Take Heed

Take heed of loosing the liveliness and sweetness of your communion with God, lest thereby your hearts be pulled off from God. The heart is a hungry and restless thing; it will have something to feed upon. If it enjoys nothing from God, it will hunt for something among the creatures, and there if often looses itself as well as its end. (John Flavel)

Iron Sharpens Iron

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

Like most I follow a lot of people on twitter. Some of those people challenge me every single day! I am thankful for those people whose words give me need to pause and evaluate my life. There are days when I am encouraged and days I am led to repent but almost everyday there are tweets to ponder and reflect upon. I thought I would share some of those today. Please leave me a note letting me know if any in particular touch your heart.

@PuritanReformer “We must remember that Satan has his miracles, too.” ~ John Calvin

@PastorTullian A genuinely humble man is not someone who always talks about how small he is; a genuinely humble man doesn’t talk about himself at all.

@PastorTullian Legalism puffs us up by tempting us to believe that we can do it. It provides us w/ a way 2 avoid acknowledging r deficiencies & inabilities

@PastorTullian The greatest threat to the gospel doesn’t come from outside the church; it comes from inside the church. The greatest threat is moralism!

@PastorTullian Isn’t it ironic that while God’s treatment of us depends on Christ’s performance, our treatment of others depends on their performance?

@ReformedGlory If a commission by an earthly king is considered honour, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered sacrifice? David Livingstone

@ReformedGlory: “You can only learn what obedience is by obeying ” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

@PastorTullian: The answer 2legalism isn’t lawlessnss but the answer 2lawlessness isn’t legalism either.The Gospel is the corrective 2both!

@PastorTullian: The difference between complaining and lamenting is this: complaining is a cry against God; lamenting is a cry for God.

SSmith:The gospel is a great song. It has a lyric 2 be known (theology), a music 2 be loved (doxology) & a dance to be learned (mission)

@douglaswils: The devil loves to marinate his lies in the truth for a while, to give them the right flavor.

Stop the Sun in its Course

Here is a great quote hubby shared with me the other day from a book he is currently reading. I wanted to share it with you.

“Whereas the expression (“keep thy heart”) seems to put it upon us as our work, yet it does not imply a sufficiency or ability in us to do it. We are as able to stop the sun in its course or make the rivers run backward as by our own skill and power to rule and order our hearts. We may as well be our own saviors as our own keepers. Yet Solomon speaks properly enough when he says, “keep thy heart,” because the duty is ours though the power is God’s. A natural man has no power. A gracious man has some, though not sufficient, and that power he has depends upon the exciting and assisting strength of Christ.” John Flavel, Keeping the Heart, 1667.

Two Birds, One Stone

When error comes into the church we face a set of obligations. First, we must confront the error. The world has embraced a live-and-let-live relativism that will accept any foolishness, but will not accept the wisdom of calling foolishness by its name. Too often the church follows suit. We want to get along, and so pet the wolves in our midst rather than drive them away. Our calling, as faithful soldiers of the kingdom, is to combat error in whatever form it takes. Second, we must not err when confronting the error. If we would have sound and accurate thinking in the church, we must be sound and accurate in what we denounce. We are not serving well the kingdom of God when we fight carnally, using gossip, innuendo, and aiming our fire at our allies. Consider the almost civil war during the time of Joshua. Those tribes on the eastern side of the Jordan, you’ll remember, built an altar. Their brothers prepared to make war against those who would establish false worship within the land. These brothers came to understand, thankfully, that the altar wasn’t built for false worship, but as a reminder of the covenantal union those on the east had with the rest of Israel. Far from an occasion for division, the altar was a monument to unity. Zeal without knowledge, in this instance, could have led to unnecessary division and senseless slaughter. (See Joshua 22 for the full story.)

Keep Reading at Tabletalk

by R.C. Sproul Jr.

Got Great Tweets?

Image by Dave Delaney via Flickr

It seems that people liked my twitter RT recap last week so I think I will continue with it.  There are so many great quotes that come through on Twitter each day that I just cannot help but to share them.  So here are a few for you to sink your teeth into.

• You should not believe your conscience and feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you. Martin Luther…
• RT @burk_parsons: A man preaches that sermon only well unto others which preaches itself in his own soul—Owen
• RT @burk_parsons: Either our religion will transform us or we will transform our religion to suit our sympathies—Horton
• RT @ReformedGlory: ‘I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever! ” Isaac Newton
• RT @RevJohnOwen: The custom of sinning takes away the sense of it, the course of the world takes away the shame of it.
• RT @HavetheChoice: Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.– Mother Teresa
• RT @burk_parsons: No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good—Lewis
• RT @burk_parsons: The life of holiness is a life hidden in Christ and His holiness resulting in a life of repentance/faith/obedience.
• RT @burk_parsons: We need to be more shortsighted, thinking less about how holy we’ll be tomorrow and more about how holy we’ll be today.
• RT @ReformedGlory: “You lose your strength, Christian, the moment you depart from your integrity” Charles Spurgeon
• “Faith does not have value; it is the instrument.” Francis A. Schaeffer (The Finished Work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1-8 )
• RT@ReformedGlory: Works?Works?A man get to heaven by works?I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand!George Whitefield
• RT @ReformedGlory: “The richness of God’s Word ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.”Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• RT @burk_parsons: Sin will not come to you, saying, “I am sin.” It would do little harm if it did—Ryle

Do You Fear?

I find that fear is a constant battle for me.  I tend to worry about so many things that I shouldn’t.  I fully acknowledge that this is a major weakness.  It is one that can only be overcome by the working of the Lord in my life.  I need to continually seek him for healing from fear.  I came across a quote today that slapped me upside the head!  It is something I already knew but when you come face to face with the bare bones of the issue it often makes your head spin.

Our fears are grounded in either a failure to believe in God’s strength or a failure to believe His gospel. — RC Sproul Jr

Lord,

I praise you Lord, Creator of all, You are God!  Mold me into your image, may I be surrendered, softened, and easy to mold.  Cleanse me, heal me, create in me a clean heart, one that is absent of fear and clings to you.  I know that worry can not add a single day so let me not waste the ones you have given.  Draw me closer to you that I may never fail to believe and rely upon you.  Remove my self-reliant tendencies.  May you be glorified in my life!

Amen