The Christian Life!!

Imagine that you are walking down a street on a very dark night, and a car drives through a puddle right next to you and soaks you with water. You are drenched and feel uncomfortable.

But as you walk toward a distant streetlight, you begin to discover that the water on you is somewhat dirty. At last, you stand beneath the light and see that you are covered with muddy water! Suddenly you feel far worse than before!

Yet the light has not made you dirtier! You were just as filthy when you stood in the darkness, as when you stood beneath the streetlight. The only difference is that now you know your true condition!

So, it is in the Christian life. When you first begin, you are somewhat humbled by your sins. But as you grow in your knowledge of the infinitely holy God, you more and more see the exceeding sinfulness of your sin.

Sinful thoughts which you once dismissed as harmless, now grieve you. Selfish motives which you once considered innocent, are exposed as utterly corrupt. Little wrongs which you scarcely noticed, you now see as hateful in the sight of the holy God.

You feel that you are growing more and more sinful, when in reality you are only becoming increasingly aware of God's holiness, and your own sinfulness! This is why as a maturing Christian; you may think that you are becoming worse and worse!

Dear Christian, do not conclude that you are growing worse, only because you now see and feel the corruption in your heart which you previously failed to recognize. The increasing awareness of your sinfulness is actually evidence that you are growing in grace. It may be the very means by which God is stripping you of self-righteousness, and more deeply teaching you how utterly dependent you are upon His grace!

Do not stop beneath the light, gazing only at your filth. Look to Jesus! The greater your discovery of your sin, the greater should be your gratitude for the wondrous Savior whose precious sin-atoning sacrifice pays the penalty for all of your sins and clothes you with His spotless righteousness.

The more you understand God's infinite holiness, the greater will you understand the heinousness of your sinfulness. The more you understand the exceeding sinfulness of your sin, the more gratitude you will have for the abounding grace of God which swallows up the great mountain of your sins!

And when life's journey is over, And I the dear Savior shall see. I will praise Him forever and ever, for saving a sinner like me!

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

1 Timothy 1:15 ... This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

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Matchless Exhibition of Mercy

If you desire to see the most dreadful specimen of God's wrath, I ask you to come with me now, to a place called Calvary. I want you to gather together on that little spot just outside the city and see such a sight as Moses never saw when he beheld the bush burning. I want you to see on Calvary, the Lord making Himself known by the judgment which He executes.

Who is that upon the tree in agonies and blood? The answer is, Jehovah's Son! What, His beloved Son? Yes, His beloved and only Son. But mark His agony. Do you see that ashen face, furrowed deep, turned up to Heaven? Do you hear that anguished cry that seems to pierce the clouds, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'

When the Lord looked at the adorable Jesus, He saw in Him not only His own Son but the sinner's substitute. He saw on Him my accursed sins, He saw yours also! And oh, solemn truth, although the Substitute was His own Son, He would not, He could not spare the blow! That heaving bosom of His beloved Son, was made the sheath of the sword of His inflexible justice!

God must un-deify himself, before He can wink at sin or fail in the execution of His threatened wrath against iniquity. He must cease to be the Holy One, before mercy can ride rough-shod over justice and truth. But righteousness and mercy, truth and peace all meet in the sin-atoning sacrifice.

'The Lord is known by His judgment which He executes.' Above all, by His judgment of sin at Calvary!

Oh, am I speaking to any who imagine sin to be a trifle? I beg you to measure sin by the woes of Christ! If you think that iniquity is but a small thing, understand that iniquity can only be understood as it is measured by the agonies of a dying God. Probe those wounds and fathom that depth of anguish if you can. Tell me how hot the fire burned within that loving heart; and when you have told me that you have told me how much God hates sin!

While Calvary is the most matchless exhibition of mercy it is also the most dreadful exhibition of holy wrath! In one and the same person, and at one and the same time there is illimitable love to the sinner, and there is illimitable hatred to his sin. Go to Calvary, not to Sinai, to learn how much God abhors this accursed thing, sin!

[Archibald Brown]

Psalm 9:16 ... The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

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The Womb

 The enemy targets the womb because that is where 

God's work begins.

Psalm 139:13 ... For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

Jeremiah 1:5 ... Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Genesis 49:25 ... Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: ❤

He is Able!!

 Remember: God can do a lot with very little.

Matthew 14:17-21 ... And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children. ❤

How Blind Must They Be

The wicked live as if God were neither omnipresent nor omniscient. They imagine that God is not in that secret chamber where they follow out their evil passions. They imagine that out of man's sight, is also out of God's sight. They act and live as if God were either dead, or else were blind and deaf, utterly oblivious to everything that is done on the earth. How blind must they be, who think God to be blind! 

They imagine that God is absent either in person or in mind, and that in some secret places they can hide away from Him, and with impunity follow their own evil desires. But the fact that God is omnipresent, is a deathblow to sin! Nowhere in the universe is there a secret place to commit sin. 

Christians! May we never fall into this absurdity! There is nothing concealed from His all-seeing eye. We must consciously live under His omnipresence. Would I be willing to think, speak, and act as I do; if I were fully conscious at every moment, of standing in the immediate presence of the holy God? 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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Psalm 10:11 ... He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

Isaiah 29:15 ... Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

Job 34:21-22 ... For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

Hebrews 4:13 ... Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.❤

Two Words.

 Grace ~ unmerited favor.  Peace ~ spiritual well-being.

Philippians 1:2 ... Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:3 ... Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:2 ... Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. ❤

Bunyan Quotes 3

If people really see that Christ has removed the fear of punishment from them by taking it into Himself, they won't do whatever they want, they'll do whatever He wants.

There is a warning here for true pilgrims. Beware of the talker but also be careful not to judge too quickly those whom God has blessed with both genuine grace and a fluency to speak of divine mercy in ways more eloquent than others. The proof is in the life-not a perfect life but a life that both delights in divine truth and magnifies God the only giver of the sovereign grace that always produces the truly fruitful, fragrant life.

Christians are like the several flowers in a garden that have each of them the dew of Heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall at each other's roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other.

No child of God sins to that degree as to make himself incapable of forgiveness.

Indeed, this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world, namely, that a righteousness that resides in Heaven, should justify me, a sinner on earth!

Such is the effect of the grace of God in the heart of a pilgrim; while on one hand he sees the propensity of his evil nature to every sin which has been committed by others and is humbled. He also confesses, that, by no power of his own, is he preserved but ever gives the glory to the God of all grace, by whose power alone he is kept from falling.

If we have not quiet in our minds outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.

The best prayers have often more groans than words.

I have often thought that the best Christians are found in the worst of times.

Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think. It is wounding work, this breaking of the hearts but without wounding there is no saving. Where there is grafting there will always be a cutting, the graft must be let in with a wound; to stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back-to-back or there will be no sap from root to branch. And this, I say, must be done by a wound, by a cut.

Great sins draw out great 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.

He who is down needs fear no fall. He who is low, no pride. He who is humble, ever shall have God to be his Guide.

It is not the mouth that is the main thing to be looked at in prayer but whether the heart is so full of affection and earnestness in prayer with God, that it is impossible to express their sense and desire; for then a man desires indeed, when his desires are so strong, many, and mighty, that all the words, tears, and groans that can come from the heart, cannot utter them.

A man there was, though some did count him mad the more he cast away the more he had.

Just as Christian came up to the Cross his burden loosed from off his shoulders, fell from off his back, and began to tumble down the hill, and so it continued to do until it came to the mouth of the sepulcher. There it fell in, and I saw it no more!

Faith is a fruit, work, or gift of the Spirit of God, whereby a poor soul is enabled through the mighty operation of God, in a sense of its sins and wretched estate, to lay hold on the righteousness, blood, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and coming again of the Son of God who was crucified for our sins.

As your faith is such your hope will be. Hope is never ill, when faith is well; nor strong, if faith is weak.

A little from God is better than a great deal from men.

One leak will sink a ship and one sin allowed, will destroy a sinner.

He has given me rest by His sorrow and life by His death.

[John Bunyan]

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Your Worth...

One small bird can remind you how personally the father cares for you.

You are known and cared for by your father. Your worth is not measured by what you produce or achieve; it rests in His attentive love.

                                                         word-of-encouragement.com  

Matthew 6:26 ... Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ❤

Heinous Evils!

A few weeks ago, a man deliberately murdered his employer who had offended him. As the employee gave himself up to the police, he said that he was not in the least degree afraid nor ashamed of what he had done. He admitted the murder and owned that he knew the consequences very well. He expected to suffer about half-a-minute's pain upon the gallows, and that would be the end of him. He was quite prepared to die, for he had nothing to live for.

He had acted and spoken consistently with his atheistic beliefs. And truly, there is no form of crime, but what becomes logical and legitimate, if only you take away belief in God and future eternal punishment.

With atheistic viewpoints, there is nothing to hold society together. For without God, the moral government of the universe has ceased, and anarchy is the natural state of things. If there is no God, and no judgment to come then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die! (1 Corinthians 15:32) Then let us give ourselves over to immorality, drunkenness, thievery, lying, and murder. If there is no final Judge, no judgment, and no punishment for sin, then why not?

If there is no moral and omniscient Governor of the universe, then there is no ultimate deterrent against heinous evils!

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

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Psalm 14:1 ... The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Psalm 10:4 ... The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

Ecclesiastes 8:11 ... Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Romans 1:28 ... And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;❤

Look to The Lord.

The most important thing in this life, above all else, is your relationship with the Lord.

 Colossians 3:2 ... Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. ❤

The Nation

 A special blessing is reserved for nations who recognize and honor God as their Lord. 

Psalm 33:12 ... Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. ❤