Sunday, October 31, 2010

Pleasure or Peace?

I was reading Matthew Henry's commentary and he said something that caught my attention.
The quote is this: "Are not the best of us unwilling to come under God's yoke, though there is no other way to find rest for the soul? Do we not for a little pleasure often part with our peace?

I want to focus on that second phrase, do we not for a little pleasure often part with our peace.

How about when we have a chance to witness to somebody, but we choose not to? We lose our peace.
How about when somebody tells a dirty joke and we laugh at it? We lose our peace.
How about when we worry about something? We lose our peace.
How about when we indulge in some sin that brings a temporary pleasure? We lose our peace.
How about when we waste time with the vanities of this world? We lose our peace.

Those are just some examples that came to my mind, if anybody has any others to share that would be great.

I'm very thankful, that even when we choose to lose our peace it it is only temporarily. Because Christ has overcome by His blood, or as Romans 5 says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Let us praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His great work on our behalf, even though sometimes we choose to lose our temporary peace.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Encouraging Prayer Quotes

I know for me that praying is often a struggle, I find myself continually fighting in this immeasurably important spiritual discipline. Here are some quotes that have helped me from godly men.

"Why will you run and labor and sweat and fret? There is greater benefit from striving in pray than from striving in the flesh." Paul Washer
"I know this to be true by the Word and experience. The return on our prayers is far greater than the investment made. Heaven will reveal it." Paul Washer
"The neglect of prayer is a grand hindrance to holiness." John Wesley
"The main lesson about prayer is just this: Do it! Do it! Do it! You want to be taught to pray. My answer is pray and never faint, and then you shall never fail." John Laidlaw
"Prayer can do anything that God can do. The pity is that we do not believe this as we ought, and we do not put it to the test." E.M. Bounds
"The prayer chamber, while it is the test of the sincerity of our devotion to God, becomes also the measure of the devotion." E.M. Bounds

Monday, October 25, 2010

Jesus Is So Kind

I was encouraged last night as I was reading Spurgeon again in his Morning and Evening.

"Our poorest actions Jesus accepts; our deepest sorrow He feels; our slenderest wish He hears; and every transgression He forgives. Jesus is still our servant as well as our Friend and Master. What condescending patience it is when the Savior with much long-suffering bears the repetitive follies of His wayward disciples, day by day and hour by hour washing away the multiplied transgressions of His erring but still much-loved child! While we find comfort and peace in our Lord's daily cleansing, its legitimate influence upon us will be to increase our watchfulness and quicken our desire for holiness."

This so encourages me, because I see my sin, I see my follies, yet Jesus still loves me. It reminds me of the gospel, it rivets my affections on Christ, it makes me treasure Him and His work on my behalf. I need the gospel!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Do Not Be Conformed To This World

This is my first post on my blog, and it is from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening!

If a Christian can by possibility be saved while he conforms to this world, at any rate it must be so as by fire. Such a bare salvation is almost as much to be dreaded as desired. Reader, would you wish to leave this world in the darkness of a desponding death bed, and enter heaven as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country? then be worldly; be mixed up with Mammonites, and refuse to go without the camp bearing Christ's reproach. But would you have a heaven below as well as a heaven above? Would you comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge? Would you receive an abundant entrance into the joy of your Lord? Then come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing. Would you attain the full assurance of faith? you cannot gain it while you commune with sinners. Would you flame with vehement love? Your love will be damped by the drenchings of godless society. You cannot become a great Christian-you may be a babe in grace, but you never can be a perfect man in Christ Jesus while you yield yourself to the worldly maxims and modes of business of men of the world. It is ill for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. It has a bad look when a courtier is too intimate with his king's enemies. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters, little moths destroy fine garments, and little frivolities and little rogueries will rob religion of a thousand joys. O professor, too little separated from sinners, you know not what you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength, and makes you creep where you ought to run. Then, for your own comfort's sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you be a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one.