The Last Gospel Message

America's forgotten

The Dow is soaring as we speak, albeit temporary; as the world deems survival based on monetary terms, many may think we are on the road to recovery. With the record number who shopped and spent their money this past 'black Friday' & 'cyber Monday', things do look better, on the surface. However, let's go with 60 Minutes into a topic most Americans would just as soon not talk about...the homeless. This is a heartbreaking story and it is reality {the number of the homeless continues to grow, just as does unemployment}. This is not what you see on your nightly news, instead, you will see stories of financial bailouts, banks merging and doing what they must for the greater good; mainstream media only gives you the 'good news'. The truth is America, and the world, is racing toward judgment. Our world is falling apart and man, in his wisdom, cannot fix what is wrong.

Not telling the heartbreaking stories like this one give people a false sense of 'all is right with the world', when, in fact, it is anything but. Please, do pray for these folks, and all of mankind; whether they live in comfort or in the street, without Jesus Christ, they have no hope...









Check this video out as well.

The Day and the Hour

It is time to wake up, this warning comes from watchman on the wall...


“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is." Mark 13:32-33




The European Union meltdown is heading into high gear as warning signs continue to flash. Even though President Obama said he was keen to see the eurozone crisis end: "the United States stands ready to do our part to help Europe resolve this issue.


continue here...

Is Christmas a Christian tradition?

This is a wonderful, insightful sermon by Jim McClarty on Christmas and its origin; if you celebrate the Christmas tradition, this sermon may cause you to rethink your view on this pagan tradition...


go here for this sermon



Jim also has this response in his Q&A section concerning Christmas...

Christmas

Q -

What do you think about Christmas? Is it okay to have a Christmas tree? And, what about Santa Claus? I heard that he was connected with Baal worship. Is that right?

Jim -

I purposely tabled these questions until after the holidays so I would not be introducing any crisis of conscience into your household just as you were preparing to celebrate.

Briefly, Christmas is not a Christian holiday (read: holy day), or time of observance. Jesus was clearly not born on Dec. 25, as is widely known and admitted. Even the details of His birth make that obvious. There are no shepherds in the Middle East who watch their flocks by night in the mid-winter. That alone ought to tell us something's amiss.

Anyway, we can get a pretty good sense of Christ's actual birth date by using Luke's gospel. John the Baptist is said to be six months older than Christ (Luke 1:26 and Luke 1:36). So, if we can determine John's conception date, we simply add 15 months and we're in the right territory. John's father was a priest who served in the temple during the course of Abijah, or Abia (Luke 1:5). King David established the courses of the priests. There are of 24 courses and Abijah is the eighth (1 Chron. 24:10). By comparing those courses to the Hebrew religious calendar, we can easily deduce the period when Zacharias, John's father, served his course and heard that his wife was about to conceive.

So, let's do the math. The Hebrew calendar was lunar, not solar. It was divided into 12 months of 30 days. So, the eight course would fall during the last two weeks of the fourth month of the Sacred calendar. That month was called Tammuz, the tenth month of the Civil Calendar. It fell between mid-June and mid-July on our western Calendars. Add fifteen months (or, just three months to make it easy) and you arrive at the month of Tishri, which is mid-September to mid-October. So, Jesus was born near the time of the Autumn equinox, in the early Fall.

By the way, that period is also the time of the Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, when every Jewish family capable of travel was required to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem. So, even the smaller towns that bordered Jerusalem would be overflowing with people. That would help explain why there was "no room at the inn" in Bethlehem.

Meanwhile, the early Christian Church failed to record the date of Jesus' birth with any certainty because it simply wasn't important to them. The death of Christ is attested to in great detail in all four gospel records. But, His birthday was of little consequence. It wasn't until the time of Emperor Constantine's efforts to "Christianize" Rome that we find any real attention paid to His birth.

The Romans were steeped in Helenized culture, which they "borrowed" from the Greeks. The Greek pantheon of gods was inculcated into Roman mythology and simply given new names. And, the vast majority of Greco/Roman mythological worship finds its roots in Babylonish mystery religion, which all revolves around "sun worship." So, one of the primary festivals (read: holy days) that the Romans observed each year was the Saturnalia Feast (which came to be known as the Feast of Fools in the Nordic and Gaelic cultures). It happened on the shortest day of the calendar year as a tribute to the sun, in order to entice the sun to return and keep their agricultural society going. So, every year, during the winter solstice, there was a drunken, wild, gift-giving festival that had its roots in ancient sun worship.

Meanwhile, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine (306 to 337 AD) there had been 150 years of unbridled torture of Christians. However, Christianity, far from being disposed of by the Roman persecution, continued to grow and thrive. So, when he rose to the throne of Rome, he had a huge social dilemma. Although his personal devotions prove that he worshipped the Roman gods Mars and Apollos, Constantine unilaterally forbid Christian persecution throughout his realm.

The next significant event in Constantine's religious development occurred in 312. Lactantius - who tutored his son, Crispus - and who therefore must have been close to the imperial family, reports that during the night before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge Constantine was commanded in a dream to place the sign of Christ on the shields of his soldiers. Constantine was victorious and he attributed his victory to "the god of the Christians." Consequently, he began the effort to "christianize" Rome, making it the State religion. Since every Roman citizen was required to embrace some form of Christianity - though it was a severely watered-down and superficial form of Christianity - Constantine effectively established the Roman universal (the meaning of "catholic") church and the Holy Roman Empire. And, of course, Roman Catholicism went on to dominate Western Religion for the next 1200 years.

So, what doest that have to do with Christmas? Well, in his efforts to "Christianize" Rome, Constantine encountered considerable resistance from the heathen Roman populace. Realizing that he could not utterly remove all of their various feasts, orgies, bacchanalias and observances, he simply stamped Christian names and observances onto the festivities that already existed. For instance, the Feast of Ishtar, a Spring Fertility Feast replete with rabbits, eggs and other symbols of fertility, occurred close to the time of the Passover, when Christ rose from the dead. The two were effectively mashed together, and the early-risers who went to celebrate the rising of the sun, the rebirth of Tammuz, and his mother Semirimus, called Ishtar, was simply "Christianized" to celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the dead. In fact, it's pretty spooky that the most significant religious observance of the calendar year still bears her name - Easter! And, people in the Christian church still run out to greet the sun as it rises - a form of Babylonish Baal (sun god) worship.

Anyway (you can see this coming), rather than try to stop the mid-winter Saturnalia feast, called "birthday of the unconquered sun," Constantine simply imposed the birth of Christ onto that date in order to give it significance for every citizen of Rome, regardless of their personal depth of Christian commitment. It was a small matter to change "the sun" to "the Son." And, in keeping with their penchant for mixing and matching heathen and Christian names and concepts, that holiday came to be known as the Christ-mass. The English word "mass" is derived from the Latin "masse," which is derived from the Greek "maza," which were small, round barley cakes baked to honor Semirimus as the "queen of heaven." That name was carried into the Catholic worship service, with its veneration of Mary as "queen of Heaven." So, when the Mass was performed to honor her child, it was designated the yearly "Christ-mass." We just call it Christmas.

And, Christmas doesn't have the sort of illustrious American history that modern folk assume. It was understood to be a pagan practice by the earliest pilgrims and settlers. In fact, Christmas was generally outlawed in America until the end of the last century. Up until 1870, the city of Boston proclaimed that anyone missing work on Christmas Day would be fired. Factory owners required employees to come to work at 5 a.m. on Christmas in order to insure they would not go to church that day. And any student who failed to go to school on December 25 was summarily expelled. Alabama was the first state of the union to recognize Christmas as a legal holiday, but that was late in the nineteenth century. It's amazing how times have changed; now that Christmas is a staple in our national economy.

While there's some debate as to where the various traditions and observances of Christmas started, it's clear that most of them pre-date Christ Himself. They were simply carried over from their heathen roots into the "christian" culture. And, Santa Claus is one of those traditions. If you do a simple search on the Internet on the History of Christmas, or the history of Santa Claus - remember that "Santa" comes from the Latin word for "saint" - you'll find a wealth of debate and information. But, it's clear that a fat man in red coming down the chimney to give gifts to children has nothing to do with the birth of Christ.

The reason I referred to him as Baal, is because of the ancient mid-east and European wood carving that depict Baal as an old man with a long white beard, usually holding a fir, or evergreen, tree as a sign of eternal life. That exact imagery, by the way, appeared on this year's Christmas stamps from the US postal service. Spooky.

It's funny how inculcated this essentially heathen custom has become in our society, though. I once told a woman that I didn't care for Christmas and she accused me of being an atheist! But, it's just the opposite. I don't like Christmas because I am a committed Christian! Certainly, Jesus was right when He said, "Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition." (Mat. 15:6)

However, I am not a complete killjoy where Christmas is concerned. We give our kids gifts and we enjoy the time the family. But, we have never taught our children Santa Claus. I mean, they know who he is, but they know he is fictitious, on the level of Bugs Bunny and Ronald McDonald. We never wanted to ascribe God-like attributes to anyone but God. Only God "sees you when you're sleeping and knows when you're awake." And, only God rewards and judges people, not some mythological fat man from the North Pole. Libbie and I agreed early in our marriage that we would not lie to our kids. That way, they would always know that whatever we told them was true. And, they would trust us to guide them in the pathways of truth and honesty.

When my parents - who really played the Santa Claus thing to the hilt - told me that he was not real, I was crushed. And, the very next question I asked (according to my mom) was, "Then is there really a God?" Of course, they instantly went into recovery mode and did their best to convince me that the God I had never seen, never felt, seldom talked to and who never seemed to actually do anything for me, was really, genuinely alive and significant. But, the man who had entered my home every year, brought me gifts, ate our cookies, drank our milk, who I wrote letters to and who loved me for being good, was fake. I hated it. So, as a parent, I will never take my children through that crisis. When I tell them about God - whom they have heard about from their earliest years - they know I'm telling the truth and that I will never recant.

A couple of years ago we even stopped putting up a tree. The tree had bothered me, but my wife did not share my conviction, originally. But, after a while it even bothered her. Like I've said, revelation of God is progressive and we are responsible to the truth we know. So, we asked the kids if they would prefer a tree each holiday, or if we spent that extra fifty bucks on gifts. You can imagine their reply. Bingo - no tree.

Thanks for your question. I know plenty of Christians struggle with the holidays and how to properly observe them. My opinion is that we all react in accordance with our level of understanding, in keeping with the truth revealed to us as individuals. Some folk with less knowledge of Christmas history and traditions may celebrate the holidays in all their detail without a pang of conscience. And, I would never condemn them. They are a perfect example of Paul's "weaker brethren." I will continually strive to teach God's word until we all come to the knowledge of the Lord and worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Then, each Christian must work out the details between them and God. My job, and our job as a church, is to expose the truth and promote the worship of Christ and Him only.

Fair enough?

Yours for His sake,

Jim

Does God hate sinners?

How many refuse to teach the whole counsel of God, all His attributes today? Praise God for Paul Washer and Tim Conway, who proclaim the whole truth about God. If you are an unbeliever, the truth presented in this video should terrify you. Know this, there is hope through Christ and His finished work, trusting in what He has done to save your soul, crying out for mercy to a God who is rich in mercy while you still have breath in your lungs...






from sermonindex

The Meaning of Discipleship

This comes from airo...

We must strive

There is another road to Hell quite as sure!





(J.C. Ryle, "Practical Religion" 1878)

"Strive to enter in at the narrow gate: for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able!" Luke 13:24

"STRIVE" teaches that a man must expect many adversaries and a hard battle--if he would have his soul saved. And this, as a matter of experience, is strictly true. There are no "gains without pains" in spiritual things--any more than in temporal things. That roaring lion, the devil--will never let a soul escape from him without a struggle. The heart which is naturally sensual and earthly--will never be turned to spiritual things without a daily fight. The world, with all its opposition and temptations--will never be overcome without a conflict.

I warn you to take heed that you do not perish forever--for lack of "striving." Do not suppose that it needs some great scarlet sin to bring you to the pit of eternal destruction! You have only to sit still and do nothing--and you will find yourself there at last. Yes! Satan does not ask you to walk in the steps of Cain, and Pharaoh, and Ahab, and Judas Iscariot. There is another road to Hell quite as sure--the road of spiritual indolence, spiritual laziness, and spiritual sloth!

Satan has no objection to your being a respectable member of the Christian Church. He will allow you to sit comfortably in church every Sunday you live. He knows full well, that so long as you do not "strive"--that you must come at last to the worm that never dies, and the fire that is never quenched! Take heed that you do not come to this end. I repeat it, you have only to do nothing--and you will be eternally lost!

Think, think above all things, what a state this is to die in! Your life is but a vapor. A few more years at most--and you are gone! Your place in the world will soon be filled up; your house will be occupied by another.
The sun will go on shining;
the grass and daises will soon grow thick over your grave;
your body will be food for worms,
and your soul will be lost to all eternity!


from grace gems

Unequalled Greatness

This is a fascinating truth by Art Azurdia.

Wonderful Thanksgiving Reminder from John MacArthur

As we sit down to a meal of fellowship, of giving of thanks with friends and family, let us all reflect and recall what we are truly thankful for this day...

from John MacArthur

The Thanksgiving season is a wonderful time to heighten your sensitivity to the blessings bestowed by God. Thanksgiving grabs your attention, shakes the cobwebs loose, and reminds you of all God's most precious gifts. That's one reason Thanksgiving has always held such a special place in my heart. It rekindles in me the kind of God-centered gratitude that our Lord demands and deserves—the kind that should readily be on our lips year round.

To help stimulate that kind of deeper gratitude, my family has adopted a Thanksgiving tradition we've found extremely helpful. Each year after our Thanksgiving meal we gather in our living room and simply recite the blessings of God that have touched our lives. One by one we circle the room, each one of us expressing our gratitude to God for His many physical and spiritual blessings.

Allow me to share with you just five blessings that deeply touch me every year and prompt me to thank God. Perhaps it'll catch and you'll be able to rekindle your gratitude!

You're Saved and You Know It

No work of God's is more beyond my comprehension yet closer to my heart and more worthy of gratitude than salvation. Before coming to know Christ, each of us lived in a self-imposed prison. Guilty, condemned, spiritually blind, and with no means to pay our debt, our destiny was one of eternal separation from God.

But Christ not only rescued us from the power and penalty of our sins, He also lifted us to a place of blessing. He delivered us from punishment and brought glory. He took away the threat of hell and gave us the hope of heaven. He dismissed us from divine wrath and brought us a divine benediction. One hymn writer put that unfathomable transaction like this:

In wonder lost, with trembling joy, We take the pardon of our God; Pardon for crimes of deepest dye, A pardon bought with Jesus' blood, Who is a pard'ning God like Thee? Or who has grace so rich and free?

We sing of salvation. We talk of salvation. Salvation is the essence of Christianity. Thanking God for saving us should be the unceasing occupation of our lips—only a stone-cold heart could offer anything less.

The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

Watch a half hour of news and tell me if the word chaos doesn't come to mind. The world is gripped by it. Conflict abounds as religious, philosophical, and political systems collide. Moral, social, and economic problems proliferate but solutions are scarce. The political process is drifting rudderless on a sea of confusion. Life is all questions and no answers. There is no concrete guideline or standard by which to judge good and bad, right and wrong. The suppression of truth exacts a tremendous price.

But thanks to God, you and I have an eternal, objective, incontestable, irrevocable standard we can depend on for all matters of life. From the truth of Scripture we can understand the ebb and flow of life better than all the educators, philosophers, politicians, and social pundits combined. God's Word offers us a window on the real issues people battle. We know how to be good employees, to love our spouses, to raise our families, to truly love our neighbors. Meaning in life is not a question, it's a fact. I thank God for revealing His truth to us and for allowing me the privilege of studying and teaching it.

Life's Storms

Perhaps the most difficult time to be thankful is when we're in the midst of a setback, a challenge, or a trial. When the storm comes, giving thanks is rarely our first reaction. Being thankful for adversity is never easy, but it is always right. From experience I know the difficult times are the ones in which God seems to be most at work in our lives, strengthening our weak spots, comforting our hurts, and drawing us to greater dependence. A well-known businessman offered this perspective: "Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees." Let's not neglect to thank God for the strong winds He allows to blow our direction.

Faithful Churches

I'm sad to say there are some congregations today that seem to be wrestling with who they are and what their mission is—a spiritual identity crisis of sorts. Relentlessly assaulted by doctrinal fads, scandals, divisions, internal and external criticism, and worldly thinking, they've buckled under the pressure. The chain reaction that creates is heartbreaking. Doctrine is compromised, effectiveness is forfeited, biblical ministry is abandoned, and God's blessing is withdrawn. That grieves me, and I know it grieves you as well.

However, we can thank the Lord for the many churches that have stayed the course in spite of pressure, and the many others that struggle but have not given up the fight. Large or small, the congregations that remain faithful to God's Word are the ones that are alive, vital, flourishing, reaching their communities with great effectiveness, and advancing the kingdom of God. They've resisted the fads, remained true to God's calling, and are now seeing His blessing. I'm grateful to Him for those churches, and for the encouragement they are to me and to the Body of Christ.

The People Who Make a Difference

Someone once made this wise observation: "Friends in your life are like pillars on your porch. Sometimes they hold you up, and sometimes they lean on you. Sometimes it's just enough to know they’re standing by."

That's certainly been true in my life. I thank God daily for the many people who add so much color and warmth to my life. My best friend and wife, Patricia. Loving children and grandchildren. All who labor with me for the sake of the gospel. Each one enriches me greatly and is a very personal gift directly from the hand of God. I'm grateful for the friends—seen and unseen—whom I’ve been able to lean on, and who, to some small degree, have been able to lean on me.

Let me encourage you not to allow this Thanksgiving to come and go without taking inventory. Biblical gratitude isn't something that should pass from our minds with the passing of a season. It's an attitude, a God-focused response to circumstances that should pervade each moment of each day of each year.

May you, your family, and friends enjoy a blessed Thanksgiving season...all year!

GTY

Modern American Christianity

Paul Washer lays it all out as he describes the pitiful state of Christianity in America. This is a must hear and must share...

You can listen to this sermon here...

Antony, a missionary affiliated with Heartcry in Israel

You can visit Paul Washer's 'Heartcry Missionary' for sermons, bible teaching, videos, etc.
Please pray for Antony, and all who risk their lives for the souls of men as they take the Gospel to the nations...

180, award winning documentary

WARNING!!! Graphic scenes

Is your all on the altar?

I have been studying Romans 12:1, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” I went to blueletterbible and found this wonderful hymn to coincide with my study...

You have longed for sweet peace,
And for faith to increase,
And have earnestly, fervently prayed;
But you cannot have rest,
Or be perfectly blest,
Until all on the altar is laid.

Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
Your heart does the Spirit control?
You can only be blest,
And have peace and sweet rest,
As you yield Him your body and soul.

Would you walk with the Lord,
In the light of His Word,
And have peace and contentment alway?
You must do His sweet will,
To be free from all ill,
On the altar your all you must lay.

O we never can know
What the Lord will bestow
Of the blessings for which we have prayed,
Till our body and soul
He doth fully control,
And our all on the altar is laid.

Who can tell all the love
He will send from above,
And how happy our hearts will be made,
Of the fellowship sweet
We shall share at His feet,
When our all on the altar is laid.

words and music by Elisha Albright Hoffman 1839-1929

I've been set free!!

This song brings me to tears

Who do you desire to please?

Here is a checklist for us to go through; feel free to share...

The Ten Marks of a Flesh-Pleaser

---

by Richard Baxter

The signs of a flesh-pleaser or sensualist are these:

1. When a man in his desire to please his appetite, does not do it with a view to a higher end, that is to say to the preparing himself for the service of God; but does it only for the delight itself. (Of course no one does every action conciously with a view to the service of God. Nevertheless, the general manner or habit of a life spent in the service of God is absent for the flesh-pleaser.)

2. When he looks more eagerly and industriously after the prosperity of his body than of his soul.

3. When he will not refrain from his pleasures, when God forbids them, or when they hurt his soul, or when the necessities of his soul call him away from them. But he must have his delight whatever it costs him, and is so set upon it, that he cannot deny it to himself.

4. When the pleasures of his flesh exceed his delights in God, and his holy word and ways, and the expectations of endless pleasure. And this not only in the passion, but in the estimation, choice, and action. When he had rather be at a play, or feast, or other entertainment, or getting good bargains or profits in the world, than to live in the life of faith and love, which would be a holy and heavenly way of living.

5. When men set their minds to scheme and study to make provision for the pleasures of the flesh; and this is first and sweetest in their thoughts.

6. When they had rather talk, or hear, or read of fleshly pleasures, than of spiritual and heavenly delights.

7. When they love the company of merry sensualists, better than the communion of saints, in which they may be exercised in the praises of their Maker.

8. When they consider that the best place to live and work is where they have the pleasure of the flesh. They would rather be where they have things easy, and lack nothing for the body, rather than where they have far better help and provision for the soul, though the flesh be pinched for it.

9. When he will be more eager to spend money to please his flesh than to please God.

10. When he will believe or like no doctrine but "easy-believism," and hate mortification as too strict "legalism." By these, and similar signs, sensuality may easily be known; indeed, by the main bent of the life.

from Puritan Sermons

A Question of Origins

This is a series of videos that debunks evolution, this is great to share with your kids.

Here is a sample video, along with a link that will take you to other videos...





here is the link..http://www.eternal-productions.org/question_video/chapter2.html

the End is closer than you think

I just got home from work and was checking out my choice websites and came across this fascinating article from herescope. Do take time to read this...


The Vatican and the New World Order

“Europe, the Holy Father recalled, had had its eras of greatness when a common faith had animated the hearts of its peoples. Europe, he urged, could have its geopolitical greatness again, refurbished and burnished anew, if it could create a new heart. Europe, he intimated, could again forge a supernal, common and binding faith.

"Inwardly, the [six foreign] ministers winced. Pius [XII] had pointed to the greatest difficulty facing the EEC [European Economic Community] upon the day of its birth [March 25, 1957]. Beneath his words lay the warning that neither democratic socialism nor capitalist democracy nor the prospect of the good life nor a mystic 'Europa' of the humanists could provide the engine to drive their dream [for a new world order based on a unified Europe]. Practically speaking, their new Europe lacked a glowing center, a superior force or principle to bind it together and drive it forward. Practically speaking, their Europe lacked what this Pope had. Lacked what he was."
- Malachi Martin, Windswept House[1]

Unfolding Biblical Eschatology*
The Bible paints quite a clear picture of the major events that precede the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth. While many of the smaller details may be difficult to interpret, the major events concerning the world’s religious, economic and political future are evident in Revelation, chapters 13, 17 and 18.


continue reading here...

Preach the Gospel!!

This is a serious problem...Christians feverishly debating theological issues constantly on the internet. All the while, people are dying without Christ while we argue with one another over secondary issues! Where is the heart that breaks over lost souls? I pray God will give me, and you, such a heart...

A Young Man's Invitation to a Life of Sacrifice from HeartCry Missionary Society on Vimeo.

The most terrifying truth in Scripture...

the cross of Christ

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!" Galatians 6:14

In the cross we see . . . the rights of divine justice maintained, the designs of divine mercy revealed; sin appearing exceedingly sinful; the law magnified and honored, and the law-breaker pardoned and delivered!

At the cross, God and sinners meet--and a reconciliation takes place. Here, man drops the weapons of rebellion--and God lays aside the sword of divine displeasure. Here, the works of Satan are destroyed--and the gates of paradise are thrown open. Here, the creditor is discharged, his every crime is atoned for--and everlasting righteousness is completed! Here, God is "just, and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus."

At the cross . . . mercy takes the throne, justice guards her rights, holiness maintains her prerogative, the sinner has hope, and iniquity is forever atoned for!

At the cross . . . we are stripped of self--and clothed with Christ; we lose our fears--and obtain the sweetest comforts; we find paradise restored--and have a foretaste of glory; Jehovah is revealed as the sinner's friend; death is destroyed as the believer's foe; Satan's . . . folly is published, designs are frustrated, and character is exposed to perpetual shame.

At the cross . . . all the truths of revelation center, all the perfections of Deity unite, and the way to eternal life is opened!

The Cross of Jesus! May it be . . . the emblem of my faith, the subject of my song, the antidote of my sorrows, and the glory of my soul!

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!" Galatians 6:14

From gracegems