JCSM's Weekly Devotions (click here to listen!)

"Better is One Day in Your Courts (Than Thousands Elsewhere)"

Psalm 84:10  "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.  I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness."

Psalm 51:10-12  "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit."

Galatians 6:9  "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."

Galatians 5:22, 23  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."

James 1:5  "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

Insight: Don't ever forget how awesome your time with God has been.  He blesses you, encourages you, teaches you, and listens to you.  Make time to spend with Him.  There are endless blessings, rewards, and godly wisdom in store for you.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, thank you for wanting us to seek You.  Thank you for being faithful and always revealing yourself to us.  You are an awesome God and we love You.  Thank you for blessing and rewarding us when we spend time with You.  No other relationship needs so much attention and no other relationship can be as fulfilling.  Give us self-control, so we can set aside plenty of time to cultivate our relationship.  Speak to us and direct us.  We want to do your will.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

Henry Clay (1777-1852), was a powerful U.S. Senator who also served as a Congressman.  He was elected Speaker of the House six times, and for nearly forty years was a leading American statesman.  Clay was part of the "Great Triumvirate" with Daniel Webster and John Calhoun which dominated Congress during the early to mid 1800's. Known as The Great Compromiser, Clay was able to keep the Union between the North and the South together for many years.  He was a Presidential Candidate several times but never elected.

In 1839, when he was about to give a speech in which he would declare himself against slavery, one of his friends warned him that this would ruin his chances to become President.  To this, Henry Clay gave his famous reply:

"I would rather be right than President." ¹

From a speech to the Kentucky Colonization Society, at Frankfort, 1829, Henry Clay proclaimed:

"Eighteen hundred years have rolled away since the Son of God, our blessed Redeemer, offered Himself on Mount Calvary for the salvation of our species; and more than half of mankind still continue to deny His Divine mission and the truth of His sacred Word ....

"When we shall, as soon as we must, be translated from this into another form of existence, is the hope presumptuous that we shall behold the common Father of the whites and blacks, the great Ruler of the Universe, cast his all-seeing eye upon civilized and regenerated Africa, its cultivated fields, its coasts studded with numerous cities, adorned with towering temples dedicated to the pure religion of his redeeming son?" ²

In a conversation with Congressman John C. Breckinridge, Henry Clay declared:

"The vanity of the world, and its insufficiency to satisfy the soul of man, has been long a settled conviction of my mind.  Man's inability to secure by his own merits the approbation of God, I feel to be true.  I trust in the atonement of the Saviour of mercy, as the ground of my acceptance and of my hope of salvation." ³

Henry Clay had confided with Congressman Venable:

"I am not afraid to die, sir; I have hope, faith, and some confidence;  I have an abiding trust in the merits and mediation of our Saviour." 4

The citations mentioned above can be found on Henry Clay's entry on the following site.

If you'd like to see more quotes from those that framed and founded America, please click here: http://jcsm.org/AmericasFounders/.

(This explanation came from "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained", by Jason Gastrich.  This book is on CD and gives over 4,000 answers to alleged Bible errors, regarding the entire Bible at http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.org.  There is also a 300 question workbook that accompanies the CD-ROM.)

There are no new quotes this week, but have thousands in our archive!  Visit http://quotes.jcsm.org.  Plus, if you'd like to read a new quote every day, please go to http://jcsm.org/Wisdom.htm and bookmark it!