“This is an anxious time. But the American people can be confident in our economic future. We know what the problems are. We have the tools to fix them. And we’re working swiftly to do so.”

John MacArthur:

A very real danger facing American Christians is the temptation to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. To base their hope on the uncertainty of riches, instead of God, is foolish. Proverbs 11:28 warns that “he who trusts in his riches will fall.” Proverbs 23:4–5 adds, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.”

Jesus:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do this in order to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Everything that I am is by Grace alone. The longer I live and the more I see, the more obvious this fact becomes. There have been many times in the past (and, no doubt, there will be more occasions in the future) where I have looked upon “my” accomplishments with pride, thinking that “I” have done well. Such thinking is utter foolishness. I would be less than nothing but for the unmerited favour of God.

Dr. Richard Hipp, creator of SQL

Read full interview.

God’s revealed will is that we grow in the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18), because in that way the Spirit can make our holiness the manifest fruit of what we know of Christ, so that Christ is more clearly honored (John 16:14). But the Spirit is free to make little knowledge produce much holiness, lest those with much knowledge be proud.

…

Therefore, let us humble ourselves. There are views so obscured by error that the God on the other side of the glass is not the true God. So the measure of truth in our views matters infinitely. But also, there is no guarantee that right thinking will produce right living. There is more to godliness than having clear views of God. Trusting him and loving him through those views matters infinitely.

Read the full article here.

“That justification – by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past, together with his acceptance for the future – is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God’s judgment; his law condemns us; guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable, and in our lucid moments afraid; we have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker. So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers us before it offers us anything else. … But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship – he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is a greater” [Knowing God, pp. 206, 207]

2. To increase in my discipline to finish something to the end

3. To see different points of view

4. To understand how God is working in other people’s lives

5. To keep myself from other sinful activities

6. To increase my arsenal of examples when writing or speaking

7. To better my theology from those who know a whole lot more than me

8. To humble myself in knowing I have no knowledge to boast upon.

9. To be more satisfied in God by hearing his word through others.

Woe to us if we speak of our existence, or our being, for its own sake. God has given us existence. It is a great wonder, full of trembling and awe. We exist by him, through him, and for him (Rom. 11:36). The ultimate and greatest good of the gospel is not self-admiration or self-exaltation, but being able to see the glory of God without disintegrating, and being able to delight in the glory of Christ with the very delight of God the Father for his own Son, and being able to do visible Christ-exalting deeds that flow from this delight. So being like God is the ground of seeing God for who he is, and this seeing is the ground of savoring and delighting in the glory of God with the very delight of God, which then overflows with visible displays of God’s glory.

John Piper in “God is the Gospel” pg. 162

Perseverance on the narrow road is a miracle of grace. I don’t want “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things” to enter in and choke the Word in my wife before or after I meet her (Mark 4:19). God must keep her in the love of Christ (Jude 1:1), and I am confident that He uses prayer as a means to that end. I am keenly aware of the propensity within my own heart that Robert Robinson described in song: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it-prone to leave the God I love.” Why not pray for her, as I pray for myself, that He would bind her wandering heart to Himself?

I want to read this book :). It is a great reminder to have prayer in my life and not just prayers for myself, but also for my future wife.

The previous morning I had read about Lot and his lingering to God’s urgent commands:

As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

Genesis 19:15,16

God is telling Lot to hurry or be dead. To wake up and run or be swept away by the wrath that God was going to unleash on the sinful city. But what did Lot do? He lingered. This is much how we linger in our sins. We linger around in things that distract us from God.

How did God respond? He rescued Lot from his lingering. The LORD had mercy on him. In the same way, the LORD has mercy on us, who are believers. He rescues us from our sin. He rescues us through his son Jesus Christ who is propitiation for our sins.

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:13,14

Let us thank God for His everlasting mercy and praise HIm for rescuing us from the wrath we deserve.