Gift of Strength; Peace to Bless (Spurgeon’s Faith’s Checkbook)

From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Gift of Strength; Peace to Bless
December 7
The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace. (Psalm 29:11)

David had just heard the voice of the Lord in a thunderstorm and had seen His power in the hurricane whose path he had described; and now, in the cool calm after the storm, that overwhelming power by which heaven and earth are shaken is promised to be the strength of the chosen. He who wings the unerring bolt will give to His redeemed the wings of eagles; He who shakes the earth with His voice will terrify the enemies of His saints and give His children peace. Why are we weak when we have divine strength to flee to? Why are we troubled when the Lord’s own peace is ours? Jesus, the mighty God, is our strength; let us put Him on and go forth to our service. Jesus, our blessed Lord, is also our peace; let us repose in Him this day and end our fears. What a blessing to have Him for our strength and peace both now and forever!
That same God who rides upon the storm in days of tempest will also rule the hurricane of our tribulation and send us, before long, days of peace. We shall have strength for storms and songs for fair weather. Let us begin to sing at once unto God, our strength and our peace. Away, dark thoughts! Up, faith and hope!

From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb

 

Like Palm and Cedar (Spurgeon’s Faith’s Checkbook)

From Charles Spurgeon’s “Faith’s Checkbook”
Like Palm and Cedar
September 17
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. (Psalm 92:12)

These trees are not trained and pruned by man: palms and cedars are “trees of the Lord,” and it is by His care that they flourish. Even so it is with the saints of the Lord: they are His own care. These trees are evergreen and are beautiful objects at all seasons of the year. Believers are not sometimes holy and sometimes ungodly: they stand in the beauty of the Lord under all weathers. Everywhere these trees are noteworthy: no one can gaze upon a landscape in which there are either palms or cedars without his attention being fixed upon these royal growths. The followers of Jesus are the observed of all observers: like a city set on a hill, they cannot be hid.
The child of God flourishes like a palm tree, which pushes all its strength upward in one erect column without a single branch. It is a pillar with a glorious capital. It has no growth to the right or to the left but sends all its force heavenward and bears its fruit as near the sky as possible. Lord, fulfill this type in me.
The cedar braves all storms and grows near the eternal snows, the Lord Himself filling it with a sap which keeps its heart warm and its bough strong. Lord, so let it be with me, I pray Thee. Amen.

From the Faith’s Checkbook Mobile Devotional Android app – http://www.LookingUpwardApps.com/fcb

 

The Darkness of the Soul

This is a poem of mine that was published in the 2005 Who’s Who in Poetry.  It won an Editor’s Choice Award, and was one of 3 specially featured in the book.  To preface it, I had written it during a week long downpour of rain and storms, which reminded me of how during the worst times in my life how my own soul felt like a storm.  The sunshine that finally calmed those storms is Jesus Christ, who is my Lord and Savior.  Here is the poem.

The Darkness of the Soul

 

The darkness of the sky

Reflects the inner me,

Beyond the smiling face

Where no one else can see.

With each drop of rain that falls,

With every thundercloud that roars,

The darkness spreads the Earth,

Hiding the sun forevermore.

The aching heart cries out

For freedom and for hope,

But the storms of life

Keep things bound by painful ropes.

I long for the peace

Of a sunny summer day,

Praying that the wind

Will blow storms and pain away.

I want to feel the breeze,

And the warmth of rays of sun,

Clearing out the sadness

And the weeping I have done.

By: Bonita L. Ledzius  Copyright 2005