Scripture at Sunrise 03.28.2023

“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:6-7

No care but all prayer. No anxiety but much joyful communion with God. Carry your desires to the Lord of your life, the guardian of your soul. Go to Him with two portions of prayer and one of fragrant praise. Do not pray doubtfully but thankfully. Consider that you have your petitions, and therefore thank God for His grace. He is giving you grace; give Him thanks, Hide nothing. Allow no want to lie rankling in your bosom; “make known your requests.” Run not to man. Go only to your God, the Father of Jesus, who loves you in Him.

This shall bring you God’s own peace. You shall not be able to understand the peace which you shall enjoy. It will enfold you in its infinite embrace. Heart and mind through Christ Jesus shall be steeped in a sea of rest. Come life or death, poverty, pain, slander, you shall dwell in Jesus above every rolling wind or darkening cloud. Will you not obey this dear command?

Yes, Lord, I do believe thee; but, I beseech thee, help mine unbelief.

[from Faith’s Checkbook by Charles H. Spurgeon]

Scripture at Sunrise 01.04.2023

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.'” -Hebrews 13:5

Safety and peace are not found in being removed from circumstances, rather safety and peace are found in having fellowship and walking hand-in-hand with the Lord through all circumstances. -Associate Pastor Josh Wilson (excerpts from Sunday Evening Sermon “Great is Thy Faithfulness” from Lamentations 3:22-29)

Scripture at Sunrise 11.29.2022

“He that believeth shall not make haste.” -Isaiah 28:16

He shall make haste to keep the Lord’s commandments; but he shall not make haste in any impatient or improper sense.

He shall not haste to run away, for he shall not be overcome with the fear which causes panic. When others are flying hither and thither as if their wits had failed them, the believer shall be quiet, calm, and deliberate, and so shall be able to act wisely in the hour of trial.

He shall not haste in his expectations, craving his good things at once and on the spot, but he will wait God’s time. Some are in a desperate hurry to have the bird in the hand, for they regard the Lord’s promise as a bird in the bush, not likely to be theirs. Believers know how to wait.

He shall not haste by plunging into wrong or questionable action. Unbelief must be doing something, and thus it works its own undoing; but faith makes no more haste than good speed, and thus it is not forced to go back sorrowfully by the way which it followed heedlessly.

How is it with me? Am I believing, and am I therefore keeping to the believer’s pace, which is walking with God? Peace, fluttering spirit! Oh, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him! Heart, see that thou do this at once!

[from Faith’s Checkbook by Charles H. Spurgeon]

Scripture at Sunrise 11.16.2022

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.” -Ephesians 2:14-17

“There can be no peace between you and Christ while there is peace between you and sin.” -Charles H. Spurgeon

Scripture at Sunrise 01.12.2022

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” -John 17:3

My goal is God Himself. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing but Himself…my God. -Leonard Ravenhill

Scripture at Sunrise 01.04.2022

“I will make them to lie down safely.” -Hosea 2:18

Yes, the saints are to have peace. The passage from which this gracious word is taken speaks of peace “with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground.” This is peace with earthly enemies, with mysterious evils, and with little annoyances! Any of these might keep us from lying down, but none of them shall do so. The Lord will quite destroy those things which threaten His people: “I will break the bow and the sword, and the battle out of the earth.” Peace will be profound indeed when all the instruments of disquiet are broken to pieces.

With this peace will come rest, “So he giveth his beloved sleep.” Fully supplied and divinely quieted, believers lie down in calm repose. This rest will be a safe one. It is one thing to lie down but quite another “to lie down safely.” We are brought to the land of promise, the house of the Father, the chamber of love, and the bosom of Christ: surely we may now “lie down safely.” It is safer for a believer to lie down in peace than to sit up and worry.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,” We never rest till the Comforter makes us lie down. 

[from Faith’s Checkbook by Charles H. Spurgeon]

Scripture at Sunrise 04.12.2021

“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” -Hebrews 13:20-21

God is the God of peace. God  is never shaken by what man does. Nothing takes Him by surprise. -Pastor Steve Wainright (excerpt from Sunday Morning Sermon “Benediction for the Persecuted” from Hebrews 13:20-21)

Scripture at Sunrise 03.16.2021

“Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” -Philippians 4:9

It is well when a man can with advantage be so minutely copied as Paul might have been. Oh, for grace to imitate him this day and every day!

Should we, through divine grace, carry into practice the Pauline teaching, we may claim the promise which is now open before us; and what a promise it is! God, who loves peace, makes peace, and breathes peace, will be with us. “Peace be with you” is a sweet benediction; but for the God of peace to be with us is far more. Thus we have the fountain as well as the streams, the sun as well as his beams. If the God of peace be with us, we shall enjoy the peace of God which passeth all understanding, even though outward circumstances should threaten to disturb. If men quarrel, we shall be sure to be peacemakers, if the Maker of peace be with us.

It is in the way of truth that real peace is found. If we quit the faith or leave the path of righteousness under the notion of promoting peace, we shall be greatly mistaken. First pure, then peaceable, is the order of wisdom and of fact. Let us keep to Paul’s line, and we shall have the God of peace with us as He was with the apostle.

[from Faith’s Checkbook by Charles H. Spurgeon]

Scripture at Sunrise 03.09.2021

“And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pay unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” -Jeremiah 29:7

The principle involved in this text would suggest to all of us who are the Lord’s strangers and foreigners that we should be desirous to promote the peace and prosperity of the people among whom we dwell. Specially should our nation and our city be blest by our constant intercession. An earnest prayer for your country and other countries is well becoming in the mouth of every believer. Eagerly let us pray for the great boon of peace, both at home and abroad. If strife should cause bloodshed in out streets, or if foreign battle should slay our brave soldiers, we should all bewail the calamity; let us therefore pray for peace and diligently promote those principles by which the classes at home and the races abroad may be bound together in bonds of amity.

[from Faith’s Checkbook by Charles H. Spurgeon]

Scripture at Sunrise 02.01.2021

“Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” -Hebrews 12:12-14

Feeling droopy and weak? It’s not the time to give up, it’s the time to see Christ working.

We are to run strong, run together, and run after peace and holiness.

-Pastor Steve Wainright (excerpts from Sunday Morning Sermon
“Droopy?” from Hebrews 12:12-14)