The Wood's Secret Garden

I have been so heavy hearted for a young Christian sister (who Michael, and Donna, Mel, Deni and many other have been praying for) that I had to post this email that I sent to her. It blessed me and I pray that God will use it to bless her, as well. She told me tonight (she comes from a Roman Catholic background) that she sees her relationship with Christ as "A tyrannical, demanding, Master (Christ) and she as a slave". Please (if you are reading this blog) prayer that the Lord will bless her with an overwhelming abundance of His Truth, and His grace. I have no doubt that she loves the Lord (I have known her for over a year now on a very intimate level). She is one of those precious saints, like Cowper, who have a almost "Bi-polar" spiritual relationship with Christ. High mountain top, child like ecstasy; followed by darkness and despair that almost debilitate them. I love her dearly and ask you to continue to pray for her. Here is the post. An excerpt from a sermon...

Heavenly Father, It is thy mercy to afflict and try me with wants, for by these trials I see my sins, and desire severance from them. Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows, temptations, if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil, and be delivered from it with gratitude to thee, acknowledging this as the highest testimony of thy love. When thy Son, Jesus, came into my soul , He became more dear to me than sin had formerly been; His kindly rule replaced sin’s tyranny. Teach me to believe that if ever I would have any sin subdued, I must not only labor to overcome it, but must invite Christ to abide in the place of it , and He must become to me more than vile lust had been ; that His sweetness, power, life may be there. Thus I must seek a grace from Him contrary to sin, but must not claim it apart from Himself. When I am afraid of the evils or heartbreaks to come, comfort me by showing me that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch, but in Christ I am reconciled and live; that i...

I will be their God. -- Jeremiah 31:33 Christian, here is all you require. To make you happy you want something that shall satisfy you, and is not this enough? If you can pour this promise into your cup, will you not say, with David, "My cup overflows." When this is fulfilled, "I am your God," are you not possessor of all things? Desire is insatiable as death, but He who fills all in all can fill it. The capacity of our wishes who can measure? But, the immeasurable wealth of God can more than overflow it. I ask you if you are not complete when God is yours? Do you want anything but God? Is not His all-sufficiency enough to satisfy you if all else should fail? But you want more than quiet satisfaction; you desire rapturous delight. Come, soul, here is music fit for heaven in this your portion, for God is the Maker of heaven. Not all the music blown from sweet instruments or drawn from living strings can yield such melody as this sweet promise, "I wil...

The meditations of a blessed friend: As I was reading yesterday morning, I came to 1st Tim.5:24 , "Some men's sins are open beforehand going before to judgement ...." With the understanding that all our sin, and all our sins, have been and are open before God having been judged before in Christ, we are now made free to be who He has made us to be in Him! So then the idea of becoming (as we already are) "transparent" came to mind: Transparent before God and man. As we are enabled to draw nigh to God by faith in His Word (1JN.5:8 .. "there are three that bear witness in earth , the Spirit , and the water , and the blood : and these three agree in one"), He graciously and mercifully exposes to us our sins , for the purpose that we might see Christ more precious than ever before. For where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. This brings us back to the word TRANSPARENT - When we think of the word transparent, we think of something you can see thr...

...guilt from the holy things. -- Exodus 28:38 What a veil is lifted up by these words, and what a disclosure is made! It will be humbling and profitable for us to pause awhile and see this sad sight. The iniquities of our public worship, its hypocrisy, formality, lukewarmness, irreverence, wandering of heart, and forgetfulness of God--what a full measure have we there! Our work for the Lord, its emulation, selfishness, carelessness, slackness, unbelief--what a mass of defilement is there! Our private devotions, their laxity, coldness, neglect, sleepiness, and vanity--what a mountain of dead earth is there! If we looked more carefully, we should find this iniquity to be far greater than appears at first sight. Dr. Payson, writing to his brother , says, " My parish, as well as my heart, very much resembles the garden of the sluggard; and what is worse, I find that very many of my desires for the improvement of both, proceed either from pride or vanity or indolence. I look at the w...

Proverbs 2 1 My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, 2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; 3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, 4 If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding; 7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; 8 He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints. 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path. 10 When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, 12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things,

I don't believe that I have ever posted anything of a personal nature on this blog. But, I realized that most of you, who occassionally read this blog, have no idea who this "woman with the heart of a warrior" really is. In cyberspace, I could be a 16 year old girl with freckles or a 74 year old man posing as a woman--okay that is stretching it a bit; but after spending over a year in the blogosphere, nothing surprises me. Not that it really matters, but I thought I would "come out of the closet". I had a delightful time on New Years Day with my "half" aunt and uncle and their family, whom I had not seen in 30 years. My "half cousin" sent a few online pictures and so I decided to post one of them. My mother is on the left, my "half uncle" is in the middle, and the "warrior" is on the right. So now, you know!