Jesus Strong and Mighty

Posted on by metroupe

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“The popular image of Jesus is that He is not only kind and tender but also soft and prissy, as though Jesus comes to us reeking of hand cream. Such a Jesus can hardly steel the soul that is daily assaulted by the enemy. We need to learn the catechism of Psalm 24. Question: Who is the King of glory? Answer: Yahweh, strong and mighty! Yahweh-mighty in battle! (Ps 24:8). We must catch the vision of the Faithful and True sitting on the white horse, the One who ‘judges and makes war’ in righteousness (Rev 19:11-16). No mild God or soft Jesus can give His people hope. It is only as we know the Warrior of Israel who fights for us (and sometimes without us) that we have hope of triumphing in the muck of life.” (Ralph Davis, “Joshua: No Falling Words,” p.82)

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All Sanctification comes Through The Cross

Posted on by metroupe

There is no victory over the indwelling power of sin, and there is no pardon for the guilt of sin, but as the soul deals with the blood of Christ. All true sanctification comes through the cross.

Seek it there. Go to the cross—oh, go to the cross of Jesus. In simplicity of faith, go. With the strong corruption, go. With the burden of guilt, go, go to the cross.

You will find nothing but love there—nothing but welcome there—nothing but purity there. The precious blood of Jesus ‘cleanses us from all sin.’ And while you are kept low beneath the cross, your enemy dares not approach you, sin shall not have dominion over you, nor shall Satan, your accuser, condemn you.”

—Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts (January 8)

Lawmakers, All of Us

Posted on by metroupe

“It is a common saying that every man has a pope in his own bosom. That is, the disposition to Lord it over God’s heritage is almost universal. Men wish to have their opinions on moral questions made into laws to bind the consciences of their brethren.”

Charles Hodge
(Systematic Theology, 3:265)

Effort is REQUIRED!

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“As well might a poor man expect to be rich in this world without industry, or a weak man to become strong and healthy without food and exercise, as a Christian to be rich in faith and strong in the Lord without earnest endeavour and diligent effort. It is true that all our labours amount to nothing unless the Lord blesses them (Psalm 127:1), as it also is that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Nevertheless, God places no premium upon sloth, and has promised that “the soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Proverbs 13:4). A farmer may be fully persuaded of his own helplessness to make his fields productive, he may realize that their fertility is dependent upon the sovereign will of God, and he may also be a firm believer in the efficacy of prayer; but unless he discharges his own duty his barns will be empty. So it is spiritually.”

AW PINK

Quotes from Martin Luther King

Posted on by metroupe

In no particular order….

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

Some Wisdom From Monticello

Posted on by metroupe

Thomas Jefferson was certainly an interesting and influential man. I take exception with a great many things he said, but also enjoy other. Here are a few peckings.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

One man with courage is a majority.

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

I cannot live without books.

I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

If God is just, I tremble for my country.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Never spend your money before you have earned it.

The Hard Road

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I get prayer emails from Johnny Farese. He is a quadriplegic who serves the Lord from his bed. you should visit his site, farese.com to hear the whole story.

You can listen to some of his story below:

He sent this quote the other day:

“In the world ye shall have tribulation.”
— John 16:33

“There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, “We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes – to stand and not faint.”

Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom was a dutch christian who was sent to a concentration camp in WWII for helping Jews to hide. Her sister and father died while imprisoned. She knows something of what it means to suffer for her faith in Jesus.

Teddy Roosevelt Lays it Down

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“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt

In my life I have too often sat in the peanut gallery, slinging criticisms at others from my position of idleness. I am ashamed of that, and don’t ever want to be that way again!

The Little Stuff: The Important Stuff

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“I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
-Helen Keller

No Condemnation. No None!

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“Because of the gospel’s power, you can be completely free of all condemnation.

Not mostly free; completely free.

Don’t buy the lie that cultivating condemnation and wallowing in your shame is somehow pleasing to God, or that a constant, low-grade guilt will somehow promote holiness and spiritual maturity.

It’s just the opposite! God is glorified when we believe with all our hearts that those who trust in Christ can never be condemned. It’s only when we receive his free gift of grace and live in the good of total forgiveness that we’re able to turn from old, sinful ways of living and walk in grace-motivated obedience.”

– C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life, 39, 40

Charles Wesley wrote:

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.