January 1, 2006
“He hath done all things well” (Mark 7:37).
Daily Readings for the Week of January 1-8
Sunday Genesis 1-3 Thursday Genesis 17-19
Monday Genesis 4-8 Friday Genesis 20-23
Tuesday Genesis 9-11 Saturday Genesis 24-25
Wednesday Genesis 12-16 Sunday Genesis 26-27
Thank You! Shelby and I have been overwhelmed by your many cards, expressions of love, and generous gifts to us. We give thanks to our God continually for you; and we thank you for all that you are to us and for all that you do for us.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Sammy Wall-1st Clare Hellar-4th Laura Peterson-4th Bob Poncer-5th Emily Rice-8th
NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK
Today: Ruth Wall (AM) Laura Peterson (PM) Tuesday: Shelby Fortner
(Tune: #287 — Like A River Glorious — 6.5-6.5-6.5)
1. Standing at the portal of the opening year,
Words of comfort meet us, hushing every fear;
Spoken thru the silence, by our Savior’s voice,
Tender, strong and faithful, making us rejoice.
Refrain: Onward, then, and fear not, children of the day;
For His Word shall never, never pass away.
2. “I, the Lord, am with thee. Be thou not afraid;
I will help and strengthen. Be thou not dismayed.
Yea, I will uphold thee, with My own right hand;
Thou art called and chosen, in My sight to stand.”
3. For the year before us, O what rich supplies!
For the poor and needy, living streams shall rise;
For the sad and sinful, shall His grace abound;
For the faint and feeble, perfect strength be found.
4. He will never fail us, He will not forsake;
For His eternal covenant He will never break.
Resting on the promise, what have we to fear?
God is all sufficient for the coming year.
Among all the boundless blessings of God bestowed upon us in his adorable and wise providence, we count none more blessed than the privilege of serving our Savior and the interests of his kingdom with you. We give thanks to our God continually for you and for making you part of our lives. We pray for you without ceasing. As we recall the days that are past and look forward to what our ever gracious God has in store for us in our appointed days yet to come, our hearts are filled with joy and expectation. May it please him to give us grace to faithfully love and serve one another and to make us instruments of much good together in this generation for the glory of Christ. We pray that you will enjoy a blessed and happy new year.
Don and Shelby
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“He hath done all things well.”
Mark 7:37
If these men and women who had seen our Savior’s miracles were astonished and cried out, “He hath done all things well,” how much more astonished we ought to be who have tasted and experienced his grace! How much more we ought to confess to God our Savior, to the angels before his throne, to wondering worlds, and to one another, — “He hath done all things well!”
My Testimony
Looking over all the days of my life and everything I have experienced these 55 years, I lift my heart to heaven and say, “He hath done all things well!” Like you, I’ve had a few trials and heartaches, a little pain and sorrow, a little hurt and bitterness. (And, I am ashamed to confess, I have caused much more than I’ve experienced.) But God my Savior has been so kind and gracious to me, that were I to die this day, you can write these words on my gravestone. — “‘He hath done all things well!’ Here lies a man who was for 55 years the benefactor of unceasing, special divine care. And ‘My Jesus hath done all things well.’”
A Question
Tell me, you who know my Savior, can you not testify the same? — “He hath done all things well!” Does your own life’s experience not verify this? I know it does.
Yes, from first to last, — from the day of our birth to this very hour, — from the earliest pangs of sin’s conviction to the blessed thrill of sin’s forgiveness, — from the cradle to the grave, — from earth to heaven, — this will be our testimony regarding all the way our ever-gracious God has led us through this wilderness and every experience along the way, — “He hath done all things well!”
In providence and in grace, in every truth revealed in his Word, in every token of his love, in every stroke of his rod, in every sunbeam of his goodness, in every cloud that has darkened our skies, in every sweet morsel he has put into our lives, in every bitter thing he has mixed into our cup, in all that has been mysterious, confusing, painful, and humiliating, in all that he has given, and in all that he has taken away,— “He hath done all things well!” This is, must be, and shall be our grateful acknowledgment through time and eternity. — “He hath done all things well!”
Our great God and Savior who loved us, chose us, redeemed us, and saved us by his grace, who has kept us in all our ways, has done all things well! He who is our God is too wise to err, too strong to fail, and too good to do wrong.
Study his universe, all the history of it, study his creation, his providence, his judgments and his grace, view them in every light, examine them in their most minute detail, as you would the petal of a flower, or the wing of an insect, study all with the microscopic eye of faith, and this will be your glad testimony to his praise, — “He hath done all things well!”
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“Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord!” — Psalm 119:65
I could never find better words to sum up my life’s experience than these. God my Savior has dealt well with me. What an awesome thought! All the days of my life, my God has dealt well with me. All the days of my life, the Angel of the Lord has pitched his tent around me and dealt well with me (Ps. 34:7). The word David uses for “well” is one of those magnificent little words that is bursting with meaning. It means “most favorably, most kindly, most graciously, most lovingly, most pleasurably, most sweetly, most prosperously, most finely, most joyfully, and most merrily.” Particularly, these last 38 years, since he saved me by his grace, my God has dealt well with me as his servant. Of course, he has dealt with me as his son, as his spouse, and as his friend. But, like David, I take particular delight in saying he has dealt well with me as his servant, in appointing me to be his servant, in calling me into his service, in providing every need of his servant, in protecting his servant, and in rewarding the labor of his servant. He has dealt well with me all the days of my life according to his Word: —His Word of Predestination. —His Word of Promise. — According to His Word of Grace. — According to Christ His Word. Truly, “He hath done all things well!”
In Eternity
He has done all things well from eternity. When we think of all that our Savior did for us as our Surety in old eternity (if I can use such language), before the world was, our hearts gladly confess, “He hath done all things well!” In the covenant of grace, when he took upon himself all responsibility for our souls and espoused our cause as our great Surety, “He hath done all things well!” He drew nigh to God on our behalf. His delights were with us. His heart was upon us. He pledged himself to redeem and save us. He gave himself as the Lamb of God to redeem us. And the Father accepted us, blessed us with all spiritual blessings in him, trusting him as our Surety (Eph. 1:3-7).
In Grace
Pause once more to reflect upon this fact, too. “He hath done all things well” in the mighty operations of his saving grace. He has forgiven all my sin and made me the very righteousness of God in him (Ps. 32:1-5; 2 Cor. 5:21). He has preserved me in grace and kept me in faith, in the midst of countless temptations and countless falls (Ps. 34:1-6; 116:1-7). His love for my soul has proved and is continually proving itself immeasurable, infinite, and immutable (Eph. 3:17-19; 1 John 3:1; 4:19). Truly, he loves this sinner “freely!”
In Providence
What a good God and Savior we have! — “I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” The Lord has dealt bountifully with us. He who gave us his darling Son has with him freely given us all things. He has given us his Spirit and he conveys to us all spiritual blessings in Christ. Our God deals with us like a God. He lays open all his infinite fulness to us. “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” Is not your life a verification of this fact? Mine is. Truly, in all the affairs of providence, “He hath done all things well!” And that which he has done, he is doing, and shall forever continue to do, until he has finished doing all that he purposed to do in eternity. Then, we shall look back upon all things and say, “He hath done all things well!” In that great day, when our mansions are prepared, our bodies raised from the dead, and we are perfectly conformed to his image in resurrection glory, when we hear him say, “Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” oh, with what rapture, gratitude, rejoicing, and love shall we shout, “He hath done all things well!” In the light of these facts, can you imagine what must be awaiting us on the other side, in that land where there is no darkness, no weeping, no sorrow, no pain, and no sin in that blessed place called “Heaven,” where “former things are passed away”?
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Grace Bulletin
January 1, 2006
GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE
2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Sunday
10:00 A.M. Bible Classes
10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service
6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
Tuesday
7:30 P.M. Mid-Week Worship Service
Channel 6 - Sunday Morning 8:00 A.M.
Channel 6 - Wednesday Evening 6:00 P.M.
Channel 6 - Friday Evening 7:00 P.M.
http://www.donfortner.com
http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm
http://www.freegrace.net/danville/default.asp