For His Glory

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Immeasurable Riches of His Grace

An excerpt from Horatius Bonar's "The God of Grace"

"Where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound!" Romans 5:20

The history of our world has been the story of
abounding sin--and far more abounding grace!

What was Abraham's history--but one of
abounding sin and super-abounding grace?

What was Rahab's history--but a history of
abounding sin and super-abounding grace?

What was David's history--but a history of
abounding sin and super-abounding grace?

What was Manasseh's history--but a history
of abounding sin and super-abounding grace?

What was the history of Saul of Tarsus, but one
of abounding sin and super-abounding grace, as
he himself declares, "The grace of our Lord was
poured out on me abundantly." 1 Timothy 1:14

What is all this world's long history--but a history
of abounding sin and super-abounding grace?

God not merely allowed sin to enter--but to spread;
not only to spread--but to increase in heinousness;
not only to increase in heinousness--but to vary itself,
and take every conceivable shape that man's wicked
heart could devise--all in order to demonstrate that
His resources of grace were adequate to meet it all.

Sin might widen its circle age after age--but grace
widened its circle and still went far beyond man's
transgression. For age after age sin ascended a higher
pinnacle of rebellious ungodliness; but grace ascended
along with it, and took its station far above it, like
a bright canopy of heavenly azure. Age after age
descended to lower and lower depths of hateful
pollution; grace went down along with it. And when
the soul found itself at the very bottom of the horrible
pit, and expected to meet nothing there but hell itself,
it found the hand of grace still beneath it, as mighty to
save, as willing to bless as ever. "So that in the coming
ages He might display the immeasurable riches of
His grace
, in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus."
Ephesians 2:7

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Great Post From Big Orange Truck

Big Orange Truck is run by a guy only known to me to as "regular joe." He is a IFB pastor who has came to the realization of the Doctrines of Grace. I have enjoyed reading and have benefitted from his thoughts and insights.


Monday, he wrote a great post entitled, "Harvesting Souls or Picking Green Fruit." I would encourage you in reading it.


Tuesday, June 06, 2006

A Holy Lifestyle


And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
2 Timothy 2:19b

The Truth:

1. The simple principle that all who become members of the true church should live holy lives.

2. Those who love God will avoid evil.

The Response:
1. I should live a holy life because I name the name of Christ. God will keep me and help me to be holy for Christ's name's sake.

2. I should remove myself from any unrighteousness or anything that may lead to unrighteousness and it should be reflexive to do so.

The Action (Application):
1. Make holiness a lifestyle.
Strive to make it normal, not extra ordinary, to love God, keep His
commandments, love His people, and keep the spiritual disciplines in your life. God's people should not be surprised when another Christian is living in righteousness, it should be expected.

2. Take the necessary steps to not only avoid, but to actively remove or run from a circumstance that is causing us to sin or that has the potential to cause us to sin.

In order to better understand some of the words used in this verse, here are the definitions of some key words.

1. Iniquity: (legal) injustice (properly the quality, by implication the act); moral wrongfulness (of charater, life or act): - iniquity, unjust, unrighteousness, wrong.

2. Depart: to remove, that is, (actively) instigate to revolt; usually (reflexively) to desist, desert, etc.: - depart, draw (fall) away, refrain, withdraw self.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Some Updates

For those very few who actually read this blog, I just wanted to let you know that hopefully, I'll be posting something new within the next week. It has been hard to keep up with this since I do not have a home computer yet.

Lately I have been reading all over the bible. I found a reading plan online that has been very helpful. Click here to go to the page. I use the Blended version. I just finished 2 Kings and will be starting Hosea later today in the Old Testament and I am still reading through Matthew in the NT.

I am also excited and kind of nervous of an upcoming class my Pastor has made available. We are going to be going through the book "Abstract of Systematic Theology", by James P. Boyce.(Thanks to Bro. Aaron for the correction) There will be exams and a final 5000 word essay (thats why I used the word nervous; Just by reading this blog you know I'm not the best writer in the world) that will have to be written at the end of the course. I just hope I have a computer by then.

I recently have been listening to CD's of the recent T4G conference and the New Attitude sermons and they have been a real encouragement to me. I just finished the first session of the NA this morning which was entitled, "The Truth - Rediscovering Humble Orthodoxy" by Joshua Harris.

Anyway, back to my upcoming post. Josh Harris used 2 Timothy 2:14-26 in his message I have been listening to the past couple of days. While I listened to him read from this passage, the last part of verse 19 stuck out to me. "And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." I was on my way home and I thought to myself that I should study that more. Well, this morning as I was looking for something in E-Sword, I downloaded a collection of writings by John Bunyan. One of the first things that I read in that collection was a sermon he wrote entitled, "A Holy Life: The Beauty Of Christianity." The text of this message? You probably already guessed, 2 Timothy 2:19b. Anyway, it seems that that verse keeps coming up so I will probably start studying that to post on. I want to try to humbly bring out the truth that this verse is proclaiming and then how it practically can be applied and responded to in my life.

And one last note, and I am saying this not to build myself up, but in humilty to those who would hold me accountable in my spiritual disciplines. I have not blogged on here or sent a email to the Catalyst mailing list in a while but that does not mean that I have been neglecting those vital practices in my life. Granted, I have not been as disciplined as I have been in the past, but God's grace has been used in my life to renew my passion in that area recently.

2Pe 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.