WCF: Man's Will.

 I. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined, to good or evil.

II. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which is good and well-pleasing to God; but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it.

III. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.

IV. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he frees him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that, by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.

V. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to do good alone in the state of glory only.

WCF. (post inspired by Monergism).

We need Bruising

 “After conversion we need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks. Even reeds need bruising, by reason of the remainder of pride in our nature, and to let us see that we live by mercy. Such bruising may help weaker Christians not to be too much discouraged, when they see stronger ones shaken and bruised…. The heroic deeds of those great [Bible] worthies do not comfort the church so much as their falls and bruises do….. Hence we learn that we must not pass too harsh judgment upon ourselves or others when God exercises us with bruising upon bruising. There must be a conformity to our head, Christ, who ‘was bruised for us’ (Isaiah 53:5) that we may know how much we are bound unto Him.” ~The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes (Puritan Paperbacks, page 5)

God uses the Hidden Saint

 Satan wishes to keep the children of God in a sad, and perplexed state, because he hates Christians, and cannot devour their faith, nor pluck them out of the hand of God.

As long as Satan has a child of God confused as to whether they are true believers or just deceiving themselves, he will have them in a constant state of misery, and put off of many of their Christian duties.

It is very difficult for a person to enjoy Christ, rejoice in Him, commune with Him, fellowship with the saints, pray and meditate on His word without vain interruptions, and many other ordinances when they are not even sure if they are just bringing a greater judgment on themselves by deceiving themselves as false believers or not.

And one of Satan’s ways of keeping a child of God in this confused and sad state is by having them compare their portion or degree of faith with a person in the body who appears to have a significantly greater portion or degree of faith, and then says “your faith is not like their faith, and so your faith is not a true faith. They stand firm in the same afflictions and temptations where you stumble and sin. You are not just weak, you are a phony.”

But, we must keep in mind that God distributes His grace to each Christian at the measure He sees fit (Ephesians 4:7), and gives each person a different portion of faith (Romans 12:3), just as He does with knowledge and wisdom, and so on. All for His glory.

A light from a candle may not be as bright as the light of a bonfire, but it is still light. We would not let Satan tell us the candle has no light just because it isn’t as bright as the bonfire, and we should not believe him when comparing weaker faith to greater portions of faith.

Our reply should be “Yes, my faith may only appear to be the size of a mustard seed right now, but my great God planted it in me, and He didn’t do so in vain. It is small, but sincere and equally as true and saving as the faith the size of an entire mustard tree.” --Joshua Arnold

A notion of God commensurate

 

If we could have thoughts of him, as high and excellent as his nature; our conceptions must be as infinite as his nature. All our imaginations of him cannot represent him, because every created species is finite; it cannot therefore represent to us a full and substantial notion of an infinite being. We cannot speak or think worthily enough of him, who is greater than our words, vaster than our understandings. No creature, nor all creatures together, can furnish us with such a magnificent notion of God, as can give us a clear view of him.  Yet God in his word is pleased to step below his own excellence, and point us to those excellences in his works, whereby we may ascend to the knowledge of those excellences which are in his nature. But the creatures, whence we draw our lessons being finite, and our understandings being finite, it is utterly impossible to have a notion of God commensurate to the immensity and spirituality of his being. --Charnock

Pronounces People "Just"

The glory of the gospel is that God pronounces people “just” while they are still sinners. —R.C. Sproul

WE CANNOT STAND ONE MOMENT

So many are those difficulties, discouragements, diversions and hinderances, which we have to wrestle with, and overcome in the way to heaven, (Acts 14:22) that except we be underpropped and strengthened by God’s almighty power, we cannot stand one moment, and much less advance in our Christian course. James Fergusson.

Hostility to Holiness

 

Eloquent; yet, regarding the lowly.

 Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners, and eats with them. ~Luke 15:1, 2

"Never was there a tongue like Christ's — so learned, so eloquent, and so skilled. 'Never man spoke like this man.' Greece and Rome, in their 'high and palmy state,' never exhibited such philosophy as He taught, such erudition as He displayed, or such eloquence as He breathed. Had He so chosen it, He could have placed Himself al the head of a school of His own, and with a beck might have allured to His feet all the poets and the philosophers of His day, proud to own Him as their Master.

"But no! The wisdom and the eloquence of this world possessed no charm for Jesus. He drew the learning and the melting power with which He spoke from a higher, even a heavenly, source. His was Divine philosophy; His was the eloquence of God! 'The Lord Jehovah has given me the tongue of the learned.'

"And to whom did He consecrate this learning, this wisdom, and this eloquence? To the very objects whom the proud philosophers and the doctors of His day despised and neglected — even the weary. What a field was here for the exercise of His skill, and for the play of His benevolence! How fully would he demonstrate that He truly possessed the 'tongue of the learned'!

"If to interest the feelings of the exhausted — if to enchain the attention of the weary — if to concentrate upon one subject the powers of a mind jaded and burdened — if to awaken music from a heart whose chords were broken and unstrung, mark the loftiest reach of eloquence, then His was eloquence unsurpassed — for all this He did.

"The beings whom He sought out, and drew around Him, were the burdened, the bowed, the disconsolate, the poor, the friendless, the helpless, the ignorant, the weary. He loved to lavish upon such the fullness of His benevolent heart, and to exert upon such the skill of His wonder-working power.

"Earth's weary sons repaired to His out-stretched arms for shelter, and the world's ignorant and despised clustered around His feet, to be taught and blessed. Sinners of every character, and the disconsolate of every grade, attracted by His renown, pressed upon Him from every side.

"'This man receives sinners,' was the character and the mission by which He was known. It was new and strange. Uttered by the lip of the proud and disdainful Pharisee, it was an epithet of reproach, and an expression of ridicule.

"But upon the ear of the poor and wretched outcast, the sons and daughters of sorrow, ignorance, and woe, it fell sweeter than the music of the spheres. It passed from lip to lip, it echoed from shore to shore — 'This man receives sinners.'

"It found its way into the abodes of misery and want; it penetrated the dungeon of the prisoner and the cell of the maniac; and it kindled a celestial light in the solitary dwelling of the widow and the orphan, the unpitied and the friendless.

"Thus received its accomplishment the prophecy that predicted Him as the 'Plant of renown,' whom Jehovah would raise up. Thousands came, faint, weary, and sad, and sat down beneath His shadow; and thousands more since then have pressed to their wounded hearts the balsam that exuded from His bleeding body, and have been healed." ~Octavius Winslow, Evening Thoughts, March 10

Turn your Families into Churches

“Turn your families into little churches.” -Matthew Henry