Bed of Roses

 When chained to the stake he embraced the flames, and said, "Oh, ye papists, behold! ye look for miracles; here now may you see a miracle; for in this fire I feel no more pain than if I were in bed; for it is as sweet to me as a bed of roses."

Protestant James Baynham, 1532

God uses Means

God does not save people in a vacuum, apart from means, but through the preaching of the gospel. That is the means He uses to gather His elect. A farmer cannot hope to harvest a crop if he sits around and does nothing. He must plant seed. But the reverse is also true. He can work till he's blue in the face, he can cast seed in the ground he plows up, but unless the blessing of rain falls from heaven, the seed will remain dormant and all his work will be in vain. Similarly when we cast the seed of the gospel, we must also pray to to our Heavenly Father that He would send His Holy Spirit to open the hearts of the hearers … for, apart from His blessing the seed will fall on deaf ears. 

 Although we may intellectually understand this truth, it is easy to forget its significance in our daily lives. All too often we affirm this truth and then put it away in a file cabinet in some dark basement. It is easy to be tempted to rely on our own persuasive arguments to change the hearts of others, but we must remember that only God can transform a person's heart. Therefore, we must consistently pray before and after we share the gospel with others. We must plead with God to disarm the natural hostility of their hearts and open their minds to the truth. We must also pray for ourselves, that we may be gentle and wise in our approach, and that our defense of the Bible may be both cogent and compassionate. But how often do we forget to pray when sharing the gospel? Let us never forget the importance of seeking God's intervention as we share the good news of salvation. 

 (1 Corinthians 3:6-7, Acts 16:14, 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, James 1:18, John 15:5, Romans 10:14, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, 1 Peter 3:15, Colossians 4:6)

Goodness of God Song

 

Animal Laws

 Animals do not make laws. Animals do not force clothing, literacy, taxes, speeding, honesty, fidelity, property rights, punishments for murder, or trial by jury-- for billions of years across 1.7 million species.

Atheist begins: "Let me Introduce you"

Evolution does not provide the framework for:

1, binding imperatives/ mandatory actions, emotions, opinions

2. shame, remorse,

3. respect, empathy.

You can post commands and opinions, but for billions of years 1.7 million species will entirely ignore and defy your commands and opinions-- just as they do to this day. Humans as animals are not bound to any imperative, opinion, goal. purpose.

Whatever actions, responses, behaviors, traits you do cite in an animal it is still not "objectively good", as if jumping, swimming, climbing, burrowing are objectively good/ bad.

Violence happens in the animal world, but so does jumping, swimming, climbing, burrowing, nudity, illiteracy, infidelity. You either embrace all traits, or renounce all traits; But all traits are equal though different. A brown cow is not better than a violent cow. A peaceful cow is not better than a red cow.

Nugget on Atheism

Evolution allows for no binding imperatives. Things happen.

There are no "goals" (for life to exist, improve, cooperate, be sustained, or continue.)

Life happens, but so does death. Cooperation happens but so does violence. If empathy happens so does jumping, swimming, climbing, burrowing in the ground.

Offspring are born, but not always. Mates are found, but not always. Life is not an imperative. Health is not an imperative.

In Evolution no "is" or "are" is an "ought" or a "must". In Evolution no "does, do, did, has" is an "ought" or a "must". Examples. 1. Termites are cooperative. But this does not mean that "ought" to cooperate or "must" cooperate. Bears do not cooperate. 2. Humans "do" show empathy. Insects do not show empathy, animals only operate on instinct. No animal says that humans "ought" or "must" show empathy.

The feelings of shame, remorse, empathy, cooperation are all traits that are never required responses, just like "jumping" is not a required response. Some animals jump, some don't. Humans may have remorse, humans may not. Evolution does not care if life exists, improves, thrives, survives, or ends. There is no goal, intentionality, purpose in evolution. Death is fine, shame is fine, selfishness if fine.

Atheists say, "But cooperation, morality, empathy improves and extends life." Improvement and comfort are subjective. A pig fines comfort in mud, should humans wallow in mud? Bears hibernate, should humans hibernate? Sharks can live 300-500 years without reading, writing, waring clothes, or leaving the ocean; should humans imitate sharks to extend their life? Atheists tell me "you ought to read more." I tell them to tell that to a Shark. A shark will ignore them as 1.7 million species will, and thus so will I ignore their commands. 1.7 million species don't read and in evolution that is okay, so I won't read either. They say we came from animals, but then ditch the entire framework that animals operate under. 

Agreed Behavior

 An atheist has defined morality as "agreed behavior in a community."

I responded, "If we came from animals who have existed and evolved over 2 billion years, then nothing in evolution "requires" agreement. A cat can climb a tree or avoid a tree, neither is right or wrong, neither is required. You cannot praise conformity nor shame non-conformity. Even praise and shame are decisions that are meaningless like having wings or not having wings. If an animal or human derived from animals has no shame, it is irrelevant as an animal having no wings. No trait is mandatory, required, or essential. Even survival is not mandatory, required or essential. Plenty of species are extinct and that is just fine. There are no goals and no purpose or objective in the outcome of an explosion."

Habakkuk 3:17

 Habakkuk 3:17-19  For though the fig-tree shall not flourish, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labor of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no food; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls:  (18)  Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation.        (19)  Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength; And he maketh my feet like hinds' feet, And will make me to walk upon my high places. For the Chief Musician, on my stringed instruments.

INTERPRET EVERY AFFLICTION

from Mike Riccardi: 

To interpret every affliction in your life as God’s disapproval is misguided. It is to side with Job’s friends and to forget God’s redemptive purposes in suffering.

But to interpret every affliction in your life as persecution for what just _must_ be faithfulness is also misguided. It is to steel yourself against the blessing of God’s chastening.

To be sure, if you belong to Christ, God is using your present affliction—whatever it is—for your good, and so there is no reason for the believer to be despondent.

But the good that God is accomplishing may very well be to bring you to repentance for sin or foolishness. In that case, there is no reason to be cocksure, fancy yourself a martyr, or deceive yourself that the only reason you could be suffering is for righteousness’ sake.

Wisdom and maturity are able to rightly discern whether a particular trial is your sharing in the sufferings of Christ, or whether you’re suffering as an evildoer (1 Pet 4:14-16).

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11).

“A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy” (Prov 29:1).

Active Obedience of Jesus

 Active Obedience.  (from Ken Kovach's wall):

Theological Term

active obedience of Christ

Jesus Christ’s perfect obedience to the whole law of God, which is credited to believers as grounds for their justification. Also called preceptive obedience. (See passive obedience of Christ.)

• Christ’s active obedience in scripture (see quote from John Owen below for more explanation):

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19 ESV)

• From the 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith :

Of Justification. We believe that the great gospel blessing which Christ secures to such as believe in him is Justification; that Justification includes the pardon of sin, and the promise of eternal life on principles of righteousness; that it is bestowed, not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood; by virtue of which faith his perfect righteousness is freely imputed to us of God; that it brings us into a state of most blessed peace and favor with God, and secures every other blessing needful for time and eternity.

• From Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem:

If Christ had only earned forgiveness of sins for us, then we would not merit heaven. Our guilt would have been removed, but we would simply be in the position of Adam and Eve before they had done anything good or bad and before they had passed a time of probation successfully. To be established in righteousness forever and to have their fellowship with God made sure forever, Adam and Eve had to obey God perfectly over a period of time. Then God would have looked on their faithful obedience with pleasure and delight, and they would have lived with him in fellowship forever.

For this reason, Christ had to live a life of perfect obedience to God in order to earn righteousness for us. He had to obey the law for his whole life on our behalf so that the positive merits of his perfect obedience would be counted for us. Sometimes this is called Christ’s “active obedience,” while his suffering and dying for our sins is called his “passive obedience.” Paul says his goal is that he may be found in Christ, “not having a righteousness of [his] own based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3:9). It is not just moral neutrality that Paul knows he needs from Christ (that is, a clean slate with sins forgiven), but a positive moral righteousness. And he knows that that cannot come from himself, but must come through faith in Christ. Similarly, Paul says that Christ has been made “our righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30). And he quite explicitly says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).

• From The Imputation of the Obedience of Christ Unto the Law Declared and Indicated by John Owen:

…[O]ur Saviour himself expounds this “fulfilling of the law,” by doing the commands of it, Matt.5:19. Wherefore, the Lord Christ as our mediator and surety fulfilling the law, by yielding perfect obedience thereunto, he did it for us; and to us it is imputed.

This is plainly affirmed by the apostle, Rom.5:18,19, “Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” The full plea from, and vindication of, this testimony, I refer unto its proper place in the testimonies given unto the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto our justification in general. Here I shall only observe, that the apostle expressly and in terms affirms that “by the obedience of Christ we are made righteous,” or justified; which we cannot be but by the imputation of it unto us. I have met with nothing that had the appearance of any sobriety for the eluding of this express testimony, but only that by the obedience of Christ his death and sufferings are intended, wherein he was obedient unto God; as the apostle says, he was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” Phil.2:8. But yet there is herein no colour of probability. For,

(1.) It is acknowledged that there was such a near conjunction and alliance between the obedience of Christ and his sufferings, that though they may be distinguished, yet can they not be separated. He suffered in the whole course of his obedience, from the womb to the cross; and he obeyed in all his sufferings unto the last moment wherein he expired. But yet are they really things distinct, as we have proved; and they were so in him who “learned obedience by the things that he suffered,” Heb.5:8.

(2.) In this place, [Rom.5] “hupako-e”, verse 19, and “dikaiooma”, verse 18, are the same,— obedience and righteousness. “By the righteousness of one,” and “by the obedience of one,” are the same. But suffering, as suffering, is not “dikaiooma”, is not righteousness; for if it were, then every one that suffers what is due to him should be righteous, and so be justified, even the devil himself.

(3.) The righteousness and obedience here intended are opposed “tooi paraptoomati”,—to the offence: “By the offense of one.” But the offense intended was an actual transgression of the law; so is “paraptooma”, a fall from, or a fall in, the course of obedience. Wherefore the “dikaiooma”, or righteousness, must be an actual obedience unto the commands of the law, or the force of the apostle’s reasoning and antithesis cannot be understood.

(4.) Particularly, it is such an obedience as is opposed unto the disobedience of Adam,—“one man’s disobedience,” “one man’s obedience;”—but the disobedience of Adam was an actual transgression of the law: and therefore the obedience of Christ here intended was his active obedience unto the law;—which is that we plead for.

Learn more:

1. R. C. Sproul: Jesus Not Only Died for Us, He Lived for Us

2. Brian Schwertley: A Defense of the “Active Obedience” of Jesus Christ in the Justification of Sinners (pdf).

3. Wayne Grudem: The Active Obedience of Christ

4. John Samson: The Active Obedience of Christ - No Hope Without It!

5. J. Gresham Machen: The Active Obedience of Christ

6. Loraine Boettner: The Active and Passive Obedience of Christ

7. Curt Daniel: The Active and Passive Obedience of Christ (mp3)

 

Jesus is my Righteousness. MLJ.

Let every demon in hell, and Satan himself rise up and try to condemn you. Answer him! They say, ‘The Law demands this; God is holy, here are the demands.’ ‘Quite right,’ you say, ‘but Christ is the end of the Law to me because I believe in Him - 𝘏𝘦 is my righteousness.’ 

 Source: Martin Lloyd-Jones;   Exposition of Romans Chapter 10: Saving Faith, Pg. 62

HATING TEMPTATION

 "Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root." - John Owen

Evangelism must begin with

 

MLJ on Prayer

 The ultimate test of my understanding of the scriptural teaching, is the amount of time I spend in prayer. As theology is ultimately the knowledge of God—the more theology I know, the more it should drive me to seek to know God. Not to know "about" Him—but to know Him! The whole object of salvation is to bring me to knowledge of God. If all my knowledge does not lead me to prayer, then there is something wrong somewhere. -Martyn Lloyd-Jones

John Owen Devotional

 

MULTITUDES LIKE JUDAS IN THE CHURCH

 

Burn your eyes out

 

Half Beast and Half Devil

 Left to himself, man is half beast and half devil.

George Whitefield

Recognize ourselves in them

 

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 

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"

SHUT YOUR EYES

 

GREAT MEME BY BOSTON

 

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.

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

Preservation is a Trinitarian Work

 

I cannot keep myself saved

 I CANNOT KEEP MYSELF SAVED!

C.H. Spurgeon

Salvation is the work of God. It is HE ALONE who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is He also who MAINTAINS THE SOUL in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is OF THE LORD.” If I am prayerful, GOD makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because HE upholds me with His hand.

I DO NOTHING WHATEVER TOWARDS MY OWN PRESERVATION, EXCEPT WHAT GOD HIMSELF FIRST DOES IN ME.

WHATEVER I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, THAT IS MY OWN; but wherein I act rightly, THAT is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but CHRIST who liveth in me.

Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I FIND IN MYSELF NOTHING BUT SIN AND MISERY. “He only is my rock and my salvation.”

Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: WITHOUT JESUS I CAN DO NOTHING.

As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet:

“Salvation is of the Lord!”

"Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto Thy statutes continually." [Psalm 119:117]

A little faith gives a whole Christ.

 

Position of an Asker

 

WE HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO GO WITH

 

The point is not that we go to Him condemned, though we were condemned before Christ came.  We go to Him because we are NOT condemned because Christ removed condemnation from us;  Yet we to Him knowing our old nature is nothing but a vile, evil, wicked, wretched sinner;  but that old nature which is still tied to us was crucified with Christ (my sins have already been punished in the body of Christ) and buried with Christ.   (unfinished article)...

Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy

 Come, Ye Sinners, Poor And Needy

Joseph Hart

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,

Weak and wounded, sick and sore!

Jesus ready stands to save you,

Full of pity, love and power.

He is able, He is able, He is able,

He is willing, doubt no more!

Let not conscience let you linger,

Nor of fitness fondly dream;

All the fitness He requireth

Is to feel your need of Him.

This He gives you, This He gives you, This He gives you:

'Tis the Spirit's glimmering beam.

Come ye weary, heavy laden,

Bruised and mangled by the fall;

If you tarry till you're better,

You will never come at all.

Not the righteous, Not the righteous, Not the righteous;

Sinners Jesus came to call.

Agonizing in the garden,

Lo! your Maker prostrate lies!

On the bloody tree behold Him:

Hear Him cry, before He dies:

“It is finished!” “It is finished!” “It is finished!”

Sinner, will this not suffice?

Lo! The incarnate God ascending,

Pleads the merit of His blood;

Venture on Him, venture freely;

Let no other trust intrude.

None but Jesus, None but Jesus, None but Jesus

Can do helpless sinners good.

Atheism Believes

 

We cannot be amazed

 

KNOW I AM ELECT

 How Do I Know I am Elect by A.W. Pink

"How may I know I'm elect? First, by the Word of God having come in divine power to the soul so that my self-complacency is shattered and my self-righteousness is renounced. Second, by the Holy Spirit convicting me of my woeful, guilty, and lost condition. Third, by having had revealed to me the suitability and sufficiency of Christ to meet my desperate case and by a divinely given faith causing me to lay hold of and rest upon Him as my only hope. Fourth, by the marks of the new nature within me - a love for God; an appetite for spiritual things; a longing for holiness; a seeking after conformity to Christ. Fifth, by the resistance which the new nature makes to the old, causing me to hate sin and loathe myself for it. Sixth, by avoiding everything which is condemned by God's Word and by sincerely repenting of and humbly confessing every transgression. Failure at this point will surely bring a dark cloud over our assurance causing the Spirit to withhold His witness. Seventh, by giving all diligence to cultivate the Christian graces and using all diligence to this end. Thus the knowledge of election is cumulative."

- A .W. Pink, The Doctrines of Election and Justification [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974], pp. 140-41.

Water in a sieve

 He that will keep water in a sieve must use more than ordinary diligence. -- John Bunyan. The heart is an unreliable container of truth. (In other words, we need daily and constant reminders of God's Word.)

LOST AND UNDONE WITHOUT HIM

 Do not say, ‘I am not prepared for coming to Christ’; for I know of no preparation a sinner can make for Christ, but that of seeing himself lost and undone without Him.

—Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754), The Beauties of Ebenezer Erskine, Pg. 115

The believer does not live upon his own feelings, or grace in him, but on 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵 the fountain of life. —Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754), The Beauties of Ebenezer Erskine, Pg. 99

Know, for thy comfort, that the weakest believer is as nearly related to God as a Father, as the strongest believer is. —Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754), The Beauties of Ebenezer Erskine, Pg. 80

I did not induce it. John Owen

 

My faith would utterly fail. Muller

 

Faith is not my Savior

“Faith is not our physician. It only brings us

to the Physician. It is not even our medicine; it only administers the medicine, divinely prepared by Him who ‘healeth all our diseases.’ In all our believing, let us remember God’s word to Israel: ‘I am Jehovah, that healeth thee’ (Exod. 14:26). Our faith is but our touching Jesus; and what is even this, in reality, but His touching us?

“Faith is not our saviour. It was not faith that
was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Saviour is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.

“Faith is not perfection. Yet only by perfection can we be saved; either our own or another’s.
That which is imperfect cannot justify, and an imperfect faith could not in any sense be a righteousness. 

If it is to justify, it must be perfect. It must be like ‘the Lamb, without blemish and without spot.’ An imperfect faith may connect us with the perfection of another; but it cannot of itself do aught for us, either in protecting us from wrath or securing the divine acquittal.

“All faith here is imperfect; and our security is this, that it matters not how poor or weak our faith may be: if it touches the perfect One, all is well. The touch draws out the virtue that is in Him, and we are saved.

“The slightest imperfection in our faith, if faith were our righteousness, would be fatal to every hope. But the imperfection of our faith, however great, if faith be but the approximation or contact between us and the fulness of the Substitute, is no hindrance to our participation of His righteousness. God has asked and provided a perfect righteousness; He nowhere asks nor expects a perfect faith. An earthenware pitcher can convey water to a traveller’s thirsty lips as well as one of gold; nay, a broken vessel, even if there be but ‘a sherd to take water from the pit’ (Isa 30:14), will suffice. So a feeble, very feeble faith, will connect us with the righteousness of the Son of God; the faith, perhaps, that can only cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.’

“Faith is not satisfaction to God. In no sense and in no aspect can faith be said to satisfy God, or to satisfy the law. Yet if it is to be our righteousness, it must satisfy. Being imperfect, it cannot satisfy; being human, it cannot satisfy, even though it were perfect. That which satisfies must be capable of bearing our guilt; and that which bears our guilt must be not only perfect, but divine. It is a sin-bearer that we need, and our faith cannot be a sin-bearer. Faith can expiate no guilt; can accomplish no propitiation; can pay no penalty; can wash away no stain; can provide no righteousness. It brings us to the cross, where there is expiation, and propitiation, and payment, and cleansing, and righteousness; but in itself it has no merit and no virtue.

“Faith is not Christ, nor the cross of Christ. Faith is not the blood, nor the sacrifice; it is not the altar, nor the laver, nor the mercy-seat, nor the incense. It does not work, but accepts a work done ages ago; it does not wash, but leads us to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. It does not create; it merely links us to that new thing which was created when the ‘everlasting righteousness’ was brought in (Dan 9:24).

“And as faith goes on, so it continues; always the beggar’s outstretched hand, never the rich man’s gold; always the cable, never the anchor, the knocker, not the door, or the palace, or the table; the handmaid, not the mistress; the lattice which lets in the light, not the sun.”

— Horatius Bonar

Don Green on Prayer.

 Don Green Posted on Prayer:

Christian friends, what follows from Martin Luther is a critical principle to grasp for your spiritual growth.

The power of prayer is not found in your flawed devotion, effort, eloquence, or many words.

Christ alone is the basis upon which our prayers are heard.

That frees you to speak plainly and directly in the presence of God.

Better to pray five words humbly trusting in the name of Christ than to follow the human rules of 5000 prayer conferences.

And now from Luther. Long live biblical truth. Long live the

Reformation:

"Some fail disastrously in prayer. They nullify it, for they utter it merely with their lips and not with their hearts. They will not believe that they are heard until they imagine that they have prayed well and worthily. Thus they build on themselves.

"A prayer is not good because of its length, devoutness, sweetness, or its plea for temporal or eternal goods. Not your zeal, but [Christ and] God's Word render your prayer good.

"Only that prayer is acceptable which breathes a firm confidence and trust that it will be heard because of the reliable pledge and promise of God [found in Scripture alone]."~ Martin Luther

"And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:7-8).

Like

Comment

Share

Comfort is not in our Sanctification

 Another cause of disquiet [in us] is, that men by a natural kind of popery seek for their comfort too much [in] sanctification, neglecting justification.

Paul was of another mind, accounting all but dung, compared to the righteousness of Christ. —Richard Sibbes, Works 1:138

I am Near as He.

 428: A MIND at perfect peace with God:

Oh, what a word is this!
A sinner reconciled through blood:
This, this indeed is peace.

By nature and by practice far,
How very far from God!
Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him
Through faith in Jesus’ blood.

So nigh, so very nigh to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For in the person of His Son,
I am as near as He.

So dear, so very dear to God,
More dear I cannot be;
The love wherewith He loves the Son,
Such is His love to me.

Why should I ever anxious be
Since such a God is mine?
He watches o’er me night and day,
And tells me, “Thou art Mine”.

by Catesby Paget (19th Century)
sung to Evan
by W. H. Havergal (1793-1870)
(C.M.)

HOW QUICKLY YOU WILL BE FORGOTTEN

 

You are not the explanation of you

 "You are not the explanation of you" -- Pastor Adam Ashoff

Cannot purge the least of it

 

Sin is so Utterly devastating that even an eternity in hell cannot purge the least of it.

Without the Spirit, hearing is in vain.

 

God remembers His promises and forgets your sins.

You'll never be a mature Christian until you understand that God remembers his promises and forgets your sins. -- Kevin DeYoung.

 

Endeavor to Affect our Hearts with it.

 When by faith we have attained a view of the glory of Christ, in our contemplations on his person, we should not pass it over as a notion of truth which we assent unto, - namely, that he is thus glorious in himself, - but endeavor to affect our hearts with it. John Owen.

Five Answers to Five Errors

 To be very accurate, Calvinism does not have—and never has had—five points. Rather, it has five answers to the five errors of Arminianism.

-W. Robert Godfrey, Saving the Reformation: The Pastoral Theology of the Canons of Dort

A FOUNTAIN OPENED

 

Assurance

“If assurance is not of the essence of saving faith, and it can be lost because of sin, sensitive persons will inevitably scrape their consciences raw until they find clues and, as Calvin warned, there will be no satisfaction with evidences;……there will never be enough to secure the soul’s confidence.” -Michael Horton “

There is nothing then that can satisfy the conscience in respect of the guilt of sin, but the blood, and death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” -Thomas Goodwin

Why not love the world?

 

A GRAIN OF FAITH MORE THAN A TON OF EXCITEMENT.

 

Offense and Tumult

 

Satan lies on the label.

 Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst:

He promises honor and pays with disgrace. He promises pleasure and pays with pain. He promises profit and pays with loss. He promises life and pays with death. But 𝘎𝘰𝘥 pays as He promises. —Thomas Brooks, Works 2:322

Satan labels the pot to be honey, when it is actually poison.

Satan lies.

Satan's promise is a lie.

Temptation is a lie.

Great Quotes by Gurnall

 “Never think to find honey in the pot when God writes poison on its cover.

“We may say of every sin in this respect...if God call it folly, there is no wisdom to be found in it.

“The devil, indeed, teacheth sinners to cover foul practices with fair names.”

— William Gurnall

 “Never think to find honey in the pot when God writes poison on its cover.

— William Gurnall

APPLAUSE IS WORTH NOTHING.

 

(Do not seek to impress others or your self with your: Chess rating, Bench Press, Cycling Distance.  Though exercise for the sake of energy for the sake of serving Christ and telling of His glory and grace -- is a proper motivation to exercise.)

Not for our Faith, nor according to our Faith

We are not elected....for our faith nor according to our faith, but "to our faith", that is, elected (in order that) we might (would) believe.  

-- William Perkins. 

THE SOVEREIGN DECREE OF GOD

 

I am His by purchase

 

I SIN CONTINUALLY, BUT CHRIST HAS DIED