False Christian teachings, trends….
Alistair Begg preached this two-part sermon for the New Year, to orient his congregation in accordance with God’s purposes in this world. Sermon series title: Behold Your God He had two points, the message and the mission: those need to be the chief concern of the individual Christian and the church. We are not to listen to some new prophet claiming to have a new, improved message for the church… but commit, recommit to God’s gospel message and its propagation.
The following commentary on Proverbs 15:19 is from Charles Bridges commentary on Proverbs. A week or so ago, while doing my morning reading, I was moved to explore commentaries on this verse, Bridges had the most meaningful comments on it. I have read over his comments several times since then, because I was convicted by his words and needed to hear them and understand this problem better. Furthermore, Bridges words refocused my attention towards God, and thereby gave hope.
This post contains a 30 minute video by Good Fight Ministries about a correct focus for Christians at this time; as he provides that, he discusses wrongheaded perspectives held by many; increasing depression numbers and the sources of that, and more; highlight points are given for the initial half of the Good Fight Ministry video; a song follows the news video, the song helps provide a healthy perspective for this time in history; then a bonus video appeared as I posted Good Fight Ministry’s links, it is one of their series on Bethel church
This post contains a portion of the audiobook of The Pilgrim’s Progress. If you have never read it, then you will be amazed at how well Bunyan identified the threats that a Christian experiences on his pilgrimage through this earthly wilderness. If you have read through the Bible and are engaged in fighting against your sin, then you should get a lot from this audiobook; if you don’t read your Bible, and have no idea of the fight against sin that the apostle Paul often described (see Ephesians 6 for one example), then you might benefit by discovering that something is wrong with your profession. By the end of this excerpt, you should better understand the dangers that Christian’s experience on their journey of faith
According to the standard of the Bible, it does cost something to be a real Christian. There are enemies to be overcome, battles to be fought, sacrifices to be made, Egypt to be forsaken, a wilderness to be passed through, a cross to be carried, and a race to be run. Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict in which it costs much to win the victory. Therefore arises the unspeakable importance of counting the cost…. It will cost him his self-righteousness. He must cast away all pride and prideful thoughts and any conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace, owing all to the merit and righteousness of another. He must really feel the words of the prayer book that he has “erred and gone astray like a lost sheep,” that he has “left undone the things he ought to have done, and done the things he ought not to have done, and that there is no health in him.” He must be willing to give up all trust in his own morality, respectability, praying, Bible reading, church-going, and sacraments, and he must trust in nothing but Jesus Christ.
This post contains a 7 minute reading of a John Newton letter wherein he talks about the benefits of Bible reading. It is basic stuff you may not know about.
For failure to count the cost, the children of religious parents often do not turn out well, and they bring disgrace on Christianity. Familiar from their earliest years with the form and theory of the gospel, taught even from infancy to repeat the most common Bible verses, being used to being instructed in the gospel every week, or even to instruct others in Sunday school, they often grow up professing Christianity without knowing why or without ever having thought seriously about it. Then when the realities of grown-up life begin to press upon them, they often astound everyone by dropping all their Christian ways and plunging right into the world. Why? Because they had never thoroughly understood the sacrifices that Christianity involves….
This post contains the first few pages of J C Ryle’s book, Holiness; this chapter is about ‘The Fight.’ I pasted in enough of the book to provide the foundational aspects of the fight. A few relevant links are provided at the end of the post, one is to a wonderful reading of The Pilgrim’s Progress
In the 6 minute video of this post, Jeff Mayfield explains chapter 8 of Dane Ortland’s book, Gentle and Lowly. Herein, Christ’s intercession for believers is discussed in terms of Hebrews 7:25. Once a believer realized it is impossible to make himself acceptable to God the Father, he is inclined to solely trust in Christ. This message is very encouraging if you have been struggling and failing in your fight against sin.
We’ve all met people who are greedy and who never seem to have enough, even when they have plenty. Some of us may be haunted by a desire to have more: more money, more time, more affection, more fame, and so on. It is sometimes difficult to remember that we come into this world with nothing, and we leave with nothing. Maybe “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and an illustration by Arthur Rackham can remind us of the importance of overcoming our greed.