Unity

To me one of the major tragedies of the hour, and especially in the realm of the Church, is that most of the time seems to be taken up by the leaders in preaching about unity instead of preaching the gospel that alone can produce unity.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones
God's Way of Reconciliation
BoT
p204

Prayer

 For what is prayer if not a testimony of the faith we have in God?

J Calvin
Sermons on Job: Chapters 1-14
BoT
Kindle loc. 9095

God's Justice and Love

 If God were not just, he could not be love, for love as well as justice excludes every unholy thing as destructive of true beauty and selfless fellowship.

T Nettles (summarising CH Spurgeon)
Living by Revealed Truth
CFP (Mentor)
Kindle loc. 8922

Faith and Hope

Faith tells the soul what Christ has done for it and so comforts it; hope revives the soul with the news of what Christ will do for it.

W Gurnall, in
J Faris,
When My Soul is Downcast and Despiring
Tabletalk Magazine March 2021
Ligonier
p67

Faith

 The least measure of faith receives remission for the greatest sins.

J Flavel
Works, Vol 2
Banner of Truth
p127

Christian Discipleship

 If we compare ourselves with others ("I am the greatest"), try to exclude others who may be following Jesus as much as we are ("We are the only ones"), or ignore the seriousness of sin ("Sin doesn't matter"), we shall not be effective disciples of Jesus.

A Page
The Mark Experiment
VTR Publications
p56

God's Love

 A fish could sooner drink the Mississippi River dry than we could empty the fountain of his love.

J Beeke & P Smalley
Reformed Systematic Theology, Vol 1
Crossway
Kindle loc. 18786

Loving Jesus

It's no use just singing pretty songs: 'Jesus I love you.' They don't prove anything. It's onlyin daily life that you prove, through obedience, whether or not you love Jesus.

J Stott, in
T Chester
Stott on the Christin Life
Crossway
p216

Hell

Eternal death is not cessation of being. It is the opposite of eternal life. It is unlikeness to the glorified humanity of Jesus. It is the loneliness of not ever knowing any peace of fellowship with God.

D MacMillan
Jesus - Power without Measure
EMW
p190

A Saviour from...?

He that, by an act of the will, does truly accept of Christ as a Saviour, accepts of him as a Saviour from sin, and not merely as a Saviour from the punishment of sin.

J Edwards
Charity and its Fruits
BoT
p232

The Puritans

For you will notice, that the books that were written about two hundred years ago by the old Puritans have more sense in one line than there is in a page of our new books, and more in a page than there is in a whole volume of our modern divinity.

CH Spurgeon
Spurgeon's Sermons, Vol 1
Baker
p366

God

If God were small enough to be understood, he wouldn't be big enough to be worshipped.

E Underhill, in
T Keller
Walking with God through Pain and Suffering
Hodder & Stoughton
Kindle loc. 4047

Prayer

No person can be a child of God without living in secret prayer; and no community of Christians can be in a lively condition without unity in prayer.

R M'Cheyne, in

A Bonar

Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Banner of Truth

p275

Spurgeon's desire

This is what I desire: I would see the doctrine of the Calvinist associated with the fire of the Methodist and the holiness of the Puritan.

CH Spurgeon
Only a Prayer Meeting
CFP
p175

What God gives us

God gives us what we would have asked for if we knew everything that He knows.

T Keller
Walking with God through Pain and Suffering
Hodder & Stoughton
Kindle loc. 1048

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

Martyrs

The martyrs did not die because they believed the gospel, they died because they proclaimed the gospel.

D Platt
http://www.challies.com/a-la-carte/a-la-carte-april-26

The Word Made Flesh

We confess the mystery and wonder
of God made flesh
and rejoice in our great salvation
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

With the Father and the Holy Spirit,
the Son created all things,
sustains all things,
and makes all things new.
Truly God,
He became truly man,
two natures in one person.

He was born of the Virgin Mary
and lived among us.
Crucified, dead, and buried,
He rose on the third day,
ascended to heaven,
and will come again
in glory and judgement.

For us,
He kept the Law,
atoned for sin,
and satisfied God’s wrath.
He took our filthy rags
and gave us
His righteous robe.

He is our Prophet, Priest, and King,
building His church,
interceding for us,
and reigning over all things.

Jesus Christ is Lord;
we praise His holy Name forever.

Amen.

The Ligonier Statement on Christology

Humility

Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.

CS Lewis
Quoted by Jane Tooher in
P Bolt, Ed
Let the Word do the Work
Matthias Media
p132

The Child of God

The servant, with cap in hand, stands at a respectable distance awaiting the orders of his master; the child of God, as Luther has graphically suggested, rushes into the presence of his Father, leaps into his lap, and nestles in his bosom.

J Girardeau
Quoted in D Calhoun
Our Southern Zion
Banner of Truth
p287 

On Suffering

Should he choose to bless you with this mercy, receive it with humility, thanksgiving and joyful praise. Should he choose to withhold this mercy, endure with humility, thanksgiving and joyful praise.

S Blackwell
Briefing magazine #411
Mathias Media
p32

God

God cannot be seen because he is brighter than light. Nor can he be grasped because he is purer than touch. He cannot be measured, because he is greater than all perceptions of him. He is infinite and immense. His greatness is known to him alone. Our hearts are too limited to be able to understand him.... Anyone who thinks he knows the greatness of God is in fact diminishing his greatness.

M Felix

Quoted in G Bray

God has Spoken

Crossway

Kindle location 1533

The Wisdom of God

The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God.

J Piper
Quoted in D Beaty
An All-Surpassing Fellowship
Reformation Heritage Books
Kindle location 1849

The Comforter

I ought to study the Comforter more, - His Godhead, His love, His Almightiness. I have found by experience that nothing sanctifies me so much as meditating on the Comforter.... I ought never to forget that my body is dwelt in by the third Person of the Godhead. The very thought of this should make me tremble to sin.

RM M'Cheyne
Quoted in D Beaty
An All-Surpassing Fellowship
Reformation Heritage Books
Kindle location 1321

Prayer

Do not be discouraged, dearly beloved, because God bears long with you - because He does not seem to answer your prayers.When the merchant sends his ships to distant shores, he does not expect them to come back richly laden in a single day. He has great patience.... Perhaps your prayers will come back like the ships of the merchant - all the more heavily laden with blessings because of the delay.

RM M'Cheyne
Quoted in D Beaty
An All-Surpassing Fellowship
Reformation Heritage Books
Kindle location 504

Drowsiness

A Christian never falls asleep in the fire or in the water, but grows drowsy in the sunshine.

John Berridge
The Works of John Berridge
Simpkin, Marshall & Co
p396

Failure

When all else fails, pray? No! Pray, or all else will fail!

R Dodson
Unashamed Workmen
Mentor
p47

No Scar?

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
and pierced are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?

Amy Carmichael
Quoted by Peter Adam in 
R Dodson
Unashamed Workmen
Mentor
p43

Happiness & Joy

Happiness depends on happenings, what's going on around us; but joy depends on what's going on within us.

W Wiersbe
Old Testament Words for Today
Baker
Kindle Location 1084

On Buying Books

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

Erasmus
Quoted on Ryan Holiday's blog.

Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman

John may intend a contrast between the woman of this narrative [John Ch. 4] and Nicodemus of Ch. 3. He was learned, powerful, respected, orthodox, theologically trained; she was unschooled, without influence, despised, capable only of folk religion. He was a man, a Jew, a ruler; she was a woman, a Samaritan, a moral outcast. And both needed Jesus.

DA Carson
The Gospel According to John
IVP
p216

Government

The fall from kingdom to tyranny is easy; but it is not much more difficult to fall from the rule of the best men to the faction of a few; yet it is easiest of all to fall from popular rule to sedition.

J Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Westminster Press
p1493

Death

The Bible reveals that God is the one who takes life as he is the one who gives it... As God's rightful posession, life is God's to take when he pleases. He does not need to consult with anyone else because his authority as Creator, Sustainer and Owner of life puts it totally at his disposal. He is not doing any evil when he takes back the life he gave whenever he chooses.

J Piper
A Godward Life
Multnomah
p268

Our Greatest Need

  If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, He would have sent an economist.
  If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist.
  If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician.
  If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor.
  But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death, and he sent us a Savior.

DA Carson
A Call to Spiritual Reformation
Baker
p109 

God's Glory

How serious do you think God is about his glory? Does God's glory matter this much to you? Do you think it is a serious crime that all the humans whom God made to know him and glorify him have used God's gifts to rebel against him? Do you find it heinous and deplorable that humanity has turned the world God made as a theater for his glory into a theater of idolatry and rebellion and sin? Do you think human sin warrants the kind of judgement that we see in this chapter? [Revelation 8]

If you think that God is overreacting, your view of God is too small. The scope of this devastation is meant to show us how great God is. The fury of this wrath is meant to declare how serious God is about his word.

J Hamilton
Revelation (Preaching the Word)
Crossway
p204

The Law

Any repentant rebel will tell you, you don't break the law of God, it breaks you.

T Johnson
The Parables of Jesus.
CFP
p77

One Family Under God

A ten-year-old Christian has more in common with an eighty-year-old Christian than with ten-year-old unbelievers.

T Ascol
Tabletalk Magazine
March 2013
p27

I asked the Lord that I might grow

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“‘Tis in this way”, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

J Newton

The Cross

Without the cross, we could never have imagined the depth and seriousness of what it means to say that God is love. 'This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us' (1 John 3:16). On the cross we see the great holiness of God's love, thta the light of his pure love will destroy the darkness of sin and evil. On the cross we see the intensity and strength of his love, that it is not an insipid thing at all, but majestically strong as it faces death, battles evil and gives life. For Christ was not bound against his will and dragged to a crucifixion he did not choose. Nobody could take his life from him, he said. 'I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority toi lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father' (John 10:18). Jesus' self-giving love is entirely inconstrained and free. It comes, not form any necessity, but entirely out of who he is, the glory of his Father. Through the cross we see a God who delights to give himself.

M Reeves
The Good God
Paternoster
p51

The sands of time

The sands of time are sinking
The dawn of heaven breaks,
The summer morn I've sighed for
The fair sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark has been the midnight,
But dayspring is at hand,
And glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

Oh! Well it is for ever
Oh! Well for evermore -
My nest hung in no forest
Of all this death-doomed shore:
Yea, let the vain world vanish,
As from the ship the strand,
While glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

There the Red Rose of Sharon
Unfolds its heartsome bloom
And fills the air of heaven
With ravishing perfume:
Oh! To behold its blossom,
While by its fragrance fann'd
Where glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

The King there in His beauty,
Without a veil is seen:
It were a well spent journey,
Though seven deaths lay between:
The Lamb, with His fair army,
Doth on Mount Zion stand,
And glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

Oh! Christ He is the fountain,
The deep sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I've tasted,
More deep I'll drink above:
There, to an ocean fulness,
His mercy doth expand,
And glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

Oft in yon sea-beat prison
My Lord and I held tryst,
For Anwoth was not heaven,
And preaching was not Christ;
And aye, my murkiest storm-cloud
Was by a rainbow spann'd,
Caught from the glory dwelling
In Immanuel's land.

But that he built a Heaven
Of His surpassing love,
A little New Jerusalem,
Like to the one above,
"Lord take me o'er the water,"
Had been my loud demand,
Take me to love's own country,
Unto Immanuel's land.

But flow'rs need night's cool darkness,
The moonlight and the dew;
So Christ, from one who loved it,
His shining oft withdrew:-
And then, for cause of absence
My troubled soul I scann'd,
But glory shadeless, shineth
In Immanuel's land.

The little birds of Anwoth,
I used to count them blest, -
Now, beside happier altars
I go to build my nest:
O'er these there broods no silence,
No graves around them stand,
For glory, deathless, dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

Fair Anwoth, by the Solway,
To me thou still art dear,
E'en from the verge of heaven,
I drop for thee a tear.
Oh! If one from Anwoth
Meet me at God's right hand,
My Heaven will be two Heavens,
In Immanuel's land.

I've wrestled on towards heaven
'Gainst storm, and wind and tide'
Now like a weary traveller
That leaneth on his Guide,
Amid the shades of evening,
While sinks life's lingering sand,
I hail the glory dawning
From Immanuel's land.

Deep waters cross'd life's pathway,
The hedge of thorns was sharp;
Now, these lie all behind me -
Oh! For a well tuned harp!
Oh! to join Hallelujah
With yon triumphant band,
Who sing, where glory dwelleth,
In Immanuel's land.

With mercy and with judgment
My web of time He wove,
And aye, the dews of sorrow
Were lustred with His love:-
I'll bless the hand that guided,
I'll bless the hand that plann'd
When throned where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

Soon shall the cup of glory
Wash down earth's bitt'rest woes,
Soon shall the desert briar
Break into Eden's rose;
The curse shall change to blessing -
The Name on earth that's bann'd
Be graven on white stone
In Immanuel's land.

Oh! I am my Beloved's,
And my Beloved's mine!
He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His "house of wine":
I stand upon His merit,
I know no other stand,
Not e'en where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

I shall sleep sound in Jesus,
Fill'd with His likeness rise,
To love and to adore Him,
To see Him with these eyes:-
'Tween me and resurrection
But Paradise doth stand;
Then-then for glory dwelling
In Immanuel's land.

The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear bridegroom's face,
I will not gaze at glory,
But on my King of Grace -
Not at the crown He giveth,
But on His pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel's land.

I have borne scorn and hatred,
I have borne wrong and shame,
Earth's proud ones have reproach'd me
For Christ's thrice-blessed name:-
Where God His seal set fairest
They've stampt their foulest brand,
But judgment shines like noonday
In Immanuel's land.

They've summoned me before them,
But there I may not come, -
My Lord says "Come up hither",
My Lord says "Welcome home!"
My kingly King, at His white throne,
My presence doth command,
Where glory-glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.

AR Cousin 
From the web

Gospel partnership

That's what every church is to be - a society of people saved through the gospel, organized around the gospel, committed to spreading the gospel.

If this partnership were a living creature, the gospel would be the heart beating in its chest. If it were a high-rise building, the gospel would be the deep foundation embedded in the earth. If their partnership were a solar system, the gospel would be the blazing sun around which everything orbits. Through the gospel they have all been saved, and now they give themselves to partnering to spread the good news.

T Anyabwile
The Life of God in the Soul of the Church
CFP
 p96

The Carpenter

The bent nail stares at me accusingly,
Useless
The Carpenter says nothing as
I place another and drive it in
Hoping to miss the tendons this time
Some of His blood touches me
But I don't feel blessed

Stephen A. Roberts

Abortion

The foetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, (homo,) and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a foetus in the womb before it has come to light.

J Calvin
Commentaries, Vol 3
Baker
p41f

Against the fear of death!

But monstrous it is that many who boast themselves Christians are gripped by such a great fear of death, rather than a desire for it, that they tremble at the least mention of it, as of something utterly desire and disastrous. Surely, it is no wonder if the natural awareness in us bristles with dread at the mention of our dissolution. But it is wholly unbearable that there is not in Christian hearts any light of piety to overcome and suppress that fear, whatever it is, by a greater consolation. For if we deem this unstable, defective, corruptible, fleeting, wasting, rotting tabernacle of our body to be so dissolved that it is soon renewed unto a firm, perfect, incorruptible, and finally, heavenly glory, will not faith compel us ardently to seek what nature dreads? If we should think that through death we are recalled from exile to dwell in the fatherland, in the heavenly fatherland, would we get no comfort from this fact?
...
Let us, then, take hold of a sounder view, and even though the blind and stupid desire of the flesh resists, let us not hesitate to await the Lord's coming, not only with longing, but also with groaning and sighs, as the happiest thing of all. He will come to us as Redeemer,and rescuing us from this boundless abyss of all evils and miseries, he will lead us into that blessed inheritance of his life and glory.

J Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Westminster Press
p717f

Once upon a pew

Once upon a pew I sat and heard the preacher ask,
"We need someone to teach a class. Now, who will take this task?"
Then God sat down beside me there and said, "Son, that's for you."
"But, Lord, to stand before a class is one thing I can't do.
Now Bill would be the masn to call. There's nothing he won't do.
I'd rather hear the lesson taught from here upon my pew."

Once upon a pew I sat and heard the preacher ask,
"We need someone to lead the songs. Now, who will take this task?"
 Then God sat down beside me there and said, "Son, that's for you."
"But, Lord, to sing before a crowd is one thing I can't do.
Now brother King will do the job. There's nothing he won't do.
I'd rather hear the music played from here upon my pew."

Once upon a pew I sat and heard the preacher ask,
"I need someone to keep the door. Now who will take the task?"
 Then God sat down beside me there and said, "Son, that's for you."
 "But saying things to strangers is one thing I can't do.
Now Tom can talk to people, Lord. There's nothing he won't do.
I'd rather someone came to me and greet me on the pew."

As years just seemed to pass me by, I heard that voice no more.
Until one night I closed my eyes and wokje on heaven's shore.
'Twas four of us together there to face eternity.
God said, "I just need three of you to do a job for me."
"O Lord," I cried, "I'll do the job. There's nothing I won't do."
But Jesus said, "I'm sorry, friend, in heaven there's no pew."

Anon.

Jesus Christ

There is only one Physician -
Very flesh, yet Spirit too;
Uncreated, and yet born;
God-and-Man in One agreed,
Very-Life-in-Death indeed,
Fruit of God and Mary's seed;
At once impassible and torn
By pain and suffering here below:
Jesus Christ, whom as our Lord we know.

Ignatius of Antioch, in
M Haykin
Rediscovering the Church Fathers
Crossway
p43

The need for Church Leaders

There is an average of 178,000 people coming to Christ daily around the world. The latest statistics indicate there are 3.2 million pastors worldwide who are untrained or under trained. Many of these pastors have families, jobs and live on less than $40 dollars a month. It is estimated that 7,000 new church leaders are needed daily to care for the growing church and 85% of the churches of the world are led by people who have no formal training in theology or ministry. Leaders from every non-Western region say their number one need is leadership training.

 Equip Pastors

Is the Bible the Word of God?

Is the Bible the Word of God? Then mind that you do not neglect it. Read it! Begin to read it this very day. What greater insult to God can a man be guilty of than to refuse to read the letter God sends him from heaven? Oh, be sure, if you will not read your Bible, you are in fearful danger of losing your soul!

Is the Bible the Word of God? Then be sure you always read it with deep reverence. Say to your soul, whenever you open the Bible, “O my soul, you are going to read a message from God!”

Is the Bible the Word of God? Then be sure you never read it without fervent prayer for the help and teaching of the Holy Spirit. Humble prayer will throw more light on your Bible than any commentary that ever was written. You will not understand it unless your heart is right. You will find it a sealed book without the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Its contents are often hidden from the wise and learned, and revealed to babes.

Is the Bible the Word of God? Then let us all resolve from this day forward to prize the Bible more. God has given us the Bible to be a light to guide us to everlasting life. Let us not neglect this precious gift. Let us read it diligently, and walk in its light.

JC Ryle
Abridged from:
Old Paths
BoT
p31-35

Salvation in Christ alone

There is nowhere else we ought to look for our salvation than in Christ. You cannot trust Christ truly unless you trust Christ alone. No matter how much you boast of Christ or talk of your love for Christ or passion for Christ, if you add anything to Christ, your boasting and love and passion are all in vain. There is no "both-and" with Jesus, only "either-or." Either Jesus is the only Saviour, the perfect Saviour, and your only comfort in life and in death, or Jesus is for you no Saviour at all.

K DeYoung
The Good News we Almost Forgot
Moody
p65

Obedience - out of love

From slavery to sonship - this is the message of Paul's letter to the Galatians. It is also the transition the Tuyuca people made when they first encountered that message. The Tuyucas live in the eastern jungles of Colombia, along the border with Brazil. As they worked with the missionary Janet Barnes to translate Galatians, they had trouble understanding salvation by grace. "If all we have to do to be saved is to believe," one of them asked, "well, then what? How do we live after that?"

The answer, the Tuyucas learned, is that Christians live out their faith by obeying the will of God. They do this not because they are slaves who must satisfy their Master, but because they are children who want to please their Father. "I understand now," said one of the Tuyucas, finally grasping the gospel message of Galatians. "My grandfather said it is better for a son to obey his father out of love than out of fear of being punished. That is how God wants us to obey him - out of love."

P Ryken

Galatians

P&R

p168

A Faithful Minister

I see a man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christ's sake - until he gives up striving to attract people to himself, and seeks only to attract them to Christ. Lord, give me this!

R M'Cheyne, in

A Bonar

Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier

p54

Church

Do we go to God's house expecting something to happen? Or do we go just to listen to a sermon, and to sing our hymns, and to meet with one another? How often does this vital idea enter into our minds that we are in the presence of the living God, that the Holy Spirit is in the church, that we may feel the touch of his power? How much do we think in terms of coming together to meet with God, and to worship him, and to stand before him, and to listen to him? Is there not this appalling danger that we are just content because we have correct beliefs? And we have lost the life, the vital thing, the power, the thing that really makes worship worship, which is in Spirit and truth.

DM Lloyd-Jones
Revival
Marshall Pickering
p72

Pray, and do not lose heart!

I was recently giving a series of lectures and sermons at the church where one of my seminary's graduates had been made the senior pastor. At the first teaching session, I noticed the presence of someone who seemed vaguely familiar to me, though I could not remember ever having met her. After the discussion time following the lecture, this person came and introduced herself to me. It turned out that I had known her father for many years and also one of her brothers. The father was one of the most godly, faithful people I have ever met. The brother was a cherished fellow elder in the denomination in which I served for many years. I had seen the family resemblance. This woman (now in her early sixties) told me how she had come to faith while she and the family were singing hymns around her father's deathbed - after decades of unbelief and wandering since turning away from God as a teenager. I am sure that she was a person for whom many thousands of prayers had been offered. I am also sure that praying with confidence was at times very difficult for that family and for others who loved them. Yet it is in just such situations that Jesus encourages us that we "ought always to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1).

J Barrs
The Heart of Prayer
P&R
p80 

On Prayer

Christ went more readily to the cross than we do to the throne of grace.

T Watson, in
R Rushing, Ed
Voices from the Past
BoT
p345

Drawing near to God

Drawing near to God is our chief good. It is our happiness to seek him.The nearer anything is to the principle of something, the better off it is. Nearer to the sun, the more light; nearer the fire, the more heat; nearer to goodness, the more good; nearer to happiness, the more happiness. Therefore it must be the greatest happiness to draw near to God.

R Sibbes, in
R Rushing, Ed
Voices from the Past
BoT
p334

Prayer

The story is told about a small town in the south. For many years, this town had been “dry” in that no alcohol was ever sold or served there. But one day a businessman in the area decided to build a tavern. In response to this new tavern, a group of Christians from a local church became concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. Shortly after the prayer meeting that night, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

In the aftermath of the fire, the owner of the tavern sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible for his loss. But the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. After his initial review of the case the presiding judge began the trial with an official statement. He said: “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not.”

M Waymeyer
Expository Thoughts
Christianity.com

Reading

I've been thinking about the importance of reading and writing. There are several reasons I write. One of the most personally compelling is that I read. I mean, my main spiritual sustenance comes by the Holy Spirit from reading. Therefore reading is more important to me than eating. If I went blind, I would pay to have someone read to me. I would try to learn Braille. I would buy books on tape. I would rather go without food than without books. Therefore, writing feels very life-giving to me, since I get so much of my own life from reading.

J Piper
A Godward Life
Multnomah
p58

Wisdom

The wisdom of "the wise and understanding" has produced remarkable scientific advances. But it leaves out the most important reality, namely, God. From one side it is stunning for its achievements, and from another side it is stunning for its stupidity in missing the main thing.

J Piper
Think
IVP
p151

Unity

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.

So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.

A Tozer
The Pursuit of God
Wilder
p63 

Church Growth

Do you know the one single reason why evangelical churches grow? It is because people invite their friends. It does not require fancy programmes. All you need to say is, 'Why don't you find out?'

A Begg, in:
S Vibert
Excellence in Preaching
IVP
p125

The Vomit of the Soul

To repent of sin is as great a work of grace as not to sin. By our sinful falls the powers of the soul are weakened, the strength of grace is decayed, our evidences for heaven are blotted, fears and doubts in the soul are raised (will God once more pardon this scarlet sin, and shew mercy to this wretched soul?), and corruptions in the heart are more advantaged and confirmed; and the conscience of a man after falls is the more enraged or the more benumbed. Now for a soul, notwithstanding all this, to repent of his falls, this shews that it is as great a work of grace to repent of sin as it is not to sin. Repentance is the vomit of the soul; and of all physic, none so difficult and hard as it is to vomit. The same means that tends to preserve the soul from sin, the same means works the soul to rise by repentance when it is fallen into sin.

T Brooks
Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 1
BoT
p36 

The Law

When Paul says we are free from the law, he does not mean that God has changed his mind about the difference between right and wrong. He means that we are delivered from the futile attempt to get right with God or stay right with him by means of the law. But as a revelation of God's moral standards the law can never be abrogated. That's why Jesus himself said, in the Sermon on the Mount, that it would be a mistake for anyone to think his mission was to abolish the law. Not an iota of the Old Testament, he insisted, had become irrelevant with his coming (Matthew 5:17-18).

R Clements
No Longer Slaves
IVP
p104

Prayer

On Mt 15:21-28: Let us remember this history, when we pray for ourselves. We are sometimes tempted to think that we get no good by our prayers, and that we may as well give them up altogether. Let us resist the temptation. It comes from the devil. Let us believe, and pray on. Against our besetting sins, against the spirit of the world, against the wiles of the devil, let us pray on, and not faint. For strength to do duty, for grace to bear our trials, for comfort in every trouble, let us continue in prayer. Let us be sure that no time is so well-spent in every day, as that which we spend upon our knees. Jesus hears us, and in his own good time will give an answer.

JC Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume 1

Baker

p182

 

The Heart

The heart is the principal thing in the relation of husband and wife, of friend and friend, of parent and child. The heart must be the principal point to which we attend in all the relations between God and our souls. What is the first thing we need, in order to be Christians? A new heart. What is the sacrifice God asks us to bring to him? A broken and a contrite heart. What is the true circumcision? The circumcision of the heart. What is genuine obedience? To obey from the heart. What is saving faith? To believe with the heart. Where ought Christ to dwell? To dwell in our hearts by faith. What is the chief request that Wisdom makes to every one? "My son, give me your heart."

JC Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume 1

Baker

p 174

A Prayer

O Lord God, save the careless; save the sinful. Take away the drunkard from his drink. Deliver the unholy and unjust men from their filthiness. Renew the lives of the dishonest and false. O Spirit of God, renew any who are lovers of pleasure, who are dead while they live, and any who are lovers of self, whose lives are bound by the narrowness of their own being. Lord God, regenerate them; make them new creatures in Christ.

CH Spurgeon
Prayer
Whitaker House
p111

Grace

There is great joy in grace. But Paul knows that that the only way we can be brought to appreciate it is if we first understand why we need it so much. The gospel he preached sobers us before it satisfies us.

S Ferguson
Let's Study Ephesians
BoT
p39 

Tips for Evangelising

1. Every day I pray God will lead me to someone with whom I can share the gospel.
2. Just talk about anything and everything - be chatty and not reserved. If you're on a bus or at a supermarket checkout, sometimes the conversation can naturally turn to speaking about God.
3. Carry booklets and tracts to give to people if you think it's appropriate.
4. You can't just get into conversations time after time with the people around you - colleagues and friends. Pray for the right moment; normally that comes in a one-to-one time. Share something without forcing it.
5. It's hard work until someone asks a question. But even if it is just, 'You don't believe that, do you?', it's an invitation to talk to them.
6. Get it on the agenda. Churches should be discussing evangelism at every prayer meeting and church business meeting, asking how we can reach people who don't come to us.
7. At any time you have an opportunity, such as a birthday, invite someone to come and give a talk and share their testimony. I have buffet suppers where I invite friends and neighbours, and someone shares their testimony for 20 minutes. Try to think creatively - what can I do to reach out?
8. Have confidence in the gospel (Romans 1:16). It's not a philosophy to be debated - there is power to be unleashed. When we winsomely and lovingly share the gospel it is powerful.
9. People I'm meeting are not my enemies! The aim is to love them into the kingdom; it's very important that we don't go into attack mode.

 R Carswell
Christianity
July 2011
p45

Application

Personal application has been called the "soul" of preaching. A sermon without application is like a letter posted without an address. It may be well-written, rightly dated, and duly signed. But it is useless, because it never reaches its destination. Our Lord's inquiry is an admirable example of real heart-searching application, "Have you understood?"

JC Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume 1

Baker

p154

He tenderly binds up the broken in heart

He tenderly binds up the broken in heart,

The soul bowed down he will raise:

For mourning, the ointment of joy will impart:

For heaviness, garments of praise.

Ah, come, then, and sing to the praise of our God,

Who giveth and taketh away;

Who first by his kindness, and then by his rod,

Would teach us, poor sinners, to pray.

For in the assembly of Jesus' first-born,

Who anthems of gratitude raise,

Each heart has by great tribulation been torn,

Each voice turned from wailing to praise.

R M'Cheyne, in

A Bonar

Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier

p37

An American Tragedy: How Not to Finish your One Life

I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s Digest, which tells about a couple who “took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t. Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life.

J Piper
Don't Waste your Life
Crossway
p45 

Regeneration

Regeneration is the work of God's invisible power and mere grace, wherein by his Spirit accompanying his Word he quickeneth a redeemed person lying dead in his sins and reneweth him in his mind, his will and all the powers of his soul, convincing him savingly of sin and righteousness and judgement, and making him heartily to embrace Christ and salvation, and to consecrate himself to the service of God in Christ all the days of his life.

David Dickson, in:
E Alexander
Our Great God and Saviour
BoT
p67

Faith

Living by faith is not a single act, but something habitual and permanent. Faith is a constant dependence upon God, as he is made known in his attributes. The divine attributes are the pillows and grounds of our faith. Faith believes them and claims them. Study the attributes of God. Labour to know them distinctly and effectually. The more we know, the more we trust.

David Clarkson, in:
R Rushing, Ed
Voices from the Past
BoT
p112

On plain preaching

Not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of Power [1 Corinthians 2:4]. Use sound words that cannot be condemned. Rhetorical flashes are like painted glass in a window, that makes a great show, but darkens the light; ... The Prophets and Apostles generally spoke in the vulgar and common languages which the ordinary people understood: They did not only speak to the understanding of a King upon the throne, but to the understanding of the meanest subject.

H Collins
Banner of Truth Magazine
Feb 2011
p20

Perseverance

God superintends the activity of his gospel-bearer who perseveres in the most extreme circumstances. Therefore, we should persevere in ministry and God will bring his purposes to fruition. God will triumph, but not apart from human persistence, a capacity which he gives us.

D Cook
Teaching Acts
CFP
p292

Luke Short

God's reward for faithful ministry is beautifully illustrated by the story of Luke Short, converted at the tender age of 103. Mr. Short was sitting under a hedge in Virginia when he happened to remember a sermon he had once heard preached by the famous Puritan John Flavel. As he recalled the sermon, he asked God to forgive his sins right then and there, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Short lived for three more years, and when he died, the following words were inscribed on his tombstone, "Here lies a babe in grace, aged three years, who died according to nature, aged 106."

Here is the truly remarkable part of the story. The Sermon that old Mr. Short remembered had been preached eighty-five years earlier back in England! Nearly a century passed between Flavel's sermon and Short's conversion, between the sowing and the reaping. Sooner or later, by the grace of God, faithful work always has its reward.

P Ryken, in:
DA Carson, Ed
Entrusted with the Gospel
IVP
p41

On learning

When we teach others, we must also be willing to be taught, for if we are not willing to learn so that others may profit by our instruction, we shall never be able to do our duty. Therefore, he whom God has placed as teacher in his house must himself be ready and willing to receive doctrine and good instruction. We must listen when other men give counsel and be willing to receive information.

J Calvin

365 Days with Calvin

Day One

16th November

Christians

We cannot take the name Christian upon us, we cannot say that we belong to the children of God and are of his church, unless we have been delivered from our filthiness. If a person calls himself the servant of a prince and yet is a thief, shouldn't he be doubly punished because he abused the title that did not truly belong to him? Behold the Son of God, who is the fountain of all holiness and righteousness! If we try to hide ourselves and cover all our filthiness, is not it so much more shameful if we do so under his name? Does not this horrible sacrilege deserve the most severe punishment?

J Calvin
365 Days with Calvin
Day One
10th November

Is it morbid to confess your sins?

The morbid thing is not to confess them.The morbid thing is to conceal your sins and let them eat away at your soul, which is exactly the state of most people in today's highly civilized communities.

GK Chesterton, quoted in:
M Deckard
Helpful Truth in Past Places
Mentor
p79

The arguments of the wicked

When the Christian's arguments cannot be answered, and the Christian's works cannot be denied, the last resource of the wicked is to try to blacken the Christian's character.

JC Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume 1

Baker

p130

God's love

No figure of speech can describe God's extraordinary affection toward us, for it is infinite and various: so that, if all that can be said or imagined about love were brought together in one, yet it would be surpassed by the greatness of the love of God.

J Calvin, quoted in:
P Ryken
Discovering God
P&R
p189

Contentment

It is not by the humanistic, we are 'good people' approaches that people will find relief or more importantly growth. It is found by facing the the deceptions of our hearts, one of those being the notion that we are basically good people who make mistakes now and then. By first seeing ourselves as sinners always in need of God's grace, we are enabled to find the strength and righteousness of Christ which will allow us to overcome sin, love the unlovely, and persevere in 'dissatisfying' situations. Without confronting this deceptive belief with the truth of who we are, contentment will never be achieved.

M Deckard
Helpful Truth in Past Places
Mentor
p61

Rewards

Any rewards are entirely according to God's mercy. He has given us life and talent. More than that, he has saved us through the sacrificial death of his dear Son. He has forgiven us, come to live within us by his Holy Spirit, and even been willing to use us. Then he rewards us for serving him. God is indeed full of grace! As sons of the light, let us be armed, awake and alert, waiting for the day of the Lord's return.

R Carsell

Growing through Encouragement

Bryntirion Press

p71

Christ's Victory

But the most astonishing thing is that evil and suffering were Christ's appointed way of victory over evil and suffering. Every act of treachery and brutality against Jesus was sinful and evil. But God was in it. The Bible says, "Jesus [was] delivered up [to death] according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). The lash on his back, the thorns on his head, the spit on his cheek, the bruises on his face, the nails in his hands, the spear in his side, the scorn of rulers, the betrayal of his friend, the desertion by his disciples - these were all the results of sin, and all designed by God to destroy the power of sin.

John Piper

The Passion of Jesus Christ

Crossway

p119

Preachers

Since the Lord established His church, there have been preachers - lots of preachers. Through all its centuries of existence, the church has heard good preachers and it has endured bad preachers. It has gloried in faithful preachers and lamented faithless preachers. It has listened with rapt attention to masters of eloquence, and it has wondered at the loquacity of pulpit babblers. Humorists and bawlers, expositors and storytellers, thematic preachers, evangelistic preachers, literary preachers, sawdust preachers, postmodern preachers, seeker-seeking preachers, famous preachers, infamous preachers - the church has had them all.

RA Mohler

He is Not Silent

Moody

p145

Prayer

It is useless to say you know not how to pray. Prayer is the simplest act in all religion. It is simply speaking to God. It needs neither learning, nor wisdom, nor book-knowledge to begin it. It needs nothing but heart and will. The weakest infant can cry when he is hungry. The poorest beggar can hold out his hand for an alms, and does not wait to find fine words. The most ignorant man will find something to say to God, if he has only a mind.

JC Ryle

Practical Religion

Banner of Truth

p83

Gospel & Church

It is appropriate that [Paul] should move on to examine the gospel, for gospel and church are inexplicably bound up with one another. The church comes into being when the gospel is proclaimed, yet the call to proclaim the gospel is the responsibility of the church.

P Arthur

Patience of Hope

EP

p30

Worship

I wonder if in our worship we encounter anything like this vision of God [in Isaiah 6]. Do those who come to our services of worship come face-to-face with the reality of God? Or do they go away with a vision of some lesser God, some dehydrated deity?

RA Mohler

He is not Silent

Moody

p30

Ascension

His ascension was indeed a return to the glory from which he first descended; but it was a return with a difference. He left as the Son of God. He returned both as Son of God and also, by reason of the incarnation, as Son of man. He left as Lord. He returned both as Lord and also as Minister on our behalf in the presence of the Father. He left as King. He returned both as King and also as High Priest and Intercessor for those whom he is not ashamed to call his brethren. He left as Sovereign. He returned also as Saviour.

PE Hughes

A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews

Eerdmans

p283

The Cost of Discipleship

On Matthew 8:19-22:

It would be well for the churches of Christ, if these sayings of our Lord were more remembered than they are. It may well be feared, that the lesson they contain is too often overlooked by the ministers of the Gospel, and that thousands are admitted to full communion, who are never warned to "count the cost." Nothing, in fact, has done more harm to Christianity than the practice of filling the ranks of Christ's army with every volunteer who is willing to make a little profession, and talk fluently of his experience. It has been painfully forgotten that numbers alone do not make strength, and that there may be a great quantity of mere outward religion, while there is very little real grace. Let us all remember this. Let us keep back nothing from young professors and inquirers after Christ. Let us not enlist them on false pretenses. Let us tell them plainly that there is a crown of glory at the end. But let us tell them no less plainly, that there is a daily cross in the way.

JC Ryle

Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Vol 1)

Baker

p78

Forgiveness

The incomparable goodness of God is that he deigns to forget all our sis as soon as he sees us earnestly desirous of returning to him.

John Calvin

365 Days with Calvin

Day One

7th May

God's love

There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me.

JI Packer

Knowing God

Hodder & Stoughton

p41

Grace

[God] is better to the worst of us than the best of us deserves.

D Macleod

Behold Your God

CFP

p78

The Father's love for the Son

It is important to remember the cost to the Father arising out of his love for His Son. How Abraham felt as he brought to the altar his son, his only son, Isaac whom he loved; how David felt as he cried, 'Absalom, my son, my son! Would I had died for thee Absalom, my son, my son!' - These are but shadows of the cost to God, as the love of these fathers for their sons was but a faint reflection of God's love for His. We lose much if our doctrine of the impassibility of God obscures from us the implications of the depth of the Father's affection.

D Macleod

Behold Your God

CFP

p148

You are the glory of God

You are not an animal. You are the glory of God.

You are not a pervert. You are the glory of God.

You are not an addict. You are the glory of God.

You are not a victim. You are the glory of God.

You are not a fool. You are the glory of God.

Mark Driscoll in

Tim Chester

Captured by a Better Vision

IVP

p159

God speaking from Mount Zion

The God who once to Israel spoke
From Sinai’s top, in fire and smoke,
In gentler strains of gospel grace
Invites us, now, to seek his face.

He wears no terrors on his brow,
He speaks, in love, from Zion, now;
It is the voice of JESUS’ blood
Calling poor wand’rers home to GOD.

The holy Moses quaked and feared
When Sinai’s thund’ring law he heard;
But reigning grace, with accents mild,
Speaks to the sinner, as a child.

Hark! how from Calvary it sounds;
From the Redeemer’s bleeding wounds!
“Pardon and grace, I freely give,
Poor sinner, look to me, and live.”

John Newton

365 Days with Newton

Day One

21st August

Against you, you only, have I sinned

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgement. (Psa 51:4)

I believe that David is saying here that even if the world pardoned him, God was the judge before whom David had to appear. Conscience hailed him to God's bar. Thus the voice of man offered no relief to him, however much others might be disposed to forgive or to excuse or to flatter. David's eyes and soul were directed to God, regardless of what man might think or say.

John Calvin

365 Days with Calvin

Day One

25th February

Prayer

Pausing briefly from prayer, David takes time to meditate upon the goodness of God so that he may return with renewed ardour to prayer.

Likewise the faithful feel that their hearts will soon languish in prayer unless they stir themselves up with new incitements. It is difficult to steadfastly and unweariedly persevere in prayer. Indeed, as fuel must frequently be added to preserve a fire, so prayer requires helps so that it will not languish and at length be extinguished.

John Calvin

365 Days with Calvin

Day One

13th February

Flattery

If gossip is saying something behind a person's back that we would never say to his face, then flattery is saying to a person's face what we would never say behind his back.

Alistair Begg

Pathway to Freedom

Moody

p199

Freedom

The ultimate question is not who you are but whose you are. Of course, many people think they are nobody's slave. They dream of total independence. Like a jellyfish carried by the tides feels free because it isn't fastened down with the bondage of barnacles.

John Piper

The Passion of Jesus Christ

Crossway

p64

Marriage

George Orwell said that a restatement of the obvious is sometimes the first duty of a responsible man. It is therefore worth restating what was once obvious and commonly held: Marriage involves a man and a woman. From the very creation of mankind and the foundation of civil order, God intended marriage to be an inseparable union between husband and wife. In that context only is it possible to make sense of the biblical injunction: "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28). The most obvious argument against the lesbian and homosexual agenda is human physiology! A light bulb needs a socket if there is to be illumination. Two sockets on their own are incapable of light, and the same is true for two bulbs. Homosexuality in practice involves a perverted use of the human body, and it is a forsaking of the natural for the unnatural. It is not a marriage. It cannot be.

Alistair Begg

Pathway to Freedom

Moody

p157

Heaven

Eternal life is not merely the extension of this life with its mix of pain and pleasure. As hell is the worst outcome of this life, so "eternal life" is the best. It is supreme and ever-increasing happiness where all sin and all sadness will be gone. All that is evil and harmful in this fallen creation will be removed. All that is good - all that will bring true and lasting happiness - will be preserved and purified and intensified.

John Piper

The Passion of Jesus Christ

Crossway

p57

Wisdom

Wisdom is the skill of godly living.

John Frame
The Doctrine of God
P&R
p507

The Law

God intended the law to reveal sin and drive men to Christ; Satan uses it to reveal sin and to drive men to despair.

John Stott
The Message of Galatians
IVP
p105

Idols

When most people think of "idols" they have in mind literal statues - or the next pop star anointed by Simon Cowell. Yet while traditional idol worship occurs in many places of the world, iternal idol worship, within the heart, is universal. In Ezekieal 14:3, God says about the elders of Israel, "These men have set up their idols in their hearts." Like us, the elders must have responded to this charge, "Idols? What idols? I don't see any idols." God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a sucessful career, love, material posessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.

Tim Keller
Counterfeit gods
Hodder & Stoughton
p xiv

Nicene Creed

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

On forgiveness

There is all the difference in the world between believing that God does forgive sins, and knowing that God has forgiven my sins, my personal sins.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Living Water, Vol 1
David Cook
p520

Hatred of Christ

Nothing raises the wonder and disgust of the world more than the high regard believers pay to the Lord Jesus. If they would only speak seriously of God, his goodness and providence, they might be borne with - but so much of Christ is offensive. Those who know him, however, will never think they can say enough of him.

John Newton
365 days with Newton
Day One
6th December

New Life

I have decided to give this blog a new lease of life, and start again.

I hope to mainly have various quotations from books and articles I am reading. I hope they interest you.