Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
We greet you again with that precious old-time greeting: the Lord bless you and make you a blessing. We are praying that this will be a help to you and any problems you have at this time, and we greet you with the words of our theme song:
Lift up your head,
Smile through your tears,
God's never failed you
Down through the years,
He has watched o'er you
Cared for His own,
He'll not fail now,
He's still on the Throne.
Dark though the shadows
Just now may be,
Soon through the midst
A pathway you'll see,
Faith to the promise
Unfailing cling,
God's on the Throne and
Prayer changes things!
Someone has written:
I wish there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again,
Where all our mistakes
And all our heartaches
And all our poor selfish greed,
Could be dropped
Like a shabby old coat at the door
And never put on again.
I wish we could come on it all unaware
Like the hunter who finds a lost trail,
And I wish that the one
Whom our blindness has done
The greatest injustice of all,
Could be at the gate
Like an old friend who waits
For the comrade he's gladdest to hail.
So I wish there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again,
Where all the mistakes
And all the heartaches
And all our poor selfish greed,
Could be dropped
Like a shabby old coat at the door
And never put on again.
Well, I'm so glad to tell you that there is such a place as that, and you can find that place no matter how deep the sin, no matter how dark the past has been. You'll find that place in these Verses from 1 John, Chapter 1, beginning with Verse 5:
"This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declared unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. But if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we but lie, and the truth is not in us.
"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sin" -- now here is that place where you can drop the shabby old coat of the past life --
"If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we say that we have no sin we make God a liar, and His Word is not in us."
We have always encouraged you to read and claim the promises of God in His wonderful Word, and we do say again, according to God's Word, that they are exceeding great and precious promises, and He will back them with His power and His ability! But though we've said that,
I must also say again that there are conditions attached to these promises and these conditions must be met. God sets His own terms and any light and superficial attitude which says, "Oh, just step out on the promises and claim them! The work is done, just claim them!" -- That will be met with keen disappointment.
These conditions are plainly set forth in God's Word: You read your Bible and you'll find them! But how blessed it is when you meet God's terms! You submit to His conditions and the wealth of His blessings and riches just come tumbling down on you then!
But these are the keys that unlock the treasure vaults of Heaven: Knowing the conditions attached to each promise. Now I'm not trying to discourage you from claiming the promises, God not only wills, but longs for you to have your every need supplied and desire of your heart met. He says,
"Delight thyself in the Lord and He will give thee the desires of thy heart." -- But note the condition: Delight thyself in the Lord! God can't fail. He said it and so it's so. I don't back down on that at all, it's His infallible Word!
He has never failed in one of all His good promises and isn't going to begin to fail with you. But the terms must be met. You delight yourself in the Lord and He gives you the desire of your heart.
God's terms aren't hard! He said, "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for My yoke is easy and my burden is light." -- My yoke is easy, He said! (Mt.11:28-30.)
There are so many wonderful promises for you, forgiveness of sin, joy that will come to you, peace, Eternal Life, that I couldn't begin to quote them, I couldn't begin to tell you all! They are there for you and they'll completely change your life.
But you note the Scripture: you must confess your sin, (1 John 1:9) and must come to God with a humbled heart, a broken contrite spirit. Sin can still be forgiven, but you can't hide the sin. Someone has said that dust under the bed is bad from a hygienic standpoint, but from a spiritual standpoint, to cover up sin is dangerous.
God's Word says, "He that covereth His sin shall not prosper, but he that confesseth it shall be forgiven." (Pro.28:13). The mistress asked the maid, "Emmie, did you sweep under the rug?"
"Yes Ma'am," she answered, "I sweeps everything under the rug!" -- Well, it's a policy that some people follow,
But things swept under the rug have a bit of coming back to harm and haunt us. You can't pretend all is well, for you'll be exposed and humiliated and hurt when the cover-up is found out. "Be sure your sin will find you out," God's Word says in Num.32:23.
So accept God's terms for forgiveness of sin, meet His condition, the condition that you repent of the sin. Turn away from it with Godly sorrow, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for help, God will help you do this!
If you feel that you cannot do it yourself, that you have no strength to do it, I assure you that as soon as you confess you are a sinner and lift up your eyes to Jesus Christ, the Savior, and ask Him to help you, in that moment the strength you need will be yours: You can turn away from sin.
God will help you and there will come into your life a change and freedom that you've never known! Remember, you can't hide sin, and you're miserable and unhappy living with it, so accept God's conditions through Christ's atonement.
Get rid of the sin through the shed blood of Calvary, then what shackles are broken! What joy and liberty are yours! Turn to God for deliverance: Now there is the condition again to the promise, plainly stated.
Is it so hard? Are God's conditions so unfair, when He gave His only Son for you? "There was none other good enough to pay the price of sin, He only could unlock the gate of Heaven and let us in." His Word says, "He that spared not His own Son, but offered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give you all things?