A Pilgrims Progress, slowly but surely

Rock of Ages...

2012-01-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

http://jcrylequotes.com/2010/08/26/j-c-ryles-favorite-hymn-rock-of-ages/

On ambition from GTY

2012-01-16T14:38:00.001-07:00

http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/TMC224/understanding-your-ambition

His Plan For Me

2012-01-16T14:37:00.001-07:00

When I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ
And He shows His plan for me,
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way - and I see
How I blocked Him here, and checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will,
Will there be grief in my Savior's eyes,
Grief though He loves me still?
Would He have me rich and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing,
Down the paths I cannot retrace.
Lord, of the years that are left to me
I give them to Thy hand
Take me and break me and mold me,
To the pattern that Thou hast planned!
-Author Unknown

http://www.ravenhill.org/judgment.htm

Quotes from G. Campbell Morgan

2012-01-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

Oh rough and rugged Cross of Calvary! We gather round Thy stern sublimity of suffering with our own hearts' agony, and find heart's-ease. We come to Thee with faces stained with tears, and in the strength of His victory our tears are wiped away our sorrow is turned into joy.

Some Chopin...

2012-01-16T12:02:00.002-07:00

Some more classical music...

2011-11-26T17:12:00.001-07:00

Beethoven 7th symphony, II

Beethoven 9th

Joel Osteen on Mormons

2011-10-31T11:26:00.001-06:00

http://www.albertmohler.com/2011/10/26/does-joel-osteen-not-know-or-does-he-not-care/

Quotes from J. C. Ryle.

2011-10-24T17:47:00.003-06:00

Sense of sin and deep hatred of it, faith in Christ and love to Him, delight in holiness and longing after more of it, love for God's people and distaste for the things of the world, THESE are the signs and evidences which always accompany conversion.

Health, money, property, friendship, all make themselves wings and flee away. They are here today and gone tomorrow. But God says, 'I will never leave you!'.

Faith is the root of a real Christian’s character. Let your root be right, and your fruit will soon abound.

Let us be real, honest, thorough, and sincere in our Christianity. We cannot deceive an all-seeing God.

Quotes from J. C. Ryle

2011-10-17T17:31:00.003-06:00

If we would hold fast that which is good, we must never tolerate or support any doctrine which is not the pure doctrine of Christ’s Gospel. There is a hatred which is downright charity – that is the hatred of erroneous doctrine. There is an intolerance which is downright praiseworthy – that is the intolerance of false teaching in the pulpit. Who would ever think of tolerating a little poison given to them day by day? If men come among you who do not preach “all the counsel of God,” who do not preach of Christ, sin, holiness, of ruin, redemption, and regeneration, and do not preach of these things in a Scriptural way, you ought to cease to hear them.

Piano Sonata No. 8 "Pathetique" - I/III

2011-10-14T10:22:00.002-06:00

Beethoven's "Appassionata" 3rd Movement (op.57)

2011-10-14T10:02:00.001-06:00

2011-10-13T09:49:00.005-06:00

"Godly sorrow worketh repentance."—2 Corinthians 7:10.

GENUINE, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature's garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature's thorns never produced a single fig. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only, in the light of His love.

True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally—as a burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it, as a man who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway; and we shall shun it—shun it in everything—not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue, lest it should say a wrong word; we shall be very watchful over our daily actions, lest in anything we offend, and each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this day God would hold us up that we may not sin against Him.

Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This dropping well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.

2011-10-08T17:14:00.002-06:00

wish i could play like this!

The Cross of Christ by J. C. Ryle

2011-09-30T10:49:00.004-06:00

What do you think about the cross of Christ? The question may be one that you consider of little importance: but it deeply concerns the everlasting welfare of your soul.

Eighteen hundred years ago there was a man who said that he "gloried" in the cross of Christ. He was one who turned the world upside down by the doctrines he preached. He was one who did more to establish Christianity than any man that ever lived. Yet what does He tell the Galatians?—"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. vi. 14).

Reader, the "cross of Christ" must needs be an important subject, when an inspired apostle can speak of it in this way. Let me try to show you what the expression means. Once know what the cross of Christ means, and then you may be able, by God's help, to see the importance of it to your soul.

The cross in the Bible sometimes means that wooden cross on which the Lord Jesus was nailed and put to death on Mount Calvary. This is what St. Paul had in his mind's eye when he told the Philippians that Christ "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. ii. 8). This is not the cross in which St. Paul gloried. He would have shrunk with horror from the idea of glorying in a mere piece of wood. I have no doubt he would have denounced the Roman Catholic adoration of the crucifix as profane, blasphemous, and idolatrous.

The cross sometimes means the afflictions and trials which believers in Christ have to go through if they follow Christ faithfully, for their religion's sake. This is the sense in which our Lord uses the word, when He says, "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matt. x. 38). This also is not the sense in which Paul uses the word when he writes to the Galatians. He knew that cross well. He carried it patiently: but he is not speaking of it here.

But the cross also means in some places the doctrine that Christ died for sinners upon the cross,—the atonement that He made for sinners, by His suffering for them on the cross,—the complete and perfect sacrifice for sin which He offered up, when He gave His own body to be crucified. In short, this one word, "the cross," stands for Christ crucified, the only Saviour. This is the meaning in which Paul uses the expression, when he tells the Corinthians, "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness" (1 Cor. i. 18). This is the meaning in which he wrote to the Galatians, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross." He simply meant, "I glory in nothing but Christ crucified, as the salvation of my soul."

Reader, Jesus Christ crucified was the joy and delight, the comfort and the peace, the hope and the confidence, the foundation and the resting-place, the ark and the refuge, the food and the medicine of Paul's soul. He did not think of what he had done himself and suffered himself. He did not meditate on his own goodness, and his own righteousness. He loved to think of what Christ had done, and Christ had suffered,—of the death of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the blood of Christ, the finished work of Christ. In this he did glory. This was the sun of his soul.

This is the subject he loved to preach about. He was a man who went to and fro on the earth, proclaiming to sinners that the Son of God had shed His own heart's blood to save their souls. He walked up and down the world telling people that Jesus Christ had loved them, and died for their sins upon the cross. Mark how he says to the Corinthians, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor. xv. 3); "I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. ii. 2). He,—a blaspheming, persecuting Pharisee,—had been washed in Christ's blood: he could not hold his peace about it. He was never weary of telling the story of the cross.

This is the subject he loved to dwell upon when he wrote to believers. It is wonderful to observe how full his epistles generally are of the sufferings and death of Christ,—how they run over with "thoughts that breathe and words that burn" about Christ's dying love and power. His heart seems full of the subject: he enlarges on it constantly; he returns to it continually. It is the golden thread that runs through all his doctrinal teaching, and practical exhortations. He seems to think that the most advanced Christian can never hear too much about the cross.

This is what he lived upon all his life, from the time of his conversion. He tells the Galatians, "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. ii. 20). What made him so strong to labour? What made him so willing to work? What made him so unwearied in endeavouring to save some? What made him so persevering and patient? I will tell you the secret of it all. He was always feeding by faith on Christ's body and Christ's blood. Jesus crucified was the meat and drink of his soul.

And, reader, you may rest assured that Paul was right. Depend upon it, the cross of Christ,—the death of Christ on the cross to make atonement for sinners,—is the centre truth in the whole Bible. This is the truth we begin with when we open Genesis. The seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head, is nothing else but a prophecy of Christ crucified. This is the truth that shines out, though veiled, all through the law of Moses and the history of the Jews. The daily sacrifice, the passover lamb, the continual shedding of blood in the tabernacle and the temple,—all these were emblems of Christ crucified. This is the truth that we see honoured in the vision of heaven, before we close the book of Revelations. "In the midst of the throne and of the four beasts," we are told, "and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain" (Rev. v. 6). Even in the midst of heavenly glory we catch a view of Christ crucified. Take away the cross of Christ, and the Bible is a dark book. It is like the Egyptian hieroglyphics, without the key that interprets their meaning,—curious and wonderful, but of no real use.

Reader, mark what I say. You may know a good deal about the Bible. You may know the outlines of the histories it contains, and the dates of the events described, just as a man knows the history of England. You may know the names of the men and women mentioned in it, just as a man knows Caesar, Alexander the Great, or Napoleon. You may know the several precepts of the Bible, and admire them, just as a man admires Plato, Aristotle, or Seneca. But if you have not yet found out that Christ crucified is the foundation of the whole volume, you have read your Bible hitherto to very little profit. Your religion is a heaven without a sun, an arch without a key-stone, a compass without a needle, a clock without spring or weights, a lamp without oil. It will not comfort you. It will not deliver your soul from hell.

Reader, mark what I say again. You may know a good deal about Christ, by a kind of head knowledge. You may know who He was, and where He was born, and what He did. You may know His miracles, His sayings, His prophecies, and His ordinances. You may know how He lived, and how He suffered, and how He died. But unless you know the power of Christ's cross by experience,—unless you know and feel within that the blood shed on that cross has washed away your own particular sins—unless you are willing to confess that your salvation depends entirely on the work that Christ did upon the cross,—unless this be the case, Christ will profit you nothing. The mere knowing Christ's name will never save you. You must know His cross and His blood, or else you will die in your sins.

Reader, as long as you live, beware of a religion in which there is not much of the cross. You live in times when the warning is sadly needful. Beware, I say again, of a religion without the cross.

There are hundreds of places of worship in this day, in which there is almost everything except the cross. There is carved oak, and sculptured stone; there is stained glass, and brilliant painting; there are solemn services, and a constant round of ordinances: but the real cross of Christ is not there. Jesus crucified is not proclaimed in the pulpit. The Lamb of God is not lifted up, and salvation by faith in Him is not freely proclaimed. And hence all is wrong. Reader, beware of such places of worship. They are not apostolical. They would not have satisfied St. Paul.

There are thousands of religious books published in our times, in which there is everything except the cross. They are full of directions about sacraments, and praises of the Church; they abound in exhortations about holy living, and rules for the attainment of perfection; they have plenty of fonts and crosses, both inside and outside but the real cross of Christ is left out. The Saviour and His dying love, are either not mentioned, or mentioned in an unscriptural way. And hence they are worse than useless. Reader, beware of such books. They are not apostolical They would never have satisfied St. Paul.

Reader, St. Paul gloried in nothing but the cross. Strive to be like him. Set Jesus crucified fully before the eyes of your soul. Listen not to any teaching which would interpose any thing between you and Him. Do not fall into the old Galatian error. Think not that anyone in this day is a better guide than the apostles. Do not be ashamed of the old paths in which men walked who were inspired by the Holy Ghost. Let not the vague talk of men who speak great swelling words about catholicity, and the church, and the ministry, disturb your peace, and make you loose your hands from the cross. Churches, ministers, and sacraments are all useful in their way, but they are not Christ crucified. Do not give Christ's honour to another. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

Reader, I lay these thoughts before your mind. What you think now about the cross of Christ I cannot tell; but I can wish you nothing better than this,—that you may be able to say with the apostle Paul, before you die or meet the Lord, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Amen.

http://www.biblebb.com/files/ryle/the_cross_of_christ.htm
http://www.biblebb.com/files/ryle/christ_crucified.htm

The parable of the two physicians.

2011-09-30T08:02:00.001-06:00

There was a city, not long ago, where all the people were affected by a certain kind of plague. It was a horrible, horrible, disease. The worst part of it was that the symptoms were tolerable till the end. But death was certain. Many people put off going to the doctor just because the symptoms, though annoying, were tolerable and died as a result.

There happened to be in that very city a physician by name John, who specialized in curing the same disease. He would take his time analyzing the symptoms and formulate the cure accordingly. The cure however only made the patients sicker and caused them agonizing pain, enough to cause them to despair of their life and it took time. But in the end everyone who came to him were completely cured and lived a healthy life afterwards.

Because of the nature of the cure many patients avoided him. After all why suffer when the symptoms are tolerable.

There was in that city another physician by name Joel. He saw that many people avoided John because the cure he prescribed was in effect very painful. So he came up with a plan to cure the annoying but tolerable symptoms instead, hoping that as long as they came to him they might someday want to try the cure itself. But he knew that if he prescribed the cure to his patients outright most of them would stop coming to him. Besides, the patients were happy as long as their symptoms disappeared. So in the end that’s all he did. His patients liked the results so much that were uplifted, content and happy. Joel became very popular and prosperous. People praised and honored him. He was now too afraid to tell them the truth so he continued as is.

John saw what was happening. That Joel was curing only their symptoms but not the disease. John out of love and concern for the lives of the people spoke up against Joel and what he was doing. But many people thought he was just jealous of Joel and would not listen to him anymore. Some rebuked him and asked him to shut up. How dare he put down his fellow physician! But John wouldnt stop. He knew that everyone who went to Joel had a death sentence and so he continued till the end warning the people. Most stopped going to John and started going to Joel instead. After all, if a person is famous it means that he must know what he is doing, right? And so this sad story continued till all of Joels patients eventually died.

The plague is sin. The wages of sin is death. The gospel, what Christ did for us on the cross is the only cure for this disease. The health, wealth and prosperity gospel is another gospel which is no gospel at all. Gal 1:6-10.

The reason for this post is to warn people of those who preach another gospel. Most of them use the same terminology. Might even use scripture to back what they say. But by their message we shall know them.

Joel Osteen is the first who comes to mind. I saw the comments for Joel Osteens new book at Amazon. and it saddens me that there are people who can call themselves christians and still say that christianity isnt about the cross. Whereas the bible says that it is all about the cross. These are the kind of people Joel attracts. People who want to come to God on their terms.

The sad part is that they never hear the true gospel. Only a very shallow and superficial version of it. And they deceive themselves into thinking they are christians when they arent. And Joel Osteen and his ilk are equally responsible for this deception because they dont tell them the truth in all its entirety.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=john+macarthur+joel+osteen&aq=4&oq=john+macarthur

Pride and Prejudice - Georgiana.

2011-09-29T11:56:00.000-06:00

Quotes from G. Campbell Morgan.

2011-09-29T11:21:00.000-06:00

Therefore take no thought...for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.Matthew 6:31, 32
God is so interested that He takes us one by one, and thinks of, and arranges for, every detail of our life, To Him there are no little things. What we call great things are but the perfect union of the small ones, and every small one has the element which makes the greatness of great ones.

Notes: I posted this last year but G. C. M. has a wonderful way of putting it that I just had to re-post it. "To Him there are no little things" - if all things are possible for God and nothing is impossible for Him then there cannot be "big things" and "little things" from His POV. Given His power and authority all things must be "the littlest of little". There is no such thing as great or small in front of the infinite. In comparison they are all infinitesimally small (a.k.a. epsilon). Mathematically speaking, He can just as easily handle (n*epsilon, n>>1) as epsilon itself. From our POV, the perfect union of these small things end up becoming great things. If He is concerned about the littlest of things then surely we have no reason to worry at all.

From one of my favorite composers (J. S. Bach)

2011-09-26T17:52:00.000-06:00

Mozart symphony 40

2011-09-26T17:36:00.000-06:00

Roman Catholicism and their error of worshiping Mary

2011-09-26T17:30:00.001-06:00

Another reason why I would not consider RCs as fellow brothers/sisters in Christ. For one, they believe a totally different gospel which by itself excludes them from being part of the church of Christ (in spite of their insistence to the contrary).

http://carm.org/roman-catholicism

http://carm.org/gospel-roman-catholics

Schubert - "Ständchen"

2011-09-26T17:21:00.000-06:00

An interesting analysis on the financial problems in Europe

2011-09-23T13:41:00.002-06:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8784530/Europes-problem-is-that-no-one-knows-whos-in-charge.html

J.S. Bach - Suite No.2 in B minor, BWV 1067

2011-09-21T16:38:00.003-06:00

Badinerie mvt. 7/7

Rondeau mvt. 2/7

Morning meditation - Sep 19 2011

2011-09-19T10:13:00.000-06:00

The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

What a word is this! Jehovah God in the center of His people in all the majesty of His power! This presence alone suffices to inspire us with peace and hope. Treasures of boundless might are stored in our Jehovah, and He dwells in His church; therefore may His people shout for joy.

We not only have His presence, but He is engaged upon His choice work of salvation. "He will save." He is always saving: He takes His name of Jesus from it. Let us not fear any danger, for He is mighty to save.

Nor is this all. He abides evermore the same, He saves, He finds rest in loving, He will not cease to love. His love gives Him joy. He even finds a theme for song in His beloved. This is exceedingly wonderful. When God wrought creation He did not sing but simply said, "It is very good"; but when He came to redemption, then the sacred Trinity felt a joy to be expressed in song, Think of it, and be astonished! Jehovah Jesus sings a marriage song over His chosen bride. She is to Him His love, His joy, His rest, His song. O Lord Jesus, by Thine immeasurable love to us teach us to love Thee, to rejoice in Thee, and to sing unto Thee our life-psalm.

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"For this child I prayed."—1 Samuel 1:27.

DEVOUT souls delight to look upon those mercies which they have obtained in answer to supplication, for they can see God's especial love in them. When we can name our blessings Samuel, that is, "asked of God," they will be as dear to us as her child was to Hannah. Peninnah had many children, but they came as common blessings unsought in prayer: Hannah's one heaven-given child was dearer far, because he was the fruit of earnest pleadings. How sweet was that water to Samson which he found at "the well of him that prayed!" Quassia cups turn all waters bitter, but the cup of prayer puts a sweetness into the draughts it brings. Did we pray for the conversion of our children? How doubly sweet, when they are saved, to see in them our own petitions fulfilled! Better to rejoice over them as the fruit of our pleadings than as the fruit of our bodies. Have we sought of the Lord some choice spiritual gift? When it comes to us it will be wrapped up in the gold cloth of God's faithfulness and truth, and so be doubly precious. Have we petitioned for success in the Lord's work? How joyful is the prosperity which comes flying upon the wings of prayer! It is always best to get blessings into our house in the legitimate way, by the door of prayer; then they are blessings indeed, and not temptations. Even when prayer speeds not, the blessings grow all the richer for the delay; the child Jesus was all the more lovely in the eyes of Mary when she found Him after having sought Him sorrowing. That which we win by prayer we should dedicate to God, as Hannah dedicated Samuel. The gift came from heaven, let it go to heaven. Prayer brought it, gratitude sang over it, let devotion consecrate it. Here will be a special occasion for saying, "Of Thine own have I given unto Thee." Reader, is prayer your element or your weariness? Which?

F. Schubert: Trout quintet - 5. Allegro giusto

2011-09-17T12:28:00.000-06:00

Psalm 66-67

2011-09-17T11:18:00.002-06:00

Psalm 66

To the Chief Musician. A Song. A Psalm.

1 Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!

2 Sing out the honor of His name;

Make His praise glorious.

3 Say to God,

“How awesome are Your works!

Through the greatness of Your power

Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.

4 All the earth shall worship You

And sing praises to You;

They shall sing praises to Your name.” Selah

5 Come and see the works of God;

He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.

6 He turned the sea into dry land;

They went through the river on foot.

There we will rejoice in Him.

7 He rules by His power forever;

His eyes observe the nations;

Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

8 Oh, bless our God, you peoples!

And make the voice of His praise to be heard,

9 Who keeps our soul among the living,

And does not allow our feet to be moved.

10 For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined.

11 You brought us into the net;

You laid affliction on our backs.

12 You have caused men to ride over our heads;

We went through fire and through water;

But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

13 I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;

I will pay You my vows,

14 Which my lips have uttered

And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.

15 I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,

With the sweet aroma of rams;

I will offer bulls with goats. Selah

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,

And I will declare what He has done for my soul.

17 I cried to Him with my mouth,

And He was extolled with my tongue.

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,

The Lord will not hear.

19 But certainly God has heard me;

He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,

Who has not turned away my prayer,

Nor His mercy from me!

Note: Sorrow and affliction was turned to joy as a result of prayer. And this psalm seems to be an expression of thanksgiving and gratitude in return. Whatever the prayer was, it had been answered in a wonderful manner. And it brings to remembrance all the miraculous things God did for Israel. Sure is a wonderful thing to have your prayers answered especially if you have been waiting a long time. God took them through fire and water but the end thereof is rich fulfillment. Whenever God takes us through afflictions we can always be assured of a wonderful end. Always remember that the end thereof is a "rich fulfillment". If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!". Of course, all of this assumes that you have been born again (John 3), that you have placed your trust in Christ Jesus and on his finished work on the cross. Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

Psalm 67

To the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.

1 God be merciful to us and bless us,

And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah

2 That Your way may be known on earth,

Your salvation among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise You, O God;

Let all the peoples praise You.

4 Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy!

For You shall judge the people righteously,

And govern the nations on earth. Selah

5 Let the peoples praise You, O God;

Let all the peoples praise You.

6 Then the earth shall yield her increase;

God, our own God, shall bless us.

7 God shall bless us,

And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

Note: When God is angry with us He looks away. To "Cause his face to shine upon us" is akin to us being in the presence of the great King and He looks upon us with favor.

Now that Autumn is round the corner...

2011-09-17T10:20:00.004-06:00

Morning meditation - Sep 17 2011

2011-09-17T10:18:00.002-06:00

"Encourage him."—Deuteronomy 1:38.

GOD employs His people to encourage one another. He did not say to an angel, "Gabriel, my servant Joshua is about to lead my people into Canaan—go, encourage him." God never works needless miracles; if His purposes can be accomplished by ordinary means, He will not use miraculous agency. Gabriel would not have been half so well fitted for the work as Moses. A brother's sympathy is more precious than an angel's embassy. The angel, swift of wing, had better known the Master's bidding than the people's temper. An angel had never experienced the hardness of the road, nor seen the fiery serpents, nor had he led the stiff-necked multitude in the wilderness as Moses had done. We should be glad that God usually works for man by man. It forms a bond of brotherhood, and being mutually dependent on one another, we are fused more completely into one family. Brethren, take the text as God's message to you. Labour to help others, and especially strive to encourage them. Talk cheerily to the young and anxious enquirer, lovingly try to remove stumblingblocks out of his way. When you find a spark of grace in the heart, kneel down and blow it into a flame. Leave the young believer to discover the roughness of the road by degrees, but tell him of the strength which dwells in God, of the sureness of the promise, and of the charms of communion with Christ. Aim to comfort the sorrowful, and to animate the desponding. Speak a word in season to him that is weary, and encourage those who are fearful to go on their way with gladness. God encourages you by His promises; Christ encourages you as He points to the heaven He has won for you, and the spirit encourages you as He works in you to will and to do of His own will and pleasure. Imitate divine wisdom, and encourage others, according to the word of this evening.

Morning meditation - Sep 17 2011

2011-09-17T10:17:00.002-06:00

The joy of the Lord is your strength

And above all let us consider the Master for whom we work. Let us remember how He endured and how patient He was ... How humdrum His life was; most of His time was spent with ordinary petty people who misunderstood Him. But He went steadfastly on and did not complain. How did He do it? 'For the joy that was set before him he endured even the cross, despising the shame.' That is how He did it. It was the joy that was set before Him, He knew about the crowning day that was coming. He saw the harvest that He was going to reap, and, seeing that, He was able not to see these other things but to go through them gloriously and triumphantly. And you and I have the privilege of being like Him. 'If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross' — that is it — 'and follow me.' We may even have the honour of suffering for His Name. Paul says a most extraordinary thing in writing to the Colossians (chapter 1, verse 24). He says that he is privileged to make up in his own body what remains of the suffering of Christ. What if you and I as Christians are having the same privilege without knowing it? Well, remind yourself of your blessed Master and look to Him and ask Him to forgive you for ever having allowed yourself to be weary. Look at your life again in this way, and as certainly as you do so, you will find that you are filled with a new hope, a new strength, a new power. You will not need your artificial stimulants or anything else, for you will find that you are again thrilled with the privilege and joy of it all, and you will hate yourself for having grumbled and complained, and you will go forward still more gloriously, until eventually you will hear Him saying, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'

Spiritual Depression, pp. 201-2

Quotes from G. Campbell Morgan.

2011-09-16T09:30:00.000-06:00

Behold my servant. Isaiah 42:1

Gentle and strong, trusted of the weakest, feared of all tyrants, He moved without strife of words, or lifting up the voice in self-advertisement, through the Divinely marked programme of the waiting years, to the Cross of ultimate pain, which He made the centre and source of all healing for wounded and broken humanity.

God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Acts 2:36

It is a sad commentary upon the blindness of the human heart through sin, that the vast mass of people who came into contact with Jesus during the years of His sojourn upon the earth, saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. Through the process of centuries, and by the teaching of the Spirit, men are coming to understand the wonderful glory and beauty of His person and character, and are now recognizing that all perfection of life, individually, socially, religiously, finds in Him its first and chief expression.

Blessed Matthew 5:6

Men who hold views of what happiness consists in, viz., having and doing. To possess much, or to do some great thing, constitutes the sum of human blessedness according to popular theory. Our teacher sweeps these conceptions away by absolutely ignoring them... Being is everything. A man's hapiness depends upon what he is in himself.

Morning meditation - Sep 16 2011

2011-09-16T09:22:00.001-06:00

Thy faith hath made thee whole

Think of a man who is suffering from some painful disease. Generally the one desire of such a patient is to be relieved of his pain, and one can understand that very well. No one likes suffering pain. The one idea of this patient, therefore, is to do anything which will relieve him of it. Yes; but if the doctor who is attending this patient is also only concerned about relieving this man's pain he is a very bad doctor. His primary duty is to discover the cause of the pain and to treat that. Pain is a wonderful symptom which is provided by nature to call attention to disease, and the ultimate treatment for pain is to treat the disease, not the pain. So if a doctor merely treats the pain without discovering the cause of the pain, he is not only acting contrary to nature, he is doing something that is extremely dangerous to the life of the patient. The patient may be out of pain, and seems to be well; but the cause of the trouble is still there. Now that is the folly of which the world is guilty. It says, 'I want to get rid of my pain, so I will run to the pictures, or drink, or do anything to help me forget my pain'. But the question is, What is the cause of the pain and the unhappiness and the wretchedness? They are not happy who hunger after happiness and blessedness. No. 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.'

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, pp. 75-6

Pat Robertson has opened his mouth and...

2011-09-15T11:51:00.002-06:00

no need to guess, yet again it doesnt bode well for how the world views Christians. Not that we should care how the world views us but he does bring the Christian faith to disrepute by presenting his own distorted view of it.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20106723-10391704.html

My take on this -

Eph 5:

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,

27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—

30 for we are members of his body.

Christ loved the church even when she was stained with sin, wretched and vile, "with wounds and bruises and putrefying sores". And husbands are commanded to love their wives in the same way. Leaving your spouse when they need you the most is despicable. From my reading of the bible, 'A kind of death' is NOT death Mr. Robertson. It is always sad when the world knows better than those professing to be Christians.

As per the bible, Pat Robertson is a confirmed false prophet. He is NOT a man of God though he might appear all humble and holy. Wish people would just stop supporting him and his network. That way he can just go away and we might never hear from him ever again. Wishful thinking, I know.

a) Either he is truly hearing from God in which case all his prophecies must come true 100%. This we know isnt the case.

b) or he is a nutcase hearing voices in his head and claiming them to be from God. In which case he should be in an asylum not on a T.V. show

c) or he is just lying.

It should be either b) or c) in which case there is no need for people to support him and his network financially. These false prophets always like to be in the limelight. And they are there because people allow them to be there. And God is going to hold all those people responsible for supporting a false prophet and helping him spread lies in the name of God.

One can definitely foretell with 100% accuracy that Mr. Robertson is going to open his mouth and make a fool of himself yet again. And then once the world protests, He is going to justify it all by either recanting or putting a new twist to it. This "prophesy" of mine is surely much more accurate than all of his. Send me you $$ all you peoples. Visa, Mastercard and Amex only. No checks please. :-)

On a more serious note, ask yourselves why most false prophets of today come from the Charismatic church. A defective theology is at the root of it all. And that allows them to flourish without anyone ever questioning them.

For more research check these links out and decide for yourselves.
http://www.letusreason.org/Pentdir.htm
http://www.letusreason.org/Popteach.htm
http://www.letusreason.org/New.htm

http://www.letusreason.org/

Morning meditation - Sep 10 2011

2011-09-10T16:13:00.002-06:00

God's restoring grace

Just when we have reached our limit, when we are most hopeless and when we are about to give way to final despair ... suddenly God intervenes ... and brings us back. He restores us to the fellowship — fellowship with Himself most particularly, but also to the fellowship of His people, and gives us back the joy we had lost. He lifts us up out of 'the horrible pit, out of the miry clay' and sets our feet upon a rock and establishes our goings.

David, king of Israel, knew something about this ... (2 Samuel 12) ... God's restoring grace. He brings the soul back again, according to His own wondrous love and His amazing kindness ... Is there anything more consoling, more wonderful, than to know that we are in the hands of God? He controls everything. He is the Lord God Almighty, the Lord of the universe, who works everything according to the counsel of His own eternal will. He has set His love upon you; therefore nothing can harm you. 'The very hairs of your head are all numbered.' He will not let you go. You may fall deeply into sin, and go very far astray, but you will not be utterly cast down; He will hold you from that final fall. He will always bring you back. 'He restoreth my soul', says the Psalmist. And after He restores He will lead you into 'green pastures' and by 'the still waters'. And He will deal with you in such a marvellous way that you will find it difficult to believe that you have ever done what you have done. God's restoring grace!

Faith on Trial, p. 94

Morning meditation - Sep 9 2011

2011-09-09T12:16:00.000-06:00

Happy is the man that feareth alway. (Proverbs 28:14)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning and the foundation of all true religion. Without a solemn awe and reverence of God there is no foothold for the more brilliant virtues. He whose soul does not worship will never live in holiness.

He is happy who feels a jealous fear of doing wrong. Holy fear looks not only before it leaps, but even before it moves. It is afraid of error, afraid of neglecting duty, afraid of committing sin. It fears ill company, loose talk, and questionable policy, This does not make a man wretched, but it brings him happiness. The watchful sentinel is happier than the soldier who sleeps at his post. He who foreseeth evil and escapes it is happier than he who walks carelessly on and is destroyed.

Fear of God is a quiet grace which leads a man along a choice road, of which it is written, "No lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon." Fear of the very appearance of evil is a purifying principle, which enables a man, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to keep his garments unspotted from the world. Solomon had tried both worldliness and holy fear: in the one he found vanity, in the other happiness. Let us not repeat his trial but abide by his verdict.

Loving Christ…Practically

2011-09-08T15:17:00.000-06:00

1. If we love a person, we like to think about him.

We do not need to be reminded of him. We do not forget his name or his appearance or his character or his opinions or his tastes or his position or his occupation. He comes up before our mind’s eye many a time in the day. Though perhaps far distant, he is often present in our thoughts. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ! Christ “dwells in his heart,” and is thought of more or less every day (Eph. 3:17). The true Christian does not need to be reminded that he has a crucified Master. He often thinks of Him. He never forgets that He has a day, a cause and a people, and that of His people he is one. Affection is the real secret of a good memory in religion. No worldly man can think much about Christ, unless Christ is pressed upon his notice, because he has no affection for Him. The true Christian has thoughts about Christ every day that he lives, for this one simple reason that he loves Him.

2. If we love a person, we like to hear about him. We find a pleasure in listening to those who speak of him. We feel an interest in any report which others make of him. We are all attention when others talk about him, and describe his ways, his sayings, his doings and his plans. Some may hear him mentioned with utter indifference, but our own hearts bound within us at the very sound of his name. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ. The true Christian delights to hear something about his Master. He likes those sermons best which are full of Christ. He enjoys that society most in which people talk of the things which are Christ’s. I have read of an old Welsh believer, who used to walk several miles every Sunday to hear an English clergyman preach, though she did not understand a word of English. She was asked why she did so. She replied, that this clergyman named the name of Christ so often in his sermons, that it did her good. She loved even the name of her Savior.

3. If we love a person, we like to read about him. What intense pleasure a letter from an absent husband gives to a wife, or a letter from an absent son to his mother. Others may see little worth notice in the letter. They can scarcely take the trouble to read it through. But those who love the writer see something in the letter which no one else can. They carry it about with them as a treasure. They read it over and over again. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ! The true Christian delights to read the Scriptures, because they tell him about his beloved Savior. It is no wearisome task with him to read them. He rarely needs reminding to take his Bible with him when he goes a journey. He cannot be happy without it. And why is all this? It is because the Scriptures testify of Him whom his soul loves, even Christ.

4. If we love a person, we like to please him. We are glad to consult his tastes and opinions, to act upon his advice and do the things which he approves. We even deny ourselves to meet his wishes, abstain from things which we know he dislikes and learn things to which we are not naturally inclined, because we think it will give him pleasure. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!The true Christian studies to please Him, by being holy both in body and spirit.Show him anything in his daily practice that Christ hates, and he will give it up. Show him anything that Christ delights in, and he will follow after it. He does not murmur at Christ’s requirements as being too strict and severe, as the children of the world do. To him Christ’s commandments are not grievous, and Christ’s burden is light. And why is all this? Simply because he loves Him.

5. If we love a person, we like his friends. We are favorably inclined to them, even before we know them. We are drawn to them by the common tie of common love to one and the same person. When we meet them we do not feel that we are altogether strangers. There is a bond of union between us. They love the person that we love, and that alone is an introduction. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ! The true Christian regards all Christ’s friends as his friends, members of the same body, children of the same family, soldiers in the same army, travelers to the same home. When he meets them, he feels as if he had long known them. He is more at home with them in a few minutes, than he is with many worldly people after an acquaintance of several years. And what is the secret of all this? It is simply affection to the same Savior and love to the same Lord.

6. If we love a person, we are jealous about his name and honor. We do not like to hear him spoken against, without speaking up for him and defending him. We feel bound to maintain his interests and his reputation. We regard the person who treats him ill with almost as much disfavor as if he had ill–treated us. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ! The true Christian regards with a godly jealousy all efforts to disparage his Master’s word, or name, or church, or day. He will confess Him before princes, if need be, and be sensitive of the least dishonor put upon Him. He will not hold his peace, and suffer his Master’s cause to be put to shame, without testifying against it. And why is all this? Simply because he loves Him.

7. If we love a person, we like to talk to him. We tell him all our thoughts, and pour out all our heart to him. We find no difficulty in discovering subjects of conversation. However silent and reserved we may be to others, we find it easy to talk to a much–loved friend. However often we may meet, we are never at a loss for matter to talk about. We have always much to say, much to ask about, much to describe, much to communicate. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ! The true Christian finds no difficulty in speaking to his Savior. Every day he has something to tell Him, and he is not happy unless he tells it. He speaks to Him in prayer every morning and night. He tells Him his wants and desires, his feelings and his fears. He asks counsel of Him in difficulty. He asks comfort of Him in trouble. He cannot help it. He must converse with his Savior continually, or he would faint by the way. And why is this? Simply because he loves Him.

8. If we love a person, we like to be always with him. Thinking and hearing and reading and occasionally talking are all well in their way. But when we really love people we want something more. We long to be always in their company. We wish to be continually in their society, and to hold communion with them without interruption or farewell. Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ! The heart of a true Christian longs for that blessed day when he will see his Master face to face. He longs to have done with sinning and repenting and believing and to begin that endless life when he shall see as he has been seen, and sin no more. He has found it sweet to live by faith, and he feels it will be sweeter still to live by sight. He has found it pleasant to hear of Christ and talk of Christ and read of Christ. How much more pleasant will it be to see Christ with his own eyes, and never to leave him any more! “Better,” he feels, “is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire” (Eccl. 6:9). And why is all this? Simply because he loves Him.

~ J.C. Ryle

Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, “Do You Love Me?”,

Some topics in math

2011-09-07T13:33:00.000-06:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_algorithm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_common_divisor_of_two_polynomials
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturm%27s_theorem
http://bradley.bradley.edu/~delgado/404/Sturm.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_value_theorem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate_value_theorem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_transform
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieltjes_integral

The 4 seasons, Spring concerto in E major - Vivaldi

2011-09-06T15:51:00.000-06:00

Morning meditation - Sep 6 2011

2011-09-06T10:28:00.000-06:00

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)

Wait! Wait! Let your waiting be on the Lord! He is worth waiting for. He never disappoints the waiting soul.

While waiting keep up your spirits, Expect a great deliverance, and be ready to praise God for it.

The promise which should cheer you is in the middle of the verse—"He shall strengthen thine heart." This goes at once to the place where you need help. If the heart be sound, all the rest of the system will work well. The heart wants calming and cheering, and both of these will come if it be strengthened. A forceful heart rests and rejoices and throbs force into the whole man.

No one else can get at that secret urn of life, the heart, so as to pour strength into it. He alone who made it can make it strong. God is full of strength, and, therefore, He can impart it to those who need it. Oh, be brave; for the Lord will impart His strength to you, and you shall be calm in tempest and glad in sorrow.

He who penned these lines can write as David did—"Wait, I say, on the Lord." I do, indeed, say it. I know by long and deep experience that it is good for me to wait upon the Lord.

Morning meditation - Sep 5 2011

2011-09-05T11:08:00.002-06:00

In wonder lost, with trembling joy, We take the pardon of our God.

I have no doubt that up to a point [the Prodigal Son] thought he had been hardly dealt with. He left home for the far country. He was going to assert himself, but things went wrong ... Then he came to himself and he went home and said, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son'. That is just another way of saying the same thing [as Psalm 73:22]. Nothing to recommend us, no excuses; we have just been unutterably stupid, like beasts. We have failed to think and to reason; we have failed to apply these Scriptures. It is this horrible self that has been in control, and ... nothing and no one is right but ourselves. Let us face it; let us unmask it; let us analyse and face ourselves with it. Let us look at it honestly until we are heartily ashamed of ourselves. Then let us go to that gracious loving God and acknowledge that ... we have no claim upon Him at all, and no right to His forgiveness. Let us tell Him that we do not wish to be healed quickly, that we feel we do not deserve to be healed at all.

... the trouble with many of us is that we heal ourselves too quickly. We feel we have a right to be forgiven. But the teaching of the Scripture and the example of the lives of the saints is that, like the Prodigal Son, they deserved nothing but damnation, that they had been like beasts in their stupidity, and that they had no claim at all on God. Indeed, they were filled with amazement that God could forgive them. Let us examine ourselves in the light of that. Do we rush back to God feeling we have a right to forgiveness? Or do we feel we have no right to ask for forgiveness? This is how this man felt ... Paul, after years of preaching, looked back across the past and said he was the 'chief' of sinners. He was still amazed that God could ever have forgiven him ... he was still amazed at the wondrous cross and the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Faith on Trial, pp. 84-5

Mozart Violin Concerto No.3 in G Major K. 216 - 3rd Movement

2011-09-05T11:04:00.000-06:00

Morning meditation - Aug 30 2011

2011-08-30T10:23:00.002-06:00

Our Father ... (speak those words several times — slowly, reverently, with silences in between)

The presence of the Holy Spirit in us reminds us of our relationship to God. This is a wonderful thing [Romans 8:15] ... The presence of the Holy Spirit within us reminds us of our sonship, yes, our adult sonship. We are not infants ... We are sons in the fullest sense and in the possession of all our faculties. The clear realization of this gets rid of the spirit of bondage again to fear. It does not do away with 'reverence and godly fear', but it does away with the fear that the spirit of bondage brings ...

... it enables us to see that our object in living the Christian life is not simply to attain a certain standard, but is rather to please God because He is our Father — 'the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father'. The slave was not allowed to say 'Abba' and that slave spirit does not regard God as Father. He has not realized that He is Father, he regards Him still as a Judge who condemns. But that is wrong. As Christian people we must learn to appropriate by faith the fact that God is our Father. Christ taught us to pray 'Our Father'. This eternal everlasting God has become our Father and the moment we realize that, everything tends to change. He is our Father and He is always caring for us, He loves us with an everlasting love, He so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son into the world and to the Cross to die for our sins. That is our relationship to God and the moment we realize it, it transforms everything. Henceforth my desire is not to keep the law but to please my Father. We know something about that by nature. Filial love, filial reverence, filial fear is so different from that old servile fear ... Our Christian living is not a matter of rules and regulations any longer, but rather our desire to show Him our gratitude for all He has ever done for us.

Spiritual Depression, p. 172

Morning meditation - Aug 30 2011

2011-08-30T10:23:00.000-06:00

"Wait on the Lord."—Psalm 27:14.

IT may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God. But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, "Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until Thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon Thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in the full conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower."

A hymn from Issac Watts

2011-08-29T10:20:00.001-06:00

I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;

The moon shines full at God’s command, and all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord, who filled the earth with food,
Who formed the creatures through the Word, and then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where’er I turn my eye,

If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky.

There’s not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known,
And clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care;

And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God art present there.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/s/isingthe.htm

Morning meditation - Aug 29 2011

2011-08-29T10:13:00.002-06:00

"All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk."—Numbers 6:4.

NAZARITES had taken, among other vows, one which debarred them from the use of wine. In order that they might not violate the obligation, they were forbidden to drink the vinegar of wine or strong liquors, and to make the rule still more clear, they were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes, nor even to eat the fruit either fresh or dried. In order, altogether, to secure the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed anything that had to do with the vine; they were, in fact, to avoid the appearance of evil. Surely this is a lesson to the Lord's separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes, but even its spirit and similitude. Strict walking is much despised in these days, but rest assured, dear reader, it is both the safest and the happiest. He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah. A little crevice in the sea-bank in Holland lets in the sea, and the gap speedily swells till a province is drowned. Worldly conformity, in any degree, is a snare to the soul, and makes it more and more liable to presumptuous sins. Moreover, as the Nazarite who drank grape juice could not be quite sure whether it might not have endured a degree of fermentation, and consequently could not be clear in heart that his vow was intact, so the yielding, temporizing Christian cannot wear a conscience void of offence, but must feel that the inward monitor is in doubt of him. Things doubtful we need not doubt about; they are wrong to us. Things tempting we must not dally with, but flee from them with speed. Better be sneered at as a Puritan than be despised as a hypocrite. Careful walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures of its own which are more than a sufficient recompense.

Morning meditation - Aug 24 2011

2011-08-24T10:03:00.002-06:00

This one is straight from the bible, one of my favorite psalms, talks about the blessedness of being forgiven by God, part of todays bible reading schedule.

Psalm 32

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.

Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

1 Samuel 6:7: For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.

Always remember 'the Lord looks at the heart'. And He is always looking/watching, not once, not now and then but always. All the more reason to keep it clean and pure. Another thing we can glean from this verse is that, hypocrisy in the form of piety that doesn't proceed from the heart, but is just an external conformation to religious rules and traditions, would be easily detected by Him.

Morning meditation - Aug 23 2011

2011-08-23T10:02:00.002-06:00

Serious, simple of intent, teachably intelligent

[Meekness] must then go on and express itself in our whole demeanour and in our behaviour with respect to others ... A person who is of the type that I have been describing must of necessity be mild ... think again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mild, gentle, lowly — those are the terms. Quiet, of a quiet spirit ... 'meek and lowly' ... the most approachable Person this world has ever seen was the Lord Jesus Christ. But it also means that there will be a complete absence of the spirit of retaliation, having our own back or seeing that the other person pays for it. It also means, therefore, that we shall be patient and long-suffering, especially when we suffer unjustly [1 Peter 2:19-23] ... There is no credit, Peter argues in that chapter, if, when we are buffeted for our faults, we take it patiently; but if we do well and suffer for it and take it patiently, then that is the thing that is praiseworthy in the sight of God. That is meekness. But it also means that we are ready to listen and to learn; that we have such a poor idea of ourselves and our own capabilities that we are ready to listen to others. Above all we must be ready to be taught by the Spirit, and led by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Meekness always implies a teachable spirit. It is what we see again in the case of our Lord Himself. Though He was the Second Person in the blessed Holy Trinity, He became man, He deliberately humbled Himself to the extent that He was dependent entirely upon what God gave Him, what God taught Him and what God told Him to do. He humbled Himself to that, and that is what is meant by being meek. We must be ready to learn and listen and especially must we surrender ourselves to the Spirit.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, pp. 69-70

Morning meditation - Aug 23 2011

2011-08-23T10:01:00.000-06:00

"The voice of weeping shall be no more heard."—Isaiah 65:19.

THE glorified weep no more, for all outward a causes of grief are gone. There are no broken friendships, nor blighted prospects in heaven. Poverty, famine, peril, persecution, and slander, are unknown there. No pain distresses, no thought of death or bereavement saddens. They weep no more, for they are perfectly sanctified. No "evil heart of unbelief" prompts them to depart from the living God; they are without fault before His throne, and are fully conformed to His image. Well may they cease to mourn who have ceased to sin. They weep no more, because all fear of change is past. They know that they are eternally secure. Sin is shut out, and they are shut in. They dwell within a city which shall never be stormed; they bask in a sun which shall never set; they drink of a river which shall never dry; they pluck fruit from a tree which shall never wither. Countless cycles may revolve, but eternity shall not be exhausted, and while eternity endures, their immortality and blessedness shall co-exist with it. They are for ever with the Lord. They weep no more, because every desire is fulfilled. They cannot wish for anything which they have not in possession. Eye and ear, heart and hand, judgment, imagination, hope, desire, will, all the faculties, are completely satisfied; and imperfect as our present ideas are of the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, yet we know enough, by the revelation of the Spirit, that the saints above are supremely blessed. The joy of Christ, which is an infinite fulness of delight, is in them. They bathe themselves in the bottomless, shoreless sea of infinite beatitude. That same joyful rest remains for us. It may not be far distant. Ere long the weeping willow shall be exchanged for the palm-branch of victory, and sorrow's dewdrops will be transformed into the pearls of everlasting bliss. "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

Quotes from G. Campbell Morgan.

2011-08-22T10:19:00.000-06:00

If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. Proverbs 25:21

An enemy is to be treated in such a way as to prevent his loss or suffering. It is not merely that a man is not to do his enemy harm, but he is to prevent harm coming to him if it is possible for him to do so.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6

The story of Lot is one which is full of the most solemn warning. There is manifest in him the growth of the world spirit. First, he chooses selfishly; then he pitches his tent toward Sodom; then he enters in; and finally, he sits in the gate.

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

Men constantly affirm that they are strong enough to seek the things of the world and the things of the Kingdom at the same time, but it is never so. Directly the desire to possess lies at the root of life, a deterioration sets in which sooner or later will manifest itself openly.

God hath made me to laugh. Genesis 21:6
In all the merriment of unbelief there is an admixture of bitterness. There is some laughter that is more sorrowful than any tears. When God causes the heart to laugh, or causes laughter, it is always the expression of a full and generous satisfaction.

And Abraham stood up from before his dead. Genesis 23:3
The sorrows of life reveal a man's true character as perhaps nothing else can. Faith weeps beside the dead, and then moves out to the fulfilment of duty as it puts a check on sorrow. Faith takes hold on earth's greatest despair, death, and makes it the occasion of a possession which holds within itself all the future .

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:5
Nothing brings greater comfort to the human mind as it stands amid all the perplexing mysteries of evil and of good, of the power and limitation of the human will, than to fall back upon the certainty that what we know not, God knows.

Some math books I would recommend.

2011-08-19T10:47:00.002-06:00

Advanced calculus: A differential forms approach - Harold M Edwards.

Well written with solutions to all the exercises. Plenty of diagrams. Needs some physics background. Suitable for self study.

The Cauchy-Schwarz Master Class: An Introduction to the Art of Mathematical Inequalities - J. Michael Steele.

Very well written. Explains the intuition behind solving inequalities. Solutions to all problems at the back making it suitable for self study. Seems to cover almost the same topics as the other Inequalities book by Hardy, Littlewood and Polya. The latter might have some additional information not contained in the former.

Generating functionology - Herbert S. Wilf.

A book about generating functions and their applications. Well written. Easy to understand. And the price is right if you get it from here.

A Course of Modern Analysis - E. T. Whittaker.

A book on complex analysis (part I) and special functions(part II). Although there are a number of good books on complex analysis [alhfors, churchill, needham, titchmarsh] this book covers a LOT of material in detail, especially special functions. The exercises look tough too. Once i finish the basics of complex analysis from another book I am going to use this book for further study.

Morning meditation - Aug 18 2011

2011-08-18T10:43:00.000-06:00

Jesus ... Jesus ... Jesus

Over and above all other facts is the most glorious fact of all, the fact of Jesus Christ Himself. We are given the details of His earthly life in the Gospels so that we may have consolation in times of trouble. Above all remember that the Son of God Himself has been through this world. He knows all about the contradiction of sinners against Himself. Though He was the Son of God He knew what it was to be tired, to be weary, to be faint in His body, to sweat drops of blood in agony. He knew what it was to face the whole world and all the power of Satan and hell massed against Himself. 'We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin' (Hebrews 4:15). He knows all about our weakness and our frailty. The incarnation is not a mere idea but a fact: 'The Word was made flesh.' And in our agony and weakness we can always turn to Him with confidence knowing that He understands, He knows, and He can succour. The Son of God became man in order that He might be our perfect High Priest and be able to lead us to God.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesu's blood and righteousness ...
When darkness seems to veil His face
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil ...
On Christ the solid Rock I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

So, come what may, 'I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation'.

From Fear to Faith, pp. 77-8

Morning meditation - Aug 15 2011

2011-08-15T10:28:00.000-06:00

A Name Guarantee

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son, (John 14:13)

It is not every believer who has yet learned to pray in Christ's name. To ask not only for His sake, but in His name, as authorized by Him, is a high order of prayer. We would not dare to ask for some things in that blessed name, for it would be a wretched profanation of it; but when the petition is so clearly right that we dare set the name of Jesus to it, then it must be granted.

Prayer is all the more sure to succeed because it is for the Father's glory through the Son. It glorifies His truth, His faithfulness, His power, His grace, The granting of prayer, when offered in the name of Jesus, reveals the Father's love to Him, and the honor which He has put upon Him. The glory of Jesus and of the Father are so wrapped up together that the grace which magnifies the one magnifies the other. The channel is made famous through the fullness of the fountain, and the fountain is honored through the channel by which it flows. If the answering of our prayers would dishonor our Lord, we would not pray; but since in this thing He is glorified, we will pray without ceasing in that dear name in which God and His people have a fellowship of delight.

Morning meditation - Aug 12 2011

2011-08-12T10:43:00.000-06:00

Light in Darkness

For thou art my lamp, O Lord: and the Lord will lighten my darkness. (2 Samuel 22:29)

Am I in the light? Then Thou, O Lord, art my lamp. Take Thee away and my joy would be gone; but as long as Thou art with me, I can do without the torches of time and the candles of created comfort. What a light the presence of God casts on all things! We heard of a lighthouse which could be seen for twenty miles, but our Jehovah is not only a God at hand, but far off is He seen, even in the enemy's country. O Lord, I am as happy as an angel when Thy love fills my heart. Thou art all my desire.

Am I in the dark? Then thou, O Lord, wilt lighten my darkness. Before long things will change. Affairs may grow more and more dreary and cloud may be piled upon cloud; but if it grow so dark that I cannot see my own hand, still I shall see the hand of the Lord. When I cannot find a light within me, or among my friends, or in the whole world, the Lord, who said, "Let there be light," and there was light, can say the same again. He will speak me into the sunshine yet. I shall not die but live. The day is already breaking. This sweet text shines like a morning star. I shall clap my hands for joy ere many hours are passed.

Morning meditation - Aug 11 2011

2011-08-11T09:57:00.002-06:00

Waiting, Not Running

Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. (Psalm 62:1)

Blessed posture! Waiting truly and only upon the Lord. Be this our condition all this day and every day. Waiting His leisure, waiting in His service, waiting in joyful expectation, waiting in prayer, and content. When the very soul thus waits, it is in the best and truest condition of a creature before his Creator, a servant before his Master, a child before his Father. We allow no dictation to God, nor complaining of Him; we will permit no petulance and no distrust. At the same time, we practice no running before the cloud and no seeking to others for aid: neither of these would be waiting upon God. God, and God alone, is the expectation of our hearts.

Blessed assurance! From Him salvation is coming; it is on the road. It will come from Him and from no one else. He shall have all the glory of it, for He alone can and will perform it. And He will perform it most surely in His own time and manner. He will save from doubt, and suffering, and slander, and distress. Though we see no sign of it as yet, we are satisfied to bide the Lord's will, for we have no suspicion of His love and faithfulness. He will make sure work of it before long, and we will praise Him at once for the coming mercy.

Morning meditation - Aug 9 2011

2011-08-09T10:02:00.002-06:00

A true view of oneself

What, then, is meekness? I think we can sum it up in this way. Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others. It is therefore two things. It is my attitude towards myself; and it is an expression of that in my relationship to others. You see how inevitably it follows being 'poor in spirit' and 'mourning'. A man can never be meek unless he is poor in spirit. A man can never be meek unless he has seen himself as a vile sinner. These other things must come first. But when I have that true view of myself in terms of poverty of spirit, and mourning because of my sinfulness, I am led on to see that there must be an absence of pride. The meek man is not proud of himself, he does not in any sense glory in himself. He feels that there is nothing in himself of which he can boast. It also means that he does not assert himself. You see, it is a negation of the popular psychology of the day which says 'assert yourself', 'express your personality'. The man who is meek does not want to do so; he is so ashamed of it. The meek man likewise does not demand anything for himself. He does not take all his rights as claims. He does not make demands for his position, his privileges, his possessions, his status in life. No, he is like the man depicted by Paul in Philippians 2. 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.' Christ did not assert that right to equality with God; He deliberately did not. And that is the point to which you and I have to come.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, pp. 68-9

Some interesting proofs for the nth Catalan number Cn

2011-08-08T12:01:00.001-06:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_number

Joseph and his dreams...

2011-08-06T21:17:00.000-06:00

Interesting how Josephs life was determined by his dreams, dreams that God gave him and others. His brothers sold him off because of envy that stemmed partly from his dreams(?). And he finally got out of prison by the dreams that God gave pharaoh. I have always wondered why God gave Joseph his dreams. Why He let Joseph know beforehand what was to come. They must have offered him a ray of hope whenever he faced difficult situations.

Joseph presents us with a perfect example of how christians should behave when things dont go their way. The bible has nothing bad to say about him. Just like Daniel. Gotta love these men of faith.

So many things can be gleaned from his life the most important being that God always take care of those who put Him first. Also demonstrates that all things do work for good, according to the purpose of His will, for those who love God and that God-Almighty if He willed can overturn any difficult situation in a moment.

Why christians shouldnt date/marry non-christians.

2011-08-06T20:52:00.001-06:00

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/07/dating-when-words-and-choices-clash.html

Morning meditation - Aug 5 2011

2011-08-05T10:26:00.002-06:00

"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God."—Romans 8:28.

UPON some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world's tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, "It is I, be not afraid." He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, "If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it." "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that He governs wisely, that He brings good out of evil, the believer's heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, "Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from Thee; never came there an ill portion from Thy table to any of Thy children."

"Say not my soul, 'From whence can God relieve my care?
Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.
His method is sublime, His heart profoundly kind,
God never is before His time, and never is behind.'"

The Light of the world is Jesus!

2011-08-04T09:26:00.000-06:00

Words & Music: Philip P. Bliss, 1875 (MIDI, score).

Once Dr. [Earl S.] Taylor was in Calcutta during an eclipse of the sun. For days before that event he saw the city’s streets crowded with pilgrims on their way to various sacred places, where they hoped to worship and bathe in the Hooghly river just below the Ganges during the time of the eclipse, expecting thereby to ward off evil. When at last the fateful hour of darkness arrived hundreds of thousands of natives thronged the sacred waters, terrorized by the eclipse and making a great clamor because they feared a great power of evil in the form of a snake was about to swallow the sun-god. As Dr. Taylor, looking from the Y. M. C. Building, witnessed this terrible evidence of heathenish superstition, he heard group of native Christians singing in their meeting:
The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin;
The Light of the World is Jesus
How thrilling! For India’s spiritual darkness is due solely to the eclipse of Jesus, the Light of the world, made by heathenism in the hearts of her benighted millions.
Price, p. 20

The whole world was lost
In the darkness of sin,
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Like sunshine at noonday,
His glory shone in.
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Refrain

Come to the light, ’tis shining for thee;
Sweetly the light has dawned upon me.
Once I was blind, but now I can see:
The Light of the world is Jesus!

No darkness have we
Who in Jesus abide;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
We walk in the light
When we follow our Guide!
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Refrain

Ye dwellers in darkness
With sin blinded eyes,
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Go, wash, at His bidding,
And light will arise.
The Light of the world is Jesus!

Refrain

No need of the sunlight
In Heaven we’re told;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
The Lamb is the Light
In the city of gold,
The Light of the world is Jesus!

source: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/w/lworldij.htm

Morning meditation - Aug 4 2011

2011-08-04T09:17:00.002-06:00

He Blesses and Keeps

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. (Numbers 6:24)

This first clause of the high priest's benediction is substantially a promise. That blessing which our great High Priest pronounces upon us is sure to come, for He speaks the mind of God.

What a joy to abide under the divine blessing! This puts a gracious flavor into all things. If we are blessed, then all our possessions and enjoyments are blessed; yea, our losses and crosses and even our disappointments are blessed. God's blessing is deep, emphatic, effectual. A man's blessing may begin and end in words, but the blessing of the Lord makes rich and sanctifies. The best wish we can have for our dearest friend is not "may prosperity attend thee," but "the Lord bless thee."

It is equally a delightful thing to be kept of God; kept by Him, kept near Him, kept in Him. They are kept indeed whom God keeps; they are preserved from evil; they are reserved unto boundless happiness. God's keeping goes with His blessing, to establish it and cause it to endure.

The author of this little book desires that the rich blessing and sure keeping here pronounced may come upon every reader who may at this moment be looking at these lines. Please breathe the text to God as a prayer for His servants.

John MacArthur on Charismatic chaos

2011-07-30T16:14:00.004-06:00

From the Grace To You website:

"The charismatic movement, once considered a splinter group on the fringe of Christianity, has gained steam and entered the ‘90s at full speed. Dramatic new accounts of bizarre, supernatural events are attracting men and women hungry for religious experiences while causing others simply to ask, What is really happening here?, or more important, What should I believe?

This 13-message album thoughtfully and carefully shines the light of Scripture on teaching that is gaining a massive and loyal television following, leading to disunity on a world-wide scale, and promising to fuel controversy for years to come. Recorded by John MacArthur, these messages will help you gain an understanding of his bestseller Charismatic Chaos in a short amount of time."

Below are links to each message of the 13-part sermon series. Each message can be either read in article form, or downloaded as an audio file:

Does God Still Give Revelation?

Does God Still Give Prophecies?

Proper Biblical Interpretation

Does God Do Miracles Today?

The Third Wave

How Do Spiritual Gifts Operate?

What Was Happening in the Early Church?

Does God Still Heal?

Speaking in Tongues

What Is True Spirituality?

Does God Promise Health and Wealth? Part 1

Does God Promise Health and Wealth? Part 2

source: http://solasisters.blogspot.com/2011/07/charismatic-chaos.html

Quotes from G. Campbell Morgan

2011-07-30T09:30:00.000-06:00

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; .... he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Hebrews 5:8, 9

The finer graces of the Christian character are only revealed under bruising and pressure, as the fragrance of fine spices is only obtained through crushing. Christ preeminently became a sweet-smelling savour to God through the terrible experiences of the Cross.

Remembering those in chains...

2011-07-22T05:24:00.000-06:00

Dont forget to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted for their faith. Especially those who are living in countries that are hostile to the Christian gospel.

http://www.callformercy.com/

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 - Andante

2011-07-22T05:04:00.001-06:00

Morning meditation - Jul 21 2011

2011-07-21T02:59:00.000-06:00

Why go I mourning?"—Psalm 42:9.

CANST thou answer this, believer? Canst thou find any reason why thou art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told thee that the night would never end in day? Who told thee that the sea of circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing left but long leagues of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told thee that the winter of thy discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow, and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Knowest thou not that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Hope thou then! Hope thou ever! For God fails thee not. Dost thou not know that thy God loves thee in the midst of all this? Mountains, when in darkness hidden, are as real as in day, and God's love is as true to thee now as it was in thy brightest moments. No father chastens always: thy Lord hates the rod as much as thou dost; He only cares to use it for that reason which should make thee willing to receive it, namely, that it works thy lasting good. Thou shalt yet climb Jacob's ladder with the angels, and behold Him who sits at the top of it—thy covenant God. Thou shalt yet, amidst the splendours of eternity, forget the trials of time, or only remember them to bless the God who led thee through them, and wrought thy lasting good by them. Come, sing in the midst of tribulation. Rejoice even while passing through the furnace. Make the wilderness to blossom like the rose! Cause the desert to ring with thine exulting joys, for these light afflictions will soon be over, and then "for ever with the Lord," thy bliss shall never wane.

"Faint not nor fear, His arms are near,
He changeth not, and thou art dear;
Only believe and thou shalt see,
That Christ is all in all to thee."

Morning meditation - Jul 20 2011

2011-07-19T22:51:00.000-06:00

Fixed on this blissful centre

Every time we take a step in the direction of God [James 4:8] ... God will take a step in our direction ... If we approach Him truly, if we approach Him honestly, we can always be certain that God will meet us. He is the God of salvation. That is a very good reason for drawing near to Him. He has every blessing that we need. There is nothing we can ever stand in need of but God has it ... He is the Giver of 'every good gift and every perfect gift'. He has put them all in Christ, and He has given us Christ. 'All things are yours', says Paul to the Corinthians. Why? Because 'ye are Christ's'. It is an inevitable piece of logic ... It is only when I am near to God in Christ that I know my sins are forgiven. I feel His love, I know I am His child and I enjoy the priceless blessings of peace with God and peace within and peace with others. I am aware of His love and I am given a joy that the world can neither give nor take away.

Anyone who has ever tasted of these things must say that there is nothing comparable to being near to God. Look back across your life. Pick out the most glorious moments in your experience, the moments of supreme peace and joy. Have they not been the times when you have been nearest to God? There is nothing to equal the happiness and joy and peace which result from being near to God. There you are lifted up above your circumstances ... You are made independent of circumstances and accident and chance, independent of all things. It is good to be near to God because it is the place of salvation, because it is the place where you experience all the blessings. It means that you are immersed in the ocean of God's love and are staying there. Let us adopt this man's resolve to keep near to God.

Faith on Trial, pp. 122-3

Morning meditation - July 8 2011

2011-07-07T23:26:00.000-06:00

The spirit we receive of wisdom, grace and power; And always sorrowful we live, rejoicing evermore (Charles Wesley)

Let us, then, try to define this man who mourns. What sort of a man is he? He is a sorrowful man, but he is not morose. He is a sorrowful man, but he is not a miserable man. He is a serious man, but he is not a solemn man. He is a sober-minded man, but he is not a sullen man. He is a grave man, but he is never cold or prohibitive. There is with his gravity a warmth and attraction. This man, in other words, is always serious; but he does not have to affect the seriousness. The true Christian is never a man who has to put on an appearance of either sadness or joviality. No, no; he is a man who looks at life seriously; he contemplates it spiritually, and he sees in it sin and its effects. He is a serious, sober-minded man. His outlook is always serious, but because of these views which he has, and his understanding of truth, he also has 'a joy unspeakable and full of glory'. So he is like the Apostle Paul, 'groaning within himself', and yet happy because of his experience of Christ and the glory that is to come. The Christian is not superficial in any sense, but is fundamentally serious and fundamentally happy. You see, the joy of the Christian is a holy joy, the happiness of the Christian is a serious happiness ... it is a solemn joy, it is a holy joy ... That is the man who mourns; that is the Christian ... A deep doctrine of sin, a high doctrine of joy, and the two together produce this blessed, happy man who mourns, and who at the same time is comforted. The way to experience that, obviously, is to read the Scriptures, to study and meditate upon them, to pray to God for His Spirit to reveal sin in us to ourselves, and then to reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ in all His fullness. 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.'

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, p. 62

Morning meditation - July 7 2011

2011-07-06T23:59:00.000-06:00

The 'one faith': what is it?

... there is only one answer to the question. It is the great essential New Testament message concerning 'justifying faith'. That was the very nerve and centre of apostolic preaching ... , 'The just shall live by faith' (Romans 1:16). This was the kernel of apostolic preaching — that it is by faith a man is justified, not by the deeds of the law, or any righteousness of his own.

We have a classic statement of it in Romans 3 ... 'Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood ... that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus ...' (vv. 24-26).

That is the great central message of the gospel. It is through this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work that we are justified. That is the meaning of this 'one faith'. It is, of course, the whole argument of the Epistle to the Galatians. 'This is the gospel, and there is no other gospel', says the apostle. And the gospel is that 'God justifieth the ungodly who believe in Jesus'. This 'one faith' is something that is set over against every other teaching with regard to the way of salvation. It is this 'one faith' over against ... all notions that we can justify ourselves by works or actions, our own, or those of others. It is the teaching that it is Christ alone who saves, and that we become participants in this salvation through faith. So we have 'one Lord, one faith'.

The Basis of Christian Unity, pp. 30-1

Morning meditation - Jun 29 2011

2011-06-29T06:24:00.000-06:00

Invitation to Pray

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. (Jeremiah 33:3)

God encourages us to pray. They tell us that prayer is a pious exercise which has no influence except upon the mind engaged in it. We know better. Our experience gives the lie a thousand times over to this infidel assertion. Here Jehovah, the living God, distinctly promises to answer the prayer of His servant. Let us call upon Him again and admit no doubt upon the question of His hearing us and answering us. He that made the ear, shall He not hear? He that gave parents a love to their children, will He not listen to the cries of His own sons and daughters!

God will answer His pleading people in their anguish. He has wonders in store for them. What they have never seen, heard of, or dreamed of, He will do for them. He will invent new blessings if needful. He will ransack sea and land to feed them: He will send every angel out of heaven to succor them if their distress requires it. He will astound us with His grace and make us feel that it was never before done in this fashion. All He asks of us is that we will call upon Him. He cannot ask less of us. Let us cheerfully render Him our prayers at once.

Morning meditation - Jun 27 2011

2011-06-26T21:47:00.000-06:00

God knows: God undertakes

We cannot do better than remind ourselves again of ... the faith of God's people throughout the centuries. That is the faith and teaching to be found, for example, in the hymns of Philip Doddridge. A typical example is found in his great hymn:

O God of Bethel, by whose hand
Thy people still are fed;
Who through this weary pilgrimage
Hast all our fathers led.

That is his great argument, based ultimately upon the sovereignty of God, that God is the Ruler of the Universe, and we are known to Him one by one, and are in a personal relationship to Him. It was the faith of all the great heroes of the faith described in Hebrews 11. That is what kept those men going. Quite frequently they did not understand but they said, 'God knows and God undertakes'. They had this final confidence that He who had brought them into being, and who had a purpose for them, would not leave them nor forsake them. He would surely sustain and lead them all the journey through, until their purpose in this world has been completed, and He would receive them into their heavenly habitation where they would spend their eternity in His glorious presence. 'Be not anxious about your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor about your body, wherewithal it shall be clothed. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?' Argue it out, start with first principles and draw the inevitable deduction. The moment you do so, care and worry and anxiety will vanish, and as a child of your heavenly Father you will walk with peace and serenity in the direction of your everlasting home.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, p. 116, Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Morning meditation - Jun 27 2011

2011-06-26T21:44:00.000-06:00

"Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."—2 Peter 1:4.

VANISH for ever all thought of indulging the flesh if you would live in the power of your risen Lord. It were ill that a man who is alive in Christ should dwell in the corruption of sin. "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" said the angel to Magdalene. Should the living dwell in the sepulchre? Should divine life be immured in the charnel house of fleshly lust? How can we partake of the cup of the Lord and yet drink the cup of Belial? Surely, believer, from open lusts and sins you are delivered: have you also escaped from the more secret and delusive lime-twigs of the Satanic fowler? Have you come forth from the lust of pride? Have you escaped from slothfulness? Have you clean escaped from carnal security? Are you seeking day by day to live above worldliness, the pride of life, and the ensnaring vice of avarice? Remember, it is for this that you have been enriched with the treasures of God. If you be indeed the chosen of God, and beloved by Him, do not suffer all the lavish treasure of grace to be wasted upon you. Follow after holiness; it is the Christian's crown and glory. An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an abomination, hell's laughter, heaven's abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. O Christian, the vows of God are upon you. You are God's priest: act as such. You are God's king: reign over your lusts. You are God's chosen: do not associate with Belial. Heaven is your portion: live like a heavenly spirit, so shall you prove that you have true faith in Jesus, for there cannot be faith in the heart unless there be holiness in the life.

"Lord, I desire to live as one
Who bears a blood-bought name,
As one who fears but grieving Thee,
And knows no other shame."

Miss playing the piano very much...

2011-06-24T06:53:00.000-06:00

Psalm 106:15 - And he gave them their request, But sent leaness into their soul

2011-06-15T08:29:00.000-06:00

Interesting verse. That God would give them their request even though there would no blessings in return. Guess this is what happens when you dont trust God to take care of us. We in our own wisdom keep insisting and testing God and finally He relents and gives us what we wanted. And then we find out that there is no blessing nor joy because of it. We should all be thankful for the many requests that God in his wisdom denied us. In time we will find out that our well being, our happiness, our joy is what He has in mind and that all things will happen for good according to the purpose of His will. If that be the case there is no reason to worry at all. If He doesnt give us what we want, time will only show that He had a better plan for us, a much better plan than we could ever think of, one that would glorify Him and in turn bring us much joy. So when we ask let us ask our hearts desires but only as long as it is in accordance to his will. And if it isnt His will better to let go and wait on Him to give us something much better. God is good not only when He blesses us with things but also when He denies us the many things which we in our sinful flesh desire.

Morning meditation - June 8 2011

2011-06-08T02:30:00.000-06:00

"Thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass unto thee or not."—Numbers 11:23.

GOD had made a positive promise to Moses that for the space of a whole month He would feed the vast host in the wilderness with flesh. Moses, being overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks to the outward means, and is at a loss to know how the promise can be fulfilled. He looked to the creature instead of the Creator. But doth the Creator expect the creature to fulfil His promise for Him? No; He who makes the promise ever fulfils it by His own unaided omnipotence. If He speaks, it is done—done by Himself. His promises do not depend for their fulfillment upon the co-operation of the puny strength of man. We can at once perceive the mistake which Moses made. And yet how commonly we do the same! God has promised to supply our needs, and we look to the creature to do what God has promised to do; and then, because we perceive the creature to be weak and feeble, we indulge in unbelief. Why look we to that quarter at all? Will you look to the north pole to gather fruits ripened in the sun? Verily, you would act no more foolishly if ye did this than when you look to the weak for strength, and to the creature to do the Creator's work. Let us, then, put the question on the right footing. The ground of faith is not the sufficiency of the visible means for the performance of the promise, but the all-sufficiency of the invisible God, who will most surely do as He hath said. If after clearly seeing that the onus lies with the Lord and not with the creature, we dare to indulge in mistrust, the question of God comes home mightily to us: "Has the Lord's hand waxed short?" May it happen, too, in His mercy, that with the question there may flash upon our souls that blessed declaration, "Thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass unto thee or not."

Morning meditation - May 20 2011

2011-05-19T20:29:00.000-06:00

"And he requested for himself that he might die."—1 Kings 19:4.

IT was a remarkable thing that the man who was never to die, for whom God had ordained an infinitely better lot, the man who should be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire, and be translated, that he should not see death—should thus pray, "Let me die, I am no better than my fathers." We have here a memorable proof that God does not always answer prayer in kind, though He always does in effect. He gave Elias something better than that which he asked for, and thus really heard and answered him. Strange was it that the lion-hearted Elijah should be so depressed by Jezebel's threat as to ask to die, and blessedly kind was it on the part of our heavenly Father that He did not take His desponding servant at his word. There is a limit to the doctrine of the prayer of faith. We are not to expect that God will give us everything we choose to ask for. We know that we sometimes ask, and do not receive, because we ask amiss. If we ask for that which is not promised—if we run counter to the spirit which the Lord would have us cultivate—if we ask contrary to His will, or to the decrees of His providence—if we ask merely for the gratification of our own ease, and without an eye to His glory, we must not expect that we shall receive. Yet, when we ask in faith, nothing doubting, if we receive not the precise thing asked for, we shall receive an equivalent, and more than an equivalent, for it. As one remarks, "If the Lord does not pay in silver, He will in gold; and if He does not pay in gold, He will in diamonds." If He does not give you precisely what you ask for, He will give you that which is tantamount to it, and that which you will greatly rejoice to receive in lieu thereof. Be then, dear reader, much in prayer, and make this evening a season of earnest intercession, but take heed what you ask.

Morning meditation - May 17 2011

2011-05-16T20:28:00.000-06:00

I thank God ... through Jesus Christ our Lord

Why is it that man ever chooses to sin? The answer is that man has fallen away from God ... and his whole nature has become perverted and sinful. Man's whole bias is away from God ... He objects to the whole idea of God and the demands which God makes upon him ... Furthermore, man likes and covets the things which God prohibits, and dislikes the things and the kind of life to which God calls him. These are no mere dogmatic statements. They are facts ... But all who are not Christian face the facts in such a superficial manner that their proposals with respect to them must of necessity fail ... [They ignore] the central problem, which is: Why should man ever desire the wrong? ... Man's very nature is fallen. Man is wrong at the centre of his being, and therefore everything is wrong ... What can be done for him? ... Can man change the whole bias of his life? Give him new clothing, provide him with a new house in new surroundings, entertain him with all that is best and most elevating, educate him and train his mind, enrich his soul with frequent doses of the finest culture ever known, do all and more, but still he will remain the same essential man ... Man needs a new nature. Whence can he obtain it? There is but one answer, in Jesus Christ the Son of God. He came from Heaven and took upon Him human nature perfect and whole. He is God and man. In Him alone are the divine and the human united. And He offers to give us His own nature ... All who believe on Him, and receive Him, obtain this new nature ... Those who hated God now love Him and desire to know more and more about Him. Their supreme desire now is to please Him and to honour and to glorify Him ... And this in turn brings them into an entirely new relationship with their fellow men. Loving the Lord their God first, they find themselves loving their neighbours as themselves ... A new society is only possible when we have new men; and Christ alone can produce new men.

The Plight of Man and the Power of God, pp. 87-9, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Morning meditation - May 7 2011

2011-05-07T10:03:00.000-06:00

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (Proverbs 14:12)

The importance of 'the end' is something which is constantly emphasized in the Bible. Our Lord has put it once and for ever in the Sermon on the Mount. 'Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' ... Look at the broad way, how marvellous it seems. You can go in with the crowd, you can do what everybody else is doing, and they are all smiling and joking. Wide and broad are the gate and the way. It all seems so marvellous. And this other seems so miserable — 'strait is the gate'. One at a time, a personal decision, fighting self, taking up the cross ... And it is because they look only at the beginning that so many people are on the broad way ... They do not look at the end ...

The end of the one is destruction, of the other, life. The trouble in life today is that people look only at the beginning. Their view of life is what we may call the cinema or film-star view of life. It always attracts, and all those who live that life are apparently having a marvellous time. Alas that so many young people are brought up to think that that is life, and that always to live like that must be supreme happiness ... people are attracted by the appearance. They look only at the surface; they look only at the beginning. They do not look at this type of life in its end; they give no thought whatsoever to the ultimate outcome. Nevertheless, it is as true today as it has ever been, and the Bible has always said it, that the end of these things is 'destruction'.

Faith on Trial, pp. 50-1, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Quotes from J.C. Ryle

2011-05-06T10:44:00.000-06:00

When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.

The heart that has really tasted the grace of Christ, will instinctively hate sin.

Morning meditation - May 6 2011

2011-05-06T10:35:00.000-06:00

I hunger and I thirst; Jesus, my manna be; Ye living waters, burst; Out of the rock for me

What does it mean ['to hunger and thirst']? ... It means a consciousness of our need, of our deep need ... a consciousness of our desperate need; it means a deep consciousness of our great need even to the point of pain. It means something that keeps on until it is satisfied. It does not mean just a passing feeling, a passing desire. You remember how Hosea says to the nation of Israel that she is always, as it were, coming forward to the penitent form and then going back to sin. Her righteousness, he says, is as 'a morning cloud' — it is here one minute and gone the next ... 'Hunger' and 'thirst', these are not passing feelings. Hunger is something deep and profound that goes on until it is satisfied. It hurts, it is painful, it is like actual, physical hunger and thirst. It is something that goes on increasing and makes one feel desperate. It is something that causes suffering and agony ...

To hunger and thirst is to be like a man who wants a position. He is restless, he cannot keep still; he is working and plodding; he thinks about it, and dreams about it; his ambition is the controlling passion of his life ... 'Hungering and thirsting.' ... 'The Psalmist has summed it up perfectly in a classical phrase: 'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God ...' Let me quote some words of the great J. N. Darby which I think put this exceedingly well. He says, 'To be hungry is not enough; I must be really starving to know what is in His heart towards me.' Then comes the perfect statement of the whole thing. He says, 'When the prodigal son was hungry he went to feed upon husks, but when he was starving, he turned to his father.' Now that is the whole position. To hunger and thirst really means to be desperate, to be starving, to feel life is ebbing out, to realize my urgent need of help.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, 80-1, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Quotes from J.C. Ryle

2011-05-05T16:00:00.000-06:00

The fear of punishment, the desire of reward, the sense of duty, are all useful arguments, in their way, to persuade people to holiness. But they are all weak and powerless, until a person loves Christ.

E.T. go home...

2011-05-05T11:59:00.000-06:00

or is it E.T. phone home?

Morning meditation - May 5 2011

2011-05-05T11:57:00.000-06:00

"I will be their God, and they shall be my people."—2 Corinthians 6:16.

WHAT a sweet title: "My people!" What a cheering revelation: "Their God!" How much of meaning is couched in those two words, "My people!" Here is speciality. The whole world is God's; the heaven, even the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, and He reigneth among the children of men; but of those whom He hath chosen, whom He hath purchased to Himself, He saith what He saith not of others—"My people" In this word there is the idea of proprietorship. In a special manner the "Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance." All the nations upon earth are His; the whole world is in His power; yet are His people, His chosen, more especially His possession; for He has done more for them than others; He has bought them with His blood; He has brought them nigh to Himself; He has set His great heart upon them; He has loved them with an everlasting love, a love which many waters cannot quench, and which the revolutions of time shall never suffice in the least degree to diminish. Dear friends, can you, by faith, see yourselves in that number? Can you look up to heaven and say, "My Lord and my God: mine by that sweet relationship which entitles me to call Thee Father; mine by that hallowed fellowship which I delight to hold with Thee when Thou art pleased to manifest Thyself unto me as Thou dost not unto the world?" Canst thou read the Book of Inspiration, and find there the indentures of thy salvation? Canst thou read thy title writ in precious blood? Canst thou, by humble faith, lay hold of Jesus' garments, and say, "My Christ"? If thou canst, then God saith of thee, and of others like thee, "My people;" for, if God be your God, and Christ your Christ, the Lord has a special, peculiar favour to you; you are the object of His choice, accepted in His beloved Son.

Quotes from G. Campbell Morgan.

2011-05-04T19:35:00.000-06:00

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Psalm 51:2

Abandonment to God is not merely the act of enlisting as soldiers to fight battles- that is a secondary matter. It is first abandonment of self to the Spirit of God, that He may purify and cleanse from everything that is unlike His own perfection of beauty.

How can these things be. John 3:9

The first steps may be taken in the dark without seeing a reason, but take them, and you begin to see the wisdom, and tenderness, and compassion, and love of God.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.Matthew 6:33

Obedience is the first thing. In the beginning, seek first the kingdom, and when the soul seeks the kingdom by obeying the King, the soul discovers the Father, and discovering the Father obeys more readily, and obeying more readily, has a larger revelation which makes obedience easy and the horizon greater.

Mothers day - the mother of all (holidays)? - 2011

2011-05-04T10:39:00.000-06:00

My mom taught me a lot of things, most of which I dont remember, but the two things she instilled into me are

a) that someday when I stand before God I will have to give an account of everything I did.

b) that it doesnt matter how hard you try, if God doesnt bless your efforts, you are going to fail. She actually learnt this from her dad. This makes you rely on Him for everything and ask Him for his blessing before you do anything. Should also keep you humble in that if you succeed you know it is of God. Wonderful advice from a wonderful mom.

This is just sad...

2011-05-04T10:21:00.001-06:00

Despite rapid growth, India lets its girls die.
All those moms aborting/starving their daughters should realize that they would not be alive today if their mom treated them the same way.

Quotes from J.C. Ryle

2011-05-03T09:27:00.000-06:00

It will not save us to talk, speculate and exchange opinions about the Gospel. The Christianity that saves is a thing personally grasped, personally experienced, personally felt, and personally possessed.

Morning meditation - May 1 2011

2011-05-01T19:52:00.000-06:00

The Christian and the world

[In verse 19 (of Matthew 6)] our Lord introduces ... this great question of the Christian living his life in this world in relationship to God as his Father, involved in its affairs and feeling its cares, its strains and its stresses. It is, in fact, the whole problem of what is so often called in the Bible, 'the world' ... Now what do the Scriptures mean by the expression 'the world'? It does not mean the physical universe, or merely a collection of people; it means an outlook and a mentality, it means a way of looking at things, a way of looking at the whole of life. One of the most subtle problems with which the Christian ever has to deal is this problem of his relationship to the world. Our Lord frequently emphasizes that it is not an easy thing to be a Christian. He Himself when He was here in this world was tempted of the devil. He was also confronted by the power and subtlety of the world. The Christian is in precisely the same position. There are attacks which come upon him when he is alone, in private. There are others which come when he goes out into the world. You notice our Lord's order. [Matthew 6:17] How significant it is. You prepare yourself in the secrecy of your own chamber. You pray and do various other things — fasting and almsgiving and doing your good deeds unobserved. But you also have to live your life in the world. That world will do its best to get you down, it will do its utmost to ruin your spiritual life. So you have to be very wary. It is a fight of faith, and you need the whole armour of God, because if you have not got it, you will be defeated. 'We wrestle not against flesh and blood.' It is a stern battle, it is a mighty conflict.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 78-9, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Quotes from J. C. Ryle

2011-05-01T15:17:00.000-06:00

Of all garments, none is so graceful, none wears so well, and none is so rare, as humility.

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

Let it be a settled principle in our minds that the first and chief business of the Church of Christ is to preach the Gospel.

Morning meditation - Apr 26 2011

2011-04-26T03:45:00.001-06:00

The Christian and the non-Christian

The Christian and the non-Christian are absolutely different in what they admire. The Christian admires the man who is 'poor in spirit', while the Greek philosophers despised such a man, and all who follow Greek philosophy, whether intellectually or practically, still do exactly the same thing ... The world believes in self-confidence, self-expression and the mastery of life; the Christian believes in being 'poor in spirit'. Take the newspapers and see the kind of person the world admires. You will never find anything that is further removed from the Beatitudes than that which appeals to the natural man and the man of the world. What calls forth his admiration is the very antithesis of what you find here ...

Then, obviously, they must be different in what they seek. 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst ...' After what? Wealth, money, status, position, publicity? Not at all. 'Righteousness.' ... Take any man who does not claim to be a Christian ... Find out what he is seeking and what he really wants, and you will see it is always different from this.

Then, of course, they are absolutely different in what they do. That follows of necessity ... The non-Christian is absolutely consistent. He says he lives for this world. 'This', he says, 'is the only world, and I am going to get all I can out of it.' Now the Christian ... regards this world as but the way of entry into something vast and eternal and glorious. His whole outlook and ambition is different. He feels, therefore, that he must be living in a different way. As the man of the world is consistent, so the Christian also ought to be consistent. If he is, he will be very different from the other man; he cannot help it. [See 1 Peter 2:11, 12] ... Another essential difference ... is in their belief as to what they can do. The man of the world is very confident as to his own capacity ... The Christian is a man ... who is truly aware of his own limitations.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, pp. 37-8, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Morning meditation - Apr 23 2011

2011-04-23T17:39:00.001-06:00

The spirit of forgiveness

... the proof that you and I are forgiven is that we forgive others. If we think that our sins are forgiven by God and we refuse to forgive somebody else, we are making a mistake; we have never been forgiven. The man who knows he has been forgiven, only in and through the shed blood of Christ, is a man who must forgive others. He cannot help himself. If we really know Christ as our Saviour our hearts are broken and cannot he hard, and we cannot refuse forgiveness. If you are refusing forgiveness to anybody I suggest that you have never been forgiven ... whenever I see myself before God and realize even something of what my blessed Lord has done for me, I am ready to forgive anybody anything. I cannot withhold it, I do not even want to withhold it ... Pray to God and say, 'Forgive me O God as I forgive others because of what Thou hast done for me. All I ask is that Thou shouldst forgive me in the same manner; not to the same degree, because all I do is imperfect. In the same way, as it were, as Thou hast forgiven me, I am forgiving others. Forgive me as I forgive them because of what the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ has done in my heart.'

This petition is full of the atonement, it is full of the grace of God. We see how important it is by the fact that our Lord actually repeats it ... (in [Matthew 6] verses 14 and 15) '... if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses'. The thing is absolute and inevitable. True forgiveness breaks a man, and he must forgive. So that when we offer this prayer for forgiveness we test ourselves in that way. Our prayer is not genuine, it is not true, it is of no avail, unless we find there is forgiveness in our heart. God give us grace to be honest with ourselves.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 75-6, Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Note: When someone sins against you, that sin is nothing compared to your sins against God. If God forgives the greater sin, we should, by his grace, forgive the lesser one. Right?

2 Corinthians 5:21 - my favorite verse of the bible

2011-04-22T22:19:00.001-06:00

Because it is the gospel in a single verse. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement (Isaiah 53) is the gospel of Christ. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

For He(God) hath made Him(Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him(Christ).

Some hymns on the cross of Christ

2011-04-22T15:15:00.000-06:00

At the Cross

Alas! and did my Savior bleed

And did my Sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred head

For such a worm as I?

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—

And bathed in its own blood—

While the firm mark of wrath divine,

His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done

He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity! grace unknown!

And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide

And shut his glories in,

When Christ, the mighty Maker died,

For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face

While His dear cross appears,

Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,

And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay

The debt of love I owe:

Here, Lord, I give my self away

’Tis all that I can do.

Refrain

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight,

And now I am happy all the day!

-Isaac Watts

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Old Rugged Cross

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

the emblem of suffering and shame;

and I love that old cross where the dearest and best

for a world of lost sinners was slain.

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,

has a wondrous attraction for me;

for the dear Lamb of God left his glory above

to bear it to dark Calvary.

In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,

a wondrous beauty I see,

for 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,

to pardon and sanctify me.

To that old rugged cross I will ever be true,

its shame and reproach gladly bear;

then he'll call me some day to my home far away,

where his glory forever I'll share.

Refrain

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,

till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

and exchange it some day for a crown.

-George Bennard

The truth about 'Speaking in Tongues' - John MacArthur

2011-04-22T15:01:00.000-06:00

John MacArthur does a wonderful job, as always, of explaining why 'speaking in tongues' in Scripture refers to 'speaking in different languages'. The charismatics & pentecostals might find this hard to swallow. But if you want to know the truth about speaking in 'tongues' read the following links and decide for yourselves.

http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1871_The-Truth-About-Tongues-Part-1
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1872_The-Truth-About-Tongues-Part-2
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1873_The-Truth-About-Tongues-Part-3
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1874_The-Truth-About-Tongues-Part-4

Isaiah 53

2011-04-22T09:53:00.001-06:00

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Morning meditation Apr 22 2011

2011-04-22T09:50:00.000-06:00

The God of little things as well as great

Is not this one of the most wonderful things in the whole of Scripture, that the God who is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the God who is forming His eternal kingdom and who will usher it in at the end, the God to whom the nations are but as 'the small dust of the balance' — that such a God should be prepared to consider your little needs and mine even down to the minutest details in this matter of daily bread? But that is the teaching of our Lord everywhere. He tells us that even a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our Father, and that we are of much greater value than many sparrows ... If only we could grasp this fact, that the almighty Lord of the universe is interested in every part and portion of us! ... the smallest and most trivial details in my little life are known to Him on His everlasting throne ... But that is the way of God, 'the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy'; who nevertheless, as Isaiah tells us, dwells with him also 'that is of a contrite and humble spirit'. That is the whole miracle of redemption; that is the whole meaning of the incarnation which tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ takes hold of us here on earth and links us with the almighty God of glory. The kingdom of God, and my daily bread!

It must be emphasized, of course, that all we pray for must be absolute necessities. We are not told to pray for luxuries or super-abundance, nor are we promised such things. But we are promised that we shall have enough ... The promises of God never fail. But they refer to necessities only, and our idea of necessity is not always God's. But we are told to pray for necessities.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 70-1, Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Quotes from J.C. Ryle

2011-04-22T09:48:00.000-06:00

Just as the telescope and microscope show us that there is order and design in all the works of God’s hand, from the greatest planet down to the least insect, so does the Bible teach us that there is wisdom, order and design in all the events of our daily life.

Let the cross of Christ be often before our minds. Rightly understood, no object in all Christianity is so likely to have a sanctifying as well as a comforting effect on our souls.

Quotes from G. Campbell Morgan.

2011-04-20T10:07:00.000-06:00

The fellowship of his sufferings. Philippians 3:10

There was a moment when Paul became absolutely independent, and he wrote these words declaring his independence, "Hereafter let no man trouble me." "What makes you independent, Paul?" "I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus." And you and I will only begin to know what it is to serve God when we have touched the point of sacrifice.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5
Christ came to create, not a creed, not a formula of doctrine, not a profession in orthodoxy which may become the most veritable heterodoxy, but- character.

Quotes from J.C. Ryle

2011-04-20T10:06:00.000-06:00

It will not save us to have lived in the full sunshine of Christian privileges, and to have heard the Gospel faithfully preached every week. There must be experimental acquaintance with Christ. There must be personal reception of His truth. There must be vital union with Him.

Quotes from Martyn Lloyd-Jones

2011-04-20T10:05:00.002-06:00

“The offence of the cross is this – that I am so condemned and so lost and so hopeless that if He, Jesus Christ, had not died for me, I would never know God, and I could never be forgiven. And that hurts; that annoys; that tells me I am hopeless, that I am vile, that I am useless; and as a natural man I do not like it.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (The Gospel of God)

When I survey the wondrous cross - Issac Watts

2011-04-19T10:44:00.000-06:00

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ my God!

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,

Spreads o’er His body on the tree;

Then I am dead to all the globe,

And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

To Christ, who won for sinners grace

By bitter grief and anguish sore,

Be praise from all the ransomed race

Forever and forevermore.