He Giveth More Grace

HE giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase;
to added affliction He addeth His mercy,
to multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
for out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
when our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
when we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
our Father’s full giving is only begun.

A Flint
Christian Hymns
EMW
#843

On Lingering over Scripture

I regard the Scripture and these great statements in it as being comparable to a great art gallery where there are famous paintings hanging on the walls. Certain people, when they visit such a place, buy a catalogue from the guide at the door, and then holding it in their hands walk round the gallery. They notice that Item number 1 is a painting by Van Dyck, let us say; and they say “Ah, that is a Van Dyck.” Then they pass on hurriedly to Item number 2, which is perhaps a portrait by Rembrandt. “Ah,” they say, “that’s a Rembrandt, a famous picture.” Then they move on to further Items in the same way. I grant that that is a possible way of viewing the treasures of an art gallery; and yet I have a feeling that when such a person has gone through every room of the gallery and has said, “Well, we have ‘done’ the National Gallery, let us now go to the Tate Gallery,” the truth is that they have never really seen either of the galleries or their treasures. It is the same in regard to the Scriptures. There are people who walk through this first chapter of this Epistle to the Ephesians in some such manner as I have described, and they feel that they have “done” it. It is surely better to stand, if necessary, for hours before this chapter which has been given to us by God Himself through His Spirit, and to gaze upon it, and to try to discover its riches both in general and in detail.

DM Lloyd-Jones
Quoted in J Meyer
Lloyd-Jones on the Christian Life
Crossway
p129

Astonished at the kindness of Christ

Christianity is not about people seeking God and finding him. It is about some people seeking God and not finding him, while others do not seek him but are found by him. If it was about people seeking God and finding him, the new creation would be a ‘prig-sty’ full of stuck-up prigs boasting about how sensible they were to seek him, and how clever to have searched so effectively. Instead it will be full of people with looks of amazement on their faces, astonished at the kindness of the Christ who first found them.

C Ash
Teaching Romans, Vol 2
CFP
Chapter 6

Trusting God

Shall the great housekeeperof the world water his flowers, prune his plants, fodder his cattle, and not feed and clothe his children?

J Trapp
Quoted in T Johnson
The Identity and Attributes of God
Banner of Truth
p254

God's Sovereign Providence

I am what I am and where I am by the hand of God.

T Johnson
The Identity and Attributes of God
Banner of Truth
p130

Eternity

Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise.

T Watson
In: Sermons of the Great Ejection
Banner of Truth
p176

Faith

Faith lives in a promise, as the fish lives in water.

T Watson
In: Sermons of the Great Ejection
Banner of Truth
p170

Creation

The first verse of the Bible gives us a surer and better, and a more satisfying and useful knowledge of the universe … than all the volumes of the philosophers.

M Henry

Quoted in T Johnson

The Identity and Attributes of God

Banner of Truth

p87

On Meeting Together to Pray

And, brethren, if anything should make us come out boldly in our worship of God, it is the publicity of the sin of the ungodly; if anything should make us band together, it is the presence of sin in so many of our fellow creatures; if anything should make us pray, it is the prevalence of iniquity all around us; if anything should make us feel that we who love the Lord must unite to serve Him, and throw our whole heart and soul into united prayer to the Most High, and united adoration of God over all, blessed for evermore, it is when we hear the blasphemies of men, and see their rebellion against the Lord.

CH Spurgeon 
Only a Prayer Meeting 
CFP
p55

God's Blessing

However much we may wish for a blessing, God will not set the seal of his blessing to work which is begun and carried on in the power of self.

CH Spurgeon 
Only a Prayer Meeting 
CFP
p29

God's Plans

If God has plans for the future, we shouldn't complain about the present. If we don't like what He is doing in the present, it's because He hasn't yet finished. The present is on its way to the future, and every part of it is under His control.

D Thomas
Strength for the Weary
Reformation Trust
p40

Our Father

Some of us have had fathers who let us down. Some of us, when we think about fathers, think only of disappointment or pain. But God is not an approximation of our earthly fathers. We have a heavenly Father. Even the finest moments of the best earthly fathers are only a glimpse of what this Father is to us and for us. He’ll never renege on his love. He’ll never leave us in the dark. He’ll never forget what we told him or what he promised us. He’ll make no mistakes. He’ll never ditch us, even if everyone else has turned their backs on us, and no matter how much we let him down. All of us have tested his patience to limits beyond extreme. And yet still he comes again and again calling out, My daughter. My son. You’re my child. I predestined to adopt you into my family. I made you. I sought you. I bought you. I love you. I’m with you.

A Begg
Pray Big
The Good Book Company
Kindle location 782

Loving God

We are meant to love God, not only to believe certain things about him.

DM Lloyd-Jones
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Vol 1
IVP
p237

The proper way for a man to pray

“The proper way for a man to pray,”
Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
“And the only proper attitude,
Is down upon his knees.”

“No, I should say the way to pray,”
Said Reverend Doctor Wise,
Is standing straight, with outstretched arms,
With rapt and upturned eyes.”

“Oh no, no, no,” said Elder Snow,
“Such posture is too proud:
A man should pray with eyes fast closed
And head contritely bowed.”

“It seems to me one’s hands should be
Astutely clasped in front,
With both thumbs pointed toward the ground,”
Said Reverend Doctor Blunt.

“Last year I fell in Hodgkin’s well
Head first,” said Cyrus Brown,
“With both my heels a-stickin’ up,
And my head a-pointing down;
And I done prayed right there and then
Best prayer I ever said,
The prayingest prayer I ever prayed,
Standing on my head.”

S Fox,
Quoted in A Begg
Pray Big
Good Book Company
p25

The mercy of God

To see a prince entreat a beggar to receive an alms would be strange sight; to see a king entreat a traitor to accept of mercy would be a stranger sight than that; but to see God entreat a sinner, to hear Christ say, 'I stand at the door and knock,' with a heart full and a heaven full of grace to bestow upon him that opens, that is such a sight as dazzles the eyes of angels.

J Bunyan
Quoted in J Beeke
Reformed Preaching
Crossway
p223

To be without the Word of God

Nothing is more tragic than to be without the Word of God. Without access to special revelation from the Lord - His words through His prophets and Apostles - all we have is His general revelation, which is His revelation in nature and on our consciences of His attributes and our being under His wrath. To be without God’s special revelation is to be without the hope of the gospel and thus without the hope of redemption.

B Parsons
Tabletalk Magazine
Ligonier
April 2019, p 35

How to die

It becomes a soldier to die fighting, and a minister to die preaching, and a Christian to die praying.

J Flavel
Works, Vol 1
Banner of Truth
p273

God's Gifts

In contrast to the way many naturally think, God rarely grants a gift for the benefit of its recipient. That is a classically Western mistake because it is shaped by our obsessive individualism.

M Meynell
When Darkness Seems My Closest Friend
IVP
p173

The Bible

This poor Bible is become an almost obsolete book, even with some Christians. There are so many magazines, periodicals, and such like ephemeral productions, that we are in danger of neglecting to search the Scriptures.

CH Spurgeon
Spurgeon's Sermons, Vol 1
Baker
p271

Pray for your ministers

Ye who love God, of every place and every denomination, wrestle for your ministers; pray for them; for why should not God even now put out his Spirit?

CH Spurgeon
Spurgeon's Sermons Volumes 1-2
Baker
p266

We are not under the Law, but under grace

Christian men hold themselves bound to keep all God's precepts; but the reason why they do so is not because the law is binding upon them, but because the gospel constrains them; they believe, that having been redeemed by blood divine; having been purchased by Jesus Christ, they are more bound to keep his commands, than they would have been if they were under the law; they hold themselves to be ten thousand fold more debtors to God, than they could have been under the Mosaic dispensation.

CH Spurgeon
Spurgeon's Sermons Volumes 1-2
Baker
p254