Grace Gems

[nChrist]

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From Grace Gems:
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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

The mercy of God!
Charles Spurgeon, encouraging
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Once in Hell!

(William Bacon Stevens, "The Rich Man and Lazarus" 1857)

"But Abraham replied: Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things--but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony! And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us!" Luke 16:25-26

This parable teaches that our eternal future corresponds to our earthly character. We enter the eternal world with precisely the same moral feelings with which we leave this present world. "As the tree falls--so it lies." He who at death is sinful--will be sinful still. He who at death is holy--will be holy still.

We may be summoned before God at any moment! If called hence in an unrepenting and unbelieving state--we shall enter that unseen world only to spend an eternity amidst the torments of the lost, with an impassable chasm between us and the land of bliss! An "impassable chasm!" No passing now! No passing ten thousand ages hence! No passing forever! Once in Hell, lifting up our eyes in torment--and we are there forever!

For though there is remorse in Hell,
though there is sorrow there,
though there is weeping and wailing there--
there is no repentance there, no faith there, no Savior there!

Now, there is mercy and forgiveness!
Now, the blood-filled fountain is open!
Now, the arms of Jesus are outstretched to receive sinners!
"Now is the accepted time! Now is the day of salvation!"

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

It will all end in mercy!
James Smith, insightful
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The unsearchable riches of Christ!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"The unsearchable riches of Christ!" Ephesians 3:8

My Master has riches--
  beyond the eloquence of words
  beyond the dream of imagination,
  beyond the count of arithmetic, and
  beyond the measurement of reason!

They are unsearchable! You may look, and study, and weigh, but when your thoughts are at the greatest--Jesus is a greater Savior than you think Him to be. My Lord is more ready to pardon--than you to sin; more able to forgive--than you to transgress. My Master is more willing to supply your needs--than you are to ask for them!

Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus. When you put the crown on His head, you will only crown Him with silver, when He deserves gold.

My Master has riches of happiness to bestow upon you now. He can make you to lie down in green pastures, and lead you beside still waters. There is no love like His, neither earth nor Heaven can match it. To know Christ and to be found in Him--oh! this is life, this is joy, this is marrow and fatness, wine on the lees well refined!

My Master does not treat His servants churlishly--He gives to them as a king gives to a king! He gives them two Heavens: a Heaven below in serving Him here--and a Heaven above in delighting in Him forever!

His unsearchable riches will be best known in eternity. He will give you all that you need on the way to Heaven--your place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks, your bread shall be given you, and your waters shall be sure. But it is there, THERE, where you shall hear the song of those who triumph, the shout of those who feast, and shall have a face-to-face view of the glorious and beloved One! The unsearchable riches of Christ! This is the tune for the minstrels of earth, and the song for the harpers of heaven!

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

That I may know Him!
James Smith, insightful
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Sin meets his eye wherever he turns!

(William Bacon Stevens, "The Parables" 1857)

The very fact that we have been renewed in the temper and disposition of our minds, that we have been born again of the Holy Spirit, that old things have passed away and that all things have become new--only makes us realize more vividly our sad condition--to be thus dwellers in an ungodly world, and to be thus of necessity so mixed up with sin and corruption and unbelief in all the walks of daily life.

The true Christian finds everything around him antagonistic to his thoughts and feelings.
He loves Christ supremely--the world hates Him supremely.
He delights to do God's will--the world revels in its disobedience.
His heart is set on heavenly and Divine things--"the heart of men is fully set to do evil."

He is daily pained at the manifestations of sin and unbelief. He mourns at the spiritual destitution of his fellow men, and at the rampant evils which rear themselves unbridled, and devour the vitals of society with rapacity! Sin meets his eye wherever he turns!

In the Church--he sees hypocrisy, formality, self-righteousness, censoriousness, lukewarmness, and backsliding.
In the family--he finds peevishness, ill temper, discord, variance, strifes, evil surmisings, and positive hatred.
In the state--he perceives crimes of every sort and hue, and the decalogue broken in each one of its commandments.
In business--he is made to witness fraud, greed, deceptions, lying!

We are ever made to feel that we are in an enemy's country; that here, as the Patriarchs confessed, "we have no abiding city--but we seek one to come;" that "we who are in tabernacles of flesh do groan, being burdened"--
burdened with the remaining corruption of our own hearts;
burdened with our daily short-comings and omissions of duty;
burdened with our positive transgressions;
burdened with our frequent infirmities; and
burdened with seeing and hearing the ungodliness which surrounds us, and which is ever crying to Heaven for vengeance!

We long for a release from the place where our soul, like that of righteous Lot, is daily "vexed with the filthy lives of the wicked!" So that, look where we will, we are constrained to say with the Psalmist, "Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech--that I live among the tents of Kedar!" Psalm 120:5

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Names!
William Dyer, insightful
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What an unspeakable mercy to have such a Father!

(James Smith, "The Pastor's Morning Visit")

"Return, you backsliding children!" Jeremiah 3:22

We are prone to wander--and are daily going astray!

Our God might justly cast us off--but He lovingly invites us to return. He bids us to take words and come to Him, and gives us every encouragement to hasten to His feet. We are His children, though backsliding; and it is our Father who bids us to return!

Beloved, let us return to our God this morning, let us . . .
  confess our sin,
  deplore our folly,
  beg His pardon,
  plead His Word,
  hope in His mercy, and
  expect His reconciliation and love.

What an unspeakable mercy to have such a Father!

So ready to forgive!

So willing to receive!

So desirous that we should be happy and blessed!

His love is astonishing!

His patience is beyond description!

See His arms extended to you; hear His Word inviting you--and hasten to be blessed! Do not dwell on your miseries, or your wretchedness; they are the effects of your backsliding. He says, "I will heal your backslidings!"

"Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He has torn us--and will heal us! He has smitten us--and He will bind us up!"

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

A servant to His own servants!
William Dyer, choice Puritan author
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All glittering glow-worm glories

(Anne Dutton's Letters on Spiritual Subjects)

"When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from Me and sets up idols in his heart . . ." Ezekiel 14:7

As to our heart-idolatry, it is a very great iniquity of which the Lord's own people are deeply guilty.

Let us bring our every idol unto Him to be entirely slain--so shall our hearts be separated from them, and our admiration of, and sinful affection to, all glittering glow-worm glories sink and die before the rising attracting display of His all-transcendent and infinite excellencies.

"O Israel, stay away from idols! I am the one who looks after you and cares for you." Hosea 14:8

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols!" 1 John 5:21

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Jesus came leaping!
William Dyer, precious
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The littleness of all earthly things

(William Law, "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life")

The Scriptures represent this life, and the greatest things of life . . .
  as bubbles,
  as vapors,
  as dreams,
  and as shadows.

Think upon the vanity and shortness of human life--and let death and eternity be often in your minds; for these thoughts will strengthen and exalt your minds, make you wise and judicious, and truly sensible of the littleness of all earthly things.

The greatness of those things which follow death--makes all that goes before it sink into nothing!

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Oh! This is a great mystery!
William Dyer, very uplifting
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Robert Murray McCheyne quotes:


1. For every look at self--take ten looks at Christ!

2. The greatest need of my people--is my personal holiness. Take heed to yourself. Your own soul is your first and greatest care. Keep up close communion with God. Study likeness to Him in all things.

3. Unfathomable oceans of grace are in Christ for you. Dive and dive again--you will never come to the bottom of these depths!

4. Get your texts from God--your thoughts, your words, from God. In great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument, will be success. It is not great talents God blesses--so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is a powerful weapon in the hand of God.

5. A man is what he is on his knees before God--and nothing more.

6. Live near to God--and all things will appear little to you in comparison with eternal realities.

7. Lord make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be!

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

He is altogether lovely!
William Dyer, precious
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He waits to fall upon our neck and kiss us!

(James Smith, "The Pastor's Morning Visit")

"Only acknowledge your iniquity!" Jeremiah 3:13

Will the Lord receive us when we have backslidden from Him, and are desirous of returning to Him? Oh, yes, He invites, He exhorts, He beseeches us to return! Nor does He prescribe any hard conditions--but He says, "Only acknowledge your iniquity!"

He is so ready to forgive, so infinitely gracious in His nature--that if we only confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Have we wandered?

Have we left our first love?

Let us go and return to our first husband, for then it was better with us than now. His affections yearn for us, His arms are open to receive us, and He waits to fall upon our neck and kiss us!

Let us go to His throne of grace--and there . . .
  confess our sins,
  beg His pardon,
  sigh for the enjoyment of His love--
and He will restore unto us the joys of His salvation.

Let us daily confess our iniquities unto the Lord, and He will pardon our numerous sins.

In His favor is life. In His frown is distress and woe.

He delights in mercy.

He will receive us, pardon us, and bless us--like a God!

His mercy endures forever!

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Meditate upon DEATH!
William Dyer, insightful
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A mixed condition

(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity; or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)

The condition of God's people in this life, is a mixed condition. They now have . . .
  their rejoicing times--and their mourning times,
  their laughing times--and their weeping times,
  their singing times--and their sorrowing times, etc.

But in Heaven there is . . .
  all joy--and no sorrow,
  all gladness--and no sadness.

And in Hell there is . . .
  all sorrow--and no joy,
  all grief--and no gladness,
  all howling--and no singing,
  all madness--and no mirth.

But in this present life, it is otherwise. For if there were nothing but joy--many would look for no other Heaven. And if there were nothing but sorrow--most would look for no other Hell.

If men had nothing but joy--how sadly would they be puffed up! And if they had nothing but sorrow--how easily would they be cast down! But now, by a divine hand, our sorrows being mixed with our joys--our hearts come to be the more effectually weaned from the vanities of this life, and to long more earnestly after the pure and unmixed joys in the world of glory!

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Meditate upon JUDGMENT!
William Dyer, powerful
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The human heart!

(Thomas Watson)

"The human heart is the most deceitful
 of all things, and desperately wicked! Who
 really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9

The human heart is full of hostility against God.

The human heart is the very nursery of sin.

The human heart is the storehouse where all
the weapons of unrighteousness lie.

The human heart is a lesser Hell.

"For from within, out of a person's heart--come
 evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder,
 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful
 desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.
 All these vile things come from within; they
 are what defile you." Mark 7:21-23

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Meditate upon JUDGMENT!
William Dyer, powerful
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O suffering saints of God!

(J.C. Philpot, "Daily Portions")

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment--works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 Corinthians 4:17

O suffering saints of God! Are you tried, tempted, afflicted?

It is your mercy. God does not deal so with everyone. It is because you are His children, that He lays His chastening hand on you.

He means to conform you to the image of His Son in glory--and therefore He now conforms you to the image of His Son in suffering.

All will end well with the people of God. Their life here is a life of temptation, of suffering and trial--but Heaven will make amends for all!

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Meditate upon HELL!
William Dyer, helpful
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The toiling, the tempted, and the sorrowing!

(T. S. Arthur, "Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing" 1856)

"May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant." Psalm 119:76

As we pass on our way through the world, we find our paths now smooth and flowery--and then rugged and difficult to travel. The sky, bathed in golden sunshine today--is black with storms tomorrow! This is the checkered history of everyone. And it is also the life-experience of all, that when the way is rough and the sky dark--the poor heart sinks and trembles, and the eye of faith cannot see the bright sun smiling in the heavens beyond the veil of clouds. But, for all this fear and doubt--the rugged path winds steadily upwards, and the broad sky is glittering in light.

Let the toiling, the tempted, and the sorrowing ever keep this in mind. Let them have faith in Him who feeds the young lions, and clothes the fields with verdure--who binds up the broken heart, and gives joy to the mourners. There are words of cheer in the Scripture! Listen! and their melody will bring peace to the spirit; and their truths, strength to the heart.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort--who comforts us in all our troubles!" 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Meditate upon HEAVEN!
William Dyer, most uplifting
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How deplorably mistaken you are!

(Timothy Shay Arthur, "Do You Suffer More than Your Neighbor?" 1856)

"Whose sorrow is like unto my sorrow?" Lamentations 1:12

Such is the language of the stricken soul, such the outbreak of feeling--when affliction darkens the horizon of man's sunny hopes, and dashes the full cup of blessings suddenly from the expectant lips!

"Console me not; you have not felt this pang," cries the spirit in agony, to the kind friend who is striving to pour the balm of consolation into the wounded heart.

"But I have known worse," is the reply.

"Worse! Never, never! No one could suffer more keenly than I now do!"

In vain the friend reasons. Sorrow is always more or less selfish; it absorbs all other passions; it consecrates itself to tears and lamentations, and the bereaved one feels alone--utterly alone in the world; and of all mankind, the most forsaken. Every heart knows its own bitterness, and there is a canker spot on every human plant in God's garden. Some are blighted and withered--ready to fall from the stalk; others are blooming--while a blight is at the root.

What right have you to say, because you droop and languish--that your neighbor, with a fair exterior and light deportment, is all that his appearance indicates? What evidence have you, that because you suffer from poverty, and your neighbor rides in his fine carriage--that he is, therefore, more abundantly blessed, more contentedly happy than you?

As you walk through the streets lined with costly and beautiful mansions, you feel vaguely, that, associated with so much of beauty, of magnificence and ease--there must be . . .
  absolute contentment,
  enviable freedom,
  unmixed pleasure,
  and constant happiness.

How deplorably mistaken you are!

Here, where gold and crimson drape the windows--is mortal sickness!
There, where the gilded shutters fold over the rich plate glass--lies shrouded death!

Here, is blasted reputation!
There, is an untold and hideous grief!

Here, is blighted love, striving to look and be brave--but with a bosom corroded and full of bitterness!
There, is the sad conduct of a wayward child.

Here, is the terrible neglect of an unkind and perhaps idolized husband!
There, is the willful and repeated faults of an unfaithful wife!

Here, is dread of bankruptcy!
There, is dread of dishonor or exposure!

Here, is bitter hatred, lacking only the nerve to prove another Cain!
There, is silent and hidden disease, working its skillful fangs about the heart, while it paints the cheek with the very hue of health!

Here, is undying remorse in the heart of one who has wronged the widow and the fatherless!
There, is the suffering victim of foul slander!

Have you a worse grief than your neighbor? You think you have. You have buried your only child--but he has laid seven children in the tomb. Seven times has his heart been torn open--and his wounds are yet fresh!

Have you more trouble than your neighbor? You have lost your all. No, no--do not say so! Your neighbor has lost houses and lands--but his health has gone also! And while you are robust--he lies on the uneasy pillow of sickness, and then waits until a trusty hand bears the scanty meal to his parched lips.

Do you suffer more than your neighbor? True, you hardly have money enough for the bare necessaries of life; your children dress meagerly, and your house is scantily furnished; you do not know whether or not work will be forthcoming the following week.

Your neighbor has never seen poverty. House, wife and children are sumptuously provided for. His barn is a palace, compared to your poor hovel! Step into his parlor and look at him for a moment--velvet carpets yield to the step; luxurious chairs invite to rest. But check your sigh of envy! There is a ring of the doorbell--and a jarring thud against the polished door--and in bursts the rich man's son, his brow haggard, his eyes fierce and red. He is a notorious profligate--gambling is his food and drink, and debauchery is his glory and his ruin. Would you rather be that father?

Go back to your honest sons and look in their bright faces. Be even thankful that you are not burdened with corrupt gold, for their sakes. Never say again, that you suffer more than your neighbor!

[nChrist]

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From Grace Gems:
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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Fiery trials make golden Christians!
William Dyer, insightful and helpful
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A bird's-eye view of Hell!

(James Smith, "A Voice from Hell!" 1856)

"I beg you, father Abraham--send Lazarus to my father's house! For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don't end up in this place of torment!" Luke 16:27-28

Jesus takes off the covering from the bottomless pit--and gives us a bird's-eye view of Hell!

There is a young man there. He was rich. He was surrounded by a multitude of earthly goods. He has forfeited them all--and now he is in Hell. His doom is fixed--and fixed forever. He cannot obtain one single drop of water to cool his parched tongue!

He finds that it is now no use asking favors for himself. But he has brothers--five brothers. Can he prevent their coming to Hell? He will try. He therefore prays that Lazarus may become a missionary--and be sent on a mission of mercy to his father's house. Hear him: "I beg you, father Abraham--send Lazarus to my father's house!" Who would expect to find mercy in Hell--or pity in Hell--or prayer in Hell! But here it is!

Can earth be worse than Hell? Can professed Christians be worse than this lost soul? Shall lost souls in Hell wish to send someone to their ungodly relatives--if possible to prevent their damnation--and will you neglect your relatives? Has pity for the souls of your lost relatives no influence on you?

Is Hell only a fable?

Is eternal torment only a trifle?

How then, can you let them go to Hell without pity or concern?

Souls are perishing!

Hell is filling!

Time in flying!

Are you, can you be careless about the eternal happiness or eternal misery of the souls around you?

Where, O where is your pity for poor perishing sinners?

[nChrist]

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Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

To help your conception of what Hell is
by Jonathan Edwards, very powerful
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What would Jesus do?

(James Smith, "A Purifying Hope" 1865)

"And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself--just as He is pure." 1 John 3:3

The model after which the hopeful believer works, is Jesus--"just as He is pure." Jesus is presented as . . .
  our pattern which we are to copy,
  our example which we are to imitate,
  our copy after which we are to write, and
  the standard which we are to endeavor to reach.

No believer can look at the life of Jesus--without approving that life in his judgment. Nor can he be under the influence of grace--without admiring that life, and desiring to be conformed to it.

He would never ask, "What do others do?" But he asks himself, "What would Jesus do? How would Jesus act in this case? What would Jesus say under such circumstances?" And then he earnestly desires, heartily prays, and energetically endeavors to do--as he believes Jesus would do. This course corrects many evils, prevents many failures, stimulates him constantly to deny himself, and raises him to a pitch of purity and spirituality, which he would not otherwise attain.