Inspiring Quotes

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional
Together for Inspiration, Motivation, and Encouragement

Verse of the Day - Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

Daily Scripture Reading - James 3

Puritan Catechism
Question #29 - How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer - The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us (Eph. 2:8), and by it uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling (Eph. 3:17).

Confessing Our Faith
A daily reading from The First London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1646.

Chapter 50 - It is lawful for a Christian to be a magistrate or civil officer; and also it is lawful to take an oath, so it be in truth, and in judgment, and in righteousness, for confirmation of truth, and ending of all strife; and that by wrath and vain oaths the Lord is provoked and this land mourns.

Acts 8:38, 10:1, 2, 35; Romans 16:23; Deuteronomy 6:13; Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 10, 11; Jeremiah 4:2; Hebrews 6:16.

Devotional Thoughts
On top of continuing computer problems and a rather stressful and busy week, I have found it very difficult to write this week! Can you tell? I do hope to be back on track with daily devotional updates next week. But for today, I was meditating on Psalm 19:14 and thinking about the words we use, and the words we think, and I wanted to devote some time today to a few inspiring quotes.

These hopefully will make us think, challenge and convict us, and of course edify us so that we might "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." (Eph 4:29).

“It is not the reading of many books which is necessary to make one wise, but the well-reading of a few, could they be sure to be the best.” - Richard Baxter

“Obedience to God's Will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO God's Will that brings certainty." - Eric Liddell

From Hindrances to Christian Progress by John Angell James

A taste for worldly amusements will inevitably prove, wherever it is indulged--a powerful obstacle to growthin grace.

Man is unquestionably made for enjoyment. He has a capacity for bliss--an instinctive appetite for gratification; and for this, God has made ample provision of a healthful and lawful kind. But "a taste for worldly pleasure" means that this God-given capacity is directed to wrong sources, or carried to an excess.

Now there are some amusements which in their very nature are so utterly incompatible with true godliness, that a liking for them, and a hankering after them, and especially an indulgence in them--cannot exist with real, earnest, and serious piety.

The dissolute parties of the glutton and the drunkard; the fervency for the gambling-table; the pleasures of the race-course; the performances of the theater--are all of this kind. A taste for them is utterly uncongenial with a spirit of godliness! So is a love for the gay and fashionable entertainments of the ball-room, and the wanton parties of the upper classes. These are all unfriendly to true religion, and are usually renounced by people intent upon the momentous concerns of eternity.

We would not doom to perdition, all who are at any time found in this round of worldly pleasure--but we unhesitatingly say, that a taste for them is entirely opposed to the whole spirit of Christianity! They are all included in that "world" which is overcome by faith and the new birth.

True religion is, though a happy, a very serious thing--and can no more live and flourish in the uncongenial atmosphere of those parties, than could a young tender plant survive, if brought into a frigid zone!

But in this pleasure-loving, pleasure-seeking, and pleasure-inventing age, there is a great variety of amusements perpetually rising up, which it would be impossible to say are sinful, and therefore unlawful. Yet the 'supposition of their lawfulness' viewed in connection with their abundance, variety, and constant repetition, is the very thing that makes them dangerous to the spirit of true religion.

A taste for even lawful worldly amusements, which leads its possessor to be fond of them, seeking them, and longing for them--shows a mind that is in a very doubtful state as to vital piety.

A Christian is not to partake of the pleasures of the world, merely to prove that his religion does not debar him from enjoyment. But he is to let it be seen by his "peace which passes understanding," and his "joy unspeakable and full of glory," that his godliness gives far more enjoyment than it takes away--that, in fact, it gives him the truest happiness!

The way to win a worldly person to true religion is not to go and partake of his amusements; but to prove to him, that we are happier with our pleasures--than he is with his; that we bask in full sunshine--while he has only a smoking candle; that we have found the "river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb"--while he is drinking of the muddy streams which issue from the earth!

"Many are asking, 'Who can show us any good?' Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound!" Ps. 4:6-7

After all, it is freely admitted--

1. That true religion is not hostile to anything which is not hostile to it.
2. That many things which are not strictly pious, though not opposed to piety--may be lawfully enjoyed by the Christian.
3. That what he has to do in this matter is not to practice total abstinence--but "moderation".
4. Yet the Christian should remember how elastic a term "moderation" is, and to be vigilant lest his moderation should continually increase its latitude, until it has swelled into the imperial tyranny of an appetite which acknowledges no authority--and submits to no restraint!

"Let churches do less in criticizing their minister, and do more in praying for him; let them expect less from him and more from God; let them, as a whole, arise and put on strength; let them have no strife but which shall best serve the brotherhood to edification, and they will yet see the windows of heaven opened and a blessing poured out upon them unspeakably beyond their largest hopes. "The same God over all is rich unto all that call upon him." He is a sovereign, but yet he acts according to recognized rule, and when a people are loving, living, laboring, and longing for his presence, that presence will be vouch-. safe. When church fellowship is not a mere name, but a blessed,. joyful, active reality, when those who are called "brethren," are really so, then may we look for the blessing which maketh rich. Only the Lord can give to a church the condition requisite for success, but when he gives it he will not fail to send the corresponding increase. Churches need to be more loving within if they would be more powerful without. They must be more hearty, and more like a family; the shepherd and the flock must be on more tender terms, and brotherhood must be brotherhood indeed, and then shall we see greater things than these." - Charles Spurgeon

Eat, Don't Argue - A tract from Spurgeon posted in The Sword and Trowel:

TWO learned doctors are angrily discussing the nature of food, and allowing their meal to lie untasted, while a simple countryman is eating as heartily as he can of that which is set before him. The religious world is full of quibblers, critics, and sceptics, who, like the doctors, fight over Christianity without profit either to themselves or others; those are far happier who imitate the farmer and feed upon the Word of God, which is the true food of the soul. Luther's prayer was, "From nice questions the Lord deliver us." Questioning with honesty and candour is not to be condemned, when the object is to "prove all things, and hold fast that which is good;" but to treat revelation as if it were a football to be kicked from man to man is irreverence, if not worse. Seek the true faith, by all manner of means, but do not spend a whole life in finding it, lest you be like a workman who wastes the whole day in looking for his tools. Hear the true Word of God; lay hold upon it, and spend your days not in raising hard questions, but in feasting upon precious truth.

It is, no doubt, very important to settle the point of General or Particular Redemption; but for unconverted men, the chief matter is to look to the Redeemer on the cross with the eye of faith. Election is a doctrine about which there is much discussion, but he who has made his election sure, finds it a very sweet morsel. Final perseverance has been fought about in all time; but he who by grace continues to rest in Jesus to the end, knows the true enjoyment of it.

Reader, argue, if you please, but remember that believing in the Lord Jesus gives infinitely more enjoyment than disputing can ever afford you. If you are unsaved, your only business is with the great command, "Believe!" and even if you have passed from death unto life, it is better to commune with Jesus than to discuss doubtful questions. When Melancthon's mother asked him what she must believe amidst so many disputes, he, knowing her to be trusting to Jesus in a simple-hearted manner, replied, "Go on, mother, to believe and pray as you have done, and do not trouble yourself about controversy." So say we to all troubled souls, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him."

Links for Further Study
(links to study each daily topic in more detail if you have the desire and the time)

Directions for Hating Sin by Richard Baxter
The Groans Of Believers Under Their Burdens by Ebenezer Erskine

Bible Reading For Further Study
Psalm 10; 12; and 66

Recommended Songs for Worship

• O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
  
• The Mouth of Fools