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).

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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:

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