Stung to your Father's Feet

 “You would not pray if you did not have trouble. It is a blessing to be stung to your Father’s feet!”

— Charles Spurgeon

Frequent in Prayer

 Be frequent in prayer, and it will help you much. “Draw near to God” (James 4:8).

Complain of the slipperiness of your nature, of your weakness to withstand Satan’s assaults, and entreat God to give you strength that you may hold out. —John Cotton, Works 2:163

Pink's Study

 ARTHUR PINK’S STUDY METHODS

“In my early years I assiduously followed this threefold course:

First, I read through the entire Bible three times a year (eight chapters in the Old Testament, and two in the New Testament daily.) I steadily persevered in this for ten years, in order to familiarize myself with its contents, which can only be done by consecutive reading.

Second, I studied a portion of the Bible each week, concentrating for ten minutes (or more) each day on the same passage, pondering the order of it, the connection between each statement, seeking a definition of the important terms in it, looking up all the marginal references, being on the look-out for its typical significance.

Third, I meditated on one verse each day; writing it out on a slip of paper in the morning, memorizing it, consulting it at odd moments through the day; pondering separately each word in it, asking God to open for me its spiritual meaning and to write it on my heart. The verse was my food for that day, meditation standing to reading as mastication does to eating.

The more some such method as the above be followed out, the more shall we be able to say, ‘thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path’ [Ps 119:105].”

~ Arthur Pink, "Letters of A.W. Pink"

As if you were

 "You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if He were you."

-Charles Spurgeon.

Complete Savior

 It is good to be humbled for sin, but not to be discouraged; for though we are poor creatures, Jesus is a complete Savior; and we bring more honor to God by believing in his name and trusting his word of promise, than we could do by a thousand outward works.

John Newton

Faith's Proper Exercise

 Faith which is truly divine, is never more in its proper exercise-doth never more elevate the soul into conformity unto God–than when it acts in the contemplation and admiration of the most incomprehensible mysteries which are proposed unto it by divine revelation.

--John Owen

Thankful for Thorns

 “Be thankful for the thorns and thistles which keep you from being in love with this world.”

— Charles Spurgeon

Affections Eternal

"Only human beings created in the image of God can enjoy God. Therefore, enjoyment matters. I mean, affections are who we are ultimately. The end of history, the end of creation, is not going to be merely rational creatures thinking rightly about God, little computers. It’s going to be people who are so perceptive spiritually of the glories of God that they are full of affections that are appropriate for those glories and can give expression to them. That’s what eternity will be.”

 Algorithms and the Affections

John Piper (Nov. 2025): “If you had thought that your essence of humanness in the image of God was your reasoning capacity, over an ape or a porpoise, you’re in trouble. Because, guess what? ChatGPT is smarter than you are and more creative than you are in expressing things in language that is good. It can write prayers better than you can, and it can reason through hard problems better than you can. Therefore, there are people who are going to forsake the faith because they thought to be a human in the image of God was to be a reasoning person over against the animals, and they discovered a machine can do it better than they can. Crisis of faith. This to me is no crisis because of my Christian Hedonism. I do not think that my reasoning capacities are my essence. I think the soul’s capacity to delight in God is my essence. The soul’s capacity to enjoy God. No machine will ever enjoy, period. It will have the language of enjoyment. You can tell it to write a poem of enjoyment and it will use the language. That machine is not enjoying *her*. It’s not. It never will.

Only human beings created in the image of God can enjoy God. Therefore, enjoyment matters. I mean, affections are who we are ultimately. The end of history, the end of creation, is not going to be merely rational creatures thinking rightly about God, little computers. It’s going to be people who are so perceptive spiritually of the glories of God that they are full of affections that are appropriate for those glories and can give expression to them. That’s what eternity will be.” Source: Sovereign Grace Churches, Pastors Conference PreCon (November 2025)