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Self-Sufficiency
Dependence
To keep the lamp alive,
With oil we fill the bowl;
‘Tis water makes the willow thrive,
And grace that feeds the soul.
The Lord’s unsparing hand
Supplies the living stream;
It is not at our own command,
But still derived from Him.
Beware of Peter’s word,
Nor confidently say,
“I never will deny Thee, Lord,”—
But,—”Grant I never may.”
Man’s wisdom is to seek
His strength in God alone;
And e’en an angel would be weak,
Who trusted in his own.
Retreat beneath His wings,
And in His grace confide!
This more exalts the King of kings,
Than all your works beside.
In Jesus is our store,
Grace issues from His throne;
Whoever says, “I want no more,”
Confesses he has none.
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York
We Have to do It
Before game 7 against Houston, Kevin Johnson and several teammates on the Phoenix Suns held a chapel service. Charles Barkley, who didn’t attend, stood in front of the message board in the empty clubhouse and wrote, “God only helps those who help themselves. WE have to do it!” He angrily threw the felt marker to the floor.
Spokesman Review, May 28, 1995, p. C2
Are You a Wanderer
Dr. Andrew Bonar told me how, in the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn’t get out of. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can’t jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. “Why don’t they go down there when the sheep first gets there?” I asked.
“Ah!” He said, “they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did!” And that is the way with men; they won’t go back to God till they have no friends and have lost everything. If you are a wanderer I tell you that the Good Shepherd will bring you back the moment you have given up trying to save yourself and are willing to let Him save you His own way.
Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. 70-71
Resource
Joseph Stowell, Through The Fire, Victor Books, 1988, pp. 80ff
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Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
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