All Good Gifts

 Hold a dime upto your eye
And it will look an enormous size
So you'd think God shrinks As you look down here for more 

We don't get it right, who would've guessed?
Hallelujah, God doesn't expect
More than his own grace to carry you to shore
 

                   - Michael Morgan, All Good Gifs | Before The Throne

Want Jesus

When you want heaven, you want an escape from hell and pain.

When you want Jesus, you want everything, all at once. 

That's why some are willing to pay everything else for it. 

Wanting Jesus, is wanting more. It is being unsatisfied with everything else. It's a smarter choice. When you ask for Jesus, you dare to ask for the most precious thing in the whole universe. And today God is gracious to give Him to you at His expense. I think it is a good deal. I think you should take it!

Borderline Heritical

If your preaching of the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ does not provoke the charge from some of antinomianism, you're not preaching the gospel of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ

- Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Random Thought

To 'get' the gospel you should try rattling hard against the bars of  "but what about?"s, "how-come?"s and "but that's dangerous"s, that incarcerate you... and you will realize that they do not break. Then try bending your knee, and praying that the Holy Spirit would break them... and... He might just do it for you. He  might take you to the world where there is a sea Joy, where Christ is far exalted and you are far more thankful. That's when you are closer to 'getting it'.

One object of pursuit

There is ONE object of pursuit in life and that is Jesus Christ, and none other. Not Holiness, nor purity, nor security, nor goodness, nor generosity, nor any fruit of the Spirit- they are fruits - not objects of pursuit, not happiness, (it is a mind set, it can't be pursued), nor missions, nor ministry. All these are enjoyed as by products. They are enjoyed because they are good, but they are good because they are right. They are right because God has designed them that way. The best thing for a man to do is to bow his head before the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, the solution, the origin, of all things material and immaterial. All the universe falls in place in looking at him. 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Colossians 1:15-20

...There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

1 Cor 8:6

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Romans 11:36

I want to grow old on the Gospel

A friend of mine once made a comment about dogs, when one continued to chase and bring back the bone he threw. He said, "It is interesting that dogs continue to do the same thing over and over again, with the same level of excitement". 

I look at human beings and myself completely differently. I need new and better things keep me excited. Things bore me quick. Living here for 26 years, I tend to find lesser things that excite, interest, and boggle me. I am unable to keep my mind fascinated... and please, gadgets are one of the least impressive things. However there is an anomaly to this. 

I have heard the gospel message over and over again. It is simple. I can put it in about 5 sentences using really simple words. Here: I am a sinner, and desperately so. I rebelled against a righteous and holy God who should justly punish me into hell. And when I was still and enemy of God he chose to die for me. He killed his Son for me... so that now, if I believe in his Son, I can have eternal life with Him. And his Son... he continues, even today, to intercede for me. 

This simple message that is stupid to some, that people stumble at because, it has in it no "wisdom" for them, is so powerful that it saved me and it continues to save me. My mind continues to get  boggled by it. Isn't that amazingly weird? I can't believe God can continue to boggle my mind with the same old thing. He insults my intelligence. I love it. 

Yesterday I turned 26 years old... and I want to grow old on that message. 

Don't mind the filth

The gospel is like a golden magical ball in the hands of lepers and diseased. It is healing them but hasn't completely yet. So while they point at it, please don't mind the filthy fingers.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."  

- 2 Cor 4:7

My cup runneth over

"If we give the impression that the main effect of Christianity is to make us miserable, then it is not surprising that ninety per cent of the people are outside the Christian church. 'Miserable Christians,' they say, 'look at them!' And they add that they have life, they have joy, they have fullness. Shame on us Christian people! But it is not merely a question of saying shame on us. What a terrible responsibility is ours if we are so misrepresenting this 'glorious gospel of the blessed God' (1 Timothy 1:11). We are meant to be witnesses to all people that we are filled to overflowing. We are meant to show the truth of the psalmist's words: 'My cup runneth over!' (Psalm 23:5)."

Dr. M. L. Jones

Random Thought: My Testimony

My Cup overflows

He said to me, "I will take your rags..."

I said, "Please don't take my rags from me"

Patiently, He said, "Listen! I will take your rags and give you heaps of 'gold', 'sliver', riches, galaxies, I will lavish on you my greatest gifts, but above all, I will let you enjoy the richest thing... Me. Does that sound like a good deal to you?"

I said, "Yes"

Revel

Not only is the ground level at the foot of the cross, it is the dance floor for an ongoing revelry. Come closer...  take a look at the people there. They have wrinkled faces, missing teeth, crooked noses, squinted eyes, balding heads, tattered clothes and unsophisticated dance steps.

However, if you are a keen observer you will notice that miraculously, all those infirmities are getting healed. And then, if you have the time to look long enough, there will come a moment ( and don't blink then), when in a twinkling of an eye, my friend, these will become glorious. Be careful then not to mistake them for angels, for these will be far better.


"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."


- 2 Cor 3:18

These and Those

These go to God and say, "Its quite embarrassing to keep coming here so often. I'm sure I'll get it right this time. But for now, can I have a little more grace?"
Those go to God and say, "To save me you will need infinite grace", He says, "Infinite Grace is what you will get." They say, "Thank you".

These are obsessed with trying to please God,
Those are obsessed with enjoying Him.

These look to the Cross as a headstart,
Those look to the cross as their victory.

At the feast, their servings are scanty,
At the feast, the one that has infinite food, they are generous with their servings and thankful in their hearts.

These are not self-righteous
Those are not self-righteous either

These keep trying
Those quit trying

They take grace just enough to patch up their performance,
Those are so busy taking grace, they don't start performing, and yet the perform much better.

Happiness is a scarcity with these,
Joy is overflowing with those.

Voddie Baucham: If God is omnipotent and benevolent, how do we explain evil?

Freeist Choice

Your freeist choice will be God.

The Better Question

The better question to ask than "How can I glorify God" is "How can I enjoy him"

"I never made a sacrifice"

"I never made a sacrifice"

- David Livingstone to Cambridge students about his leaving the "benefits" of England

To read David Livingstone's quote and to say, "What a good man!" is to insult his message. Hope you say, "What a smart man, and what a Good God"

Our need for the Gospel

"Our need for the Gospel is like this:

When you plant a tiny seed, all that it needs is sunlight, water, nutrients from the soil and air. And then it becomes a mighty tree.

When it becomes a mighty tree, all that it needs is sunlight, water, nutrients from the soil and air. "

- Sarah Rufus

Gaining Victory over Sin

Gaining victory over Sin is like walking on sea in the midst of a storm. If you look to Him, you will.

God once dwelt here

"Sometimes you see an old ruin in the country, an old castle, or a hull  and there is a notice saying that so and so once lived here. That kind of notice can be put up on Human Beings - 'God once dwelt here' "
- Some Puritan

Robert Farrar Capon on Grace

"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred-proof grace—of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the gospel—after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case.”, 

 - Robert Farrar Capon

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."

Romans 8: 29-30