I just want to encourage you if you aren’t attending church, please do!  If you do, be sure to find one that is faithful to the preaching of the Word of God.  One excellent scripture-based measure of a healthy church is the 9 Marks of a Healthy Church from 9Marks Ministries (Book; Kindle; Summary).   These 9 marks will help guide you in finding that church where God will grow you through the preaching of His Word.  They also have a Church Search you can use to find a good church in your area.  If you’re not currently attending a good church give it a try!  All it takes is a few seconds and a Sunday

Faith is an appropriating grace.

Faith looks upon God, and says with David,
“This God is my God forever and ever!
He shall be my guide unto the death!”

Faith looks upon Christ, and says with the spouse,
“I am my Beloved’s–and my Beloved is mine!”

Faith looks upon an immortal crown, and says
“Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of glory.”

Faith looks upon the righteousness of Christ,
and says, “This righteousness is mine to cover me.”

Faith looks upon the mercy of Christ, and
says, “This mercy is mine to pardon me.”

Faith looks upon the power of Christ, and
says, “This power is mine to support me.”

Faith looks upon the wisdom of Christ, and
says, “This wisdom is mine to direct me.”

Faith looks upon the blood of Christ, and
says, “This blood is mine to save me.”

Faith has a kind of omnipotence in it;
it is able to do all things.

(Thomas Brooks, “Heaven on Earth” 1667)

Life is the mightiest of all possessions. From death to life is the mightiest of all changes. And no change short of this will ever avail to fit a person’s soul for heaven. It is not a little mending and alteration – a little cleansing and purifying – a little painting and patching – a little whitewashing and varnishing – a little turning over a new leaf and putting on a new outside that is needed. It is the bringing in of something altogether new – the planting within us of a new nature, a new being – a new principle – a new mind. This alone, and nothing less than this, will ever meet the necessities of person’s soul. We need not merely a new skin, but a new heart.

As a Christian, I believe in one entitlement.

I’m entitled to Hell. That’s the only entitlement I have. That’s all I deserve, because of my sin. Anything else is grace, an unmerited bonus from the God of all grace. I don’t deserve a breath of life, a crumb of food, a drop of water, a stitch of clothing, a cent in my wallet, or an hour of education. I’m not entitled to one friend, one vacation, one verse of Scripture, or even one sermon. I’m certainly not entitled to salvation and heaven. I’m entitled to damnation and Hell.

That sense of entitlement makes me seek mercy, receive mercy, enjoy mercy, and be merciful to others. To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, “What have I that I did not receive as a free gift of divine grace? How therefore can I ever boast as if I had actually been entitled to it or earned it?”

So, there are basically only two ways to live: with a proud and angry sense of entitlement or with a humble and thankful sense of responsibility.

To summarize, “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

You can listen to the full podcast on Challies website.  It’s a quick listen, only about  14 minutes long, but very informative and packed with a lot of truth.

True Christianity is a fight!

True Christianity! Let us mind that word “true.” There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity. There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday and call themselves Christians. They make a “profession” of faith in Christ. Their names are in the baptismal register. They are reckoned Christians while they live. They are married with a Christian marriage service. They mean to be buried as Christians when they die.

But you never see any “fight” about their religion! Of spiritual strifeand exertion and conflict and self-denial and watching and warring–they know literally nothing at all. Such Christianity may satisfy man, and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable; but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the religion which the Lord Jesus founded, and His apostles preached. It is not the religion which produces real holiness. True Christianity is “a fight!”

The principal fight of the Christian is with . . .
the world,
the flesh, and
the devil.
These are his never-dying foes! These are the three chief enemies against whom he must wage war. With a corrupt heart, a busy deviland an ensnaring world–he must either “fight” or be lost!

To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil–is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leads to destruction! We have no choice or option. We must either fight–or be lost!

It is a fight of universal necessity. No rank or class or age can plead exemption, or escape the battle–all alike must carry arms and go to war.
All have by nature a heart full of pride, unbelief, sloth, worldliness and sin!
All are living in a world beset with snares, traps and pitfalls for the soul.
All have near them a busy, restless, malicious devil.
All, from the queen in her palace down to the pauper in the workhouse–all must fight, if they would be saved.

We may take comfort about our souls, if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness.

The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians, is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week. But of the great spiritual warfare–its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests–of all this they appear to know nothing at all.

(J.C. Ryle, “The Fight!“)

Is there any cross in your Christianity?

There is a common worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have–a cheap Christianity . . .
which offends nobody,
which requires no sacrifice,
which costs nothing–and is worth nothing!

But if you really are in earnest about your soul,
if your religion is something more than a mere fashionable Sunday cloak,
if you are determined to live by the Bible,
if you are resolved to be a New Testament Christian–
then you will soon find that you must carry a cross. You must endure hard things; you must suffer in behalf of your soul, as Moses did–or you cannot be saved.

The offense of the cross is not ceased!

God’s true people are still a despised little flock.

True evangelical religion still brings with it reproach and scorn.

A real servant of God will still be thought an enthusiast and a fool by many.

If there is no cross–there will be no crown!

Moses left the ease and comfort of Pharaoh’s court–and openly took part with the despised children of Israel. In fact, if ever a man seemed to be choosing pain, trials, poverty, distress, anxiety, perhaps even death, with his eyes open–Moses was that man!

Let us think how astonishing was this choice.

Flesh and blood naturally shrink from pain. We draw back by a kind of instinct from suffering, and avoid it if we can. If two courses of action are set before us, which both seem right–we take that which is the least disagreeable to flesh and blood.

But look here! Here is a man of like passions with ourselves, and he actually chooses affliction! Moses saw the cup of suffering that was before him if he left Pharaoh’s court–and he chose it, preferred it, and took it up!

Faith told Moses that affliction and suffering are not real evils. They are . . .
the school of God, in which He trains the children of grace for glory;
the medicines, which are needful to purify our corrupt hearts;
the furnace, which must burn away our dross;
the knife, which must cut the ties which bind us to the world.

(J.C. Ryle, “Faith’s Choice!” 1879)

I must lament and confess my omissions of duty, my neglect of it and triflings in it; and that I have done so little since I came into the world of the great work I was sent into the world about, so very little to answer the end of my creation or of my redemption, of my birth and of my baptism; and that I have profited no more by the means of grace.

I have been as a fig tree planted in the vineyard, and You have come many years looking for fruit from me without finding any; and therefore I might justly be cut down and thrown into the fire for using up the ground: Luke 13:6-7(NASB) You have come looking for good grapes, but behold worthless ones; Isaiah 5:4(NASB) for I have been an empty vine bringing forth fruit for myself. Hosea 10:1(NASB)

I have known the right thing to do, but have not done it. James 4:17(NASB) I have hid my Master’s money, Matthew 25:18(NASB) and therefore deserve the doom of the wicked and lazy servant. Matthew 25:26(NASB)

I have been an unfaithful steward who has squandered my Lord’s possessions, Luke 16:1(NASB) for one sinner destroys much good. Ecclesiastes 9:18(NASB)

Many a price has been put in my hands to buy wisdom, which I have had no sense to; Proverbs 17:16(NASB) or like the fool my heart has been directed toward the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2(NASB)

My childhood and the prime of life were fleeting, Ecclesiastes 11:10(NASB) and I have finished my years like a sigh. Psalm 90:9(NASB)

I have not recognized or improved the day of my visitation; Luke 19:44(NASB) have not prepared my food in the summer nor gathered my provision in the harvest, though I have had chiefs, officers, and rulers. Proverbs 6:7-8(NASB)

I am slow of heart to understand and believe; Luke 24:25(NASB) and whereas by this time I might have been a teacher of others, I have yet to learn the elementary principles of the oracles of God: I need milk and not solid food. Hebrews 5:12(NASB)

I have done away with reverence and hindered meditation before God; Job 15:4(NASB) have not called on Your name, nor aroused myself to take hold of You. Isaiah 64:7(NASB)

I have come to You as Your people come and have sat before You as Your people sit and have heard Your words, when my heart at the same time has been going after my gain. Ezekiel 33:31(NASB) And thus have I brought the torn and the lame and the sick for sacrifice; have offered that to my God which I would not have offered to my governor; Malachi 1:8(NASB) and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord a blemished animal, when I had a male in my flock. Malachi 1:14(NASB)