abandoned to Christ.

The LORD God is our refuge. He alone is our ever-present help in our time of need. And when is that time? When is the time that we most need God? Is it when we're single? When we get married? When we have children? When we lose our jobs? When people speak well of us? When people speak ill of us? When? Our "time of need" is all the time. Every living thing's time of needing the Almighty begins from the time life begins. Unfortunately, not all of us know that, or, are mindful of it as often as we ought to be. We need the LORD our God when we rejoice and when we mourn; for without Christ our God, we don't know how to do anything without sinning. Without Christ, our rejoicing is in ourselves and we do a "Yay me!" dance in our souls and with our mouths. We joy in proclaiming our own goodness and jubilantly share our successes as if we could ever do, or give anything good to anyone without the only One who IS good—GOD Almighty. Therefore, th...

Our family's first introduction to Dr. R.C. Sproul was in 2008 when my darling husband Jim and I were blessed to participate in a book/DVD study The Holiness of God . Our hearts were gripped by Sproul's teaching of the magnitude of God's holiness. Though we always knew that God is holy, we had, sadly, like many Christians in our time, marginalized this glorious attribute of our mighty Lord and God. Rather than see all of God's attributes (righteousness, love, grace, mercy) through the lens of His holiness, we saw His holiness as merely an addendum. But when we sat under Dr. Sproul's loving, courageous, and soundly doctrinal teaching on God's holiness, we knew we could never return to the mediocre standard of Christianity that's acceptable by many, if not most, Christians today. After our initial introduction to R.C. Sproul's teaching through The Holiness of God , we began listening to RefNet  in 2012, and have commended it to others as well as ma...

Our gracious and compassionate Father's timing is always perfect. It just so happens that today's Psalm (61:1-3) is exactly what my heart needed to hear and my soul needed to be reminded of. No matter the battles, heartaches, and losses that come my way, I know because the LORD my God is my refuge; the Rock that is higher than I, all is always well with my soul. Though I can never do anything to be worthy of God's holy and perfect love, I am always  loved by the Father because of worthiness of Jesus Christ the Son. Therefore, whenever my heart is faint due to external circumstances, my soul delights in magnifying the LORD for giving me all the good I don't deserve (grace) and withholding the evil that I do deserve (mercy). When I remember this truth and speak it to my soul, it is difficult for me to plunge into the depths of self-pity. Rather, my heart rises to echo the last verse of today's Psalm (v.8), "So will I ever sing praises to your name [...

Twenty-eight years ago, the Lord moved me to Southern California as an answer to my cry for help. My faithful and merciful Father God had graciously and mercifully endured, preserved, and persevered me through 13 years of severe and brutal persecution. But because I did not heed His exhortation and admonition in Deuteronomy 8:11-20, I forgot that it was by His mighty hand that I received relief from my enemies. Much like the Israelites whom the LORD kindly saved and freed from the bondage of Egypt, I fancied that this reprieve was due to something good I had done—and for three years, I entertained the fallacy, that I deserved every good I received from the Lord. I behaved as if God owed me for my obedience, rather than remember that even my obedience was a gift from Him, through Jesus Christ; who through His death and resurrection, freed and enabled me to do what I could never do on my own—please and honor the one and only, holy and righteous God (Heb 11:6). During th...