This quote about the Puritans struck me.  The Puritans were they way they were because they were so focused on God.  Reminds me of 2 Tim 2:4.

The Puritans were men whose minds derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging, in general terms, an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of a Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute.  To know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy Him, was with them the great end of existence…They recognized no title to superiority but His favor; and, confident of that favor, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world.  If they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God….The intensity of their feelings on one subject made them tranquil on every other…cleared their minds from every vulgar passion.

What do you set your mind on?  May you think of God more today.

Taken from Macaulay’s Milton, cited in Richard Ellsworth Day, The Shadow of the Broad Brim: The Life Story of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Heir of the Puritans, Chicago: The Judson Press, 1934, p. 118.

Two quotes from commentaries on Ecclesiastes that remind us that we have no second chances on life.  We only have one life to live, and we had better make it count:

…[There is a] need for us to work with all our power in this life since we will have no further opportunity for this sort of work after we have left our bodies. (commenting on Ecclesiastes 9:4-10)

We shall not be brought back again for a second chance to cooperate with God in doing His will on this side of eternity. (commenting on Ecc 3:22)

It is so easy to put things off.  We tell ourselves that we’ll start praying more tomorrow, we’ll read our Bibles tomorrow, we’ll go visit that unsaved neighbor tomorrow, we’ll work on that sin problem next time temptation comes up…  Friends, we’re running out of tomorrows!  One of these days will be our last on earth, and we can’t come back to do all those things we’ve postponed.  We are only promised today, and we must make the most of this day.  Let us be diligent to do today whatever God has asked us to do.  There won’t be opportunity after your last breath to make up for lost time.  Let’s be diligent about our time and opportunities!

See also James 4:13-14 and all the NT references to “today.”

I misplaced the source information, but I think the quote is from: J. Stafford Wright, “Ecclesiastes” in Expositor’s Bible Commentary Vol 5 (1991). {here}

A quote that is very appropriate:

No amount of emphasis on grace can justify taking liberties with God, for the very concept of grace demands gratitude, and gratitude cannot be casual.”

In other words, we cannot use the fact that we are saved by grace alone as a justification for becoming careless with God.

Under pre-Christian times,  one approached God based on the commands of the Law–”do this” and “don’t do this!”  With that kind of system, one had to be careful how he treated God, otherwise he might be punished by God for approaching God in an unacceptable way (cf. Nadab & Abihu, Aaron’s sons, Lev 10:1-3).

Now that we’re saved by grace alone regardless of our good or evil works (Eph 2:8-9), we might be tempted to treat God however we want since He cannot eternally condemn us or unsave us based upon our works.  But this is not the case!  Grace is not a license for us to do whatever we want with regards to God!  We cannot approach Him any old way we want.  He still is a holy God with standards that must be met.  Grace, rather, should drive us to humble gratitude for what God has done for us, and teach us willingly to obey what God has commanded of us.  True gratitude is thoughtful and careful to express itself rightly, not however it feels.  True gratitude is purposeful.

Quote from: Derek Kidner, Ecclesiastes (Intervarsity Press: 1984). {here}

A brief but poignant quote about prayer:

Prayer is not reciting a list as quickly as possible so as to rush once more into the round of daily life…

In other words, when you pray, don’t be in a hurry to just name off to God all the requests on your list so you can get back to the chores and busyness of daily life.  Prayer is about communication with God.  It is about talking to Him, not telling Him a bunch of things that He ought to do.  It is also about listening and meditating on His Word.  So, please set aside some day every day when you just talk with God.  Make it true communication.  Perhaps even spend a few minutes with God without asking for anything–no request list!  Just praise Him or thank Him; don’t ask.  Make your prayer life part of your relationship to God.

Quote from: J. Stafford Wright, “Ecclesiastes” in Expositor’s Bible Commentary Vol 5 (1991). {here}

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was a pastor among the Plymouth Brethren.  He was the first to majorly develop the eschatological system of Dispensationalism (more {here}), whose primary emphasis (one of two) is a distinction between Israel and the church.  In a recent Bibliotheca Sacra article, writer Paul Wilkinson shares some interesting things about him:

The immediately following account is of Darby visiting a deathly-ill boy and sharing the Gospel with him:

“…’After upwards of an hour’s toilsome walking…over steep hills…[and]…heavy marshes,’ Darby arrived at a peasant’s cottage and found the young lad with his mother, lying on a bed of straw ‘in a state of extreme suffering and exhaustion.’  The boy stared at Darby ‘like a frightened animal.’  Darby was immediately ’struck with dismay and almost despair,’ not knowing how to reach this lost soul who was close to death, illiterate, and ‘altogether ignorant of the way of salvation.’  Darby records how he ‘raised up’ his heart in prayer, asking the Lord to direct him ‘in this most difficult and trying position’ and to open to him ‘by His Spirit of wisdom a way to set forth the glad tidings of salvation so as to be understood by this poor benighted wanderer.’  As Darby enquired about his condition, the boy told him how he had fallen ill after searching the mountains in inclement weather for one of his father’s sheep, which had gone astray.  Having found the distressed animal, the boy, whose lungs had been pierced by ‘the cold mountain blast,’ lifted it on his shoulders and carried it home, much to the delight of his father.  As the boy declared, ‘I did my best to save the sheep.’  The Lord had provided ‘this happy opening’ for Darby, who proceeded to use the story to tell him the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7). ‘The Lord mercifully opened not only his understanding, but his heart also, to receive the things spoken.  He himself was the lost sheep, Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd,  who was sent by the Father to seek for him….My poor sick lad seemed to drink it all in.  He received it all; he understood it all.  I never saw a clearer proof of the power of the divine Spirit to apply the Word of God….He accepted Christ as his Savior [and] earnestly prayed to be carried home like the lost sheep in the heavenly Shepherd’s arms.  He died humbly, peacefully, almost exulting, with the name of Jesus, my Savior and my Shepherd, the last upon his lips.’”

Wilkinson with Philip Hallie in Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed and David Brog in Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State points out  that Darby’s influence among some villagers in the French village Le Chambon led these villagers to harbor some 5,000 Jews during the Holocaust.  They loved the Jews, and they were willing to risk their own lives to help them.  One account in this village includes a German Jewish lady visiting a farm of some Darby followers.  When the Jewess asked to buy some eggs, the farmer’s wife asked her if she was Jewish.  She affirmed that, only to have the farmer’s wife summon the whole family down to where the two women were standing.  The Jewess, who had become very nervous,  was completely taken aback when the farmer’s wife gladly showed her family this representative of the Chosen People.  They loved the Jews, and this love came through John Darby’s influence.  The main organizer of this effort to save the Jews in Le Chambon was Andre Trocme, who was posthumously honored as a Righteous Among the Nations in 1972 by Yad VaShem (Israel’s Holocaust memorial museum).

Quotes by Darby:

Darby loved the church all his life, but “there was, however, another flock that Darby took into his heart,  a flock despised, neglected, and rejected not only by the world, but by many in the church.”  This was, of course, the Jews.

“Israel is always the people of God [and] cannot cease to be the people of God.”

“The Jews are the habitual object of the thoughts of God; for, although He cannot recognize them for the moment, as being under His chastening hand, they are nevertheless still His people…”

Material taken from Wilkinson, Paul R. “John Nelson Darby and His Views on Israel.” Bibliotheca Sacra 166, no. 661 (January-March 2009): 84-99.

Paul has written a book with Thomas Ice on John Darby’s influence in supporting the Jews and Zionism: Wilkinson, Paul and Thomas Ice. For Zion’s Sake: Christian Zionism and the Role of John Nelson Darby. Wipf and Stock, 2007. {here}

Bishop Ryle always has poignant things to say.  This quote arrested my attention the other day:

“If you love Me, keep My commandments….You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 14:15, 15:14).  Plainer words than these it would be difficult to find, and woe to those who neglect them!  Surely that man must be in an unhealthy state of soul who can think of all that Jesus suffered, and yet cling to those sins for which that suffering was undergone.  It was sin that wove the crown of thorns; it was sin that pierced our Lord’s hands, and feet, and side; it was sin that brought Him to Gethsemane and Calvary, to the cross, and to the grave.  Cold must our hearts be if we do not hate sin and labor to get rid of it, though we may have to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye in doing it.

Sin certainly is appealing, but can we honestly sin when we are thinking of what Christ did to redeem us from that sin?  Yes it will hurt us to rid our lives of hardened sins that we like so much, but for the love of the Savior, is that too much to ask of us?  Can we really continue in habitual sin, knowing how great a cost Christ paid to win us?  God help us not to do so!

Quotation taken from J.C. Ryle’s amazing book Holiness {here}.

Chapter 12 “The Discipline of Watching”

We know that we are sinners.  We want to live godly lives.  But sin is so powerful.  We must constantly be on guard against sin, watching for it to rear its ugly head, so that through the power of the Spirit and the Scriptures we can defeat that temptation.

We must know our enemy.  Our enemy is us, though!  Our sin nature is our greatest enemy and it is in us!!  This means that we must know ourselves.  We must study our weaknesses.

If you know you are weak in a particular sin in particular circumstances, then make a commitment never to allow yourself to be in that situation so that you can be tempted.  Don’t let yourself be alone with the computer if you struggle with pornography.  Don’t buy lots of sweets if you struggle with gluttony.  Set up boundaries for yourself so that you can avoid temptation.

“Having identified our own areas of vulnerability, we should make definite commitments regarding them, pray about them, and memorize specific verses of Scripture that will strengthen us against those temptations.”

“We must be alert for those particular sins as they seek to assert themselves.”

Material including all quotations taken from:
The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2006). {here}

This is part of a series of posts {here}.

Chapter 11 “The Discipline of Choices” Pt.4

Struggle

“Mortification involves a struggle between what we know to be right (our convictions) and what we desire to do.”

“Mortification is going to involve struggle.”  “It is always emotionally painful to say no to those desires, especially when they represent recurring sin patterns, because those desires run deep and strong.  They cry out for fulfillment.”

Difficulty & Failure

“We must also realize that the discipline of mortification will be attended by a certain amount of failure.  In fact, as we initially begin to mortify a particular sin, we will often fail more than we succeed.  This is where we need to realize that we stand before God on the basis of His grace rather than on our performance.”

“We must, however, keep going back to His grace.  Only the grace of God revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ will give us the courage to get up again and keep on going even after we have failed for the umpteenth time.”

Material including all quotations taken from:
The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2006). {here}

This is part of a series of posts {here}.

Chapter 11 “The Discipline of Choices” Pt.3

Dawson Trotman (founder of The Navigators): “You are going to be what you are now becoming.”

“Mortification (putting to death of sin) is our responsibility.  This is something we must do.  It is not something we turn over to God.”

“To mortify a sin means to subdue it, to deprive it of its power, to break the habit pattern we have developed of continually giving in to the temptation of that particular sin.  The goal of mortification is to weaken the habits of sin so that we do make the right choices.”

“Without a purpose to obey all of God’s Word, isolated attempts to mortify a particular sin are of no avail.  An attitude of universal obedience in every area of life is essential.”

“See sin for what is really is—a rebellion against God, a breaking of His law, a despising of His authority, a grieving of His heart.  This is where mortification actually begins, with a right attitude toward sin.”

“All sin is desired, or perhaps the perceived benefits of the sin are desired, before it is acted upon.”

“Our desires are never satisfied.”

Material including all quotations taken from:
The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2006). {here}

This is part of a series of posts {here}.

A quote from a 2003 study by the Barna Research Group on the strongest and weakest character traits of Christian leaders:

Character is not like competencies, for which it is acceptable to ignore your weaknesses and run with your strengths.  Weakness of character will eventually undermine your strengths, no matter how strong they are.  Identifying character vulnerabilities is helpful because it provides an early warning signal of pending disasters.

These are some important words that would be worthwhile to heed.  A Christian leader can improve his leadership skills, his preaching skills, his teaching skills, his discipleship skills, his reasoning abilities, his knowledge of subjects, his administrative abilities, etc., but a deficient character will ruin him no matter how good he is at everything else.  He has to be godly above all else.  A lack of godliness will ultimately sabotage everything else that he is or does.  We must commit to being godly, and we must exercise ourselves in godliness.  As the quote above points out, we must identify those areas of our character that are lacking so that we may consciously try to improve them.  Leaders, please, whatever you do, be godly!