The Campbellog

New town, new job, new blog: The Campbellog

He giveth more grace

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Annie J. Flint

West Wales's most appetising snack

R.I.P. SSRIs 2001-2007

Six and a half years ago I was prescribed my first anti-depressant medication. A couple of weeks ago, I took my last (God willing!). Am I cured? No. But I'm much, much better than I have ever been, and am able to cope now without the meds.

This is a good time to look back, and testify to how good God has been to me through the illness.
He has given me so many good gifts:

* Medications which help to alleviate the symptoms of depression

* Doctors who prescribed them with caution and care

* Cognitive behavioural therapy - if you've had it, you'll know what I mean!

* Family and friends who have patiently loved me through the ups and downs

* My husband, who vowed to love me in sickness and in health, knowing more than most how hard this would be!

* Great promises in His Word

1 Corinthians 10:13 "God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."

- although I sometimes believed things were too hard, and God couldn't keep this promise, He did.

* Himself - most importantly, through all of this He has been with me. He is my comfort and my strength, He is the One who keeps me and guides me through all the hard times, and the easy times. If the depression had not been from His hand, I couldn't have borne it - only the knowledge that this is from Him, for His glory and for my good, kept me going, and will keep me going, in the darkness. Psalm 56:8 says that God keeps all our tears in a bottle. None of our pain is wasted, and none of it is ignored by our Father. He loves me, and will keep me til the end. Praise God!

Take That, Marks and Spencers!

I opened the paper on Saturday to find Take That sponsoring Marks & Spencers. Or is it M&S sponsoring Take That? Anyhow, it made me chuckle. Bless them, they're not the best models you're ever going to see, but they've obviously graduated from 'boyband' to 'manband' now. It's a beautiful thing ;)

Remember everything; forgive nothing

So reads the tagline for the final Bourne film. In the pursual of justice, Bourne must remember all the offences committed against him, and punish the perpetrators.

This makes me think about God's justice.

"all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23) - by rights I stand condemned. God knows everything about me, and is under no obligation to forgive me. In fact, in order to be just, He must punish me.

But praise God, He has made a way to be just AND to forgive me, in Jesus. God punished Jesus for my sin, so that now I am righteous in His sight.

In Christ, God remembers nothing and forgives everything!

He says "I am he who blots out your trangressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43). Because my sin was dealt with on the cross, God will not punish me.

David wrote in the psalms "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin" (Psalm 32).

This is a revolutionary kind of justice that the world cannot comprehend. An innocent man (God Himself made flesh) is punished as if He had committed my sins, and I go free. Now God chooses not to remember my sin, but to give me Christ's righteousness. This is the greatest kind of justice, where God satisfies His anger at my sin on the cross, and I experience His grace and mercy, and eternity in His presence!

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" 1 Peter 1