Psalm 16:8-11

Bless God and Rejoice in the Lord

Let us learn to BLESS GOD! Let us learn not only to be content but to REJOICE IN THE LORD! The word rejoiceis used ten times in the epistle to the Philippians. Let us learn the meaning of the word, not just in doctrine, but in experience.

There is always cause to rejoice in the Lord; in His BLOOD that cleanseth, His RIGHTEOUSNESS that perfects, His LOVE which never fails, His PROVIDENCE which works all things for our good, His INTERCESSION which is continual, and in the fact that our names are in the Book of Life; by His grace!

Pastor Henry T. Mahan

God Is Patient With The Tares

That He Might Have Mercy On The Wheat

“What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24)

In Matthew 13 our Lord referred to these, “vessels of wrath fitted for destruction” as “tares” and He referred to His, “vessels of mercy” as “wheat.” He gave a parable of, “a man who sowed good seed in his field…but when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.” The man’s servants wanted to pull up the tares and cast them out, but the man said, “Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.”

What do we learn from this? Our God is patient with the “tares” that He might have mercy on the “wheat!” He “endures with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy!” If this is our Lord’s way, may it be ours too. He said, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Pastor Gabe Stalnaker

Joshua Left Nothing Undone

“As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses” (Joshua 11:15).

Joshua was the successor to Moses. He was the man the Lord raised up to bring the children of Israel across the River of Jordan and into the land of Canaan to defeat the enemies of God in the land and to give it to Israel for an inheritance (Joshua 1:6;11:23). The word of the Lord declares the success that Joshua was given. Of all that Moses commanded Joshua to accomplish, he left nothing undone, nothing unfilled and nothing unfinished. He indeed was a very successful leader of the Lord’s people.

We know that Joshua is a personal type of the greater Joshua the Lord Jesus Christ. How much more can we declare that of all He has undertaken for us with complete success; He too left nothing undone of all that the Father commanded Him to do. All that the Father gave our Saviour to do He fully accomplished without fail. The scriptures declare of Him that He cannot fail, failure was never an option. “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law” (Isaiah 42:4).

All the Father’s redemptive will and all His eternal purpose in salvation were finished by Christ (John 4:34; John 17:4). All the promises of God were completed in the coming of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 4:4) and in His atoning death for His people (Gal. 3:13). He said upon the Calvary tree, “It is finished” (John 19:30).