Though the light shines on things unclean, yet it is not thereby defiled.
Augustine
Tag Archives: Christian Living
✞ Reggae “How Great Is Our God” by Sherwin Gardner
May 22, 2015 
5 Comments
The splendor of a king
Clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice
All the earth rejoice
He wraps Himself in light,
And darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice
Trembles at His voice
How great is our God – sing with me
How great is our God – and all will see
How great, how great is our God
Age to age He stands
And time is in His hands
Beginning and the end
Beginning and the end
The Godhead Three in One
Father, Spirit and Son
Lion and the Lamb
Lion and the Lamb
How great is our God – sing with me
How great is our God – and all will see
How great, how great is our God
Name above all names
Worthy of all praise
My heart will sing
How great is our God
Name above all names
You’re worthy of all praise
And my heart will sing
How great is our God
How great is our God – sing with me
How great is our God – and all will see
How great, how great is our God!
The Holiness Of God & The Love Of God
May 20, 2015 5 Comments
“To be really Bible-believing Christians we need to practice, simultaneously, at each step of the way, two biblical principles.
One principle is that of the purity of the visible church. Scripture commands that we must do more than just talk about the purity of the visible church; we must actually practice it, even when it is costly.
The second principle is that of an observable love among all true Christians. In the flesh we can stress purity without love, or we can stess love without purity; we cannot stress both simultaneously. To do so we must look moment by moment to the work of Christ and to the Holy Spirit. Without that, a stress on purity becomes hard, proud, and legalistic; likewise without it a stress on love becomes sheer compromise.
Spiritually begins to have real meaning in our lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the holiness of God and the love of God. We never do this perfectly, but we must look to the living Christ to help us do it truly.”
Francis A. Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster
Regard People
May 15, 2015 8 Comments
“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
Hands & Hearts
May 13, 2015 1 Comment
God’s providence is not in baskets lowered from the sky, but through the hands and hearts of those who love Him. The lad without food and without shoes made the proper answer to the cruel minded woman who asked, “But if God loved you wouldn’t He send you food and shoes?” The boy replied, “God told someone, but he forgot.”
George A. Buttrick
Truth Forever On The Scaffold
May 11, 2015 1 Comment
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
James Russell Lowell
God Will Continue To Chip Away
May 7, 2015 0 Comments
I am what I am, as Popeye used to say, but unlike Popeye I know I am not all I could be. In God”s hands he continues to shape my life, and he continues to use everything I’ve experienced to shape me. I seem to remember that Michael Angelo was once asked how he turned a lump of marble into a beautiful carving of a horse. “Simple,” he said, “you just chip away everything that doesn’t look like a horse.”
My prayer is that God will continue to chip away everything that doesn’t look like the life he wants for me. If it doesn’t look like a horse yet, that’s because it isn’t finished!
Brother Ben’s Email sent to me this morning.
The Christian Church Is losing Her Integrity
April 10, 2015 5 Comments
“I fear me that the Christian church is far more likely to lose her integrity in these soft and silken days than in those rougher times. We must be awake now, for we traverse the enchanted ground, and are most likely to fall asleep to our own undoing, unless our faith in Jesus be a reality, and our love to Jesus a vehement flame. Many in these days of easy profession are likely to prove tares, and not wheat; hypocrites with fair masks on their faces, but not the true born children of the living God.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening
Conversation In The Womb
April 3, 2015 13 Comments
Baby 1: And you, you believe in life after birth?
Baby 2: Absolutely. It’s obvious that life after birth exists. We are here to become stronger and to get ready for whatever awaits us next.
Baby 1: This is absurd. There is nothing after birth! What would life look like outside the womb!
Baby 2: Well, there are many stories about the other side. I’ve heard there is a blaze of light there, an intense and profound feeling of joy with deep emotions, thousands of things to live for… For example, I’ve heard that we’ll eat with our mouth there.
Baby 1: That’s silly. We have an umbilical cord and that is how we eat. Everyone knows that we don’t use our mouth to eat! And, on top of that, no one has ever come back from the other world. Those stories are all coming from naive people. Life just ends at birth. Period. That’s the way it is and we must accept it.
Baby 2: Alright, then allow me to think differently. That’s for sure, I have no idea what life after birth looks like, and I can’t prove anything to you. But I like to believe that in the next world, we’ll be able to see our mother and that she will take care of us.
Baby 1: “Mother”? You mean that you believe in “Mother”? Oh! So where is she?
Baby 2: Everywhere, don’t you see it! She is everywhere, all around us. We are part of her and it’s thanks to her that we are living right now. Without her, we wouldn’t be here.
Baby 1: This is ridiculous! I’ve never seen any mother so it’s obvious that she doesn’t exist.
Baby 2: I don’t agree. That’s your way of seeing things. Because sometimes when everything quiets down a little bit, we can hear her sing. We can feel her hugging our world! I’m pretty sure that our life will start after birth.
Truth Or Public Opinion.
April 1, 2015 2 Comments
In the world today, real faith has in most cases been replaced by public opinion. People do not believe in God, but they believe in many minor things which are taught by other people.
Leo Tolstoy
God’s Power
March 28, 2015 2 Comments
“I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests His power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, in a methodology, in a technique, in anything and everything but that in which God has placed it—His Word. He alone has the power to change lives for eternity, and that power is focused on the Scriptures.”
R.C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord
✞ Music “Pray” by More Than Rubies
March 27, 2015 0 Comments
“Pray”
Father which art in heaven, Holy is your name
Let your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven
Father, give us our daily bread. And father, forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors
Teach us to pray
Teach us to pray
Teach us to pray
Father which art in heaven, Holy is your name. Let your kingdom come
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
Father, deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever
Teach us to pray
Teach us to pray
Teach us to pray
Ahhh..amen
Teach us to pray.
Fresh And New Into His Likeness
March 26, 2015 2 Comments
Here I sit in the middle of eternity. This wheelchair has helped me sit still. I’ve observed with curiosity the way we Christians grasp for the future, as if the present didn’t quite satisfy. How we, in spiritual fits and starts, scrape and scratch our way along, often missing the best of life while looking the other way, preoccupied with shaping our future. In my least consistent moments I too try to wrest the future out of his hands. Or worse, I sink back into the past and rest on long-ago laurels But God is most concerned with the choices I make now. God, standing silently and invisibly and presently with us in the middle of eternity, is interested in a certain kind of change. He brings us choices through which we never-endingly change, fresh and new into his likeness.
Joni Eareckson Tada
God Abhors
March 23, 2015 1 Comment
“That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
To Speak…or Not To Speak
March 21, 2015 2 Comments
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say”
Martin Luther
Christian Community
March 20, 2015 2 Comments
“Christian community is like the Christian’s sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
The Most Respectable Sinner
March 16, 2015 0 Comments
The gospel is open to all; the most respectable sinner has no more claim on it than the worst.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Stop…Think…Speak
March 14, 2015 2 Comments
Words. Do you fully understand their power? Can any of us really grasp the mighty force behind the things we say? Do we stop and think before we speak, considering the potency of the words we utter?
Joni Eareckson Tada
Earthly Goods Deceive The Human Heart
March 13, 2015 0 Comments
“Earthly goods deceive the human heart into believing that they give it security and freedom from worry. But in truth, they are what cause anxiety.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
How Do I Love Thee?
March 10, 2015 2 Comments
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday’s Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men might strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,–I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!–and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Judging Others Makes Us Blind
March 4, 2015 5 Comments
“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Love Each Other
March 2, 2015 3 Comments
Lord, some people in my life are difficult to love. I am tempted not even to try to care. But You showed love to me even when I was Your enemy. Please direct me to love in the way that’s acceptable to you, with Your power and grace, Amen.
Are These Doctrines True: Is Holiness There?
February 20, 2015 4 Comments
“And above all, you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and panelling…the question should never be: ‘Do I like that kind of service?’ but ‘Are these doctrines true: Is holiness there? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to move to this door due to my pride, ormy mere taste, or my personal dislike for this particular door-keeper?”
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
Our Culture
February 16, 2015 3 Comments
“We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry.”
Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Honesty
February 9, 2015 2 Comments
Honesty has a beautiful and refreshing simplicity about it. No ulterior motives. No hidden meanings. An absence of hypocrisy, duplicity, political games, and verbal superficiality. As honesty and real integrity characterize our lives, there will be no need to manipulate others.
Charles Swindoll
Sacrificing Truth
February 7, 2015 3 Comments
“Never let us be guilty of sacrificing any portion of truth on the altar of peace.”
J. C. Ryle
The Power Of The Flesh
February 6, 2015 3 Comments
“The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.”
Francis A. Schaeffer – No Little People
Unity
February 5, 2015 2 Comments
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.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
True Meanings
February 2, 2015 3 Comments
“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”
Abraham Lincoln
A Still Small Voice
January 29, 2015 8 Comments
Today i’m editing audio interviews Sarah has recorded for the latest CD version of RNIB’s Outlook magazine. As i was using the automation tool (see above) to boost a part of Sarah’s voice, i instantly thought of the still small voice of God speaking to Elijah.
1 Kings 19:12 Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
12 and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
I started thinking that its so easy for us to try and amplify the “still small voice” to align it with our noisy and busy lives, to try and keep doing everything we want to do and God will bless it anyway. We become so arrogant in our will, that we think we can manipulate God into fitting in (and agreeing) with our purpose driven lives, after all we are doing it for Him aren’t we?!
Are you bombarding God with foolish rantings, or are you ready to slow down and listen to His still small voice?
Spiritual Placebos
January 26, 2015 5 Comments
“When believers have a low view of God, everything focuses on meeting felt needs within the body of Christ. When the church adopts such a perspective, it often offers people nothing more than spiritual placebos. It centers on psychology, self-esteem, entertainment, and a myriad of other diversions to attempt to meet perceived and felt needs.”
John MacArthur, Alone With God
The Glory Of The Gospel
January 13, 2015 5 Comments
The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
More Than Conquerors
January 7, 2015 4 Comments
It is not a true Gospel that gives us the impression that the Christian life is easy, and that there are no problems to be faced. That is not the New Testament teaching. The New Testament is most alarming at first, indeed terrifying, as it shows us the problems by which we are confronted. But follow it-go on! It does not stop halfway, it goes on to this addition, this second half; and here it shows us the way in which, though that is the truth concerning the battle, we can be enabled to wage it, and not only to wage it, but to triumph in it. It shows us that we are meant to be “more than conquerors.”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Have A Meaningful New Year
January 1, 2015 7 Comments
Life is not life without God by our side.
He is the reason why we are alive.
He is everything.
Offer your prayer of thanks, and stay full with God’s love.
Have a meaningful New Year! 🙂
🎄 Christmas Prayer
December 17, 2014 8 Comments
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.
Under The Word
December 17, 2014 6 Comments
The church is always to be under the Word; she must be; we must keep her there. You must not assume that because the church started correctly, she will continue so. She did not do so in the New Testament times; she has not done so since. Without being constantly reformed by the Word the church becomes something very different. We must always keep the church under the Word.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
One Alone…
December 16, 2014 1 Comment
Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes. One alone is true to us; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our need.
John Henry Newman
The Glory Of The Gospel
November 27, 2014 3 Comments
The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The Simple Way
November 24, 2014 9 Comments
A couple of weeks ago, Paul (one of our preachers) asked if i’d like to share a song that’s on my heart before his sermon (which was yesterday). It’s not a full band song, but one where i accompany a single singer, a prayerful and reflective song. My first thoughts were “Oh yeah i’d love to go up to the front and terrify myself while i share some words and try to play a song”. So i said “Yes i’d love too”. He said “Great, the theme is unity”.
As i went away i said “Wow, thank you Lord” as for nearly 2 months now i’ve been doing a personal daily expositional bible study on Ephesians 4 & 5, which is all about unity. Verses suddenly flooded my mind about unity in the Spirit through the bond of peace, unity in the faith, unity in the body and on and on they came. I started getting excited and thought instead of sharing a song, i’d share all of the things i’d been learning for about 6 hours instead! lol. 🙂
Then the more sobering verses and thoughts came along…
“If we are without Hope and without God (Ephesians 2:12), and if we are not growing in the knowledge and understanding of Christ, if Jesus isn’t the head, and if He is not leading the way, then unity is IMPOSSIBLE!” Jesus who is The Way, The Truth and The Life, simply said “FOLLOW ME!”.
✞ Song “The Simple Way” by Sara Sargent
I then went to ask my loving sister in Christ Sara if she would bless us with her beautiful voice while i accompany her on acoustic guitar, and to maybe show me some of the songs she had written but kept quiet. So last week Sara came and showed me “The Simple Way”, wow! 🙂
This is a short section of the song which i recorded on my iPhone as i was learning the guitar chords. The quality isn’t brilliant, but i hope you too are blessed by Sara’s beautiful voice.
The Deceitfulness Of Sin
November 24, 2014 1 Comment
Hebrews 3:12-13 New International Version – UK (NIVUK)
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
It Was In Paradise
November 21, 2014 3 Comments
“The terrible, tragic fallacy of the last hundred years has been to think that all man’s troubles are due to his environment, and that to change the man you have nothing to do but change his environment. That is a tragic fallacy. It overlooks the fact that it was in Paradise that man fell.”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
Follow Close After The Lord
November 20, 2014 4 Comments
It is easy to follow a person’s footprints if we walk close behind him, but if we walk some distance back, we might fail to see them as clearly. Similarly, if we follow close after the Lord, we would easily see the footsteps along the way, but if we try to follow afar off, we would find it difficult to know the path of His will.
Andrew Bonar
Christian Living
November 19, 2014 2 Comments
“There is nothing which I know of which is more unscriptural, and which is more dangerous to the soul, than to divide doctrine from life… The reason for this is that if your life and your mode of living is not the outcome of your doctrine, it is not Christian living; it is something else.”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans – The Gospel Of God
Our Pursuit Of Holiness
October 24, 2014 2 Comments
“Too often, we say we are defeated by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated. We are simply disobedient. It might be good if we stop using the terms victory and defeat to describe our progress in holiness. Rather, we should use the terms obedience and disobedience. When I say I am defeated by some sin, I am unconsciously slipping out from under my responsibility. I am saying something outside of me has defeated me. But when I say I am disobedient, that places the responsibility for my sin squarely on me. We may in fact be defeated, but the reason we are defeated is because we have chosen to disobey.
We need to brace ourselves up and to realize that we are responsible for thoughts, attitudes, and actions. We need to reckon on the fact that we died to sin’s reign, that it no longer has any dominion over us, that God has united us with the risen Christ in all His power and has given us the Holy Spirit to work in us. Only as we accept our responsibility and appropriate God’s provisions will we make any progress in our pursuit of holiness.”
Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness
Peace To The Brothers & Sisters
October 24, 2014 1 Comment
Ephesians 6:23-24 New International Version – UK (NIVUK)
23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
I Don’t Think I’m Good Enough?!
October 22, 2014 6 Comments
“To make it quite practical I have a very simple test. After I have explained the way of Christ to somebody I say “Now, are you ready to say that you are a Christian?” And they hesitate. And then I say, “What’s the matter? Why are you hesitating?” And so often people say, “I don’t feel like I’m good enough yet. I don’t think I’m ready to say I’m a Christian now.” And at once I know that I have been wasting my breath. They are still thinking in terms of themselves. They have to do it. It sounds very modest to say, “Well, I don’t think I’ good enough,” but it’s a very denial of the faith. The very essence of the Christian faith is to say that He is good enough and I am in Him. As long as you go on thinking about yourself like that and saying, “I’m not good enough; Oh, I’m not good enough,” you are denying God – you are denying the gospel – you are denying the very essence of the faith and you will never be happy. You think you’re better at times and then again you will find you are not as good at other times than you thought you were. You will be up and down forever. How can I put it plainly? It doesn’t matter if you have almost entered into the depths of hell. It does not matter if you are guilty of murder as well as every other vile sin. It does not matter from the standpoint of being justified before God at all. You are no more hopeless than the most moral and respectable person in the world.”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure
✞ Music “Starts With Me” by Tim Timmons
October 20, 2014 3 Comments
“Starts With Me”
What could I do to leave a legacy?
How can I speak with authority
When I can’t see You, I can’t see You
How can I know the dreams You have for me?
How can I believe beyond what I have seen?
When I can’t hear You, I can’t feel You now
No, no, no
[Chorus:]
You’re my revival song, You start where I belong
On my knees, on my knees
When I am weak or strong You meet me here
When I’m on my knees, on my knees
Oh, it starts with me
Why do I try to work outside of You?
Knocking down doors I should be going through
But I’m so tired, I’m so tired
You take my burdens off of my shoulders
You break the lies that hold me back
I’m not sure enough
I really wanna change the world
I really wanna sing Your song
But I know revival’s got to start with me
I really wanna change the world
I really wanna sing Your song
But I know revival’s got to start with me
Make No Provision For The Flesh
October 20, 2014 2 Comments
Romans 13:14 New King James Version (NKJV)
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
Love Is Amazing
October 20, 2014 1 Comment
“Love is amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Isaac Watts
✞ Music “House Of Their Dreams” by Casting Crowns
October 16, 2014 3 Comments
“House Of Their Dreams“
A corner office was his dream
More like a prison now it seems
Somewhere on the corporate climb
He left his warrior behind
Now hes just a worker at a daily grind
Steals his years and numbs his mind
His strength is fading, his dreams are blind
This is not the life he had in mind
She lies awake cause hes up all night
Staring at a screen that tells him lies
That the grass is greener on the other side
So shes at the gym fighting off the years
To be young again and calm her fears
That shell never be enough for him
Just as a young man catches her eye
Now they’re trapped in their own worlds, in their own wars
With their cell phones and the closed doors
Its funny how quiet and peaceful that it seems
But they’re all alone together
In the house of their dreams
Little sister, shes a sixteen-year-old princess
Lost somewhere between the swing set
And her brand new crushs chariot awaits
And big brothers rooms glowing with trophies that shout his name
But he’d trade all his high school fame
For some backyard catch with his hero again
So now they’re all dressed up in Sunday best
Sit up straight just like the rest
And they sing the songs of peace and rest that Jesus freely gives
And then their kids look up as daddy stands
And he takes his bride with trembling hands
Brother kneels at his fathers side as princess looks in the mothers eyes
Their tears tear down the walls as daddy prays
Were trapped in our own worlds and our own wars
With our cell phones and our closed doors
God, only You can save our family
And on this Rock, well build
On this Rock, well build
The house of our dreams
iChristian 
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