I Am a Sinner

Father, I have sinned against you. O, wretched man I am.

Have mercy on me, O my God, Thou righteous Judge of man.

According to Thy loving will, wash me from my vile sin.

Make me to be whiter than snow, My Savior and my Lamb.

Your answer was to show me Christ, The sinless, perfect One:

To make me know the depths of sin that I am Adam's son.

I saw my Savior on the cross; there my sin had nailed Him.

Jesus, my Lord, the Lamb of God, Dying for all my sin.

What mercy is in Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for me,

Though a sinner before my God, Now condemnation free!

(Tune: Amazing Grace, page 236)

Do you believe in the Son of God? If you trust Christ as your Lord and Savior, your faith in Him is the fruit and evidence of His grace bestowed upon you and wrought in you. Faith is the empty hand that receives God’s salvation, not the mighty arm that performs it. Faith in Christ is the result of eternal life bestowed, not the cause of life.

- Pastor Don Fortner

We inscribe our afflictions upon a rock, and the characters remain. We write our mercies in the sand of the seashore, and the first wave of trouble washes them away.

As I was perusing an old hymnbook I came across the old hymn, “Thanks to God”. I was blessed by the following words: Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered, Thanks for what Thou dost deny.

What wisdom is displayed in these words! We are so ready to give thanks when God gives us what we ask for, and well we should. But wisdom learns to trust the Lord and delight in His providence even when it does not run the course we had hoped for. Are we so foolish as to think we are wise enough to plot the best course at all times? Or have we learned by experience that most often our thoughts lead to much less glorious consequences.

Those things we may most long for could prove to be our downfall, and the Lord knows this and answers our prayers with that combination of Fatherly love and Divine wisdom that assures that, in all cases, we shall have what is best for us. So, thanks to God for “yes” …and “no”.

All men may be divided into two classes – the righteous who know themselves to be sinners and sinners who believe themselves to be righteous.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

We grandparents often think we would make better parents if we had it to do over. Well, if we could take our knowledge and experience, we probably could do better, but I’m sure we would still make plenty of blunders. But one thing I think I would do better: I think knowledge and experience has taught me to love better. It is not that I didn’t love my children, I did and do. But time and experience has taught me how precious life is. When I was a young parent I didn’t have a lick of sense as to how precious life was. Everything was about me. Even when I corrected my children it was often for my satisfaction and not necessarily for their future good. But now it seems that I can look at one of my grandchildren and truly feel what a precious life that child is. A young parent may know it but time and experience makes one feel it more deeply. And this is why I think I could love better. Not so much more but better. It may sound strange but loving better makes it easier to correct your children. It used to be hard because I was considering my own selfish feelings, “I don’t want to make my child mad at ME. I don’t want to drive the child away from ME”, etc. But now I could think, “What a precious life! What a gift from God. How careful I must be to give this child my best love and care. I must never leave this precious life to go in the way he may want to go and ruin himself. I must always train him in the way he should go. It doesn’t matter if he wants trained or not . . . it’s not an option. I love the child better than he loves himself. It doesn’t matter what he thinks of me now or says of me; it’s not about me, it’s about this child . . . this precious, precious life!” Oh, if I had it to do over I could love better, I’m sure of it. And loving better I could listen better and play better and enjoy better and laugh better and pray better too. And I could be better thankful that God had entrusted me with one of His precious gifts . . . A CHILD!