Grace shapes us...

Grace is not a technique. It is not a magical quality that God dispenses like a candy machine, or the power for self-actualization or personal peace and affluence. It is not a lubricant to get the parts inside working properly. And it is not a three-step program for self-improvement. When we treat grace that way, we surrender to the spirit of our age by fashioning ourselves and our bodies through our own efforts. We don’t use grace to shape ourselves—it shapes us into the image of the one who gives it. - Matthew Anderson "Earthen Vessels" (emphasis mine)

In Christ we have power and victory

“The resurrection of Jesus offers courage and strength to persevere because his victory over sin and death is ours both in this life and in the one to come. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, sanctifies us, and empowers us to follow Christ and serve the mission of the church. And we know that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will raise us as well when Jesus returns. Here the broken find hope and courage, for in Christ we have power and victory to obey, and we will, in the end, be raised in his likeness.”


Joe Thorn, Note To Self (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2011), 31

HT:OFI

Grounds of Our Assurance are not within us

"Many sincere believers are too introspective. They look too exclusively within, so that their hope is graduated by the degree of evidence of regeneration which they find in their own experience. This, except in rare cases, can never lead to the assurance of hope. We may examine our hearts with all the microscopic care prescribed by President Edwards in his work on The Religious Affections, and never be satisfied that we have eliminated every ground of misgiving and doubt. The grounds of assurance are not so much within, as without us."

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (London, 1873), 3:107

HT: Tony Reinke

Our hearts will not save us.

"That’s why Jesus did not say, “Let not your hearts be troubled, just believe your hearts.” He said, “Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1)."

Read the whole article here at Desiring God.

it's okay to plod...

Sanctification is a process—an extremely slow process—for us all. Comprehending truth, applying truth, mortifying indwelling sin, cultivating the fruit of the Spirit—it’s a process that usually takes place by small increments over a lifetime. Normally, people don’t grow dramatically as the result of a single sermon or sermon series.

CJ Mahaney, SG blog, Ordinary Pastors, Part 8

God changes lives..

God is present in power in the church, changing lives and enabling an obedience that would otherwise be unattainable. The Holy Spirit is not a theological abstraction but the manifestation of God’s presence in the community, making everything new. Those who respond to the gospel have entered the sphere of the Spirit’s power, where they find themselves change and empowered for obedience.

Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (T & T Clark, 1997)

HT:OFI

Destroyed, but in me is your help

Everything within me bespeaks my condemnation. There is not one spark of goodness in me. As a shipwrecked mariner, I must sink beneath the waves, if help is not provided.

But oh! how wonderful is the love of God against whom I have sinned. He stretches out his arm of mercy to save me from perishing. He speaks with melting kindness: ‘You have destroyed yourself, but in me is your help.’

Placed on the Rock of Ages, on Jesus, the sure Foundation, my soul is penetrated with gratitude while I listen to the gracious voice of my Redeemer – ‘I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.'

— Thomas Reade, Christian Meditations

[HT: OFI]

Teach me your way, O Lord

The paths that we think will be easier and better are often not better at all. They seldom end up being better routes to the life which God has designed for us to live. What seem to be better paths to us are actually self-oriented "long cuts" that actually take us away from where God wants us to be. Somehow, someway we all take daily detours of thought and desire that move us off the straight path that God has placed us on by his grace. In magnificently patient, transforming love, he has redeemed us from the jungle of our rebellion, lust, autonomy, foolishness, and self-focus and placed us on the narrow pathway of the grace of his Son.

From Paul Tripp at DG blog, The Shortest Distance Between Points

I recommend reading the whole article. There are some specific reasons as to why we take shortcuts and signs that we may be taking shortcuts that may get you thinking. I know it did for me.

And a sidebar for some of my readers out there, God's path for our lives do not include unnecessary or ineffective diversions. "The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy;" Psalm 111:7 Nothing He does in our lives is ineffective or out of place. He works all things for our good.

Accepted at My Worst

“In the cross, God demonstrates the deepest law of acceptance. For to be convinced that I have been accepted, I must be convinced that I have been accepted at my worst. This is the greatest gift an intimate relationship can offer — to know that we have been accepted and forgiven in the full knowledge of who we are, an even greater knowledge than we have about ourselves. This is what the cross offers.”
— Rebecca Pippert Hope Has Its Reasons, 105

[HT: OFI]

Safely Leave With Him

"The best thing is neither to seek nor avoid troubles but to follow Christ and take the bitter with the sweet as it may come. Whether we are happy or unhappy at any given time is not important. That we be in the will of God is all that matters. We may safely leave with him the incident of heartache or happiness. He will know how much we need of either or both."
- A.W. Tozer, We Travel an Appointed Way, page 80.

Fruit

Sometimes we’ll see fruit, which is a wonderful experience. But other times we’ll just be watering, which is just as pleasing to the Lord. We’re called to be faithful to the task, not faithful to create fruit. God creates the fruit, not us.

~Stephen Altrogge, The Blazing Center

The process is not finished, but it is going on

This life therefore

is not righteousness

but growth in righteousness;
not health

but healing;
not being

but becoming;
not rest

but exercise.
We are not yet what we shall be,

but we are growing toward it.
The process is not finished,

but it is going on.
This is not the end,

but it is the road.
All does not yet gleam in glory,

but all is being purified.
~Martin Luther

365 quotes

Fell in love with this Flickr account and I've been going through it and seeing all the pictures and quotes he's put together. Below are two of my favorites.

Prepping and Making Ready

Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled,

and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.

CH Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, 11/4

I am Your God

You are my servant,

I have chosen you

and not cast you off;

fear not,

for I am with you;

be not dismayed,

for I am your God;

I will strengthen you,

I will help you,

I will uphold you

with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:9b-10

More Thoughts on Being Adopted by God

I have not forgotten about going through the book, but I can't seem to find it so, until I do, there's more to think about and consider on the topic of adoption by God.

Here's some quotes by some men who have thoughts on the adoption of sinners by God:

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all... JI Packer, Knowing God.

It is indeed a great thing to be right with God the Judge through the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is a great thing to be forgiven of sin, to be free from the fear of God’s wrath. But it is possible to grasp these great realities and remain unaware of what is even greater: we are adopted and loved by God the Father. In Christ, God the Father justifies us, but he does not stop there: he adopts us as his sons. CJ Mahaney, For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper.

I Love You This Much

When we think of Christ dying on the cross

we are shown the lengths

to which God’s love goes in order

to win us back to himself.

We would almost think that God loved us more

than he loves his Son!

We cannot measure such love by any other standard.

He is saying to us:

I love you this much. . . .

The cross is the heart of the gospel.

It makes the gospel good news:

Christ has died for us.

He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat.

He has borne our sins.

God has done something on the cross

which we could never do for ourselves.

But God does something to us as well as for us through the cross.

He persuades us that he loves us.

~Sinclair Ferguson, Grow in Grace

Real Love

God does not love us

because Christ died for us;

Christ died for us

because God loved us.

~John Stott

The Cross of Christ

Courage

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I Will Satisfy him and Show him My Salvation

Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation."