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Love Is Costly. T Forgive In Love Costs Us Our Sense Of Justice. To Serve In Love Costs Us Time. To Share In Love Costs Us Money. Every Act Of Love Costs Us In Some Way, Just As It Cost God To Love Us. But We Are To Live A Life Of Love Just As Christ Loves Us And Gave Himself For Us At Great Cost To Himself.

-Jerry Bridges

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Love Is Costly. T

Jerry Bridges

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Love Is Costly. T Forgive In Love Costs Us Our Sense Of Justice. To Serve In Love Costs Us Time. To Share In Love Costs Us Money. Every Act Of Love Costs Us In Some Way, Just As It Cost God To Love Us. But We Are To Live A Life Of Love Just As Christ Loves Us And Gave Himself For Us At Great Cost To Himself.

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True Joy Comes Only From God And He Shares This Joy With Those Who Walk In Fellowship With Him.

Duty Or Guilt May Motivate Us For Awhile, But Only A Sense Of Christ's Love For Us Will Motivate Us For A Lifetime.

God's Grace Is Not Given To Make Us Feel Better, But To Glorify Him... Good Feelings May Come, Or They May Not, But That Is Not The Issue. The Issue Is Whether Or Not We Honor God By The Way We Respond To Our Circumstances.

Sin Is Wrong, Not Because Of What It Does To Me, Or My Spouse, Or Child, Or Neighbor, But Because It Is An Act Of Rebellion Against The Infinitely Holy And Majestic God.

Grace Is Never Cheap. It Is Absolutely Free To Us, But Infinitely Expensive To God... Anyone Who Is Prone To Use Grace As A License For Irresponsible, Sinful Behavior, Surely Does Not Appreciate The Infinite Price God Paid To Give Us His Grace.

God Never Wastes Pain. He Always Uses It To Accomplish His Purpose. And His Purpose Is For His Glory And Our Good. Therefore We Can Trust Him When Our Hearts Are Aching Or Our Bodies Are Racked With Pain

We Ought To Be As Earnest And Frequent In Our Prayers Of Thanksgiving When The Cupboard Is Full As We Would Be In Our Prayers Of Supplication If The Cupboards Were Bare.

Sometimes The End God Has In Mind Is To Exercise Our Faith, So He Brings Us Into Straitened Circumstances So That We Might Look Up To Him And See His Deliverance.

Love Is Costly. T Forgive In Love Costs Us Our Sense Of Justice. To Serve In Love Costs Us Time. To Share In Love Costs Us Money. Every Act Of Love Costs Us In Some Way, Just As It Cost God To Love Us. But We Are To Live A Life Of Love Just As Christ Loves Us And Gave Himself For Us At Great Cost To Himself.

Evil Rulers Are Never Beyond The Bounds Of God's Sovereign Will

The Fruit Of The Spirit Is Fundamentally Relational. Rather Than Originating With Us, It Flows To Us From Our Union With Christ, And It Flows Beyond Us To Bring Us Into Fellowship With Others. The Secret Of This Flow - And Our Unity With God And Others - Is Humility.

To Be Justified Means More Than To Be Declared "not Guilty." It Actually Means To Be Declared Righteous Before God. It Means God Has Imputed Or Charged The Guilt Of Our Sin To His Son, Jesus Christ, And Has Imputed Or Credited Christ's Righteousness To Us.

Faith In Christ And A Reliance On Ourselves, Even To The Smallest Degree, Are Mutually Exclusive.

The Great Antidote To Anxiety Is To Come To God In Prayer. We Are To Pray About Everything. Nothing Is Too Big For Him To Handle, And Nothing Is Too Small To Escape His Attention.

To Derive The Fullest Comfort And Encouragement From Romans 8:28 We Must Realize That God Is At Work In A Proactive, Not Reactive, Fashion. That Is, God Does Not Just Respond To An Adversity In Our Lives To Make The Best Of A Bad Situation. He Knows Before He Initiates Or Permits The Adversity Exactly How He Will Use It For Our Good.

In A Sermon Entitled “god's Providence,” C. H. Spurgeon Said, “napoleon Once Heard It Said, That Man Proposes And God Disposes. 'ah,' Said Napoleon, 'but I Propose And Dispose Too.' How Do You Think He Proposed And Disposed? He Proposed To Go And Take Russia; He Proposed To Make All Europe His. He Proposed To Destroy That Power, And How Did He Come Back Again? How Had He Disposed It? He Came Back Solitary And Alone, His Mighty Army Perished And Wasted, Having Well-nigh Eaten And Devoured One Another Through Hunger. Man Proposes And God Disposes.

... Self-control Is Not Control By Oneself Through One's Own Willpower But Rather Control Of Oneself Through The Power Of The Holy Spirit.

We Are 100 Percent Responsible For The Pursuit Of Holiness, But At The Same Time We Are 100 Percent Dependent Upon The Holy Spirit To Enable Us In That Pursuit. The Pursuit Of Holiness Is Not A Pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps Approach To The Christian Life.

The Person Who Is Living By Grace Sees This Vast Contrast Between His Own Sins Against God And The Offenses Of Others Against Him. He Forgives Others Because He Himself Has Been So Graciously Forgiven. He Realizes That, By Receiving God’s Forgiveness Through Christ, He Has Forfeited The Right To Be Offended When Others Hurt Him.

God Never Allows Pain Without A Purpose.

Jesus Did Not Die Just To Save Us From The Penalty Of Sin, Nor Even Just To Make Us Holy In Our Standing Before God. He Died To Purify For Himself A People Eager To Obey Him, A People Eager To Be Transformed Into His Likeness.

Every Day That We're Not Practicing Godliness We're Being Conformed To The World Of Ungodliness Around Us.

The Wisdom Of The Chess Player Is Displayed More In Winning Over A Capable Opponent Than A Novice. The Wisdom Of The General Is Displayed More In Defeating A Superior Army Than In Subduing An Inferior One. Even More So, The Wisdom Of God Is Displayed When He Brings Good To Us And Glory To Himself Out Of Confusion And Calamity Rather Than Out Of Pleasant Times.

Introspection Can Easily Become The Tool Of Satan, Who Is Called The Accuser. One Of His Chief Weapons Is Discouragement. He Knows That If He Can Make Us Discouraged And Dispirited We Will Not Fight The Battle For Holiness.

God Is Never At A Loss Because He Cannot Find Someone To Cooperate With Him In Carrying Out His Plan. He So Moves In The Hearts Of People - Either Christians Or Non Christians, It Makes No Difference - That They Willingly, Of Their Own Free Will Carry Out His Plans.

God Is At Work In All The Circumstances Of Your Life To Bring Out The Good For You, Even If You Had Never Heard Of Romans 8:28. His Work Is Not Dependent Upon Your Faith. But The Comfort And Joy That Statement Is Intended To Give You Is Dependent Upon Your Believing It, Upon Your Trusting In Him Who Is At Work, Even Though You Cannot See The Outcome Of That Work.

Comfort And Joy

The Fruit Of Patience In All Its Aspects - Long-suffering, Forbearance, Endurance, And Perseverance - Is A Fruit That Is Most Intimately Associated With Our Devotion To God. All Character Traits Of Godliness Grow Out Of And Have Their Foundation In Our Devotion To God, But The Fruit Of Patience Must Grow Out Of That Relationship In A Particular Way.

God's Unfailing Love For Us Is An Objective Fact Affirmed Over And Over In The Scriptures. It Is True Whether We Believe It Or Not. Our Doubts Do Not Destroy God's Love, Nor Does Our Faith Create It. It Originates In The Very Nature Of God, Who Is Love, And It Flows To Us Through Our Union With His Beloved Son.

We Need To Approach The Bible Each Day With A Spirit Of Deep Humility, Recognizing That Our Understanding Of Spiritual Truth Is At Best Incomplete And To Some Extent Inaccurate ... We Should Approach The Scriptures In Humility And Expect The Spirit To Humble Us Even Further As We Continue Being Taught By Him From His Word.

The Very First Temptation In The History Of Mankind Was The Temptation To Be Discontent...that Is Exactly What Discontent(ment ) Is - A Questioning Of The Goodness Of God.

Jesus Did Not Die Just To Give Us Peace And A Purpose In Life; He Died To Save Us From The Wrath Of God.

Truth Is We Must Plant And We Must Water If We Are To Make Progress With Our Children In Holiness But Only The Holy Spirit Can Change Our Children More And More Into The Likeness Of Jesus. Our Problem Is We Tend To Depend Upon Our Planting And Watering Rather Than The Lord.

Instead Of Living In The Sunshine Of God's Forgiveness Through Christ, We Tend To Live Under An Overcast Sky Of Guilt Most Of The Time.

Our First Problem Is That Our Attitude Towards Sin Is More Self-centred Than God-centred. We Are More Concerned About Our Own "victory" Over Sin Than We Are About The Fact That Our Sin Grieve The Heart Of God. We Cannot Tolerate Failure In Our Struggle With Sin Chiefly Because We Are Success Oriented, Not Because We Know It Is Offensive To God.

The Level Of Our Obedience Is Most Often Determined By The Behavior Standard Of Other Christians Around Us.

When We Commit Ourselves To The Pursuit Of Holiness, We Need To Ensure That Our Commitment Is Actually To God, Not Simply To A Holy Lifestyle Or A Set Of Moral Values ... Offer Yourselves To God, And In Doing That Commit Yourselves To The Pursuit Of Holiness In Order To Please Him.

Here Is A Spiritual Principle: We Cannot Exercise Love Unless We Are Experiencing Grace. You Cannot Truly Love Others Unless You Are Convinced That God's Love For You Is Unconditional, Based Solely On The Merit Of Christ, Not On Your Performance. Our Love, Either To God Or To Others, Can Only Be A Response To His Love For Us.

Perhaps We Should Stop Talking About Being Faithful To Have A Quiet Time With God Each Day, As If We Were Doing Something To Earn A Reward. It Would Be Better To Talk About The Privilege Of Spending Time With The God Of The Universe And The Importance For Our Own Sake Of Being Consistent In That Practice.

Uncontrolled Temper Is Soon Dissipated On Others. Resentment, Bitterness, And Self-pity Build Up Inside Our Hearts And Eat Away At Our Spiritual Lives Like A Slowly Spreading Cancer.

Holiness Is Nothing Less Than Conformity To The Character Of God

Prayer Assumes The Sovereignty Of God. If God Is Not Sovereign, We Have No Assurance That He Is Able To Answer Our Prayers. Our Prayers Would Become Nothing More Than Wishes. But While God's Sovereignty, Along With His Wisdom And Love, Is The Foundation Of Our Trust In Him, Prayer Is The Expression Of That Trust.

We Must Not Allow Our Emotions To Hold Sway Over Our Minds. Rather, We Must Seek To Let The Truth Of God Rule Our Minds. Our Emotions Must Become Subservient To The Truth.

God's Sovereignty Does Not Negate Our Responsibility To Pray, But Rather Makes It Possible For Us To Pray With Confidence.

God’s Love To Us Cannot Fail Any More Than His Love To Christ Can Fail.

Modern Christians, Especially Those In The Western World, Have Generally Been Found Wanting In The Area Of Holiness Of Body. Gluttony And Laziness, For Example, Were Regarded By Earlier Christians As Sin. Today We May Look On These As Weaknesses Of The Will But Certainly Not Sin. We Even Joke About Our Overeating And Other Indulgences Instead Of Crying Out To God In Confession And Repentance.

No Detail Of Your Life Is Too Insignificant For Your Heavenly Father's Attention.

Love Provides The Motive For Obeying The Commands Of The Law, But The Law Provides Specific Direction For Exercising Love.

God's Guidance Is Almost Always Step-by-step; He Does Not Show Us Our Life's Plan All At Once. Sometimes Our Anxiousness To Know The Will Of God Comes From A Desire To Peer Over God's Shoulder To See What His Plan Is. What We Need To Do Is Learn To Trust Him To Guide Us.

Every Day Of Our Christian Experience Should Be A Day Of Relating To God On The Basis Of His Grace Alone. We Are Not Only Saved By Grace, But We Also Live By Grace Every Day.

I Warmly Commend It To All Christians Who Want To Grow In Their Faith.

We Could Not Take One Step In The Pursuit Of Holiness If God In His Grace Had Not First Delivered Us From The Dominion Of Sin And Brought Us Into Union With His Risen Son. Salvation Is By Grace And Sanctification Is By Grace.

We Don't Have To Start All Over Again And Try To Keep The Slate Clean. There Is No More Slate.

The Pursuit Of Holiness Must Be Anchored In The Grace Of God; Otherwise It Is Doomed To Failure

Faith Enables Us To Obey When Obedience Is Costly Or Seems Unreasonable To The Natural Mind.

We Insist That God Must Surely Lead Everyone As We Believe He Has Led Us. We Refuse To Allow God The Freedom To Deal With Each Of Us As Individuals. When We Think Like That, We Are Legalistic.

The Heroes Of Faith In Hebrews 11 ... Obeyed By Faith ... Obedience Is The Pathway To Holiness ... No One Will Become Holy Apart From A Life Of Faith. Faith Enables Us To Claim The Promises Of God, But It Also Enables Us To Obey The Commands Of God.

Trust Is Not A Passive State Of Mind. It Is A Vigorous Act Of The Soul By Which We Choose To Lay Hold On The Promises Of God And Cling To Them Despite The Adversity That At Times Seeks To Overwhelms Us.

The Pursuit Of Holiness Is A Joint Venture Between God And The Christian. No One Can Attain Any Degree Of Holiness Without God Working In His Life, But Just As Surely No One Will Attain It Without Effort On His Own Part.

The Realization That My Daily Relationship With God Is Based On The Infinite Merit Of Christ Instead Of On My Own Performance Is A Very Freeing And Joyous Experience. But It Is Not Meant To Be A One-time Experience; The Truth Needs To Be Reaffirmed Daily.

A Son Or Daughter In Any Human Family Is Either Born To Or Adopted By The Parents. By Definition, A Child Can't Be Both. But With God We're Both Born Of Him And Adopted By Him.

In Both Its Precepts And Penalty, The Law Of God In Its Most Exacting Requirements Was Fulfilled By Jesus. And He Did This In Our Place As Our Representative And Our Substitute.

Three Means By Which God Assures Us That We Do Have Eternal Life: 1. The Promises Of His Word, 2. The Witness Of The Spirit In Our Hearts, 3. The Transforming Work Of The Spirit In Our Lives.

Even Our Tears Of Repentance Need To Be Washed In The Blood Of The Lamb.

God In His Infinite Wisdom Knows Exactly What Adversity We Need To Grow More And More Into The Likeness Of His Son. He Not Only Knows What We Need But When We Need It And How Best To Bring It To Pass In Out Lives. He Is The Perfect Teacher Or Coach. His Discipline Is Always Exactly Suited For Our Needs. He Never Overtrains By Allowing Too Much Adversity Into Our Lives.

Grace Is The Love Of God Shown To The Unlovely. It Is God Reaching Downward To People Who Are In Rebellion Against Him.

If There Is Not At Least A Yearning In Our Hearts To Live A Holy Life Pleasing To God, We Need To Seriously Question Whether Our Faith In Christ Is Genuine.

We Might Say God's Wrath Is His Justice In Action, Rendering To Everyone His Just Due, Which, Because Of Our Sin Is Always Judgment.

Contentment Is One Of The Most Distinguishing Traits Of The Godly Person, Because A Godly Person Has His Heart Focused On God Rather Than On Possessions Or Position Or Power.

The Assurance Of His Total Forgiveness Of Our Sins Through The Blood Of Christ Means We Don't Have To Play Defensive Games Anymore. We Don't Have To Rationalize And Excuse Our Sins. We Can Call Sin Exactly What It Is, Regardless Of How Ugly And Shameful It May Be, Because We Know That Jesus Bore That Sin In His Body On The Cross.

Your Worst Days Are Never So Bad That You Are Beyond The Reach Of God's Grace. And Your Best Days Are Never So Good That You Are Beyond The Need Of God's Grace.pharisee-type Believers Unconsciously Think They Have Earned God's Blessing Through Their Behavior. Guilt-laden Believers Are Quite Sure They Have Forfeited God's Blessing Through Their Lack Of Discipline Or Their Disobedience. Both Have Forgotten The Meaning Of Grace Because They Have Moved Away From The Gospel And Have Slipped Into A Performance Relationship With God.

God Will Never Allow Any Action Against You That Is Not In Accord With His Will For You. And His Will Is Always Directed To Our Good.

We All Want Grace, But We Cannot Enjoy Grace When There Is An Attitude Of Comparing.

Nothing Can Be More Consoling To The Man Of God, Than The Conviction That The Lord Who Made The World Governs The World; And That Every Event, Great And Small, Prosperous And Adverse, Is Under The Absolute Disposal Of Him Who Doth All Things Well, And Who Regulates All Things For The Good Of His People.

Biblical Love Is Not Emotions Or Feelings, But Attitudes And Actions That Seek The Best Interests Of The Other Person, Regardless Of How We Feel Toward Him.

This Is The Amazing Story Of God’s Grace. God Saves Us By His Grace And Transforms Us More And More Into The Likeness Of His Son By His Grace. In All Our Trials And Afflictions, He Sustains And Strengthens Us By His Grace. He Calls Us By Grace To Perform Our Own Unique Function Within The Body Of Christ. Then, Again By Grace, He Gives To Each Of Us The Spiritual Gifts Necessary To Fulfill Our Calling. As We Serve Him, He Makes That Service Acceptable To Himself By Grace, And Then Rewards Us A Hundredfold By Grace.

Because God Is Sovereign, He Is Able To Answer. Because He Is Faithful To His Promises, He Will Answer.

As We Become Soft And Lazy In Our Bodies, We Tend To Become Soft And Lazy Spiritually.

Lord, I Am Willing To Receive What You Give. To Lack What You Withhold. To Relinquish What You Take, To Suffer What You Inflict, To Be What You Require.

God In His Love Always Wills What Is Best For Us. In His Wisdom He Always Knows What Is Best, And In His Sovereignty He Has The Power To Bring It About.

As We Search The Scriptures, We Must Allow Them To Search Us, To Sit In Judgment Upon Our Character And Conduct.

God Is Worthy Of My Loving Obedience Because Of Who He Is, Not Because Of What He Does.

Only When We're Thoroughly Convinced That The Christian Life Is Entirely Of Grace Are We Able To Serve God Out Of A Grateful And Loving Heart.

As We Grow In Holiness, We Grow In Hatred Of Sin; And God, Being Infinitely Holy, Has An Infinite Hatred Of Sin.

This Is The Secret Of Being Content: To Learn And Accept That We Live Daily By God's Unmerited Favor Given Through Christ, And That We Can Respond To Any And Every Situation By His Divine Enablement Through The Holy Spirit.

Only Those Who Walk In Holiness Experience True Joy.

Every Day Is Important For Us Because It Is A Day Ordained By God. If We Are Bored With Life There Is Something Wrong With Our Concept Of God And His Involvement In Our Daily Lives. Even The Most Dull And Tedious Days Of Our Lives Are Ordained By God And Ought To Be Used By Us To Glorify Him.

Legalism Insists On Conformity To Manmade Religious Rules And Requirements, Which Are Often Unspoken But Are Nevertheless Very Real... There Are Far Too Many Instances Within Christendom Where Our Traditions And Rules Are, In Practice, More Important Than God's Commands.

It Is Just As Important To Trust God As It Is To Obey Him. When We Disobey God We Defy His Authority And Despise His Holiness. But When We Fail To Trust God We Doubt His Sovereignty And Question His Goodness.

...god Has Made Provision For Our Holiness. Through Christ He Has Delivered Us From Sin's Reign So That We Now Can Resist Sin. But The Responsibility For Resisting Is Ours. God Does Not Do That For Us. To Confuse The Potential For Resisting (which God Provided) With The Responsibility For Resisting (which Is Ours) Is To Court Disaster In Our Pursuit Of Holiness.

Christ Exhausted The Cup Of God’s Wrath. For All Who Trust In Him There Is Nothing More In The Cup. It Is Empty.

God Intends That Everyone Who Has Embraced The Gospel Become A Part Of The Great Enterprise Of Spreading The Gospel.

The Solution To Staying On The Right Side Of The Fine Line Between Using And Abusing Grace Is Repentance. The Road To Repentance Is Godly Sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10). Godly Sorrow Is Developed When We Focus On The True Nature Of Sin As An Offense Against God Rather Than Something That Makes Us Feel Guilty.

The Sin Of Worldliness Is A Preoccupation With The Things Of This Temporal Life. It's Accepting And Going Along With The Views And Practices Of Society Around Us Without Discerning If They Are Biblical. I Believe That The Key To Our Tendencies Toward Worldliness Lies Primarily In The Two Words “going Along”. We Simply Go Along With The Values And Practices Of Society.

To Live By Grace Is To Live Solely By The Merit Of Jesus Christ. To Live By Grace Is To Base My Entire Relationship With God, Including My Acceptance And Standing With Him, On My Union With Christ.

God's Word Must Be So Strongly Fixed In Our Minds That It Becomes The Dominant Influence In Our Thoughts, Our Attitudes, And Our Actions. One Of The Most Effective Ways Of Influencing Our Minds Is Through Memorizing Scripture. David Said, "i Have Hidden Your Word In My Heart That I Might Not Sin Against You" (psm. 119:11).

Bitterness Arises In Our Hearts When We Do Not Trust In The Sovereign Rule Of God In Our Lives

Nothing Cuts The Nerve Of The Desire To Pursue Holiness As Much As A Sense Of Guilt. On The Contrary, Nothing So Motivates Us To Deal With Sin In Our Lives As Does The Understanding And Application Of The Two Truth That Our Sins Are Forgiven And The Dominion Of Sin Is Broken Because Of Our Union With Christ.

In His Infinite Wisdom, God Allows Trials In Order To Develop Perseverance In Us And To Cause Us To Fix Our Hopes On The Glory That Is Yet To Be Revealed... Our Faith And Perseverance Can Grow Only Under The Pain Of Trial.

God Does Not Delight In Our Sufferings. He Brings Only That Which Is Necessary, But He Does Not Shrink From That Which Will Help Us Grow.

The Person Who Fears God Seeks To Live All Of Life To The Glory Of God... All The Activities Of Life Should Be Pursued With The Aim Of Glorifying God.

Worship From The Heart In Times Of Adversity Implies An Attitude Of Humble Acceptance On Our Part Of God's Right To Do As He Pleases In Our Lives.

The Bible Is Full Of God's Promises To Provide For Us Spiritually And Materially, To Never Forsake Us, To Give Us Peace In Times Of Difficult Circumstances, To Cause All Circumstances To Work Together For Our Good, And Finally To Bring Us Safely Home To Glory. Not One Of Those Promises Is Dependent Upon Our Performance. They Are All Dependent On The Grace Of God Given To Us Through Jesus Christ.

Gentleness Is An Active Trait, Describing The Manner In Which We Should Treat Others. Meekness Is A Passive Trait, Describing The Proper Christian Response When Others Mistreat Us.

If We Are Going To Learn To Trust God In Adversity, We Must Believe God Will Allow Nothing To Subvert His Glory So He Will Allow Nothing To Spoil The Good He Is Working Out In Us And For Us.

We're More Concerned About Our Own "victory" Over Sin Than We Are About The Fact That Our Sins Grieve God's Heart.

In The Deceitfulness Of Our Hearts, We Sometimes Play With Temptation By Entertaining The Thought That We Can Always Confess And Later Ask Forgiveness. Such Thinking Is Exceedingly Dangerous. God’s Judgement Is Without Partiality. He Never Overlooks Our Sin. He Never Decides Not To Bother, Since The Sin Is Only A Small One. No, God Hates Sin Intensely Whenever And Wherever He Finds It.

Our Sins Are Forgiven And We Are Accepted As Righteous By God Because Of Both The Sinless Life And Sin-bearing Death Of Our Lord Jesus Christ. There Is No Greater Motivation For Dealing With Sin In Our Lives Than The Realization Of These Two Glorious Truths Of The Gospel.

I Realize Anew That, Just As We Must Learn To Obey God One Choice At A Time, We Must Also Learn To Trust God One Circumstance At A Time. Trusting God Is Not A Matter Of My Feelings But Of My Will. I Never Feel Like Trusting God When Adversity Strikes, But I Can Choose To Do So Even When I Don’t Feel Like It. That Act Of The Will, Though, Must Be Based On Belief, And Belief Must Be Based On Truth.

This Is The Essence Of God's Sovereignty; His Absolute Independence To Do As He Pleases And His Absolute Control Over The Actions Of All His Creatures. No Creature, Person, Or Empire Can Either Thwart His Will Or Act Outside The Bounds Of His Will.

The Purpose Of God's Discipline Is Not To Punish Us But To Transform Us.

We Must Allow The Bible To Say What Is Says, Not What We Think It Ought To Say.

Sanctification Is The Work Of The Holy Spirit In Us Whereby Our Inner Being Is Progressively Changed, Freeing Us More And More From Sinful Traits And Developing Within Us Over Time The Virtues Of Christlike Character.

From Our Limited Vantage Point, Our Lives Are Marked By An Endless Series Of Contingencies. We Frequently Find Ourselves, Instead Of Acting As We Planned, Reacting To An Unexpected Turn Of Events. We Make Plans But Are Often Forced To Change Those Plans. But There Are No Contingencies With God. Our Unexpected, Forced Change Of Plans Is A Part Of His Plan. God Is Never Surprised; Never Caught Off Guard; Never Frustrated By Unexpected Developments. God Does As He Pleases And That Which Pleases Him Is Always For His Glory And Our Good.

Because Peace Is A Fruit Of The Spirit, We Are Dependent Upon The Spirit's Work In Our Lives To Produce The Desire And The Means To Pursue Peace. But We Are Also Responsible To Use The Means He Has Given Us And To Take All Practical Steps To Attain Both Peace Within And Peace With Others.

May We Be As Severe With Ourselves Over Our Own Subtle Sins As We Are With The Vile Sins We Condemn In Others

Our Worst Days Are Never So Bad That You Are Beyond The Reach Of God's Grace. And Your Best Days Are Never So Good That You Are Beyond The Need Of God's Grace.

Don't Believe Everything You Think. You Cannot Be Trusted To Tell Yourself The Truth. Stay In The Word.

Trials Always Change Our Relationship With God. Either They Drive Us To Him, Or They Drive Us Away From Him. The Extent Of Our Fear Of Him And Our Awareness Of His Love For Us Determine In Which Direction We Will Move.

Justified" Is Even Better Than "just As If I'd Never Sinned." It Is Also "just As If I'd Always Obeyed.

The Cure For Impatience With The Fulfillment Of God's Timetable Is To Believe His Promises, Obey His Will, And Leave The Results To Him. So Often When God's Timetable Stretches Into Years We Become Discouraged And...want To Give Up Or Try To Work Something Out On Our Own.

We Obey God's Law, Not To Be Loved But Because We Are Loved In Christ.

Every Day God Patiently Bears With Us, And Every Day We Are Tempted To Become Impatient With Our Friends, Neighbors, And Loved Ones. And Our Faults And Failures Before God Are So Much More Serious Than The Petty Actions Of Others That Tend To Irritate Us! God Calls Us To Graciously Bear With The Weaknesses Of Others, Tolerating Them And Forgiving Them Even As He Has Forgiven Us.

Holiness Is Not A Series Of Do’s And Don’ts But Conformity To The Character Of God And Obedience To The Will Of God.

Grace... Expresses Two Complementary Thoughts: God's Unmerited Favor To Us Through Christ, And God's Divine Assistance To Us Through The Holy Spirit.

Giving Thanks To God For Both His Temporal And Spiritual Blessings In Our Lives Is Not Just A Nice Thing To Do - It Is The Moral Will Of God. Failure To Give Him The Thanks Due Him Is Sin.

As We Grow In The Knowledge Of God's Holiness, Even Though We Are Growing In The Practice Of Holiness, It Seems The Gap Between Our Knowledge And Our Practice Always Gets Wider. This Is The Holy Spirit's Way Of Drawing Us To More And More Holiness.

We Need To Call Sin What The Bible Calls It And Not Soften It With Modern Expressions Borrowed From Our Culture.

The Gospel Is Not Only The Most Important Message In All Of History; It Is The Only Essential Message In All Of History.

Every Day Is Important For Us Because It Is A Day Ordained By God.

Not Only Has The Debt (of Our Sins) Been Fully Paid, There Is No Possibility Of Ever Going Into Debt Again.

Godly Character Flows Out Of Devotion To God And Practically Confirms The Reality Of That Devotion.

We Take What We Think Are The Tools Of Spiritual Transformation Into Our Own Hands And Try To Sculpt Ourselves Into Robust Christlike Specimens. But Spiritual Transformation Is Primarily The Work Of The Holy Spirit. He Is The Master Sculptor

A Willingness To Share Our Possessions With One Another Is A Very Important Aspect Of True Biblical Community.

Worship Is The Specific Act Of Ascribing To God The Glory, Majesty, Honor, And Worthiness Which Are His.

Many Christians Have What We Might Call A 'cultural Holiness.' They Adapt To The Character And Behavior Pattern Of Christians Around Them...but God Has Not Called Us To Be Like Those Around Us. He Has Called Us To Be Like Himself. Holiness Is Nothing Less Than Conformity To The Character Of God.

In Order To Trust God, We Must Always View Our Adverse Circumstances Through The Eyes Of Faith, Not Of Sense. And Just As The Faith Of Salvation Comes Through Hearing The Message Of The Gospel (romans 10:17), So The Faith To Trust God In Adversity Comes Through The Word Of God Alone. It Is Only In The Scriptures That We Find An Adequate View Of God's Relationship To And Involvement In Our Painful Circumstances. It Is Only From The Scriptures, Applied To Our Hearts By The Holy Spirit, That We Receive The Grace To Trust God In Adversity.

Some Days We May Be More Acutely Conscious Of Our Sinfulness And Hence More Aware Of Our Need Of His Grace, But There Is Never A Day When We Can Stand Before Him On Our Own Two Feet Of Performance, When We Are Worthy Enough To Deserve His Blessing.

So Often We Try To Develop Christian Character And Conduct Without Taking The Time To Develop God-centered Devotion. We Try To Please God Without Taking The Time To Walk With Him And Develop A Relationship With Him. This Is Impossible To Do.

Preach The Gospel To Yourself Every Day.

Preaching The Gospel

The Holy Spirit Makes Us Aware Of Our Lack Of Holiness To Stimulate Us To Deeper Yearning And Striving For Holiness. But Satan Will Attempt To Use The Holy Spirit’s Work To Discourage Us.

That Which Should Distinguish The Suffering Of Believers From Unbelievers Is The Confidence That Our Suffering Is Under The Control Of An All-powerful And All-loving God. Our Suffering Has Meaning And Purpose In God's Eternal Plan, And He Brings Or Allows To Come Into Our Lives Only That Which Is For His Glory And Our Good.

Biblical Community Is First Of All The Sharing Of A Common Life In Christ.

How Then Can We Deal With Our Tendency Toward Worldliness? It Is Not By Determining That We Will Not Be Worldly, But By Committing Ourselves To Becoming More Godly.

Both Gentleness And Meekness Are Born Of Power, Not Weakness. There Is A Pseudo-gentlene Ss That Is Effeminate, And There Is A Pseudo-meekness That Is Cowardly. But A Christian Is To Be Gentle And Meek Because Those Are Godlike Virtues... We Should Never Be Afraid, Therefore, That The Gentleness Of The Spirit Means Weakness Of Character. It Takes Strength, God's Strength, To Be Truly Gentle.

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