“WILDERNESS WANDERINGS OR ……………….PROMISED LAND FOUND?”
BY:J.FARRELL FISHER, JUNE 3, 1019
INTERESTING VERSE IN SONG OF SOLOMAN 3:6 THAT SAYS, “WHO IS THIS THAT COMES OUT OF THE WILDERNESS LIKE PILLARS OF SMOKE, PERFUMED WITH MYRRH & FRANKENCENSE, WITH ALL POWDERS OF THE MERCHANTS?” AS I READ THAT, I WAS AWAKENED TO THE FACT, THAT AT LEAST OUTWARDLY, MEN WANT TO “SMELL GOOD”, BUT APART FROM “CHRIST JESUS WITHIN”, THERE IS A WORLDLY, FLESHLY, SATANIC ‘STENCH’ THAT ONE CAN’T GET AWAY FROM UNTIL THEY’VE BEEN “WASHED” IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD, THE RESURRECTED, REIGNING JESUS, KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS!
IN ISAIAH 14: 12-20 WE FIND THE DRAMATIC DRAMA OF SATAN’S DOWNFALL BECAUSE OF HIS TREACHEROUS WAYS WITH ISRAEL IN ITS JOURNEY & EVERY FALLEN NATION ACROSS THE WORLD WHO HAD, HAVE, NO EYES THAT LOOK ONLY TO KING JESUS FOR THEIR DELIVERY FROM ‘WILDERNESS BONDAGE’! “HOW ARE YOU FALLEN FROM HEAVEN, O LUCIFER, SON OF THE MORNING! HOW ARE YOU CUT DOWN TO THE GROUND, WHICH DID WEAKEN THE NATIONS! (ALWAYS DOES!). FOR YOU HAVE SAID IN YOUR HEART, I WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN (THE DECEIVED MIND OF ALL FALLEN ‘FOLK’?), I WILL EXALT MY THRONE ABOVE THE STARS OF GOD (STUPID ‘SELF-ASSERTION’ OF ‘SPIRITUAL-BRAIN-DEADNESS’!); I WILL SIT UPON THE MOUNT OF THE CONGREGATION, IN THE SIDES OF THE NORTH; I WILL ASCEND ABOVE THE HEIGHTS OF THE CLOUDS; I WILL BE LIKE THE MOST HIGH. (AGAIN, SATAN LIVES IN SPIRITUAL STUPIDITY!). YET, THE PROPHET OF GOD, ISAIAH, SAID, VERSE 15, “YET YOU SHALL BE BROUGHT DOWN TO HELL, TO THE SIDES OF THE PIT.”
BUT SOLOMAN ASSUREDLY KNEW THAT SATAN & HIS CO-HORTS ‘WALKED IN THE WILDERNESS’ & KNOWING, WHETHER JUST SATAN & HIS CO-HORTS, BUT EVERY UNBELIEVER, EVERY REJECTOR OF GOD’S TRUTH, EVERY RELIGIOUS DEMON, WHETHER LITERAL OR ‘FLESHLY-IMITATED’, WOULD, WILL,WANT TO FOLLOW OR ‘FALL INTO’ A WALK OF REJECTING THE LOVE, THE MERCY, & THE GRACE OF GOD! IN MATTHEW 13:36-42 JESUS EXPOSED THE “TARES”, SAYING, IN RESPONSE TO HIS DISCIPLES ABOUT “THE PARABLE OF THE TARES OF THE FIELD, JESUS ANSWERING THEM, SAYING, “HE THAT SOWED THE GOOD SEED IS THE SON OF MAN. THE FIELD IS THE WORLD; THE GOOD SEED ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM; BUT THE TARES ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE WICKED ONE; THE ENEMY THAT SOWED THEM IS THE DEVIL; THE HARVEST IS THE END OF THE WORLD; & THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS. AS THEREFORE THE TARES ARE GATHERED & BURNED IN THE FIRE; SO SHALL IT BE IN THE END OF THIS WORLD.
THE SON OF MAN SHALL SEND FORTH HIS ANGELS, & THEY SHALL GATHER OUT OF HIS KINGDOM ALL THINGS THAT OFFEND, & THEM WHICH DO INIQUITY; & SHALL CAST THEM INTO A FURNACE OF FIRE: THERE SHALL BE WEEPING & GNASHING OF TEETH. THEN SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN IN THE KINGDOM OF THEIR FATHER. WHO HAS EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR.” QUESTION! “THE HARVEST” THE END OF THE WORLD ULTIMATELY OR THE END OF THE UNRIGHTEOUS ‘KINGDOM OF THE JEWS’? I VOTE FOR THE LATTER!! THE “KINGDOM OF CHRIST NEVER ENDS”!!!
IF YOU CONTINUE READING IN MATTHEW 13, VERSES 54 & 57 TELL US, THAT TEACHING & PREACHING IN HIS OWN COUNTRY, THAT THE JEWS WERE BOTH ASTONISHED AT WHAT HE TAUGHT “AND” OFFENDED IN HIM! AS A RESULT, VERSE 58 SAYS, “AND HE DID NOT MANY MIGHTY WORKS THERE BECAUSE OF THEIR UNBELIEF.” READING THAT VERY VERSE, OVER & OVER & OVER AGAIN, I THOUGHT TO MYSELF, “IS THAT ‘WHY’ TODAY, IN THE “CHURCH” YOU SEE VERY FEW, IF ANY, “MIGHTY WORKS” OR “MIRACLES OF GOD”?
“WILDERNESS WANDERINGS”? THAT CAN BE & USUALLY IS IMMATURE & ‘CHILDISH SPIRITUAL KIDS’, (MAYBE 50-80 YEARS OF AGE?), OVERCOME BY SKEPTICISM, AN ATTITUDE OF ‘UNKNOWING’ THE MIRACULOUS OR SUPER-NATURAL POWER OF GOD, LIMITING THEMSELVES TO “THAT” “BEST-EFFORT-MENTALITY” THAT HAS NO PLACE FOR COMPASSIONATE GOD’S MIRACULOUS MINISTRY OF, YES, “RAISING THE DEAD”!! OR “LEADING MEN OUT OF THEIR WILDERNESS WANDERINGS INTO GOD’S “PROMISED LAND”!! “AND HE DID NOT MANY MIGHTY WORKS THERE BECAUSE OF THEIR UNBELIEF!” FRIEDRICH WILHELM KRUMMACHER ONCE WROTE: “UNBELIEF DOES NOTHING BUT DARKEN & DESTROY. IT MAKES THE WORLD A MORAL DESERT, WHERE NO DIVINE FOOTSTEPS ARE HEARD, WHERE NO ANGELS ASCEND & DESCEND, WHERE NO LIVING HAND ADORNS THE FIELDS, FEEDS THE BIRDS OF HEAVEN, OR REGULATES EVENTS.” SIR WALTER SCOTT ALSO SAID, “BETTER THAT THEY HAD NE’ER BEEN BORN WHO READ TO DOUBT, OR READ TO SCORN.”
“SCORNERS” ARE ‘SELF-EDUCATED’, ‘FALLEN-AWAY-WORLD INFLUENCED’, & ‘SATANICALLY BRAIN-WASHED & HEART-DEFILED PEOPLE’, ‘MANY HIGHLY EDUCATED IN ‘WORLD-IGNORANCE’, BUT SADLY HEART-DEAD TO THE MIRACLE & MISSION OF LOVING GOD! THEY ‘REVERENCE SELF MORE THAN THEY REVERENCE GOD’, THEIR ‘VICE-GRIP’ OF UNBELIEF SQUEEZES AGAINST THE WARM, MERCIFUL, LOVING HAND OF THE MASTER WHO PROVED HIS LOVE FOR THEM AT THE CROSS! THERE IS ‘NO REST’ FOR ONE SO IN LOVE WITH HIMSELF THAT HE HAS NO INTEREST IN THE LOVE OF GOD! BUT, IT’S MARVELOUSLY TRUE THAT HOLY GOD HELPS THOSE WHO WILLINGLY EMPTY THEMSELVES OF FLESHLY OR RELIGIOUS TRUST & ASK TO BE FILLED WITH GOD’S HOLY PRESENCE IN & THROUGH THE RESURRECTION OF HIS SON, CHRIST JESUS!
‘SELF-ADULATION’ IS AN ‘ADULTERATING’, ‘SELF-VICTIMIZING’, ‘SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY’ BRED BY THE WORLD, ONE’S OWN FLESH-NATURE, & SATAN HIMSELF! ‘SELF’ IS A FALSE ALTAR WHERE MEN BOW TO INDULGE RATHER THAN TO WORSHIP HOLY GOD! ‘SELF-IMAGE’ IS, UNKNOWINGLY, ‘SELF-RENUNCIATION’, BUT SATAN “IS” A MASTERFUL DECEIVER, & A FALLEN WORLD OF UNBELIEF IS A ‘MAD STREAM’ OF ‘WARPED WORSHIP’, & A GODLESS MAN IS SADLY AN ENEMY OF GOD’S REDEMPTIVE LOVE! BUT YOU’LL REMEMBER THAT IN MATTHEW 16:24 JESUS SAID, “IF ANY MAN WILL COME AFTER ME, LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, TAKE UP HIS CROSS, & FOLLOW ME.”
BUT HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW WHO SO EASILY STEP UP TO,YES, VOLUNTARILY RENOUNCE ANYTHING THAT SHAMES CHRIST, OR IS OPPOSITE THE NATURE & CHARACTER OF THE GLORY OF GOD, & CERTAINLY DOESN’T AGREE THEY WERE “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”? THERE IS NOT A SINGLE, BLESSED INDIVIDUAL WHO LIVES SOLELY FOR HIMSELF, BECAUSE ‘SELF-LOVE’ & ‘SELF-PLEASURE’ IS ONE WHO OVERCOMES ON HIS OWN THE DEATHLINESS OF TAKING CARE OF ONE’S SELF WITH NO TRUST IN MERCIFUL GOD, IS EMPTY,VAIN, & WILLFULLY SELF-DESTRUCTIVE! GODLESS PEOPLE ARE ‘IMAGES’ OF “GHOSTS” HAUNTED BY THE SELF-NATURE THAT SO EASILY BLINDS THEM TO THE ETERNAL INTENT OF HOLY GOD IN RESCUING THE NEEDY & HIM THEN MEETING EVERY NEED THEY HAVE TO HIS OWN GLORY & PRAISE, BUT HOLLOW, FLESH-MINDED, DEVIL-DELUDED INDIVIDUALS HAVE NO PROBLEMS, YES, SPITTING IN GOD’S MERCIFUL FACE AS THEY CHOOSE TO INDULGE THAT DEVILISH SIN-NATURE, EVEN ‘THINKING’ (?) RESPECTFULLY WHEN THEIR HARD, PROUD, SELF-CENTERED LIVES “BUY THE LIE THAT ONE CAN SIN & NOT DIE!” REALLY?
“MASTERPIECES OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS” ARE HELL’S ACADEMY AWARD WINNING DUNCES OF POISONOUS, ‘SELF-IDOLATRY’ THAT IS SO RAMPANT AROUND THE GLOBE OF OUR, YES, KNOWN WORLD. THE “TWIN-SISTER” OF A FALSE FAITH IS THE DARKNESS’S ‘PLAY ACTORS’ ON MAN’S INVENTION OF A ‘RELIGIOUS STAGE’ THAT HAS NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH TRULY BEING RECONCILED TO HOLY GOD!! THAT’S LIKE AESCHYLUS WHO WROTE IN “THE PERSIANS”, “GOD LENDS A HELPING HAND TO THE MAN WHO TRIES HARD,” & I WONDERED, “WHAT BIBLE DID THAT PERSON READ IF HE/SHE DID?” “TRIES HARD”? IN WHAT BIBLE IS THAT QUOTE RESIDING?
IN GALATIANS 2:20 PAUL SHARED THE ETERNAL TRUTH, SAYING, “I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST; NEVERTHELESS I LIVE; YET, NOT I, BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME; & THE LIFE WHICH I NOW LIVE IN THE FLESH I LIVE BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME, & GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME. VERSE 21, I DO NOT FRUSTRATE THE GRACE OF GOD!” LIVING BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD? LEANING NOT ON YOURSELF BUT TRUSTING HIS RESURRECTED PRESENCE IN THE TRULY REPENTANT HEART? GREAT BELIEVERS ARE GREAT TRUSTERS WHO LOOK NOT TO THEMSELVES TO “GIRD UP THE FAITH” BUT TO GRAB HOLD OF JESUS’ RESURRECTED PRESENCE LETTING HIM LIVE HIS LIFE, HIS WALK, HIS WITNESS TO YOUR AVAILABLE “TEMPLE” BY GOD’S GRACE & MERCY!! IT “IS” CHRIST IN YOU THAT “IS” YOUR HOPE OF GLORY – NOT YOUR DETERMINED FLESH TRYING TO LOOK RELIGIOUS! ‘FLESHLY FAITH’ SOUNDS THE DISCORD KEYS OF DISAPPOINTMENT, WHILE “TRUE, BIBLICAL FAITH” IS THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”, BUT NOW BY GOD’S AMAZING GRACE & MERCY, I CAN LEAN NOT TO MY OWN UNDERSTANDING, BUT BY GOD’S GRACE & MERCY I CAN LET “JESUS BE JESUS IN ME, NO LONGER ME BUT THEE, RESURRECTION POWER, RESURRECTION PRESENCE, FILL ME THIS HOUR, HONORING YOUR FATHER, HONORING YOURSELF, HONORING THE HOLY SPIRIT, & BEING HONORED BY LIVES FINISHED WITH THEMSELVES BUT, YES, “RESTING” IN YOU, LORD JESUS!” THAT’S NOT A ‘POSSIBILITY’ – THAT’S HIS PROMISE, HIS PRESENCE, & HIS POWER- AND THE FORMER LIFE OF DISAPPOINTMENT BECOMES THE “FAITH LIFE OF RESURRECTED PRESENCE” BEING HIMSELF IN & THROUGH TRULY REPENTANT, TRUSTING, RESTING SERVANTS WHO TAKE THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY TO THEMSELVES THAT JESUS MIGHT REIGN KINGLY & SOVEREIGNLY THROUGH THEM!
“TAKE COURAGE, GRACED SAINT, ON ‘BEST’ YOU MUST NOT ‘REST’, BUT FINISHED WITH SELF, YOUR LIFE ON GOD’S SHELF, BUT CHRIST IN YOU, GOD’S BLESSING! “TAKE COURAGE, GRACED SOLDIER, YOUR “COMMANDER” CALLS, SAYING, “STOP STANDING TALL, BE STILL TO KNOW I AM YOUR ALL!” “BE BRAVE, MY FRIEND, AS GOD – I’M NOT YOUR ENEMY! BE BRAVE, MY CHILD – I’M YOUR FATHER, & I AM ABLE! NO FOE IS TOO STRONG, NO DEMON SO DEFEATING –THE HOLY TRINITY IS ETERNALLY SUCCEEDING!
VICTORY OVER SIN & DEATH, VICTORY OVER SATAN & HIS ‘godless’ WORLD, VICTORY OVER MEN WHO THINK LIFE IS ONLY A FLESHLY TWIRL, VICTORY OVER INFIDELS & RELIGIOUS PLAYERS WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT HEAVENLY ‘PRAYERS’! VICTORY OVER THE ‘RELIGIOUS’ ENCHANTER, SO SHOCKINGLY DISTRESSED BY HIS CONSTANT FAILURE! NO RECOGNITION FROM GOD BUT ONLY CONDEMNATION, NO BLESSING OF JESUS BUT ONLY THE CURSE FOR ‘FLESHLY REASONING’!
BUT THEN THERE IS “THE LIVING TRUTH”, THE RESURRECTED CHRIST READY TO REIGN IN THE REPENTANT, TRUSTING HEART, NO LONGER APART, BUT ‘FRESH’ IN CHRIST’S “START”, WE WATCH IN AMAZEMENT AS HE UNVEILS HEAVEN’S CHART FOR VICTORY IN JESUS, FROM WHICH HE’LL NEVER PART!” (JFF). OH, HEAR ME! THE “PROMISED LAND” HAS BEEN FOUND!! IT WAS HENRY WARD BEECHER, WHO ONCE WROTE, (THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS, FLEMING H.REVELL COMP.,WESTWOOD,NJ,1965), “SOME ONE HAS SAID THAT IN WAR PROVIDENCE IS ON THE SIDE OF THE STRONGEST REGIMENTS. & I HAVE NOTICED THAT PROVIDENCE IS ON THE SIDE OF CLEAR HEADS & HONEST HEARTS; & WHEREVER A MAN WALKS FAITHFULLY IN THE WAYS THAT GOD HAS MARKED OUT FOR HIM, “PROVIDENCE”, AS THE CHRISTIAN SAYS, -LUCK AS THE HEATHEN SAYS,-WILL BE ON THAT MAN’S SIDE. IN THE LONG RUN YOU WILL FIND THAT GOD’S PROVIDENCE IS IN FAVOR OF THOSE THAT KEEP HIS LAWS, & AGAINST THOSE THAT BREAK THEM.” SO TRUE!
YET AT THE SAME TIME ONE ‘CAN’ SAY, “PROVIDENCE” IS REAL, BUT “REVELATION” IS BETTER, ETERNALLY ENDORSED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF! AND WHETHER ONE LIKES IT OR NOT, PSALM 75:6-7 SAYS, “FOR PROMOTION COMES NEITHER FROM THE EAST, NOR FROM THE WEST, NOR FROM THE SOUTH. BUT GOD IS THE JUDGE: HE PUTS DOWN ONE, & SETS UP ANOTHER.” &, NO DOUBT, THIS IS WHY WE READ IN PROVERBS 29:23, “A MAN’S PRIDE SHALL BRING HIM LOW: BUT HONOR SHALL UPHOLD THE HUMBLE IN SPIRIT.” WHAT A STRONG, DIFFERENTIATING, LIFE-BLESSING ATTITUDE WHEN ONE WALKS HUMBLY “TRUSTING GOD” TO SEE HIM THROUGH DOING AS GOD PLEASES “ORDERING HIS STEPS”!!
“WILDERNESS WANDERINGS”? OR “PROMISED LAND FOUND?” IN MY “THOMPSON CHAIN REFERENCE BIBLE” (COPYRIGHTED IN 1964 BY B.B.KIRKBRIDE COMP.,INC,INDIANAPOLIS, IND.), IS JOSHUA 21:43-45 THAT SAYS: “AND THE LORD GAVE UNTO ISRAEL ALL THE LAND WHICH HE SWORE TO GIVE UNTO THEIR FATHERS; & THEY POSSESSED IT, & DWELT THEREIN. & THE LORD GAVE THEM REST ROUND ABOUT, ACCORDING TO ALL THAT HE SWORE UNTO THEIR FATHERS: & THERE STOOD NOT A MAN OF ALL THEIR ENEMIES BEFORE THEM; THE LORD DELIVERED ALL THEIR ENEMIES INTO THEIR HAND. THERE FAILED NOT OUGHT OF ANY GOOD THING WHICH THE LORD HAD SPOKEN UNTO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL; ALL CAME TO PASS.”
SO VERY, VERY INTERESTING THAT EVEN IN OLD TESTAMENT TIMES MEN LIKE JOSHUA KNEW & “RESTED IN” THE ETERNAL TRUTH OF “TRUST” IN FAITHFUL GOD, THEIR FATHER, WHO ALREADY HAD GIVEN THE PROMISE OF “THE SON WHO IS SAVIOR & WILL COME!” IN JOSHUA 24:14-16 WE READ, NOW THEREFORE FEAR THE LORD, & SERVE HIM IN SINCERITY & IN TRUTH: & PUT AWAY THE GODS WHICH YOUR FATHERS SERVED ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLOOD, & IN EGYPT; & SERVE YOU “THE LORD”. & IF IT SEEM EVIL UNTO YOU TO SERVE THE LORD, CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE; WHETHER THE GODS WHICH YOUR FATHERS SERVED THAT WERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLOOD, OR THE AMORITES, IN WHOSE LAND YOU DWELL; BUT AS FOR ME & MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”
ARE YOU AWARE OF “THE NECESSITY OF A CIRCUMCISED OR TRANSFORMED HEART?” IN DEUTERONOMY 30:6 MOSES SHARED: “AND THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART, & THE HEART OF YOUR SEED, TO LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, & WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, THAT YOU MAY “LIVE”; SHARING ALSO IN VERSES 19-20, “I CALL HEAVEN & EARTH TO RECORD THIS DAY AGAINST YOU, THAT I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU LIFE & DEATH, BLESSING & CURSING; THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE, THAT BOTH YOU & YOUR SEED MAY LIVE; THAT YOU MAY LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD, & THAT YOU MAY OBEY HIS VOICE, & THAT YOU MAY CLEAVE UNTO HIM: FOR HE IS YOUR LIFE, & THE LENGTH OF YOUR DAYS…”!
“CLEAVE UNTO HIM”? IN HEBREWS 3:12-14 PAUL WROTE, “TAKE HEED, BRETHREN, LEST THERE BE IN ANY OF YOU AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, IN DEPARTING FROM THE LIVING GOD. BUT EXHORT ONE ANOTHER DAILY, WHILE IT IS CALLED TODAY; LEST ANY OF YOU BE HARDENED THROUGH THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN. FOR WE ARE MADE PARTAKERS OF CHRIST, IF WE HOLD THE BEGINNING OF OUR CONFIDENCE STEDFAST ( OR FIRM) UNTO THE END.” AND THAT IS: “REST IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK”!
THAT LEADS US THEN TO HEBREWS 4:9-11! “THERE REMAINS THEREFORE A REST TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD. FOR HE THAT IS ENTERED INTO GOD’S REST, HE ALSO HAS CEASED FROM HIS OWN WORKS, AS GOD DID FROM HIS. LET US THEREFORE LABOR TO ENTER INTO THAT REST, LEST ANY MAN FALL AFTER THE SAME EXAMPLE OF UNBELIEF.” OH, THEN HEBREWS 4:15-16 SHARES THE VICTORIUS OPEN DOOR OF GOD’S MERCY & GRACE TO ALL “NEEDY BELIEVERS & FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST”! “FOR WE HAVE NOT AN HIGH PRIEST WHICH CANNOT BE TOUCHED WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES; BUT WAS IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE, YET WITHOUT SIN. LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY UNTO THE THRONE OF GRACE, THAT WE MAY OBTAIN MERCY, & FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.”
AREN’T YOU DAILY THANKFUL FOR THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD’S HOLY WORD? IN PSALM 28:7 WE READ, “THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH & MY SHIELD; MY HEART TRUSTED IN HIM, & I AM HELPED: THEREFORE MY HEART GREATLY REJOICES; & WITH MY SONG WILL I PRAISE HIM.” OH, & IN ISAIAH 41:10 GOD SPEAKS!! “FEAR NOT; FOR I AM WITH YOU; BE NOT DISMAYED; FOR I AM YOUR GOD: I WILL STRENGTHEN YOU; YES, I WILL HELP YOU; YES, I WILL UPHOLD YOU WITH THE RIGHT HAND OF MY RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
AND PAUL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT? HEBREWS 13:6, “SO THAT WE MAY BOLDLY SAY, THE LORD IS MY HELPER, & I WILL NOT FEAR WHAT MAN SHALL DO UNTO ME.” I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE WITH ISAAC WATTS & WILLIAM CROFT’S WRITING OF THE HYMN, “O GOD, OUR HELP”, (THE AMERICAN HYMNAL OF BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN. 1933), THAT SAYS: “O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST, OUR HOPE FOR YEARS TO COME, OUR SHELTER FROM THE STORMY BLAST, & OUR ETERNAL HOME.
UNDER THE SHADOW OF YOUR THRONE STILL MAY WE DWELL SECURE; SUFFICIENT IS YOUR ARM ALONE, & OUR DEFENSE IS SURE.
BEFORE THE HILLS IN ORDER STOOD, OR EARTH RECEIVED HER FRAME, FROM EVERLASTING YOU ARE GOD, TO ENDLESS YEARS THE SAME.
TIME, LIKE AN EVER-ROLLING-STREAM, BEARS ALL ITS SONS AWAY; THEY FLY, FORGOTTEN, AS A DREAM DIES AT THE OPENING DAY.
O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST, OUR HOPE FOR YEARS TO COME; YOU BE OUR GUIDE WHILE LIFE SHALL LAST, & OUR ETERNAL HOME.” AMEN?