Kept by the power of God

March 25, 2009

"Are you not at this hour a monument of God's faithfulness? Where would you have been, had not the magnet of His grace kept you, and drawn your fugitive affections towards Himself? From how many temptations has He rescued you- laying hold of you on the precipice, when about to plunge headlong down; employing, sometimes constraining grace, at other times, restraining grace- making this your brief history– "Kept by the power of God," and overruling all- ALL for His own glory, and your own good? " JR MacDuff

Everything I need

March 22, 2009
“God’s grace means that I can rest assured that I’ll have everything I need to be what he wants me to be and to do what he wants me to do in the situation in which he’s placed me.
I’m no longer restricted to the limits of my own strength and wisdom. By his grace, I’ve a new identity and a new potential. I’m a child of God; the risen Christ now lives inside of me. I need no longer fear people or circumstances; I don’t have to feel weak in the face of suffering or temptation, because I no longer rest in the resources of my own ability. I’m in Christ and he’s in me.
This new identity gives me new potential as I face the realities of life in this bent and broken world. God’s grace gives me reason to ‘take heart.’”
—Paul David Tripp

The Grace of Jesus

March 19, 2009

"You who are tried in worldly circumstances, who have to endure the hard lot of poverty—"My grace is sufficient for you." You who are tempted, day by day, to say or do that which conscience testifies against—"My grace is sufficient for you." You who are harassed with family troubles and afflictions, and are often drawn aside into peevishness (irritability) and fretfulness—"My grace is sufficient for you." Our weakness, helplessness, and inability are the very things which draw forth the power, the strength, and the grace of Jesus! Believer, your case is never beyond the reach of the words—"My grace is sufficient for you!" Philpot

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Almost a heaven

March 18, 2009

"Let the weakest and the humblest remember that in his daily course he can, if he will, shed around him almost a heaven. Kind words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against wounding men's sensitiveness, these cost very little, but they are priceless in their value. " FW Robertson

"Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced in our social interactions, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments" Kelty

Omnipotent Grace

March 17, 2009

"I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world. But still, I am not what I once used to be! By the grace of God, I am what I am!" John Newton

"Let none conclude that they have no grace, because they have many imperfections in their obedience. Your grace maybe very weak and imperfect, and yet you may be truly bornagain, and be a genuine son of God and heir of heaven." (Hopkins, 1670)

"The omnipotent grace of God can change and transform the worst and most hopeless; quicken those who are dead; and animate the groveling spirit with . . .new motives, new principles, new tastes, new feelings, new aspirations! John McDuff

That sweet grace~

March 16, 2009

“If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.” CS Lewis

"We learn humility, not merely by a discovery of what
we are, but also by a discovery of what Jesus is.

We need a glimpse . . .
of Jesus,
of His love,
of His grace,
of His blood.
When these two feelings meet together
in our bosom . . .
our shame, and the Lord's goodness;
our guilt, and His forgiveness;
our wickedness, and His superabounding mercy;
they break us, humble us, and lay us, dissolved in tears
of godly sorrow and contrition, at the footstool of mercy!

And thus we learn humility, that sweet grace, that
blessed fruit of the Spirit in real, vital, soul-experience."
Philpot