How Do You Begin Your Day?

Rick Holland reflects on how he begins his day. “So what is the first thing you do when you wake up? Here’s my problem. I find it easy to grab my iPhone and check my email, glace at social media notifications, see if there are any texts awaiting a response, and look at look at the news and sports feed. There is certainly nothing with doing these things. But my problem is that this is much easier and feels more urgent when I awake than addressing the thirst of my soul for God.”

Keep Reading...

Quote of the Day

“Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy; but the Father, for love!”

– Octavius Winslow

Quote of the Day

Every sickness and sorrow is the voice of God speaking to us. Each has its peculiar message. Happy are they who have an eye to see God’s hand, and an ear to hear His voice, in all that happens to them. Nothing in this world happens by chance.

And as it is with sickness, so it is with recovery. Renewed health should send us back to our post in the world with a deeper hatred of sin, a more thorough watchfulness over our own ways, and a more constant purpose of mind to live for God. Far too often the excitement and novelty of returning health tempt us to forget the vows and intentions of the sick-room. There are spiritual dangers attending a recovery! Well would it be for us all after illness to grave these words on our hearts, “Let me sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto me.”

Let us leave the passage with grateful hearts, and bless God that we have such a Gospel and such a Savior as the Bible reveals. Are we ever sick and ill? Let us remember that Christ sees, and knows, and can heal as He thinks fit. Are we ever in trouble? Let us hear in our trouble the voice of God, and learn to hate sin more.

J.C. Ryle

The Gospel of John

A Word Worth Its Weight in Gold

J. C. Ryle in Be Content —

Stick to that word "never." It is worth its weight in gold. Cling to it as a drowning man clings to a rope. Grasp it firmly, as a soldier attacked on all sides grasps his sword. God has said, and will stand to it, "I will never leave you!"

"Never!" Though your heart often faints, and you are sick of self, and your many failures and infirmities; even then the promise will not fail.

"Never!" Though the devil whispers, 'I shall have you at last! In little while, your faith will fail, and you will be mine!' Even then, God will keep his Word.

"Never!" Though waves of trouble go over your head, and all hope seems taken away. Even then the Word of God will stand.

"Never!" When the cold chill of death is creeping over you, and friends can do no more, and you are starting on that journey from which there is no return. Even then—Christ will not forsake you.

"Never!" When the Day of Judgment comes, and the books are opened, and the dead are rising from their graves, and eternity is beginning. Even then the promise will bear all your weight. Christ will not leave his hold on your soul.

The Earliest Testimony of the Church: Jesus is God

From Justin Taylor:

The oldest surviving sermon of the Christian church after the New Testament opened with the words: “Brethren, we ought so to think of Jesus Christ as of God, as the judge of living and dead. And we ought not to belittle our salvation; for when we belittle him, we expect also to receive little.” The oldest surviving account of the death of a Christian martyr contained the declaration: “It will be impossible for us to forsake Christ . . . or to worship any other. For him, being the Son of God, we adore, but the martyrs . . . we cherish.” The oldest surviving pagan report about the church described Christians as gathering before sunrise and “singing a hymn to Christ as to [a] god.” The oldest surviving liturgical prayer of the church was a prayer addressed to Christ: “Our Lord, come!” Clearly it was the message of what the church believed and taught that “God” was an appropriate name for Jesus Christ. —Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971), p. 173; emphasis added.

Quote of the Day

The Christian gospel is not merely that Jesus died and rose again; and not merely that these events appease God’s wrath, forgive sin, and justify sinners; and not merely that this redemption gets us out of hell and into heaven; but that they bring us to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as our supreme, all-satisfying, and everlasting treasure. ‘Christ … suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God’ (1 Pet. 3:18)

— John Piper, God is the Gospel

15 Ways to Kill Bitterness

According to Hebrews 12:15, bitterness is a “root attitude” of the heart that grows where there is a shortage of grace. Roots grow downward, going deeper and getting more deeply embedded. The root of bitterness also causes other sins to grow upward and outward, “causing trouble” and “defiling many” other people. But how do we kill this root?

One of my favorite yard “tools” is Roundup, the liquid weed and grass killer that gets into the plant’s internal “circulatory system,” going deep down to kill the very root—for good. Consider the following list as Biblical Roundup for the Bitter Soul.

1. Daily remind yourself that your sin against God, which has already been forgiven in Christ, is greater than anyone else’s sin against you and that your new standard for forgiving others is how much God has forgiven you (Eph 4:32; Col 3:13).
2. Consciously put away every form of bitterness and refuse to take up offenses for the hurts of others (Eph 4:31).
3. Confess to God that your bitterness has surrendered ground to Satan, giving him a place in your life (Eph 4:26-27).
4. Remember that no injury you have experienced, or ever will experience, can compare to the injury received by Christ who prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
5. Forgive from your heart those who have hurt you, real or imagined, intentional or unintentional (Matt 18:35).
6. Consciously remember Joseph (Gen 50:20). Remind yourself of the truth that if you are a believer then God is always working behind the scenes for your good to conform you to the image of Christ (Rom 8:28-29).
7. Never seek revenge or make people pay for their sin (Rom. 12:19). Jesus already paid for it completely (1 Pet 3:18).
8. Remember that God’s anger against you, and your sin, has been propitiated by Christ (Rom 3:25; 1 Jn 2:1-2). Therefore, you have no biblical right to harbor anger toward another.
9. Humble yourself and ask forgiveness from those against whom you’ve been bitter (Matt 5:23-24).
10. Bless those who hurt you; overcome evil with good (Rom 12:19-21).
11. Pursue love for one another, which covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8).
12. Actively choose not to remember the wrongs that others have committed against you. Actively choosing not to remember is different than forgetting. In Jeremiah 31:34, God says he will “remember no more” the sins of his people. This is not memory failure or forgetfulness. This is God’s conscious choice to no longer hold our sins against us. We must do the same with the sins of others.
13. Destroy “lists of sins” committed against you, mental lists or actual, written lists (1 Cor 13:5).
14. Make peace with others, as much as is in your power (Rom 12:18). If a person from whom you’ve asked for forgiveness refuses to do so, but chooses instead to remain your enemy, then love them and pray for them while you continue to obey God and guard your own heart from bitterness (Matt 5:44).
15. Trust God to judge righteously (1 Pet 2:23).

HT: Paul Tautges

Thanksgiving

Since 1863, on the fourth Thursday of November, families and friends in the United States have gathered to commemorate an old tradition linked back to the early European settlers.

You know the story: The pilgrims and Native Americans came together for a happy feast to celebrate the harvest and forge new friendships. A few hundred years later, this event became a legislated holiday and got Norman Rockwelled into the fabric of American life. We call it Thanksgiving.

The Aim of Paul's Ministry

It's interesting that we name a national holiday after an emotion — a very good emotion. In fact, an emotion for which the apostle Paul aimed his ministry. He tells it like this in 2 Corinthians 4:15:

It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

"It is all for your sake." What's he talking about? In short, "it" refers to Paul's gospel proclamation along with its accompanying ethos of suffering and persevering faith (2 Corinthians 4:13–14). Or, said a little longer, "it" refers to Paul's gospel proclamation flowing from an ethos in continuity with the Old Testament writer of Psalm 116 — an ethos that perseveres in the midst of affliction by faith in the resurrection.

This is Paul's character. This is how he does it: afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8–9). He went about as a missionary, taking the gospel from one city to the next, carrying in his body the death of Jesus, looking to the eternal weight of glory. And he did it for our sake.

He did it for our sake so that as the gospel continues to advance among all peoples, it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. As grace extends to more and more people, it makes more and more people grateful. And this whole act of extending grace and responding in gratitude glorifies God.

Specific Gratitude

And it's a particular kind of gratitude. There is nothing generic about it. It is thanksgiving for the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, who came to save his people from their sins. This is the kind of thanksgiving that the apostle is aiming for. The kind that no holiday can manufacture.

While we do have some writings from the early pilgrims, we don't really know the full details of the "thankfulness" present when the original attendees huddled around that now-famous meal. Were their hearts inclined to God in some vague sense? Did they call him Providence or Jesus? Were they just glad to have some food? We don't know, and for our purposes it doesn't really matter.

But what does matter is how we will huddle around our meal tomorrow.

More Than Food and Football

Here's a plea that we look along the beams of delicious turkey and good football to see Jesus, crucified for us, dead and buried for us, raised for us on the third day. For his grace has been extended to us. We've heard the good news. Paul (or one of the apostles) told someone who told someone who told someone. And eventually one of these "someones" told us. This grace has extended to "more and more people." It has extended to you and me.

So in the midst of our many thanksgivings, may we be mainly thankful for that — for Jesus and all that he is for us. And in so doing, may we fulfill Paul's goal, the increase of thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

HT: Desiring God

Quote of the Day

“It is because we cannot be robbed of God’s providence that we know, amid whatever encircling gloom, that all things shall work together for good to those that love him. It is because we cannot be robbed of God’s providence that we know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ–not tribulation, nor anguish, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword. . . . Were not God’s providence over all, could trouble come without his sending, were Christians the possible prey of this or the other fiendish enemy, when perchance God was musing, or gone aside, or on a journey, or sleeping, what certainty of hope could be ours?

‘Does God send trouble?’ Surely, surely. He and he only. To the sinner in punishment, to his children in chastisement. To suggest that it does not always come from his hands is to take away all our comfort.”

– B. B. Warfield, ‘God’s Providence Over All,’ in Selected Shorter Writings of B. B. Warfield

Quote of the Day

“Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin or sin will choke prayer.”

– J.C. Ryle

Sermon Producing Fruit

There are thousands who listen regularly to the preaching of the Gospel, and admire it while they listen. They do not dispute the truth of what they hear. They even feel a kind of intellectual pleasure in hearing a good and powerful sermon. But their religion never goes beyond this point. Their sermon-hearing does not prevent them living a life of thoughtlessness, worldliness, and sin.

Let us often examine ourselves on this important point. Let us see what practical effect is produced on our hearts and lives by the preaching which we profess to like. Does it lead us to true repentance towards God, and lively faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ? Does it excite us to weekly efforts to cease from sin, and to resist the devil? These are the fruits which sermons ought to produce, if they are really doing us good. Without such fruit, a mere barren admiration is utterly worthless. It is no proof of grace. It will save no soul.

~ J.C. Ryle

HT: JC Ryle Quotes

Not Our Work for the Lord, but the Lord’s Own Work through Us

“Oh to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will to be be so filled with the presence of the Lord Jesus, so one with Him, that His life may flow through our veins; that He may borrow our lips to speak His messages, borrow our faces to look His looks of patience and love, our hands to do His service and our feet to tread His weary journeys. The dear Master can never be weary again by the side of any well, but we may be weary by the side of many for Him.

“In times of discouragement it is a great help to remember that the Lord’s work is not our work for the Lord, but the Lord’s own work through us and others. ‘He will not fail, nor be discouraged.’”

From Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission: The Growth of a Work of God, by Dr. Howard Taylor and Mrs. Howard Taylor (1918, first edition), pp. 408-409.

6 Practical Tips and 1 Challenge

Paul Tautges has a great post on his website this morning encouraging us to memorize Scripture. Do you have a plan for memorizing Scripture?

Earlier today, I read a helpful little booklet written by Susan Heck entitled A Call to Scripture Memory. In this 21-page booklet from Focus Publishing, the author answers five questions:

• Who should memorize Scripture?
• Why should we memorize Scripture?
• What Scripture should we memorize?
• When should we memorize Scripture?
• How do we learn to memorize Scripture?

She then ends the booklet with these 6 simple tips:

1. Work on memorizing when you are mentally alert and free of distractions.
2. Stick to the same Bible translation until you master the passage.
3. If you are having trouble with a certain verse of passage, put it to music.
4. Another helpful tip is to try to teach the verses to your children or to other children.
5. Remember you are not just memorizing words, but God’s words!
6. Lastly, if you find yourself leaving out portions or phrases, ask yourself, “What logically would come next here?”

The following portion, containing illustrations from church history, was especially convicting to me.

Even as the New Testament church progressed, according to church history, many Christians cherished God’s Word much more than we do, and would memorize great portions of it. Tertullian (160-220 A.D.), an early Christian apologist devoted his days and nights to Bible reading, so much so that he even memorized much of its punctuation. Theodosius the Younger (347-395 A.D.), a Roman emperor known for making Christianity the state religion during his reign of the Roman Empire, could repeat any part of Scripture exactly. Thomas Cramer (1489-1556 A.D.), a leader of the English Reformation could repeat the entire New Testament from memory. Theodore Beza (1519-1605 A.D.), a French theologian who played an important role in the early Reformation could repeat all of Paul’s letters in Greek at age 80. Finally, Frances Havergal who wrote my favorite hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be” memorized the entire New Testament, the Psalms, and Isaiah, in her teenage years, and in her later years she memorized the Minor Prophets. She died at the age of 43, and had already committed 12, 935 verses to memory.

How to Know the Will of God

This is the beginning of an excellent series of articles by Tim Challies.

How To Know The Will Of God

How Does God Speak To Me Today?

God's Will For Your Life

How Do I Make Decisions That Please God?

Holding Hands

This is a beautiful story.

"An Iowa couple who was married for 72 years died one hour apart last week in the hospital as they held hands."

Encouraging the Unemployed

I know we have several in our class that are currently out of work. I found this series from Paul Tautges particularly timely and helpful.

• Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4