{"id":6441,"date":"2023-05-29T01:14:52","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T01:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6441"},"modified":"2023-05-29T01:14:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T01:14:52","slug":"bulletin-edition-may-2023-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=6441","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Edition May 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JESUS IN THE HOUSE OF MOURNING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus saith unto her, “Thy brother shall rise again.”\nJohn 11:23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have lately been with Jesus in the chamber of sickness and of\ndeath; let us now accompany Him to the house of mourning. He was equally\nHimself in both. His loving, sympathising heart was at home in every place\nwhere suffering and woe found a lodgement. He Himself had passed through this\nschool. And well He had learned its lessons, emerging from its teaching and\ndiscipline in all respects fitted for, and in all points assimilated to, His\npeoples’ trying and afflictive circumstances. Oh, wondrous truth! oh,\nmarvellous love! Must the divine Son of God, must the sinless Son of man be\nperfected by suffering, that He might suffer when I suffer, weep when I weep,\nbear the heaviest end of my cross, and in all my afflictions be Himself, by\nsympathy and support, afflicted? So I read, and so I believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are a bereaved one–the Lord’s bereaved! Himself has done\nit. Arise, oh my soul, from second and proximate causes. With them you have\nnothing to do. Like pieces of wreck floating on the surging waves, they will\nbut wound and bruise you, and, perhaps, loosen your hold of faith on the Divine\nand faithful plank to which you are clinging, and which will assuredly bear you\nup, and float you in safety to the shore. Every view of your bereavement which\ndraws your eye away from Jesus will but lacerate and inflame your wound.\nLooking above, seeing Jesus only, recognising God’s hand in your calamity, and\nreferring it all to His infinite wisdom, perfect righteousness, and unchanging\nlove, will enable you to bow meekly in your sorrow, and with your mouth in the\ndust, exclaim, in lowly imitation of your Lord, “My Father, if this cup\nmay not pass from me except I drink it, Your will be done.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, beloved, your brother shall rise again. Did he not die in\nthe faith of Jesus? Did he not depart in the hope of glory? Then, that faith\nhas saved him, and that hope sheds a halo around his grave. He shall rise even\nnow, for the memory and the influence of his holy life and love still live in\nundecaying power and fragrance; and, “he, being dead, yet speaks.”\nBut he shall rise again in the resurrection of the just at the last day, when,\nat the Second Resurrection, the trumpet of Christ, the Archangel shall sound,\nand the “dead in Christ shall rise first.” <\/em>Oh, the\nglory and the bliss of that moment, when the ruined temple of the Holy Spirit\nshall spring from the dust, a spiritual body, freed from all the taint of sin,\nthe grossness of the flesh, the sorrows and sufferings of earth, resplendent in\nbeauty, perfected in holiness, “fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious\nbody.” And, until my body shall be committed to the dust in the faith of\nHim who is “the Resurrection and the Life,” may I live and die, dear\nLord, to You, and, then, be with You forever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus is one with you in your bereaved grief. He is in your\nhouse of mourning now. He goes with you to the grave to weep there. Spiritual\nblessings will bloom around that grave, sweeter and more beautiful far than the\nflowers with which you deck it, if your sorrow draws you closer to Christ,\nmaking you better acquainted with Him, the weeping and sympathising Saviour,\nand loving Friend and Brother, born for this crushing adversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gate of death, and the gate of glory, are one!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(John MacDuff<\/a>,\n“Meditations on the Glories of Heaven”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“TODAY shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” Luke 23:43<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same moment in which I close my eyes on a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

world of sin and suffering, I open them in glory!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gate of death, and the gate of glory, are one!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The uncaged spirit will all at once fly upwards<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to nestle in the golden eaves of Heaven!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me look forward, then, with bounding heart,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to the hour of death, as the hour of my entrance<\/p>\n\n\n\n

into endless bliss; the birthday of eternity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, if there was “joy in heaven among the angels<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of God” at the hour of conversion<\/strong>, what will it\nbe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

at the hour of glorification!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If God the Father even on earth has joy in seeing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His returning prodigal; what will it be when He<\/p>\n\n\n\n

welcomes him to his everlasting home!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 His love; He will rejoice over thee with singing!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (Zeph. 3:17.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Redeemer utters His intercessory prayer over<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the death bed on earth, “Father, I will that this<\/p>\n\n\n\n

one whom you have given Me be with Me where<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am, to behold My glory.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prayer is heard; the angels are sent down; and,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

swift as lightning leaps from the cloud, THAT HOUR,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and forever, he is “with Jesus in paradise!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“TODAY shalt thou be with Me in paradise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A welcome guest!<\/strong>
\n
\n(“A Few Sighs From Hell”<\/em> or “The\nGroans of the Damned Soul”<\/em> by that poor and contemptible servant\nof Jesus Christ, John Bunyan<\/a>,\n1658. Being an exposition of Luke 16:19-31, concerning the Rich\nMan <\/em>and the Beggar<\/em>, wherein is revealed the lamentable\nstate of the Damned<\/em> \u2014 their cries, and their desires in their\ndistresses, with the determined judgment of God upon them. A good warning word\nto lost sinners, both old and young, to seek salvation by faith in Jesus Christ\n\u2014 lest they come into the same place of torment.)
\n
\n“Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be\nprolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear\nGod<\/em>, which fear before Him!” Ecclesiastes 8:12
\nBeliever, <\/em>it will be well<\/em> with\nyou!
\nConsider how safe, how sure, how happy are you!
\nFor when others go to Hell \u2014 you must go to Heaven!
\nWhen others go to the devil \u2014 you must go to God!
\nWhen as others go to eternal prison \u2014 you must be set at\nliberty, and at ease!
\nWhen others must roar for sorrow of heart \u2014 you shall sing for\nthe joy of heart!
\n
\nConsider, you must have . . .
\nall your well-spent life to follow you \u2014 instead of all your\nsins;
\nthe glorious blessings of the gospel \u2014 instead of the dreadful\ncurses and condemnations of the law;
\nthe blessing of the loving Father<\/em> \u2014 instead of\na fiery sentence from the righteous Judge<\/em>.
\n
\nLet death <\/strong>come when it will, it can do you no\nharm; for it will be but only a passage . . .
\n   out of a prison \u2014 into a palace;
\n   out of a sea of troubles \u2014 into a haven of rest;
\n   out of a crowd of enemies \u2014 into an innumerable\ncompany of true, loving, and faithful friends;
\n   out of shame, reproach, and contempt \u2014 into\nexceeding great and eternal glory!
\n
\nFor death <\/em>shall not hurt you with his sting,\nnor bite you with his soul-murdering teeth; but shall be a welcome guest<\/strong> to you \u2014 in that it is\nsent to free you from your troubles which you are in, while here in this poor\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain!<\/em>”\nPhilippians 1:21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is\nfar better!” Philippians 1:23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n The Christian and Death!<\/strong>
\n <\/em><\/strong>
\n <\/em>Spurgeon, “The Last Enemy Destroyed” No. 72. 1 Cor.\n 15:26.<\/em>
\n <\/em>
\n “Death gives us infinitely more than he takes away!
\n To stand before that throne upon the sea of glass
\n mingled with fire, to bow within the presence chamber
\n of the King of kings, gazing into the glory that excels,
\n and to see the King in his beauty, the man that once
\n was slain, wearing many crowns and arrayed in the vesture
\n of his glory, his wounds like sparkling jewels still
\n visible above! Oh! to cast our crowns at his feet, to
\n lie there and shrink into nothing before the Eternal All,
\n to fly into Jesus’ bosom, to behold the beauty of his love,
\n and to taste the kisses of his mouth, to be in Paradise,
\n swallowed up in unutterable joy because taken into the
\n closest, fullest, nearest communion with himself! Would
\n not your soul burst from the body even now to obtain this
\n rapture?”\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

When believers die!<\/strong>
\n
\n(John Newton’s Letters<\/a>)
\n
\n“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given Me, be\nwith Me where I am: that they may behold My glory!” John 17:24
\n
\nHealth and sickness, life and death \u2014 will always be in the\nhands of the Lord.
\n
\nWhen believers die<\/strong> \u2014\nwhatever the accident <\/em>or the illness <\/em>may be \u2014\nthey are only the means<\/em>, but not properly the cause <\/em>of\ntheir death. They die because the time has come when He who loves them best,\nwill have them with Him to behold His glory!
\n
\nUntil then, they are immortal. They recover from sickness, however\nthreatening, and are preserved unhurt \u2014 in defiance of the greatest dangers!\nBut when His appointed hour arrives \u2014 then they must depart. When He will have\nthem with Him \u2014 we cannot detain them; nor ought we to wish it, though the\nflesh will feel the parting stroke.
\n
\nNone of us can be perfectly happy in this poor fleeting world.\nIt is a state in which sin and sorrow will hunt us and pain us to the last step\nof life! Therefore, though we wish to keep those whom we love with us as long\nas we can \u2014 it is well both for us and them, that we cannot live here always.\nWe are in the Lord’s hands \u2014 and He does all things wisely and well, at the\nright time <\/em>and in the right manner<\/em>.
\n
\nDeath is but a temporary separation. Those who are gone before\nus, are waiting for us. Oh! It will be a happy meeting before the throne of the\nLamb \u2014 out of the reach of sin and sorrow, to meet and part no more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How great then, is the\nblessedness of true believers!<\/strong>
\n
\n<\/strong>(John MacDuff<\/a>,\n“Looking unto Jesus!” 1856)
\n
\nGod says, “I will be their God<\/em> \u2014 and they\nshall be My people<\/em>.” 2 Corinthians 6:16. This is a promise in\nwhich every other promise is included. Sometimes God says to the Christian: I\nwill be your strength<\/em>, your righteousness<\/em>, your deliverer<\/em>,\nyour shield<\/em>, your reward<\/em>; but these are nothing but\nmodifications of the former.
\n
\nBeliever! endeavour to realise something of the blessedness\ninvolved in having God for your<\/em> God. For this purpose, think\nof the representations He gives of Himself in His word. Think of Him . . .
\n  in all the perfections of His nature,
\n  in His unsearchable riches,
\n  in His unspeakable glory,
\n  in His omnipotent power,
\n  in His universal dominion,
\n  in His spotless purity,
\n  in His eternal veracity,
\n  and, above all, in His infinite grace and mercy!
\nAnd having viewed Him thus, you may venture to say, with\nunwavering faith and adoring gratitude, “This God is our God<\/em> forever\nand ever: He will be our guide<\/em> even unto death!” Psalm\n48:14. How great then, is the\nblessedness of true believers!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 IMMUTABILITY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(edited from “The Bow in the Clouds” by John MacDuff)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For I am the Lord, I\nchange not<\/strong>: therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi\n3:6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unchangeableness of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What an anchor for a storm tossed sea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change is our portion here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scenes are altering. Joys are fading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends! some of them are removed at a distance;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

others have gone to their ‘long home’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who, amid these checkered experiences, does not<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sigh for something permanent, stable, enduring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vessel has again and again slipped its earthly<\/p>\n\n\n\n

moorings. We long for some secure and sheltered harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am the Lord, and I do not change!” Heart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and flesh may faint; yes, do faint and fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is an unfainting, unfailing, unvarying God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the changes in the world around cannot affect Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our own fitfulness cannot alter Him. When we are<\/p>\n\n\n\n

depressed, downcast, fluctuating; our treacherous<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hearts turning aside “like a broken bow,” He does<\/p>\n\n\n\n

not change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“God who cannot lie,” is the superscription on His<\/p>\n\n\n\n

eternal throne; and inscribed on all His dealings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am the Lord, and I do not change!” This forms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a blessed guarantee that nothing can befall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

me but what is for my good. I cannot doubt His<\/p>\n\n\n\n

faithfulness. I dare not arraign the rectitude<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of His dispensations. It is ‘covenant love’ which<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is now darkening my earthly horizon. This hour He<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is the same as when He “spared not His own Son!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, instead of wondering at my trials, let me<\/p>\n\n\n\n

rather wonder that He has borne with me so long!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is because of the Lord’s unchanging mercies that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not consumed. Had He been man, changeful,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

vacillating, as myself, long before now would He<\/p>\n\n\n\n

have spurned me away, and consigned me to the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

doom of the cumberer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am the Lord, I change not!”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I have breathed my final breath<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And dropped this robe of flesh in death,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my appointed work is done<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And my allotted time is gone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t stand around my grave and cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll not be there. I did not die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Saviour came to call me home,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I with Him to heav\u2019n have gone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I am free from sin and pain;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with the glorified I reign!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t stand around my grave and cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m glorified! I did not die!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seated with Jesus on His throne,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glorified by what He has done,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a trophy of His grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rejoicing, I behold His face:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t stand around my grave and cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am with Christ! I did not die!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My body lies beneath the clay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the resurrection day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that day when Christ comes again,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body and soul unite again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t stand around my grave and cry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rejoice with me! I did not die!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JESUS IN THE HOUSE OF MOURNING Jesus saith unto her, “Thy brother shall rise again.” John 11:23 We have lately been with Jesus in the chamber of sickness and of death; let us now accompany Him to the house of mourning. He was equally Himself in both. His loving, sympathising heart was at home in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6442,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6441\/revisions\/6442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}