- Paul Washer From Biblical Assurance, part 3c
- 1 John 2:6 “6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
- This is not an option
- What does it mean to walk like Jesus?
- We cannot walk perfectly like Jesus and we may fall but our heart’s greatest desire is to be like Jesus
- Our greatest desire should be to reflect the life of Christ
- The one who says he walks with Jesus should walk like Jesus
Archive for the Lifestyle Category
Tests of Salvation, part B
Posted in Lifestyle, Sin with tags Assurance on August 19, 2009 by HarryJ.C. Ryle on True Christianity
Posted in * Favorites, Lifestyle, Will - God's, Worldly Pursuits on July 29, 2009 by Harry
“True Christianity! Let us mind that word true. There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity. It passes muster, it satisfies sleepy consciences; but it is not good money. It is not the authentic reality that called itself Christianity in the beginning.
There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday and call themselves Christians. They make a profession of faith in Christ. Their names are in the baptismal register. They are reckoned Christians while they live. They are married with a Christian marriage service. They mean to be buried as Christians when they die. But you never see any fight about their religion! Of spiritual strife and exertion and conflict and self–denial and watching and warring they know literally nothing at all.
Such Christianity may satisfy man, and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable; but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the religion which the Lord Jesus founded and His apostles preached. It is not the religion which produces real holiness. True Christianity is a fight.”
- J.C. Ryle, from the book Holiness
The Value of Godliness
Posted in Holiness of God, Lifestyle, Sanctification on July 13, 2009 by Harry1 TIMOTHY 4:7b-9 “While bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present
life and also for the life to come” (v. 8).
The problems Timothy confronted in Ephesus were such that many of the Christians there no longer paid close attention to the biblical gospel. Instead, they had become focused on speculative matters such as the lives of those many individuals whom Scripture names in its genealogies without telling us anything else about them (1 Tim. 1:3-4). Correcting this error meant that the leaders in Ephesus had to abandon their speculations and get back to the foundations of the faith. This charge Paul gave to Timothy so that he could convey it to the elders and teachers who were entertaining errors. The apostle did not hold back in calling these conjectures “irreverent, silly myths” (4:7a), or as maybe translated literally, “old wives’ tales,” for he wanted to make sure that everyone would see their futility.
Yet fixing the problem of false teaching, then as now, involves more than leaving falsehood behind. Diligent pursuit of truth and godliness is also required. The Greek word translated “train” in verse 7b is a form of the verb gymnazo, from which we get the English terms gymnasium and gymnastics. Paul is using an athletic metaphor, telling us that training in godliness requires persistent effort. Gymnasts and other athletes have to train for months and years to hone their skills; similarly, we must realize that godliness and holiness are not developed overnight. Regular prayer, Bible study, worship, fellowship, and the like are necessary if we would subdue our flesh and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26). Matthew Henry says, “Those who would be godly must train themselves to be godly; it requires a constant exercise.”
Godliness, Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 4:8, brings eternal benefits. We have been given everything that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), and as we make an effort to supplement our faith with virtue, love, self-control, and a host of other virtues, we will grow in our full assurance of salvation and even find ourselves with a greater reward in the life to come (vv. 4-11; see also Matt. 25:14-30). All of this is possible only through the grace of God who is the one who granted us the ability to have faith in the first place (Eph. 2:8-9). +
Godliness and holiness, mature saints will tell you, are virtues that reinforce themselves. As we grow in holiness we become more aware of our own sin and, consequently, our own need for His empowering to defeat sin and become even more holy. Where does the development of a life that pleases God rank in your scale of priorities? What can you do this very day to expand
your knowledge and practice of that which pleases God?
- From July 2009 Tabletalk Magazine
Spurgeon on Backsliding
Posted in Dependence, Lifestyle, Worldly Pursuits on July 3, 2009 by Harry
“The ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows.”
–Genesis 41:4
Pharaoh’s dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of laziness have ruinously destroyed all that I had achieved in times of zealous endeavor; my seasons of coldness have frozen all the genial glow of my periods of fervency and enthusiasm; and my fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances in the divine life. I had need to beware of lean prayers, lean praises, lean duties, and lean experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my comfort and peace. If I neglect prayer for never so short a time, I lose all the spirituality to which I had attained; if I draw no fresh supplies from heaven, the old corn in my granary is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my soul. When the caterpillars of indifference, the worms of worldliness, and the snares of self-indulgence, lay my heart completely desolate, and make my soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace avails me nothing whatever. How anxious should I be to have no lean-fleshed days, no ill-favoured hours! If every day I journeyed towards the goal of my desires I should soon reach it, but backsliding leaves me still far off from the prize of my high calling, and robs me of the advances which I had so laboriously made. The only way in which all my days can be as the “fat cows,” is to feed them in the right meadow, to spend them with the Lord, in His service, in His company, in His fear, and in His way. Why should not every year be richer than the past, in love, and usefulness, and joy?–I am nearer the celestial hills, I have had more experience of my Lord, and should be more like Him. O Lord, keep far from me the curse of leanness of soul; let me not have to cry, “My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!” but may I be well-fed and nourished in Thy house, that I may praise Thy name.
- From Morning and Evening, July 3rd a.m. entry
Paul Washer on Lifestyle
Posted in * Favorites, Lifestyle on June 14, 2009 by Harry“4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”
- From Biblical Assurance, part 1
- Text is John 1:4
- If we say we are a follower of Jesus Christ and yet we live a style of life that does not conform to the person and will of God we lie.
Spurgeon Morning and Evening June 14th a.m.
Posted in Lifestyle with tags Happiness, Praise on June 14, 2009 by HarryDELIGHT YOURSELF IN THE LORD. – PSALM 37:4
The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the reminder of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is described as a delight in God, and we are reminded of the great fact that genuine faith overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either because of what they might get or because they are afraid of the consequences of neglect. The thought of delight in religious exercise is so strange to most men that no two words in their language stand further apart than holiness and delight. But believers who know Christ understand that delight and faith are so wonderfully united that the gates of hell cannot manage to separate them. Those who love God with all their hearts find that His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. The saints discover in Christ such joy, such overflowing delight, such blessedness that far from serving Him from custom, they would follow Him even though the whole world rejected Him. We do not fear God because of any compulsion; our faith is no shackle, our profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our delight.
Delight and true faith are as interwoven as root and flower, as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious stones glittering side by side in a setting of gold.
‘Tis when we taste Thy love,
Our joys divinely grow,
Unspeakable like those above,
And heaven begins below.
Casting Crowns “Lifesong”
Posted in Lifestyle with tags Music on May 22, 2009 by Harry
Empty hands held high
Such a small sacrifice
If not joined with my life
I sing in vain tonight
May the words I say
And the things I do
Make my lifesong sing
Bring a smile to You
Chorus:
Let my lifesong sing to You
Let my lifesong sing to You
I want to sign your name to the end of this day
Knowing that my heart was true
Let my lifesong sing to You
Lord, I give my life
A living sacrifice
To reach a world in need
To be Your hands and feet
So may the words I say
And the things I do
Make my lifesong sing
Bring a smile to you
(Chorus)
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Let my lifesong sing to You
(2x)
(Chorus 2x)
Do you believe Christians should watch T.V. for entertainment?
Posted in Lifestyle on May 21, 2009 by Harry
- The following are Pastor Braden’s notes from Men’s Bible Study 5/16/09
- Watching T.V. may be an area of Christian liberty, but should it be? The following scriptures give me a lot to think about.
1 John 2: 15-17 “15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
Spurgeon Morning and Evening May 19th a.m.
Posted in Lifestyle on May 19, 2009 by Harry
I HAVE SEEN SLAVES ON HORSES, AND PRINCES WALKING ON THE GROUND LIKE SLAVES. — ECCLESIASTES 10:7
Upstarts frequently steal the highest places, while the truly great struggle in obscurity. This is a riddle in providence whose solution will one day gladden the hearts of the upright; but it is so common a fact that none of us should complain if we face the experience. When our Lord was on earth, although He is the Prince of the kings of the earth, yet He walked the footpath of weariness and service as the Servant of servants. It should then be no surprise if His followers, who are princes in His line, should also be looked down upon as inferior and contemptible persons. The world is upside-down, and therefore the first are last and the last first. Consider how the servile sons of Satan lord it in the earth! What a high horse they ride! How they exalt themselves. David wanders on the mountains, while Saul reigns in state; Elijah is complaining in the cave, while Jezebel is boasting in the palace. Yet who would wish to take the places of the proud rebels? And who, on the other hand, might not envy the despised saints? When the wheel turns, those who are lowest rise, and the highest sink. Patience, then, believer, eternity will right the wrongs of time.
Let us not fall into the error of letting our passions and sinful appetites ride in triumph, while our nobler powers walk in the dust. Grace must reign as a prince and make the members of our bodies instruments of righteousness. The Holy Spirit loves order, and He therefore sets our powers and faculties in proper rank and place, giving the highest room to those spiritual faculties that link us with the great King; let us not disturb the divine arrangement but ask for grace to keep our body under control and bring it into subjection. We were not made new to allow our passions to rule over us, but in order that, as kings, we may reign in Christ Jesus over the triple kingdom of spirit, soul, and body, to the glory of God the Father.
“Knowing God” excerpt (J.I. Packer)
Posted in * Favorites, Lifestyle with tags Christmas, Contentment on March 29, 2009 by HarryKnowing God pg 63:
It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians—I will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians—go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord’s parable, seeing human needs all around them, but (after a pious wish, and perhaps a prayer, that God might meet those needs) averting their eyes and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas spirit. Nor is it the spirit of those Christians—alas, they are many—whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the submiddle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves.
The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor—spending and being spent—to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others—and not just their own friends—in whatever way there seems need.
Christian Life and Learning
Posted in Lifestyle on March 11, 2009 by HarryFrom a book review on Paul Washer’s Book “The One True God”
- In the Christian life, progress is ultimately made through learning
- We do not become better Christians by pursuing good works which are divorced from an increasing understanding of God; but rather, our good works increase, by the power of the Spirit, as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ
- That is why, as we seek to grow in grace and to disciple other believers, especially those who are new to the faith, it is of first concern that we strive to do so by pursuing a biblical understanding of who God is, and how he relates to man.
TFL: "Stay the Course, Part A" *****
Posted in * Favorites, Lifestyle on August 16, 2008 by Harry- 20:18 Does my walk with God permeate my life?
TFL: "A Christian Lifestyle, Part B" not archived
Posted in Giving, Lifestyle on January 17, 2008 by Harry- We must be committed to love one another
- We must show hospitality to strangers
- We must sympathize with prisoners
- We must stay pure in marriage
