Month: July 2022

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EVERLASTING JOY

“God richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim 6:17 ESV).

“Happiness is every man’s desire; and none will come to Christ, unless they believe that it tends to their happiness” Richard Baxter (ref#225, Jan 18th).

“[You] may be rich today and poor tomorrow; [you] may be sickly today and well tomorrow; [you] may be in happiness today and distressed tomorrow, but there is no change with regard to [your] relationship to God. If [GOD] loved me yesterday, He loves me today. My unmoving mansion of rest is my blessed Lord. I am a pilgrim in the world, but at home in my God. In the earth I wander, but in God I dwell in a quiet habitation” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Feb 27th AM).

“He is not working to give us that temporary situational emotional high; he is working to produce something much better—eternal joy” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Sept 7th).

“I can be calm and free from care

On any shore, since God is there.

While place we seek, or place we shun,

The soul finds happiness in none;

But with a God to guide our way,

‘Tis equal joy to go or stay.” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Mar 16th AM).

“What a privilege to possess God in all things while we have them, and all things in God when they are taken from us” John Newton (ref#322, p137).

“I have learned to be content (Phil 4:11). This statement implies that [the Apostle Paul] did not know how to be content at one time. Do not indulge the notion that you can be contented with learning, or learn without discipline. It is not a power that may be exercised naturally, but a science to be acquired gradually” Charles Spurgeon (ref#34, Feb 16th AM).

“O LOVE BEYOND COMPARE, Thou art good when thou givest, when thou takest away, when the sun shines upon me, when night gathers over me” The Valley of Vision (ref#76, p111).

“The Lord Jesus is a deep sea of joy: My soul shall dive in and shall be swallowed up in the delights of His company.” Charles Spurgeon

“The Holy Spirit gives us a new song of praise to the Lord” Charles F. Stanley (ref#230, p43).

“Sing aloud. Shout. Rejoice and exult with all your heart. The LORD your God is in your midst” (Zeph 3:14,17).

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TRANSFORMED INTO HOLINESS

“To be holy is to be morally blameless. It is to be separated from sin and, therefore, consecrated to God. The word signifies ‘separation to God, and the conduct befitting those so separated’” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p16).

The LORD encourages—He does not say I will not leave you but ‘I will smelt away your dross’ (Isa 1:25).

“It is the natural tendency of divine truth, when received into the heart, to produce holiness. The design of the whole plan of redemption was to secure the highest holiness and happiness of the creature; and when the gospel comes with the power of God unto the salvation of the soul, this end is preeminently secured. The renewed man is a pardoned man; the pardoned man becomes a holy man; and the holy man is a happy man. He who receives the doctrine of electing love in his heart by the power of the Spirit bears about with him the material of a holy walk; its tendency is to humble, abase, and sanctify the man. God alone has made him to differ from another. [H]e has received the free, distinguishing grace of God” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Oct 22nd).

“[Y]ou yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5 ESV).

“[H]oliness is obedience to the will of God in whatever God directs. The holiness described in the Bible calls us to do more than separate ourselves from the moral pollution of the world around us. It calls us to obey God” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p138). I can pretend I’m separating myself by obeying self-selected commands but that is much different than obeying GOD.

“[T]he grace of God is a seed that, however it lies hidden, will certainly in due time spring up, put forth itself, will bud and blossom and will bring forth rich fruit” Jonathan Edwards (ref#229, p115).

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2 ESV).

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WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION

“’Work out your own salvation’ and ‘It is God which worketh in you’ (Phil 2:12-13)—are words which at once link human accountability and individual responsibility with divine power and accomplishment” Octavius Winslow (ref#135, Jan 19th).

“The killing of your flesh is your duty, but his work” Kris Lundgaard (ref#383).

“I daily need God’s work of mercy in order to do his work of mercy” Paul David Tripp (ref#190, Jan 26th).

“We are called. We are invited. But the responsibility to answer, the responsibility to follow, lies solely on us. T]he responsibility of yes—the choice of faith—lies completely in our hands. [W]e will never understand something until we live it out” Jarrad Gibler (ref#259).

“[B]ecome partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4 ESV).

“A lifelong pattern of growth in Christlike character is expected of Christians. [T]hey share in [Christ’s] nature as they become increasingly like him” The ESV Study Bible (ref#125, p2418).

“I will go before you
    and level the exalted places,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
    and cut through the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness
    and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the LORD,
    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
I call you by your name,
    I name you, though you do not know me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other,
    besides me there is no God;
    I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun
    and from the west, that there is none besides me;
    I am the LORD, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and create calamity,
    I am the LORD, who does all these things” (Isa 45:2-7 ESV).

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UNDER THE DOMINION OF ANOTHER POWER

“I can say to myself that not only am I no longer under the dominion of sin, but I am under the dominion of another power that nothing can frustrate However weak I may be, it is the power of God that is working in me” Jerry Bridges (ref#244, p70).

“God’s strong hand is on you; [l]ive carefree before God; he is most careful with you” (1 Pet 5:6-7 MSG).

“[L]et yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life” (1 Pet 1:13-16 MSG).

“[H]e’s a good Father. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living” (1 Pet 1:17 MSG).

“Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God”(1 Pet 1:18-21 MSG).

“The more vile we are in our own eyes, the more precious he will be to us” John Newton (ref#322, p128).

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18 ESV).

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthy in you” (Col 3:2-5 ESV).

“’Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul’ (1 Pet 2:11). We do not receive our sanctification and are then delivered from these things. No; he tells us to abstain from them and to keep ourselves from them” Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ref#189, Jan 27th).

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 4:10-11 ESV).

“Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly” (1 Cor 13:13 MSG).