Hidden Promise Revealed

A murderous grand mother

should be showing love

A loving nurse maid hidden with a child of promise

A promise appears to be broken

Where is the line of David?

Six Years Pass, the faithful know God's Word

A child-king arises

God's Word to David fulfilled

Pointing ahead to a child-king

who will lead the world to eternity

Two Covenants, Two Mothers, Two Sons

Luke 1:39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth s was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of w my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And x blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

A Broken Covenant in the Womb.

The New Covenant in the Womb.

Curse Broken.

World Restored.

Elizabeth Spirit Filled.

Mary Blessed Above Women.

For Joy John Leaped.

Jesus has come.

The Expressions of the Heart

Psalm singing is designed by God to provide for every expression in humanity's experience of God. Calvin said that God gave us an anatomy of the soul in the Psalter. This means that every expression of religious thought and feeling is found within the Psalter. There is truly a psalm for every human experience, thus showing the divinity in this inspired hymnal.

The lessons and encouragements which we obtain from other parts of the Old Testament are frequently drawn indirectly by a process of inference, for which we are not always in the right frame of mind and the proper spiritual mood. But the in Psalms, whatever our mood, whether we are exultant or downcast, vigorous or weary, penitent or believing, we can always find our hearts mirrored there. It needs no process of reasoning to make their sentiments our own. Here the language of the Bible comes to meet the very thoughts of our hearts before these can even clothe themselves in language and we recognize that we could not have expressed them better than the Spirit has here expressed them for us. At first sight, this may easily seem strange to us when we remember that the the psalmists lived under the conditions of a typical and preparatory dispensation; that on many points they saw through a glass darkly, whereas we, who live in the full light of the complete gospel, see face to face. But for the very reason that the Psalms reflect that experimental religion of the heart, which is unvarying at all times and under all circumstances, we need not greatly wonder at this. The influx of the divine light, whether more or less strong, must always produce the identical effect of joy, hope and peace in every soul to which it comes. The well at which we drink may flow more abundantly than that at which the psalmists drank, but the experience of thirst, of drinking and of satisfaction must still be the same as it was in the time of David. -Geerhardus Vos

A Free Offer Poem By Ralph Erskine

One of the greatest parts of our Associate Presbyterian history is the emphasis on the free offer of the Gospel.

Grace is offered freely to all men and the doors of salvation are proclaimed to all who will hear. Ralph Erskine was one of the greatest Gospel preachers of his time, maybe of all time.

Here is a poem based on Isaiah 55.1-3 which shows the biblical nature of the free offer of the Gospel. God offers grace in Christ sincerely to all who will come:

"Ho, every thirsty soul, and all
That poor and needy are,
Here's water of salvation's well
For you to come and share.

Here's freedom from sin and woe,
And blessings all divine,
Here streams of love and mercy flow,
Like floods of milk and wine.

Approach the fountain head of bliss,
That's open like the sea,
The buyers that are moneyless,
To poorest beggars free.

Why spend you all your wealth and pains,
For that which is not bread,
And for unsatisfying gains,
On which no soul can feed ?

While vain ye seek with earthly toys,
To fill an empty mind,
You lose immortal solid joys,
And feed upon the wind.

Incline your ear, and come to me;
Hear and your soul shall live:
For mercies sure as well as free,
I bind myself to give."