Sep 24
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I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; now I am going to see Him. I have seen the print of His shoe on the earth; now I am going to sit at His feet. I have read His Word; now I am going to hear His voice. I have beheld His world; now I am going to dwell in His heaven where sin can never enter. ~John Bunyan
THE FAMILY OF GOD
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom the whole family in heaven is named” (Ephesians 3:13-14).
I want to be a member of the family of God don’t you?
How can a person be made to be a member of any family here on this earth? There are three ways that I can think and none of those ways include, making a decision to be a member or working your way into being a member. When it comes to earthly families we can either be born into them, adopted into them, or married into them, and all three of those ways apply to every member of God’s family. Every soul in glory will say, “I was born of the Spirit of God (John 3:5). I was adopted by the purchase of the blood of the son of God, (Ephesians 1:5-6). And I was hand selected to be the bride of Christ by the Father of God, (Revelation 21:2, 9).
All of three of those forms of union were accomplished in the will and purpose of God before the world began. And in the time all three of those forms of union will be revealed to every soul who is called into the knowledge of their eternal home. In every way possible, God has secured His chosen people into His family. For this cause we bow our knees to Him!
Gabe Stalnaker
GOD’S GOSPEL
‘That gospel of the glory of the blessed God’ (I Tim.
1:11), in the salvation of sinners is the most wonderful, the
most amazing, and the most glorious “Good News” which
ever fell upon human ear! It is in every way characteristic of
its Author and suitable to the desperate need of spiritually
dead sinners (Eph. 2:1-7). It manifests the holiness and
righteousness of God in justifying the unholy and
unrighteous, the infinite love of God in saving those who are
altogether unlovable, and the infinite power of God in
creating life in those who are “dead in trespasses and in
sins.”
This salvation is fully accomplished by the Lord Jesus
Christ for His people, for sinners. There is FULL! FREE!
ETERNAL! salvation for lost, undeserving, hell-deserving
sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ! This salvation comes to
sinners freely, by grace, through faith (Eph. 2:8, 9). They
hear the “Good News;” they believe the word spoken; they
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word – and they
have Christ! and they have life!
When food and drink is set before the hungry and thirsty,
they eat and drink with thanksgiving. When Christ and life is
set forth before (declared, Gal. 3:1) lost, guilty, condemned,
hell-deserving, dying sinners, they embrace Him and live
upon Him with thanksgiving unto the triune God. They
“worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3).
Dear believing sinner, rejoice with thanksgiving and
praise unto our great God and Saviour. Dear lost,
unbelieving sinner, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou SHALT be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Maurice Montgomery
“God is jealous.”
Nahum 1:2
Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did he choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did he buy you with his own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that he would not stop in heaven without you; he would sooner die than you should perish, and he cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart’s love and himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you. When we lean upon him, he is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend—worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, he is displeased, and will chasten us that he may bring us to himself. He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would fain have us abide in him, and enjoy constant fellowship with himself; and many of the trials which he sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if he loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that he will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!
-copied
What a holy, happy
life is this!
(Octavius Winslow,
“The Lord’s Prayer” 1866)
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Matthew 6:11
God will have us live a life of daily faith upon His
bounty. If we would live a life of holy victory amid
the daily conflict of the flesh we must live a life
of daily faith upon Jesus, a life of daily waiting
upon God.
“THIS day, my Father! The supplies of yesterday
are exhausted; those of tomorrow I leave with
You. Give me this day all that its circumstances
may demand. Give me . . .
the clearness of judgment,
the soundness of decision,
the resoluteness of will,
the integrity of principle,
the uprightness of heart,
the moral courage,
the Christlike meekness,
the holy love,
the watchfulness and prayerfulness,
the integrity and consistency,
its yet unshaped history may require.
I know not . . .
what temptations I shall be exposed to,
what foes I shall be assailed by,
what trials I shall pass through,
what clouds will shade,
what sorrows will embitter,
what circumstanceswill wound my spirit.
Lord, give me . . .
grace,
strength,
love,
guidance,
faith.
Give me this day my daily bread.”
What a holy, happy life is this!
It removes all care from the mind but the
present; and for that present, the believer
hangs upon a Father’s care!
Thus begin and continue your day
with God. Its history is all . . .
undeveloped,
uncertain, and
untraced.
You cannot . . .
foresee one step,
be certain of one circumstance,
or control one event.
Let your prayer be, “Give me, Lord, all
supplies for this day. I may have . . .
trials of my judgment,
trials of my affections,
trials of conscience,
trials of my principles,
trials from those I most tenderly love.
Lord, be with me,
guide me with Your counsel,
hold up my steps that they slide not,
let Your comforts delight my soul.”
Day by day is the life of faith you are
to live upon Jesus. It is DAILY bread . . .
Jesus for each and for every day.
Jesus for each day’s needs.
Jesus for each day’s trials.
Jesus for each day’s sins.
Jesus for life.
Jesus for death.
Jesus forever!
If a man had to wade
breast deep through a thousand hells!
(Charles Spurgeon)
“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:15
Jesus is God’s indescribable gift!
Heaven itself is nothing, as compared with Him!
If a man had to wade breast deep through a thousand hells to obtain
Christ—it would be well worth the venture, if at the last he might but say, “My
Beloved is mine—and I am His!”
Jesus is so precious—that He cannot be matched! There is none like Him. The
most lovely of the lovely—are vile and deformed, when compared with Him. As
Rutherford would say, “Black sun, black moon,
black stars—but, O bright, infinitely bright Lord Jesus!”
If you ransacked time and space—eternity and immensity—you could find
none that could even be compared unto Him—He is so precious!
He is all that your souls can desire; yes, He Himself is all.
You could not buy Christ in any market—if you gave the price of heaven and
earth for Him.
” Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:15
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THE GOSPEL OF GOD’S
GRACE
by Don
Fortner– “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me– the task of testifying to THE GOSPEL OF GOD’S GRACE.” Acts 20:24 Grace is the solitary source from which the goodwill, love, and salvation of God flow to his chosen people. Grace is completely unmerited and unsought. It is altogether unattracted by us. Grace cannot be bought, earned, or won by anything in us or done by us. If it could, it would cease to be grace. Grace is bestowed upon sinners without attraction, without condition, without qualification. When God’s saving grace comes to a sinner, it comes as a matter of pure charity, unsought, unasked, and undesired. If you search the Scriptures, you will find that there are five things which always characterize the grace of God. Whenever men speak contrary to these five things they deny the grace of God. 1. The grace of God is eternal (Rom. 8:28-30; 2 Tim. 1:9). 2. The grace of God is free (Rom. 3:24). 3. The grace of God is sovereign (Rom. 9:16). 4. The grace of God is distinguishing (1 Cor. 4:7). 5. The grace of God is in Christ, only in Christ (Eph. 1:3-14). Grace is not something God offers to sinners. Grace is the operation of God in sinners, by which he effectually saves the objects of his everlasting love. The gospel of God is the message of grace. To the self-righteous religionist, it is a stumbling block. To the learned, philosophical worldling, it is foolishness. Why? Because there is nothing in the gospel to gratify the pride of man. The gospel of God declares that man can never be saved, but by the grace of God. It declares that apart from Christ, the unspeakable gift of God’s grace, there is no salvation, and that the state of every human being is desperate, hopeless, and irretrievable. The gospel addresses men and women as depraved, guilty, condemned, perishing sinners. It puts us all upon one level- The gospel declares that the purest moralist is in the same condition as the vilest profligate, that the zealous religionist is no better than the most profane infidel. Without Christ, without grace, all are lost! The gospel addresses every descendant of Adam as a fallen, polluted, hell-bent, hell-deserving sinner, utterly incapable of changing his ruined condition. The grace of God in Christ is our only hope. All men, by nature, stand before God’s holy law as justly condemned felons, awaiting the execution of his wrath upon us (John 3:18,36; Rom.3:19). Our only hope is grace! “Grace is a provision for men who are– so FALLEN that they cannot lift the ax of justice, so CORRUPT that they cannot change their own nature, so AVERSE TO GOD that they cannot turn to him, so BLIND that they cannot see him, so DEAF that they cannot hear him, and so DEAD that God must himself open their graves and lift them into resurrection” (George S. Bishop). The only hope any sinner has of salvation and eternal life is the grace of God freely bestowed upon sinners through Jesus Christ,the sinner’s Substitute. The only bestower of grace is God the Holy Spirit, who is called “the Spirit of grace” (Zech. 12:10). He is the One who applies the gospel to the hearts of chosen, redeemed sinners by his effectual, saving power. He QUICKENS God’s elect while they are yet spiritually dead. He CONQUERS the rebel’s will, MELTS the hard heart, OPENS the blind eye, and CLEANSES the soul. He gives ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. |
The happiest
Christians
(John Newton’s Letters)
They are the happiest Christians, who have the
lowest thoughts of themselves, and in whose eyes
Jesus is most glorious and precious.”Unto you therefore which believe He is precious.” 1 Peter 2:7
How painfully true indeed that so many true believers are being filled with pride and hate to the point they cannot refrain from exposing some perceived, or real, weakness in another believer. If love covers a multitude of sins, what is it that uncovers every fault and flaw in another but hate – sad reality!
How the Holy Spirit must be grieved when such divisions are caused among true believers. We are commanded to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph.4:3). The word “endeavoring” means to make an honest and earnest effort – even exert oneself to keep this unity of the Spirit, and to do it with “all speed”.
Lord forgive me when and where I have been the cause of unwarranted divisions among your purchased saints. Forgive me where I have grieved your heart in doing and saying anything that has broken this precious unity among those who believe your gospel -help me, by your grace, to mend my ways.
Bruce Crabtree