The Apple of His Eye!

Michael E. Wood
August 18, 2011


Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.  Proverbs 3:5, 6

While continuing to be somewhat perplexed in the attempt of finding some kind of part time employment to supplement our income, and at the same time holding true to our calling and priorities to make Christ known, there are a number of realities we have had to face. There are the limitations which go with being fifty-five years old and the understanding that there are things of which I can no longer do physically which eliminates some opportunities. With the high cost of living, and cut backs in personnel for many companies, there are not as many opportunities, as those who have jobs are compelled to do whatever is necessary to hold on to them. Many companies which are driven solely by the love of money also require an open availability which includes working on Sundays. One glorious note is that through this process a number of opportunities to share the glories of Christ in one way or another have opened in places I would not have been if I were already employed. Thankfully, there is no such thing as unemployment in the work of the kingdom of God. Thus we trust that God will bring glory to Himself through the gospel of Christ in ways that we shall not know until we are with Him in glory, as our times and the seasons of our lives are in His hands.

“Dear friends, judge of everything in this way – whether it will help you on in the journey or no. In choosing a profession, or trade, choose it with regard to this – will it advance or hinder your heavenward journey? Will it lead you into sore temptations, or into wicked company? Oh! Take heed. What is the use of living, but to get on in our journey to heaven?” R. M. McCheyne (Numbers 10:29)

Hold on to Christ; He is our life, The Giver of all gifts.
And for His praise He doth bestow all things as grace uplifts
Our eyes of faith to see beyond what we can not behold
For the purpose that His glory shall increase; unfold
Both now in time through persevering faithfulness displayed
In and by all those He bought by blood when He was slayed,
Atoning for and proving that our God was justified
When to the cross He sent His Son and for our sins, He died.


Those things that seemed to be such tests and loomed so large to us
Will in the end prove Him to be Almighty, Glorious!
And thus with courage, look to Him Who hears our deepest cry
And watches over us through Christ, the Apple of His eye!


Oh, if you have as yet not learned sufficiency in Him
Is all we need within our hearts to praise in psalm and hymn
Our God and Father as the Sovereign Ruler over all,
On Him we cast our every care and humbly to Him call.


Then look to Him and rest upon His Word that does not change
And He will grow you as your thoughts By Him He doth arrange
To behold Him as He Is and worship in the Spirit,
God alone, Whose voice in Christ has made our ears to hear it!

The Ark We Build

Michael E. Wood

August 26, 2011

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. By faith Noah, being warned of God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. Hebrews 11:6, 7

As blood bought children of God we are given the grace to desire Him, to seek Him, and praise His precious Name, to find Him! Through Christ, He has translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son, and enabled us by faith to please Him. As the ark is a type of Christ, so likewise, Noah in constructing the ark was a type of Christ building His church of which the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. As He, that is Christ, is in all who are His, we find ourselves embraced in the great privilege of being co- laborers together with Christ, and thus we build…..

The ark we build, we build by faith

And pray God will impress

Upon the hearts of mortal men

His holy righteousness

Which cometh not by sacrifice

Or anything we do

But only by the blood of Christ

Whose will imposed on you

By His Mighty Spirit written

On your heart and mind

Will give you such a conscience that

In Him you will then find

The peace that passes understanding

Coming from above

That caused you to be born again

Out of the Father’s love.

For not of human passion or

Through best laid plans of men

Will you ever know that God

Is love or comprehend

The truth about yourself and

Even more the awful cost

That Jesus paid, redeeming all

His own who were so lost

That nothing of this world

Could ever fully satisfy

The justice of a perfect God,

Except the He should die.

And so from wrath, He has delivered

All who look and live

By faith in Jesus only and

To Him the glory give!

Dustin Benge

Dustin W. Benge is Pastor-teacher of First Baptist Church of Jackson, Kentucky and author of the “Ordinary Pastors” blog.  I posted the following message to him on his blog on August 23, 2011


Hi Dustin,


I am so thankful to find that God continues to raise up young men as you, with a passion for His glory, and the zeal to make Him known! Being much encouraged as to how our Omnipotent God and Savior knits His body together in our generation through our Lord Jesus Christ with those who have gone before as well as those who are now in the world, I trust that He will be pleased to use me to be an encouragement to you.


In recent days, having been introduced to Derek Prime through listening to a series of messages preached via CD from the "Basics Conference 2005" with Alistair Begg, I decided to investigate a little more thoroughly which brought me to the article you posted on Pastoral Advice from Derek Prime.


Having made a copy from your sight and using it as a help to formulate my thoughts in relation to the passage found in 1st John 2:1,2, and at the same time seeking the wisdom of God in discerning His will in certain areas of my life, my eyes became focused on the "Quote of the Week" by Susannah Spurgeon, "It is a mercy that our lives are not left for us to plan, but that our Father chooses for us; else might we sometimes turn away from our blest blessings, and put from us the choicest and loveliest gifts of His providence." With that in mind the following was written:

I will rejoice in what You give; much more in Who You are!
You set the boundaries of the seas and hold each shining star,
In such a way that every one that looks to You for guidance
Will find You holding in Your hand the wisdom of compliance
Unto Your will as You make known, though slow we are to learn,
And yet You give more grace each day and through it we discern,
Your mercy is unfathomable and slow You are to chide,
For Jesus Christ; His sake alone, in whom we now abide.


We thank You for Your faithfulness as You communicate
Your love Oh Father to each child of whom You'll not forsake,
And for Your Holy Spirit, who enlightens our mind's eye
To focus on the truth perfected by Your great supply
Of everything that we have need to show the honor due
To Christ alone, who gave Himself, now glorified with You!

Thank you for your faithfulness to our great God and King!
Rejoicing with you in Jesus,
Michael

Daniel 12:3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

A Means of Grace

Michael E. Wood

August 20-24, 2011

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1^st Thessalonians 5:16-18

In our modern day culture we often use the term “means of grace” to refer to things such as Bible reading and prayer, church attendance, the preaching of God’s Word, and partaking of the Lord’s Table. While it is true that God, by grace through faith, does indeed reveal Himself by His Mighty Spirit to His children in these ways; He is the God of all grace and thus He reveals Himself and His will through the circumstances of our lives by His providence as well.  In contrast to much of today’s evangelical teaching, consider the following statements from the book, “Created to Praise”, by Derek Prime.

“Testing is one of the means by which God carries forward His savoring purposes.”

“Samuel Rutherford came to recognize that, ‘the Lord Jesus, in His mercy, makes room for Himself in our lives by our losses.’”

A means of grace that is not well known

Is that which lifts us up to the throne

Of Him Who in the midst of our trials

Makes more room for Himself as He smiles

Upon His children in whom He creates

A heart of praise which ever awaits

With hope that He in all expectation

Will be glorified through our tribulation.

As well we know from the promise we heard

From God Himself through His living Word

That as our Father and Sovereign of all,

He works all things for the humble that call

And trust in Him as Christ we make known,

Good shall come as His glory is shown

Amidst the things we don’t understand

As we commit all to His loving hand.

Free grace does not come by that which we do

And You order our lives to be centered in You.

For even our trials is Your sovereign appointment

That You use as our eyes are applied with the ointment

Of sight to see more clearly Oh Father

Your glory our end, as a son or a daughter.

So help us with patience, pursue then with joy

Your praise as our purpose of which You employ!

Thank You Father for reminding; all our need is Jesus

For His life for sin atoned and by His grace You seized us

As a brand plucked from the fire and raised with Him to own

No other pleasure than to praise Your glory on the throne!

You Are Our "New Song"

Michael E. Wood

August 17, 2011

While reading “Created to Praise”, by Derek Prime, Dianna and I found ourselves in tears a number of times. In fact, it seemed with every chapter our hearts were moved with a greater desire for worship and praise of our Magnificent Father God and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Being likewise encouraged to continue in the path chosen for me of the Father by the following words from that book:

“In our individual times of worship and of prayer, we may find ourselves expressing praise of God both in spoken word and in song. Sometimes hymns and songs which are already well known to us will exactly suit our situation. But the Holy Spirit has not exhausted the human language and all the hymns and songs which can be written in praise of God have not yet been written!”

“The Lord Himself is the believer’s song’ (Isa. 12:2)   Just as the preoccupation of praise is with God, so too psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are preoccupied with God Himself.”

and being reminded that God Himself in the person of Christ is our New Song, the music of “You are my Sunshine’ came to mind, and the following words were written to be sung to that familiar tune.

Oh God our Father

To Whom belongeth

All of our worship

So that in truth

All men will know that

You’re ever present

And by Your power You show forth the proof!

Chorus

You are our Savior.

You are our New Song!

You make our hearts glad.

For You we long,

Because You loved us,

Christ died to save us.

And by Your Spirit we follow You home!

Jesus, Your grace gives

More than I can tell.

You light my way and

True wisdom give,

That we may know You;

Show forth Your praises

And in Your glory we ever shall live!

(Chorus)

Sweet Holy Spirit

We ask You make us

More like our Savior

In every way.

To Jesus only

Be all the glory

As like Him, we shall be on that glad day!

(Chorus)

Mere Outward Forms

Michael E. Wood

August 9, 2011

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those that seek Him.  Hebrews 11:6

Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses.  1^st Timothy 6:12

Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:23

The following are experts from “Keeping the Heart”, by John Flavel.

“The heart of man is his worst part before it is regenerate, and it is his best part afterwards. It is the seat of principles and the fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the eye of the Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it. The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, and the greatest difficulty after conversion is to keep the heart with God.”

“It is not the cleansing of the hand that makes the Christian (for many a hypocrite can show as fair a hand as he), but the purifying, watching, and right ordering of the heart.”

“God rejects all duties (however glorious in other aspects) offered Him without a heart. He who performs duty without a heart – that is, heedlessly – is no more accepted with God than he who performs it with a double heart – that is, hypocritically.”

Mere outward forms are not the means, by which our God is pleased,

But heartfelt, grace filled, humbled hearts is where our God is seized.

For it is He who raised us up to bombard His heavenly throne

With petitions demonstrating in His sight alone

That He is ours and we are His with joy as sweet perfume,

In Christ our supplications rise as with Him we commune.

Of this abundance we partake, not one can take away

As all serve only to remind us, He is our all each day.

And though our greatest conflicts lie, hid deep within our breast,

His presence makes us strong to fight with fear in each new test,

He brings to show the magnitude of faithfulness and love

He is within Himself and shows to us through Christ above.

Oh Father help us know and love You more with every breath

You give until You bring us home in Christ through mortal death

And as we wake with You where there shall be no more alarms

We’ll praise You then perfected in Your everlasting arms!

Carried By Your Grace

Michael E. Wood
August 2, 2011

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside very weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1, 2

As followers of Christ, as we consider the fact that we are in the world but are not of the world, it behooves us to consider those things which we have been given as liberties. These would be things which are not overtly sinful in and of themselves nor bring dishonor to our Lord, yet invariably may either cause our weaker brother to stumble or serve as weights upon the legs of progress in our growth in grace and the advancement of the gospel and the kingdom of Christ for the glory of God. Let each one be fully persuaded in his own mind with a conscience captivated by the Word of God, dependant upon and taught by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. God is the One true Judge to Whom we will give an account. His goodness and mercy follows us all the days of our life and we shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Hallelujah!

Deliver me from liberties, of which I now partake,
If they veil Your face to some that You for Your own sake
Would reveal the glory of Your grace to mortal men
And through their conscience prick their heart to own up to their sin
Of judging You as blind men do and know not their own weakness;
Yeah, as dead who heareth not the Man who in his meekness
Came to earth and suffered on a cruel Roman cross
That Your glory would display our purchase by His loss.


For in truth I know not anyone as vile as I
When confronted by my sin and to it daily die.
Oh help me by Your Spirit and Your holiness proclaim
That You alone are all my strength. Your glory is my aim!
And though I fail so miserably it pleases me to know
That You alone O Christ my King in faithfulness will show
Your smile through mercies daily gifts of love that I might praise
You more and more while carried by Your grace through all my days.