God's Wonderful Forgiveness

God's Wonderful Forgiveness

"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17

He is turning out to be one of my favorite contemporary authors. Dr. Paul David Tripp is the evening teaching pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Tenth Pres has had some amazing Bible teachers in the pulpit, including Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse and Dr. James Montgomery Boice.

Tripp's book, Whiter Than Snow -- Meditations on Sin and Mercy (Crossway) is one that I have been slowly reading and digesting. It is available through the Keswick Online Bookstore (http://www.americaskeswick.org/233853.ihtml?id=233853). I want to encourage you to be a reader, brothers. This should be a MUST HAVE in your devotional library.

This reading is one God's wonderful forgiveness:

In the pain
of my confession
it's hard to collect
the fleeting pleasures
of my sin.
My shame
hides Your face.
My anguish
drowns out Your voice.
The lingering visions
of what I've done
haunt my soul
assault my heart
dominate my thoughts.
I want to undo
what I've done.
I want to turn back time
so that my thoughts would be
pure
and my hands would be clean.
BUT
lust was born
and the deed was done.
I can't undo
what dark pleasure has wrought.
So I come to YOU
just as I am.
I bow before You
shamed and unclean.
The searching light
of Your righteousness
puts fear in my heart
and reveals more stains than
I ever thought I had.
I bow before YOU
because I've nowhere else to go.
I confess to YOU
because I've no other hope.
There's no place to run
There's no place to hide.
I can't escape what I've done.
I can't erase my stains.
So in my grief
I ask for one thing.
I long to hear YOU sing.
I long to see YOU rejoice.
For when my ears are graced
with YOUR song
and when I am blessed
by YOUR gladness
and when the angels celebrate
then I can be sure
that I've been given
the greatest of gifts
the miracle of miracles
the thing only love
could purchase
the blessing that only love could offer;
forgiveness!!!

May you marvel, wonder, and rejoice today, my brother, in HIS forgiveness! -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 26; Jeremiah 9-11; 1 Timothy 6

Great Quote: Teach me. O God, to use all the circumstances of my life to-day that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin. Let me use disappointment as material for patience: Let me use success as material for thankfulness: Let me use suspense as material for perseverance: Let me use danger as material for courage: Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering: Let me use praise as material for humility: Let me use pleasures as material for temperance: Let me use pains as material for endurance. John Baillie