Keep yourselves from idols.” The warning isn’t given to them because it wasn’t a real danger or because there was an off chance someone might fall into idolatry. It was given because this is our...

Beauty is transformed over time, and not without destruction.

The real difference in the believer who follows Christ and has mortified his will and died after the old man in Christ, is that he is more clearly aware than other men of the rebelliousness...

To love someone is to desire and work toward their becoming the best version of themselves. The one person in all the universe who can do this perfectly for you is God.

When a poor soul is somewhat awakened by the terrors of the Lord, then the poor creature, being born under the covenant of works, flies directly to a covenant of works again. And as Adam...

Celebration comes when the common features of life are redeemed.

You live recklessly when you do not take God’s law seriously or respond to the gospel properly. Reckless living can look like laziness and apathy. When you simply aren’t motivated and tell yourself that God...

The Bible is different because it is the Word of God, by which He speaks to me. Disagreeing with the Bible would be disagreeing with God. So when I read the Bible I want to...

a sense of the love of Christ in the cross; lie at the bottom of all true spiritual mortification

Long looking with admiration produces change. From your heroes you pick up mannerisms and phrases and tones of voice and facial expressions and habits and demeanors and convictions and beliefs. The more admirable the hero...

Weak and needy people finding their hope in Christ’s grace are what mark a mature relationship. The most dangerous aspect of your relationships is not your weakness, but your delusions of strength.

Those who have attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless know very well that it is no mere bribe, but the very consummation of their earthly discipleship; but we who have not yet...

What Paul understands by holiness or sanctification (is) the learning in the present of the habits which anticipate the ultimate future.

Jesus did not die to increase our self-esteem. Rather, Jesus died to bring glory to the Father by redeeming people from the curse of sin.

Whatever confronts your faith can be a test but if it stands to oppose the content of your personality and the validity of your convictions then it’s threat.

Part of what we pick up in looking at Jesus in the gospel is a way of viewing the whole world. That worldview informs all our values and deeply shapes our thinking and decision-making. Another...

One way to handle the discrepancy between our beliefs and our sinful inclinations is to repent, pray for grace and forgiveness, and struggle on in the belief that God will forge a greater harmony for...

It may hurt, you know”—even so, sir.

To believers, the bible is a holy book, to unbelievers, it is a story book.

The heart must be renewed by divine grace, or it will be in vain to seek for purity of life. He who attempts to build up a noble, virtuous character independent of the grace of...

Grace, on the other hand, means that God is pursuing you. That God forgives you. That God sanctifies you. When you are apathetic toward God, He is never apathetic toward you. When you don’t desire...

Sin is the transgression of the law, the death of Christ is the satisfaction of the law, justification is the verdict of the law, and sanctification is the believer’s fulfillment of the law.

Man’s thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins. God’s thought is always of the glory man will miss if he sins. God’s purpose for redemption is glory, glory,...

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but...

For true conversion doth not consist in putting away great and outward sins only, but in descending deeply into your own self, searching into the inmost recesses of the heart, the secrets and closets, all...

Sensual indulgence weakens the mind and debases the soul. The moral and intellectual powers are benumbed and paralyzed by the gratification of the animal propensities and it is impossible for the slave of passion to...

This book is not the memoir of a contented man. It’s not the poignant reflections of a white-haired guru who has finally figured out the secret to contentment. It’s more like sweaty, bloody, hastily scribbled...

To progress is always to begin always to begin again

The author tells a story wherein a missionary friend of his was invited by unbelievers on a train ride to play cards. The friend declined, saying that he did not bring his hands with him....

With the veil removed by the rending of Jesus’ flesh, with nothing on God’s side to prevent us from entering, why do we tarry without? Why do we consent to abide all our days just...

Monastic spirituality concentrated on private disciplines, as if detaching oneself from “the world” (i.e. society) might make one holier. Anabaptist piety was similar in that regard. However, Calvin thought of sanctification as a family affair....

The way to conquer sin is not by working hard to change our deeds, but by trusting Jesus to change our desires. Follow Me, pg. 111.

We do not want to have mercy for the things God has under judgment. We do not want to fall in the ditch on the otherside of unsanctified mercy.

Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half as persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way

When you became a Christian, you were still susceptible to living the way you learned to live before. Your brain was not wiped clean. That conflicts with this new life to which you gave yourself....

If you yield yourself up to His divine working, the Lord will alter your nature; He will subdue the old nature, and breathe new life into you. Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,...

one of the great virtues of Christianity, according to (John)Wesley, is the way it fills up our every waking hour. Both (N.T.) Wright and Wesley write that Christianity is not just about what God does...

Conquerors fight their own battles. You are more than a conqueror, that’s why the battle was fought on your behalf by Christ. However, it does not mean you should stay idle… Dress up and go...

We cry down the law in respect of justification, but we set it up as a rule of sanctification. The law sends us to the Gospel that we may be justified; and the Gospel sends...

As it is with spiritual discoveries and affections given at first conversion, so it is in all subsequent illuminations and affections of that kind; they are all transforming. There is a like divine power and...

[Salvation] is a life-changing experience when it happens, and if our life isn’t changed by it, then it either didn’t happen at all or we are so caught up in this world, spending so much...

If Christ has died for me, I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend.

Purge me from every sinful blot;My idols all be cast aside: Cleanse me from every evil thought,From all the filth of self and pride.The hatred of the carnal mind Out of my flesh at once...

Jesus Followers are called to be reflectors of His character, servants of his grace, ambassadors of His message and magnifiers of His glory!” ~ © gfp ’42

The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their faith in Christ, gather to know and love him better, and learn...

Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are.

I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: “If I was saved by my good works — then there would be a limit to what God could...

There should be as much difference between the worldling and the Christian, as between hell and heaven, between destruction and eternal life.

Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three: That of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door;...

So close to the powers of evil she must have lived that she still breathed more freely in their air.