Grafton Free Presbyterian Church

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Visitors Very Welcome

The Grafton Free Presbyterian Church is a congregation within the bounds of the Asia Pacific Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. We are evangelical and reformed according to Scripture in doctrine, worship and practice.

• We believe that the Bible is the inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God;
• We believe in presbyterian church government; and
• We believe that the Westminster Confession of Faith accurately summarises the principal doctrines of God's Word.

A Brief Meditation for the Month

September 2024

Adoniram Judson, known as the ‘Father of American Missions,’ who with his wife Anne became America’s first foreign missionaries, served his Lord in the nineteenth century in Burma, experiencing trials and setbacks, including imprisonment, yet remained confident despite his difficulties. He was able to say by faith, “The future is as bright as the promises of God.” Judson had something to hold on to, even when days were dark, and the clouds of trouble hung low over him. The apostle Peter tells us that the promises God has given to his dear people are: “exceeding great and precious promises.” 2 Peter 1:4. What a volume of promises God’s children have! Alas, often, we fail to benefit from them because of our ignorance or unbelief. The apostle Paul’s confidence in God’s promises was evident in his correspondence to the Corinthians, when he stated: “For all the promises of God in him (Christ Jesus) are yea, and in him Amen,” 2 Corinthians 1:20. God’s promises and God’s Son cannot be parted because every divine promise is bound and found in the one who is the Word made flesh, John 1:14. Divine promises are meaningless apart from Christ Jesus, but if I have Christ by faith, then the promises come with him, and they are my rich possession. Whatever promises the believer has with Christ are the most reliable promises in the universe. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read of God making his promise to Abraham, who patiently waited by faith for its fulfilment because God swore an oath to him to confirm his promise. We read that “God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast…” Hebrews 6:15–19. As in the experience of Adoniram Judson, God’s people, amidst their trials and temptations, disappointments, and discouragements, are securely anchored in Christ and the divine promises. How often, amidst the testing storms of life, they learn to value God’s faithful promises, proving through their experiences they can and must rely upon them. John Calvin, the Reformer, once stated: “The main hinge on which faith turns is this: we must not imagine that the Lord’s promises are true objectively but not in our experience. We must make them ours by embracing them in our hearts.” When we find God’s promises in his word, they need to be transferred to our hearts and tenaciously held there by faith. In the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, we are told that Sarah, Abraham’s aged wife, bore a child when nature appeared to tell her it was impossible “because she judged him faithful who had promised.” In the biblical context, it was God’s promise that strengthened her beyond natural human expectation. “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age,” Hebrews 11:11. What the voice of Sarah’s circumstances and frailty said was impossible, the promise of God said was a certainty. Regrettably, we are often prone to give more attention to our adverse circumstances than to the soul-anchoring promises of God.

Child of God rejoice: “For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” so that you can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper,” Hebrews 13:5–6. Claim God’s blessed promise: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.” Psalm 32:8. What a sure, safe, and peaceful way to proceed through life!

G. G. Hutton.

[See articles from previous months.]

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