December 22, 2016 
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We represent the King. We are His chosen ambassadors, doing His business “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). Then let’s represent Him this season! People are wide-open to the gospel these days. Forget about trying to impress others by what you buy. Spend more time imparting what you already possess.
Chuck Swindoll
December 21, 2016 0 Comments
“God beckons storm clouds and they come. He tells the wind to blow and the rain to fall, and they obey immediately. He speaks to the mountains, ‘You go there,’ and He says to the seas, ‘You stop here, and they do it. Everything in all creation responds in obedience to the Creator…until we get to you and me. We have the audacity to look God in the face and say, ‘No.”
David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
December 21, 2016 1 Comment
“Thus says the Lord: the meaning of Christmas is that what is good and precious in your life need never be lost, and what is evil and undesirable in your life can be changed. The fears that the few good things that make you happy are slipping through your fingers, and the frustrations that the bad things you hate about yourself or your situation can’t be changed—these fears and these frustrations are what Christmas came to destroy. It is God’s message of hope this Advent that what is good need never be lost and what is bad can be changed.”
John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent
December 20, 2016 0 Comments
Angry with God!
(James Smith)
“The Lord asked: Have you any right to be angry?” Jonah 4:4
Jonah quarreled with his God. And who has not? We may not speak as plainly as he did—but we have been in the same sullen temper, and manifested the same morose spirit.
Very few are well satisfied with the Lord’s plans. Fewer still are always pleased with the Lord’s works. How many quarrel with His sovereignty! What hard things have been spoken against it! How many complain of His providence—and think it unwise, unkind, and almost unjust!
Beloved, we are often angry with God!
This temper shows itself . . .
in fretfulness,
in complaining,
in sullen gloom.
“Have you any right to be angry?”
Angry with your Father . . .
whose wisdom is infinite,
whose love is as constant as the day, and
who constantly showers His blessings upon you!
Angry with your God, who has . . .
pardoned all your heinous sins,
provided for your innumerable needs,
blessed you with countless spiritual blessings!
Surely it is a sin, a grievous sin, not to be pleased . . .
with all that He does,
with all that He has provided,
and with all that He requires.
“Have you any right to be angry?”
December 20, 2016 3 Comments
“No priest, no theologian stood at the manger of Bethlehem. And yet all Christian theology has its origin in the wonder of all wonders: that God became human. Holy theology arises from knees bent before the mystery of the divine child in the stable. Without the holy night, there is no theology. “God is revealed in flesh,” the God-human Jesus Christ — that is the holy mystery that theology came into being to protect and preserve. How we fail to understand when we think that the task of theology is to solve the mystery of God, to drag it down to the flat, ordinary wisdom of human experience and reason! Its sole office is to preserve the miracle as miracle, to comprehend, defend, and glorify God’s mystery precisely as mystery. This and nothing else, therefore, is what the early church meant when, with never flagging zeal, it dealt with the mystery of the Trinity and the person of Jesus Christ…. If Christmas time cannot ignite within us again something like a love for holy theology, so that we—captured and compelled by the wonder of the manger of the son of God—must reverently reflect on the mysteries of God, then it must be that the glow of the divine mysteries has also been extinguished in our heart and has died out.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is In the Manger
December 19, 2016 0 Comments
Are we Christians–or are we worldlings? ~ Horatius Bonar
We would soon hear all the dogs of Hell baying with all their might against us! ~ Charles Spurgeon)
“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” John 15:19
There would be much more persecution than there is–if there were more real Christians. But we have become so like the world, that the world does not hate us as it once did. If we would be more holy, more true, more Christ-like, more godly–we would soon hear all the dogs of Hell baying with all their might against us!
Remember, my brethren, whoever you may be, that if there is no distinction between you and the world around you–then you may be certain that you are of the world. For, there must always be some marks in the children of God to distinguish them from the ungodly. There is a something in them which is not to be found in the best worldling–something which is not to be discovered in the most admirable carnal man. A something in their character which can be readily perceived and which marks them as belonging to another and higher race, the twice-born, the elect of God, eternally chosen by Him–and, therefore, made to be choice ones through the effectual working of His grace.
“I have given them Your word and the world has hated them–for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” John 17:14
December 19, 2016 9 Comments
The Advent Virus
Anonymous via email
WARNING……WARNING: ADVENT VIRUS
Be on the alert for symptoms of inner Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to this virus and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world.
Some signs and symptoms of The Advent Virus:
Please send this warning out to all your friends. This virus can and has affected many systems. Some systems have been completely cleaned out because of it.
December 18, 2016 0 Comments
“He [Jesus] was born in a barn to show what God thinks of human pride, of human ambition, of human loftiness, of human hardness…of those who turn to religion only because of what they think it can do for them…of those who always insist on having a place at the high table and are miserable when others are put before them…of those personal jealousies and those family feuds that mar the fellowship with God.”
[Handel H. Brown]
December 17, 2016 0 Comments
“Christ came to prove that God tells the truth, that God keeps his promises. Christmas means that God can be trusted.”
John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent
December 16, 2016 2 Comments
A Perfect Rest!
“There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God!” Hebrews 4:9
There is present rest in Christ for the weary and heavy laden, who truly come to Him–for He is faithful who has promised, and He has said to such, “I will give you rest! Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart–and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30
There is present rest for the tried believer in the bosom of his heavenly Father. Amidst the anxieties and turmoils of life–how good it is, my soul, to return unto your rest in Him who has dealt so bountifully with you!
But yet there remains a rest to the people of God–a perfect rest . . . from the burden of guilt, from spiritual conflict, from the temptations of the evil one, and from all the sorrowing and sighing of this valley of tears!
There is in the future a perfect repose of soul, abiding tranquility–and unbroken, eternal rest. Not a rest of inaction, but a rest in happy, unwearied service–and in the enjoyment of the perfect love of God.
My soul, trustfully anticipate the rest that awaits you in the home of the redeemed, in the place that Jesus is preparing for His redeemed people!
“Return to your rest, O my soul–for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you!” Psalm 116:7
“There shall I bathe my weary soul In seas of heavenly rest; And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful breast!”
December 16, 2016 0 Comments
Amen! 😀
This Book, to me, is literally like finding a chest full of precious gems, every day. It contains endless wisdom, that we desperately need. Today the theme for Developing Your Eye is Treasure. I know you can’t see it with your physical sense of sight, however this photo is that of a mountain of precious jewels, gold, and silver-the value of which cannot be calculated.
December 16, 2016 0 Comments
“To those who recognize in Jesus the wonder of the Son of God, every one of his words and deeds becomes a wonder; they find in him the last, most profound, most helpful counsel for all needs and questions. Yes, before the child can open his lips, he is full of wonder and full of counsel. Go to the child in the manger. Believe him to be the Son of God, and you will find in him wonder upon wonder, counsel upon counsel.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is In the Manger
December 15, 2016 3 Comments
What Dignity!
–Spurgeon, “The Sons of God“
Consider, I beg you, what a dignity God has conferred upon you by making you his son.
The tall archangel before the throne is not called God’s son–he is one of the most favored of his servants, but not God’s child.
I tell you, you ‘impoverished’ brother in Christ, there is a dignity about you that even angels may well envy. You in your poverty are as a sparkling jewel in the darkness of the mine.
You in the midst of your ‘sickness and infirmity’ are girt about with robes of glory, which make the spirits in heaven look down upon the earth with awe.
You move about this world as a prince among the crowd!
The blood of heaven runs in your veins! You are one of the blood royal of eternity–a son of God, descendant of the King of kings!
December 15, 2016 2 Comments
The “illuminated” Bible?
You may read the Bible continuously and yet never learn anything by it, unless it is illuminated by the Spirit.
Then the words shine forth like stars. Then the book seems made of gold leaf; every single letter glitters like a diamond.
Oh! it is a blessed thing to read an “illuminated Bible”lit up by the radiance of the Holy Spirit.
Have you read the Bible, and yet have your eyes been unenlightened? Go and say, “O Lord, illuminate it; shine upon it; for I cannot read it to profit, unless You enlighten me.”
Blind men may read the Bible with their fingers, but blind souls cannot.
We need a light to read the Bible by; there is no reading it in the dark.
by Spurgeon
December 15, 2016 0 Comments
“That’s the kind of love the Father has. It is a giving love. It gives his most precious treasure—his Son. Meditate on that this Advent. It was a very costly love. A very powerful love. A very rugged, painful love. The meaning of Christmas is the celebration of this love. “God so loved . . .” And wonder of wonders, God gives this costly love to an undeserving world of sinners, like us.”
John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent
December 14, 2016 3 Comments
“Say to the next generation again and again: God is truthful; God keeps his word; God does not lie; God can be trusted! That’s one blessing of Advent. Receive it as a wonderful Christmas gift, and give it to as many people as you can.”
John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent
December 13, 2016 4 Comments
🤔My Thoughts…
After just finishing my audiobook of “The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitefield” by Steven .J. Lawson i stumbled on this quote. I had a little chuckle too as i’m currently in a “Methodist” church and it seems to be drifting far away from Biblical preaching like this.
“There are Lutherans and Wesleyans in the present day, but there are no Whitefieldites. No! The great evangelist of last century was a simple, guileless man, who lived for one thing only, and that was to preach Christ.”
J.C. Ryle, Christian Leaders Of The 18th Century
December 13, 2016 2 Comments
“We want character but without unyielding conviction; we want strong morality, but without the emotional burden of guilt or shame; we want virtue but without particular moral justifications that invariably offend; we want good without having to name evil; we want decency without the moral authority to insist upon it; we want moral community without any limitations to personal freedom. In short, we want what we cannot have on the terms that we want it.”
R. Albert Mohler Jr., The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters
December 13, 2016 0 Comments
Feeling weary today? Distant from God? Anxious? Uncertain? In this article Tim Keller warms our hearts with seven breathtaking privileges of being a child of God set out by Paul in Romans 8:14-17:
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
1. Security
We are not to fear, but enjoy sonship (v 15a). An employee or a servant basically obeys out of fear of punishment, loss of job, etc. But a…
View original post 1,012 more words
December 13, 2016 2 Comments
Take Time to be Aware
Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 196
“Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ’s birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present.
“An old abbot was fond of saying, ‘The devil is always the most active on the highest feast days.’
“The supreme trick of Old Scratch is to have us so busy decorating, preparing food, practicing music and cleaning in preparation for the feast of Christmas that we actually miss the coming of Christ. Hurt feelings, anger, impatience, injured egos—the list of clouds that busyness creates to blind us to the birth can be long, but it is familiar to us all.”
December 12, 2016 5 Comments
The Habit of Encouraging Others
J.R. Miller
“For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory!” 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12
In one of her books Miss Mulock tells of a gentleman and a lady walking one day in a lumber-yard beside a dirty, foul-smelling river. The lady said, “How good these pine boards smell!” “Pine boards!” sniffed her companion. “Just smell this foul river!” “No, thank you,” the lady replied, “I prefer to smell the pine boards.” She was wiser than he.
It is far better for us to find the sweetness that is in the air, than the foulness. It is far better to talk to others of the smell of pine boards, than of the heavy odors of stagnant rivers.
Yet too many people seem ever to have an instinct for the unpleasant things. They never see the beauty — but they always find the disagreeable. They have no eye for the roses — but they are sure to find even the smallest thorn. They never discuss the good qualities in those about them — but they instantly detect the faults.
It is a far nobler thing when one has learned to find the things that are lovely and good and true in those about one — and to be blind to the blemishes and defects. It is a pitiful waste of time and strength for one engaged in Christian work, for example, to do nothing but look for mistakes or imperfections in that which others are doing. It is far wiser to devote one’s life and energy to doing good in a positive way.
We do not have to answer for other people’s mistakes. We are not set to be judges of other people’s motives. The only true Christian course is to do our own part as well as we possibly can, having charity meanwhile for all about us who are engaged in the work of our common Master.
It shows a very narrow spirit to have nothing but evil to say of those who are working alongside of us in the same vineyard. Very likely they are quite as holy as we are, and are doing their work quite as well as we are doing ours. But if they are not, our sin in watching them with unkindly eye is worse than any ordinary mistake in their service could be.
We are told that once the disciples criticized very sharply another friend of their Master’s, calling her way of working a wasteful way. But we should not forget that it was Judas who led in this criticism and faultfinding, and that Jesus severely rebuked the censorious spirit in his disciples and spoke in warmest defense of the gentle woman who had done what she could.
We should train ourselves, therefore, to the utmost patience with those who work beside us in the service of the same Master. We should seek to encourage them in every possible way. There may be faults in their method — but, if so, the Master will look after these, and certainly it is no part of our duty to judge, to find fault, to condemn.
We are likely to overlook the unlovingness of this spirit of criticism and fault-finding. “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another,” said the Master himself. Love implies not only patience with the infirmities of others — but also readiness to help them and to work with them in all kindly, sympathetic ways. Love sends us forth to be helpers of each other — not hinderers; encouragers — not discouragers.
It is very easy for us to go forth any day and make life harder for every person we meet. We do this when we assume a superior air, when we relate ourselves to others only as a critic, a fault-finder.
The worst of all heresies is the heresy of unlovingness. We understand the spirit of the gospel of Christ only when we get its thoughtfulness, forbearance, gentleness, into our life. We begin to be like Christ, only when in us is born the desire to be of use to everyone we meet. Many people go among others, however, bearing the name of Christ — yet lacking the spirit of Christ. Instead of making life easier for those among whom they mingle — they make it harder! They say discouraging things. Even when they imagine they are giving comfort — they are only adding to the burden of sorrow.
Some good people go into sick rooms, with true sympathy in their heart and desire to do good — but only add to the pain of those they would help.
Job’s three friends, the suffering and bereft man found to be “miserable comforters.” Scarcely any better comforters are many of those who come to people in these days as messengers of consolation. They go over all the sorrow, opening the wounds afresh — instead of saying cheerful, uplifting, inspiring things which would have made the sad hearts braver and stronger.
Shall we not train ourselves to speak only kindly words, to say only encouraging things, to give only cheer? It is a great thing to live so that everyone who meets us shall be a little happier, with a little more courage for life’s struggles, and with new hope in the heart. Words of encouragement and good cheer are better than angels’ visits to those to whom they are spoken.
Thackeray tells of an English nobleman who always carried his pocket full of acorns as he walked over his estate, and whenever he found a bare spot he would plant one of these. So should we carry with us ever a heart full of loving thoughts and impulses, and whenever we find a life that is sad, discouraged, or defeated — we should drop a seed of kindness which by and by will grow into something beautiful.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11
December 12, 2016 0 Comments
“Advent is a season for thinking about the mission of God to seek and to save lost people from the wrath to come. God raised him from the dead, “Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10). It’s a season for cherishing and worshiping this characteristic of God—that he is a searching and saving God, that he is a God on a mission, that he is not aloof or passive or indecisive. He is never in the maintenance mode, coasting or drifting. He is sending, pursuing, searching, saving. That’s the meaning of Advent.”
John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent
December 11, 2016 0 Comments
“He may be doing it for you in this Advent season—graciously and tenderly frustrating you with life that is not centered on Christ and filling you with longings and desires that can’t find their satisfaction in what this world offers, but only in the God-man. What a Christmas gift that might be! Let all your frustrations with this world throw you onto the Word of God. It will become sweet—like walking into paradise.”
John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent
December 10, 2016 0 Comments
“We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us.4 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Coming of Jesus in Our Midst”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is In the Manger
December 9, 2016 2 Comments
“The lack of mystery in our modern life is our downfall and our poverty. A human life is worth as much as the respect it holds for the mystery. We retain the child in us to the extent that we honor the mystery. Therefore, children have open, wide-awake eyes, because they know that they are surrounded by the mystery. They are not yet finished with this world; they still don’t know how to struggle along and avoid the mystery, as we do. We destroy the mystery because we sense that here we reach the boundary of our being, because we want to be lord over everything and have it at our disposal, and that’s just what we cannot do with the mystery…. Living without mystery means knowing nothing of the mystery of our own life, nothing of the mystery of another person, nothing of the mystery of the world; it means passing over our own hidden qualities and those of others and the world. It means remaining on the surface, taking the world seriously only to the extent that it can be calculated and exploited, and not going beyond the world of calculation and exploitation. Living without mystery means not seeing the crucial processes of life at all and even denying them.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas
December 8, 2016 0 Comments
🤔My Thoughts…
Just watched/listened to thes powerful & emotional poem/story. I’ve never heard this before and thought you might like it.
December 8, 2016 3 Comments
“As theologian David F. Wells states so powerfully, We have turned to a God that we can use rather than a God we must obey; we have turned to a God who will fulfill our needs rather than to a God before whom we must surrender our rights to ourselves. He is a God for us and for our satisfaction, and we have come to assume that it must be so in the church as well. And so we transform the God of mercy into a God who is at our mercy. We imagine that he is benign, that he will acquiesce as we toy with his reality and co-opt him in the promotion of our ventures and careers.”
R. Albert Mohler Jr., The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters
December 8, 2016 0 Comments
“Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the ripe fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot. But all too often the greedy eyes are only deceived; the fruit that seemed so precious is still green on the inside, and disrespected hands ungratefully toss aside what has so disappointed them.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas
December 7, 2016 0 Comments
One of a preacher’s first duties!
“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!” ~ Robert Murray M’Cheyne
“To efface one’s self is one of a preacher’s first duties!
December 7, 2016 0 Comments
“The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.”
J.I. Packer
December 6, 2016 18 Comments
🤔My Thoughts…
Last Saturday Sarah & i were buying Christmas cards at our local Christian book store when a man asked the worker “Do you have a CD which has funeral songs on? I conduct a lot of funerals and i’ve tried all the other shops in town, then they told me to try the Christian shop:. He said it wouldn’t be for a Christian though….
My mind was racing by this point and i said to Sarah “Now that’s a question you don’t hear very often….if at all”.
On leaving the shop i said to Sarah “That could be a difficult playlist to make as for us, it’s a Glorious celebration as death has no sting(1 Corinthians 15:55). And to know we will be absent from body and present with the Lord(2 Corinthians 5:8)……Or for those without God and no Hope(Ephesians 2:12)”it will be the most terrible time of their life”,
The shop didn’t have a CD funeral album…
I said to Sarah “I only have 1 Hymn so far that i would like to play at my funeral and that’s ‘When i survey the Wondrous Cross(Isaac Watts version)’, i need to find a couple more…i will have to make a funeral playlist”.
Can you help me?? I’d love to hear about your fave Hymn/song suggestions. 😀
December 6, 2016 7 Comments
The nickels and noses racket!
(Milburn Cockrell, 1941-2002)
The average pastor is no longer a powerful, plain preacher–but a polite, polished politician!
We live in a time of big meetings, big churches, big church buildings, big preachers, and big church budgets. The failure or success of a church and its pastor–is judged by the number of nickels and noses that they have. In all too many cases, there is seen in this more Satanic pride, than spiritual piety.
In the craze for nickels and noses churches have replaced preachers and pastors, with puppeteers and pranksters. The gospel of Christ has been superseded by gimmicks, gadgets, and games. Psychology has taken the place of Holy Spirit conviction. The faith has been displaced for finance, fun, and foolishness. Church discipline has been relegated to the background, in order to swell the size of the church with religious hypocrites who might give a little money to the church now and then.
The nickels and noses racket has filled our churches with unconverted persons. We have far more churchianity than Christianity. Many church members are white-washed–but they are not blood-washed. Their names are upon the church roll–but they are not found in the Lamb’s book of life. Many have been reformed–but they have not been re-born. Many have been confirmed–but they have not been converted to Christ. There are so many lost people in our churches, that you cannot tell the difference between a church member and the unconverted. The reason is, because there is no difference. Both are headed to Hell as fast as time can carry them!
It has produced icy services–and cold, callous, complacent church members. Look at the average church! They have their robed choir, their cut and dried program, and their intellectual preaching. They have a beautiful edifice. They have all the organization and rituals one could ask for–but in most cases it is Spiritless! We have form without reality; we have organization without power; we have profession without possession. We have a form of godliness–without the power of it. We have religion without life.
It has caused pastors to spend more time worrying with goats, than feeding the sheep. The pastor nowadays must provide a spiritual diet for people who have no spiritual appetite. Like Ezekiel of old (Ezekiel 37:1-10), he must preach to dead, dry bones–but without the blessings which Ezekiel experienced. These dry, dead bones can’t hear–yet the pastor must keep preaching and pretend that someone is listening. These dry, dead bones do not grow in grace–for the dead do not grow. These baptized bones are in no way sensitive to the appeals made to them from the Scriptures by the pastor. They watch the clock on Sunday morning, hoping the pastor will preach a short sermon so they can soon go home and do what they really enjoy.
This idea has given us the gimmick gospel. Most church members want to be entertained–instead of instructed in the Word of God. They have far more delight in the gospel of amusement–than the gospel of the atonement. Gospel celebrities must be brought in to entertain these worldly church members. These members love to hear these clerical comedians who mix a few verses of Scripture with a large amount of humor. Special singing groups must be brought in too. These have the same dress, music, hair style, and manners of any rock and roll group. Our church services nowadays have become a carefully produced theatrical production for the delight of carnal Christians and religious rascals. The only difference between this entertainment and that in the local nightclub, is that it has a religious flavor! But they say it must be done to get nickels and noses!
While there are some exceptions, most big churches are worldly churches. They have high carnality–and low spirituality. Truth is very scarce in such fashionable churches, because the Word of God has been compromised to keep nickels and noses.
December 6, 2016 0 Comments
Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people; for there is born to you this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. In these words you clearly see that he is born for us. He does not simply say, Christ is born, but to you is born; neither does he say, I bring glad tidings, but to you I bring glad tidings of great joy. Furthermore, this joy was not to remain in Christ, but it shall be to all people.
Sermons of Martin Luther
December 5, 2016 5 Comments
“Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who as a heaven for every body, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and broad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all.”
J.C. Ryle
December 5, 2016 4 Comments
Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas
December 4, 2016 5 Comments
If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: “God with us.” We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth!
John MacArthur
December 3, 2016 0 Comments
Infinite, and an infant. Eternal, and yet born of a woman. Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast. Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms. King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son.
Charles Spurgeon
December 2, 2016 4 Comments
🤔My Thoughts…
Wow…Spurgeon, the prince of preachers really doesn’t mess about!
Man-made ministers!
From Spurgeon’s, “The Two Effects of the Gospel”
The ministry has been very often degraded into a ‘trade’.
They are ‘selected by man’, they are crammed with literature; they are educated up to a certain point; they are turned out ready dressed; and persons call them ‘ministers’.
I wish them all God-speed, every one of them; for as good Joseph Irons used to say, “God be with many of them, if it be only to make them hold their tongues.”
Man-made ministers are of no use in this world, and the sooner we get rid of them the better.
December 2, 2016 2 Comments
This baffles all our comprehension!
“So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us.” John 1:14
What a transition!
What a stoop for that Infinite Being who proclaimed Himself the Alpha and the Omega; for “The Ancient of days” to assume the nature and take the form of a cradled infant, sleeping on a virgin mother’s breast!
We have no plumb line to sound the depths of that humiliation. We have no arithmetic by which it can be submitted to any process of calculation.
If we can entertain for a moment the shocking supposition of the loftiest created spirit in heaven abjuring his angel nature, and becoming an insect or a worm; we can, in some feeble degree, estimate the descent involved in the transformation.
But, for the Illimitable, Everlasting Jehovah, Himself to become incarnate . . .
the Creator, to take the nature of the created; the Infinite, to be joined with the finite; Deity, to be linked with dust; this baffles all our comprehension!
(John MacDuff, “Clefts of the Rock” 1874)
December 1, 2016 4 Comments
🤔My Thoughts…
After reading this interesting post , i thought it would be a nice idea to ask you(the reader) to take on 1,2 or more of these questions and post the questions & answers in the comments below. I’d love to hear a little more about you. I’m off now to think about how i would answer these questions! 😀
10 Questions to Ask at a Christmas Gathering
(Don Whitney)
Many of us struggle to make conversation at Christmas gatherings, whether church events, work-related parties, neighborhood drop-ins, or annual family occasions. Sometimes our difficulty lies in having to chat with people we rarely see or have never met.
At other times we simply don’t know what to say to those with whom we feel little in common. Moreover, as Christians we want to take advantage of the special opportunities provided by the Christmas season to share our faith, but are often unsure how to begin.
Here’s a list of questions designed not only to kindle a conversation in almost any Christmas situation, but also to take the dialog gradually to a deeper level. Use them in a private conversation or as a group exercise, with believers or unbelievers, with strangers or with family.
1. What’s the best thing that’s happened to you since last Christmas?
2. When was your best Christmas ever? Why?
3. What’s the most meaningful Christmas gift you’ve ever received?
4. What was the most appreciated Christmas gift you’ve ever given?
5. What was your favorite Christmas tradition as a child?
6. What is your favorite Christmas tradition now?
7. What do you do to try to keep Christ in Christmas?
8. Why do you think people started celebrating the birth of Jesus?
9. Do you think the birth of Jesus deserves such a worldwide celebration?
10. Why do you think Jesus came to earth?
Of course, remember to pray before your Christmas gatherings. Ask the Lord to grant you “divine appointments,” to guide your conversations, and to open doors for the gospel. May He use you to bring glory to Christ this Christmas.
November 30, 2016 0 Comments
🎄 The Glorious Incarnation #1
Heavenly Father, We think we are ready for Christmas …Not because we have read the pages of the Bible, but because we have read our credit card statements, And they say that we have left no stone unturned, and no gift unbought, if still unpaid for. We stand ready to stagger under the weight of Christmas, To eat and drink far too much, To party with the best of them, And to worry all the time that we’ve forgotten something. And we’ll do it all, not always because we want to, but because everyone else is doing it, and we’ll go along for the ride.
Somewhere in all of this, Father, please feel free to stop us. Any place, any time, just stop us in our tracks. Stop us, grab our attention, and then place your gift in our hands where we can see it, And in our hearts where we can feel it. The gift of knowing that, a little over two thousand years ago, you stepped into the history of this world and placed yourself in a manger in a dirty backstreet stable, And called yourself a Christ-Child. It was then that we could see you and understand you as we had never been able to do before: As Creator, as Spirit, and as a man who would walk unerringly towards a Cross.
Everything else, all the food, the fun, the partying, none of it matters, and none of it has any point at all, unless we grasp this simple, beautiful gift and press it close to our hearts and keep it there…..….. that we live with you, that we are one with you, Our Lord Immanuel.
What else is there to say?
Except thank you, Amen.
November 30, 2016 13 Comments
The biggest loser!
There are usually two sides:
the one dangerous—the other safe; the one is uncertain—and the other is sure.
It is always the wisest—to be found on the safe side!
Look at the unbeliever:
He denies the Bible to be God’s book.
He walks by his own reason.
He gratifies his senses and his lusts.
He lives in sin.
He must soon die.
He has no Savior.
He has no true hope.
If the Bible is false—then he is safe; BUT if the Bible is true—then he is damned forever!
He is certainly not on the safe side!
There are many things in the Bible which he does not like.
He is prejudiced against it.
It never prophecies good concerning him—but always evil.
It requires him to change his present sinful course—but he loves it.
He loves sin—and the Bible condemns it.
He gratifies the lusts of the flesh—and the Bible bids him to mortify them.
In a word, there is as much opposition between the Bible and him—as between light and darkness, holiness and sin, truth and error. Therefore he hates it!
At the best, with him all is uncertain, unsatisfactory, and vexatious.
He is certainly not on the safe side!
Now look at the true Christian:
He believes the Bible to be from God. He has examined it. He has evidence of its inspiration in his heart. He fully believes it.
What the Bible says of himself as a sinner—he knows to be true.
What it says of Jesus as a Savior—he has proved to be a fact.
As guilty—he has applied to God for pardon, and obtained it.
As impure—he has sought the cleansing operations of the Holy Spirit, and has experienced them.
His guilt is gone—therefore he has no slavish fears.
His soul is justified—therefore he has peace with God.
He approves of the inspired precepts—and regulates his life by them.
He carries his cares to God—and is sustained under them.
He realizes that God is his Friend, his Father, and his everlasting Portion.
He is peaceful.
He is often happy.
To him death has no sting—and eternity has no terror.
He knows Jesus as his Savior—and trusts in Him.
He knows God as his Father—and walks with Him.
He knows the Holy Spirit as his comforting Teacher—and listens to Him.
He is, perhaps, more tried than the unbeliever—but he has supports, consolations, and pleasures—of which the unbeliever knows nothing. He lives to bless others, to honor God, to prepare for a glorious immortality.
He would not change his worst day—for the unbeliever’s best day!
He is on the safe side!
If the unbeliever should be right—then the Christian is no loser.
But if the Christian is right—and he is—then the unbeliever is the biggest loser—an infinite loser!
Reader, on which side are you? There is but one safe side.
There is no safety for a sinner now—but at the Cross!
There will be no safety at death and judgment—but in Christ!
He who is on the safe side now—will be on the safe side then!
There will be no changing sides then!
“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit upon His glorious throne! All the nations will be gathered in His presence, and He will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at His right hand—and the goats at His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father—inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world!’ (the safe side) Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones—into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons!’ (the perilous side) And they will go away into eternal punishment—but the righteous will go into eternal life!” Matthew 25:31-46
(James Smith, “The Safe Side!”)
November 29, 2016 0 Comments
Novels
As to novels, I join with every other moral and religious writer in condemning, as the vilest trash, the greater part of these productions, which have carried a turbid stream of vice over the morals of mankind.
Novels . . .
corrupt the taste,
pollute the heart,
debase the mind,
demoralize the conduct.
Novels throw prostrate the understanding; sensualize the affections; enervate the will; and bring all the high faculties of the soul into subjection to a wild imagination.
Novels generate a morbid, sickly sentimentalism, instead of a just and lovely realism.
A wise man should despise novels, and a godly man should abhor them!
(James, “The Christian Father’s Present to His Children”)
November 28, 2016 2 Comments
The greatest disservice…
“Pastors can hardly do a greater disservice to people than to convince those bound for hell that they are on route to heaven.”
Tom Hovestol
November 25, 2016 7 Comments
We might as well sing Mother Goose rhymes!
“My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine; For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.”
We sing that — but we might as well sing Mother Goose rhymes, because we do not mean what we are singing!
If God Almighty compelled us to be entirely 100 percent honest, we simply could not sing the the average hymn — because their words would not be true of us!
“All to Jesus I surrender,
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken,
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
I surrender all,
I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.”
(A.W. Tozer)
🤔My Thoughts…
This morning after reading this quote, i thought about our popular and modern “Worship” songs, and how a lot of them are about our feelings, our happiness and what God can do for us. Rather than elevating His Holy name as we sing His Glory and Praise as we are lost in Wonder!
November 24, 2016 0 Comments
The ant’s nest
Never did any sin appear in the life of the vilest wretch
who ever lived; but look into your own corrupt nature, and there you may see the seed and root that sin—and every other sin. There is atheism, idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and whatever is vile—in your heart! Possibly none of these are apparent to you; but there is more in that unfathomable depth of wickedness than you know.
Your corrupt heart is like an ant’s nest, which, while the stone lies on it, none of them appear. But take off the stone, and stir them up but with a straw—and you will see what a swarm is there—and how lively they are! Just such a sight would your heart afford you—did the Lord but withdraw the restraint He has upon it—and allow Satan to stir it up by temptation!
“For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” Mark 7:21, 22
Christian! the remembrance of what you are by nature, should keep you humble.
(Thomas Boston, “Human Nature in its Fourfold State“)
November 24, 2016 0 Comments
Thankfulness To God
“God has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” Acts 14:17
We ofttimes forget that the common mercies of life are evidences of our Father’s loving thought and care for His children. There is no such thing as ‘chance’ in this world. God sends the rains, orders the seasons, and brings the harvests. In enjoying the gifts — we should not forget the Giver. In accepting and using the blessings — we should not fail to see the Hand which brings them to us! (J.R. Miller)
“What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits to me?” Psalm 116:12
The Christian, as he journeys onwards in the pathway of life, ought frequently to look back, and review the way by which God has led him. If we would keep alive our gratitude — if we would have it to increase more and more, until, like a holy flame, it burns within us — we must often, in thought, retrace the varied turnings and windings of our earthly pilgrimage.
We are so prone, amid our daily duties and our interaction with the world, to forget and overlook the divine benefits received, that only by a careful and frequent retrospect, can we continue, from day to day, cherishing a spirit of true and ever-increasing thankfulness to God. But, the oftener we make the review, the greater cause will we have for saying, with David, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my father’s house, that you have brought me hitherto?”
Christian! you cannot indeed reckon up all the benefits you have received from the hand of God — for they are as numerous as the stars of heaven or the drops of the mighty ocean! Your common mercies — alas! too lightly valued . . .
the air you breathe,
the return of the gladsome sunlight,
the succession of the seasons, and
the quiet and gentle stillness and repose of night
— all these, with their unnumbered host of attendant blessings, are scattered on your path! (John MacDuff)
Let us praise God for common mercies, for they prove to be uncommonly precious — when they are once taken away! (Charles Spurgeon)
November 23, 2016 0 Comments
Psalm 23:1-3
“If you want rest, O weary souls, ye can find it nowhere until ye come and lay your burdens down at His dear pierced feet.” Charles Spurgeon
We will not find true rest in anything or anyone else in this world. Period.
iChristian 
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