If our theology doesn’t lead to doxology then our theology isn’t biblical theology but mere anthropocentric godtalk
—Burk Parsons (Tweet)
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Whence is it that, when assaulted with temptation and compassed with troubles, we have stood firm, but from a secret strength upholding us? To make so little grace so victorious over so great a mass of corruption, this requires a spirit more than human.
This is like preserving fire in the sea, and a part of heaven even, as it were, in hell. Here we know where to obtain this power, and to whom to return the praise of it. And it is our happiness that it is so safely hid in Christ for us, in one so near to God and us. Since the fall, God will not trust us with our own salvation, but it is both purchased and kept by Christ for us, and we for it through faith, wrought by the power of God, which we lay hold of.
That grace which is but a persuasive offer and in our power to receive or refuse is not the grace which brings us to heaven. But God’s people feel a powerful work of the Spirit, not only revealing to us our misery and deliverance through Christ, but emptying us of ourselves, as being redeemed from ourselves, and infusing new life into us, and afterwards strengthening us and quickening us when we droop and hang the wing, never leaving us till the conquest is perfect.
—Richard Sibbes
The Bruised Reed
Via: Of First Importance
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What we believe affects how we live. And if we do not live in humble submission to the word of God, we will believe anything, as long as it suits our own personal interests (see Genesis 3:6). Lord, please deliver us from the spirit of the age and the lies of false religion, which often speak in the same corrupted tongue.
—Pastor Tim Phillips
Via: Tim Phillips
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‘He hath done all things well.’ Yes, from first to last, from our cradle to our grave, from the earliest pang of sin’s conviction to the latest thrill of sin’s forgiveness, from earth to heaven, this will be our testimony in all the way the Lord our God has led us in the wilderness. In providence and in grace, in every truth of His Word, in every lesson of His love, in every stroke of His rod, in every beam that has shone, and in every cloud that has shaded, in every element that has sweetened, and in every ingredient that has embittered, in all that has been mysterious, inscrutable, painful, and humiliating; in all that He gave, and in all that He took away, this testimony is His just due, and this our grateful acknowledgment through time and through eternity – ‘He hath done all things WELL.’
—Octavius Winslow
The Sympathy of Christ
Via: Of First Importance
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In every blessing, in every trial, we may say of Jesus: “He has done all things well.”
—Of First Importance
Via: Of First Importance (Tweet)
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Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression? The first thing you have to do is to say farewell now once and forever to your past. Realize that it has been covered and blotted out in Christ. Never look back at your sins again. Say: ‘It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ.’ That is your first step. Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you. What you need is not to make resolutions to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. No! You just begin to say:
I rest my faith on Him alone
Who died for my transgressions to atone.—Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Spiritual Depression
Via: Desiring God Blog
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Humility agrees and is glad that everything we have is a free gift of God, and that this severs the root of boasting in our distinctives. Whatever talents, whatever intelligence, whatever skills, whatever gifts, whatever looks, whatever pedigree, whatever possessions, whatever wit, whatever influence you have, put away all pride because it is a gift, and put away all despair because it is a gift from God.
—John Piper
Greatness, Humility, Servanthood
Via: Of First Importance
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When Jesus Christ rose from the dead that first Easter Sunday, a new epoch in redemptive history dawned. The empty tomb was the first concrete sign that the new creation had begun.
—Kim Riddlebarger
A Case for Amillenialism
Via: Of First Importance
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