“For to speak the truth, there are but few that care thus to spend their time, but choose rather to be speaking of things to no profit.”
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
Tag Archives: Christianity
Peace of God
August 18, 2016 
0 Comments
“If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us…”
John Bunyan
Cheapening the Gospel
May 18, 2016 6 Comments
“In an effort to gain “converts,” Christians often refrain from telling the full story. We want people to follow, so like cheap salesmen, we share the benefits without explaining the cost. We tell them about Jesus’ promises of life and forgiveness, but we don’t mention His calls for repentance and obedience. We avoid His promise that we will experience persecution. When we do this, we cheapen the gospel.”
Francis Chan, You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity
Saviour, Sobbing & Sharing my Testimony ~ Amazing Grace
May 12, 2016 14 Comments
I was asked by our Minister Nik if i would share my Testimony in yesterdays parade service. The theme was ‘Faith through Adversity’, Nik said “i can ask you some straight forward questions, it will only take about 5 minutes(or so we thought)” “Yeah, ok, if you think it will help?”.
Sunday 8th May 2016…
Walking into the church building Sunday morning, it was quite full, as it was parade service, the scouts and other uniformed groups were there, but Nik found us seats at the front, then showed me up the steps and where i’d stand to speak, after testing the microphone i remembered the steps and sat back down.
As i’m blind, i can’t use any notes, so i spent a little time trying to etch some answer headings into my mind, hoping i’d not veer too far off track. I then prayed that i’d use this time to Glorify Him, as i talked about the Truth that sets us free, and how i’m not ashamed of the Gospel, it’s the power of God unto Salvation to all who believe…please make it real(be careful praying this).
It;s time…
Steve, we are looking at people who have showed faith in difficult circumstances and I have asked you to share some of your story with us.
Many people here, even those who have seen you around at various church events may not know that you are blind.
My Testimony…
Nik stood next to me at the microphone and started with the first 2 questions:
Have you always been blind? How and when did you loose your sight?
I explained i’d been fully sighted until i was 24, and after 2 brain haemorrhages(March 2000) that burst my optic nerve, i’m now registered blind and have Severe Hypertensive Retinopathy.
“How did that change your life?”
I said “I can only scratch the surface this morning, but if ever you see me walking around here or in town, please ask me anything. But now i’ll try and sketch you a quick picture and give you a flavour of what happened…”
“I went to the gym 6-7 days a week, played football most evenings and was quite violent, acting the tough guy. I wasn’t a Christian, i hadn’t been born again, or even been inside a church building…so… as i stepped out of the eye consultants office after being told i’d be blind for the rest of my life, i collapsed on the floor crying out….and this was the easy bit”.
“Following this was pure isolation… all my football mates left me, i lost my job, my car…everything, i was completely broken, and on top of that i was left to my acusing thoughts “Nobody wants you, you’re useless now, unwanted, rejected, unloved and unlovable!!”
Suddenly…
It was about this time where my mouth was silenced, an image of Jesus in Glory(Revelation 1) filled my mind, it was so clear(not blurred by my blindness) I could see His flaming eyes of judgment…then…the image changed, it was Jesus on the cross, now His eyes were filled with Mercy, Compassion & Grace, and while looking down straight at me he said “I did this for you, so that you can live. I…LOVE…YOU!!!
I started sobbing uncontrollably…i’d never sobbed like this in my entire life, and it took a couple of minutes for me to try and start talking again….but more sobbing…i was completely undone.
I knew He’d given His life so i could live. He’d come down so far to save me it is immeasurable. His blood washed me clean, white as snow. He’s forgiven me all my sins, past, present and future, and there is no more condemnation for me(or you), it is finished!
I’d been praying for so long for God to “Break my heart for what broke His” and sang the songs many times, but never had i caught a glimpse of the true cost of His Love, and His free gift of Grace to those who Repent and Believe in Him. I knew He wanted me to share the True Gospel to people listening(and now reading), as it alone is the only Hope. It is the Power of God unto Salvation for anyone that believes.
Still sobbing, i continued…
My every word was a different pitch but i said “My pit was so dark, my accusing thoughts were too heavy, and this led to a daily cycle of waking up and trying to kill myself…failing, which made me feel worse…then drinking so much i could drown them out for the rest of the day, until i woke the next day, then it started again.
I didn’t have the strength to kill myself, and i didn’t have the strength to live…i was without God, and without Hope!
Nik, who’s hand was rested on my shoulder asked question 4 “I know you were deeply unhappy at the time, what changed that?”
The world followed it’s pattern and sent me to Counselling, then Psychotherapy & finally Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, they didn’t work, they all had no answer for me, they couldn’t reach far enough down to pull me out. I needed a Saviour, I needed the light of the Gospel!
The Good News & Lovely Sarah…
Meeting Sarah changed my life! I have no idea how she’s put up with me. She’s been so patient and long suffering as i tried attacking her Faith and this Jesus! But she kept on loving me. Sarah always seemed to have a rock she was standing on no matter how bad things got for her, she always had this Blessed Hope that i didn’t,
Jesus worked through Sarah to shine the light of the Gospel, the Good News i was dying for.
Words failed me as i was trying to describe how much i love Sarah, so when my mind filled with thoughts of how far we’ve grown together in love…i broke down again.
The sobbing was still making me pause every few words, but mentioned Jesus doesn’t want to see anyone perish, but he pursues you, He has come to seek and save that which is lost. He loves you and no matter how bad or hopeless you think you are, He’ll keep coming with His free gift of Salvation!
Nik asked Question 5 “some people would say that your life must be worse now, would you agree with them?”
I’d gone way over my time slot, and i was almost pulled away from the mic as i was so overwhelmed…BUT i knew these tears were not about me, or my losses. I had 1 focus and that was to share the Truth that sets us free. I had no feeling of sorrow or pain. I knew it must have seemed like this to the congregation, and i thought they’d stick me in a counselling room when i’d finished!
The Holy Spirit was filling me like never before, and made the Power of the Gospel so real to me i almost exploded.
I continued “I wouldn’t agree with anyone who thinks(or measures) life by how good our circumstances are. I’d lead them to 2 Corinthians 4 & 5 where it talks about living by Faith, not by Sight, and now that we are born again in the Spirit, we should walk by the Spirit. Not living for things that are seen which are temporary(like my sight loss), but living for the unseen which is Eternal”
“I used to hate this song, but now i’d play it every service if i could…have you heard Amazing Grace, the Chris Tomlin version? If you pass me in the street you’ll normally hear me singing or humming these words:”
“Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see. My chains are gone I’ve been set free. My God, my Saviour has ransomed me. And like a flood His mercy reigns. Unending love, amazing grace”.
Nik then walked me back to my seat next to Sarah. The church was completely silent, it had been silent since i first started sobbing. I could feel Sarah was upset as she didn’t react for a while, then she said “People kept on running up and passing me tissues”. Nik sat down next to Sarah, and Sarah said “You’re not borrowing him again to speak”.
After the service people came over and said they really connected with the things i said, although i think everyone thinks i’m back in dark depression again.
He showed me the reality and Power of transformation in His Gospel, and how vital it is to share it, as Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no-one gets to the Father but by Him. He’s the forgiver of Sins, breaker of chains, and the only Salvation for Eternal Life in Heaven.
John 3:14-21 New King James Version (NKJV)
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but[a] have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
I felt i needed to share this post to try and explain a little more of what was happening to me, and maybe reach out to someone who is struggling with the creeping death called Depression,or who is just simply lost and without God, and without Hope.
Related Posts:
Lesser Things
May 4, 2016 5 Comments
“If we don’t stare at God, we’ll spend our time staring at lesser things. Namely, ourselves.”
Francis Chan, You and Me Forever: Marriage in Light of Eternity
Words Without A Heart
April 28, 2016 0 Comments
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
John Bunyan
God’s Word
April 20, 2016 0 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
Their Ability To Make False Doctrine Palatable
March 21, 2016 2 Comments
“I have not much patience with a certain class of Christians nowadays who will hear anybody preach so long as they can say, ‘He is very clever, a fine preacher, a man of genius, a born orator.’ Is cleverness to make false doctrine palatable? Why, sirs, to me the ability of a man who preaches error is my sorrow rather than my admiration.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The Church
March 17, 2016 3 Comments
“That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
✞ Music “Dead Man Walking” by John Tibbs
October 23, 2015 2 Comments
Heaven knows I’m a broken man
These tired bones they can barely stand
The ways of the world oh I lay in my grave
To the darkest of nights when You call my name
Your love Your love oh it set me free
Oh no guilt no shame got a hold on me
Your love Your love well it opened my eyes
I was a dead man walking till You gave me life
Grace it comes with a price I’m told
Took the light of the world just to save my soul
But in the valley of the shadow of the cross you’ll find
Oh no brokenness when I come alive
Your love broke the chain
And I’m free from the guilt and shame
Love opened my eyes
Oh Your love Your love it set me free
Oh no guilt no shame got a hold on me
Your love Your love well it opened my eyes
I was a dead man walking till Lord
I was a dead man walking till Lord
I was a dead man walking till Lord
You gave me life
It Is Grace
September 28, 2015 2 Comments
It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our death beds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace. Grace wondrous grace. By the grace of God I am what I am. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
One Accord
July 30, 2015 2 Comments
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.”
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Are you manufacturing a God of your own?
July 27, 2015 1 Comment
“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
Your Rock Is Christ
July 23, 2015 4 Comments
“Believe God’s word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.”
“Your heart is not the compass that God steers by.”
Samuel Rutherford
The Sunlight Of Hope From A Trustful Soul.
July 15, 2015 2 Comments
Darkness may throw a shadow over my outer vision, but there is no cloud that can keep the sunlight of hope from a trustful soul. One of the earliest resolves that I formed in my young and joyous heart was to leave all care to yesterday, and to believe that the morrow would bring its own peculiar joy. permalink
Fanny Crosby
✞ Music “O The Blood” by Gateway Worship (feat Kari Jobe)
July 14, 2015 0 Comments
O the blood
Crimson love
Price of life’s demand
Shameful sin
Placed on Him
The Hope of every man
O the blood of Jesus washes me
O the blood of Jesus shed for me
What a sacrifice that saved my life
Yes, the blood, it is my victory
Savior Son
Holy One
Slain so I can live
See the Lamb
The great I Am
Who takes away my sin
O the blood of the Lamb
O the blood of the Lamb
O the blood of the Lamb
The precious blood of the Lamb
What a sacrifice
That saved my life
Yes, the blood, it is my victory
O what love
No greater love
Grace, how can it be
That in my sin
Yes, even then
He shed His blood for me.
Happy 8th Wedding Anniversary
July 7, 2015 18 Comments
⇧ Me & my lovely wife Sarah! ⇧
Yay…8 years today!! 🙂
Ephesians 5:25-27 The Voice (VOICE)
Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, and sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love the Anointed One has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water and the powerful presence of His word. He has given Himself so that He can present the church as His radiant bride, unstained, unwrinkled, and unblemished—completely free from all impurity—holy and innocent before Him.
My Thoughts…
Each time our wedding anniversary comes round, i can’t believe how much our marriage has grown more and more fruitful. Our love keeps blossoming through every season and i thank God for Sarah who is not only my best friend, but my amazing wife! 🙂
I thank God for sustaining our marriage in Purity and Truth.
I thank God for not leaving us alone to figure out what to do, but for giving us, teaching, correction, training and a perfect Holy example to follow…to reflect the personal and intimate union between Christ and His Church. The mystery of marriage is its reflection of the oneness of Christ, the Husband, and His Church, the Bride of Christ.
There is no more lovely, friendly or charming relationship, communion or company, than a good marriage.
Martin Luther
The Seeds Of Every Evil In His Own Heart
July 3, 2015 0 Comments
“Whoever is truly humbled — will not be easily angry, nor harsh or critical of others. He will be compassionate and tender to the infirmities of his fellow-sinners, knowing that if there is a difference — it is grace alone which has made it! He knows that he has the seeds of every evil in his own heart. And under all trials and afflictions — he will look to the hand of the Lord, and lay his mouth in the dust, acknowledging that he suffers much less than his iniquities have deserved.”
John Newton, The Letters of John Newton
Ignorant Of The Scriptures
June 30, 2015 1 Comment
“Why is it so hard to get people to study the Scriptures? Common sense tells us what revelation commands: ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’–‘Search the Scriptures’–‘Be ready to give to every one a reason of the hope that is in you.’ These are the words of the inspired writers, and these injunctions are confirmed by praising those who obey the admonition. And yet, for all that we have the Bible in our houses, we are ignorant of its contents. No wonder that so many Christians know so little about what Christ actually taught; no wonder that they are so mistaken about the faith that they profess.”
William Wilberforce, Real Christianity
The Coming Century
June 29, 2015 5 Comments
“The chief danger of the coming century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”
William Booth
Meekness Is His Method
June 24, 2015 1 Comment
“Jesus calls us to his rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.”
A.W. Tozer, Pursuit of God
The Wasteland Wanderer & The Power Armour Of God
June 18, 2015 2 Comments
📖 Verse 4 2day ~ Ephesians 6:10-18
The Armour of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Wasteland Wanderer…
With the recent announcement of Fallout 4 (released nov 2015) there is a lot of buzz about armour, especially the “Brotherhood of Steel” power armour (my fave).
Every time i read or hear about power armour or surviving in the wasteland, i think of putting on the full armour of God.
There is no way at all i’d step out into the wasteland without armour, only the foolish would do that. So why do we think we can stand firm against the dark forces in this world (the true wasteland) while forgetting to equip God’s armour??
Easily defeated…
How easy we make it for the evil one and his dark forces to defeat us without any fight at all. We need to put on each piece carefully and securely making sure it’s pulled tight with the belt of Truth, so we can be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
A little about Fallout 4…
Fallout 4 takes place approximately 200 years after a war over resources that ended in a nuclear holocaust in 2077, roughly the same time of events of Fallout 3. The setting is a post-apocalyptic retro-future, covering a region that includes Boston, Massachusetts and other parts of New England known as the Commonwealth.
The player faces all kinds of moral choices, situations, people, mutants and feral l ghouls (and worse), As you encounter more powerful enemies without much armour yourself, you keep wishing that you will find the location of the power armour. The game (like life) is full of choices, you can choose to do good or you can choose to do bad, and the consequences of these choices send ripples throughout the game and change the way people receive you.
Each choice determines your destiny!
Putting on……
For us to stand any chance of surviving against the devil’s schemes, powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, we MUST choose to put on the spiritual armour. Unlike the game we know the location of this armour is in prayer.
Ready…..Aim..…Pray!
I’m writing this post to urge you to pray on the spiritual Armour of God Ephesians 6 (as listed above). Take a moment and carefully consider the power, purpose and reality of each piece as you put it on. Whether you pray this prayer or a prayer like it, make it a routine that you take seriously.
🙏 Prayer 4 2day!
Lord, please help me today put on the Full Armour of God so i can stand firm in this spiritual warfare.
Help me put the Helmet of Salvation on my head that I might always remember I am saved, and who I belong to, that my mind is guarded in Christ Jesus, and that I may have the mind of Christ and that I may think the thoughts of Christ and reject all others that flood my mind daily.
Help me put the Breastplate of Righteousness on so that I may walk about in Righteousness and others may see your Righteousness in me, and that my heart is guarded in Christ Jesus, and that I may have the desires of Christ and reject all others.
Help me keep the Belt of Truth securely buckled on my waist, that I may always be secure in the knowledge of the Truth, always speak the Truth and especially…live the Truth.
Help me fit my Feet with the Readiness that comes from the Gospel of Peace, that I may stand firm in the Gospel, and spread the Gospel of Peace wherever I go.
Help hold the Shield of Faith with which to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one, strengthen my arm and help me hold it high, that I may use it to protect myself, my family, my household and those under my care, and help me use the Shield of Faith to press ahead and push forward for the kingdom of God.
And Lord, help me take up the Sword of The Spirit which is the Word of God, and use it every day, help me us it to protect myself and others from the evil one through the power and authority of Your Word, and to strike the hearts and minds of those who do not know You calling them towards repentance and salvation, help me use Your Word – the Sword of the Spirit – to cause those who know you but are backslidden to repentance, obedience and service, and to help awaken those who know you, but are asleep so they may obey and serve you, and please help me use your Word to bring, encouragement, strength and wisdom to the Remnant of God through your Word.
Help me serve you this and every day. Please use me Lord. These things I ask in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
A Generation Of Zombies
June 16, 2015 1 Comment
“Secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies.”
A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
He Transforms Our Hungers
June 11, 2015 4 Comments
“When God brings us to salvation, the most remarkable thing we see is that he transforms our hungers. He changes not just what we do but what we want to do. This is the work of the Holy Spirit within us — “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13).”
Ravi Zacharias, The Grand Weaver: How God Shapes Us Through the Events of Our Lives
The Walking Dead
June 9, 2015 0 Comments
“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”
A.W. Tozer
The Issue Of Faith
June 9, 2015 2 Comments
“The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in. (p.35)”
R.C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture
Pressure
June 8, 2015 0 Comments
“It does not matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is where the pressure lies — whether it comes between you and God, or whether it presses you nearer His heart.”
James Hudson Taylor
Friendly Futilities
June 3, 2015 2 Comments
Father, I don’t want to be conformed to the futile and dissolute thinking of the world. Renew my mind, help me to stop polluting it with the things the world wants me to see and hear. Transform me according to what is true about my true identity and my new self. Amen.
Christian Hope
June 3, 2015 1 Comment
“Optimism hopes for the best without any guarantee of its arriving and is often no more than whistling in the dark. Christian hope, by contrast, is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God, as when the Anglican burial service inters the corpse ‘in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.”
J.I. Packer
Flourishing Sin
June 2, 2015 2 Comments
“One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.”
Billy Sunday
Mysterious Power
June 1, 2015 8 Comments
“The gospel is preached in the ears of all men; it only comes with power to some. The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher otherwise men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning; otherwise it could consists of the wisdom of men. We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were mysterious power going with it – the Holy Ghost changing the will of man. O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
Made For Spirituality
May 27, 2015 8 Comments
“Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection. Made for joy, we settle for pleasure. Made for justice, we clamor for vengeance. Made for relationship, we insist on our own way. Made for beauty, we are satisfied with sentiment. But new creation has already begun. The sun has begun to rise. Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world … That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God’s new world, which he has thrown open before us.”
N.T. Wright, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense
Symptoms Of An Evil Disease
May 26, 2015 10 Comments
“We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals…The tragic results of this spirit all all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies…the glorification of men, trust is religious externalities….salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such of these are the symptoms of an evil disease.”
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Preserve Purity
May 25, 2015 0 Comments
The way to preserve the peace of the church is to preserve its purity.
Matthew Henry
The Purity Of Truth
May 24, 2015 0 Comments
Though the light shines on things unclean, yet it is not thereby defiled.
Augustine
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
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
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