Grace Camp Meeting starts tonight!

We have been so very busy preparing for our Camp Meeting that I have not posted anything here in a very long time. Sorry about that. But I hope to jot some notes down as things go along! God has been blessing at Rockport and we're anxious to get to share in that blessing with those who will be coming to our conference.

Grace and peace to all
SSL

Letter to My Daughters

The following letter was originally published by Charles Spurgeon (it is an excerpt written by another man, Leah Richmond, to his own daughter). I thought it was so excellent that I added a note of my own and sent it along to my precious girls. Here is a Christian father's fondest desire and most urgent prayer for his daughters....


"Christ's garden"
by Charles Spurgeon

~ ~ ~ ~

(An excerpt from a letter from Legh Richmond to one of his daughters)

My dear daughter,
May my dear child be preserved from the defilements of a vain, dangerous, and destroying world. You know not, and I wish you never may know--its snares and corruptions!

I send you the following applications of my sermon on Ephesians 5:15-16, "Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

On circumspection of walk, redemption of time, and general sincerity of character:

1. Adhere most scrupulously to Scriptural truth; and labor to preserve the strictest integrity, simplicity, and sincerity.

2. Engage in no pursuit in which you cannot look up unto God, and say, 'Bless me in this, my Father!'

3. Strive to be as kind, forbearing, and forgiving as you can--both to friends and foes. Never speak evil of anyone.

4. Strive to recommend true religion by the courtesy, civility, and humble character of your conduct.

5. Watch against irritation, pride, unkind speaking, and anger--study and promote love.

6. Mortify (kill) all lusts, sensuality and sloth.

7. Never speak well of yourself. Keep down pride; let it not be indulged for a moment--but watch against it.

8. Shut out evil imaginations and angry thoughts.

9. Let it be your sole business here to prepare for eternity. Consider every moment of time in that view.

10. Remember that you have to contend with . . .
a legion of devils;
a heart full of deceit and iniquity;
and a world at enmity with God.

11. Pray that you may ever rejoice in the advancement of Christ's kingdom, and the salvation of sinners; and labor in every way to promote these objects.

12. Prayer is the only weapon which can subdue your corruptions, and keep you in close fellowship with God. Cultivate prayer.

The love of Christ is the only safe ground of all motives, and of all conduct. Where this is established, all is well. The life-blood of Christianity then circulates through every vein of the soul; and spiritual health, strength, and purity of mind is the happy result. Fall down upon your knees before God, my dear, praying that He would pour that love into your heart, until it becomes a constraining principle for the government of your thoughts and actions. The love of Christ is the only remedy for all the diseases of the soul.

~ ~ ~ ~

We invite you to join us for our Grace Camp meeting
Registration and Information click here

Grace Camp Meeting '09 -- April 16 - 19

I'm still rejoicing about all that God did for us during last year's camp meeting here at Rockport. Brother Paul Washer, Mike Morrow, Mike Williams, Charles Leiter and Rob Pelky blessed us with clear, encouraging, challenging messages from God's Word (all of which can still be heard by clicking here). And even though it was our first time ever to try and host such a meeting, God helped us tremendously and everything just seemed to work out for a wonderful time of fellowship, prayer and worship.

With that in mind, we are beginning to look forward to this year's

Grace Camp Meeting '09.

Dates: April 16-19

Speakers:
Charles Leiter
Mike Williams
Tim Conway
Michael Durham

Be praying with us as we make preparations. Registration information will be up on our website soon.

We hope many of you will be able to come.

In Jesus,

Pastor Scott

By Grace Alone

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

It is humbling to believe the Gospel. Religion, on the other hand, is a great foundation for human pride. Religion lets me continue to think well of myself even as I exult in “the depths” of my devotion to God. With religion I am the one in charge. I set the pace. I make the decisions (at least the ones that really matter!). I devote myself to God’s cause and do my best to practice my faith in a way I feel is both personally fulfilling and, I imagine, of help to God.

But the Gospel is just the reverse. When the Gospel comes to me, it finds me to be an outcast, powerless and – to be honest – anything but devout. No, I am a sinner. A reprobate. A pagan with nothing in me that could commend me to God. Every decision I have ever made – spiritually speaking – has been the wrong one. And even my best acts of righteous devotion have been nothing but filthy rags of self-serving pride. That’s where the Gospel finds me! Not a good man, hoping to be better. Not even a weak man needing to be made strong. But a dead man who needs to be given a life that comes from outside himself.

I remember for years thinking of my salvation as if I had been drowning – going down for the last time - and Christ at the last minute jumped in to save me. Now I know that I was a dead man, three weeks dead, bloated and lying at the bottom of the ocean when Christ, for his own purpose and glory chose to come to me. I could not cry out. I would not save myself. Nevertheless He came. And with a marvelous display of astounding power and grace, He saved me! He rescued the perished and gave life to the dead. Where then is my boasting? It is no more. All I can do is say, “Praise! Praise! Praise for an Amazing Grace!”

SSL

A living, loving, personal Savior

One of the things that really struck me this past week as I was preparing for Sunday's message is the personal nature of Salvation by Christ. I'm fully aware that many in evangelicalism have misused the idea of having Jesus as "personal" Lord and Savior. We've bent and twisted this idea into the creation by each of us of our own "personal Jesus" which is, of course, idolatry. The same Jesus who saved Paul is the Jesus who saves me. He's not my personal possession (though I have become His). He's not mine to re-image or re-configure. He is Who He is. The Living God become flesh -- the Eternal Son, Second Person of the Trinity as revealed in Scripture.

And yet, when He does comes by His grace to save a loathsome sinner like me, He comes to me in a way that is real and person through the Gospel that is preached. By His Holy Spirit He opens my heart to believe in Him. And as a result, I personally, through that grace given, repent and believe in Him and am brought into the personal intimacy of a new relationship with Him and with His church that is real. I come to know Him who died for me and with all the saints begin to live to the praise of the glory of His grace.

That's the point of this little quote below. Jesus becomes for those He saves.....

A living, loving, personal Savior

(J. R. Miller, "Counsel and Help" 1907)

We are in the habit of saying that Christ saved
us by dying for us on the Cross. In an important
sense this is true. We never could have been
saved--if He had not died for us.

But we are actually saved by our relation to a
living, loving, personal Savior--into whose
hands we commit all the interests of our lives;
and who becomes our Friend, our Helper, our
Keeper, our Burden bearer--our all in all.

Christian faith is not merely laying our sins on
the Lamb of God, and trusting to His one great
sacrifice; it is the laying of ourselves on the living,
loving heart of one whose friendship becomes
thenceforward the sweetest joy of our lives!

"The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself for me!" Galatians 2:20

Only Jesus

My wife, Amy, has always had a time sitting still. Her active mind is always buzzing about something. Even in church she tends to need to occupy herself with something as she listens and participates with the congregation. This past Sunday night as we were all celebrating Christmas together, Amy was jotting down some of the thoughts that were pouring through her brain. She shared them with our congregation just before I got up to preach. I thought they are an excellent summation of why only Jesus is worthy of all praise!

Here is what she wrote:

Only Jesus


Only Jesus can be our Great High Priest

And our sacrifice



Only Jesus can be our judge

And our advocate



Only Jesus can be born

Of his own creation



Only Jesus can be humble enough

To be highly exalted



Only Jesus can be seated at the right hand of the Father

And be with us always



Only Jesus can be the hearer of all our cries

And cry out in intercession



Only Jesus can be the alpha

And the omega



Only Jesus can be the Lion

And the lamb



Only Jesus can say “It is Finished”

And “I am completing a good work in you”



Only Jesus can be feared

And calm our every fear



Only Jesus could have nothing in his appearance that we would desire him

And be the joy of man’s desire



Only Jesus can be despised and rejected

And draw all men unto himself



Only Jesus can exist before time

And appear when the time had fully come



Only Jesus could empty himself

And be the fullness of God in bodily form



Only Jesus