Tried With Fire

ht: DJP via FB

I've been feeling weary lately. I don't know if it's not getting enough sleep, too much on my plate, too much time wasting which makes it seem like I have more to do than I really do, or needless anxiety about the future. So I'm thankful for the refreshment the gospel brings. Last night in small group, we discussed the sermon on the Lord's Table. It was a wonderful time hearing brothers and sisters sharing how they encourage themselves in the gospel, how the table brings conviction of sin but the hope we have in Christ's finished work on our behalf. I was weary when I arrived but spiritually refreshed when I left. I'm still physically tired with a lot to do today, but I've regained perspective. Because of the gospel: God is my Father who loves me. He is neither an indulgent Santa-like figure or a distant detached deity.  The proof of His love isn't my best life now but new life in His Son. God hears my prayers and Jesus is interceding for m...

Congratulations to Ray, providential winner of Night of Weeping and Morning of Joy by Horatius Bonar and the Matthew Smith CD. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Yesterday's sermon by Pastor Ryan was on Mark 14:12-26, the last supper.  There was much to consider, but this point stood out to me: We receive spiritual nourishment when we partake of the Lord's table. We don't believe in transubstantiation, but we are declaring that our souls need Jesus as our bodies need food. Without Him, we will starve. So I ask myself, how's my appetite? This led me to Jeremiah 2:13 where God confronts his people for forsaking the water of life and making broken cisterns that can hold no water. Do I do this? Yes and probably until the day I'm with the Lord, there will be the temptation to find my sustenance from another source. But I also believe in the sanctifying power of God's grace. He ordains circumstances in our lives to expose the things that would slowly starve us to death. We are awakened to our hunger, and in turn He "satisfies our mouth with good things" (Ps. 103:5 KJV).  Once we've tasted the sweetness of C...

122. Q. What does the second request mean:? A. "Your kingdom come" means: Rule us by Your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to You. Keep Your church strong and add to it. Destroy the devil's work; destroy every force which revolts against You and every conspiracy against Your Word. Do this until Your Kingdom is so complete and perfect that in it You are all in all. "[T]he kingdom has come where the King has His way. Faith and repentance, and the godly life that follows in their wake, are unchangeable requirements for membership in the kingdom. We want to live like Christ, show people Christ, and make a difference for Christ, but also call people to renounce their rebellion against God, flee worldliness, and be ready to meet the King when He returns to finally establish His kingdom in full. God is not interested in making us good people apart from making us glory people. That is to say, the kingdom is not about excellence in behavior, It ...

If we are partakers in his resurrection, we are raised up by means of it to newness of life, which conforms us to the righteousness of God. In one word, then, by repentance I understand regeneration, the only aim of which is to form in us anew the image of God, which was sullied, and all but effaced by the transgression of Adam. So the Apostle teaches when he says, “We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Again, “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds” and “put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Again, “Put ye on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” Accordingly through the blessing of Christ we are renewed by that regeneration into the righteousness of God from which we had fallen through Adam, the Lord being pleased in this manner to restore the integrity of all whom he appoin...

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