IN REFERENCE TO THE WORLD TO COME…

From MOAB IS MY WASHPOT by C. H. Spurgeon

“IN REFERENCE TO THE WORLD TO COME, the terrible doom of the ungodly is a most solemn warning to us. My heart fails me to speak concerning the destiny of the ungodly in another world. Dying without hope, without a Savior, they go before the throne uncleansed, unforgiven, to hear that awful sentence, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Pursue them for a moment in your thoughts, down to the deeps of wrath, whither God’s judgment shall pursue them. My Lord, I pray thee of thy grace, save me from the sin which brings such a result at the end of it. If the wages of sin be such a death as this, Lord save me from so accursed a service. Will not the sight of their destruction drive us to watchfulness, and cause us to make our calling and election sure? Will it not make us anxious lest we also come into this place of torment? O the wrath to come! The wrath to come whereof this Book speaks in so many terrible tones and dreadful images!

Remember Lot’s wife “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

In this way Moab becomes our washpot, by showing us what sin grows to when it has developed itself. This consideration will surely cause us more heartily to love the Savior, who can deliver us from it.

Dear friends, if you are not in Christ, much of what I have said bears upon you. Bethink yourself, and pray to escape from the wrath to come. I would not have you be made a mere washpot to be used and broken as a potter’s vessel. Neither should you wish to be a vessel without honor, a thing of no esteem; but may you have faith in Jesus—life in him, and then you shall be a royal diadem, a crown of glory in the hand of our God. May you have a heritage among those who fear the Lord, and are reconciled to him by faith in the total sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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Know your Bible well and pray often. Stay close to Jesus and the Holy Ghost will keep you from being deceived by false teachers or being entangled in the pleasures of this present sinful world.

DAYS OF DECEPTION

I know, just like Peter,

Oh dear Lord, I could be,

Saying others may leave,

That will never be me!

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They came to take Jesus,

It was His time to die,

We know it was Peter,

That His Lord, he denied.

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My spirit is willing,

Though my flesh is quite weak,

A very good reason,

My Lord daily to seek.

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Oh! days of deception,

Tangled webs of deceit,

Lord don’t let me be caught,

May your truth be my meat.

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The multitude blinded.

To the truth about hell,

While the church is asleep,

Or too busy to tell.

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Old Noah, believed God,

And by faith built an ark,

Preparing his household

Knowing soon they’d embark.

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But the fathers rebelled,

During Moses’ delay,

They sat down to eat, drink,

And they rose up to play.

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The world and it’s pleasures,

Beckon like a soft bell,

A death knell, don’t hearken,

Or be charmed by it’s spell!

Cathy White 2008

1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

SUDDEN DEATH

I wrote the following post in 2007 under a different title. I wrote the poem in 2016.

Another Sunday and another Sunday service at the nursing home. I was blessed, edified, and saddened all at the same time. What a blessing to be part of the residents’ lives. To be able to encourage the saints and to be encouraged by them. They just continue to shine in their hour of trial! Then there’s the joy of sharing the good news of the Gospel with those who have not been born again. But there’s also sadness for those who don’t know the Lord. I wonder, will they ever come to know Him?

Much was said yesterday, even before the service began, about the brevity of life and, at times, the suddenness of death. Life itself can be an illustrated bible study…

An elderly woman walked into the lounge where my father was eating lunch. She had come to visit one of the residents. We began to talk, as often happens when visitors gather in the lounge. She told me that many years ago she bought a house and moved in on a Saturday. Her mother was so excited and was telling everyone that her daughter had just bought a new house. Plans were made for her mother to come and spend a whole month in the new house with her. But by Monday morning her mother was dead. She died in her sleep. Her mother was only 58 years old at the time. As she spoke she looked as if she would cry. She said we should thank God every morning when we wake up, that He has given us another day to live. She said that on the Saturday that she moved into her new house she felt inexplicably sad. So much so that someone commented on the sadness of her countenance. She told them she was sad because she felt as if she was about to be separated from someone.

Then she told of the man who sang the Lord’s prayer at her 50^th wedding anniversary. She said he traveled with a group, and sang at many different places. She was planning to host a barbeque at her home after he returned from one of his trips. She and his wife made plans. But the man never made it home to enjoy the fellowship. While he was away, after singing a solo, he sat down and had a massive heart attack in his seat and died.

I’m sure many have similar tales to tell. A friend of our family went on vacation with his wife and young daughter. He went into the ocean for a swim and when he came out suffered a fatal massive heart attack, right on the beach. He was only in his mid 40’s.

And, many years ago my husband’s father, who was only in his 60’s, collapsed on the living room floor after coming home from his youngest daughter’s grammar school graduation dinner.  His daughter, my sister-in-law, was suppposed to go to Great Adventure the next day for her 8th grade class trip.  In her own words she tells what happened …

“I had gone up to bed shortly after arriving home from the dinner, and I heard my mom yelling for help. We were the only ones home at the time. I ran down the stairs expecting to find something wrong with my mother, but saw my father lying there instead. His face was black in color, and my dog was sniffing at him because he sensed something was wrong.

The ambulance arrived quickly and my mom accompanied my father as I followed in a neighbor’s car. I remember my neighbor, Peggy, telling me “Your dad is a strong man” as I gazed out the car window. Several days later, as my mom and I were standing in our kitchen, the phone rang. It was the hospital.

After hanging up the phone, my mother turned to me and said, the doctor said your father ‘expired at such-and-such a time.’ I hugged my mom and told her that everything was going to be alright. I must say, I will never forget those words ‘expired’. How cold and insensitive those words were to me.”

My husband was working close to home at the time. The night his father collapsed, he noticed an ambulance as it urgently sped by, so he prayed for the person inside. He later learned that it was his own father that was inside that ambulance. An aneurysm was the cause of his father’s sudden death.

DEATH

The crimson stain of sin.
Death, again and again.
This world, our lives, our all,
Touched and marred, by the fall.

We see it all around.
We hear the heartbreak sound.
And those who weep anew,
Remind us of this truth.

Cathy White 2016

Proverbs 27:1 Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

TESTIFY

There will be suffering and persecution when we witness and the Gospel is rejected, but there will also be great blessings because we are doing the Lord’s will and souls will be saved.

TESTIFY

Will I testify for Jesus,

And proudly bear His name?

Will I tell the world about Him,

Or will I be ashamed?

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Will I put up with the mocking,

Bear for His Word disdain?

Will I keep proclaiming Jesus,

Though it may cause me pain?

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Is the Lord my pearl so precious,

The treasure that I’ve found,

So valued and so wonderful,

I must tell those around?

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Or will I shun to tell the truth,

Because it may offend,

And in my silence compromise,

My knee to this world bend.

Cathy White 2008 ©

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

TESTIMONIES

BECAUSE THOU KNEWEST NOT THE TIME OF THY VISITATION

And so it is today with many who have heard the gospel, even within our own families.

Luke 19:41-44 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

Matthew Henry Bible Commentary:

(1.) Jerusalem has not improved the day of her opportunities. He wept, and said, If thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, if thou wouldst but yet know, while the gospel is preached to thee, and salvation offered thee by it; if thou wouldest at length bethink thyself, and understand the things that belong to thy peace, the making of thy peace with God, and the securing of thine own spiritual and eternal welfare – but thou dost not know the day of thy visitation, Luke 19:44.

The manner of speaking is abrupt: If thou hadst known! O that thou hadst, so some take it; like that O that my people had hearkened unto me, Psalm 81:13; Isaiah 48:18. Or, If thou hadst known, well; like that of the fig-tree, Luke 13:9. How happy had it been for thee! Or, “If thou hadst known, thou wouldest have wept for thyself, and I should have no occasion to weep for thee, but should have rejoiced rather.” What he says lays all the blame of Jerusalem’s impending ruin upon herself.

Note, [1.] There are things which belong to our peace, which we are all concerned to know and understand; the way how peace is made, the offers made of peace, the terms on which we may have the benefit of peace. The things that belong to our peace are those things that relate to our present and future welfare; these we must know with application.

[2.] There is a time of visitation when those things which belong to our peace may be known by us, and known to good purpose. When we enjoy the means of grace in great plenty, and have the word of God powerfully preached to us – when the Spirit strives with us, and our own consciences are startled and awakened – then is the time of visitation, which we are concerned to improve.

[3.] With those that have long neglected the time of their visitation, if at length, if at last, in this their day, their eyes be opened, and they bethink themselves, all will be well yet. Those shall not be refused that come into the vineyard at the eleventh hour.

[4.] It is the amazing folly of multitudes that enjoy the means of grace, and it will be of fatal consequence to them, that they do not improve the day of their opportunities. The things of their peace are revealed to them, but are not minded or regarded by them; they hide their eyes from them, as if they were not worth taking notice of. They are not aware of the accepted time and the day of salvation, and to let it slip and perish through mere carelessness. None are so blind as those that will not see; nor have any the things of their peace more certainly hidden from their eyes than those that turn their back upon them.

[5.] The sin and folly of those that persist in a contempt of gospel grace are a great grief to the Lord Jesus, and should be so to us. He looks with weeping eyes upon lost souls, that continue impenitent, and run headlong upon their own ruin; he had rather that they would turn and live than go on and die, for he is not willing that any should perish.

IF JESUS WALKED THE EARTH TODAY – A Poem

If Jesus walked the earth today,

Would you hear all He had to say?

Would you believe Him, come what may,

If Jesus walked the earth today?

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If Jesus walked the earth today,

Would Jesus’ Word, with you hold sway?

Would suffering be the price you’d pay,

If Jesus walked the earth today?

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If Jesus walked the earth today,

Would it be you, His Word gainsay?

Would it be just another day,

If Jesus walked the earth today?

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If Jesus walked the earth today,

Would you, like Judas, Him betray?

Would you follow, or turn away,

If Jesus walked the earth today?

Cathy White 2008 ©

Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Acts 28:24 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.

THE EMPTY TOMB FULFILLED THE PROPHETIC WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST