Category Archives: nuggets of wisdom

Yet I Sin

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Unmask to me sin’s deformity,
that I may hate it, abhor it, flee from it.

 

The Valley of Vision is a gift and a treasure to the body of Christ. I will be forever grateful to Christins in days gone by who took the time to write down their heart felt prayers.

As Christians, we sometimes underestimate the power of sin over our lives. While we are victorious in Christ, we still have to contend with the world, the flesh and the devil daily.  Sin is deceitful and comes in very subtle ways. Until we understand the power and deceitfulness of sin, we will not be able to truly live victoriously.

This prayer “Yet I Sin” can be found on page 124. It is a prayer of confession, repentance, and a cry to be made more like Jesus.  

 

ETERNAL FATHER,

Thou art good beyond all thought,
But I am vile, wretched, miserable, blind;
My lips are ready to confess,
but my heart is slow to feel,
and my ways reluctant to amend.

I bring my soul to thee;
break it, wound it, bend it, mould it.

My faculties have been a weapon of revolt
against thee;
as a rebel I have misused my strength,
and served the foul adversary of thy kingdom.
Give me grace to bewail my insensate folly,
Grant me to know that the way of transgressors
is hard,
that evil paths are wretched paths,
that to depart from thee is to lose all good.

I have seen the purity and beauty of thy perfect law,
the happiness of those in whose heart it reigns,
the calm dignity of the walk to which it calls,
yet I daily violate and contemn its precepts.
Thy loving Spirit strives within me,
brings me Scripture warnings,
speaks in startling providences,
allures by secret whispers,
yet I choose devices and desires to my own hurt,
impiously resent, grieve,
and provoke him to abandon me.

All these sins I mourn, lament, and for them
cry pardon.

Work in me more profound and abiding repentance;
Give me the fullness of a godly grief
that trembles and fears,
yet ever trusts and loves,
which is ever powerful, and ever confident;
Grant that through the tears of repentance
I may see more clearly the brightness
and glories of the saving cross.

Amen.

God’s Mercies

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I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever;
With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. – Psalm 89:1

 

As we travel through this journey of life, it is easy to become so busy and so stressed out that we might fail so see God’s mercies and faithfulness being demonstrated on our behalf every day. Especially in these days with so much fear and uncertainty due to COVID, CRT, schools trampling on parental rights, threat of losing your job due to vaccine mandate, government overeach, etc.

I want to encourage all my sisters in the Lord out there to take some time and pause to reflect on how merciful God has been to you and your family. Lamentations 3:22-23 are such wonderful verses, in them learn that:

It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Think about that! It is because of God’s mercies and His faithful nature that we have not been run over and under by life. God is a faithful God and His mercies are new every morning. That means, every morning, He puts things, people and circumstances in place to help bear our burden and draw us closer to Him. There are times when it does not seem that way, but that is the truth.

Take time like the Psalmist to reflect on God’s mercies today and all the ways He has been faithful to you even when you did not deserve it and it will definitely surprise you what the Lord has done.

Have a blessed day!

The Deeps

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Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action,
and let me not seek moral virtue apart from thee.

In the last decade, there has been a resurgence in the writings of the puritans and for good reason.  Christianity is not a new religion. Many faithful saints have trod these old paths before us and we will do well to learn from them.

The puritans read the same Bible we read, prayed to the same God and served the same Christ, so their theology is not a different one. What is different about the puritans is their deep knowledge of God through the scriptures.

The puritans understood the glory of God. Everything they did including their prayers was focused on the glory of God. They were focused on walking with God in holiness and righteousness.

Their prayers showed a deep knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, a knowledge of the sinfulness of man and the holiness of God. They never made light of sin and were quick to confess their sins.

We will look at one of their prayers today, titled “The Deeps” it can be found on page 134-135 of “The Valley of Vision: A collection of puritan prayers and devotion”.

It is my prayer that you will make this your prayer today and this week. That you will not only pray this prayer this week, before and/or after every personal study of the scriptures, but meditate on its truth as well.

 

LORD JESUS,

Give me a deeper repentance,
a horror of sin,
a dread of its approach;
Help me chastely to flee it,
and jealously to resolve that my heart
shall be thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust,
that I may lose myself to find myself in thee,
the ground of my rest,
the spring of my being.

Give me a deeper knowledge of thyself
as Saviour, Master, Lord, and King.
Give me deeper power in private prayer,
more sweetness in thy Word,
more steadfast grip on its truth.

Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action,
and let me not seek moral virtue apart from thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord,
heavenly Husbandman,
that my being may be a tilled field,
the roots of grace spreading far and wide,
until thou alone art seen in me,
thy beauty golden like summer harvest,
thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no Master but thee,
no law but thy will,
no delight but thyself,
no wealth but that thou givest,
no good but that thou blessest,
no peace but that thou bestowest.

I am nothing but that thou makest me,
I have nothing but that I receive from thee,
I can be nothing but that grace adorns me.

Quarry me deep, dear Lord,
and then fill me to overflowing
with living water.

Amen.

Can They Handle The Truth?

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I believe it is wrong for any pastor and church leader to conclude that most new believers are unable to handle the teaching of Biblical doctrines straight out of the Bible.  To think this way is to have a low view of the word of God and of the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible. When you consider that most of the New Testament letters which were full of deep theology were written to new believers under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

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Nursery for Heaven

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The book, The Valley of Vision is a collection of puritan prayers.  This book was my first introduction to the writings of the puritans, and it completely blew me away! I honestly had never heard (read) anyone pray with so much devotion, so much awareness of their personal sin and the holiness of God.

I am very thankful to the puritans for writing down their prayers, without which this book would not have been possible.  In my opinion, no Christian home should be without this book.  The puritans were mostly known for their deep prayer life and meditation on scripture. 

The prayers in this book caught my attention like no other.  My prayers can be sometimes selfish and self-centered,  all about me and what I want: my protection, my provision, my success, my family’s protection, etc. While there is nothing inherently wrong with asking God for those things, our personal needs can become idols when we don’t put them in their properly place.  When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He started the prayer asking for God’s name to hallowed, for His kingdom to come and for His will to be done on earth as in heaven. Jesus taught us to pray with the glory of God in mind.  At the heart of the prayers of the puritans is the glory of God. This should be at the heart of our prayers as well.

I would love to share one of the prayers from “The Valley of Vision” titled “The Family”. This prayer can be found on page 208. The prayer seemed to have been written by a woman (I think). What caught my eye about this prayer is the way she dedicates her home & family to God.  She prays for her domestic duties and the raising of her children to be blessed and used for the glory of God, asking in her prayers for her home to be a nursery for heaven! 

Ladies, your duties as a wife and mother at home are sacred duties meant to bring glory to God. I pray this prayer will encourage you  to see your duties in raising your kids and being a keeper at home as a sacred service to God.

The Family

O Sovereign Lord,

You are the Creator-Father of all men,
for you have made and support them;

You are the special Father of those who know, love, and honour you,
who find your yoke easy, and your burden light,
your work honourable,
your commandments glorious.

But how little your undeserved goodness has affected me!
How imperfectly have I improved my religious privileges!
How negligent have I been in doing good to others!

I am before you in my trespass and sins,
have mercy on me,
and my your goodness bring me to repentance.

Help me hate and forsake every false way,
to be attentive to my condition and character,
to bridle my tongue,
to keep my heart with all diligence,
to watch and pray against temptation,
to kill sin,
to be concerned for the salvation of others.

O God, I cannot endure to see the destruction of my kindred.

Let those who are united to me in tender ties
be precious in your sight and devoted to your glory.

Sanctify and prosper my domestic devotion,
instruction, discipline, example,
that my house may be a nursery for heaven,
my church the garden of the Lord,
enriched with the trees of righteousness of your planting,
for your glory;

Let not those of my family who are amiable, moral, attractive,
fall short of heaven at last;

Grant that the promising appearances of a tender conscience,
soft heart, the alarms and delights of your Word,
be not finally blotted out, but bring forth judgement to victory
in all whom I love.

 

Amen…. (emphasis mine)

Ladies: I would love to hear your thoughts on this prayer in the comments. Thanks.

Theologian Mom

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In order to fulfill their God given roles of wife and mother, Christian moms need to know what the Lord requires of them. All that we need for life and godliness has been revealed in the Bible (2Peter 1:3).  We need to study it like our lives depend on it, because it really does.

Christian parents are called by God not just to raise any kind of child, but to raise “godly offspring”.

Malachi 2:15
Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

The responsibility of raising godly offspring falls on both parents, with dad being the head of the house. However, moms are the ones that are usually more involved in the everyday process than dads. They are the ones that take care of all the details of nurturing and training. Also, they are usually the ones the kids go to first with questions about God, the Bible and life in general. This is why I believe every Christian mom should be a theologian.

When I say every Christian mom should be a theologian, I do not mean they have to go to seminary, what I mean is that every mom needs to spend lots of time in the scriptures studying, becoming well versed in it and know how to rightly apply it to everyday life. In order to be a godly wife and mom, her time in the word and prayer and listening to godly sermons is invaluable. No child grows up knowing instinctively the right way to behave, not even Christian kids. They have to be trained to know what is right, proper and godly.

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

Some Christian families have taken this verse to mean that if you train up your child in a Christin home, teach them the Bible and take them to church, then they will definitely become saved as adults. This verse makes no such promise. This is not a verse about salvation, but about training in general.  While the Lord sometimes works through families to save, it is not always the case. We have all heard or know of people were not raised in Christian homes but are faithfully serving the Lord today. Likewise, we also know God fearing parents who raised their children in a godly home, took them church every week whose children remain unsaved. Salvation is of the Lord.

How does one raise “godly offspring”?. Deuteronomy 6:3-7 spells it out for us.

Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.  “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

These verses call the parents to first love God with all their heart, soul and might,  before they are able to teach the children.  Christian mom, the Lord is calling you to love Him with all your heart, soul and might, then and only then, will you be able to teach the word of God to your kids. In other words, you cannot give what they do not have.  How are we to love God?  What does loving God look like? Jesus tells us in John 14:15  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”.  You have to know the commandments, before you can keep them.

Christian mom, the Lord has graciously given us a manual for life – the Bible. Spend time in it. Study it. Believe it. Live it out. Teach it to your kids. No parent has the ability to save their child, salvation is of the Lord, however every parent has been equipped by God with all they need to teach their children what true godliness is.

May God’s grace be yours.