Kneeling in prayer

The Good News of Christmas!

“The good news of Christmas is that the God of the Bible is the God of grace, who comes into the darkness and emptiness of our hearts to bring His light, His joy, and His peace. Are you walking in darkness today, whether that is the darkness of your own sin or the darkness caused by the sin of others? God is neither afraid of nor defeated by these things. In Jesus, He has drawn near. By His Spirit, He can bring light to the dark. Look to Him and walk in His light.”

Begg, Alistair. Truth For Life – Volume 2: 365 Daily Devotions (A Gospel-Saturated Gift Devotional for the Entire Year – Includes a Yearly Bible Reading Plan) (pp. 979-980). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.

A Hymn/Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Holy Ghost, with light divine, Shine upon this heart of mine;

Chase the shades of night away, Turn my darkness into day.

Holy Ghost, with power divine, Cleanse this guilty heart of mine.

Long hath sin without control Held dominion o’er my soul.

Holy Ghost, with joy divine, Cheer this saddened heart of mine;

Bid my many woes depart, Heal my wounded, bleeding heart.

Holy Spirit, all divine, Dwell within this heart of mine.

Cast down every idol-throne, Reign supreme—and reign alone!

Encouraging quotes to treasure the Word

Our pastor preached a message on Treasuring God’s Word on Sunday. He preached from Psalm 119:9-16 and encouraged us to absorb, declare and delight in God’s Word this year. He shared several quotes throughout the message which I have included below. In addition I added a few from other sources.

“The Word of God I think of as a straight edge, which shows up our own crookedness. We can’t really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.” ― Elisabeth Elliot

“This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book.”

“How often do we face problems, temptations, and pressure? Every day! Then how often do we need instruction, guidance and greater encouragement? Every day! To catch all these felt needs up into an even greater issue, how often do we need to see God’s face, hear his voice, feel his touch, know his power? The answer to all these questions is the same: every day!” –John Blanchard

“A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at one time to sustain life for a week. We must draw upon God’s boundless store of grace from day to day as we need it.”–D. L. Moody

“You must remember this: You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be profoundly influenced by that which you do not know. If you are filled with God’s Word, your life can then be informed and directed by God — your domestic relationships, your child-rearing, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior moral life. The way to a Christian mind is through God’s Word!–Pastor R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, p.77

“Do not expect to master the Bible in a day, or a month, or a year. Rather expect often to be puzzled by its contents. It is not all equally clear. Great men of God often feel like absolute novices when they read the Word. The apostle Peter said that there were some things hard to be understood in the epistles of Paul [2 Peter 3.16). I am glad he wrote those words because I have felt that often. So do not expect always to get an emotional charge or a feeling of quiet peace when you read the Bible. By the grace of God you may expect that to be a frequent experience, but often you will get no emotional response at all. Let the Word break over your heart and mind again and again as the years go by, and imperceptibly there will come great changes in your attitude and outlook and conduct. You will probably be the last to recognize these. Often you will feel very, very small, because increasingly the God of the Bible will become to you wonderfully great. So go on reading it until you can read no longer, and then you will not need the Bible any more, because when your eyes close for the last time in death, and never again read the Word of God in Scripture you will open them to the Word of God in the flesh, that same Jesus of the Bible whom you have known for so long, standing before you to take you for ever to His eternal home.”–Pastor Geoffrey Thomas

The real point isn’t about the Bible reading plan you choose but about the God you pursue!

This Book contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, and the Christian’s character. Here paradise is restored, Heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand object; our good is its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is given you in life and will be opened in the judgment and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents. –Introduction to the Gideon Bible.

“Hearing is huge. . . . The stakes are very high. There is a hearing that barely gets started and the Word is gone before you get out the door. There is a hearing that lasts until there is a hard time in life, and then one turns from God to other messages. There is a hearing that flourishes until the riches and pleasures of this life choke it off. And there is a hearing that defeats the devil, endures trial, scorns riches and bears fruit unto eternal life.  That is the hearing we want. Let’s ask God for it.”–John Piper

God is good

God is good and does good! “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.” (Psalm 119:68, ESV) 

God has goodness laid up in store for us in the future! “Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!” (Psalm 31:19)

God can take bad things and use them for good ends to refine our faith, deepen our worship and remind us of eternal truths! “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” (Psalm 119:71, ESV)

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6, ESV)

A good reminder: Don’t waste your suffering!

Kirsten Wetherell is correct:

Suffering can be distracting. It can embitter the spirit, harden the heart, and paralyze the will. Turning us inward, it often keeps us from seeing opportunities God is placing around us to love others and share the gospel. At times, we’re tempted to forego proclaiming Christ because we’re defeated by sin, exhausted from bodily pain, or emotionally spent from attempts to reconcile broken relationships. Suffering seems to require all our attention and effort as it drains us of resources. We feel we have nothing left to give.

But there’s hope:

In Christ’s light, suffering is a ministry, not a millstone. It’s a gift, not a glitch in the plan. . . .When life is going well, Christian joy and worldly happiness are hard to distinguish from each other. But when life is falling apart, and worldly happiness has long since fled, Christian joy can shine forth clearly and uniquely.

She concludes:

By God’s grace, your suffering is a ministry—the light of the gospel streaming through the “cracks” of your affliction into the heads and hearts of those watching. The way you suffer speaks volumes. May it speak loudly of the gospel even when it hurts, and of the God who brought us hope through suffering himself.

Read the whole article!

An invitation we dismiss

“To know God as the Master and Bestower of all good things, who invites us to request them of Him, and still not go to Him and ask of Him – this would be of as little profit as for a man to neglect a treasure, buried and hidden in the earth, after it had been pointed out to him.”–John Calvin

A 1:10 ratio!

A well known quote from Robert Murray McCheyne in a a letter he wrote, which was latter published in Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne [(Edinburgh, 1894), 293].

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer. 17:9. Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief! Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms. . . .

. . . Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in Him. Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart; and so there will be no room for folly, or the world, or Satan, or the flesh.

Would you lose your sorrows?

It has been said that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God….

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe…. The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, while humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore.

Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.

—Excerpted from “The Immutability of God,” A sermon by Charles H. Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark on January 7, 1865 when he was  only 20 years old!

Encouragement from Hebrews 12:1-2

Last week our SermonAudio staff had the privilege of meeting Dr. Joel Beeke at our office. Dr. Beeke exhorted us from Hebrews 12:1-2 to keep our eyes on Jesus and run the race set before us.  Here are a few of the memorable words he spoke:

The sin that runs us down in running the race usually comes through eye-gate or ear-gate into Mansoul.   Be careful what you do with your eyes and with your ears!

Faith reaches out to Christ with one hand and with the other hand pushes away sin!—Thomas Manton!

If Jesus died for you, can’t you at least live for Him?

A man who has assurance based on the cross accomplishes ten times more than the man who doesn’t.–Goodwin

If your life is used to save one soul, you don’t have a wasted life!

Work at what you do at SermonAudio with all your might knowing that millions of people are benefitting from it!