The Neglect of Moral Training

Quoting Chuck Colson:

Our culture is disintegrating before our very eyes because we have neglected moral training. We need look no further than the latest news headlines to see a world overtaken by greed, corruption, fraud, deceit and scandal.

Our youth have become desensitized to evil and lost sight of what is good, with few personal or public role models for ethical behavior. If left unchecked, this pervasive wrongdoing will soon become the norm.

When the Race is Ended

According to Samuel Rutherford:

When the race is ended, and the play is either won or lost, and ye are in the utmost circle and border of time, and shall put your foot within the march of eternity, all the good things of your short night dream shall seem to you like ashes of a blaze of thorns or straw.

Behold the Cross!

Look steadily at the cross of Christ by faith, and you shall be kept in peace. Fix the eyes of your mind firmly on Jesus crucified and He will deliver you from all your fears. Though you walk through a dark time, He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Always sit under the shadow of the cross. Bishop J. C. Ryle lays before us the answers to many of our spiritual questions:

“Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)

Are you desirous to get to heaven, and perplexed and brought to a stand-still by difficulties in the Bible which you cannot explain? To you also I say this day, “Behold the cross of Christ.” Read there the Father’s love and the Son’s compassion. Surely they are written in great plain letters, which none can well mistake. What though you are now perplexed by the doctrine of election? What though at present you cannot reconcile your own utter corruption and your own responsibility? Look, I say, at the cross. Does not that cross tell you that Jesus is a mighty, loving, ready Savior? Does it not make one thing plain, and that is that it is all your own fault if you are not saved? Oh, get hold of that truth, and hold it fast!

Are you a distressed believer? Is your heart pressed down with sickness, tried with disappointments, overburdened with cares? To you also I say this day, “Behold the cross of Christ.” Think whose hand it is that chastens you; think whose hand is measuring to you the cup of bitterness which you are now drinking. It is the hand of Him who was crucified! It is the same hand which in love to your soul was nailed to the accursed tree. Surely that thought should comfort and hearten you. Surely you should say to yourself, “A crucified Savior will never lay upon me anything that is not for my good. There is a needs be. It must be well.”

Are you a believer that longs to be more holy? Are you one that finds his heart too ready to love earthly things? To you also I say, “Behold the cross of Christ.” Look at the cross, think of the cross, meditate on the cross, and then go and set your affections on the world if you can. I believe that holiness is nowhere learned so well as on Calvary. I believe you cannot look much at the cross without feeling your will sanctified, and your tastes made more spiritual. As the sun gazed upon makes everything else look dark and dim, so does the cross darken the false splendor of this world. As honey tasted makes all other things seem to have no taste at all, so does the cross seen by faith take all the sweetness out of the pleasures of the world. (“The Cross of Christ”)