“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say”
Martin Luther
Tag Archives: Christianity
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
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
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.
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
Prayer For 2015
January 1, 2015 9 Comments
Lord, I want to know You more. Deep within my soul I want to know You. In the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I ask that You would stir up this desire I have to be intimate with You. I depend on You today, and every day this year, to reveal Yourself to me in any way that You choose.
Holy Spirit, please take the powerful, unchanging truths of Scripture and make them alive in fresh new ways each day of this coming year.
Heavenly Father, I praise You that You have given me the Living Word – Your words – through which I can hear from You and experience You. When it comes to my Bible, focus my heart on my relationship with You moment by moment, rather than my reading habits over the course of a year.
I ask in Jesus name, Amen.
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
✞ Music “I want Jesus to walk with me” by Eric Bibb
November 20, 2014 3 Comments
I want Jesus to walk with me (original lyrics)
I want Jesus to walk with me, I want Jesus to walk with me. All along my pilgrim journey, I want Jesus to walk with me
In my trial, Lord, walk with me In my trials, Lord, walk with me When the shades of life are falling Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me
In my sorrow, Lord walk with me In my sorrows, Lord walk with me When my heart is aching Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me
In my troubles, Lord walk with me In my troubles, Lord walk with me When my life becomes a burden, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.
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
An Evening With Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges! 😄
November 14, 2014 1 Comment
Wow!! Just returned home from an evening of Worship at church, where we were blessed by the amazing voice of Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges and his Spiritual songs, it was an honour to meet him too! 🙂
Read about Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges on Wikipedia….
⇧ Eugene “Hideaway Bridges performing at our church ⇧
⇧ Me meeting Eugene during the interval 🙂 ⇧
Ephesians 5:19 New International Version – UK (NIVUK)
speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,
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
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
Your Time Is Your Life
October 11, 2014 5 Comments
“Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.
It is not enough to just say relationships are important; we must prove it by investing time in them. Words alone are worthless. “My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.” Relationships take time and effort, and the best way to spell love is “T-I-M-E.”
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?
Following Jesus
October 3, 2014 5 Comments
“In teaching people what it means to be a Christian, we spend much of our time and effort bringing them to a point of belief without clearly calling them to follow. We have taken “believe” and we have written that in capital letters with bold print: BELIEVE. But everything that has to do with following has been put in small print: follow.”
“Jesus doesn’t hold back with Nicodemus.
Following Jesus would require a commitment that would cost Nicodemus a great deal….In fact, it’s true throughout all of Scripture….Following Jesus isn’t something you can do at night where no one notices. It’s a twenty-four-hour-a-day commitment that will interfere with your life. That’s not the small-print–that’s a guarantee.”
Kyle Idleman, Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus
Moral Benefits Of Wisdom
October 2, 2014 1 Comment
Proverbs 2:1-6 New International Version
Moral Benefits of Wisdom
My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
A Hot-Tempered Person
September 19, 2014 5 Comments
Proverbs 19:19 New International Version
A hot-tempered person must pay the penalty;
rescue them, and you will have to do it again.
Biblical Truth
September 5, 2014 4 Comments
“Don’t believe something just because you want to, and don’t embrace an idea just because you’ve always believed it. Believe what is biblical. Test all your assumptions against the precious words God gave us in the Bible.”
Francis Chan, Erasing Hell: What God Said about Eternity, and the Things We’ve Made Up
We Desperately Need God
August 25, 2014 2 Comments
“The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time.”
Francis Chan
Prayer Gives An Opportunity
June 26, 2014 2 Comments
Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself.
William Inge
✞ Music “Bury The Workmen” by Unspoken
June 16, 2014 2 Comments
“Bury The Workmen”
Steven was a deacon in Jerusalem
They dragged him out those city gates to try and quiet him
When Steven preached those Pharisees started throwing stones
Before he died he raised his eyes and saw Jesus on the throne
(Chorus)
He said, You can bury the workmen but the work will go on
And you can silence the voices but you can’t stop the song
When the Spirit’s moving, His will will be done
You can bury the workmen but the work will go on
James was sent to Heaven at the edge of Herod’s sword
And Peter he was crucified like his beloved Lord
The Roman Colosseum, the lions and the fires
The gates of hell did not prevail, they fanned those flames higher
(Chorus)
Cause you can bury the workmen but the work will go on
And you can silence the voices but you can’t stop the song
When the Spirit’s moving, His will will be done
And you can bury the workmen but the work will go on
And then they lowered Jesus, they laid Him in a grave
They thought that it was over, that His name would fade away
But Jesus wasn’t listening, no, He rose to life again
Cause God is not persuaded by the arrogance of men
(Chorus) x2
So you can bury the workmen but the work will go on
And you can silence the voices but you can’t stop the song
When the Spirit’s moving, His will will be done
And you can bury the workmen but the work will go on
✞ Music “Stones Under Rushing Water” by NEEDTOBREATHE
June 9, 2014 6 Comments
“Stones Under Rushing Water”
Why don’t we dance anymore
I’m not ok with that
Why don’t we laugh anymore
I’m not ok with that
The years go by like stones under rushing water
We only know when it’s gone
Why don’t we smile anymore
I’m not ok with that
Why don’t we dance slowly
I’m not ok with that
The years go by like stones under rushing water
We only know when it’s gone
Why don’t we dance anymore
I’m not ok with that
A know-It-All Attitude
May 6, 2014 14 Comments
Holy Spirit, bring familiar passages from Your living Word to mind. By Your power, make them living and active in my soul! Oh Lord, break me of any know-it-all attitude, so that I can experience You in fresh and new ways today, Amen.
Dim Windows Of The Soul
May 4, 2014 8 Comments
“This life’s dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye.”
William Blake
My Mother’s Prayers
April 30, 2014 1 Comment
I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.
Abraham Lincoln
✞ Music “Wasteland” by NEEDTOBREATHE
April 30, 2014 0 Comments
“Wasteland”
I am the first one in line to die
When the cavalry comes
Yeah it feels like the great divide
has already come
Yeah im wastin’ my way through days
losing youth along the way
Oh if God, is on my side
Oh if God, is on my side
Oh if God, is on my side
Who could be against me?
There was a greatness I felt for a while
But somehow it changed
Some kind of blindness I used to protect me
From all of my stains
Yeah I wish this was vertigo
It just feels like I’m fallin’ slow
Oh if God, is on my side
Then who can be against me?
Yeah in this wasteland
Where I’m livin’
There is a crack in the door filled with light
And it’s all that
I need to get by
Yeah in this wasteland
Where I’m livin’
There is a crack in the door filled with light
And it’s all that
I need to shine
All of these people I meet
It seems like they’re fine
Yeah in some ways I hope that they’re not
And their hearts are like mine
Yeah its wrong when it seems like work
To belong, All I feel is hurt
Oh if God, is on my side
Yeah if God, is on my side
Oh if God, is on my side
Who could be against me?
Yeah in this wasteland
Where I’m livin’
There is a crack in the door filled with light
And its all that
I need to get by
Yeah in this wasteland
Where I’m livin’
There is a crack in the door filled with light
And it’s all that
I need to shine
Oh if God, is on my side
Yeah if God, is on my side
Oh if God, is on my side
Then who could be against me?
I Wouldn’t Do That For A Million Dollars!
April 29, 2014 10 Comments
An American tourist in India stood by in awe as he watched Mother Teresa lovingly clean the infected wounds of a horribly disfigured leper, “Sister,” he commented, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars!” Her response, “Neither would I, brother. Neither would I.”
Mother Teresa
We Are His Temple
April 23, 2014 2 Comments
“We are his temple. We do not turn in a certain directlon to pray. We are not bound by having to go into a building so that we can commune with God. There are no unique postures and times and limitations that restrict our access to God. My relationship with God is intimate and personal. The Christian does not go to the temple to worship. The Christian takes the temple with him or her. Jesus lifts us beyond the building and pays the human body the highest compliment by making it His dwelling place, the place where He meets with us. Even today He would overturn the tables of those who make it a marketplace for their own lust, greed, and wealth.”
Ravi Zacharias
We Are Loved As We Are
April 21, 2014 3 Comments
Risen God, we come to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, yet we do not share the love that Christ offers. Forgive us when we forget his gift of sacrificial love.
Risen God, sometimes we look and do not recognise you because we have already decided what you will look like. Forgive us when we do not see you in people we meet.
Risen God, sometimes we would rather not hear the weeping of others because we cannot cope with what it will mean to care for them. Forgive us when we are deaf to the cries of the world.
Risen God, sometimes we choose to stay at the tomb rather than join the women in rushing to spread the Good News. Forgive us when we chose to mourn instead of live.
The grace of God is for us through Christ’s death and Resurrection.
We are loved as we are, not as we believe we should be.
We are given forgiveness as a gift beyond anything we have deserved or earned.
We lift up our hearts and receive our freedom, Amen.
He Has Risen!
April 20, 2014 4 Comments
Matthew 28:6-7 Amplified Bible
He is not here; He has risen, as He said [He would do]. Come, see the place where He lay.
Then go quickly and tell His disciples, He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.
Gratitude Unlocks The Fullness Of Life
April 16, 2014 3 Comments
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie
We Aren’t Here By Accident
March 25, 2014 3 Comments
God leaves us here because He has a mission for us to fulfill. We aren’t here by accident; neither are we here simply to enjoy the good things life has to offer. We are here because God put us here, and He has a sovereign purpose in keeping us here. It’s true for us as individuals, and it’s true for His body, the Church, in all of its fullness. As Jesus prayed just before His arrest and trial, “I am not praying that You take them out of the world…As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” (John 17:15,18)
Billy Graham
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