Everyone who is "in Christ," through faith in His name, is a "new creation." We are new people. We are no longer who we were before we put our trust in the Lord Jesus. We are not the "old man" reformed or improved, we are a "new creation." Yes, we have the same bodies, but they are mere tents in which we dwell. "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). Some day in glory, we will trade these temporal, earthly tents for eternal heavenly ones. Meanwhile, though we live in the same old tents we had in Adam, we are new tenants, a "new creation." We may have the same old physical brain, but we are learning to think an entirely new way. "We have the mind of Christ… be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (1 Corinthians 2:16 and Romans 12:2). Christ lives in us, and His Spirit also dwells in us. His Spirit takes the word of God and unfolds the thinking of our Lord for us. As we embrace God's way of thinking more and more, we are transformed to walk in the newness that is ours in "in Christ."
In the relationship we have with the Lord through the new covenant of grace, there is intimacy, fullness of life, spiritual victory, and so much more. These blessings (not available to those who are related to Adam) are aspects of the new life that comes to new creatures "in Christ."
OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it.
We have not understood the cross unless it has changed us personally. |
Following Jesus will require your whole life.
OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God.
FOLLOWING AFTER IS BETTER THAN WALKING AHEAD AND WALKING WITH IS BETTER THAN FOLLOWING AFTER.
Just because you don’t see God’s intervention at this present moment doesn’t mean it’s not happening or that you won’t see it one day.
Are you going through a terrible time right now? Believe me, all your sisters in Christ (including me), know what it’s like. In those dark places, it can feel like God has turned His back, but nothing could be further from the truth! He is with you. He loves you. He’s working on your behalf. Trust in Him because He is trustworthy!
Friends reveal secrets to friends. When something really good happens, what do you do? You call your friend. And when something really bad happens, you also call your friend.
If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you are a friend of God. And because you are a friend of God, He wants to reveal His secrets to you. The Bible says, “The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant” (Psalm 25:14 NLT).
God wants to reveal His purpose and plan for your life. God does not play hide-and-seek. He is concerned about revealing His will to you today.
We need to learn how to discern the will of God.
I wish I could say that after years of walking with the Lord, I have discovered a foolproof plan for knowing the will of God in every situation. However, such a plan doesn’t exist.
I don’t know that we can always have a foolproof method of knowing God’s plan in every situation. But I do think we can take steps to prepare our hearts to know His will more effectively.
when your friends ask if you’ll do them a favor, you probably say, “What kind of favor?” You want to know what they’re up to before you agree to help.
In the same way, God asks, “Are you willing to do My will?” And we say, “Tell me what Your will is, and then I’ll tell You whether I’m willing to do it.”
Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27 NLT). It is not enough to just hear the voice of God. We need to do what He tells us to do.
If you are a growing, thriving Christian you will be a target for the enemy. Satan attacks you to hurt the purpose and heart of God, and you need to know what his strategy is. He can be blatant, but he can also be subtle. Either way, expect the fiery darts!
God has given you a set of skills (or life experiences) and a heart for a particular ministry area. In this way you are uniquely equipped for service. This may change over the years as well (my ministry area today is not exactly the same as it was 10 years ago -- it has grown as I have become more mature in Christ).
Today, if you're a Christian man or woman and you think you can go into the places of the world, living and acting like the people of the world, you're going to get ripped off.
We live in our own lives as days of harvest but there comes an appointed time for all men to die, then the judgment. The opportunity is now this day, today is the day of salvation. The opportunity is to all to the saved to invite the lost to the lost to get saved.
The road of the unsuccessful is paved with miss guided reactivity that spells good intentions.
God promises that the “prudent”—the shrewd and sensible—act with perceptive skill, or savvy. The fool, on the other hand is the individual who barrels through life with thoughtless stupidity.
In the last analysis, we sin not because we have to but
because we want to.
~Henry Jacobson~
Everyone who is "in Christ," through faith in His name, is a "new creation." We are new people. We are no longer who we were before we put our trust in the Lord Jesus. We are not the "old man" reformed or improved, we are a "new creation." Yes, we have the same bodies, but they are mere tents in which we dwell. "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). Some day in glory, we will trade these temporal, earthly tents for eternal heavenly ones.
“A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.” – Jim Rohn
A Good Leader Inspires Followers
by Harvey Mackay
Leadership is critical at every level of business as well as government. John Brock, who teaches leadership classes at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University, shared a list of thirteen principles of leadership he adapted from the United States Military Academy, and I think he's dead on. Can you identify these traits in your management?
Know yourself and seek self-improvement.
Be technically and tactically proficient.
Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions.
Make sound and timely decisions.
Set the example.
Know your employees and look out for their well-being.
Keep your employees well informed.
Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates.
Insure that the task is understood, supervised and accomplished.
Train your employees as a team.
Employ your team in accordance with its capabilities.
Set your priorities.
Take the initiative.
“You must learn to translate wisdom and strong feelings into labor.” – Jim Rohn
"Resources will only come to you as you keep moving. As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behavior. Begin to act like the person you would like to become. Take action on your behavior. Too many people want to feel, then take action. This never works. That is why I have established the John Maxwell Team, to empower those who want to take action and add value to others." ~ John C. Maxwell
Some see a hopeless end, with Jesus there is endless hope.
Everyone who is "in Christ," through faith in His name, is a "new creation." We are new people. We are no longer who we were before we put our trust in the Lord Jesus. We are not the "old man" reformed or improved, we are a "new creation." Yes, we have the same bodies, but they are mere tents in which we dwell. "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). Some day in glory, we will trade these temporal, earthly tents for eternal heavenly ones.
You are not what you have done. You are what you have overcome.
God’s love came not wrapped in paper, but in passion. Not covered with ribbons, but sprinkled with blood. The gifts of the Cross!
From He Chose the Nails
People don’t reject Jesus because they have carefully examined the evidence and have determined that it is not convincing enough. They don’t reject Him because they have read through the Scriptures and have found some apparent contradiction. They don’t reject Him because of the so-called hypocrisy of some in the church. They reject Him because He interferes with the way they want to live.
Sometimes we read biblical instruction or doctrine and take it too casually, perhaps as if it is intended for someone else and not us personally. Paul’s instructions are not just for the people of Galatia – they are for us today as well.
Next time you feel common, take heart! God uses the common to do uncommon things.
The “good fight” isn’t just any fight. This is the fight, for our faith, to ward off spiritual attacks, to keep our hearts focused, to intercede for our loved ones, and to trust the Lord with confidence
the work of God will continue with us or without us?
Beware of outstripping God by your very longing to do His will. We run ahead of him in a thousand and one activities, consequently we get so burdened with persons and with difficulties that we do not worship God, we do not intercede. If once the burden and the pressure come upon us and we are not in the worshiping attitude, it will produce not only hardness toward God but despair in our own soul.
-(Chambers)
People: “I worship and follow Jesus.” Same People: “My Jesus doesn’t judge anyone, affirms all lifestyles, celebrates all faiths, & is only loving.” Many people aren’t worshipping Jesus that’s in the Bible, but rather a made-up Jesus formed by their preferences & opinions.
"Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave." – John Chrysostom
“You see, when you become a Christian, you live, as we often say, coram Deo, before the face of God, in His presence. And when you do that, everything changes.” — Sinclair Ferguson
“That there is no ather way for sinners to be justified from the curse of the law in the sight of God, than by the imputation of that righteousness long ago performed by, and still residing with, the person of Jesus Christ.” — John Bunyan
“This is what we are saying: he bore the weight of divine severity, since he was “stricken and afflicted” [cf. Isaiah 53:5] by God’s hand, and experienced all the signs of a wrathful and avenging God.” — John Calvin, Institutes, II.xvi.11.
“Let us not be cruel to ourselves when Christ is thus gracious.” Richard Sibbes
“There is no better assurance of salvation to he found anywhere than can he gained from the decree of God.” — John Calvin
A Christian life lived in isolation from other believers will be defective and spiritually immature. — Joel Beeke
“But look on the beauties of God, for the excellencies of God are such as would ravish a man's soul and draw it up to Him.” — William Greenhill
There is more of grace in the promise, than there can be of sin and misery in the man that pleads it. —Puritan Robert Traill, Works 1:62
“God imputed the obedience, and therefore alien righteousness of Christ, which believers receive by faith alone.” — J.V. Fesko
The resurrection of our divine Lord from the dead is the cornerstone of Christian doctrine. — C. H. Spurgeon
"Sinners require a mediator. Sinners require a priest who can actually bring them to God, a reconciler who can join sinful man and holy God and bring them together. There’s only one mediator between God and man, and that’s Jesus Christ." | John MacArthur
"Justification is not up and down, according to the changes in sanctification." –– Ralph Erskine, Works 1:379.
“Though no man merits assurance by his obedience, yet God usually crowns obedience with assurance.” — Thomas Brooks
“If you would have your heart removed from the things of the world, behold the crucified and glorified Lord Jesus Christ. Set Christ crucified often before your eyes, and look on Him with the eye of faith.” — William Greenhill
“Assurance does not lie in what we are, be we great or small. It lies in what God has done in his plan of salvation to secure us to himself.” — Sinclair Ferguson
If the Bible never offends you, you're probably reading it wrong.
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” - C.S. Lewis
Take a deep breath & pace yourself. Allow Jesus to humble Himself, bend down, pick you up, and carry you across His broad shoulders. Allow yourself time to rest in Him, worship Him, and find strength, peace, & joy as we celebrate His first coming. Ray Bentley
Our Father is fitting us for eternity. AB Simpson
If you put the things of the Lord first in your life, your kids will put the things of the Lord first in their lives. Jeff Johnson
God is working out a plan that we are not privy to. We can only understand His will as it is unveiled day by day. Chuck Smith
God doesn’t want us to have “ministry by imitation.” He wants “ministry by incarnation”. Wiersbe
Our mistake is that we want God to send revival on our terms. We want to get the power of God into our hands, to call it to us that it may work for us in promoting and furthering our kind of Christianity. Tozer
John Wesley told the young ministers of the Wesleyan Societies to read or get out of the ministry, and he himself read science and history with a book propped against his saddle pommel as he rode from one engagement to another. Tozer
Private meditation and devotion should be a dialogue between your soul and God. The Lord speaks to us through Scripture, and by prayer we speak to Him. Spurgeon
The church today has so muddied the gospel water that we can preach forever and never get around to Christ crucified. David Jeremiah **Get to it Pastor. Every time.
Apparently Calvin also thought about the Roman Empire: “The Romans embodied both the possibilities and flaws of humanity: [young] Calvin was suitably awed by their achievements…” —Bruce Gordon’s Biography on Calvin, Pg. 27
Public opinion will be a means of common grace only when it is formed under the influence of God’s revelation. If it is not controlled by conscience, acting in harmony with the light of nature, or by the Word of God, it becomes a mighty influence for evil. —Louis Berkhof
Never did a man obtain mercy from the Lord for himself, but he wished that others should partake also. —Puritan Robert Traill, Works 1:118
"We must love the Bible and live on it wherever we may be." — Charles Spurgeon
What a heart's-ease is the virtue of humility - the great joy of having nothing to lose! -Leonard Ravenhill -
Christ can never be known without a sense of awe...No one who knows Him intimately can ever be flippant in His presence. -A.W. Tozer -
Easter Sunday being declared as ‘Transgender Day of Visibility' is no coincidence. The timing is intentional, but here’s 6 things to remember: 1. It doesn’t matter what Government says, it matters what God says. 2. God determines sex & gender. 3. God doesn’t make mistakes. 4. If God is Creator then He gets to be Definer. It’s very arrogant for us to think we get to re-define what God has already defined. 5. It's not hateful to say that God determines sex & gender. It's actually more unloving to affirm & celebrate someone into believing a lie that a perfect God made a mistake on them. 6. No amount of “visibility days” or affirmation will ever make you feel whole & happy. Only a RISEN SAVIOR (the meaning of Easter) can do that for you.
You cannot work for Christ except by the Spirit of Christ, and you cannot teach for Christ except you teach Christ - Charles Spurgeon
"When you are afraid of dying, trust in the living Savior, for in him are life and immortality." — Charles Spurgeon
“This is what we are saying: he bore the weight of divine severity, since he was “stricken and afflicted” [cf. Isaiah 53:5] by God’s hand, and experienced all the signs of a wrathful and avenging God.” — John Calvin, Institutes, II.xvi.11.
Dustin Benge
Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath, offering his blood on the cross, as our propitiation declaring our sins “paid in full!” This is the gospel.
To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. Charles Spurgeon
Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are. Augustine
The resurrection is a fact better attested than any event recorded in any history, whether ancient or modern. Charles Spurgeon
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is one of the best attested facts on record. There were so many witnesses to behold it, that if we do in the least degree receive the credibility of men’s testimonies, we cannot & we dare not doubt that Jesus rose from the dead. CHS
If I am not going to be 'ashamed at His coming' then I must pursue my high calling of God in Christ with diligence. -Leonard Ravenhill -
A 'god' whose will is resisted, designs frustrated, and purpose checkmated, possesses no title to Deity. -A.W. Pink -
Easy ministry usually equals weak ministry. Where the Lord‘s work is genuinely being done is where Satan‘s opposition will be the strongest. John MacArthur
Is it conceivable that God would have sent his only begotten beloved Son to the shame and suffering and ignominy of the cross if it were not absolutely essential? If teaching could have saved us, the necessary teaching would have been given. - Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible, to drive us to our knees. -J.C. Ryle -
Never must we cease to pray until they cease to breathe. No case is hopeless while Jesus lives. -C.H. Spurgeon -
Amazed am I, that God should work by my hands. But Jesus is love. - George Whitefield
"I think a preacher should never take a text and extract from it, as a dentist would a tooth from the jaw, something which, however true in itself, is not the plain literal meaning of the inspired words." - J.C. Ryle
"Find immediate peace through believing in Jesus. There is no other way." — Charles Spurgeon
One effect of understanding the faithfulness of God is the silencing of our petulant complainings. -A.W. Pink -
True repentance is never alone in the heart of any man. It always has a companion--faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ -J.C. Ryle -
"God sometimes burns up our comforts to make our hidden sins run out." — Charles Spurgeon
"You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything else." — Charles Spurgeon
"He whose life's object is to accumulate money is not a Christian." — Charles Spurgeon
"We do not give thanks to ourselves, but to God, for we were helpless and he heard our cry." — Charles Spurgeon
"We shall pray best when all our attention is confined to God." — Charles Spurgeon
"Jesus is not a mere memory. He is a living and present friend." — Charles Spurgeon
Unforgettable dates don’t have much to do with what you do or where you do it, but how you connect deeply with each other.
The Kingdom of God is the consuming focus of all God’s promises to His people.
The “wealth of the sinner” isn’t for the enrichment of the righteous individual, but the advancement of the Kingdom.
"Wealth converts a strange land into homeland and poverty turns a native place into a strange land." ~ Hazrat Ali
"Draw a line. Live above it."
"Most misfortunes are the result of misused time." ~ Napoleon Hill
Don't let someone who gave up on their DREAMS, talk you out of going after YOUR DREAMS!
“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.”
~Lao Tzu
Living day by day by grace is essentially about developing an intimate relationship with the Lord. "You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead" (Romans 7:4). We have considered some of the radical extent of that intimacy through the intriguing phrase "in Christ." "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).
You can’t control everything that happens in life, but you can control how you respond to it.
What happens if we reject the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? We are movable and we have nothing to stand on, so we fall. We fall because of sin. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ is strong enough to stand on and keep us from falling in sin. Nothing else has the power to save us from our sinful nature.
Behold the sun! Every square yard of it is constantly emitting 130,000 horse power, the equivalent of 450 eight-cylinder car engines. Consider the earth! Our globe’s weight is estimated at six sextillion tons—that’s a six with 21 zeros! Yet it’s precisely tilted at twenty-three degrees or our seasons would be lost in a melted polar flood.
If God is able to place the stars in their sockets and suspend the sky like a curtain—do you think it remotely possible God is able to guide your life? Could it be He is mighty enough to light your path?
"People are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound." John C. Maxwell,
Change it up. Decide to work out in the morning instead of the evening or walk your usual route in reverse.
“Knowledge might be power, but only when you take action.”
— Richard Keeves
Living day by day by grace is essentially about developing an intimate relationship with the Lord. "You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead" (Romans 7:4). We have considered some of the radical extent of that intimacy through the intriguing phrase "in Christ." "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).
F. B. Meyer wrote about two Germans who wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They hired three guides and began their ascent at the steepest and most slippery part.
The men roped themselves together in this order: guide, traveler, guide, traveler, guide. They had gone only a little way up the side when the last man lost his footing. He was held up temporarily by the other four, because each had a toehold in the niches they had cut in the ice. But then the next man slipped, and he pulled down the two above him. The only one to stand firm was the first guide, who had driven a spike deep into the ice.
Because he held his ground, all the men beneath him regained their footing. F. B. Meyer concluded his story by drawing a spiritual application. He said, “I am like one of those men who slipped, but thank God, I am bound in a living partnership to Christ. And because He stands, I will never perish.”
So often we try to tell God exactly what we think is best. At times, we take it upon ourselves to let God know how to go about His work, when in reality we should be seeking the Lord and asking Him what He wants to do. So instead of being rigid in our ways, let's ask the Lord how we can yield to Him.
Whenever God is at work there is the inexplicable.
~Ralph R. Martin~
God rewards the person who is diligent. And for those who will take time in their day to seek the Lord, for those who will take time to read His Word, for those who will take time to wait upon Him, He will reveal His truths to them.
If the soul be lost, the man is lost.
~John Flavel~
Although Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He commanded Lazarus’ friends to remove his grave clothes.
Lord, use me to remove others’ grave clothes and may I be surrounded by those who will remove mine.
"Men do not Die for things they doubt"
The cross was not a tragic failure; it was a triumphant rescue.
~G. Campbell Morgan~
The salvation we have in the risen Christ includes the assurance of the fullness of life in God’s future. One day, we too will be raised with Jesus, thanks be to God.
Do not be a Christian found sitting on the sidelines––engage in the work of the ministry. Serve the Lord, good soldier of Jesus Christ!
Raul Ries
It kills your joy (in order to justify your own hypocrisy you judge others to make yourself feel better); it kills your peace (if you're living in hypocrisy you must always keep your guard up, constantly fearing someone will discover the real you).
By looking at the grief surrounding Jesus’ death, we can find encouragement to help us cope with our own grief and loss...
Nelson Bibles
Living day by day by grace is essentially about developing an intimate relationship with the Lord. "You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to Him who was raised from the dead"
In Christ dwells victory, discernment, and courage. Moreover, compassion, strength, and perseverance are part of who He is. All this and far more are found in Christ.
Worship is love on its knees before the beloved; just as missions is love on its feet to serve the beloved.
~NT Wright~
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