They say resolutions are made to be broken. This is true for man, for man makes resolutions that stands or falls upon the strength of man. However, “Confirmations” which stand upon the Rock of our salvation, are not only lasting, but will make 2009 a year of victory. For it is not the horrors of the year that will dictate our failure, but the absence of a new birth in Christ: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and that is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth hat Jesus is the So of God” (1 John 5:4-5)?
One statement of CONFIRMATION is FOR ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST! The following comments on these words are from GRACE IN WINTER, Rutherford in Verse, by Faith Cook. May they encourage us to look to 2009 with hope and victory:
There is no great reckoning to be made of the withering of my flower, in comparison of the foul and manifest wrongs done to Christ. Nay, let never the dew of God lie up on my branches again, let the bloom fall from my joy … so being the Lord might be great … and His oppressed Church delivered … our joys, beside God, in the inner half are but woes and sorrows. Christ, Christ is that which our love and desires can … rest safely upon.
One statement of CONFIRMATION is FOR ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST! The following comments on these words are from GRACE IN WINTER, Rutherford in Verse, by Faith Cook. May they encourage us to look to 2009 with hope and victory:
There is no great reckoning to be made of the withering of my flower, in comparison of the foul and manifest wrongs done to Christ. Nay, let never the dew of God lie up on my branches again, let the bloom fall from my joy … so being the Lord might be great … and His oppressed Church delivered … our joys, beside God, in the inner half are but woes and sorrows. Christ, Christ is that which our love and desires can … rest safely upon.
In bonds am I for Christ my Lord,
Yet all I suffer here
Can never match the grief He knew,
Or with His shame and wrongs compare.
While Christ fares well, what matters it
That I on ashes feed?
And of His weeping Church rejoice,
My burdened heart shall laugh indeed.
What if the dews of God no more
On my poor branches lie,
Or if my fairest bloom should fall,
Or life’s brief candle flame and die?
Yet this I know: that Christ is good,
His cross speaks gain untold;
My prison walls are marble built,
My captive-chain is all of gold.
For heav’n is cast of nobler mould
Than earth’s poor clay and mire;
While Christ is mine, I mount with joy
And to the heights of God aspire.
All joys beside are touched with pain,
Worm-eaten is earth’s best;
On Christ alone – pure source of love,
Each earthly love can safely rest.
