Samuel Rutherford (17th century) wrote a letter to the parishioners of Kilmacolm, and 200 years later the Scottish pastor Alexander Whyte examined Rutherford's insight.

'Some of the people of God,' says their sharp-eyed censor, 'slander the grace of God in their own soul.' And that is true of some of God's best people still.

We meet with such people now and then in our own parishes to-day. They are so possessed with penitence and humility; they have such high and inflexible and spiritual standards for measuring themselves by; the law has so fatally entered their innermost souls that they will not even admit or acknowledge what the grace of God has, to all other men's knowledge, done in them.

Seek out, says Rutherford, the signs of true grace in yourselves as well as the signs of secret sin. And when you have found such and such an indubitable sign of grace, say so.

Say this, and this, and this, pointing it out, is assuredly the work of God in my soul. When you, after all defeat, really discover your soul growing in grace;

in patience under injuries;

in meekness under reproofs and corrections;

in love for, or at least in peace of heart toward, those you at one time did not like, but disliked almost to downright hatred;

in silent and assenting acceptance, if not yet in actual and positive enjoyment, of another man's talents and success, gain and fame;

in the decay and disappearance of party spirit, and in openness to all the good and the merit of other men; in prayerfulness;

in liberality, and so on; when you cannot deny these things in yourself, then speak good of Christ, and do not traduce and backbite His work because it is in your own soul.

'Some wretches murmur of want while all the time their money in the bank and their fat harvests make them liars.'

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.

AMAZING GRACE by John Newton

Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Psalm 119:89

Among other things, it's mock-proof.

The broadcaster Daniel Schorr has died at 93. Apparently while attending a Frank Zappa concert, he was called up on stage and invited to sing. In a performance worthy of American Idol's worst auditions - you know, the people who think they are singers, but aren't - he crooned the song IT AIN'T NECESSARILY SO, by George and Ira Gershwin.

Not being familiar with the song (from PORGY AND BESS) a quick Google search brought up this.....

It ain't necessarily so
It ain't necessarily so
The t'ings dat yo' li'ble
To read in de Bible,
It ain't necessarily so.

Li'l David was small, but oh my !
Li'l David was small, but oh my !
He fought Big Goliath
Who lay down an' dieth !
Li'l David was small, but oh my !

You get the idea? Let's just mock the Bible. A Youtube clip shows the singer holding the Bible in his hand, sneering derisively, heaping scorn on a woman who unquestioningly trusted the words written there.

Other verses include......

Well, it ain't necessarily so
Well, it ain't necessarily so
Dey tells all you chillun
De debble's a villun,
But it ain't necessarily so !

To get into Hebben
Don' snap for a sebben !
Live clean ! Don' have no fault !
Oh, I takes dat gospel
Whenever it's pos'ble,
But wid a grain of salt.

And then Ira and George show their true agenda - this is their sermon.

I'm preachin' dis sermon to show,
It ain't nece-ain't nece
Ain't nece-ain't nece
Ain't necessarily ... so !

If Francis Quarles (1592-1644) were in the same room with the Gershwin brothers, he might read them some "lyrics" of his own, to warn them of the consequences when the Bible is not taken seriously.

ON GOD’S WORD
Francis Quarles

God’s sacred Word is like the Lamp of Day,
Which softens wax,
but makes obdure (hardens) the clay.
It either melts the Heart, or more obdures (stiffens).
In never falls in vain,
It wounds, or cures.
Lord, make my breast thy Hive, and then I know,
Thy bees will bring in Wax and honey too.

I know which effect I want the Bible to have on me. Lord, soften my heart.

When David was a boy, the testing of Abraham's faith on Mount Moriah was probably a bedtime staple. You can almost hear him asking his mom to tell of the people of God "trapped" at the Red Sea, with Pharaoh on one side, and a body of water on the other. We know how that story turned out.

Or take Abraham. Surely David loved hearing that story. After years of waiting, Abraham had his son as promised, only to be told that he must offer up his boy as a sacrifice! What did Abraham do?

He believed.

Hebrews 11 tells us that as he raised the knife to slay his son, the thought was going through his mind, "This seems crazy (or words to that effect) but God can raise the dead, so..."

Embedded in these two verses above from Psalm 22 is a truth that resounds in every generation - simply that when up against difficulties, our part is to trust, and God's part is to deliver.

Remember Eutychus, with early church believers gathered in a third story room, listening to Paul talking "on and on?" Getting drowsy as midnight came and went,  Eutychus apparently sat on a window sill to keep from falling dozing off. It didn't work, and tragically he fell to his death three stories below!

Paul, no doubt feeling somewhat responsible, went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him (remember Elisha and the dead Shunammite's son? 2 Kings 4:34?). "Don't be alarmed," Paul shouted to the worried faces peering down from above, "he's alive!" Acts 20:7-12

Acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, Paul climbed back up the three flights, suggested that they all have some more food, and then with a "now where was I?" he resumed his discourse until daylight, and then left.

Jesus wondered, if when he returns, faith would be in short supply. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!!

"I can do it myself." Face it, those words represent our human default setting. Self-dependency is natural, optomistic, and deceptive. It always promises more than it can deliver.

God's solution is the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, and empowers us to live in a fashion after God himself. And when we fit in with the Spirit and walk in step with him, wonders happen, and God is glorified.

F. B. Meyer in a book on Isaiah has a chapter on prayer titled ASKING AND COMMANDING. He concludes:

All the resources of God dwell bodily in the risen and glorified Lord. They are imparted to us through the communion of the Holy Spirit, who goes between the unsearachable riches of Christ and our poverty; bringing the one to the other, as the ocean brings the wealth of the world up to the wharves (a pulley or flywheel) of London or New York.

We have then to deal with the Holy Spirit, to study the methods of his operation - what hinders or helps, what accelerates or retards.

Obey Him, and He pours such mighty energy into and through the spirit, that men are amazed at the pridigality (extravagant wastefulness) of its supply.

Resist or thwart Him, and He retires from the spirit, leaving it to struggle as best it may with its difficulties and trials.

Meyer concludes by pointing out that in the proportion by which we are able to be under the authority of the Commander-In-Chief, to that degree we will have the earthly authority to "say to this and the other resources, "Go," or "Come," or "Do this!"

God will be able to trust us, and answer our prayers, as we lay before him our concerns regarding his sons and the work of his hands, and what we long to see Him do.