, friends and even some politicians to a higher standard on earth. We believe that these people are not allowed the luxury of failing and if they do, they cause us to doubt their passions and motives from the very beginning and disappoint us by their godlessness. We conceitedly and callously think they owe us something because they failed us. We forced them to a place that they were not ready or even willing to go and then we berate them for failing us. How completely backwards! Have we ever stopped to think that it is in those very moments of failure that it is our responsibility to look past the sin, the failure, the disappointment and reach out with love and tenderness to help restore our fallen to their proper place? No man, woman or child can survive forever under the scrutiny of living on a pedestal. We assign that position to them out of our own fears of failure. We believe that if we look up to them, they can show us the way. They can guide us better because they are higher above us and can see further down the path. This is a precarious position in which to live. You see, the higher the pedestal, the longer the fall from it. With so much heavy inspection, the pedestal will come crashing down, idol and all. When we assign someone–anyone—a place of such honor, we’ve replaced God with that person. We’ve committed idol worship. We’ve broken the First Commandment.

No one, not our spouses, our children, our jobs, our churches, our ministries, our own bodies or our pursuits of happiness can replace God and there still be true worship for the Almighty God in our hearts, no matter how many songs we sing, hands we raise or Bible studies we attend. God’s love for us is unconditional. There was nothing that we did to earn it and consequently, there is nothing we can do to lose it. He loves me. He loves you. He loves each one of us right now as much as He ever has or ever will. His love has no beginning and no ending. It has no conditions. His love is perfect and complete.

When we fall into the habit of trying to assign human characteristics of love to God, we don’t let Him down, we let ourselves down. We realize how little we know of true love, giving or receiving it. We believe it is a feeling that can change as easily as the direction of the wind. We forget that love is a verb. It is an action. It is a decision. It is a commitment. If we would learn to see the Cross as the definition of love, instead of what Hollywood and Hallmark would have us believe, we would begin to understand how to truly love. God decided to love us, committed to save us from our sin and acted by His death as our substitute so that we wouldn’t have to face death and condemnation. God is love. He is the living, breathing, acting definition of love. He isn’t waiting with a down turned frown and words of reprimand for us to fail, He’s waiting with open arms of love, waiting for us to get over ourselves and come back to where we belong, in His loving embrace, where He holds us up and will not and cannot ever let us down.

Angela Baker

Republished with Permission

Angela’s articles are published by the Pickens Sentinel and also on her blog

His Love

Written by James A. Frost

There is naught but His love
in everything that comes to me.
No hand but His, No vagrant wind
blows my heart’s ship on it’s sea.
I am His, and He will never,
ever, let me go.*
Echo from His throne, and through
every cloud there’s always a rainbow.
I know that with every pelting storm
that comes, courage will be born within it.
Though dark may be the clouds, always,
his full orbed sun comes bursting through.
I hear the birds singing the majesty of You.
The lonely nights shall know His music.
He will make the stars shine.
Victory will always come, my face will
be wreathed in smiles, for He is mine.

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*John 10:28 says “…I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

Do you find yourself too busy for God, for your spouse, for your children, for church.  It could be part of a Satanic plan.  Consider saying “no” to the good and “yes” to only the best.

This video is a thought provoker.  Watch and comment, if you are not too busy