http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/h/i/whittle_dw.htm

The following is a wonderful poem by DW Whittle:

CHILD OF JESUS, OFT DEPRESSED

(by D.W. Whittle) Child of Jesus, oft depressed, Yielding [...]]]> DW Whittle is known for several hymns, including The Banner of the Cross, I Know Whom I have Believed, and There Shall Be Showers of Blessing.

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/h/i/whittle_dw.htm

The following is a wonderful poem by DW Whittle:

CHILD OF JESUS, OFT DEPRESSED

(by D.W. Whittle)
Child of Jesus, oft depressed,
Yielding to thy doubts and fear,
In thy trials sore distressed,
Fainting for some word of cheer;
Come, thy need is all supplied,
Take by faith what God doth give;
Believe that you in Christ have died,
Believe that you in Him now live.

Often weary, often weak,
Foes without and fears within;
Knowing not what path to take,
To escape from self and sin;
In thy risen Saviour hide,
From Him risen life receive;
Believe that you in Christ have died,
Believe that you in Him now live.

Sorrowing oft, and often sad,
As thy failures thou dost scan;
Selfish aims those failures made,
Now let Jesus lead and plan.
Let the Spirit ever guide,
Let the flesh no more deceive;
Believe that you in Christ have died,
Believe that you in Him now live.

http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/h/i/whittle_dw.htm

Now read the conversion of DW Whittle:

Major Whittle, of the United States Army, and a well-known preacher, thus details how the great change took place:

“When the Civil War broke out, I left my home in New England and came to Virginia as lieutenant of a company in a Massachusetts regiment. My dear mother was a devout Christian, and parted from me with many a tear, and followed me with many a prayer. She had placed a New Testament in a pocket of the haversack that she arranged for me.

“We had many engagements, and I saw many sad sights, and in one of the battles I was knocked out, and that night my arm was amputated above the elbow. As I grew better, having a desire for something to read, I felt in my haversack, which I had been allowed to keep, and found the little Testament my mother had placed there.

“I read right through the book—Matthew, Mark, Luke, to Revelation. Every part was interesting to me; and I found to my surprise that I could understand it in a way that I never had before. When I had finished Revelation, I began at Matthew, and read it through again. And so for days I continued reading, and with continued interest; and still with no thought of becoming a Christian, I saw clearly from what I read the way of salvation through Christ.

“While in this state of mind, yet still with no purpose or plan to repent and accept the Saviour, I was awakened one midnight by the nurse, who said: ‘There is a boy in the other end of the ward, one of your men, who is dying. He has been begging me for the past hour to pray for him, or to get someone to pray for him, and I can’t stand it. I am a wicked man, and can’t pray, and I have come to get you.’

“‘Why,’ said I, ‘I can’t pray. I never prayed in my life. I am just as wicked as you are.’ ‘Can’t pray!’ said the nurse; ‘why, I thought sure from seeing you read the Testament that you were a praying man. And you are the only man in the ward that I have not heard curse. What shall I do? There is no one else for me to go to. I can’t go back there alone. Won’t you get up and come and see him at any rate?’

“Moved by his appeal, I arose from my cot, and went with him to the far comer of the room. A fair-haired boy of seventeen or eighteen lay there dying. There was a look of intense agony upon his face, as he fastened his eyes upon me and said:

“‘Oh, pray for me! Pray for me! I am dying. I was a good boy at home in Maine. My mother and father are members of the Church, and I went to Sunday School and tried to be a good boy. But since I became a soldier I have learned to be wicked. I drank, and swore, and gambled, and went with bad men. And now I am dying, and I am not fit to die! Oh, ask God to forgive me! Pray for me. Ask Christ to save me!’

“As I stood there and heard these pleadings, God said to my soul by His Spirit, just as plainly as if He had spoken in audible tones, ‘You know the way of salvation. Get right down on your knees and accept Christ, and pray for this boy.’

“I dropped upon my knees and held the boy’s hand in mine, as in a few broken words I confessed my sins, and asked God for Christ’s sake to forgive me. I believed right there that He did forgive me, and that I was Christ’s child; I then prayed earnestly for the boy. He became quiet, and pressed my hand as I pleaded the promises. When I arose from my knees he was dead. A look of peace was upon his face, and I can but believe that God, who used him to bring me to my Saviour, used me to get his attention fixed upon Christ and to lead him to trust in His precious blood. I hope to meet him in Heaven.

“Many years have passed since that night in the Richmond Hospital, and I am still trusting and confessing the Lord Jesus Christ, and purpose by God’s grace to continue doing so until He calls me Home.”

http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bwhittle2.html

No monkey ever deserted his wife, Starved her babies [...]]]> Three monkeys sat in a coconut tree
Discussing the things that are said to be–
Said one to another: “Now listen you two
There’s a certain rumor, but it can’t be true’
That man descended from our noble race-
Why, the very idea; it’s a disgrace.

No monkey ever deserted his wife,
Starved her babies and ruined her life.
Nor did ever a mother-monkey
Leave her babies with others to bunk,
Or pass them on from one to another
‘Till they scarcely knew who was their mother.

And another thing you’ll never see
A monkey building a nest around a coconut tree,
And let the coconuts go to waste,
Forbidding all other monkeys to have a taste.
Why, if I build a fence around a coconut tree,
Starvation would cause me to distribute to you.

Here’s another thing that a monkey won’t do:
Go out at night and get on a stew;
Or use a gun, a club, or a knife
To take another monkey’s life.
Yes, Man descended, the ornery cuss!
But Brother, he didn’t descend from us.”

Unknown Author

Confronting Our Self Deception

Routines often degenerate into rituals and rituals into dead externalism. There are two simple realities when it comes to our self deception about our spirituality and our natural (carnal) tendency towards worldliness.

1. We are always willing to conform to what we want [...]]]> Religion without Relationship by Dr Lance Ketchum

Confronting Our Self Deception

Routines often degenerate into rituals and rituals into dead externalism. There are two simple realities when it comes to our self deception about our spirituality and our natural (carnal) tendency towards worldliness.

1. We are always willing to conform to what we want to be identified with.

2. We always fall in the direction we lean.

“1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. 3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. 5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; 6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. 8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. 9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; 10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? 11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD”(Jeremiah 7:1-11).

Someone has said, “Out of sight, out of mind.” That is certainly true about God. Unless we generate considerable effort to keep God, and our relationship with Him, at the forefront of our minds, it will not be long before our Christianity slips into externalism. When that happens we begin to take God for granted and just routinely do our God-stuff.

It is work to maintain a relationship. The work it takes to maintain a relationship increases proportionately to the intimacy we want (or need) in that relationship. The difficulty is that most of us want a level of intimacy that we are unwilling to invest the time necessary to generate. That is usually true of husband/wife relationships and parent/children relationships. However, it is even truer of our relationship with God. We need intimacy with God, but we are usually unwilling to invest the time necessary to get to know Him, or to know what He expects from us in that relationship.

One thing we should all know for sure, God wants intimacy with His children and is doing everything He can do to bring us to the place where we will begin working to do what we need to do to have that intimacy. The difficulty is that we deceive ourselves into thinking we have an intimate relationship with God when we really do not. We think because we go to church regularly and pray before our meals that all is well in God-Ville. We think because we give money to the church and read our Bibles that we are doing what we need to do to have intimacy with God.

I thought that way about my family for years. I thought I had a loving relationship with them because I worked hard to provide a home for them, to provide clothing for them, and food to fill their bellies. That certainly was sacrifice on my part and it certainly is an exhibition of love. It can also be just an exhibition of duty or responsibility. These provisions do not translate into intimacy with my family. In fact I can be doing all that I mentioned, providing abundantly, and still not have an intimate, loving relationship with my wife or children. Yet, like most men, I would wonder why my family did not appreciate all that I did for them. The reality was that I presumed on what did not exist. I fell into the trap of self-deception by thinking externally.

We have a horrendous propensity for thinking externally and God hates it. Church-going, Bible reading, prayer, soul winning, ministry . . . all these practices can be abundant but without joy in the doing because they are all done out of a sense of duty in the “flesh” apart from an intimacy with God.

Externalism comes in all kinds of forms and in many degrees. The nation of Israel at the time of Jeremiah was guilty of almost every form of externalism. Rules without relationship always degenerate into externalism. Religion without relationship is equally as deadly. That is what God is saying in Jeremiah 7:4. “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.” The people of Israel had deceived themselves into thinking that everything in their lives was right with God as long as their Temple practices were in order. What a debilitating form of self-deception. It was religion without relationship.

Religion without relationship tends to generate into a worship of form and practice that lacks in any real heart motivation for real ministry and any real concern for souls and lives. That may be the reason why change is so resisted in these kinds of local churches. People do not want to change the way they do things because they have come to worship the form and practice of their religion. The worship of form and practice makes ministry a substitute for (or is misinterpreted as) a real relationship with God.

Forms and practices do not demand transparency in our own lives, genuine heartfelt concern for people, or a desire for intimacy with God. Yet form and practice easily mislead us into thinking, all is well in God-Ville, when in reality our form and practice generates a stench that reaches to the throne of God.

130 years before writing the admonition given by Jeremiah, God would speak through the prophet Isaiah words that communicated His heart regarding the stench of religion without relationship. It is a message that is as timely and true in the Laodician period of Church history as it was it the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

“11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:11-17).

God’s solution to this fiasco of superficiality is simple. God’s solution takes two directions. First, in Isaiah 1:16 He directs His children to clean-up their lives. They were to separate themselves from the carnal, worldliness that preoccupied their lives and consumed their time. They were commanded to “cease” doing evil. Here is where rules without relationship become a problem. Why were the lives of the children of Israel consumed with selfish priorities and worldliness? Why do Christians struggle with and argue about practices that are clearly worldly?

The answer is simple; they have religion without a personal, intimate relationship with God that generated a dead externalism. Therefore, they viewed God’s commandments as intrusions upon their lives and restrictions upon the things they found pleasure in. They thought temporally. They lived temporally. Their religious practices were simply a means to manipulate God into providing them the things they needed and wanted. They did not approach God in worship with an open transparency, seeking intimacy with Him.

Secondly, God instructs His children to begin to do what was right (“learn to do well,” v. 17). We think that we will start ministering to people once we get a burden for people. That will never happen and that is the reason ministry never begins in many people’s lives. We get a burden for people when we begin to get involved in their lives. Why does God want His children to minister? God wants His children to minister because that is where His heart is. He wants us to be concerned about people the way He is.

James said almost exactly the same thing as Isaiah regarding what defines “pure religion.” True Christianity (the practice of the faith) must translate itself into a genuine compassion for people or it is “dead.”

“26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:26-27).

Externalism will never look at a drunkard with a broken heart for his soul, but you can be sure that is the way God sees him. Externalism (and self-righteousness) sees through the eyes of contempt, not compassion. Externalism will never see a bus-kid the way God sees him. Externalism will never see that kid with compassion for his soul. Externalism will never be willing to reach out and touch his life with a consistent investment of love and time and effort to bring him to Christ and disciple him so as to help him escape the prison of the degradation of the life patterns his parents have been building into him. Externalism will never try to bring the life-transforming message of gospel into his home to try to reach his family. Because of that, his soul will slip through the cracks of God’s hand (the local church) to fall limp, broken, and wasted on the hopeless and helpless heap of sin-soaked souls.

God speaks to this externalism and its results in Jeremiah 2:13. This verse speaks clearly to this issue. It deals specifically with religion without relationship.

“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

In this verse, God speaks of two evils generated in the lives of people who are more concerned with duties for God than they are with relationship with God. They have the order backwards. When they cultivate intimacy with God the duties God expects will flow from that fountain of intimacy like living waters. God is the “fountain of living waters.” The only way for those “living waters” to flow through our lives is when we are connected to the Godhead by a living, loving, and holy relationship. We forsake the potential of those “living waters” flowing through our lives when we forsake our relationship with God.

The second evil was that they created their own manmade sources of fulfillment to sustain them spiritually (what ever form this takes, it is idolatry). These were manmade sources for personal fulfillment or happiness. This is what God calls “broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” In other words, these manmade inventions will never be able to accomplish what they were made to do. They are superficial and self deceiving.

This is what God is referring to in Jeremiah 7:4 and 8 when He says, “ye trust in lying words.” He is talking about this self-deception. We are lying to ourselves when we have religion without relationship. Externalism is idolatry. Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 in Matthew 15:8 and applies it to the Pharisees. How accurately this describes religion (ministry) without relationship

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8).

How can we escape the deadly deception that generates such a facade and sham of Christianity? The only way to escape it is by being brutally honest with ourselves and to God. We need to take three basic steps. Each step moves us away from the world and closer to God. Each step involves the believer in communicating with God and allowing God to communicate directly to that yielded believer’s heart.

The first step towards intimacy with God begins with prayer. Our prayer life must be willing to communicate with God about every integral detail of our lives. Be sure of this, you will never shock God or surprise Him with what is going on in your life. He already knows and is working to help you get victory. Getting that victory begins by you coming to Him and talking with Him about everything that is going on in your life. If you do not learn to communicate with God about the details of your thought life, the details of your so-called secret sin-life, and the details of your struggles with temptation, do not expect intimacy with Him.

The second step towards intimacy with God involves your devotional life. We have devotions to cultivate being devoted. Being devoted to God will not happen by accident. Cultivation of devotion to God comes when we are driven to know Him. The Bible expresses that concept by the words hungering and thirsting after righteousness. (Matthew 5:6). God’s promise to those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” is that “they shall be filled.” Devotions is not just about reading your Bible and praying everyday. Devotions is about being consumed with knowing God intimately, personally, and seeking His face.

Lastly, when these previous two things become a reality in your life you will naturally involve yourself in the “work of the ministry.” If we have cultivated a love relationship with God, we will gain His heart. His heart is burdened to reach the lost. His heart is burdened for the recovery of sinners and their deliverance from the bondage of sin in their lives. If we are not driven by a concern about the things God is concerned about, our Christianity is nothing more than externalism. Fruitful ministry will naturally flow from a life through which God overflows. When God finally gets a hold of your heart and you get a hold of His, He will overflow (“fruit of the Spirit”).

“37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).

If that is what you want to see in your life, you are going to have to seriously evaluate your priorities. The flow of that “living water” will begin when your heart and God’s heart are one. It will not be just a trickle. It will be a flood.

ORDERS

Order by E-mail to:

Dr.Ketchum@msn.com

On the Web at:

WWW.DISCIPLEMAKERMINISTRIES.ORG

Contact Information
Dr. Lance Ketchum
224 5th Avenue N.W.
Hutchinson, MN 55350

Phone:(612) 750-5515

http://www.wayoflife.org/files/eebbdea015f0c611080a487bf8c6ba4f-696.html

SWORD OF THE LORD OMITS REPENTANCE FROM SPURGEON SERMON (Friday Church News Notes, December 17, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -

Recently I received the following e-mail from Jim Koenig: “Last night we watched your video ‘How to Avoid False Professions’ for the second time and the segment on repentance was even [...]]]> From David Cloud

http://www.wayoflife.org/files/eebbdea015f0c611080a487bf8c6ba4f-696.html

SWORD OF THE LORD OMITS REPENTANCE FROM SPURGEON SERMON (Friday Church News Notes, December 17, 2010, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -

Recently I received the following e-mail from Jim Koenig: “Last night we watched your video ‘How to Avoid False Professions’ for the second time and the segment on repentance was even more enlightening this time around. Over the years we have noticed that the Sword of the Lord has shifted away from the doctrine of repentance and cunningly led their readers in that direction. A good example is the Charles Spurgeon sermon ‘Only Trust Him’ in the November 26, 2010 issue. They have left out what he said about repentance. The original sermon can be found at www.spurgeongems.org/sermons.htm (sermon #1635) and the omitted part is on page three of the sermon, the 6th full paragraph down. Years ago my wife and I graduated from the Sword Soul Winning Director’s College, taught personally by Bro. Smith, Bro. Norris Belcher, and the late Bro. Larry Staner. At no time, never, was the word ‘repent’ mentioned or implied during the three day course. I am not anti-Sword, but they are 100% wrong on repentance and have influenced thousands of young preachers to spread their one-two-three repeat after me prayers.”

COMMENT BY BROTHER CLOUD: I could not agree more. The Sword of the Lord truly has a problem with repentance, and this is not a new thing. While the founder of the Sword, John R. Rice, taught that repentance is “a change of mind toward God and toward sin” and “to turn from your sin” (What Must I Do to Be Saved, 1940), Rice’s successor, Curtis Hutson, changed the biblical definition of repentance. He did this in his influential 1986 booklet Repentance: What Does the Bible Teach? Hutson denied that repentance means to turn from sin (p. 4), that repentance is sorrow for sin (p. 8), and that repentance means “a change of mind that leads to a change of action” (p. 16). He claimed that repentance simply is “to change one’s mind.” Hutson quoted Scripture that appears to support his position but he ignored the many Scriptures that plainly contradict it. He misquoted the writings of men like his predecessor John R. Rice and mixed in a heavy dose of human reasoning. (See our book Repentance and Soul Winning for documentation of this.) Under Hutson’s watch, the Sword also removed repentance from some of the hymns in the 1989 edition of the Soul Stirring Hymns. For example, the lyrics of “The Old Account Was Settled” were changed from “O sinner, seek the Lord, repent of your sin” to “O sinner, trust the Lord, be cleansed of all your sin.” (They also did this with the lyrics to “Almost Persuaded” and “Give Me Thy Heart.”) I am thankful for many things that the Sword has stood for through the years, but the issue of repentance is not a light matter. The Sword has been at the forefront of the downgrading of this doctrine and of the promotion of the heretical practice of “Quick Prayerism” whereby psychological manipulation, human salesmanship, and an empty “sinner’s prayer” have too often replaced Holy Spirit conviction and miraculous regeneration. I refuse to join hands in ministry with men who are guilty of this serious error. (The Sword has also been at the forefront of exalting men far beyond scriptural bounds.)

My Note: I could not find any difference in “Almost Persuaded” in any of the hymnals I have.

Dr. Harry Ironside, for 18 years pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, told of visiting a Sunday School class while on vacation. The teacher asked, “How were people saved in Old Testament times?”

After a pause, one man replied, “By keeping the Law.” “That’s right,” said [...]]]> How Were People Saved in the Old Testament?

Dr. Harry Ironside, for 18 years pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, told of visiting a Sunday School class while on vacation. The teacher asked, “How were people saved in Old Testament times?”

After a pause, one man replied, “By keeping the Law.” “That’s right,” said the teacher.

But Dr. Ironside interrupted: “My Bible says that by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified.”

The teacher was a bit embarrassed, so he said, “Well, does somebody else have an idea?”

Another student replied, “They were saved by bringing sacrifice to God.”

“Yes, that’s right!” the teacher said and tried to go on with the lesson.

But Dr. Ironside interrupted, “My Bible says that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.”

By this time the unprepared teacher was sure the visitor knew more about the Bible than he did, so he said, “Well, you tell us how people were saved in the Old Testament!”

And Dr. Ironside explained that they were saved by faith-the same way people are saved today! Twenty-one times in Hebrews 11 will you find the same words, “by faith.”

Born to Die by Ron Hamilton

Verses three and four

From His throne Jesus came,

Laid aside Heaven’s fame

In exchange for the cross of Calv’ry;

For my gain suffered loss,

For my sin He bore [...]]]>

Born to Die by Ron Hamilton

Verses three and four

From His throne Jesus came,

Laid aside Heaven’s fame

In exchange for the cross of Calv’ry;

For my gain suffered loss,

For my sin He bore the cross –

He was wounded and I was set free.

(chorus) Born to die upon Calvary,

Jesus suffered my sin to forgive;

Born to die upon Calvary,

He was wounded that I might live.

Dearest Lord, evermore

May Thy cross I adore

As I follow the path to Calv’ry;

Of Thy death I partake,

My ambition I forsake –

All my will I surrender to Thee.

Born to die upon Calvary,

Jesus suffered my sin to forgive;

Born to die upon Calvary,

He was wounded that I might live.

Born To Die by Ron Hamilton

On the night Christ was born

Just before break of morn,

As the stars in the sky were fading,

O’er the place he lay,

Fell a shadow cold and gray

Of a cross that would humble a King.

(chorus) Born to die upon Calvary,

For all the gifts that Thou dost send,

For every kind and loyal friend,

For prompt supply of all my need,

For all [...]]]> Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

For all the gifts that Thou dost send,

For every kind and loyal friend,

For prompt supply of all my need,

For all that is good in word or deed,

For gift of health along life’s way,

For strength to work from day to day-

I give Thee humble thanks.

For ready hands to help and cheer,

For listening ears Thy voice to hear,

For yielded tongue Thy love to talk,

For willing feet, Thy paths to walk,

For open eyes Thy Word to read,

For loving heart, Thy will to heed-

I give Thee humble thanks.

For Christ who came from heaven above,

For the cross and His redeeming love,

For His mighty power to seek and save,

For His glorious triumph o’er the grave.

For the lovely mansions in the sky,

For His blessed coming bye and bye-

I give Thee humble thanks.

author unknown