roniya“Live for the glory of God and the good of many.”

Please take the time to read the latest update from YMBBA! Included in the post is a sermon on revival, an update on the church the Lord is starting in Arlington (which I will be a part of after Ryan and I are married), salvation testimonies, video from Jake & Hannah’s wedding, and a short version of how the Lord brought Ryan and me together! It is a long, long post….but it is well worth the time to read it!

http://youmustbebornagain.org/

The Way to Heaven: Are You On It? by Ryan Ringnald

Our wedding website: http://ryanandjoy.ourwedding.com/

The Lord has done a great, wonderful and marvelous work in bring Ryan Ringnald into my life.  On October 23, he asked me to marry him and I told him it would be the greatest privilege and honor of my life to become his wife!  Lord willing, we will become husband and wife on December 5th, 2010!

Please pray for the Lord to give us much guidance and help as we prepare for our wedding and marriage.  Thank you!  I hope to write another blog post with more details soon.

Rejoicing in the Lord’s goodness!

~joy

(for those who do not know him….Ryan is a part of this ministry, www.youmustbebornagain.org

I am so grateful for my sweet, beautiful, lovely, and wonderful sisters who are my sisters in the Lord as well as in the flesh.  Praise God for that double bond that we have with one another.  Over the last year the Lord has greatly strengthened our relationships with one another and I can truly say that my best friends are my sisters.  It is such a blessing to have true fellowship with each of them and to also have those fun girl conversations.  May the Lord be praised for what HE has done!

sisters....sisters....

I love my cute and fun sister Hannah!

And I love my unique, lovely sister Jana

My sweet and godly sister Jen ~ I love her!

And very special thanks to our very special brother, friend and photographer:

Jon the man

Hello friends,

Greetings in the Name of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ!  Right now I am with my family at a retreat center in the Ozarks.  It is a blessing to have time together away from the pressures and busyness of normal life.  I have been grateful to have some quiet moments with the Lord sitting on the ledge of a bluff looking out over Table Rock Lake with the warm August breeze blowing gently through the trees.

How quickly the summer slips by!  I am amazed that there are only four months left to this year.  How have I lived the past eight months for Christ glory and how can I pour out my life even more over the next four?  The words of the Psalmist are increasingly more and more becoming my words, “LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.” (Psa 39:4-5). We have so little time to live on this earth, so little time to forsake all to follow Christ, so little time to love Him in this fallen world, so little time to run this race that is set before us.  How well are you running?  We need to ask ourselves this question and not live life carelessly because we will one day give account to our Creator for each word that we speak and each moment that we live.

The more I come to understand all that Christ has done to provide salvation, justification, and sanctification for me the more I long to have the privilege of serving Him and even just doing one thing for Him.  He is worthy of everything we could possible give Him.  To just have the privilege of serving Him in the most obscure manner for all our days would hardly come close to showing a return of love that He is worthy of and deserves.  And yet, He is so pleased with us and loves us so much, not based on what we do, but on what He has done, and we can rest content in His love knowing that it is not what I do that counts, but what Christ does in and through me.  This brings forth a lesson that the Lord has been teaching me over the summer.

Childlike Dependence.

I thought I had that all figured out and was walking in a place of leaning and depending…but the Lord has brought circumstances into my life over the past few months that have proved to be a trial to my faith and have revealed how easily my heart tends to walk according to it’s own understanding.

LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever. (Psa 131:1-3)

At the beginning of August I made a trip up to Nebraska with my dad and sister.  Here is a journal entry from that week:

“I would be treated as a child and guided where I go”

Childlike dependency. . . I have so far to go in learning this.  I came up to Nebraska with great plans of accomplishing an important project.  I envisioned quiet hours of focusing on this project with minimal distractions.  It was not meant to be.  I woke up the first morning with the beginnings of a bad headcold.  On the second day the pain was so great that I mainly spent the day in my room listening to Sarah Edward’s biography.  I was so discouraged over my helpless state and groaned before the Lord asking why He had allowed this sickness.  By the third day I gave up on my project and settled down to rest and read.  This evening as I sat out on the hay-bales soaking in the warm August sunshine I again sought the Lord as to why my plans had be so unfulfilled.

~Childlike Dependence~

My Father desires that I lean completely on Him for everything including my plans.  It is not wrong to have plans, but seeking my Father’s will must be preeminent above all other guiding factors.  If He wants me to work on my project, blessed be God; if He sees best that I be humbled through sickness, blessed be His Name.  All that He does is good and He must have my complete trust because human looks and hearts may deceive me, only God’s way is perfect, perfect wisdom is found in God alone and He will never fail the trusting child.  I live for Him, I breath for Him alone…it is only fitting that I depend completely on Him, My Abba Father.

That very evening when I wrote the blog post was the night that we made a six hour trip to the closest VA hospital for my dad who was having serious issues with his eye.  Thankfully the Lord touched his eye and it is healing.  But as we travelled there I marveled over how the Lord had been teaching me about dependency right before we made an unexpected visit to Omaha and suddenly ended up in an emergency room.  Later that morning we visited an old friend of my parents.  By this time, I was completed exhausted from being up all night and really didn’t want to spend the extra time visiting this lady.  I walked into her home and looked up to see a plaque that read, ‘God is the Blessed Controller of all things’.  Once again the Lord confirmed to me the lesson that He was teaching me to depend upon Him.  Since that time I have had so many trials and tests come in and I am so grateful for the foundation of complete dependency on the Lord.  Truly the Lord is faithful to those that fear Him and trust Him.

A couple weeks ago my family tasted of the bitterness of a precious life cut suddenly short.  My sister-in-law was 23 weeks pregnant with their first child.  Great was the joy over the announcement of this child’s coming earlier this year…and great was the sorrow when her mother went into early labor and delivered little Christine Hope who weighed 15 oz and was 11 inches long.  Little Christine made a valiant effort to live and she did live for nine brief hours before her soul took flight to the arms of Jesus Christ and left behind her fragile and beautiful little body. We had a beautiful graveside service for our sweet little girl.  There were so many people who came to weep and mourn with my brother and his wife in their grief.  She only lived nine hours….and yet her life impacted people around the world.  The Lord used her life to inspire me and spur me on to live even more passionately for Jesus Christ and the glory of God.  If someone so small could honor Him so much, how much more glory and honor should our lives bring to Jesus Christ!  You can see pictures of my beautiful niece here, www.christinehope.courvillefamily.com

Another lesson that the Lord has been teaching me is that of contentment.  Once again, I thought I had this lesson down and was doing pretty good in this area….until I was tested.  The Lord has allowed me to go through a severe trial of trusting Him with a particular circumstance in my life.  The Lord greatly used the Free Grace Broadcaster fall issue on contentment to bring conviction to my heart as well as more understanding about contentment.  Here are a few definitions of contentment that were helpful for me: “Contentment is a disposition of mind in which we rest satisfied with the will of God respecting our temporal affairs –without hard thoughts or hard speeches concerning His allotments and without any sinful desire for a change.  It submissively receives what is given.  It thankfully enjoys present mercies.  It leaves the future in the hand of unerring wisdom.” William Plumer. “Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.” Jeremiah Burroughs.

This evening I listened to a sermon by Rolfe Barnard on how God gets men lost.  It was a powerful sermon that I highly recommend.  I am more and more convinced of the importance of the principles of salvation that are laid out in this message.  A man or woman must come to the end of themselves before Christ will begin His work in them.  Salvation is not for the person who is just adding it to their life to improve the journey.  Salvation is for those who are desperate for help and know that they have no help outside of Christ.  And then, it is the Lord who saves.  He is the One who quickens and regenerates, and it is according to His mercy that He saves anyone.  This is what David Brainerd came to realize as he was seeking after God:

1. God demands perfection from man that is impossible for man to produce.
2. God demands saving faith that man cannot produce.
3. God has the right and exercises the right to give or withhold faith.
4. God can save a man or damn a man and still be God and get glory.

When a man or woman comes to this point, to where they’re truly lost, then they’re ready to be saved, then they’re ready to start to cry out to God for mercy, and if they truly believe the promises of God as well as the sovereignty of God, then they will not stop crying for mercy until God either saves them or sends them to hell.  That is the kind of desperation one must have in seeking the Lord for salvation.  If you don’t care that much about it, then you probably aren’t lost enough and you’ll go straight to hell.

I really do not know who all reads this blog, but if you’re reading this and have never examined your life to see if you’re right with God according to the Scriptures, I plead with you to do so.  The book of 1 John is a picture of a true Christian.  If you have been born again, then the characteristics (freedom from a life of continual sin; love the brethren, hate sin, you do not love the world, love God, overcomer, etc) will be seen in your life and the Spirit of God will bear witness while you read it that it is true.  Please do not be afraid to examine your life to see if you are saved.  There isn’t anything more important than making sure that you are a child of God and that you are living a life pleasing to God.  It is Christ who saves you and it is Christ who works in you.  But if your life is missing the present and continual working of Jesus Christ, then you stand in danger of spending eternity having the eternal wrath of a righteous and just God poured out on you.  Another test is if you love the Word of God.  Is the greatest delight of your life to read the Bible? Is it alive and quickened to you by the Spirit of God?  If not, has it ever been?  This is a true characteristic of a Christian.  If you’re backslidden and once loved the Word of God and once hated sin, then seek the Lord quickly right now, do not harden your heart in unbelief, repent and seek Christ’s blood for cleansing and forgiveness.  The Father welcomes the erring child as soon as they turn their faces back to seek Him.  But do not remain in the far country pursuing your own way.  It is eternally dangerous to be there.  “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” (Heb 10:38-39). Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of your faith!

For those who actually took the time to read all of this….thank you.   I expect this fall to be very busy with family camp and two weddings.  But if I have a chance and the Lord’s leading….I will update this blog.  It’s all up to the Lord and how He leads and enables me to walk in the way of His perfect will.  Feel free to email me anytime.  And if you are troubled about your soul and need to talk to a sister or brother who knows Christ and can help you seek him, please let me know.

May the grace and peace of Jesus Christ be with you and keep you close to His heart all throughout your life.

Do not forget the brevity and fragility of life….and the sure hope there is in Christ Jesus for those who will seek Him with ALL their heart and find Him.

Leaning on my Beloved Christ,

sister Joy

–From Old Time Revivals, by John Shearer

George Whitefield was the son of an innkeeper in England who figured largely in “The Great Awakening” of the 18th century. When he began to preach, a great gift of eloquence was revealed in him. Soon the complaint was rife that he was driving people mad, and the churches began to close upon him. One day, as he declared the Gospel in a building filled to the uttermost, he cast his eyes outside and saw a thousand yearning and disappointed faces. The thought seized him, Why not go out and preach in the open? But this was a thing unheard of. When he consulted his brethren they condemned it as fanatical notion….

Thousands were hungering for the Bread of Life, but there was no room in the church for Whitefield to dispense it. He now recognized the clear hand of God. Turning from the barred doors he saw, far out in the fields, the beckoning hand of the Master who had found His pulpit on the green hillsides of Galilee. He obeyed.

Near Bristol was a wild region known as Kingswood, without a church, inhabited by a rough and lawless people. Whitefield went out to this neglected spot. On Saturday afternoon, February 17, 1739, he took his stand on a little green hill and began to preach the Gospel. In vast amazement some 200 colliers gathered about him. Such a sight had never been seen. A minister in gown and bands, preaching on a hillside!

As he continued day after day his audience soon grew to twenty thousand, who pressed upon him eagerly to hear the Word of Life. They filled the hedges. They climbed the trees. Nature itself seemed hushed to hear. A sweet summer stillness prevailed. The sun shone from a blue sky, and the strong, clear voice of the young man, eloquent with the very love of God, reached to the utmost bounds of the great assembly.

Then Whitefield saw a moving sight. He saw white channels forming in the black faces of the miners. The whole multitude was drenched in penitential tears. Ere he ended black faces were washed white, and black hearts, too! He at once wrote to Wesley in London: “Come, the fire is kindled in the country.”

The summons was obeyed, and when John Wesley came and saw the grace of God, he was glad. Whitefield, called to other parts, left him to continue the work, and Wesley entered upon his great career as a field preacher. Henceforth the world was his parish. As he passed from place to place, the fire of God followed him. It traveled to the remotest parts of the country, and crossing the sea, quickened the life of the Church there.

Dear friends,

Greetings in the Name of the LORD Jesus Christ! For those few people who do read this blog, here is an update on some of what the Lord has been doing in my life and the lives of those around me.

This summer is rapidly slipping by and will soon be gone. The Lord has been very gracious in making it thus far a summer that has been exceedingly profitable in the growth of my love and knowledge of Jesus Christ and has been fruitful in opportunities to pour out my life for the LORD in love and service to the body of Christ as well as the unsaved.

It has been a blessing spending time alone seeking the LORD through prayer and the study of the Word. I have found the secret place to be even more of a place of renewing of my strength then it ever was before. If any of you do not have the fixed habit of spending much time alone with Jesus Christ, I urge you to place a higher priority on this. It is for the growth and protection of your own soul to spend much time seeking the Lord.

The Lord has been good in bringing into my life several new sisters, some of whom have been recently made new creatures in Christ, and giving us many opportunities to fellowship and pray together. I rejoice in the works of the Lord in each of their lives and am so grateful for their humility and desire to grow in their knowledge of Jesus Christ. It has been wonderful seeing them grow in the area of modesty both in apparel and spirit. In the middle of June seven of these sisters were able to come to Missouri for a visit and we had a most blessed time together.

Once again the Lord has given my father the privilege of organizing South African Evangelist Keith Daniel’s fall tour to the US. It is a time consuming task that my father fulfills with much carefulness and dependency on the Holy Ghost. The Lord has given me the blessing of assisting my father in this project and I rejoice to say that for the time being, the schedule is completed, tickets bought and all the information has been sent to each pastor. Next on the list in this area is to begin preparing for family camp in the areas of registration and media ministry. If you would like to see where Keith Daniel will be speaking you may go here, and if you have any interest in attending our church’s family camp, October 1-3, where Keith Daniel, his wife Jenny and son Roy will be the main speakers you will find more information here.  Tour Schedule. Family Camp.

One of the highlights of this summer was my recent trip to Texas with my beloved sister Jen. The Lord clearly directed us to go down there to visit and hopefully edify and encourage the saints and it was such a delight to be led of the Lord every step of the way. For the sake of remembering all that the Lord did I will share more with you about this trip. If you find the details to be too cumbersome, please do not trouble yourself to read over this. I know I tend to be a wordy writer, but I will attempt by God’s grace to make every word profitable to the reader and glorifying to the LORD.

We drove down to Allen, TX early Thursday morning, July 8, to arrive in time to go out to lunch with our dear friend Debbie Speed. It was special to meet Debbie’s co-workers and spend time with this joyful lady. I have met few people who exuberate so much joy and enthusiasm in loving and caring for the people around her. I know it is the Lord’s grace to fill Debbie with so much joy in the midst of many trials.

Navigating through Dallas traffic on our way to Arlington was an adventure and test to trust the Lord to direct our steps. Looking back He really did help us get to Arlington and I could see His hand clearly guiding us, even in the missed turns and frequently adjusted route. We arrived at Jesse and Lindsay Morris’ home that afternoon and how I praise God for this godly couple and their generosity in making their home available for the Lord to use it however He pleases. A more hospitable and flexible hostess than Lindsay I have rarely seen. And Jesse is a faithful servant who was ever watchful for the practical needs of his guests.

It was a wonderful blessing and encouragement to spend time fellowshipping and visiting with brothers Sean and Ryan, as well as meeting brother Chris (a godly brother recently saved in March who is ablaze for Christ and meekly following his Master with everything he has). The Lord has directed brother Sean and brother Ryan to oversee the establishing of a church in the Dallas area. To read more about this you can visit their website here. I rejoice in the faithful obedience of these godly men to follow the LORD in starting this church and I praise God for the wisdom and great discernment He has given them for this daunting task that would be impossible but for the grace of God and leading of the Holy Ghost.

It was a great delight to see sister Stephanie again. Her boldness and zeal for sharing Christ’s Gospel with those around her was a great blessing to observe and glean from. Sister Megan came over later that evening and how my heart rejoiced to see this beloved sister that the Lord has given me. I am exceedingly grateful for how the Lord has knit our hearts together in true Christian love and friendship. Sister Meg is one of the godliest women I know and the sweet fragrance of Christ’s love and compassion overflow out of her life into the lives of all those around me. A greater example of a merciful and compassionate heart I have not found.

Sister Lindsay and Sister Stephanie

At the end of that evening we followed Meg to her home in Dallas where we spent the next few days with her and her family. We were so grateful to the Turner family for their gracious hospitality in opening up their home to us. It was a blessed quiet place to be for a few days to seek the Lord as well as spend precious time praying, studying the Word, and fellowshipping with sister Meg. The Lord gave Jen opportunity to practice her gift of cooking which proved a great blessing to the Turner family and all those who tasted of her skillful cookery.

Friday evening we went over to Arlington for dinner with all the saints there. Sister Meg’s friend, Kelsey, also came and on the drive over she shared her testimony with Jen and me of coming out of the Christian Science cult. I learned a lot about this deceitful movement and am grateful to the Lord for bringing Kelsey out of it. We also met Ben Douglas, a friend of sister Meg.

It was a blessing to meet brother Brett, a friend of sister Stephanie, who was born again earlier this year. It was good to see his softness toward the Lord and eagerness to grow in holiness and truth. Sister Kelsey flew in from Memphis and I was so glad to see her again. We had spent one hour together in Memphis back in May and I was very excited to have more time with her. The Lord plucked sister Kelsey out of the net of false Christianity earlier this year and He has given her a heart that is hungry for truth and surrendered to obeying the Lord no matter the cost. The Lord graciously gave us much time together during my last few days in Texas and closely knit our hearts together. I also met sister Emily who was saved June 30 and was aglow with the love of the Lord. The Lord mercifully saved her from much deception and made her heart so tender to Him. Her humility and sincere love for Christ was a blessing to be around.

Friday night we had a blessed time of singing hymns together and praying together. It reminded me of the early church and how they gathered in homes to pray and seek the Lord together. The saints are truly walking in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of the Lord is present amongst these dear saints, and working mightily to purify them and make them holy. The men are dependent on the leading of the Holy Ghost in everything that they do and faithfully seek Him for direction. There is true charity amongst the believers that is not self-seeking nor self-exalting but each esteeming the other better than themselves. A purer and more loving setting of believers I have never experienced before. The brothers are faithful to exhort, reprove and encourage the saints through the Scriptures by sharing what the Lord has been teaching them. There is a strong commitment on an individual level to seek the LORD first and spend much time with Him. Each one is burdened for lost souls and is faithful to witness wherever they go. There is spiritual reality, transparency and the joy of the LORD is evident in each saint (more or less so in each one according to spiritual maturity).

Saturday was a sweet day of fellowship with sister Meg in her home. We had dinner with her family that evening and the Lord gave a few opportunities to speak for truth and love into their lives. After dinner we packed up our belongings and traveled over to Arlington where we stayed for the remainder of the trip with Jesse and Lindsay in their home along with sisters Stephanie and Kelsey.

Saturday evening after a time of prayer and seeking the Lord about going to downtown Dallas to witness at the clubs, the Lord directed for brothers Sean, Chris, William and Brett and sisters Stephanie and Kelsey to go out and seek to share the Gospel with lost souls. It was my first time to go share the Gospel at a club and I was a bit apprehensive about it, but I submitted to the Lord and His direction and wholly trusted in Him to help me and give me the words to share.

Here are a few pictures from that night to help you visualize what it was like. The club was on one side of the street and people would line up outside waiting for admittance into the club. The brothers stood on a medium in the street and preach to the people standing in line while the rest of us spread ourselves out to pass out tracts and talk with people on the other side of the street. There were about seven policemen and policewomen who were present to break up any fights. Unfortunately they did not take a favorable view of us sharing the Gospel, but we respected them and tried to show the love of Christ while at the same time not backing down on sharing the Gospel. Sister Steph and I ended up on the end of the block passing out tracts to the few people who came our way. Having less people coming through gave us more opportunities to talk with people.

Eventually Stephanie engaged an atheist in conversation who was very arrogant and confident in what he believed. Truly the god of this world has blinded his mind to the truth of God’s existence and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the midst of that conversation, sister Kelsey called me away from it and asked me to show another man who she was talking with the Scripture about women not teaching. I shall call his name ‘Fred’. At first he refused to believe that the Scriptures taught that and so I showed him 1 Timothy 2. His main hang-up was the way the brothers were preaching the Gospel. He said it was too harsh and would turn people off. I showed some Scriptures to him from Matthew 23 about how Jesus preached to the Pharisees as well as some verses on John the Baptist’s preaching. ‘Fred’ was convinced that the way we girls were sharing the Gospel was much more affective than the guys preaching. To demonstrate this he stopped two black guys who I will call “John” and ‘Benjamin”. He started a conversation with them comparing the preaching of the guys to us girls and asked if the preaching of the guys turned them off. They nonchalantly agreed. Then ‘John’ started saying how he was a Christian but he just needed his ‘private time’ and that there wasn’t anything in the Bible that said it was wrong to drink or smoke. I opened up my Bible and started to walk him through Galatians 5:16-21. In the middle of verse 21, ‘Fred’ interrupted me and wasn’t going to let me finish the verse, but ‘John’ stood up for me and insisted that I finish. ‘Fred’ decided to leave the conversation and left me with ‘John’ and ‘Benjamin’ to preach the true Gospel to them as well as the fruits of a true Christian. I went over Scripture after Scripture, especially in Matthew 7. ‘John’ said he was born again but the fruits of his life did not confirm that. He looked over at his friend ‘Benjamin’ who as I later found out had just come from talking with brother William and had earnestly preached the Gospel to him, and ‘John’ asked ‘Benjamin’ if he was saved. ‘Benjamin’ said ‘no’, so ‘John’ asked me to pray for his friend to get saved. I said, ‘Okay, I will pray for both of you. But let me tell you what I am going to pray so that you are sure you want me to pray for you. I am going to pray for God to do whatever it takes to save you. I am going to pray for God to takeaway everything you own, your home, family, job, if that is what it takes whatever to save you, I am going to ask Him to show you your sin, etc…’ They looked at me very soberly and agreed that they wanted me to pray for them. I started praying for them right there on the sidewalk pleading with God to do whatever it takes, pleading with God to show them their sinfulness and to bring them to the place of absolute brokenness and weeping over their sin and at the right moment to give them saving faith in Jesus Christ and set them ablaze for Christ. They were very grateful and left very sobered and serious. I was amazed at the opportunity the Lord gave and for how He enabled me to share truth with them.

Another highlight from that night was singing hymns with our windows rolled down as we traveled down the freeway. There was a wreck so others were able to hear us sing. We even saw a carload of kids who were at the club earlier that evening and brother William preached again to them and told them they needed to pay heed to the preaching they had heard earlier that night. Those kids were totally shocked to see us again. It was great.

The Lord’s day was a most blessed day. Brother Ryan preached a wonderfully encouraging message on the joy of the Lord. I highly recommend it. That afternoon we had a baptism service for sister Emily and it was the most powerful and Spirit anointed baptism I have been to. Many of her old friends and some of her family were there and the LORD mightily enabled brother Sean to preach the Gospel to them while expounding upon the true meaning of baptism. It was glorious.

Monday morning, Jen and I went to Dallas to visit our dear friend Holly and her two cute kids, Josiah and Ellie. We had a sweet time with them and were grateful to the Lord for that time. That afternoon I listened to a sermon by Rolfe Barnard on ‘Watching Men Die‘ and few sermons have impacted me in the area of being burdened for the lost like that sermon. I was so stunned after listening to it that I took a walk and was silent before the Lord for at least fifteen minutes. My heart was greatly overcome at the thought that at the Judgment throne of God there will be no mercy, only justice. Now is the time of mercy, now is the time we must plead with the sinner to seek God while mercy is to be given. During that walk I had the opportunity to meet an old neighbor lady and was invited to come back to see her which sister Lindsay and Jen and I did the next day.

Tuesday afternoon we had a powerful time of prayer interceding for a brother dear to our hearts who has strayed from the path of truth. The Lord enabled us to weep and cry out for him for one and a half hours. I have never been at such a prayer meeting where God came so powerfully. My heart was greatly quieted before the Lord after that prayer meeting (Psalm 131).

On Wednesday sister Kelsey and I went to the mall to shop for some modest shirts for her. Truly that mall was a vexation of spirit to me. But the Lord did give me an incredible opportunity to witness to a young man for 20 minutes or so about the true Gospel. The Lord greatly helped me in that conversation. We went home and spent time with sister Meg and a friend who is seeking the Lord. Then sister Kelsey and I went to Panera to spend time studying but instead ended up spending some key time talking and getting to know one another. That evening brother Trace and sister Gina from Mabank came over for dinner and the Lord greatly blessed that time of fellowship with them and moved mightily. After they left late that night, Stephanie brought three guys over who were hungry for truth and some of the brothers stayed up late sharing truth with them.

Thursday, sister Lindsay, Jen and I went to Mabank to sister Janice’s tearoom and enjoyed a wonderful luncheon with Gina and her two daughters and dear Mrs. Suzette. It was a sweet time blessed of the Lord. The remainder of our afternoon and evening was spent seeking the Lord and fellowshipping with the saints.

Friday morning we took our departure and stopped in Dallas for our last visit with beloved sister Meg. It was with reluctant steps that we turned our travels homeward, reluctant to take leave our much loved brothers and sisters in the LORD, but our time with them had come to an end for the time being. The Lord blessed us with a safe trip home and oh how good it was go be home again and to look upon the dear faces of our parents, sisters and brother.

My heart is exceedingly grateful to the LORD for blessing our trip so richly and using it to encouraging us greatly in the Lord. Praise be His HOLY Name!

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy update. I hope and pray it was profitable, edifying and of encouragement to you to take the time to read it. This fall I look forward to our family camp which is October 1-3, Roy and Jerusala’s wedding in Pennsylvania on October 9th, and Jake and Hannah’s wedding on October 23.

May the LORD Jesus Christ bless you with a greater hunger and thirst to seek Him and grow in the knowledge of His Holy Person, and may He bless you with a strong faith in Him that will endure unto the end.

Only by His grace,
sister Joy

Robert Murray M’Cheyne
1813-1843

It is not how long you live, but how you live that counts.” Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a living example of this often neglected truth. At twenty-three years old he was ordained and inducted into the church of St. Peters at Dundee. At thirty years old he finished his course, dying in the spring of 1843.

Like John the Baptist and the Savior Himself, M’Cheyne ushered in Christ’s kingdom in just a few short years. It was during his brief public ministry that Scotland experienced one of its greatest revivals. From 1839-1842 much of Scotland was turned upside down through the Spirit-filled labors of W. C. Burns and Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

For every time M’Cheyne directed men to look at their sins he pointed them ten times to look on Jesus. This was the key to his tender and passionate preaching. To him Christ was not just one of many theological concepts in a message, Christ Jesus was the message! M’Cheyne’s power in the pulpit was the result of his intimate knowledge of Jesus. He could boldly say, “I am better acquainted with Jesus Christ than I am with any man in the world.”

Often as he preached the entire congregation was brought to tears. M’Cheyne’s diary and letters describe for us some of these precious meetings. He wrote, “It was like a pent-up flood breaking forth; tears were streaming from the eyes of many, and some fell on the ground groaning and weeping and crying for mercy.” At other times men and women were so overcome with grief and conviction that they literally had to be carried out of the church – “In some areas whole congregations were frequently moved as one man, and the voice of the minister was drowned out by the cries of anxious souls.”

M’Cheyne’s voice, eyes and gestures spoke of the tenderness of Christ. It was not Robert Murray M’Cheyne the people saw, it was Jesus. M’Cheyne declared, “A man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christ’s sake – until he gives up striving to attract people to himself and seeks only to attract them to Christ.”

Perhaps more powerful than M’Cheyne’s preaching was his praying. To him the prayer closet was a refuge of fellowship, holiness and intercession. M’Cheyne’s diary and letters are replete with examples of his prayerful life. He wrote, “I rose early to seek God, and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?” “King Jesus is a Good Master. I have had some sweet seasons of communion with the unseen God which I would not give up for thousands worth of gold and silver.”

Only a few months before his death M’Cheyne drew up some considerations concerning “Reformation in Secret Prayer”. “I ought”, said M’Cheyne, “to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment.” It is said that Robert Murray M’Cheyne had a special place in his church where he would pour over the names on the church role and weep with groans of intercession. Though only a young man, M’Cheyne possessed that rarest of jewels; a TRUE shepherd’s heart. M’Cheyne fervently labored among the people of Dundee, as if he somehow knew he would soon die.

He was a man motivated by eternity. He wrote, “As I was walking in the fields, the thought came over me with almost overwhelming power, that every one of my flock must soon be in heaven or hell. Oh how I wished that I had a tongue like thunder, that I might make all hear; or that I had a frame like iron, that I might visit every one and say, ‘Escape for thy life! Ah sinner! You little know how I fear that you will lay the blame of your damnation at my door.’”

To love Jesus is to love holiness. Many professing Christians shrink from the message of purity and thus draw back from the Savior they claim to love. Robert Murray M’Cheyne understood the necessity of a holy life. He wrote, “Study holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister, a lover of praise, and pleasure, he has ruined your ministry.

A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart is full of God’s Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.” Lying upon his deathbed with a raging fever, M’Cheyne lifted his hands in prayer, he exclaimed, “This parish Lord, this people, this whole place.” Robert Murray M’Cheyne ended his life like he lived it, full of fervent prayer.