Heavenly Springs

“Growth in grace is a mystery of grace, which it is beyond us to monitor in either ourselves or others. Observables, like zeal, knowledge, self-image, and behavior patterns, are ambiguous: they may be carnal at bottom, though spiritual-looking on the surface. The heart of growth is growth in the heart, which only God can search and know.

However, something of our spiritual stature may be discerned by our responses to what we call crises of decisions and Scripture calls temptations. Those who deal with crises, or temptations, better than they once did show that they have grown in grace in the interim.

Example: Abraham. Twice, early on in his life of faith, to save his skin he passed off his wife as his sister, free flesh ripe for the royal harem. Neither humility nor adoration nor obedience nor faith nor love was expressed in that action. But some decades later Abraham was ready at God’s call to sacrifice Isaac. The difference between that first response and later response to crises of decision showed that over the years Abraham had grown in grace.

Do you and I really grow in grace? I wonder.”

HT:  Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

In Matthew 10:28, Jesus told his disciples: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” In other words, the one with the power to sentence body and soul to eternal damnation is God.  If you are going to be afraid of anyone, it should be Him.

Question: Why is it then, that so many Christians would sooner trust an unlearned pastor with the supreme task of watching over and giving an account for their souls (Hebrews 13:7), than they would a doctor with no formal education, but who happens to be really good in biology?

A.W. Pink has something to say about these kinds of shepherds and their preaching.

“It is because so many untaught men, unregenerate men, now occupy the pulpits that “another gospel” (Gal. 1:6) is being so widely and generally disseminated. Multitudes who have neither “tasted that the Lord is gracious” nor have “the fear of the Lord” in them, have from various motives and considerations invaded the sacred calling of the ministry and out of the abundance of their corrupt hearts they speak. Being blind themselves, they lead the blind into the ditch. Having no love for the Shepherd they have none for the sheep, being but “hirelings.” They are themselves “of the world” and therefore “the world heareth them” (1 John 4:5), for they preach that which is acceptable unto fallen human nature and as like attracts like, they gather around themselves a company of admirers who flatter and support them. They will bring in just enough of God’s Truth to deceive the unwary and give an appearance of orthodoxy to their message, but not sufficient of the Truth, especially the searching portions thereof, to render their hearers uncomfortable by destroying their false peace. They will name Christ but not preach Him, mention the Gospel but not expound it.”

Online Source

Ecclesiastes 4:9 says that, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.” I think this could be the beauty of the church.

When the church is functioning properly your strength makes up for my lack, and my strength makes up for yours.  One of the greatest joys that I have known is the fellowship of the saints.  I pray for the body of saints that God so sovereignly, yet tenderly placed me in.  I pray that believers everywhere come to  know the joy that can only be experienced when the saints of God come together with one chief end — to glorify Christ.

“We should not … think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, an optional addition to the exercises of private devotion. We should recognize rather that such fellowship is a spiritual necessity; for God has made us in such a way that our fellowship with himself is fed by our fellowship with fellow-Christians, and requires to be so fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment.”

- J.I Packer quoted by Jerry Bridges in True Fellowship, page 18.

“If we’re children of Christ and we stand before the judgment seat of God on the last day and God says to us, “You’re covered by the blood of my Son, and it’s a good thing, because you did this, this, this, this, and this,” we won’t say, “But, Lord, I did this in Your name, I did that in Your name. You really aren’t being fair.” However, there will be many who will respond in just that manner. Jesus is going to say to those people, “Please leave, I don’t know who you are.” A person who trusts God trusts not only His promises but His judgment. Even in a prayer of contrition, such a person acknowledges that God would be absolutely justified to destroy him for his sin. You can never come to God’s church, come to the Lord’s Table, thinking that God owes you something. If you do, you’re better off not to pray, not to commune, because you are blaspheming and slandering the Giver of every good and perfect gift, Who has treated you only with mercy.”

HT:  Ligionier

Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load

These guilty hands are raised
Filthy rags are all I bring
But I have come to hide beneath Your wings
These holy hands are raised
Washed in the fountain of Your grace
And now I wear Your righteousness

- Horatious Bonar

HT: Of First Importance

“Every appearance of hypocrisy, does not prove the person who manifests it to be a hypocrite. You should carefully distinguish between the appearance and the predominance of hypocricy. There are remains of deceitfulness in the best hearts; this was examplified in David and Peter; but the prevailing frame of their hearts being upright, they were not denominated hypocrites for their conduct.”

- John Flavel

HT:   Hail and Fire

“for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” (1 John 3:20)

“None have more pride than those who dream that they have none. You may labour against vainglory till you conceive that you are humble, and the fond conceit of your humility will prove to be pride in full bloom. It apes humility full well, and is then most truly pride. Pride is a sin with a thousand lives; it seems impossible to kill it, it flourishes on that which should be its poison, glorying in its shame. It is a sin with a thousand shapes; by perpetual change it escapes capture. It seems impossible to hold it; the vapoury imp slips from you, only to appear in another form and mock your fruitless pursuit. To die to pride and self one would need to die himself.”

- Charles Spurgeon

HT: Exploring the Mind & Heart of the Prince of Preachers

In the seventh chapter of Disciplines of a Godly Woman, Barbara Hughes discusses the importance of cultivating the discipline of contentment. She cites one dictionary definition of contentment as, “desiring no more than one has; satisfied.” While it’s perfectly natural to have desires and motivations, we must never forget that “the unchangeable factors in our lives ought to teach us that true contentment can only come from God-and that we must seek it in Him alone.”

She shares this little poem written by an eighteenth-century woman known only as, “A Poor Methodist Woman”. It is evident that, whoever this woman was, “got” what Paul meant when he said, “I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances.” (Philippians 4:11).

My prayer is that God produce in me the plain, sweet, and contented spirit that this woman so elegantly displays.

I do not know
when I have had happier times
in my soul
than when I have been sitting at work,
with nothing before me
but a candle and a white cloth,
and hearing no sound
but that of my own breath;
with God in my soul
and heaven in my eye.
I rejoice in being exactly what I am
-a creature capable of loving God,
and who, as long as God lives,
must be happy.
I get up
and look a while out the window.
I gaze at the moon and stars,
the work of an Almighty Hand.
I think of the grandeur of the universe
and then sit down
and think myself
one of the happiest
beings in it.

LORD JESUS CHRIST,

Fill me with the Spirit that I may be occupied with his presence.
I am blind – send him to make me see;
dark – let him say, “Let there be light’!
May he give me faith to behold
my name engraven in thy hand,
my soul and body redeemed by thy blood,
my sinfulness covered by the life
of pure obedience.
Replenish me by his revealing grace,
that I may realise my indissoluble union with thee;
that I may know thou has espoused me
to thyself for ever,
in righteousness, love, mercy, faithfulness;
that I am one with thee,
as a branch with its stock, as a building
with its foundation.
May his comforts cheer me in my sorrows,
his strength sustain me in my trials,
his blessings revive me in my weariness,
his presence render me a fruitful tree of holiness,
his might establish me in peace and joy,
his incitements make me ceaseless in prayer,
his animation kindle in me undying devotion.
Send him as the searcher of my heart,
to show me more of corruptions
and helplessness
that I may flee to thee,
cling to thee,
rest on thee,
as the beginning and end of my salvation.
May I never vex him by indifference
and waywardness,
grieve him by my cold welcome,
resist him by my hard rebellion.

Answer my prayers, O Lord,
for thy great name’s sake.

Have you noticed that no matter how many times charismatic televangelists make outlandish false prophecies, they never lack for followers, and they don’t stop claiming the Lord has spoken directly to them?

Benny Hinn, for example, made a series of celebrated prophetic utterances in December of 1989, none of which came true. He confidently told his congregation at the Orlando Christian Center that God had revealed to him Fidel Castro would die sometime in the 1990s; the homosexual community in America would be destroyed by fire before 1995; and a major earthquake would cause havoc on the east coast before the year 2000. He was wrong on all counts, of course.

Read the rest here.