Friday, December 23, 2022

Grace from Beginning to End

 "It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God I am what I am. Yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me."

- Martyn Lloyd-Jones 

Thursday, December 22, 2022

Disciplines for our Good, not our Bondage

 Spiritual disciplines are provided for our good, not for our bondage. They are privileges to be used, not duties to be performed. To take off on a familiar quotation from Jesus, “Spiritual disciplines were made for man, not man for spiritual disciplines” (see Mark 2:27).

~ Jerry Bridges, "Transforming Grace"

Monday, December 12, 2022

KICK US AGAIN

 When we are injured, we are bound as Christians to bear it without malice; but we are not to pretend that we do not feel it, for this will but encourage our enemies to kick us again. He who is cheated twice by the same man is half as bad as the rogue; and it is very much so in other injuries. Unless we claim our rights, we are ourselves to blame if we do not get them. Paul was willing to bear stripes for his Master's sake, but he did not forget to tell the magistrates that he was a Roman; and when those gentlemen wished to put him out of prison privately, he said, "Nay, verily, let them come themselves and fetch us out". --CHS.

Thursday, December 1, 2022

HOW DO I KNOW THE LOVE OF GOD

 How do I know about the love of God? I look at Christ.

That is the way to know the love of God. You do not wait for a feeling, or try to conjure up a feeling. You go to the cross and look, & survey it, consider it, meditate upon it and all that was involved. —D. M. Lloyd-Jones