Do I love God? How’s my evangelism?

A thought provoking quote from Mark Dever’s Nine Marks quoting John Cheesman in The Grace of God in the Gospel:

“Love for God is the only sufficient motive for evangelism.  Self-love will give way to self-centeredness; love for the lost will fail with those whom we cannot love, and when difficulties seem insurmountable.  Only a deep love for God will keep us following his way, declaring his gospel, when human resources fail.  Only our love for God – and, more important, his love for us – will keep us drom the dangers which beset us.  When the desire for popularity with men, or for sucess in human terms, tempts us to water down the gospel, to make it palatable, then only if we love God will we stand fast by his truth and his ways.”

Random Thoughts from Reading Joel

“‘Now, therefore,’ says the LORD,
‘Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.’
So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.”
(Joel 2:12-13)

Truly the Lord is gracious, He is merciful.  It is amazing to consider how gracious these words are that the Lord spoke to Israel, that He would take time to plead with them to return to Him, that they would have a change of heart and repent from their sins.  The God who is holy and just, a consuming fire has held back his wrath, to call upon rebels, that they might repent.

How I must never forget the Lord’s mercy to me, in sending Jesus to die, for one as worthless and pitiful as I am.  His grace is infinite!  How I long to praise Him, to lift up His name among the nations – that they too might see that the Lord is good, that He is the one and true God – there is no other!

The Lord is good to me – may I ever seek to please Him and rejoice in His salvation.

Commit Your Soul to God

“Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” (1 Peter 4:19)

Truly there is no better thing that for us to commit our souls to God, to entrust our very lives into His care.  In the midst of hardship, entrust your soul to God – He will care for you – He is the faithful Creator, He will not fail us.

So often when times get tough, or I get tired of striving, I just forget God and think about all my troubles, I dwell on the hardship, on the difficulty.  But I must rather entrust my soul to God and strive after doing what is right – to do what would glorify God, even in the midst of a trial.

“My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken.” (Psalm 62:1-2)

Random Thoughts from Reading (Psalm 119:176)

“I have gone astray like a lost sheep;
Seek Your servant,
For I do not forget Your commandments.”
(Psalm 119:176)

Over the past few weeks I have been focusing on assurance of salvation because of some conversations I have had with people both on this blog and elsewhere that showed I do not really have a good grasp on what I should base my assurance of salvation on.

Random Thoughts from Reading (Psalm 119)

“Hold me up, and I shall be safe,
And I shall observe Your statutes continually.”
(Psalm 119:117)

What a wonderful truth – if the Lord holds me, I will be safe.  There is nothing that can harm me if I am in his hands.  If I look to him for strength, if I wait on him alone I will do all that he desires.  It is when I rely on myself that I fail – when I try to hold myself up by my own strength. 

“That your faith may not fail”

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32)

Jesus speaks these words right before revealing to Peter that he will deny Jesus three times before the rooster crows. How devastating the words must have been to Peter. After following Christ for so long, only to hear his Master tell him that he will deny Him three times. But even in the midst of this dismal prediction, Christ gives Peter assurance.

Random Thoughts from Reading (Jeremiah 33)

“Thus says the LORD: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant…” (Jeremiah 33:25-26a)

It is good to remember the faithfulness of God, and that the basis for his promises is not man – but rather himself.  Israel did nothing to gain God’s favor – therefore they can do nothing to ultimately separate themselves from God.  The covenant God made with them is as sure as day and night and as sure as God’s sovereign appointing of the ordinances of heaven and earth!

You gotta check this out…

Wow – this is pretty crazy…

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2007/10/as-good-as-it-gets.html

“Rarely do I put sound files on the blog, so when I do, you know it’s a good one. You’ve got to hear this.” – Phil Johnson

The Reality of God

It can never be explained. What one feels in the inner-most part of their being towards the reality of God is secret and unexplainable; the part with which those who call themselves born of God often try to explain when asked, “How do you know God is real?” As explaining to one born in a 2-D world what a cube is, so it is with those who attempt to explain their re-born state to those who are un-regenerate. Someone who is alive cannot explain to someone who is dead what it feels like to be alive – there is a breakdown in communication – an inability, impossibility.

The Spirit of God is as the wind – mysterious. We see the effects, but it leaves no footprints in the sand for us to follow. The effects are plain but how they come to be is mysterious.

Truly only those who God chooses to reveal Himself to can have any understanding of who He is and be convinced that He is real – that He is the true and only God. For the understanding of the reality of God comes from Him. We lack the ability to comprehend and so we are re-born of the Spirit so then in our deepest parts we have something that we did not have before – a heart that beats for our God. A soul that survives on His very Words, without which we would surely die. And so then, after re-birth, we know that He is God and that He is real.

Those who see it are re-born and those that do not understand are blind for their eyes have not been opened.

It is written:

Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannotsee the kingdom of God.”