True vs. False Ministry - Thoughts from Spurgeon

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"I fear there are some who preach with the view of amusing men, and as long as people can be gathered in crowds, and their ears can be tickled, and they can retire pleased with what they have heard, the orator is content, and folds his hands, and goes back self-satisfied. But Paul did not lay himself out to please the public and collect the crowd. If he did not save them he felt that it was of no avail to interest them. Unless the truth had pierced their hearts, affected their lives, and made new men of them, Paul would have gone home crying, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"...

Now observe, brethren, if I, or you, or any of us, or all of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amusing men, or educating men, or moralizing men, when we shall come to give our account at the last great day we shall be in a very sorry condition, and we shall have but a very sorry record to render; for of what avail will it be to a man to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds, and heaven and earth are shaking, and the pit opens wide her jaws of fire and swallows up the soul unsaved? Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the judge, and if still, "Depart, ye cursed," shall be his portion?'"

"Soul Saving Our One Business," The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 25 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1879), 674-76.]

HT: BibleBB

Does Everything That Happens Glorify God As Much As Possible?

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John Piper answers that question HERE.

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Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Testimonies - Iain Murray

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I personally feel that ML-J is a bit unbalanced here. Nevertheless, he does raise some valid cautions that need to be kept in mind. -gh

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Testimonies

It was customary among evangelical Christians in the 1920s to encourage the practice of giving 'testimonies' as a form of evangelistic witness, and equally common for ministers to include personal references of various kinds in their sermons. Given Dr Lloyd-Jones' unusual career and its interest for the general public, and given also the spiritual experience which had so changed his life, it might well be supposed that references to his own story would have appeared frequently in his preaching. The case was exactly the opposite. References to himself in his sermons were brief and rare. Anything in the way of a testimony to his conversion experience was almost wholly absent. The omission was not an oversight on his part, but the result of deep convictions.

For one thing, he noticed that the giving of testimonies tended to reduce all conversions to a similar pattern, to standardise experience in a way which went beyond Scripture. And yet, at the same time, testimony-givers were prone to emphasise what made their story noteworthy. No doubt the motives were often well-intentioned, but the effect could easily be carnal and man-centred. Hearers readily became impressed with the dramatic and unique features of a story, instead of with the grace of God which is identical in every conversion. In his own case - as the newspapers reporting his change of career had found - it was easy to emphasise the unusual and to speak of 'the great sacrifice' he had made in leaving medicine, but he disliked such language intensely. To speak of any 'loss' in the context of being a Christian amounted, in his eyes, to a denial of the gospel. He never forgot the shock of once hearing a man say, 'I have been a Christian for twenty years and have not regretted it'! Further, his view of preaching was such that to talk of 'sacrifice' in relation to that work was virtually absurd.

There could be no higher privilege than that of being a messenger of the God who has pledged his help and presence to those whom he sends. When, as happened at times, people referred in admiring terms to his self-denial in entering the ministry, he repudiated the intended compliment completely. 'I gave up nothing,' he said on one such occasion, 'I received everything. I count it the highest honour that God can confer on any man to call him to be a herald of the gospel.'

Certainly his concern, lest attention should be diverted to what is least important, was one major reason for his lifelong unwillingness to employ his own testimony in preaching.

There was, however, a still more fundamental reason behind his divergence from normal evangelical practice. It was that he knew that the argument from experience could be matched by the claims and apparent results of other 'gospels'. Do Christians claim to have obtained happiness and deliverance from fears? So do the converts to Christian Science and to other cults. 'Our case', he was never to tire of saying, 'is not based upon experience--it is based upon great external facts.' The business of preaching is the proclamation of the revealed truths of gospel history - truths indeed confirmed by experience, but independent of experience in their objective reality. Compared with those truths concerning Christ, as he said on the first Sunday he visited Sandfields, all else is as worthless 'as paper is to gold'. His text that first November evening of 1926 remained his pole-star: 'I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.'

-- Iain Murray


HT: Mack Tomlinson

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Whitefield's Humility

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George Whitefield…turned the entire ministry over to Wesley and stepped aside as leader. “I have no party to be at the head of,” he wrote, “and through God’s grace I will have none; but as much as in me lies, I will strengthen the hands of all of every denomination that preach Jesus Christ in sincerity.” When his followers protested his decision, he said, “Let my name be forgotten, let me be trodden under the feet of all men, if Jesus may thereby be glorified…. Let us look above names and parties; let Jesus be our all in all… I care not who is uppermost. I know my place… even to be the servant of all. He sent a letter to the godly Lady Huntingdon in which he said, “Oh, that I may learn from all I see to desire to be nothing and to think it my highest privilege to be an assistant to all but the head of none.”

HT: Symphony of Scripture (taken from Wiersbe's 50 People Every Christian Should Know)

Why the Saints Persevere

Why do the saints persevere? Because God finishes his work.

Think of it this way. There are only three things that could possibly cause a person to lose their salvation. These are the three categories to cover, God, the Devil, and man. Here are the scenarios:

(1) God forsakes them
(2) The Devil or some other wicked person tricks and steals them
(3) They ruin themselves or shrivel up

The bible teaches that none of the above will ever happen to a true Christian. John's gospel makes this clear.

(1) John 6:37 - the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out...
(2) John 10:28 - no one will snatch them out of My hand...
(3) John 15:16 - You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain...

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With these three categories covered we can see a bit more clearly why Jesus said, "Of those the Father has given to me, I lose nothing." Praise God.

Obedience - Andrew Murray

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Let us listen to what the Lord Jesus says about obedience (John 14:21-23). "He that keepeth My commandments, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and We will make our abode with him." And in John 15:10, "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love." These words are an inexhaustible treasure. Faith can firmly trust Christ to enable us to live such a life of love and obedience."

-Andrew Murray, God's Best Secrets, January 9

Have you ever thought in terms of believing Christ for your obedience? We have a tendency to view faith in Christ as something we only exercise at the beginning of the Christian life in order to partake of salvation, but this is terribly wrong. The life that we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God (Gal. 2:20). We walk - right now - by faith, and we will continue to do so for the rest of our lives (2 Cor. 5:7. Far from putting our faith in Christ at one moment in time and then calling it good, we are continually fixing our eyes on him throughout the day (Heb. 12:2), trusting Him to enable us to be obedient to His will. Learn to trust Christ, not only for your salvation, but for your moment-by-moment obedience!

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Gurnall on Prayer

"Pray often rather than very long. It is difficult to remain long in prayer, and not slacken in our affections. Especially observe this in social prayers; for when we pray in company, we must consider them that travel with us: as Jacob said: 'I will lead on softly, as the children are able to endure.'" - William Gurnall

Martyrdom

Focus on the importance of the dialogue in John 13:36-38:

Peter - "Lord, where are You going?"

Jesus - "Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later."

Peter - "Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You."

Jesus - "Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times."

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I remember as a new Christian the highest attainment that I could think of was dying a martyr's death. Those were my "zeal without knowledge" days, when to burn out for Christ seemed like the most glorious road imaginable. The only thought was, "am I ready?"

Ten years down the road, I've started thinking again. Peter thought he was ready and he wasn't. This truly sobered me... Does it you? Did you know God knows the true depth of your dedication? Humble yourself and head back into the safe harbor of his grace.

Maybe we should take Jesus' advice at the end of this gospel in chapter 21, "You follow me!" God knows best the time and place of our departure from this life and entrance into fullness of joy in his presence. Let's follow where he leads in life and leave the dying up to him. He may say to us "...you cannot follow me now... but you will follow me later." This is his prerogative.

The Certainty of Answered Prayer

O You who hear prayer, to You all men come. Psalm 65:2

"There comes often a long and sharp winter between the sowing time of prayer and the reaping. He hears us, indeed, as soon as we pray, but we often do not hear of Him so soon. Prayers are not long on their journey to heaven, but long coming thence in a full answer. Never was faithful prayer lost at sea. No merchant trades with such certainty as the praying saint. Some prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage than others, but then they come with the richer lading at last." William Gurnall

Ravi on Interacting with the Koran

I thought this was good.

Hoping for Heaven

"...looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." Titus 2:13

"I doubt not but every gracious person finds the nearer to heaven he gets in his hopes, the farther he goes from earth in his desires. When he stands upon these battlements of heaven, he can look down upon this dung-hill world as a little dust-heap, next to nothing." William Gurnall

Dangerous Papers

Corrie Ten Boom and her family helped hide Jews during the Holocaust. She told the story of a series of interrogations after being arrested by the Nazi's. I may not get the whole thing right, but the gist was this. This particular Nazi police officer had her caught. He called her into his office and almost unbelievably he pulled out a stack of papers containing the names of multitudes of Jews they had illegally helped hide and escape. All the evidence was laid out on the table. He looked at her and said, "Ms. Ten Boom, can you explain this?" Welling up with tears she gave up and said, "No." She knew this could very well mean the death sentence for her. Before another word was said the man grabbed the papers, wheeled around in his chair, opened up the door to his nearby wood stove and threw the papers inside, incinerating them on the spot.

She said, "At that point, oh, how I was so happy!"

After this event she said God spoke to her more clearly than ever before about her sins being dealt with at the cross, and how the laws and "dangerous papers" can no longer threaten her. She mentioned this verse:

Col. 2:13-14
"... He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of death consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

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Praise the Lord! As they sing in Bangladesh, "Gieche, Gieche, Gieche! Amar papehr bhoja chole gieche!" (Gone, gone, gone! My sins are gone away!)

Learning to Fight

So the LORD allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua. Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly). Judges 2:23-3:2

Why doesn't God take away all of our old tendencies when He saves us (e.g., a temper, smoking problem, etc)? I once heard a brother answer that question using the above verse. Among other reasons, God will leave a few of our old tendencies in place to teach us to fight. That is by no means a reason to settle down to a habitual sin. On the contrary, you can be assured that God left that problem in place to show you how to beat it. He is literally going to take you in hand and teach you to fight! And we can rest assured that He leaves nothing in the land which He doesn't purpose to be destroyed (Ezekiel 36:25).

"You Are My Beloved Child, In Whom I Delight" - Tim Keller

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“Have you heard God’s blessing in your inmost being? Are the words “You are my beloved child, in whom I delight” an endless source of joy and strength?

Have you sensed, through the Holy Spirit, God speaking them to you? That blessing – the blessing through the Spirit that is ours through Christ – is what Jacob received, and it is the only remedy against idolatry. Only that blessing makes idols unneccesary.

As with Jacob, we usually discover this only after a life of ‘looking for blessing in all the wrong places.’ It often takes an experience of crippling weakness for us to finally discover it. That is why so many of the most God-blessed people limp as they dance for joy.”

- Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2009), 164.

HT: Of First Importance

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Cessation vs. Continuance - Charles Leiter

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What follows is a very helpful article dealing with the issue of the continuation of miracles and miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit into the present day. To enlarge, click "Fullscreen" at the top of the document, then use the zoom feature at the bottom. Alternatively, the article can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking the "Download" link at the top of the document.

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Divine Providence - Mack Tomlinson

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Divine Providence in the Smallest Things a Basis for Joy and Hope

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered!" - Matthew 10:29-30


C. H. Spurgeon said, "It is most important for us to learn that the smallest trifles are as much arranged by the God of Providence, as the most startling events. He who counts the stars has also numbered the hairs of our heads. Our lives and deaths are predestined, but so, also, are our sitting down and our rising up!"

How right Spurgeon is and how much we must see God's gracious, loving, intimate and sovereign control and involvement in every atom of the universe and every atom of our lives and existence. Notice what Jesus does not say: "The very hairs of your head are all COUNTED." He says they are numbered--numbered just like the stars individually by name; every hair on our head is numbered; for some of us, we have lost some numbers over the years, but the hairs we still have are intimately known and kept by He who calls every star by name.

I am glad today that absolutely nothing--nothing can happen to the Christian without the Father's immediate control and presence. Jesus is arguing from the lesser to the greater. If sparrows are completely under the intimate eye and always in the presence of the living God, then how much more the lives of His beloved children, right down to the smallest issues like the very hairs of our head; and if our hairs, how much more all the greater realities of life--what comes our way, what providences happen to us, our needs being met, whatever sicknesses or trials that come--we have a Keeper whose love and watching eye is ever on us; it is even more than that--we have His presence with and in us, never to be separated or disconnected from His perfect loving care and ruling in all things.

Spurgeon again-- "His divine providence in our lives and death, but also, our sitting down and our rising up."

Divine Providence makes my heart glad and rejoice with confidence and hope, not in myself, but in Him alone.


-- Mack Tomlinson

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No Such Thing As Performance-Based Christianity - Philip Ryken

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“From start to finish, the whole Christian life is by grace through faith. A new life in Christ commences with faith, continues by faith, and will be completed through faith. To put this another way, the Gospel is for Christians just as much as it is for non-Christians.

We never advance beyond the good news of the cross and the empty tomb… Therefore, the Christian always looks back to the Gospel and never to the law as the basis for his righteousness before God… There is no such thing as performance-based Christianity… Justification is a doctrine for the whole Christian life from start to finish. It is not simply a doctrine for coming to Christ in the first place… Justification is a doctrine to live by each and every moment.”

- Philip Ryken, Commentary on Galatians, p90-92

HT: Of First Importance

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Pictures of Salvation in Isaiah - Charles Leiter

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These two messages (particularly the second) were tremendously helpful to me. Christian, realize the blessings that are yours in Christ!

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An Introduction to Spiritual Gifts - Charles Leiter

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A very helpful message here from Charles, laying a broad foundation for understanding Spiritual gifts. The principles he emphasizes in this sermon are the "big picture" kind of things that can easily get swallowed up in discussions of Spiritual gifts.

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Word and Wonders

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We're getting ready to begin discussing the topic of Spiritual gifts in our Saturday morning theology study, which reminded me of a post I wrote a couple years ago. It seemed like an appropriate time to resurrect it from the "blogdom of yore" grave.

Word and Wonders

There are many Christians today who have a tendency to look down upon other believers who have a desire to see the Lord work signs and wonders in our midst in the present day. "Isn't the preached word enough?", they say. "Isn't the word of God living and active? Isn't it the preached gospel that is the power of God unto salvation? Isn't the desire for a sign something that Jesus condemned as being perverse and unbelieving? Wouldn't a sign or wonder detract from the centrality of the preached word?"

Like in almost all debates among believers, there is an element of truth in the statements above. But without getting into this too heavily right now I just want to point out that, in the minds of the Biblical writers, there is a false dichotomy at work in the above statements. The Bible knows nothing about a dichotomy between Word and Spirit, or a division between the preached word and signs and wonders. Actually, in several places we see the two coming together to form a balanced picture of what we should hope and pray for as we seek to proclaim the gospel of Christ in our day. Consider the following three examples:

1 Kings 17:18-24
Notice that Elijah had spoken words of truth to the widow before ("the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."), but it was only after Elijah raised her son from the dead that she said that she "knew" that Elijah was a man of God who was speaking the words of God. Here we have on example from the Old Testament of how signs and wonders can help to confirm and convince of the truthfulness of the preached word.

Acts 4:24-31
Here we have an even more explicit example of the early Christians' view of the relationship between signs and wonders and the preached word. Notice these two petitions that come one right after the other:

1.) "grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence"

2.) "while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus"

Far from there being a divorce between signs and wonders, the early Christians specifically prayed that God would grant these things to take place while they were speaking the word! There was no concern that the working of signs and wonders would somehow detract from the proclamation of the gospel message.

Acts 14:1-3
Here is a final passage that is virtually self-explanatory. I would just point out two things:

1.) The working of signs and wonders was taking place in conjunction with the preached word. Again, there is nothing here that would make us think that signs and wonders are a detraction from, or a distraction to, the preached message.

2.) The text states that it was God Himself who was testifying to His own word, by causing signs and wonders to be done by the hands of Paul and Barnabas! Here we can see that the objection of "Isn't the preached word enough?" just does not deal with the whole picture. At least in this case the preached word by itself was not "enough", or God would not have seen fit to grant signs and wonders for the purpose of testifying to His word!


Brothers and sisters, I put these things before you for your consideration in the hope that you would allow the Bible itself to shape your understanding of the relationship between the word and wonders. If the early Christians needed God to testify to the word of His grace by performing signs and wonders in their midst, how much more do we! May these things cause us to hunger and thirst for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our day, that the church would be built up, and that sinners would be gloriously saved.

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Prophecy in the Life of Spurgeon

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From C. H. Spurgeon's autobiography:

“While preaching in the hall, on one occasion, I deliberately pointed to a man in the midst of the crowd, and said, ‘There is a man sitting there, who is a shoemaker; he keeps his shop open on Sundays, it was open last Sabbath morning, he took ninepence, and there was fourpence profit out of it; his soul is sold to Satan for fourpence!’ A city missionary, when going his rounds, met with this man, and seeing that he was reading one of my sermons, he asked the question, ‘Do you know Mr. Spurgeon?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the man, ‘I have every reason to know him, I have been to hear him; and, under his preaching, by God’s grace I have become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Shall I tell you how it happened? I went to the Music Hall, and took my seat in the middle of the place; Mr. Spurgeon looked at me as if he knew me, and in his sermon he pointed to me, and told the congregation that I was a shoemaker, and that I kept my shop open on Sundays; and I did, sir. I should not have minded that; but he also said that I took ninepence the Sunday before, and that there was fourpence profit out of it. I did take ninepence that day, and fourpence was just the profit; but how he should know that, I could not tell. Then it struck me that it was God who had spoken to my soul though him, so I shut up my shop the next Sunday. At first, I was afraid to go again to hear him, lest he should tell the people more about me; but afterwards I went, and the Lord met with me, and saved my soul.’”

Spurgeon then adds this comment:

“I could tell as many as a dozen similar cases in which I pointed at somebody in the hall without having the slightest knowledge of the person, or any idea that what I said was right, except that I believed I was moved by the Spirit to say it; and so striking has been my description, that the persons have gone away, and said to their friends, ‘Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did; beyond a doubt, he must have been sent of God to my soul, or else he could not have described me so exactly.’ And not only so, but I have known many instances in which the thoughts of men have been revealed from the pulpit. I have sometimes seen persons nudge their neighbours with their elbow, because they had got a smart hit, and they have been heard to say, when they were going out, ‘The preacher told us just what we said to one another when we went in at the door’” (The Autobiography of Charles H. Spurgeon, [Curts & Jennings, 1899], Vol. II, pp. 226-227).

Commenting on these episodes in Spurgeon's life, Sam Storms writes:

What are we to make of this? My opinion is that this is a perfect and not uncommon example of what the Apostle Paul described in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25. Spurgeon exercised the gift of prophecy. He did not label it as such, but that does not alter the reality of what the Holy Spirit accomplished through him. If one were to examine Spurgeon’s theology and ministry, as well as recorded accounts of it by his contemporaries as well as subsequent biographers, most would conclude from the absence of explicit reference to miraculous charismata such as prophecy and the word of knowledge that such gifts had been withdrawn from church life. But Spurgeon’s own testimony inadvertently says otherwise!

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More on Romans 8:28

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

We don't have trouble believing this verse when we've made a good, sound decision. It's when we've made an absolute mess that the trouble comes. But this verse carries no qualifications for those that belong to the Lord. That's worth emphasizing - This verse carries no qualifications for the believer. Our wise decisions and obedience work for our good. Our unwise decisions and disobedience work for our good. We are never ultimately backed into a corner.

Romans 15:14 and Admonition

And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. Romans 15:14 (emphasis mine)

Paul has already told us that he had never been to Rome (Romans 1:10; see also 15:32). So how can he be "convinced" that these Romans have the capacity to admonish one another? Don't you need a Ph.D in Hebraic Idioms in the Minor Prophets to be a help to others?

Not according to Paul. Everyone in the New Covenant - even the brand new believer - has something to offer everyone else. That should be a rebuke to us if it takes one of the "important" Christians to encourage us, and it should be a comfort if we feel we don't have enough to help anyone.

The Priority of Character

"I would rather have the smallest portion of humility and love than the knowledge of an archangel." - Henry Martyn

The above means much more when you realize he may have been the most gifted linguist in church history.

George Muller's New Year Words

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George Muller's Words, spoken at a New Year's Service, 1859

We have, through the goodness of the Lord, been permitted to enter upon another year, and the minds of many among us will no doubt be occupied with plans for the future, and the various fears of our work and service for the Lord. If our lives are spared, we shall be engaged in many things--the welfare of our families, the prosperity of our business, and our work and service for Christ, which may be considered the most important matters to be attended to.

But according to my judgement, the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things, see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, and the Lord's work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last thirty-five years. For the first four years after my conversion, I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience, I especially commend this point to the notice of my younger brothers and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, and having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.

But in what way shall we attain to this settled happiness of soul? How shall we learn to enjoy God? How shall we obtain such an all-sufficient soul-satisfying portion in Him, as shall enable us to let go the things of this world as vain and worthless in comparison? I answer, This happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures. God has therein revealed Himself unto us in the face of Jesus Christ.

In the Scriptures, by the power of the Holy Ghost, He makes Himself known unto our souls. . . . Therefore the very earliest portion of the day we can command should be devoted to the meditation on Scriptures. Our souls should feed upon the Word. . . . This intimate experimental acquaintance with Him will make us truly happy. Nothing else will. In God our Father and the blessed Jesus, our souls have a rich, divine, imperishable, eternal treasure. Let us enter into practical possession of these true riches; yea, let the remaining days of our earthily pilgrimage be spent in an ever-increasing, devoted, earnest consecration of our souls to God.

- George Mueller

HT: Mack T

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Henry Martyn on Happiness

Henry Martyn (missionary to India and then Persia) was suffering from tuberculosis and had been sea-sick on a ship for many days. He had no Christian fellowship, and writes that he "longed for nothing so much as to be settled quietly at my old station, or still more amongst my kind friends at Calcutta." Additionally, his realization that he would never marry the woman he loved (Lydia) was weighing heavy on him once again. He was miserable, and wanting relief. In these pathetic conditions he laid in his bed trying to imagine what perfect happiness would be like in hopes of receiving comfort. He couldn't do it. He then records this in his journal:

"After trying this thing and that, I see that there is enjoyment rather in giving than receiving...and to deny oneself for the good of others, rather than to have a great number of good things for oneself. It is a greater happiness to obey God than to please self. Thus solid bliss is built on the ruins of selfishness..."

The last line is worth reading again.

The Privileged Believer

It's important to remember that everything is a privilege for the believer. They know God is working all things to their good, and therefore they cannot ultimately be hurt. Every circumstance they face has been orchestrated by God to make them like Christ, which is what they wanted anyway. Additionally, they believe Christ knows no difference between secular occupation and sacred occupation or between important tasks and menial tasks. He is only looking at the heart (Mark 14:8). Therefore, they can face every task in every day with a "get to" attitude instead of a "have to" attitude. They get to wake up early - they don't have to. They get go to work - they don't have to. They get to make a phone call - they don't have to. And having that attitude makes all the difference in the world.

Jimmy Needham - Not Without Love (Benediction)

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From Jimmy Needham's album Not Without Love:

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The New Year and the Future: Don't Worry! - Terry Rayburn

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From Terry Rayburn at Grace For Life:

It's New Year's Eve. 2010 starts tomorrow!

Christmas is over, the holiday hustle and bustle is over. People's thoughts are beginning to turn to New Year's Resolutions, weight loss after the seasonal delicacies, setting goals for the New Year, and exclaiming, “Where did the last year go?"

Or the last 5, or 20?

But wherever those years may have gone, the next year is upon us.

Here's my question: Are you worried about it? Are you worried about the next year, or the future in general?

Let me state it boldly up front.

There are two things that are infinitely foolish.

One is for a Christian to worry about the future. We all do it sometimes, but we at least need to recognize that it's foolish.

But the other thing that's foolish is for a non-Christian to NOT worry about the future. Someone who doesn't know Jesus as Lord and Savior should worry. In fact we should pray for those we know and love to worry, if they don't know Jesus.

Read the rest HERE.

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Saying Farewell to the Past

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Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression?

The first thing you have to do is to say farewell now once and forever to your past.

Realize that it has been covered and blotted out in Christ.

Never look back at your sins again.

Say: ‘It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ’.

That is your first step.

Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you.

What you need is not to make resolutions to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying.

No! You just begin to say:

I rest my faith on Him alone
Who died for my transgressions to atone.

-D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, p. 35:


HT: JT

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