YOUNG AND OLD----CHARLES WOODRUFF

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread (Psalm 37:25).

My understanding of this verse has deepened as I have gotten older. First because at one time I could not identify with "I have been young, and now I am old". I think most of us feel when we are young that we have all the time in the world. But, much more rapidly than we think, if God lets us live, we find ourselves on the other side of this verse--old! They say you are as old as you feel, and that may be true, but sometimes I feel about 30, and sometimes I feel about 100!
(This photo is me at about 40 years old).

King David, the human writer of this Psalm, evidently only lived to be 70 and 1/2 years old. "David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years" (2Samuel 5:4). That once would have seemed a long time to me, but it doesn't sound like so many years to me now at age 66.


One thing for sure, I have not seen the righteous forsaken. The Hebrew can mean the just; the lawful, in other words he who does right. No man is absolutely righteous in the eyes of God, yet may be considered so in the eyes of men.Paul tells us in Romans 3:10 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one".

As to the truth of this verse, it is the word of God -- we can, and must, believe it! Methodist theologian Adam Clarke writing on this verse in his commentary published in 1831,"I have been young, and now am old - I believe this to be literally true in all cases. I am now grey-headed myself; I have traveled in different countries, and have had many opportunities of seeing and conversing with religious people in all situations in life; and I have not, to my knowledge, seen one instance to the contrary. I have seen no righteous man forsaken, nor any children of the righteous begging their bread. God puts this honor upon all that fear him; and thus careful is he of them, and of their posterity".

WITHOUT HOLINESS-J.C. PHILPOT

Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14

To possess this holiness is a necessary and indispensable meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light; but this meetness must be wrought in us by the power of God's grace, for I am sure that in ourselves of it we have none. But see its necessity. What happiness could there be in the courts of bliss unless we had a nature to enjoy it? Unless we were made capable of seeing Christ as he is, and enjoying his presence for evermore, heaven would be no heaven to us. Nothing unclean or unholy can enter there. Sanctification therefore must be wrought in us by the power of God, to make us meet for the heavenly inheritance, and he therefore communicates of his Spirit and grace to give us heavenly affections, holy desires, gracious thoughts, tender feelings; and above all that love whereby he is loved as the altogether lovely. By the sanctifying operations of his Spirit, he separates us from everything evil, plants his fear deep in the heart, that it may be a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death; and works in us a conformity to his suffering image here that we may be conformed to his glorified image hereafter. Thus there is a perfect and an imperfect sanctification--perfect by imputation, imperfect in its present operations. But the one is the pledge of the other; so that as surely as Christ now represents his people in heaven as their holy Head, so will he eventually bring them to be forever with him in those abodes of perfect holiness and perfect happiness which are prepared for them as mansions of eternal light and love.

J.C. Philpot - 1802-1869; from Ears From Harvested Sheaves for April 3rd.

WISE WORDS FROM THOMAS BROOKS

"Reader, remember this: if thy knowledge do not now affect thy heart, it will at last, with a witness, afflict thy heart; if it do not now endear Christ to thee, it will at last provoke Christ the more against thee; if it do not make all the things of Christ to be very precious in thy eyes, it will at last make thee the more vile in Christ's eyes." Thomas Brooks

"A man's most glorious actions will at last be found to be but glorious sins, if he hath made himself, and not the glory of God, the end of those actions."

"Truth is mighty and will prevail."

Thomas Brooks was an English Puritan (1608-1680). We will leave him for now with this gem from his classic book Heaven on Earth
The trifles which God gives

The emperor Augustus, in his great feasts, gave
trifles to some—but gold to his favorites.

Just so—honors, riches and worldly pleasures are
the trifles which God gives to the worst of men.

God gives His gold—His special love and grace—only
to His people.

WISE SAYINGS-GOVERNMENT--VARIOUS QUOTES

We need some statesmen today. We need some patriots (like these two people; John and Abigail Adams). I waited a little while to say this, but Obama turned out to be worse than I feared. I thought Jimmy Carter was bad, and he was! I thought Bill Clinton was bad, and in many ways he was! But this guy Barack Obama is the most socialistic, compromising president that I believe we have ever had. I say this after not quite three months. I am afraid we haven't seen anything yet!

My friend Charles Rosson in Arkansas sent me the following. I thank him, and, of course, gcfl.net They are humorous but mostly true.

Wise Sayings: Government

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one
useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or
more is a Congress. -- John Adams

2. If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if
you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. -- Mark
Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a
member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into
prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to
lift himself up by the handle. -- Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always
depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his
fellow man,which debt he proposes to pay off with your
money.--G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves
and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
--James Bovard

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money
from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor
countries. -- Douglas Casey

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving
whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke

10. Government is the great fiction, through which
everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody
else. --Frederic Bastiat

11. Government's view of the economy could be summed
up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps
moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- RonaldReagan

12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and
report the facts. -- Will Rogers

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until
you see what it costs when it's free. -- P.J. O'Rourke

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as
much money as possible from one party of the citizens to
give to the other. -- Voltaire

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics
doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
-- Pericles (430 B.C.)

16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the
legislature is in session. -- Mark Twain

17. Talk is cheap... except when Congress does it. --
Anonymous

18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal,
with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility
at the other. -- Ronald Reagan

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing
of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the
equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill

20. The only difference between a tax man and a
taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain

21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the
effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer

22. There is no distinctly native American criminal class...
save Congress. -- Mark Twain

23. A government big enough to give you everything you
want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
-- Gerald Ford

-GCFL

Brought to you by GCFL.net: The Good, Clean Funnies List
A cheerful heart is good medicine... (Prov 17:22a)
Mail address: GCFL, Box 100, Harvest, AL 35749, USA

J.I. PACKER

82 year old James I. Packer was born in England, and has lived in Vancouver, Canada since 1979. He is a theologian and a historian, and one of the most prolific Christian writers of the 20th (and now 21st), century. His best known, and, IMHO, best work is Knowing God, written in 1971. He also wrote Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, Quest for Godliness and many others. He has been a college professor, and is Editor in Chief of the English Standard Version of the Bible, and is an Associate Editor of the Reformation Study Bible of which R. C. Sproul was General Editor.

Some are going to say "Charles, I thought you were a fundamentalist?" I have been classified as that, and also a Calvinist, a hyper-Calvinist, a Puritan, and even an Arminian! Whatever you want to call me is okay, but I prefer to be called a Christian, though I am not worthy to be. Packer is an Anglican Calvinist, and at times he has made some questionable decisions. I am by conviction a Baptist, so there are areas of disagreement. But as Rolfe Barnard has said "I believe that God is going to evangelize the world through Baptists, but He doesn't have to."

Everything I have read by J.I. Packer has been helpful to me. All of has seemed scripturally sound, so the benefits outweigh the problems, at least for me.
Here are some J. I. Packer examples:

CALVARY

"Puritan preaching revolved around CHRIST and HIM crucified, for this is the hub of the Bible. The preacher's commission is to declare the whole counsel of GOD; but the cross is the center of that counsel, and the Puritans knew that the traveler through the Bible Landscape misses his way as soon as he loses sight of the hill called CALVARY." ( from A Quest for Godliness, page 286, Crossway Books Wheaton, IL 60187)

AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
" North American Christianity is 3000 miles wide and 1/2 inch deep." (also in A Quest for Godliness)

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
"Martin Luther described the doctrine of justification by faith as the article of faith that decides whether the church is standing or falling. By this he meant that when this doctrine is understood, believed, and preached, as it was in NewTestament times, the church stands in the grace of God and is alive; but where it is neglected, overlaid, or denied, ... the church falls from grace and its life drains away, leaving it in a state of darkness and death." (World of Quotes) i.e, worldofquotes.com)

PRESENTING THE FAITH

"Our business is to present the Christian faith clothed in modern terms, not to propagate modern thought clothed in Christian terms. Confusion here is fatal." (cma-ministries.org)

GOD ONLY WISE
"What does the Bible mean when it calls God wise? In scripture wisdom is a moral as well as intellectual quality, more that mere intelligence or knowledge, just as it is more than mere cleverness or cunning.To be truly wise, in the Bible sense, one's intelligence and cleverness must be harnessed to a right end. Wisdom is the power to see and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.

Wisdom is, in fact, the practical side of moral goodness. As such, it is found in its fullness only in God. He alone is naturally and entirely and invariably wise. 'His wisdom ever waketh', says the hymn, and it is true. God is never other than wise in anything that He does. Wisdom, as the old theologians used to say, is His essence, just as power, and truth, and goodness are His essence --integral elements, that is, in His character." (Knowing God, chapter nine, page 80; 1974 edition; InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA

You can run a google search and find many more small quotes by this man, and even some online books. Hope it is some benefit to all. cw

IN EVIL LONG I TOOK DELIGHT-JOHN NEWTON

My favorite hymn writer (among many good ones), may be John Newton. The old converted slave trader was, of course, the writer of Amazing Grace. He wrote many others, which were published in several hymnals, including his own Olney Hymnal which was published while he pastored at Olney, England.This town is where John Newton was buried. Newton was not only a great hymn writer, but an excellent preacher whose works are available today, published by Banner of Truth. You can find the set at Reformation Heritage Books, Monergism or Amazon, and other online stores. If you feel the set is more than you will read, at least read Newton's autobiography Out of the Depths (currently published by Kregel). You likely will not find either of them at your local bookstore, unless it is an exceptional one. Most of the stores today are more interested in selling trinkets , novels and religious tripe, and even heresy! A far cry from the days when I worked at now defunct Christian Discount Book Center which, while not perfect, was pretty selective, and would not carry religious garbage that makes a mockery of the gospel.

Many of our modern gospel songs do not hold to a Christ exalting standard. Some do -- thank God! Newton's hymns certainly had that standard. They were Christ exalting and touched the soul. Oh how I long to see the churches sing again the God honoring hymns of this man, and of Isaac Watts, William Cowper, Charles Wesley, Augustus Toplady, Frances Havergal and Fanny Crosby. Here is one of Newton's that touches me.

IN EVIL LONG I TOOK DELIGHT

In evil long I took delight
Unawed by shame or fear;
'Til a new object met my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agonies and blood;
Who fixed His languid eyes on me
As near His cross I stood.

Sure, never 'til my latest breath,
Can I forget that look
It seemed to charge me with His death
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience owned and felt the guilt,
And plunged me in despair;
I saw my sins His blood had shed,
And helped to nail Him there.

Alas, I knew not what I did,
But all my tears were vain;
Where could my trembling soul be hid,
For I the Lord had slain!

SPIRITUAL CONVERSATION-J.C. RYLE

“Conference on spiritual subjects is a most important means of grace. As iron sharpens iron, so does exchange of thoughts with brethren sharpen a believer's soul. It brings down a special blessing on all who make a practice of it. The striking words of Malachi were meant for the Church in every age --‘Then those who feared the Lord spoke often one to another--and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine says the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels.’ (Mal. 3:16, 17.)

What do we know ourselves of spiritual conversation with other Christians? Perhaps we read our Bibles, and pray in private, and use public means of grace. It is all well, very well. But if we stop short here we neglect a great privilege and have yet much to learn. We ought to ‘consider one another to provoke to love and good works.’ We ought to ‘exhort’ and ‘edify one another.’ (Heb. 10:24; 1 Thess. 5:11.) Have we no time for spiritual conversation? Let us think again. The quantity of time wasted on frivolous, trifling, and unprofitable talk, is fearfully great. Do we find nothing to say on spiritual subjects? Do we feel tongue-tied and speechless on the things of Christ? Surely if this is the case, there must be something wrong within. A heart right in the sight of God will generally find words. ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’" (Matt. 12:34). From Expository Thoughts on the Gospels on Luke 24 13-20.

We close with another morsel from J.C. Ryle.“Let it be a settled principle in our minds, in reading the Bible, that Christ is the central sun of the whole book. So long as we keep Him in view, we shall never greatly err in our search for spiritual knowledge. Once losing sight of Christ, we shall find the whole Bible dark and full of difficulty. The key of Bible knowledge is Jesus Christ.”(This is a second worthy comment from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels on Luke 24 13-20).