This is a hymn sung at my church every communion Sunday.  I have sung it approximately 250 times just in that context.  I love that it is a prayer and I sing it as such during my quiet times.

May the Mind of Christ,
My Savior

1. May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.

2. May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.

3. May the peace of God, my Father,
Rule my life in everything.
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.

4. May the love of Jesus fill me,
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing
This is victory.

Words by Kate B. Wilkinson
Music by Arthur C. Barham-Gould

I was listening to an audio file of Elisabeth Elliot at blueletterbible.org and heard her refer to her life as "a chain of golden mercies."  That phrase immediately grabbed me.  Yes, that is exactly what my life has been as well.  Daily, hourly, God has linked one golden mercy to another; saving me, keeping me, answering me, chastening me, forgiving me, carrying me, leading me and someday He will be taking me home. 

I have done nothing; He has done it all.  I have failed Him; He has remained faithful.  I am slothful and lazy; He never sleeps.  I have tried in my own strength to please Him; He sent His Son to live the only life that has ever pleased Him.  I am a worm and no man; He is the ever-loving, ever-merciful, all powerful, all knowing, ever present One.  His mercy endures forever or else I would perish.

Matthew 27:24-25 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

In these verses the Jews accept responsibility for sending an innocent man to his death.  They believe so strongly in his guilt that they call down a curse on themselves and, if that weren’t enough, they add their own children to that curse. 

In Luke 23:34, Jesus mercifully asks His Father to forgive these Jews knowing they are ignorant of their error.

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

I have always considered that prayer an example of how we are to forgive our enemies.  I have regarded it as an object lesson for us to follow.  How God answered the prayer was of no concern to me until very recently.

While reading Acts 2:14-41 I made an amazing (to me) discovery! God answered that prayer on the day of Pentecost immediately following Peter’s famous sermon.  Peter is addressing the very Jews who had crucified Christ (vs. 22-23 and again in v. 36).  He presents the gospel message to the same crowd who only a few short weeks before had urged Pilate to nail Jesus to the cross, who had accepted responsibility for His blood and who had passed that responsibility onto their children as well. 

Acts 2:21-24 and 36 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it... (emphasis added)

...Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (emphasis added)

In verse 37 the Holy Spirit, recently sent from heaven, is busy convicting souls and drawing them to the Father.

Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Verse 38 is the gospel in a nutshell.  The true gospel always calls for repentance - renouncing sin and turning from it.  It is not enough to just be sorry for sin - one must abandon it and rest in Christ’s righteousness.

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

And here is a most precious verse.  Verse 39 proclaims that this promise of salvation is not just for those people standing in the crowd.  No, it is also for their children.  God is answering His dear Son’s prayer, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”  He is absolving the guilty and, just so they know for sure, Peter assures them this forgiveness is also for the children they had so quickly and boldly dragged into their cursed state.

Acts 2:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Lastly, we have the confirmation of the answer to the prayer - the Jews response:

Acts 2:40-41 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Our most merciful Father forgave the very ones who murdered His Son.  Their names had been written in the Book of Life before the foundations of the world.  As I type this I see much that could be expounded upon in these verses, but today I simply want to focus on the marvelous grace of God.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Matthew 26:69-75 is the account of Peter denying his relationship with Jesus three times.  Peter had said earlier in Matthew 26:33 “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended,” and Jesus had replied in the next verse, “Verily I say until thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.”  Peter then confidently declared, “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.”

Peter felt very sure at that point he would NEVER deny Christ.  He believed his love was strong enough to keep him from ever deserting his beloved Lord.   He was mistaken.  Not only did he deny Christ, he denied Him three times! After his infamous denial Matthew reports “he (Peter) went out and wept bitterly.”

This is one of the saddest portions of scripture.  One minute Peter is expressing unwavering fealty to the Lord and before the day is done he has forsaken Him utterly.

In John 21:15-17 Peter is with Jesus after His resurrection.  They are enjoying a meal near a warm fire after Jesus has miraculously supplied a colossal catch of fish.   This is Peter’s first encounter with the Lord since His resurrection.  In these verses Jesus asks Peter three separate times, “Do you love me?” 

Is this not precious?  Is this not a great love and a merciful God?  Jesus is giving Peter the opportunity to “undo” his disgraceful denial by asking him to reaffirm his love for Christ the same number of times he had disowned Him.  Jesus confirms this forgiveness by repeating the command, “Feed my sheep,” three times. He is communicating not only forgiveness, but a reestablishment of His trust in Peter’s loyalty.  Not only does He forgive Peter, He trusts Him to carry out His work on earth.  Of course, this trust is rooted in the knowledge that God will equip Peter through the Holy Spirit to discharge his duty (Acts 2).  Nevertheless, Jesus speaks directly to Peter’s specific sin of denial and reestablishes their relationship of trust.

What great encouragement for poor, despondent sinners!  What great comfort to rest in the righteousness of Christ and know that God accepts unworthy, hopeless failures who’ve been washed in the Blood of the Lamb. He forgives them, equips them and then trusts them to carry out His work on earth by His grace.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”
 

I was reading Matthew’s account of how Jesus was mocked by both the Romans and the Jews while he was being crucified and something caught me completely off guard.  I had never noticed it before - ever!

Matthew 27:44 says “Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.”  (NKJV)

Now I have often heard about the thief on the cross who repented and was promised paradise, so this verse confused me.  Notice it says, “robbers” not “one of the robbers.” 

Mark 15:32 also refers to plural thieves, not singular thief. “Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.” (NKJV).  Two eyewitnesses clearly reported two thieves being crucified with Christ and two thieves reviling Him.

The narrative of the same event in Luke 23:39-43 says:

“Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”  But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." “ (NKJV)

I am no Bible scholar, but what I see here is one man reviling Christ along with another man - both of them hanging from crosses for committing crimes punishable by death at that time.  These men both mocked and reviled the Lord even as they hung there nearing death and eternity.  Then one of them boldly suggested that Jesus not only save himself, but save the two criminals as well. 

At this point, the other fellow finally had his conscience pricked to the point of rebuking the first man for being so outrageously rude.  He realized that he deserved to be hanging on that cross, but that Jesus had done nothing to deserve that punishment.  He realized he was a sinner and that Jesus was(is) God and asked only to be remembered.

God, in his great mercy, opened that thief's eyes to his own sin, his need for a Savior, and the deity of the man hanging on the cross next to him.  God regenerated his stony heart and gave him a new heart of flesh.  In an instant a harsh, cold, unfeeling man was humbled to the point of repentance and in the last few minutes of his miserable existence God saved his soul from eternity in hell.

Salvation is entirely God’s work based on the righteousness of Christ. We do nothing to deserve it nor can we earn it. God gives us a spirit of repentance and even our faith is a gift from God.  God prepares our hearts to hear the Gospel, He regenerates our souls and He breathes new spiritual life into our once dead spirits.  He initiates salvation, He accomplishes salvation and He keeps us saved.  It is all of God, none of us.  In this account of the penitent thief we see that God is able to do all these things even in the last few moments of a person’s life and in this case, he most mercifully did so.

Hallelujah!  What a Savior!

Romans 5:8  “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

I took Emily, Sam and Sarah to Mt. Vernon today for a wagon ride (which ended up being cancelled due to a staff shortage).  We had fun anyway.  The gardens were in full bloom - tulips, daffodils and hyacinth and the animals all had new babies to pet.

Lots of folks stopped us just to admire the costumes - especially the folks who work there.  Sarah said it was "very humiliating," but when we got home and I suggested she wear another dress (we are going through the summer clothes this evening) she protested and said she would were her colonial outfit again :-).  I bought Sam's hat in the gift shop when we first arrived so he could wear it all day and he admitted that it was fun to get all dressed up for the day.

I'm so glad I bought yearly passes for everyone ($15 is the reg. admission/$18 is the yearly pass - a no brainer since we live 45 minutes away.)  We are going  back in a few weeks to see the sheep shearing.

God bless,

Kathleen

BTW, all the historical outfits (Sarah's, Kit's and Sam's) were made by Ashely's Attic at Ashely's Attic on Vegsource.  You'll have to scroll down to find the post.


Sarah and Samuel in front of The Mansion

Down at the Octagonal Treading Barn with a cooperative historical interpreter

Smack dab on the windy Potomac River with Maryland in the background

Samuel, Emily and Sarah in the garden next to the Greenhouse
With the "First Family" in the visitor center

Our local paper published an article about my son today because he was recently awarded the highest cadet award in the Civil Air Patrol.  I feel like Mary, "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19)

David Dillie earns Spaatz Award

I hope this article encourages other homeschool moms and dads.  There were many times during our homeschool journey that I felt inadequate, unprepared and just plain useless.  By His grace, God enabled us to persevere and we are seeing the fruit of His faithfulness to us.

God is good all the time.

Kathleen