Some special specific verses that have been life-giving to me in recent weeks; apply them to your life and situation.

Jer. 2:2 – “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, and how you followed me in the wilderness.” This is the Lord speaking to His people regarding their past love and devotion, and how they followed Him in the past; as I read this, I was stirred to remember the early days of my Christian walk, and how fresh and real it was; I prayed this verse as I read it recently, asking the Lord to give me that newness again.

Jer. 2:8 – “Those who handle the law did not know me.” One of the great problems in the American church is simply this–preachers and pastors don’t know God, either at all or in any deep way; many are either lost or are so shallow, they don’t even know what it truly means to truly know God.

Jer. 2:17 – “Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God?” Concerning any nation, when a nation declines and is being destroyed by disasters, major issues, and severe problems, the fact is, God is turning that nation over to its sin and allowing more severe judgment to occur; even our Republication presidential candidate recently was asked if he had ever asked God for personal forgiveness, to which, he replied, “I don’t think I have ever needed to ask forgiveness for anything.” To that, Jer. 2:35 speaks: “Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’ Whether DT was saying he had never sinned, I don’t know, but his was a pagan answer, at best.

Again, Jer. 5:24-25: “They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives autumn and spring rain . . . your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have deprived you of good.”

Jer. 14:8, Jeremiah’s view of God and name for God- “O You hope of Israel, its Savior in time of trouble.” He has always been, and will always be, the Savior of His people in times of trouble.

Jer. 15:16 is wonderful– “Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.” This is our need and provision, to eat His words and find them give us fresh joy and delight.

– Mack T.

For those wanting to participate by live-streaming the conference, more info can be found on the conference generally at
www.fellowshipconferencenewengland.com

All sessions Eastern Standard Time

Schedule of sessions

Thursday
Session 1 – 2:30 pm
Session 2 – 5:45 pm
Session 3- 7:15 pm

Friday
Session 4 – 9:30 am
Session 5 – 11:15 am
Session 6 – 6:30 pm

Saturday
Session 7 – 8:30 am
Session 8 – 10:15 am
Session 9 – 1:30 pm

Here is the link

livestream.com
http://livestream.com/accounts/20855352/events/6057440

you will have to sign in with your email to watch, but those emails won’t be used for anything else except this access;

Text either number below with questions if it doesn’t work
Josh at 207 595 8728
or
Darius 708 574 2846

Hope you can enjoy some of the conference;

Mack T.

Daily Thoughts: The Power of the Holy Spirit in Portland, Maine

Although Edward Payson (1783-1827) is largely forgotten today, he was well-known in the first half of the 19th century. According to Iain Murray, Payson’s biography by Asa Cummings “was probably the most influential ministerial biography to appear in the United States in the first half of the 19th century.” His influence was so large that thousands of 19th-century parents named their children after him.

Payson pastored for twenty years in Portland, Maine. During his ministry, he had a remarkable prayer life, praying hours daily, and preached with great reality and power. Payton saw 5 different periods of spiritual awakening, between 1807, his first year there, until his final year in 1827.

Known as Praying Payson of Portland, he would not have liked such a title, but his reputation spread widely as a man who spent hours in private prayer and communion with God. Archibald Alexander, one of the pre-imment leaders of revival in New England, said in 1844 that “no man in our country has left behind him a higher character for eminent godliness than Edward Payson.”

Payson was a pastor during seasons of revival. In 1813 he spoke of “never having seen so much of God’s power displayed at one time.” He wrote his mother the next year, as he traveled home to Portland, describing God’s power in a period of revival: “I came home thoroughly drenched by the shower of divine influences, which began to fall; I soon found, upon returning home, that the cloud had followed me, and was beginning to pour itself down upon my people; we appointed a season of thanksgiving, and a blessing seemed to follow it. I then invited a number of young men to our house for a meeting; I expected twenty at the most, but the first evening, forty came, then sixty, and finally seventy came. About thirty of these are seriously inquiring about salvation, and there is a real appearance that the work is spreading. Meanwhile, I am rejoicing and astonished to see what God is doing, so that I can scarcely get an hour’s sleep.”

Payton later wrote on April 1, 1816: “Our revival still lingers, and even increases slowly. I have conversed with about forty persons who are entertaining hopes of their conversion and with sixty others who are inquiring about their salvation. Twenty-three souls have been added to the church since the year’s beginning, and the work is evidently not over. There is also quite a revival at Bath, south of us here. Nearly two hundred apparently have been awakened there. Seventy-one persons were converted and added to a church at one time recently. In New York and Baltimore, there are also revivals occurring.

Such seasons of spiritual quickening in Portland continued in future years, later again in 1816, 1822, and in 1827, the final year of Payson’s life.

Such divine visitations of reviving grace in Christ’s church have come in the history of New England and in various parts of our country. New England, as well as every state in our country, is greatly in need of such a work of grace again. The God of Edward Payson still lives in Portland and is being sought again there in a serious way across New England, so pray for His work there, and use this encouragement to pray for God to revive His work in the midst of the years where you are. Our national election this fall will mean nothing for our future if God does not do a new work.

– Mack Tomlinson

Ryle believed that pastors must take time to sit at the firesides in the homes of the people, hear their thoughts, and speak faithfully about the things of God. He believed that a man who only speaks of Christ from behind a pulpit should not be surprised at having small usefulness. Real love for people will take a preacher into their homes, and will affect the way those same people hear him in public.

Ryle said that the objective of the Christian historian is “to see and trace the goodness of God taking care of His church in every age by His providence.”

Ryle’s ministry exposed deeply the error of many Anglicans and the official position of Roman Catholicism of what happened to infants when they are baptized by the priest– “Before administering baptism to children, the priest shall say . . . . Almighty and immortal God, we call upon thee for these infants, that they, coming to thy holy baptism, may receive the remission of their sins by spiritual regeneration.” In conclusion, the congregation is assured that the prayer has been answered, “It hath pleased Thee to regenerate this infant.” (Edwardian Prayer Book, revised 1559 and 1662). The Catholic Catechism of 1559 asserts, “It is certain by God’s word, that children, being baptized, have all things necessary for their salvation, and will be undoubtedly saved.” In answer to the first questions in that catechism, “What is your name?” and “Who gave you this name?”, the answer is, “My Godfathers and Godmothers in my baptism, wherein I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.” These words all convey one impression: the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration takes place at the child’s baptism. – Iain Murray

Spurgeon on J. C. Ryle — In writing a review on Ryle’s book, Practical Religion, the Baptist preacher wrote–“Little more needs to be said of this volume, than that it sustains the author’s well-earned reputation for evangelical simplicity and power. With all her faults, he loves the Church of England still, but he loves the souls of men much more, and most of all, he love the gospel of their salvation. This is a gospel to be loved. Men’s ideas of the wrath to come may be judged by the earnestness with which they exhort others to flee from it.

Ryle- How many go to church merely as a formal practice. How few are really in earnest about the salvation of their souls! Go to the most godly and orderly parish in our land at this moment. Ask any well-informed child of God living there how many true Christians it contains, and what is the proportion of the converted to the unconverted. Mark well the answer he gives. I doubt if you will find a parish in Great Britain where even one third of the people are converted. [Today in Britain and America it’s much, much lower.]

– Iain Murray and Mack Tomlinson

Iain Murray’s new Banner of Truth biography on J. C. Ryle, 19th century British Anglican pastor, gives an outstanding glimpse into Ryle, which many Christians would enjoy and greatly benefit from, who have profited from Ryle’s writings, but know nothing about him. In this newly-released biography, J. C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone, Murray gives a close-up look at the entire life and ministry of Ryle, with a very valuable insight into how Ryle had to choose to stand for the truth against increasing liberalism within his own church denomination.

I strongly encourage you to get the book and read it as part of your summer reading. It is not a big book (259 pages) and can easily be read over a 2 week period.

Some of my Daily Thoughts for now will be some choice gleanings from Ryle in this wonderful book.

J. C. Ryle’s life (1816-1900) included remarkable contrasts — the promise of a fortune, then the poverty of a family bankruptcy; a Suffolk country pastor, then bishop of the leading seaport of the British Empire. But also there was still a greater change–from the successful youth at the elite schools of Eton and Oxford, who did not pray or read his Bible until he was 21, to become a true Christian, who was ‘bold as a lion for the truth of God’s Word and his Gospel.’ Ryle’s life is convincing evidence that Christianity stands or falls, depending on its relation to the Word of God and to the Holy Spirit. That Ryle is being read widely at the present time gives hope for better days.
– Iain Murray

Some perspectives on Ryle —

F. J. Chavasse called him “that man of granite with the heart of a child.”

Marcus Loane said, “Ryle was, at heart, an evangelist.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones called Ryle a “famous, outstanding, and beloved exponent of the evangelical and reformed faith.”

J. I. Packer says Ryle was “a single-minded Christian communicator of profound biblical, theological and pastoral wisdom, a man and minister of giant personal stature, and electric force (unction was the old name for it).”

Richard Hobson, Ryle’s pastor in Liverpool while he was bishop there, said Ryle was “bold as a lion for the truth of God’s Word and his Gospel.”

“We want more boldness among the friends of truth; there is far too much tendency to sit still and wait for committees . . . . we want more men who are not afraid to stand alone. It is truth, not numbers, which shall always in the end prevail. We have the truth, and we need not be ashamed to say so. The judgment day will prove who is right, and to that day we boldly appeal.”
– J. C. Ryle

TO BE CONTINUED —