This year I will be sharing brief excerpts from the articles, sermons, and books I am currently reading. My posts will not follow a regular schedule but will be published as I find well-written thoughts that should be of interest to maturing Christian readers. Whenever possible, I encourage you to go to the source and read the complete work of the author.
Quoting Charles H. Spurgeon:
“The black foils of trouble shall bring out the brighter jewel of divine grace.”
Filed under: Bible, Charles H. Spurgeon, Christianity, Evil, Faith, Grace, Reformed Christian Topics | Tagged: Charles H. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, Divine grace | 3 Comments »
Even though the secular world may cast us out and laugh at our profession of faith, yet Jesus Christ will walk with, and abide in us. George Whitefield writes:
[T]hat I may know him and the power of his resurrection. . . . (Philippians 3:10 ESV)
By the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are new-born to a heavenly inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified; but our own corrupt wills, would tempt us to sell this glorious birth-right for the vanities of the world, which, like Esau’s red pottage, may please us for a while, but will soon be taken away from us. God knows this, and therefore rather bids us renounce them . . . [than lose] the privilege of that glorious birth-right, to which, by knowing the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are entitled.
O the depth of the riches and excellency of Christianity! Well might the great St. Paul count all things but dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of it. Well might he desire so ardently to know Jesus, and the power of his resurrection. For even on this side of eternity it raises us above the world, and makes us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Well might that glorious company of worthies, recorded in the Holy scriptures, supported with a deep sense of their heavenly calling, despise the pleasures and profits of this life, and wander about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins, in dens and caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
And O that we were all like minded! That we felt the power of Christ’s resurrection as they did! How should we then “count all things as dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord!” How should we then recover our primitive dignity, trample the earth under our feet, and with our souls be continually gasping after God?
And what hinders but we may be thus minded? Is Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, altered from what he was? No, “he is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.” And though he is exalted to the right hand of God, yet he is not ashamed to call us brethren. The power of his resurrection is as great now as formerly, and the Holy Spirit, which was assured to us by his resurrection, as ready and able to quicken us who are dead in trespasses and sins, as any saint that ever lived. Let us but cry, and that instantly, to Him that is mighty and able to save; let us, in sincerity and truth, without secretly keeping back the least part, renounce ourselves and the world; then we shall be Christians indeed.
Filed under: Bible, Christianity, George Whitefield, God, Grace, Jesus Christ, Reformed Christian Topics, Salvation | Tagged: Christ, Christ Jesus, Holy Spirit, Jesus' Resurrection | Comments Off on Resurrection Power
Samuel at Gilgal 