From my pastor

Dear Church,

The following is from Arthur Bennett’s, The Valley of Vision. It is my prayer for all of us today. May the Lord bless you, your family, and our church.

“Our Father - When you are angry towards us for our wrongs we try to pacify You by abstaining from future sin; but teach us that we cannot satisfy Your law, that this effort is a resting in our own righteousness, and that only Christ’s righteousness, readymade, already finished, is fit for that purpose; that Your chastising us for our sin is not that we should try to reform, but only that we may be more humbled, afflicted, and separated from sin, by being reconciled, and made righteous in Christ by faith; that a sense of our sufficiency and ability in him is one means of our being immovable; that we can never be so by resting on our own faith, but by trusting in You as our only support, by faith; that if we cast away our faith we cast away You, for by faith we apprehend You, and as You are very precious, so is our faith very precious to us; that we fall short of the purity You require, because in thinking we are holy we do not seek holiness, or, believing we are impotent, we do no more. Humble us for not being as holy as we should be, or as holy as we might be through Christ, for You are all, and to possess You is to possess all. But to make the creature something is to make it stand between You and us, so that we do not walk humbly and holy. Lord, forgive us for this.”