You Will Suffer

Jesus in every book

True Love

"If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."

- CH Spurgeon

Psalm 20

Man I just want to pray this for everyone around me:

[Trust in the Name of the Lord Our God]

[TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID.]

[20:1] May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!

May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

[2] May he send you help from the sanctuary

and give you support from Zion!

[3] May he remember all your offerings

and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah

[4] May he grant you your heart's desire

and fulfill all your plans!

[5] May we shout for joy over your salvation,

and in the name of our God set up our banners!

May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!

[6] Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;

he will answer him from his holy heaven

with the saving might of his right hand.

[7] Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

[8] They collapse and fall,

but we rise and stand upright.

[9] O LORD, save the king!

May he answer us when we call.

(Psalm 20 ESV)

The Story

‎"Scripture tells us the story of how a Garden is transformed into a Garden City, but only after a dragon had turned that Garden into a howling wilderness, a haunt of owls and jackals, which lasted until an appointed warrior came to slay the dragon, giving up his life in the process, but with his blood effecting the transformation of the wilderness into the Garden City." -Douglas Wilson

Our duty and our privilege

‎"It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus. We are not to be living specimens of men in fine preservation, but living sacrifices, whose lot is to be consumed; we are to spend and to be spent, not to lay ourselves up in lavender, and nurse our flesh."
- C.H. Spurgeon, The Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.

What is wrong with the world today?

In response to a newspaper campaign asking What is wrong with the world today, G.K. Chesterton replied profoundly:
"Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely Yours,
G.K. Chesterton

Expect unexpected things

‎"Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things 'above all that we ask or think.'"
- Andrew Murray

The threat of being eaten

‎"Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer." - John G. Paton, after being told not to go on the mission field because of the threat of being eaten.

"I never made a sacrifice"

"For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice"

-David Livingstone

Vex the devil

"Accordingly if the devil should say, 'Do not drink,' you should reply to him, 'On this very account, because you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall drink a generous amount. Thus one must always do the opposite of that which Satan prohibits. What do you think is my reason for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely, and eating more often, if it is not to torment and vex the devil who made up his mind to torment and vex me." -Martin Luther

Weary of my inward sickness

"Why there I hope to see living he who hung dead on the Cross; and there I hope to be rid of all those things within me that remain a constant annoyance. For to tell you the truth, I love my Lord because he released me of my burden, and I am weary of my inward sickness. I would much prefer to be where I shall die no more and my companions shall continually cry, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”

Pilgrim’s Progress - John Bunyan

John Piper on Scripture Memorization

Jesus wants the rose

When My Heart Is Overwhelmed

This is a sermon, by a pastor discussing how he is dealing with the fact that his daughter now has cancer. I greatly encourage everyone to watch it. The things he says are things we all need to hear.



When My Heart Is Overwhelmed from Reality on Vimeo.

Balaam's Donkey

Something a professor once told rich mullins:

"God spoke to Balaam through his ass and He's been speaking through asses ever since. So if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself. And if on meeting someone, you recognize right away what they are, listen to them anyway, because God spoke to Balaam through his ass and He's been speaking through asses ever since."

Suffer for them

"I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." - Philippians 1:12-14

Are we willing to suffer, that others might be more confident in the LORD?

Quiet! Be still!

"He got up, rebuked the wind and said to thewaves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. " Mark 4:39

Remember Jesus' authority this week. When He speaks, His will is done.

In the days of your youth

"Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come." Ecclesiastes 12:1

Don't hold off on following Jesus until tomorrow, tomorrow never comes. Follow Him whole heartily now. Pray whole heartily now. Seek God, study His word, now. The sooner the better, don't put it off or you will never get to it.

Free Audio Books!

Every month ChristianAudio.com offers a free audio book for download, this month is one of my favorite books, and something I would encourage everyone to read:

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What is Jesus' will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.'"

They are also offering "Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die" by John Piper, which I have only read some of, but it's by John Piper so it's probably good. This is the first time they have offered two books at once (as far as I know) and this month they were both ones I already owned... oh well.

Enjoy.