A god who does not rule all things absolutely

"Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him!" Psalm 115:3

A god who does not rule all things absolutely is no God at all--but only a weak, frustrated, defeated idol, carved from one of the trees in the dark forest of man’s depraved imagination!

"I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths!" Psalm 135:5-6

"All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have You done?' " Daniel 4:35

HT: Grace Gems

Then the Scum Appears!

Few Christians see themselves and understand
themselves rightfully. By trials, God reveals
much of a man's sinful self to his pious self.

When the fire is put under the pot—then the
scum appears; so when God tries a poor soul,
Oh! how does . . .
the scum of pride,
the scum of murmuring,
the scum of distrust,
the scum of impatience,
the scum of worldliness,
the scum of carnality,
the scum of foolishness,
the scum of willfulness—
reveal itself in the heart of the poor creature?

Trials are God's looking-glass, in which
His people see their own faults. Oh! . . .
that looseness,
that vileness,
that wretchedness,
that sink of filthiness,
that gulf of wickedness,
which trials show to be in their hearts!

"I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."
Isaiah 48:10

--Thomas Brooks, The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod

Courtesy of Grace Gems

Walking Bibles

"Give me understanding, and I will keep Your law
and obey it with all my heart." Psalm 119:34

Determine to PRACTICE whatever you read. Christians
should be walking Bibles, living the truths written. The
Word is not only a guide to knowledge, but a guide to
obedience. A holy reading of God’s Word, results in our
fleeing from sins, and practicing the duties commanded.

"I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I
might obey Your word." Psalm 119:101

--Thomas Watson

From: Grace Gems

The Best Way To Be Holy

(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity,
or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)

"Turn to the Lord with weeping and with mourning."
Joel 2:12

The best way to be holy is to accuse, indict, arraign,
and condemn yourself for your unholiness. Greatly
lament and mourn over your own unholiness, over
your own wickedness. Go to your closet, and fall
down before the most high and holy God, and
mourn bitterly over . . .
the unholiness of your nature,
the unholiness of your heart,
the unholiness of your affections,
the unholiness of your intentions,
the unholiness of your thoughts,
the unholiness of your words,
the unholiness of your life.

Oh, who can look upon sin . . .
as an offence against a holy God,
as the breach of a holy law,
as the wounding and crucifying of a holy Savior,
as the grieving and saddening of a holy Sanctifier,
and not mourn over it?

Oh, who can cast a serious eye . . .
upon the heinous nature of sin,
upon the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
upon the aggravations of sin—
and not have . . .
his heart humbled,
his soul grieved,
his spirit melted,
his mouth full of penitential confessions,
his eyes full of penitential tears, and
his heart full of penitential sorrow?

The Christian mourns that he has sinned against . . .
a God so great,
a God so gracious,
a God so bountiful,
a God so merciful.

Oh, how should a sinner fall a-weeping when he
looks upon the greatness of his wickedness, and
his lack of holiness! As ever you would be holy,
mourn over your own unholiness.

Those who weep not for sin here—shall weep
out their eyes in hell hereafter! It is better to
weep bitterly for your sins on earth, than to
weep eternally for your folly in hell.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they
will be comforted." Matthew 5:4

From: Grace Gems

On Just Such Husks Do the Religious Swine Feed!

If you value the health of your soul, cease hearing and quit reading—all that is lifeless, unctionless, and powerless. Life is too short to waste valuable time on that which does not profit. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of the religious books, booklets, and magazines now being published—are not worth the paper on which they are printed!

"Those who live according to the flesh—have their minds set on what the flesh desires," (Romans 8:5). They are charmed with . . .
oratorical eloquence,
catchy sayings,
witty allusions, and
amusing illustrations.
On just such husks, do the religious swine feed!

Ah, it is a great thing when once the Holy Spirit teaches a soul—that it is power which is lacking from the lifeless preaching of dead professors. It is power which the renewed soul seeks—a message which has power to search his conscience, to pierce him to the quick, to write it upon his heart; a message which has power to bring him to his knees in broken-hearted confession to God; a message which has power to make him feel that he is "vile"; a message which has power to drive him to Christ, for the binding up of his wounds, for Him to pour in "oil and wine," and send him on his way rejoicing. Yes, what the renewed soul longs for (though at first he knows it not) is that Divine message which comes to him "not simply with words—but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction!" 1 Thessalonians 1:5. Sooner or later, every Christian comes to value "power," and to count as worthless, whatever lacks it.

It is by Divine power, that he is taught in his own soul, by which he is made to feel acutely his sinnership, his carnality, his beggarliness.

It is Divine power working in his heart—which draws his affections unto things above, and makes his soul pant after God "as the deer pants after the water brooks." Psalm 42:1

It is this Divine power working in him—which reveals to his burdened spirit the Throne of Grace, and causes him to implore mercy and to seek grace "to help in time of need."

It is this Divine power working in him—which makes him cry "Make me walk along the path of Your commands—for there I find delight!" Psalm 119:35

--Arthur W. Pink

courtesy of Grace Gems

Do you really know what you know?

“If one does not make human knowledge wholly dependent upon the original self-knowledge and consequent revelation of God to man, then man will have to seek knowledge within himself as the final reference point. Then he will have to seek an exhaustive understanding of reality. He will have to hold that if he cannot attain to such an exhaustive understanding of reality he has no true knowledge of anything at all. Either man must then know everything or he knows nothing. This is the dilemma that confronts every form of non-Christian epistemology.”

--Cornelius Van Til

But Who Made the Difference?

Who made you to differ?

It is grace, free, sovereign grace, which has made you to differ!

Should any here, supposing themselves to be the children of
God, imagine that there is some reason "in them" why they
should have been chosen, let them know, that as yet they are in
the dark, concerning the first principles of grace, and have not
yet learned the gospel.

If ever they had known the gospel, they would, on the other
hand, confess that they were less than the least- the offscouring
of all things- unworthy, ill-deserving, undeserving, and hell-
deserving, and ascribe it all to distinguishing grace, which has
made them to differ; and to discriminating love, which has
chosen them out from the rest of the world.

Great Christian, you would have been a great sinner
if God had not made you to differ!

O! you who are valiant for truth, you would have been
as valiant for the devil if grace had not laid hold of you!

A seat in heaven shall one day be yours; but a chain in hell
would have been yours if grace had not changed you!

You can now sing his love; but a licentious song might have been
on your lips, if grace had not washed you in the blood of Jesus!

You are now sanctified, you are quickened, you are justified;
but what would you have been today if it had not been for the
interposition of the divine hand?

There is not a crime you might not have committed;
there is not a folly into which you might not have run.
Even murder itself you might have committed
if grace had not kept you.

You shall be like the angels; but you would have been like the
devil if you had not been changed by grace!

Therefore, never be proud- all the garments you have
are from above; rags were your only heritage.

Never be proud, though you now have a wide domain of grace;
you had once not a single thing to call yours own, except your
sin and misery.

You are now wrapped up in the golden righteousness of the
Savior, and accepted in the garments of the beloved!
But you would have been buried under the black mountain of
sin, and clothed with the filthy rags of unrighteousness,
if he had not changed you!

And are you proud?

Do you exalt yourself?

O! strange mystery, that you, who have borrowed everything,
should exalt yourself; that you, who have nothing of your own,
but have still to draw upon grace, should be proud- a poor
dependent pensioner upon the bounty of your Savior, and yet
proud; one who has a life which can only live by fresh streams of
life from Jesus, and yet proud!

Go, hang your pride upon the gallows, as high as Haman!
Hang it there to rot, and you stand beneath, and execrate it to all
eternity; for sure of all things most to be cursed and despised is
the pride of a Christian.

He, of all men, has ten thousand times more reason than any
other to be humble, and walk lowly with his God, and kindly and
humbly toward his fellow-creatures.

--Excerpt from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon entitled "The Fruitless Vine"

Tertullian on Abortion

"Indeed for us murder is forbidden once and for all, so it is not permitted even to destroy what is conceived in the womb. To prohibit the birth of a child is only a faster way to murder; it makes little difference whether one destroys a life already born or prevents it from coming to birth. It is a human being, who is to be a human being, for the whole fruit is already present in the seed."

--Tertullian

Confession and Petition

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

---Puritan Prayer