Pastor Pronk visited us on the last day of the year and he read this beautiful meditation which he found in the daily devotional book called "Morning Thoughts" by Octavius Winslow. We thought we'd share it with you.
JANUARY 1.
"You have not passed this way heretofore." Joshua 3:4.
How solemn is the reflection that with a new cycle of time commences, with each traveler to Zion, a new and untrodden path! New events in his history will transpire- new scenes in the panorama of life will unfold- new phases of character will develop- new temptations will assail- new duties will devolve- new trials will be experienced- new sorrows will be felt- new friendships will be formed- and new mercies will be bestowed. How truly may it be said of the pilgrim journeying through the wilderness to his eternal home, as he stands upon the threshold of this untried period of his existence, pondering the unknown and uncertain future, "You have not passed this way heretofore!"
Reader! if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you will enter upon a new stage of your journey by a renewed surrender of yourself to the Lord. You will make the cross the starting-point of a fresh setting-out in the heavenly race. Oh, commence this year with a renewed application to the "blood of sprinkling." There is vitality in that blood; and its fresh sprinkling on your conscience will be as a new impartation of spiritual life to your soul. Oh, to begin the year with a broken heart for sin, beneath the cross of Immanuel! looking through that cross to the heart of a loving, forgiving Father. Do not be anxious about the future; all that future God has provided for. "All my times are in Your hands." "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you." Let it be a year of more spiritual advance. "Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward." Forward in the path of duty- forward in the path of suffering- forward in the path of conflict- forward in the path of labor- and forward in the path to eternal rest and glory. Soon will that rest be reached, and that glory appear. This new year may be the jubilant year of your soul- the year of your release. Oh spirit-stirring, ecstatic thought- this year I may be in heaven! - Octavius Winslow
We have a new year before us; one that Jack did not expect to see and one in which we "have not passed this way" before. We do not know what the Lord has in store for us this year, what "new phases of character will develop- new temptations will assail- new trials will be experienced- new sorrows will be felt- new friendships will be formed- and new mercies will be bestowed", but we do know that all our times are in His hands. We must start the year by confessing our guilt of the previous year; our short-comings and our sins and we will go forward in our path of suffering, casting all our care upon Jesus, for we know, and have experienced, that He cares for us. Perhaps this will be Jack's year of jubilee, the year in which his soul will be released into heaven to be with his Lord forever. What a happy new year that will then be for him !
-Lena
Thank you Lena for what you wrote , today my words are few. We continue to pray for you and Jack. Our future can be read in Revelations 21.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you and give you peace, a peace that passes all understanding.
John Van Woerden