When we disobey God, we lose confidence in Him. Disobedience leads to dishonesty and we become con artists, fakes, and hypocrites. Our dishonesty causes us to turn from what we need the most: the Word of God. It is no coincidence that in rebellion we stay away from fellowship and church, and run from God’s love.
Ray Bently
Are you in ministry today? The answer is, “Yes, we are always in ministry.” Who is watching your actions? Complacency and not doing the right thing or simply not going the extra mile is a sin.
you cannot know how God will use you if you are NOT faithful to Him. Turn yourself wholly over to Him and let Him work through you.
“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you.”— John 6:27
There is no such thing as a believer who gets overweight from the word of God. Consume it often. Meditate upon His Word every day, without measuring it out or holding back, and you will enjoy the blessings of spiritual satisfaction.
Those whom God leads, he leads to his holy hill, and to his tabernacles; those therefore who pretend to be led by the Spirit and yet turn their backs upon instituted ordinances,
certainly deceive themselves.
~Matthew Henry~
It is not just hearing the Word of God; it is keeping it. Pastor Greg
"And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God's word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest."
—Luke 8:15
We cannot predict who will respond to the Gospel. Often, those who appear most likely to respond never do so. At the same time, many of those who are most antagonistic to the church and to the gospel, do come to Christ. This is an important reminder to us that every single conversion is a miracle of God.
The Unchurched should move every thoughtful Christian toward greater faithfulness in evangelism.
Sheep are creatures that must be watched over and cared for by someone. Sheep are dependent upon their shepherds for their daily care and safety. One of my favorite parables is the parable of the "Lost Sheep."
This is a wonderful story that exemplifies God's love and interest in every single person. He is always looking for the one person who has strayed and he will not quit until he brings them back to the fold.
Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success. -Denis Waitley
Let me encourage you to take every chance you get to draw close to God. We need to be in a place where we can seek the Lord, and where we can sense when we're being tempted. Otherwise, make no mistake, we will collapse or fall backward into sin.
God crowns grace with grace.
~Richard Sibbes~
When the rain began to fall, God didn't throw Noah and his family a rope and tell them to hang on for dear life. Rather, the Lord said, "I'm going to place you and your family inside." The same is true for us. It's no longer up to us to hold on -- in other words to try and keep from sinning as long as we can. Our Ark is Jesus. We are in Him.
Are you in Jesus? Have you accepted His gift of atonement? Why not? Are you still trying to do life your way? The Lord waits for you. Will you receive the greatest gift of all?
Some Days Never Come
“Someday we’ll take that cruise. . .”
“Someday I’ll have time to call and talk. . .”
“Someday, the children will understand why I was so busy. . .”
But you know the truth, don’t you? Some days never come.
The promise of God is that we are going to be brought back into the fullness of our being, which is conformity to Jesus Christ. We will no longer be less than what God designed humans to be because we will be conformed to all Jesus is.
Dr. Ed Young
Those who live by humble faith enter into the fullness of God's provisions of grace. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble…we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand" (James 4:6 and Romans 5:2).
When true encounters with Jesus and the Father take place we worship in any situation knowing he is Lord and will provide.
"YOUR PAIN WILL NEVER BE GREATER THAN HIS PROMISE!"
Students don’t need us to protect them from this world, by shielding them from the truth. They need us to help them navigate this world, by discipling them in the Truth.
For the broken, God is the Healer. For the hurting, God is the Comforter. For the orphan, God is the Father. For the sinner, God is the Savior. For the lost, God is the One to follow. For the lonely, God will never leave you or forsake you. He truly is All in All.
You can’t be “mean-spirited”, and “Spirit-led” at the same time.
We may look forward to a glorious and hopeful future and live consciously in the joyful expectation that Jesus Christ will come to pick up His Bridal Church and look forward to the moment when we will be with Him forever. We are waiting and ready for the blessed hope Hallelujah
“Who defines what is good and evil? Surely the God to whom the government will answer, and the God who has called them to their work is the one who defines what is good and evil” — Oliver Allmand-Smith, “Under God, Over the People, 36.
“Only as we seek God and his mind in the scriptures can we understand anything aright.” — Oliver Allmand-Smith
“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
There is only one genuine cure for legalism. It’s the same medicine the gospel prescribes for antinomianism: understanding and tasting union with Jesus Christ himself. - Sinclair Ferguson “Men never try their standing, whether they be under the first husband, the law, or if they be married to the better husband, Christ, and under grace. Where art thou, O sinner? In Christ or not?... a man is judged according to his state, rather than his actions.” - Rutherford
“The ultimate end of true theology is the celebration of the praise of God, and His glory and grace in the eternal salvation of sinners.” — John Owen, Biblical Theology, 619.
"We must learn to trust God before the storm, so we can trust God in the storm." — Austin T. Duncan “The potency of your words is tremendous. They are far more powerful than you probably realize. With your tongue, you can kill or you can heal. You can save or you can destroy.” — Lou Priolo “The texts of Scripture which most influence us are those that have become familiar by use, and which arise in mind as occasions demand.” — John Milton Gregory
"Compromise [is] an inability to deal with the biblical data as God intends us to deal [with it] because we are overwhelmed with our own personal desires." –– John MacArthur
“True exposition of the gospel is not less than an intellectual endeavor, but it is so much more. Its goal is that the mind might be engaged in great thoughts of God, that the heart might be inflamed with the love of God...” — Paul Washer, The Preeminent Christ, 4.
“If we would have any great truth sustain and control us, we must return to it often so that it will at last rise up in mind as a dictate of conscience, and pour it’s steady light upon every act and purpose with which it is concerned.” — John Milton Gregory “Sin may rebel, but it shall never reign in the saint.” ~ Thomas Brooks “‘I am the LORD thy God’ (Ex. 20), is grace standing at the entry door, to those that are under the law, to bring them out; but in the gospel, all is unmixed grace: Not personal obedience is my heaven; but I stand still, and another does all that may merit glory.” - Rutherford.
Chosen by God (Eph 1:4) Born of God (John 1:12-13) Saved by God (Titus 1:5-7) Delivered by God (Col 1:13) Sanctified by God (1 Thes 5:23-24) Glorified by God (Rom 8:30) Salvation from start to finish is by God and for his glory!
“Indeed, a Christian in a manner is rich in all conditions. For God is his portion, and however a beam may be taken away, the sun is his; take away a stream, the spring is his; in the poorest state, God all-sufficient is his still. God never takes away himself.” — Richard Sibbes
“I want to recommend to you my Master… I have had many pleasures in my time, and have tasted most of the delights this world can give… but when the Lord Jesus came into my heart I found that I had something infinitely better.” — C.T. Studd
“Every civil servant has limited authority just as parents, masters, and elders have limited authority over those in their charge. The only one to whom you and I must give unqualified obedience is Christ.” — Brett Baggett, The Role of Civil Government, 38.
… the study of Christ is the study of studies; the knowledge of Christ is the knowledge of everything that is necessary either for this world, or for the world to come. Oh study Christ.” — Isaac Ambrose
“It is not hard for a little man to try to be great; but it is very hard for a great man to try to be little.” — Hudson Taylor
“We become like what we worship, whatever that is. That is why it is the Spirit’s ongoing work in us to draw our gaze to Jesus: only then, as we behold him, will we be transformed from one degree of glory to another, shining with his likeness.” Michael Reeves
“Just as Christian came up to the cross his burden loosened from his shoulders and fell off his back. It tumbled and continued to do so down the hill until it came to the mouth of the tomb where it fell inside and was seen no more.” John Bunyan
The native tendency of the gospel is, to give peace and calmness to the conscience, which would otherwise be tormented by distressing alarm. Calvin “There was no right on the sinner's part to the kind consideration of the Most High… sovereign love alone has found a cause, for there was none in the sinner himself.” — Charles Spurgeon
“O beware, lest the dust of the earth, getting into thine eyes, so blind thee, that thou never see the beauty or necessity of Christ." — John Flavel “… nothing equals the gospel in value, nothing matches it’s wisdom, and nothing compares with its beauty.” — Paul Washer
"Christ comes with blessing after blessing even upon those whom Moses had cursed, and with healing balm for those wounds which Moses had made." - Richard Sibbes. The Bruised Reed, Works 1:59. “There is no doctrine more excellent in itself, or more necessary to be preached and studied, than the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” — John Flavel
Careful who you let live rent-free in your head.
We might easily choose subjects more pleasing and popular; more fit to display our learning and abilities… but our commission, as ministers of a crucified Jesus, binds us to the subject; and the necessity of the world peculiarly requires it!” — Samuel Davies
“Although our Bibles are inspired, our personal interpretations are not. It is a great display of arrogance to isolate ourselves from two thousand years of church history and interpret the Bible in a personal vacuum.” — Paul Washer The gospel casts out a rope to hale sinners to land; but the sinner has no hands to lay hold on it; his very faith must be wrought in him by the Spirit. - Thomas Boston
‘Great sins do draw out grace; and where guilt is most terrible and fierce there the mercy of God in Christ, when showed to the soul, appears most high and mighty. . . . Blessed be God for Jesus Christ our Lord.’ — John Bunyan
Oh then study Christ, study to know him more extensively…Study to know Christ more intensively, to get the experimental taste and lively power of His knowledge upon your hearts and affections: This is the knowledge that carries all the sweetness and comfort in it. — John Flavel
A church that is fed only on principles and commands will languish from malnutrition. Its heart will wither, its hope will fade, and its vitality will be drained. But a church fed on Christ and His gospel will go from strength to strength and from glory to glory. — Paul Washer “The true rule of a waking and living Christian is the description that is in the word.” — Richard Sibbes “The more God's people explore and discover the infinite excellencies of His person and work, the more they will love and be drawn to Him in communion and discipleship.” — Paul Washer
“To meditate much upon the Lamb of God, is to occupy your minds with the grandest subject of thought in the universe.” — Charles Spurgeon “My name is now Christian, but my name used to be Graceless.” John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
“All the degrees in this world cannot teach this lesson that Paul had learned. He learned it in no school of the world, not at the feet of Gamaliel; he learned it of Christ, and by the blessed experiences in afflictions.” — Richard Sibbes on Philippians 4:11
If my life is fruitless, it doesn't matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful, it doesn't matter who criticizes me. John Bunyan
Saving faith is the faith of God's elect; the special gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit. - Thomas Boston “When you forsake the communion of saints, you take a dangerous step towards apostasy.” — William Gurnall “We can never attach too much importance to the atoning death of Christ. It is the leading fact in the word of God, on which the eyes of our soul ought to be ever fixed. Without the shedding of His blood, there is no remission of sin.” — J. C. Ryle “The ultimate end of true theology is the celebration of the praise of God, and His glory and grace in the eternal salvation of sinners." — John Owen
Never give up praying, even when Satan suggests that prayer is in vain. Pray in his teeth. surgeon
Evil is evil. It can’t be hidden. It can’t be spun. It can’t be covered with false narratives. Be patient. Truth is on the way!
Without Christ, you're without hope. That's got to be the most miserable place to be.
Greed is the ruthless belief that everything, including other people, exists for one’s personal pleasure and purpose. Greed turns our desires into obsessions and idols, which we worship for what they can do for us. Ray Bentley
If your life is just one grand mess today and you feel you have been under the chastisement of God, you can begin the healing process right now by repenting and returning. Call on His name and He will begin to heal you of the calamity you have brought upon yourself. Chuck Smith
The Lord is indeed our Shepherd, and He longs to lead us to peace, healing, restoration, goodness, and mercy all the days of our lives. Ray Bentley These very eyes will see the King in His beauty. You will be a partaker of His everlasting blessedness. Spurgeon
As for me, it is enough to love and serve the true and living God, the Creator of the heaven and the earth. Chuck Smith Faith and patience go together. If we really trust God, then we will wait on him to accomplish what he has promised. Wiersbe
Patience is an important Christian virtue. Unless we have patience, we can never learn many of the truths that God wants us to learn, truths that will lead us into a deeper life and a more fruitful ministry. Wiersbe Though still living in this world, I have already begun to experience God's kingdom. I am comforted by His peace, assured by His love, and overwhelmed by the joy of His salvation. Chuck Smith
It's so easy for us to get into a rut. This is the way God did it and so this is the way God does it! And we get caught in a rut. I think that that is one of the problems with the church. I think that the church has been caught in a rut. That is speaking of the church in general. There are many churches that are still following the same form, singing the same hymns that they did two hundred years ago. Three hundred years ago. They are caught in a rut. And the only difference between a rut and a grave is the length and the depth. And thus the churches are dead! A dead formalism or ritualism. Chuck Smith
Call upon the Lord to examine your life. Sit at His feet and pour your heart out to Him. Receive the love He gives you in return. Don't neglect the One who loves you. The time you spend with God is more important than any work you could ever do for Him. Chuck Smith
“The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.” - C.S. Lewis
“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.” - C.S. Lewis
The controversies between the church & heretics have respect principally to two points: the one is concerning 𝘎𝘰𝘥, & the other concerning the 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 of man in the sight of God. —Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583), Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Pg. 324
Jesus Christ hath promised, “That him that cometh to him he will in no wise cast out.” And if he hath said it, will he not make it good, I mean even thy salvation? John Bunyan Let not those eyes be windows of lust and inlets to adultery with which you one day hope to behold your Father and your Redeemer Jesus Christ in glory. —Christopher Love, Heaven’s Glory, Pg. 105 They that are highest in degree in glory will be of the highest capacity; and so having the greatest knowledge, will see most of God's loveliness, and consequently will have love to God and love to the saints most abounding in their hearts. — Jonathan Edwards, on Heaven
Jesus wept, but Jesus never complained." — Charles Spurgeon
The gospel hath not the least favour for licentiousness. It is every way as careful to press men to their duties as to instruct them in their privileges. —Puritan John Flavel, Works 2:27
"Sinner, if you will be saved, you must give yourself up to Jesus Christ to be his servant." — Charles Spurgeon Christ came not to give gospel-liberty to any to live in sin. —Puritan Thomas Manton, Works, 16:406
"Anger does a man more hurt than that which made him angry." — Charles Spurgeon
"There's only one place in the universe where you will find true happiness, and it's in the will of God." -Elisabeth Elliot.
The whole mass of Popery, as it appears, to our solid, orthodox, examining writers, to it will appear in the great day to be a body of carnal wantoness, a mere political engine for worldly glory, a product of proud, erring, self-admiring fleshly minds. —Nicolas Claget 1610-1663
"The rising of Christ from the dead proved that he was innocent of every sin." — Charles Spurgeon We too often worry about tomorrow because our focus is on tomorrow and not on our God who is sovereign over tomorrow. "What kind of a church would my church be if all its members were just like me?" -Leonard Ravenhill. There is no saving revelation of the knowledge of God unto sinners, but as he is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself "I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen him." — Charles Spurgeon
The church’s goal is not to make unbelievers feel comfortable and nonthreatened. On the contrary, it is to make them feel uncomfortable with their sins and threatened by God’s judgment and the terrors of hell that they face. —John MacArthu
Every week I preach justification by faith to my people, because every week they forget it. Martin Luther The greatest knowledge is to know Christ. The greatest adventure is to follow Him. The greatest privilege is to serve Him
All other titles will perish when we die, but the title of being a son of God will not cease at the graves mouth. -Thomas Manton - The world is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. -Leonard Ravenhill -
"It is the work of the Spirit in the preacher as well as in the hearer that God uses to bring His Spirit-inspired Word to effect in human lives." - Peter Adam
"Death comes to the ungodly man as a punishment, but to the righteous as a summons to his Father's palace." — Charles Spurgeon
It was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself. John Bunyan
"Our best performances are so stained with sin that it is hard to know whether they are good works or bad works." — Charles Spurgeon
If you neglect to instruct [your children] in the way of holiness, will the devil neglect to instruct them in the way of wickedness? No... if ground be uncultivated, weeds will spring. —John Flavel, Golden Treasury, Pg. 204 “Like it or not, the history of philosophy is inextricably entwined with the history of the Christian church, the history of Christian thought.” — Dr. James Anderson
"Our salvation hinges upon the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus." — Charles Spurgeon
I have as little sensible comfort as most people who would be thought sincere; but I know the Scripture is true, that Christ is able and willing, and that God has promised: and here I rest my soul. - John Newton
"You have a living Christ, and in him you have all things." — Charles Spurgeon
More surely than candy will rot your teeth; eye candy will rot your soul. – Rex Semrad The only way to be content in Christ is to be in Christ.
Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. -A.W. Pink - It is a good thing God chose me before I was born, because he surely would not have afterwards. -C.H. Spurgeon
“The ultimate end of true theology is the celebration of the praise of God, and His glory and grace in the eternal salvation of sinners.” — John Owen, Biblical Theology, 619.
“The gospel will change who we are and it will also change what we do. The gospel will change your identity and then the gospel will change your activity.“ -
If you knew how quickly people would forget about you after your death, you will not seek in your life to please anyone but God. John Chrysostom
"The Bible has a gentle voice for every broken and contrite spirit, but it thunders like Sinai’s own self against every hardened sinner who will not turn from his wicked way." — Charles Spurgeon
"Many in these days give up the substance of the gospel. May they learn better very soon!" — Charles Spurgeon
Tis true, immediately before the sinner took Christ the promise found him unholy, but it does not leave him so. —Puritan Nicolas Claget, The Abuse of God’s Grace, 149
"Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty." — Charles Spurgeon
"Study the Word, so that your faith may not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." — Charles Spurgeon
We live in times wherein every man’s opinion is his Bible. —Thomas Watson “Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar.” - C. Lewis "When God pardons a man's sins, he pardons them all." — Charles Spurgeon Sin rarely seems sin at first beginnings. —J.C. Ryle There is in Jesus Christ more merit and righteousness than the whole world has need of. John Bunyan
"If every fret makes you lean more on the Beloved, it will be a benefit." — Charles Spurgeon 2 59 316 Show this thread
Belt of Truth 1 @beltoftruth1 · Aug 29 Faith does not believe in itself, but in the Son of God. -Horatius Bonar -
In the business of salvation, set Christ as high and man as low as possible. -George Whitefield -
"Preaching is, and always will be, an outer declaration of the preacher’s inner life. As such, it is imperative that the preacher cultivates the essential characteristics of authenticity, ownership, brokenness and meekness." -Justin Thornton
"The pulpit fixed and fired with holy desires, that presses these desires on God with a tireless faith will be the pulpit of power." -E. M. Bounds
Up, up, sinner; be of good cheer, Christ came to save the unworthy ones: be not faithless, but believe. John Bunyan "Of all spiritual food, the Bible is the most sustaining." — Charles Spurgeon God doesn't expect the impossible from us. He wants us to expect the impossible from Him! Dwight L. Moody If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be. Charles Spurgeon So long as we are receivers of mercy, we must be givers of thanks. Charles Spurgeon “We must never look at any sin in our past life in any way except that which leads us to praise God and to magnify His grace in Christ Jesus.” — D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones "The way up to heaven by works is very steep and narrow, and by one wrong step a man is dashed to pieces." — Charles Spurgeon He is a loving tender master. He attends to my minutest wants, and surprizingly helps me in every emergency. - George Whitefield
“There is no little sin, because [there is] 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵.” —Thomas Brooks There are many fair professors that are foul sinners, and that have much of God, and Christ, and heaven, and holiness in their lips, when they have nothing but sin and hell in their hearts and lives. —Puritan Thomas Brooks, Works 3:470
"We trust in Jesus for what we cannot do ourselves. If it were in our own power, why look to him?" — Charles Spurgeon
"Sin necessitates death. Jesus died." — Charles Spurgeon A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it. Martin Luther When a mans tongue is generally wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say his heart is right. -J.C. Ryle - We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were 'normal'. Nothing is normal while sin, lust and death roam the world. -A.W. Tozer -
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