The Quotable Round-Up #39

Jolly good day guys! It’s this time of the week that we collect some of the best quotes. The book we are now featuring Donald S. Whitney’s “Praying the Bible”. Grab this book because I highly recommend it.

“You will never go through anything in life in which you cannot find the root emotions reflected in the Psalms. Exhilaration, frustration, discouragement, guilt, forgiveness, joy, gratitude, dealing with enemies, contentment, discontentment—you name it: they are all found in the book of Psalms.”

“As we pray the Psalms, therefore, we are returning to God words that he expressly inspired for us to speak and sing to him.”

“With what I’m advocating, our primary activity is prayer, not Bible intake. Bible reading is secondary in this process. Our focus is on God through prayer; our glance is at the Bible. And we turn Godward and pray about every matter that occurs to us as we read.”

“Once the Spirit of God brings people to spiritual life, he preserves them in that life, granting them the grace to persevere in the evidences of that life, such as prayer.”

“When God brings someone into a relationship with himself through Jesus Christ, he begins to live within that person by means of his Holy Spirit.”

The Quotable Round-Up #38

Jolly good day guys! Its this time of the week that we collect some of the best quotes. The book we are now featuring is Donald S. Whitney’s “Praying the Bible”. Grab this book because I highly recommend it.

“God’s mind and God’s Word are so much broader than our own perspective, and he will prompt you through the Bible to pray with an awareness for things far beyond the same old things.”

“Prayer is talking with a person, the person of God himself. So prayer shouldn’t be considered a one-way conversation. And yet, somehow, many people assume that when they meet with God, they must do all the talking.”

“The good news is that you don’t have to come up with new ways to adore the Lord. The Lord has given us 150 chapters of divinely inspired praises (that is, the Psalms) for us to use in adoration.”

“Virtually every line in a New Testament letter suggests something to pray about. In fact, as we’ve already noted, many of these letters include actual prayers.”

“Your confidence that the Lord will indeed answer grows as you ask him to answer you, not because of the earnestness of your pleading but because of the reality that he has set you securely on high in Christ.”

3 Self-Examining Questions Every Christian Should Consider (Part 1)

Self-examination is uncomfortable. In our sinful nature we don’t want to see ourselves for who we are. We often want to dwell in this illusion that we are fine and nothing is wrong in our spiritual life. Truth really hurts. But examining ourselves is a necessity if we want to check who we really are and where we are going.

Let us now go to the Book of Job to see these questions. The Book of Job is not just about the patience, sufferings and faith of Job. Rather the main story is about God and His sovereignty. The crisis Satan brought to Job crush everything in him yet he remains steadfast for God. In the midst of his conversations with his friends, you can see that it’s theological in nature. Some do have the right understanding on God and some misrepresents Him. But there are penetrating questions we should consider that are scattered in the Book of Job. We collected three of them. Here’s the first one and next week we will see the rest.

1. “Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?”—Job 13:9

 

This question shows the weight of how God searches us. I ask if it’s well or bearable for us if God checks us out.  Our unfaithfulness, our secret sins and our deception might come in mind and we don’t want it to be found out by God. But the reality is He already knows it! We can’t deny what we already have done. This will drive us to be humble and come to Him with a sorrowful heart. Will we start cleaning our mess knowing how heavy this question is? I hope and pray we will.

 

To be concluded next week. More articles here: https://delightinggrace.wordpress.com

The Quotable Round-Up #35

Jolly good day guys! Its this time of the week that we  collect some of the best quotes. The book we are now featuring is from Frank Turek’s “Stealing from God”. Enjoy!

“True for you but not for me” may be the mantra of our day, but that’s not the way the universe really works. If it’s really true, it’s true for everyone.”

“In the same way, our improved understanding of natural laws can never disprove the Being who set up and sustains those laws. To say that a scientist can disprove the existence of God is like saying a mechanic can disprove the existence of Henry Ford. It doesn’t follow. The existence of secondary operational causes does not negate the need for a primary origin cause.”

“But there are very different atheist and theist theories on origin questions. They are more controversial because they cannot be settled by repeatable experiments in a lab. You can’t go in a lab and observe the creation of the universe again, or witness the origin of the first life or new life-forms. While scientists can observe how a cell operates, they can’t observe how the first cell originated. No scientist was there to witness it.”

“Some atheists seem to think that anything unexplained defeats belief in God, as if an infinite God can’t exist if finite creatures don’t understand everything. But there is a big difference between a mystery and a contradiction. Christianity has partial mysteries. Atheism has complete contradictions. Christianity predicts that evil will occur and explains why God allows it in general, but not in every particular case. We don’t have enough information to trace the particulars . . . yet. But good reason provides all the information we need to see that the very existence of evil is a contradiction for atheism. If evil is real, then atheism is false.”

“We can’t see the ultimate outcomes of events because the human story isn’t over yet—not here or in the afterlife where perfect justice will ultimately be done. And even if God were to tell us those outcomes and His reasons for allowing each evil, we wouldn’t be able to comprehend them all. That’s because every event sets off a ripple effect that impacts countless other events and people. How many lives will be changed in the future by the trillions of good and bad events happening just this hour? No human mind can know or grasp it all. And even if we could, knowing the reasons for a painful event might alter our behavior and prevent the good outcome that would have otherwise occurred.”

“Hitler’s words and actions couldn’t be more different than the words and actions of Christ. As Ravi Zacharias has observed, the Crusades and the Inquisition were the illogical outworking of Christianity. They went against everything Christ taught. And you don’t judge a religion or philosophy by its abuse, but by its truths. People can and will abuse true and good things. But that says more about us than it does about God or religion.”

“C. S. Lewis was once an atheist who thought evil disproved God. But he later realized he was stealing from God (grounds of a rational and logical argument) in order to argue against Him. He wrote, “[As an atheist] my argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

“Now, an atheist might say, “In our country, we have a constitution that the majority approved. We have no need to appeal to God.” True, you don’t have to appeal to God to write laws, but you do have to appeal to God if you want to ground them in anything other than human opinion. Otherwise, your “rights” are mere preferences that can be voted out of existence at the ballot box or at the whim of an activist judge or dictator.”

“Even if there were infinite time and opportunities for nature to mutate DNA into the information necessary for new life, that still wouldn’t be enough to create a new life-form. That’s because DNA alone doesn’t dictate the formation of body plans.”

The Quotable Round-Up #32

Hello guys! Here’s your weekly dose of quotes featuring the book “God’s Word, Our Story” published by Crossway. Enjoy and God bless!

“If you’re Chinese  and you become a Christian, you don’t become an African Christian. You don’t become a European Christian. You’re a Chinese  Christian. But your Christianity goes underneath your Chineseness. Likewise, it goes underneath your Italianness. It goes underneath your being a nurse or a lawyer. It goes underneath being an  abused child. It goes underneath anything. It goes to the uttermost  foundations.”–Tim Keller, God’s Word, Our Story

We can  know many things and be quite intelligent, but if our knowledge  is not founded upon and encased in the fear of God, then we just  don’t get it”– Paige Brown,  God’s Word, Our Story

“The fear of God, which is  a huge concept in the Scriptures, is the awe, the reverence, the  honor, and the worship demanded by the majesty of his person,  his power, and his position. This fear is the only proper response  to the God of the Bible. He is, of course, to be before all things in  our hearts, because he is before all things in reality. Therefore, this  fear is supremely rational.”– Paige Brown,  God’s Word, Our Story

“The gracious restoration of a right relationship through  God’s covenant with his people is the story of the rest of the Bible.”– Paige Brown,  God’s Word, Our Story

“A servile fear is appropriate for  those not belonging to God; a filial fear replaces that servile fear  and then characterizes those who are the people of God.”– Paige Brown,  God’s Word, Our Story

“The  fear of God always motivates our living and our doing. The fear  of God is not a contemplation. It is a motivation.”– Paige Brown,  God’s Word, Our Story

Precious Gems Found in the Book of Job

The Book of Job is not just about patience, faith and suffering of Job. The book is about the God of Job that despite what he allows to happen to Job, God is still in control. He is wise in all the decisions. He is still sovereign and no one can forfeit His plan to Job. In the end, Job has a happt ending and God gets the glory. I have been in my third time reading this book as part of my quite time. Nuggets of gold can be unearthed everytime I read and reread this book. So let me share some verses I find beneficial and soon will be part of my sermon:

“I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.”– Job 23:12

“And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,”– Job 19:26

“Will it be well with you when he searches you out? Or can you deceive him, as one deceives a man?”– Job 13:9

“You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.”– Job 10:12

“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.”– Job 40:4

“For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life?” — Job 27:8

“Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?”– Job 21:22

“Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?”– Job 38:36

“what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?”– Job 31:14

And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.'” — Job 28: 28

“Does not he see my ways and number all my steps?” — Job 31:4

Get to read these verses by downloading these awesome Bible app: You Version and Olive Tree. God bless you as you read His Word.

The Quotable Round-Up #31

Hello guys! Here’s your weekly dose of quotes featuring the book “God’s Word, Our Story” published by Crossway. Enjoy and God bless!

“Here is the great starting point for all of us  when we are dealing with the living God—a reverential, humble,  glad recognition that we are dependent, God is independent; we  are contingent, God is absolute; we are defined, God is the definer;  we are held in being by his will, he is absolute being.” — John Piper, God’s Word, Our Story

“Jesus sealed the new  covenant by his blood. The day of failure will soon be over. Till  then, we are sealed by the Spirit and are fighting sin by his power.” –John Piper, God’s Word, Our Story

“God does not exist for the sake of our enjoying biblical stories; biblical stories exist for the sake of our enjoying God.”- John Piper, God’s Word, Our Story

“Unfortunately, many of us are barely literate when it comes to  the flow of redemptive history. We go to our Bibles for something  to help us deal with our circumstances rather than to see how  God is dealing with the world. But the Bible is not about us; it’s  about God and his plan to redeem his fallen, miserable world, and  restore it to the glory he first sang into being at creation.” — Kathy Keller, God’s Word, Our Story

“Our prayer life  should be shaped and grounded in Scripture as often as possible,  as we respond to scriptural promises and statements about God.” — Kathy Keller, God’s Word, Our Story

“Immersion in God’s Word teaches us to pray the same way  immersion in language teaches a baby how to speak the language  of her parents.”- Kathy Keller, God’s Word, Our Story

“God’s people do not need to be powerful culturally or in power  politically to be obedient to him and accomplish his purposes in  the world. All they need to do to glorify him and join the great  sweep of redemptive history is to be faithful to the One who has  called them by his own name.”–Kathy Keller, God’s Word, Our Story

“When you become a Christian, your conviction of sin and your  experience of grace go all the way to the bottom—all the way  to that uttermost foundation. Christ goes there, and no matter  what happens, that foundation doesn’t change.”–Tim Keller, God’s Word, Our Story

The Quotable Round-Up #30

Here are the quotes for the week featuring the book by R. C. Sproul “What Is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics”. Enjoy and God bless!

“The call referred to in effectual calling is not the outward call of the gospel that can be heard by anyone within range of the preaching. The call referred to here is the inward call, the call that penetrates to and pierces the heart, quickening it to spiritual life. Hearing the gospel enlightens the mind, yet it does not awaken the soul until the Holy Spirit illumines and regenerates it. The move from ear to soul is made by the Holy Spirit. This move is what accomplishes God’s purpose of applying the benefits of Christ’s work to the elect.”

“What the unregenerate person desperately needs in order to come to faith is regeneration. This is the necessary grace. It is the sine qua non of salvation. Unless God changes the disposition of my sinful heart, I will never choose to cooperate with grace or embrace Christ in faith. These are the very things to which the flesh is indisposed. If God merely offers to change my heart, what will that accomplish for me as long as my heart remains opposed to him? If he offers me grace while I am a slave to sin and still in the flesh, what good is the offer? Saving grace does not offer liberation, it liberates. Saving grace does not merely offer regeneration, it regenerates. This is what makes grace so gracious: God unilaterally and monergistically does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.”

“Once we grasp the doctrine of total depravity, we know that no person will incline himself to faith in the atoning work of Christ. If God does not supply the means of appropriating the atonement’s benefits, namely faith, then the potential redemption of all would result in the actual redemption of none.”

“The ultimate aim of God’s plan of redemption was to redeem his elect. To accomplish this end he ordained the means. One was the atonement made by his Son. Another was the Holy Spirit’s application of this atonement to the elect. God provides for his elect all that is necessary for their salvation, including the gift of faith.”

“Faith is not something we conjure up by our own effort, or the result of the willing of the flesh. Faith is a result of the Spirit’s sovereign work of regeneration.”

“God certainly has the power and authority to grant his saving grace to all mankind. Clearly he has not elected to do this. All men are not saved despite the fact that God has the power and right to save them all if that is his good pleasure. It is also clear that all are not lost. God could have chosen not to save anyone. He has the power and authority to execute his righteous justice by saving nobody. In reality he elects to save some, but not all. Those who are saved are beneficiaries of his sovereign grace and mercy. Those who are not saved are not victims of his cruelty or injustice; they are recipients of justice. No one receives punishment at the hands of God that they do not deserve. Some receive grace at his hands that they do not deserve. Because he is pleased to grant mercy to one does not mean that the rest “deserve” the same. If mercy is deserved, it is not really mercy, but justice.”

“By definition grace is not something God is required to have. It is his sovereign prerogative to grant or withhold it. God does not owe grace to anyone. Grace that is owed is not grace. Justice imposes obligation, but grace, in its essence, is voluntary and free.”

The Quotable Round-Up #29

Here are the quotes for the week featuring the book by R. C. Sproul “What Is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics”. Enjoy and God bless!

“The agent of predestination is God. In his sovereignty he predestinates. Human beings are the object of his predestination. In short, predestination refers to God’s sovereign plan for human beings, decreed by him in eternity. We must add, however, that the concept of predestination includes more than the future destiny of humans. It also includes whatever comes to pass in time and space.”

“For a person to be able to come to Christ, it must first be granted or “given” to that person to come to Christ. God must do something for us to overcome our moral inability to come to Christ. We cannot embrace Christ in the flesh. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit, we cannot come to Christ.”

“The humanistic and pagan view of free will is that the will acts from a posture of indifference. By indifference we mean that the will is inclined to neither good nor evil but exists in a state of moral neutrality. The mind of fallen man has no bias, no predisposition to evil. This view of free will is on a collision course with the biblical view of sin.”

”If we still have a will, why are we unable to convert ourselves or even prepare ourselves for conversion? The simple answer is this: because we do not want to. We have no desire for the righteousness of God, and free choice, by definition, involves choosing what we desire.”

To say that mankind is radically corrupt is to say that sin penetrates to the root or core of our being. Sin is not tangential or peripheral, but arises from the center of our being. It flows from what the Bible calls the “heart,” which does not refer to the muscle that pumps blood throughout our bodies but to the “core” of our being. Even the word core derives from the Latin word for “heart.”

“The covenant of redemption demonstrates the harmony within the Trinity. Over against theories that pit one member of the Godhead against the other two, the covenant of redemption stresses the total agreement between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the plan of salvation. This covenant defines the roles of the persons of the Trinity in redemption. The Father sends the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son enters the arena of this world by incarnation voluntarily. He is no reluctant Redeemer. The Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to us for our salvation. The Spirit does not chafe at doing the Father’s bidding. The Father is pleased to send the Son and the Spirit into the world, and they are pleased to carry out their respective missions.”

“Every written document has a structure or format by which it is organized. Paragraphs have subjects and chapters have focal points. Reformed theology sees the primary structure of biblical revelation as that of covenant. This is the structure by which the entire history of redemption is worked out.”

“Jesus is enthroned at God’s right hand, and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. It is a profound political reality that Christ now occupies the supreme seat of cosmic authority. The kings of this world and all secular governments may ignore this reality, but they cannot undo it. The universe is no democracy. It is a monarchy. God himself has appointed his beloved Son as the preeminent King. Jesus does not rule by referendum, but by divine right. In the future every knee will bow before him, either willingly or unwillingly. Those who refuse to do so will have their knees broken with a rod of iron.”

The Quotable Round-Up #28

Here are the quotes for the week featuring the book by R. C. Sproul “What Is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics”. Enjoy and God bless!

“The remission of sins is tied to the atoning work of Christ. In the atonement both propitiation and expiation are involved. Propitiation refers to Christ’s satisfaction of God’s justice, making it “propitious” for God to forgive us. Propitiation may be seen as a vertical act of Christ directed to the Father. At the same time, Christ is an expiation for our sins, removing or carrying away from us our sins.”

“True faith is never alone. It always manifests itself in works. Works that flow out of faith, however, are in no way the ground of our justification. They contribute nothing of merit before God. The only ground or basis of our justification is the merit of Christ. Nor is faith itself a meritorious work or the ground of our justification.”

“The dispute between justification by the infusion of Christ’s righteousness and the imputation of his righteousness is no tempest in a teapot. It makes all the difference in the world whether the ground of my justification rests within me or is accomplished for me. Christ fulfilled the law for me and gained the merit necessary for my justification. This is the ground not only of my justification, but also of my assurance of salvation. If I must wait until I cooperate with the righteousness of Christ infused within me, to the degree that I become inherently righteous, I despair of ever attaining salvation. This is not gospel or “good news”; it is bad news.”

“In our justification, faith is the means by which we are linked to Christ and receive the benefits of his saving work. By faith we receive the transfer or imputation of the righteousness of Christ. Faith is not only a necessary condition, it is a sufficient condition for Christ’s righteousness to be imputed to us. Faith, true faith, is all that is required to be justified by the righteousness of Christ. Faith trusts in and lays hold of a righteousness that is not our own.”

“Forensic justification means we are declared righteous by God in a legal sense. The ground of this legal declaration is the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to our account.”

The doctrine of justification deals with what may be the deepest existential problem a human being can ever face: How can a sinner, an unjust person, ever withstand the judgment of a holy and just God?