Tuesday April 12

Good morning,
I know I've presented so much of my belief in my God, and hopefully, also your God on these pages.  I've stated that you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Heavenly Father and in the Holy Spirit.  I could spend hours arguing with you but in the end, it's all about you and your Faith.  So where does the faith come from?  You, and your connection to Jesus.  Once you have Faith, then everything else is just automatic.  Then you just live in joy and endure all of life's trials until the wonderful day you are called into His presence and eternal Love:


Today's meditation is from George Morrison:



April 12


The Springs of Endurance


He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved— Mat_24:13


To Grow Bitter Is to Be Beaten
He who is able to endure has learned one secret of the overcoming life. To endure is to bear patiently whatever the revolving years may bring us. It is to accept quietly and cheerfully the intractable elements of life. It is to pass through difficult or tragic hours free from any embittering of spirit, for to grow bitter is always to be beaten. We say "what can't be cured must be endured"; but that is scarcely the endurance of the Scriptures. Such endurance is a joyless thing. It is forced submission to necessity. The endurance of which the Bible speaks is of a happier character than that; it is a glad and even grateful acquiescence. Paul and Silas, in the prison at Philippi, did not accept things in a joyless way. They were happy; there was a lilt within their hearts; they sang so loudly that the prisoners heard them. And that is the endurance of the Scripture the bearing of things in a happy kind of fashion; an acceptance with the note of triumph in it. Of that gracious and beautiful endurance the New Testament indicates three sources.


Sources of Endurance: Faith
The first of these is faith —a burning and bright faith within the heart. That is the thought in the apostle's mind when he tells us to take the shield of faith (Eph_6:16). A shield is not a weapon of offence. It is different from sword or spear. A shield is a protective bit of armour. It guards the soldier amid blows and buffetings. And Paul means that if we are to be guarded amid the blows and buffetings of life, there must be radiant faith within the heart. If our darker hours have no meaning in them, if they be quite devoid of plan or purpose, if there be nothing in life but accident or chance, the most man can achieve is resignation. But if God be love, and if everything that comes to us arrives in the perfect ordering of the Father, then another attitude becomes possible. He who believes that God is in the difficult circumstance is empowered to endure it. He can say with Christ, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Faith finds the soul of goodness in things evil. Faith is one great secret of endurance.


Sources of Endurance: Love
Then, too, there is love, for love endureth all things (1Co_13:7). Wherever there is love within the heart there is present the power to endure. Think of the mother with her little child. Not long ago she was a restless girl. Now, when her little one is ill, she is beautifully and divinely patient. And this endurance, which is never sullen, but instinctive, and often with a song in it, is like a token of spring and blossoming of love. God is patient, says St. Augustine, because He is eternal. But there is a deeper source of His patience than eternity. He is patient because He loves. He bears with and pardons us a thousand times, and endures our folly and our shames, just because His love endureth all things. Let any man love learning, and what will he not endure in its acquiring? He will scorn delights and live laborious days, and be supremely happy in his travail. Love is one great secret of endurance, and our Lord empowers His children to endure by the new love He kindles in their hearts. He shows them that God is eminently lovable. He reveals the lovable element in man. He sends into their hearts His gracious Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. What hatred or indifference cannot do, love can do, and is doing every day. Love endureth all things.


Sources of Endurance: Vision
Lastly, there is vision. Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible (Heb_11:27). To see the invisible, when skies are dark, is always to have power to win through. What inspired Robert the Bruce to endure? It was his vision of a liberated Scotland. What inspired Columbus to endure? It was his vision of a continent ahead. 


Every inventor, every explorer, every artist wrestling with his dreams, endures as seeing the invisible. Never was there endurance like the Master's. It was radiant with peace and joy. It did not falter even in Gethsemane. It was equal to the agony of Calvary. And at the back of it, from first to last, inspiring, animating, and sustaining it, was the unclouded vision of His Father's face. 


We too can practice that same presence. We can do it when life is very difficult. We can do it when the way is dark. We can do it when we cannot understand. And, doing it, we come to be so sure that underneath are the everlasting arms, that endurance passes into joy.  


May your Faith and endurance give you the peace and joy to make this day the best day of your life.
God bless you with Faith.

Monday April 11

Well, how are you?  April 11th, this is the famous "tax week" with April 15th being this Friday.  The Masters tournament has come and gone, with its great drama and excitement.  And we are moving rapidly along this annual journey.  
How's your life?  Are you in peace?
Mine's in turmoil.  And of course, it is because of my weakness of faith which breaks down my hope.  Yet, God is Great... All the Time!  He allows me to worry and work at this thing called life so that I may get stronger in His love and Grace.  My journey is nearing its end and I am finally able to see some great truths.  
Today's meditation is about one of those truths:



April 11


Christ Being Formed in Us


My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you... Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?  (Gal_4:19 and 2Co_13:5)


When we take the truth of the gospel to others, that they might be born again, we often enter into spiritual birth pangs on their behalf. They are wresting over issues and questions. We are agonizing with them, that they might embrace the truth they need to become a child of God by faith. 
"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal_3:26). 


When the Apostle Paul took the gospel into the region of Galatia, he labored in this manner on behalf of those who would become believers in Jesus Christ. Later, he is writing them, telling them that once again he was in spiritual labor for them. "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again." This subsequent agonizing was not concerning their initial salvation. They had already been born again through faith in in the Lord Jesus. Now, he was laboring "until Christ is formed in you." 


It is the will of our Heavenly Father that we invite His Son into our lives. "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God" (Joh_1:12). 
Furthermore, it is His will that we allow the life of His Son to be expressed in and though our lives. As we face life day by day, we become engaged with issues, opportunities, challenges, responses, ideas, relationships, values, priorities, etc. The Lord Jesus Christ died for us in order to live with us through all of these aspects of living. "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that... we should live together with Him" (1Th_5:9). 
In every situation of life, the Lord Jesus is with us, dwelling within us, wanting to express His life through us. 
Although this great reality is described in many places throughout the word of God, many of God's people seem not to know it. "Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? " Either they have not heard it, or they have forgotten it. What a great privilege it is to share these grand truths with others. The process will not be without difficulties. "To this end I also labor, striving [agonizing] according to His working which works in me mightily" (Col_1:29). 
However, though we may experience spiritual birth pangs for others, God will see us through, as He touches their lives. 


"Lord Jesus, my indwelling Savior, please express Your life in and through me. May there be no area of my life that is just me doing my best or me fulfilling my will. Also, Lord, be my strength, enabling me to share these great realities with others, in Your mighty name, Amen."


And so, I share with you these truths of life.  You can have it all by just believing in Jesus, accepting Him as your Savior, and then allowing the Holy Spirit to fill you and lead you as God would have Accept Him today.


Have a great day in and with Jesus Christ.  

Wednesday April 6

Good morning,
Life can be both a joy and a struggle.  Don't know about you, but it seems to me that life is mostly struggle.  Perhaps that's the way it is designed or meant to be, we were meant to want and seek out what we want.  There comes the rub.  What do we want? What is going on in our minds that drives us to do what we do?
Not being trite, but in the end, isn't it the universal scale that Maslow so wisely defined - survival, support, social, finally self... 


As you move up the ladder of needs and wants, you do get to Self - in the end it is always about yourself.  What do you really want?
Love, Joy, Peace, Forbearance, Long Suffering, Goodness, Peace?
Well, they are there - these are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit 



Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, 
Gal 5:23  meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 
Gal 5:24  But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. 
Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 

Today's meditation allows us all this because we are clean in all ways. We come to God and wash ourselves clean so that we can be filled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit.



April 6


THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE CLEANSED SOUL


"Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."-- Psa_51:2.
"Blessed are they that wash their robes."-- Rev_22:14 (R.V.)


IN THE last chapter of the Book of Revelation there is a very interesting change from the Authorized to the Revised Version, which accentuates a line of thought which cannot be too often emphasized. The A.V. reads: "Blessed are they that keep His commandments, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life." The R.V. reads: "Blessed are they that wash their robes." May we not be thankful that this is the condition, rather than the absolute keeping of His commandments, which might induce legalism and Pharisaism into our character and experience. We are very conscious of our sin day by day, but as we wash our robes and make them white through the Blood of the Lamb, we may approach the Tree of Life and eat of its fruit.


There are two other references to the Tree of Life in this wonderful chapter. In Rev_22:2, we are told that it yields each month the food appropriate for the month; in Rev_22:19, we learn that each of us has a distinct and individual part in that tree. Its leaves are for our healing, and its fruit is suited to every phase of human experience. The Tree of Life was originally planted in Paradise together with the Tree of Knowledge (Gen_2:9). As the latter fed the soul-life of our first parents, with knowledge of good and evil, so the former stood for the life of the spirit nurtured and fed by the Spirit of God.
When we learn of its monthly yield, are we not reminded that whatever each passing experience of human life may require, it will be met out of the fullness of the Divine supplies. January days with their new resolves and hopes! February days with storms and frosts! May days with the flowers of Hope! June days with warmth and light. September days of fruition! December days of sickness or old age! But whatever month or day there is always a supply of adequate and suitable grace to be obtained from the fellowship of our dear Lord. He is the completement of every need, and perhaps we are led through these varying experiences in order to give the opportunity of learning phases and utilizing resources in our Saviour, of which, otherwise, we should have known nothing.


PRAYER
Give us grace, O Lord, to come to Thee for daily cleansing, and for all our needs in the various circumstances through which we are called to pass, that by our holy living we may glorify Thee in our daily life. AMEN.


May you have a blessed day!

Tuesday April 5

How are you doing today?  Where do you live?  That's important because where you live tells a lot and means a lot.  Are you in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia?  Which continent, which country?  So much depends on where we live because our opportunities and life choices depend so much on that factor alone.
Come!  Become a part of the best nation ever.  Here's how James Ryle describes it:



April 5


The Holy Nation


"Blessed in the Nation whose God is the Lord" (Psalm 33:12).


There is a Nation in the earth whose geographical boundaries are not charted on any map or model globe; whose government is not recognized in any Congress or House of Parliament; whose flag flies not at the United Nations Building in New York; and whose King is not invited to any Summit Meetings with other Heads of State.
The citizens of this Nation are distinguished from the citizens of all other countries in that they are uniquely related to one another as brothers and sisters; it is a Tribal Nation.


It has the finest educational system in the earth, affording each of its citizens such opportunities of learning that even the most simple of its students excel in wisdom the chief scholars of others countries. Its military is second to none, by far surpassing all others in superiority of weaponry, of intelligence, of strategy, and in its vision of conquest. For it seeks not its own, but the peace, liberty and welfare of all other nations; and it so fights against their unseen enemies so as to secure it for them without charge! Its soldiers are the finest and most valiant of warriors, each one more than a conqueror; indeed, during battle, one puts a thousand of the enemy to flight.


This Nation has an economic structure unmatched by any. The combined resources total in the hundreds of billions of dollars. There is no need to balance the budget, for there is no National debt. There are no taxes imposed upon the people, for there is no need. Every one gives freely of his substance to help maintain the cost of government.


Its political structure is unique in all the history of governed nations. It has a King, who is dearly loved and personally known by every single citizen. He is just in all His rulings, loving in all His ways, and right in all His affairs. There are no votes taken, for there are no disagreements to settle; every man sees eye to eye, all stand firm in one spirit and one mind.


Socially, this Nation enjoys the peace known by no other country, yet coveted by all. It has no prisons, for there are no criminals; the only news is good news. Purity of conduct is a highly cherished virtue; honesty in all things, a top priority; love and compassion, a common concern; kindness and helpfulness, an open and constant exchange participated in by all.
This Nation is the wealthiest, healthiest, happiest, wisest, most peaceful, strongest, and securest Nation in all the history of the world, and it shall abide as such forevermore!


It is the Holy Nation; it is the Kingdom of God; it is Society as God planned it to be all along — it is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you are welcomed in its warm embrace.

All you have to do is Accept the free gift, totally free, not strings or demands attached... Accept Christ as your Savior, Redeemer, and Friend... Jesus Christ died for you, to open the channel and pathway for you to have access to God's Love.

Just ask Jesus to come into your heart and fill your soul.  He comes in, cleans out all your sins, and gives you eternal life!

How neat is that?  Really cool.... and it's all Free!

Monday April 4

First Monday of April.  A great month, one of my favorites for sure.  Spring is busting out all over, Masters golf tournament, school days are winding down, summer is around the corner, and we look forward to warm days. 
It's also the tax month.  Did you do yours already?  We Americans are surely one of the richest people ever to live on this planet.  What a miracle of human development we are.  From 13 small colonies to 50 states that are united in beliefs, values, and systems.  Our country has matured in so many unexpected ways.  Certainly no one in Europe expected America to become the most powerful nation on earth back a 100 years ago!  And yet, here we are.  
How are you doing in your personal maturation process?


Today's mediation looks at this:



April 4


Proclaiming Christ for Maturity in Christ


"Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus."  (Col_1:28)


Spiritual maturity is one of the heavenly blessings that is ours "in Christ Jesus." 
Our heavenly Father desires that all of His children develop in this blessing of maturity: "that we may present every man perfect [mature]  in Christ Jesus." As God's people are being built up, the goal is that "we all come... to a perfect [mature] man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children... but... may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ" (Eph_4:13-15).

Jesus is our standard of spiritual maturity. The Lord wants us to be maturing into the likeness of the character of Christ.

For the saints to mature in Christ requires the proclamation of Christ. "Him we preach... that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Truth about the Lord Jesus Christ is the message that matures the people of God: "Him we preach." We need to know who the Lord is, what He has done, and what He wants to do in our lives, that we might trust in Him as our source: "from whom the whole body" (Eph_4:16). 


The scriptures abound with many beautiful revelations of such truths about Jesus. He is the Son of God, divine. "And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God" (Joh_1:34). He is the Son of Man, Immanuel, God coming as man. "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head... Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel... God with us" (Mat_8:20; Mat_1:23). He is the lamb of God. "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! " (Joh_1:29). 


This Jesus is our Mediator, bringing us the new covenant of grace. "And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant" (Heb_9:15). 
He is our Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, supplying all we need from start to finish. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End" (Rev_22:13). He is our "all in all." "Christ is all and in all" (Col_3:11). 
Such truths about Jesus are the ultimate message to mature the saints.


"Dear Lord Jesus, I long to mature in Your likeness. There is so much about my life that is immature and carnal. I hunger to see who You are and all that You want to do in and through me. Please reveal Yourself to me through Your word, that I might know You better and be conformed to Your image. This I pray in Your holy name, Amen."


I pray that you will be filled with the Love of our Lord Jesus and that you will let the Holy Spirit help you grow and mature in His likeness.  
Have a great day in the Lord.

Saturday April 2

Good morning, 
It is now April already.  So much has happened and I believe that good things are just around the corner.


We can do nothing in this life more worthy than to love others, help those in need, and live our lives to the Glory of God!  


Today's meditation is from George Morrison:



April 2


When the Child-Spirit Dies


Of such is the kingdom of heaven— Mat_19:14


Christlikeness Is Childlikeness
It is a beautiful thought, of such are the kingdom of heaven. It is a beautiful conception, daring and fresh as it is beautiful, that the one attribute of all citizens of God must be the possession of the childlike heart. We need not be learned, though it is sweet to be learned; we need not be gifted, though God be thanked for gifts. But we must be childlike; that is the one necessity. Christ takes an unalterable stand on that.


Childlikeness Is Not Childishness
Now of course to be childlike is one thing; and it is quite another to be childish. I sometimes fear we have so confused the two, that a certain contempt has touched the nobler of them—we use our common words so carelessly, and treat that magnificent instrument of speech so lightly. To be childlike is to have the spirit of the child, to have the touch of the divine about us still. It is to live freshly in a glad, fresh world, with a thousand avenues into the everywhere out of this dull spot that we call now. But to be childish is to be immature; to have no grip of things, never to face facts squarely; and he is a poor Christian who lives so. In understanding, says the apostle, I would have you men. It is one distinguishing glory of our Lord that He looked the worst in the face, and called it bad. But the guileless heart, and the soul that can serve and sing, because there is love and home and fatherland about it—all that is childlike—like the children—and of such is the kingdom of heaven.


Childlikeness Is a Sign of Greatness
There can be little doubt, too, that in claiming the child-spirit Jesus was reaching up to the very highest in man. "Wisdom," says Wordsworth in his own quiet way—so helpful in these noisy days—"Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop, than when we soar," and Jesus, stooping to the little children, was really rising to the crown of life. Show me the greatest men in human history—the men who were morally and nobly great—and I shall show you in every one of them tokens and traces of the childlike heart. It is the middle-men, the worldly middle-men, the men of one talent who bury it in the napkin, it is these who are locked into their prison-house, and have lost the happy daring of the child. Great souls, with the ten talents flaming into genius, live in a world so full of God, that men say they are imprudent, careless; and Jesus sees that they are little children. Who was it that defined a genius as a man who keeps unsullied through the stern teaching of the years the spirit of the child? I think that Christ would have liked that definition. There is genius in childhood; there is childhood in genius too. "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree."


Christ Possessed the Spirit of Childlikeness
And you cannot read the story of Jesus Christ without feeling that to the very close of it the child-spirit was alive in Him. "A little child shall lead them," said the prophet; do you think it was only a poetic fancy? The Bible is too terribly in earnest to have any margin for poetic fancies. When I study the records of the life of Jesus, and stumble on some unfathomable mystery, immediately I find my heart responding, "This is the Son of God." And when I find Him healing the Syrophoenician's daughter, raising the widow's son, or weeping in infinite pity by the grave—"This is the Son of Man." But when I light on these passages about the lilies; about the sparrow falling, and the raven who toiled not; then, in a thousand touches such as these, fresh, penetrating, wonderful, I feel that, after all, the prophet was right—a little child shall lead them. No scoffing hardened Him. No disappointment soured Him. No pain dulled the keen edge of His love. He still believed, in spite of Iscariot. He still had a Father, in spite of Calvary. And that sweet spirit, as of a little child, has been the dew of heaven to the world.


The Loss of Childlikeness May Creep on Us Slowly
The spirit of the child, then, never died in Jesus. I wonder if it has died in you? It dies away so slowly and so gradually, under the pressure of a worldly city, that we hardly notice how far we have drifted. But the greatest losses are the losses we never observe; the crumblings in secret till this or that is ruined; the stealing away of the dearest in the dark; and there is no loss more tragic for a soul than the loss of that spirit of the child.


You Cease to Be Childlike…When You Cease to Be Receptive
You ask me why? I think there are three reasons; there are three penalties that follow when the child-spirit dies, and the first is, that we cease to be receptive. The joy of childhood is its receptivity. The greatest duty of it is to receive. The child knows nothing of a haunting past yet, and it is not yet anxious about the future. Its time is now, and now is God's time too, do not forget. But you and I have so overlaid this present with yesterday's sin and with tomorrow's project, that we have little heart for today's message. We are not receptive as the little child is, we do not welcome impressions and angels now. And so we grow very commonplace and dull; there is plenty of dust about us, and no dew. 
Let the dead past bury its dead! Do not be living in a quenched yesterday. And take no anxious thought about tomorrow. Consider the lilies; be a child again. To feel the eternal in this passing moment, to catch the rustle of God's garment now, not to be burdened with a vain regret, not to be peering forward through the curtain; all that, with the open eye and feeling heart, is to be childlike. And of such is the kingdom of heaven.


When You Cease to Live in Your Own World
No doubt it is that very receptivity that makes the little children dwell apart. I have long thought that the aloofness of the Christian, his isolation in the busiest life, was closely akin to the aloofness of the child. You talk of loneliness?—I tell you there are few such lonely creatures as little children. And they are lonely not because of sorrow; and not, thank God, because their lives are empty. They dwell apart, because they live in their own world, bright, wonderful, with its own visions and voices, and you and I never touch even with our finger-tips these ivory gates and golden. What I suggest is that the isolation of the saint is like the isolation of the child. For the Christian also dwells apart, but not in the solitude of emptiness. He has his world, just as the children have; old things have passed away from him in Christ. And in that new creation where the Saviour reigns, and which the worldly heart has never seen, there is a peopled isolation like that of the little children, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.


When the Simplicity of Faith Is Gone
Once more, when the child-spirit dies, then the simplicity of faith is gone. There is an exquisite purity about the faith of children; sometimes they make us blush—they trust us so. Intensely eager, inquisitively curious; why? why? from sunrise, to sunset—but all the time how they are trusting us! Ah, if we had only trusted God like that! It is something to be trusted, if only by a helpless babe, and even God is happier when we trust Him. But better than to be trusted, is to trust; to walk by faith and not by sight; and when the spirit of the child dies out, it is not possible to walk that way again. For when we cease to be childlike we grow worldly, and to be worldly is always to be faithless; and one great danger of this commercial city is to develop faithless, worldly men. I have no doubt you call me an idle dreamer because I plead for the child-spirit in the city. But it is better to be a dreamer than a coward, and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. "Of such is the kingdom of heaven"—minister! "Of such is the kingdom of heaven" — merchant ! "Of such is the kingdom of heaven"-schoolmaster, doctor, workman, servant! Are you of such? It is not my question. I only pass it on from Jesus Christ!


When the Feeling of Wonder Disappears
Lastly, when the child-spirit dies, then the feeling of wonder disappears. For the child is above all else a wonderer, and is set in the center of a wonderful world. There is nothing common or unclean for children; all things are big with wonder for him. The rolling of the wagon in the street, and the gathering banks of cloud down by the sunset; and the opening flower, and the father's morning kindness, and the mother's stories, and the birthday joy—the little magicians so trick them out with glory, that they make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. Childhood, as one of our poets sang, is "The hour of glory in the grass, of splendour in the flower."
What a poor thing is life when the wonder of it all passes away! 
I remember a magnificent sermon by John Ker, that master in the great art of spiritual preaching, and this is the title of it, "God's Word suited to man's sense of wonder." And Ruskin said, "I had rather live in a cottage and wonder at everything, than live in Warwick Castle and wonder at nothing." 
You have all felt the trials of existence, I want you to feel the wonder of it now; and the great wonder that the Lord should be your Shepherd, and should have died upon Calvary for you. 
His name shall be called Wonderful—become a child again, and feel it so. For except ye be born again, ye cannot see the kingdom; and of such is the kingdom of heaven.


I hope you have the joy and wonder that you once had as a little, loving, expectant child.  We are all God's children and we are blessed that He loves us so.  Wonder about that for awhile!
May you have a blessed day.

April 1 Welcome Spring!

Fourth Month! A month of transitions, changes and growth! 
I love Spring, it is my favorite season because things come ALIVE! Awakening after winter's rest.  Life flows anew and hope fills the air.


So, how are you doing?  Finding your paths, your answers?  Are you happy?


Today's meditation discusses Spring:



“It is time to seek the Lord.”  - Hos_10:12


This month of April is said to derive its name from the Latin verb aperio, which signifies to open, because all the buds and blossoms are now opening, and we have arrived at the gates of the flowery year. 
Reader, if you are yet unsaved, may your heart, in accord with the universal awakening of nature, be opened to receive the Lord. Every blossoming flower warns you that it is time to seek the Lord; be not out of tune with nature, but let your heart bud and bloom with holy desires. 
Do you tell me that the warm blood of youth leaps in your veins? then, I entreat you, give your vigour to the Lord. It was my unspeakable happiness to be called in early youth, and I could fain praise the Lord every day for it. Salvation is priceless, let it come when it may, but oh! an early salvation has a double value in it.


 Young men and maidens, since you may perish ere you reach your prime, “It is time to seek the Lord.” 


Ye who feel the first signs of decay, quicken your pace: that hollow cough, that hectic flush, are warnings which you must not trifle with; with you it is indeed time to seek the Lord. Did I observe a little grey mingled with your once luxurious tresses? Years are stealing on apace, and death is drawing nearer by hasty marches, let each return of spring arouse you to set your house in order. Dear reader, if you are now advanced in life, let me entreat and implore you to delay no longer. 
There is a day of grace for you now-be thankful for that, but it is a limited season and grows shorter every time that clock ticks. Here in this silent chamber, on this first night of another month, I speak to you as best I can by paper and ink, and from my inmost soul, as God’s servant, I lay before you this warning, 
“It is time to seek the Lord.” 
Slight not that work, it may be your last call from destruction, the final syllable from the lip of grace.


May God's grace fill you and give you His Salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, may God bless you with His Love!