If you do not see so much weakness and corruption, so much deadness and distraction, attending your best duties, as to convince you of the absolute need of the blood of Jesus, it is evident that you are not yet come off from Mt. Sinai Law as a covenant.
—Ebenezer ErskineMonday, February 28, 2022
Saturday, February 26, 2022
Never Expect Strength by Looking to Your Faith
Never expect strength by looking at your faith; look to Christ.
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Biography Note on Luther's Death
On this day, February 18, 1546, 476 years ago, Martin Luther (1484-1546) died from a stroke, having delivered his last sermon only three days prior. As is true of all of us, Luther was not perfect. He had his faults. But God still used this godly man to set in motion the Reformation, preserving the integrity of His Word and the way of Salvation....by grace alone through faith alone.
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Daily Grace is Needed
Beloved Christian reader, in matters of grace you need a daily supply. You have no store of strength.
Friday, February 11, 2022
HOGS COME IN THE OPEN GATES
He who prays and watches not, is like him that sows a field with precious seed — but leaves the gate open for hogs to come and rout it up!
-- William Gurnall (1616 – 1679)We are not constrained
Let us open our mouth wide, since Christ is so ready to fill it. We are not constrained in his love, but in our own hearts.
SibbesThursday, February 10, 2022
Salvation is like God
Our salvation is like God, from everlasting to everlasting, from 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 [in eternity past] to [future] 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺.
—Puritan Richard Sibbes, Works 7:62Wednesday, February 9, 2022
LOOK ONLY UNTO CHRIST
God calls us to look off from all other things; look off from the law, look off from self, look off from sin,—look 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 unto Christ.
John OwenTuesday, February 8, 2022
INFINITE LOVE
The fountain of the grace and mercy of Christ is infinite. Whom he loves, he loves unto the end. His love is such as never had a beginning, and shall never have an end.
WE PREACH AND PRAY
We preach and pray, and you hear; but there is no motion Christ-ward until the Spirit of God blows upon them.
NOT A LEGAL SANCTIFICATION.
This sanctification of the believers must then be properly understood.
It must not become a legal sanctification [by the terrors of Law] but is and must remain an evangelical sanctification [by the comforts of the Gospel]. —Herman Bavinck, Wonderful Works of God, Pg. 461Sunday, February 6, 2022
CONTEMPLATION OF CHRIST
When faith is lacking the antidote is not introspective self-examination but contemplation of the object of
our faith: Jesus the Lord, our sufficient Saviour. —Graeme Goldsworthy, Prayer and the Knowledge of God, Pg. 71Friday, February 4, 2022
GRASP THE TOTALITY OF THEIR DEPENDENCE
A Christian who rarely prays has yet to grasp the totality of their dependence on God in all things. Without God, you will not take your next breath; yet you think you will raise your children, be a good spouse, even do ministry work without seeking Him? --Jeff Bys.
Thursday, February 3, 2022
God did not wait
God did not wait for a change of heart on our part. He made the first move. Indeed, He did more than that. He did all was necessary to secure our reconciliation, including our change of heart. Even though He is the One offended by our sin, He is the One who makes amends to Himself through the death of Christ.
I have prayed earnestly
“No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect, except those who have learned it by experience. Whenever I have prayed earnestly, I have been heard and have obtained more than I prayed for. God sometimes delays, but He always comes.” ~ Martin Luther
Fervency in Prayer
“Prayer is a lifting up of the mind and soul to God, which cannot be done rightly without offering violence to one's self. The names given to prayer imply violence. It is called wrestling (Genesis 32:24), and a pouring out of the soul (I Samuel 1:15), both of which imply vehemency…. That we may offer violence to ourselves and by fervency feather the wing of prayer, let these things be duly weighed. Consider the majesty of God with whom we have to do…. Nothing will sooner make God's anger wax hot than a cold prayer. Prayer without fervency and violence is no prayer; it is speaking, not praying…. [I]f anything may excite prayer and carry it in a fiery chariot up to heaven, it is when we know we pray for nothing but that which God is more willing to grant than we are to ask…. How then should we ply this oar and by a holy violence stir up ourselves to take hold of God! It is only violence and intenseness of spirit in prayer that has the promise of mercy affixed to it, ‘Knock, and it shall be opened’ (Matthew 7:7). Knocking is a violent motion.” ~Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
CONVINCED OF THEIR NEED OF GOD'S POWER
For men have no taste for [God’s power] till they are convinced of their need of it and they immediately forget its value unless they are conditionally reminded by awareness of their own weakness.
John CalvinLife of David
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Ps. 34:19): some internal, others external; some from friends, others from foes; some more directly at the hand of God, others more remotely by the instrumentality of the devil. Nor should this be thought strange. Such has been the lot of all God’s children in greater or lesser degree. Nor ought we to expect much comfort in a world which so basely crucified the Lord of glory. The sooner the Christian makes it his daily study to pass through this world as a stranger and pilgrim, anxious to depart and be with Christ, the better for his peace of mind. But it is natural to cling tenaciously to this life and to love the things of time and sense, and therefore most of the Lord’s people have to encounter many buffetings and have many disappointments before they are brought to hold temporal things with a light hand and before their silly hearts are weaned from that which satisfies not.”
AN EMPTY VESSEL
Prayer of Martin Luther (1483-1546)