THE GOSPEL CALL – A Poem

THE GOSPEL CALL

Lord, you are the rock on which I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand,

You are the Savior of my soul,

The only One that makes me whole.

* * *

You are the One who made me see,

To you alone I bend my knee,

To you I go for rest and peace,

In your presence my sorrows cease.

* * *

Sweet Jesus tis to you I pray,

To give me strength for each new day,

And when my life is said and done,

To you I’ll go, the battle won.

* * *

There’s none upon this fallen earth,

Can give your precious soul new birth,

The Spirit and the bride, they call,

Come to the Lord, the Gospel call.

Cathy White 2022 ©

Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Matthew 7:24-27 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

THE STORY OF FOUR MISSIONARIES…

This is the most I can remember of a story I heard about two couples who went on the mission field together. When they arrived at their destination they chose not to live where the other missionaries in the area were living because they wanted to live closer to the people they came to evangelize. They soon found that all the native people were very hostile to their presence, that is except for one young boy. The young boy often brought them food, and when he did one of the women shared the Gospel with him. A short time later this same woman tragically died in childbirth. Her husband became angry at God because of his wife’s death, and didn’t want his newborn baby girl. He returned to the main mission area with the child and there he met an older missionary couple who agreed to take the baby.

((It may be hard to believe but the other young couple also died. They were both poisoned. I don’t recall hearing any details of where, when or how that happened.)

The child was raised in the U.S by the couple and when she grew up she was told about her parents and the story surrounding her birth. She searched for her parents and was able to find and meet her father in the U.S. He lived a worldly life and didn’t want anything to do with the Lord. Searching further for information about her mother she was surprised to hear that a monument had been erected in honor of her mother in the town where she had been a missionary. As she continued to search she learned that the young boy that heard the Gospel from her mother became a Christian. He in turn preached the Gospel to the town’s people resulting in a revival. The revival spread to neighboring towns with churches being planted, and the people erected some sort of monument in remembrance of her mother for bringing them the Gospel.

The Lord brought a revival from what looked like an utter and complete missionary failure. What’s even more amazing is that one day she and the young boy her mother witnessed to all those years before just “happened to meet” at a Christian conference they were both attending!

We never know what the result will be when sharing the Gospel with someone. We witness and leave the rest in the Lord’s hands, trusting Him always, in all situations.

Hebrew 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

1 Corinthians 3:7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

Have you heard the Gospel?

* * *

CHILD, THE LORD IS CALLING – A Poem

Our life upon this earth is short,

The days are few, at best.

One day, unknown, we’ll leave this world,

No doubt, like all the rest.

*

To school we go, learn all we can,

For temporal life prepare.

But if for death, we do not plan,

Dear child, we’ve greatly erred.

*

Tomorrow this, tomorrow that,

Who said it would be ours?

Much promised in the Word of God,

But not unending hours.

*

Another thought, why walk this earth,

Without the Savior’s hand?

He’ll comfort, guide, and help us through,

This very weary land.

*

Religion is so popular,

Fruit of the devil’s seed.

Dear child, do know, if that’s your hope,

You’ll truly be deceived.

*

The Lord is calling, can you hear,

There’s hope, while there’s still breath.

Now is the time, to change your course,

Before the day of death.

*

The Spirit and the bride say come,

Be born again today.

You may not have another chance,

Dear child, please don’t delay.

*

Christ crucified, and then arose,

The Gospel that we tell.

By grace, through faith, is how we’re saved,

T’was Jesus taught of hell.

*

Repentance, faith, believe we must,

But still we do not boast.

Salvation is a gift from God,

Receive the Holy Ghost.

Cathy White 2007 ©

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.”

* * *

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!

*

They came to take Jesus,

It was His time to die,

We know it was Peter,

That His Lord, he denied.

*

My spirit is willing,

Though my flesh is quite weak,

A very good reason,

My Lord daily to seek.

*

Oh! days of deception,

Tangled webs of deceit,

Lord don’t let me be caught,

May your truth be my meat.

*

The multitude blinded.

To the truth about hell,

While the church is asleep,

Or too busy to tell.

*

Old Noah, believed God,

And by faith built an ark,

Preparing his household

Knowing soon they’d embark.

*

But the fathers rebelled,

During Moses’ delay,

They sat down to eat, drink,

And they rose up to play.

*

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?

*

Will I put up with the mocking,

Bear for His Word disdain?

Will I keep proclaiming Jesus,

Though it may cause me pain?

*

Is the Lord my pearl so precious,

The treasure that I’ve found,

So valued and so wonderful,

I must tell those around?

*

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