My final farewell to the Grace to You blog. They are closing up shop.

I have felt very privileged to be a part of this great ministry, even if it was from the outside looking in. When I first started posting here, Gabriel Powell assured me that John MacArthur welcomed women as contributors. It was very good news for many Christian women, who love the Lord and love to discuss His Word.

The levels of professionalism from the administrators of this blog, like Tommy Clayton, Fred Butler, Gabriel Powell, and Travis Allen, have been absolutely stellar. Their writing has been inspirational, and the level of teaching, par excellence. They have, after all, learned from a master shepherd, John MacArthur, whose love for the truth is boundless and knows no end.

We were all brought here together because of our love for one book and one Lord; but not just any book, but a book that has eternal significance: the Bible. Words have meaning and consequences, and no other book written throughout our history teaches that with such clarity and force. There have been eloquent men and women who wrote poetry, prose, and great literature, over the centuries, who felt their works of art, was their way of touching eternity. Chaucer was one such man; at the end of Troilus and Criseyde, he wrote, “Go, litel book!” Hoping that his words would take flight, like the seeds of a dandelion on the tail of a wind, and disseminate for all future generations to tarry over and adore. But who remembers Troilus and Criseyde? Who could even spell it? And how “litel” a book it must have been. But alas, we know that all is pure vanity. Only one book has conquered all others, and continues to vanquish its enemies.

God reminds us here: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecc 12:8-13).”

Lastly, this was Carol Burnett’s theme song (I took the liberties of rearranging it a bit). I'm so glad we had this time together, just to have a prayer, or share a Bible verse or two. Seems we just get started and before you know it comes the time we have to say, "So long."

Waiting for the return of our precious Lord, Jesus Christ!

Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men?

Written by Mary Elizabeth Palshan (Tyler)
January 18, 2012

We’ve all read the reports of the Marines who were involved in the scandal of urinating on the dead corpses of the Afghan soldiers. It is the current fodder from a war-torn part of our world that is under the iron grip of a false religion and a false god. The attempt by the Taliban is to cut a swath (make a pretentious display of) and put not only our men in uniform, but also our nation as a whole in a bad light. Not to say that it didn’t happen, or that it is befitting behavior coming from our soldiers. We, as Americans, do hold to a moral code of conduct, and we should do everything possible to uphold these standards.

However, war is ugly, brutal, and subject to unpredictability’s. Holding to a standard of ethics is difficult when you see your comrades bodies treated like cadavers made ready for the slaughterhouse. The beheadings of American soldiers and journalists by this evil group of godless men, causes us to rally around our boys, who love our flag and maintain our freedoms with their young, precious lives. We come to their aid and defense, in spite of their alleged crimes. It is, after all, a thing called patriotism. But then war itself has its many incalculable, fundamental, and inherent problems; how do we in fact justify killing anyone, or urinating on dead men, or stomach and forgive those men who beheaded our own people? It is far too mind-boggling for even the most ardent theologians, philosophers, and politicians to wrap their minds around. When war takes a turn from a clean kill, to one of brutal butchery from an evil heart that enjoys killing for the sick thrill of it, we know we are in for the long haul of trying to explain evil and all its manifestations and aberrations.

If we intend to keep things simple, in an age of notable complexities, the old adage is worth repeating here, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” This can provide some moorings to which one can be directed by. But platitudes quickly get lost in the blood, sweat, guts and gun smoke of real flesh-to-flesh battle; and young men can, and do, loose their compass. So to blame our Marines for their offense is a hard sell we Americans are not willing to buy. Sadly, though, there are simply no quaint or enchanting war stories of complete innocence on either side of the fence to be passed around the picnic tables. Or discussed at fire-side-chats at camp Grenada, where frivolities and mirth keep us giddy, dazed and safe from harm. War does not make for pleasant conversation anywhere. So our men of war, regrettably, brood all alone, like the few lost and lingering souls who survived the horrors of the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The average non-military person cannot understand and comprehend the extreme depths of evil that lurks in the hearts of men. Even eye witnesses loath to give it description.

The American idiom, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows," was coined by Walter B. Gibson for the famed radio program known as the Shadow. At the close of each episode, the Shadow would remind its listeners, “"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay.... The Shadow knows!" As prophetic and full of wisdom as these two phrases may well be, and as perceptive as the Shadow was, we know that the author took his cues directly from a panoramic view of our corrupt world. Not that I pay homage to the author of the Shadow; but the Shadow was a predictable “light,” ironically. Casting not a shadow, but a light, into the dark recesses of all mankinds disturbed misdeeds. But the Shadow pales in comparison to a greater light that is capable of a much deeper penetration, into the long and winding caverns of our wicked hearts. We all know that the human heart (but for the grace of God) is capable of much evil. There but for the grace of God go all of us.

That illumination and light is the Word of God. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb 4:12).” God knows what lies in the shadows and secret chambers of our hearts. “They (we) have all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Psa 14:3).”

Hard truths are often hard to swallow. No one wants to admit we could be far worse than what we are, or as bad as God describes in such pointed detail. Our very minds bristle at such a thought; most  love their autonomy and their (lite) form of sin. God is referring not just to the evil butchers in this world, here, but also to all men who have fallen since Adam. “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way (Isa 53:6).” We have all trampled the holiness and purity of God underfoot. And unless we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will pay the hefty price for our rebellion against a Holy and just God, who desires that all men come to the knowledge of His Son to be saved.

We are only who we are because of God’s grace. If God so chooses, He can make an evil tax collector into an honest citizen; a murderer like the Apostle Paul, into one who weeps sincerely over the fate of the lost sheep of Israel; a coward like Abraham, into a saint, whose progeny God promised to multiply like the glittering stars of the heavens, and a Christ denier like Peter, who denied the Lord three times, into a faithful servant.

The converse to this is God’s ability to raise up evil men like Pharoah, so that by comparison, He can put His glory on display for the entire world to witness. Evil has its purpose in this dark, sin-infested world. To make God’s holiness shine in all its resplendent glory. The evil deeds of men will condemn those who choose to brandish their form of wickedness and butchery over and above God’s righteousness. But be not deceived, God is not mocked, what we sow, we will also reap. “..For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord (Rom 12:19).”

If God lifted His powerful hand and decided not to restrain most all evil, this world would spiral out of control, and debauchery and malfeasance of every manifestation and stripe would consume all of us. We owe every breath and blessing to our Creator, whether we acknowledge Him as such, or not.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? That should be a no brainer! God knows. He says this is His Word: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings (Jer 17:9-10).”

But the GOOD NEWS IS: “The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. The LORD is **NIGH** unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that FEAR him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will He destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his Holy name for ever and ever (Psa 145:17-21).”

One day soon, the Beatific Vision will appear before us, and we “Shall see Him as He is (I John 3:2).” “So that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phl 2:10-11).”

A New Year's resolution Dr. Barnhouse style!

I found this New Year's resolution while reading an article by Ray Stedman "Ishmael Must Go."  May we ALL benefit from the widom of it.

"I recall reading an article about Dr. Barnhouse and was struck by evidences of this very choice in his experience. He said, "Early in my ministry, I had the idea that I must strike out against all error wherever I saw it. I hit Christian Science, Unitarianism, Romanism, and if error was in some fundamental leader with whom I was in 95% agreement, I swung hard at the 5%." This made Dr. Barnhouse a highly controversial figure, often unmercifully sharp and dogmatic. This zeal for truth within him became an Ishmael in his life. Then he tells how there came a time when the Spirit of God taught him to love and he faced the choice -- Ishmael had to go. He had to learn to be more understanding and more tolerant of some of the variant views of others. He wrote, "Some time ago, I published a New Year's resolution expressing regret that I had had differences with men who are truly born again. The results of that resolution were astounding. In the years which followed its publication, my ministry has been transformed. I need to know all who have been redeemed by Christ, for I will never know my Lord fully until I see him in every individual whom he has redeemed and saved by the outpouring of his life for us all upon the cross. This," he says, "is true fellowship." It was wonderful to see in the life of Dr. Barnhouse the removal of an Ishmael. The closing years of his life show much of his mellowing and of the sweetness of the fruit of the Spirit in one who before had been so harsh, critical, and demanding."

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

The Lamb of God

"Mary Did You Know"

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know  that your Baby Boy has come to make you new?

This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand?

Did you know
that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God?

Mary did you know.. Ooo Ooo Ooo
The blind will see.
The deaf will hear.
The dead will live again.
The lame will leap.
The dumb will speak
The praises of The Lamb.

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations?

Did you know
that your Baby Boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
The sleeping Child you're holding is the Great, I Am.

A Letter to a Hurting Friend at Christmas

Dear Pam,

I have found the only way to deal with the pain of loneliness (when it crops up unexpectedly), is to embrace someone who is hurting. It works, too! I think all of us have at one time or another been left for dead, by a dear loved one in our lives. People will disappear from our lives for various reasons; some will die, some will get mad, hurt, and offended, and not have the capacity to forgive and forget and move on. While other loved ones will become so estranged from us, that we wouldn’t even recognize them if they walked right past us on the street.

The sad fact is, when things like this happen, as they so often do, is that WE become the dead among the living. We become the walking dead, BUT, only if we choose to die. Life should be all about renewal. I learned about death and renewal by growing tulips. I so wanted to prune and cut off the brown, lifeless, stems and leaves, when the last red petals of spring gave up their life among the flowerbeds. I saw how lifeless, ugly, and withered the green had become, and hated to see it shrivel and die, but then I realized that the old, decaying matter; did matter. It mattered more then I knew. For without this dead and decaying fertilizer, the bulbs far below the ground would not be nourished and come to fruition in the spring.

When someone dies, we say farewell my beloved, we say I loved you more than life itself, but NOT to the point of my death. I must live to tell someone about the tulips, to tell them that spring is just around the corner for them, that life will once again bloom and be green, red, yellow, and pink. I need to find someone new to hug, someone new who is hurting, so that once again I can feel useful and alive, and most importantly of all; to pay it forward, Your words, Pam, PAY IT FORWARD!!!!!


I feel your pain, Pam. I’ve been there, too. My love and thoughts are with you in this time of sadness and grief. I love your dear heart!



Love,

Mary

"What happens to those who have never heard about Jesus?"

What do you think about this statement ?... Agree? Disagree?

If we assume that those who never hear the gospel are granted mercy from God, we will run into a terrible problem. If people who never hear the gospel are saved, it is logical that we should make sure no one ever hears the gospel. The worst thing we could do would be to share the gospel with a person and have him or her reject it. If that were to happen, he or she would be condemned. People who do not hear the gospel must be condemned, or else there is no motivation for evangelism. Why run the risk of people possibly rejecting the gospel and condemning themselves when they were previously saved because they had never heard the gospel?

All people are accountable to God whether or not they have “heard about Him.” The Bible tells us that God has clearly revealed Himself in nature (Romans 1:20) and in the hearts of people (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The problem is that the human race is sinful; we all reject this knowledge of God and rebel against Him (Romans 1:21-23). If it were not for God's grace, we would be given over to the sinful desires of our hearts, allowing us to discover how useless and miserable life is apart from Him. He does this for those who continually reject Him (Romans 1:24-32).

In reality, it is not that some people have not heard about God. Rather, the problem is that they have rejected what they have heard and what is readily seen in nature. Deuteronomy 4:29 proclaims, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” This verse teaches an important principle—everyone who truly seeks after God will find Him. If a person truly desires to know God, God will make Himself known.

The problem is “there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:11). People reject the knowledge of God that is present in nature and in their own hearts, and instead decide to worship a “god” of their own creation. It is foolish to debate the fairness of God sending someone to hell who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ. People are responsible to God for what God has already revealed to them. The Bible says that people reject this knowledge, and therefore God is just in condemning them to hell.

Instead of debating the fate of those who have never heard, we, as Christians, should be doing our best to make sure they do hear. We are called to spread the gospel throughout the nations (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). We know people reject the knowledge of God revealed in nature, and that must motivate us to proclaim the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Only by accepting God’s grace through the Lord Jesus Christ can people be saved from their sins and rescued from an eternity apart from God.

(Shared from Got Questions. org)

The Value of Discernment Ministries

I just saw a picture of the Tsunami flotsam from Japan that is floating toward Hawaii, and is estimated to reach our soil in about three years. And we know for a fact that much of this debris is contaminated with radioactive waste.

Things like boats, fragments of houses, refrigerators, cars and all sorts of broken and busted up treasures and dreams, are in a soup swirling about the ocean, just waiting to settle in some unsuspecting, pristine cove, or on one of our beautiful, sun-kissed beaches.

We’re alarmed, and we should be! Who, in their right way of thinking, wants this trash to contaminate, infiltrate, and permeate what we believe are our almost sacred, unsullied shores? This, is a newly defined Tsunami. One that is not like anything we have ever witnessed before. It is a mass of shards, junk and twisted debris, and it is coming our way soon.

Well, we have many choices to make. We can sound the alarm of impending doom, and look for solutions to our problems. We can bury our heads in the sand and pretend that all is well with the world. Or we can wait out the impending doom, and stand watch with the bucket brigade to do a very costly clean up.

I believe good, solid discernment ministries, work out the first scenario in the best way possible. They are pro-active, anticipatory, and always forward thinking. Their antenna are up; their senses are heightened; they're looking for the worst possible scenario, for the best reasons possible; so that the Tsunami will not totally deconstruct our way of life and worship, and pollute the sterling, spotless, and pure Word of God. What is the old adage? “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

There is nothing wrong with being a first-rate Chicken Little. The sky IS falling. There ARE wolves in sheep’s clothing. The trash and off scouring of life are looking to rob, steal and pollute. So, what’s new? What IS new, is if you are not made aware of, alerted to the dangers, and acutely discerning when it comes to false teachers, you may become the twisted, sordid, grossly convoluted debris (news flash!), or be broad-sided by someone’s front porch that has been floating around in the cesspool of the latest storm.

Ministries like Pyromaniacs, Sola Sisters and Apprising Ministries; just to name a paltry few, do a pretty fair job in sorting out the trash. So hopefully we can all sit back, hang up our rakes, shovels and buckets and enjoy their fruit. But, let’s not rest in their laurels too eagerly, and be watchmen ourselves, studying the Scriptures to discern the precarious times we live in. And be able to cry foul for ourselves, if perchance Chicken Little is busy with yet another impending Tsunami.

Lately, we can all attest to the fact that there has been a deluge of this false teacher and that false teacher. It is *absolutely* overwhelming. There is ONE Tsunami after ANOTHER in Christendom; they are increasing like birth pains. But let’s not be lax or wore down by attrition because the minions from the pit are on the march and increase, this is all the MORE reason to sound the alarm with greater diligence.

We live on the very BRINK of eternity, and LOVING someone means never to having say you’re sorry. Tell someone you love, about Jesus, and warn them of this new radioactive flotsam coming their way. It may just make their day, not to mention their eternity.