DIARY OF A BIBLE

January
A busy time for me. Most of the family decided to read me thru this year.
They have kept me busy for the past two weeks. Now they have forgotten.

February
Clean-up time. I was dusted yesterday and put in my place. My owner did use me a
few minutes last week. He had been in an argument and was looking up some references.

March
I had a busy day the first of the month. My owner was appointed leader of something and
used me. I got to go to church for the first time this year, Easter Sunday.

April
Grandpa visited us. He kept me on his lap reading First Corinthians for an hour
(Chapter 13). He seems to think more of me than he did when he was younger.

May
I have a few green stains on my pages. Had some early spring flowers pressed in me.

June
I look like a scrap book. They stuffed me full of newspaper clippings. One of the girls
got married.

July
They put me in a suitcase today. I guess we are off on a vacation. I wish I could stay at
home because I will have to stay in this thing for a month.

August
Still in the suitcase!

September
Back home again and in my old place. Have a lot of company; two "People" magazines and
four comic books are on top of me. My! I wish I could be read as much as they are.

October
They used me a little today. One of them is very sick. Right now I am all shined up and in
the center of the table. I think the preacher is coming.

November.
Back to my old place. I was looked through for some old papers today. One of the
children picked me up and asked, "Is this a scrap book?"

December
They're getting ready for Christmas, so I'll soon be covered up with packages and wrapping
paper. ~ Author unknown.

QUARRELS AMONG CHRISTIANS

by J.C. PHILPOT- 1802-1869

It is NOT grace which genders strife, but corruption.If,therefore, my brother’s corruption be raised against me, shall I oppose my corruption to his, and so enter into wrath; or shall I not rather beg of God that His grace in me may invite the grace that is in my brother, and so we may settle the whole in peace? If we are real Christians we must both desire only what is just and right, or we do not live like Christians; and if we both agree in desiring this as the end, how is it we differ violently about the means?

If either hath done or desired to wrong the other, the one who is more under the conduct of grace should kindly and

affectionately represent it; and if he cannot be heard, should

leave the matter to God, without raising the unholy and unhappy tumult of heat and resentment in his own mind. He that can bear and forebear most is certainly most the Christian. It is misery

and deadness to a real believer to walk and war after the base fury and discord of the flesh.

When he deserves well, and patiently suffers evil, then he is like to his Master and right in himself. The apostle directs for believers, not the vengeance of law, but Christian arbitration. Law is the last refuge, and can only be lawful when right is not to be had by better means.

If Christians who have a matter of difference would graciously agree to meet with each other in prayer, and to pray together kindly for each other before the throne of grace, surely if they meant the attainment of that right and truth which they prayed for, they might soon find it out, and settle it accordingly.

But it is the flesh which comes in and mars all. One cannot stoop; and the other will not. They are not so wise as Luther’s two goats that met on a narrow plank over a deep water. They could not go back, and they dared not to fight. At length one of them laid down, while the other went over him; And so peace and safety attended both. Why should not believers try this method?

But alas! While grace remains idle or neuter, the world jeers and triumphs; The devil is busy and excites; good men mourn and lament; the weak are stumbled and turned aside; and a long train of iniquities and jealousies fill the breast of those who humbly hope to dwell with God and each other throughout eternity. These things ought not so to be!

If my brother be in the wrong, how shall I show myself in the right? By wounding him more than he hath wounded himself? By doing wrong likewise, and rendering evil for evil? No; let me pray that God will open his eyes, and not shut my heart; that He would give him more grace, and me more patience to meet what is not gracious in him; at the utmost, that I may not be a partaker with him of anger, or those sins which follow upon it.

Am I in the wrong? What then shall I do? Shall I persist in it,

and make myself more in the wrong? This would not be gracious; this would be bringing misery by heaps upon myself. Rather let me go first to God, and then to my brother, acknowledging my fault, or my error, to both. There is no shame in confessing our sins to God, nor any meanness in owning them to men. It is the mark of a noble and generous spirit in common life; and it is

the wisdom, as well as the duty and privilege, of a much better life in the Christian.

O thou love of the brethren, whither art thou fled?

We profess to believe in the communion of the saints; but where are the saints that have this communion? We talk of the unity of God’s church with respect to its members; but where are those members who live in this unity? O shame on us that we differ at all, that we differ on trifles, that we love to differ, that we urge and promote differences, and that the healing spirit is not more to be found amongst us!

Lord, if thou should differ with us at any time, as we are ready at all times to differ with others, o how shall we stand before thee, or what could we answer for ourselves?

Give, o give more of thy grace, that we may be humble in our hearts, just in our desires, mild to others, and deeply submissive to thee!

THE TRUTH by Charles Woodruff

- All truth is God’s truth. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

- Does truth remain the same, or does truth change? “I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:18).

-“Never was there a reformation brought about in the church, but by preaching the doctrine of an imputed righteousness.” George Whitfield, sermon on “The LORD Our Righteousness”, from Select Sermons, Banner of Truth, Edinburgh, 1985 reprint.

-Jesus said of the woman who washed His feet with her tears, “She hath done what she could” (Mark 14:8). In His grace alone, let us do what we can, until He comes. You can pray for me, and I for you. You can pray for America, and other lands as well. Pray for those in your local church, and the church worldwide. Pray for his elect to be gathered in. You CAN pray if you are His.

His last words to the church are “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

Stand By Me- Charles A. Tindley- 1905

STAND BY ME
When the storms of life are raging, stand by me When the storms of life are raging, stand by me When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me
In the midst of tribulation, stand by me
In the midst of tribulation, stand by me
When the hosts of hell assail, and my strength begins to fail
Thou who never lost a battle, stand by me
In the midst of faults and failures, stand by me In the midst of faults and failures, stand by me When I do the best I can, and my friends misunderstand Thou who knowest all about me, stand by me
When I'm growing old and feeble, stand by me
When I'm growing old and feeble, stand by me
When my life becomes a burden, and I'm nearing chilly Jordan
Oh thou Lily of the Valley, stand by me