Bits and Pieces – 147th Edition – January 1, 2023

     We wish all our readers and their families a Happy New Year.  Although the Covid crisis is not completely over, the situation as we enter 2023 is a lot better than the last two years, and for this we give the Lord thanks.

     The end of the year is a good time for stocktaking.  Companies close their books on 2022.  They have estimated trends throughout the year, but the account at the end of the year reveals all.  Financially are they in the plus or the minus situation?

     Christians also need to take stock in preparation for the day of great and final reckoning.  The Bible teaches us that we must give account of the words we speak.  Jesus said, “That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” [Matthew 12:36]

     We must give account of the works we do.  Solomon honestly reviewed his works, and so should we [Ecclesiastes 2].  Was the main thrust of our works in 2022 for self, or the Lord?  Let us leave the baggage of the past behind. We must also give account of the witness we bear.  Paul encouraged us to pray for those who watched for souls.  May we watch also?

     Our deepest sympathy goes out to our dear sister Ria Louis, whose mother died in her native Holland on Thursday.   She was 94 and had taken a bad fall.  Pray for the Louis family.

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’  [1 Timothy 1:15].

     Paul had a considerable national, tribal, religious, and educational background of which he could boast, but from the moment he met Jesus Christ at his conversion, all he could say was he was the chief of sinners.

     He confessed to young Timothy he had been a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent, insolent man.  Jesus Christ came to save such, and from his conversion, Paul was a changed man.  The life he lived was by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him.  His boast from henceforth was in the cross of Jesus Christ.

     God’s salvation does not fill a man with pride but rather the opposite.  Religions of works fill their practitioners with feelings of self-sufficiency, but the true Christian is filled with humility.  Dr. Alexander, who for forty years lectured at Princeton University, said on his deathbed, “All my theology is reduced now to this narrow compass, ‘that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’”  [1 Timothy 1:15].  And yet what a broad compass is found there.

     The eternity of Christ is there, for He came from eternity.  The humanity of Christ is there too, for He came into this world.  His personality is there for He is Jesus the saving One, and Christ the anointed One.  His great purpose is to save sinners.

     Dear reader, as you now enter a New Year, do you know the saving power of Christ in your life?  The years have rolled by, and perhaps you have not yielded to Him.  Before another day dawns, confess your need, repent of your sins, and ask Christ to save you.  It is a worthy Gospel. And He is a wonderful Saviour.

“Even to your old age I am He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you”  [Isaiah 46:4].

     Another year has passed and here is a promise for the aged, and for everyone, as age creeps over us.  Let us live long enough, and we shall all have hoar (white) hair, therefore we may as well enjoy this promise by the foresight of faith.

     When we grow old our God will still be the great I AM, abiding evermore the same.  Hoar hairs tell of our decay, but He decayeth not.  When we cannot carry a burden, and can hardly carry ourselves, the Lord will carry us.  Even as in our young days He carried us as lambs in His bosom, so will He in our later years

     He made us, and He will care for us.  When we become a burden to our friends, and a burden to ourselves, the Lord will not shake us off, but the rather He will take us up and carry and deliver us more fully than ever.

     In many cases the Lord gives His servants a long and calm evening.  They worked hard all day and wore themselves out in their Master’s service, and so He said to them, ‘Now rest in anticipation of that eternal Sabbath which I have prepared for you.’  Let us not dread old age, but grow old graciously, since the Lord Himself is with us in fulness of grace. [C.H. Spurgeon].