Grace Gems

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Nevertheless, I am continually with You!

(Charles Spurgeon)

"I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.
 Nevertheless, I am continually with You!" Psalm 73:22-23

"Nevertheless," as if, notwithstanding all the foolishness and ignorance which David had just been confessing to God, not one atom the less was it true and certain that David was saved and accepted, and that the blessing of being constantly in God's presence was undoubtedly his. Fully conscious of his own lost estate, and of the deceitfulness and vileness of his nature--yet, by a glorious outburst of faith, he sings, "Nevertheless, I am continually with You."

Believer, you are forced to enter into the Psalmist's confession of sinfulness--in the same way endeavor to say, "Nevertheless, since I belong to Christ, I am continually with God!"

I am continually upon His mind--He is always thinking of me for my good.

I am continually before His eye--the eye of the Lord never sleeps, but is perpetually watching over my welfare.

I am continually in His hand--so that none shall be able to pluck me thence.

I am continually on His heart--worn there as a memorial, even as the high priest bore the names of the twelve tribes upon his heart forever.

"You always think of me, O God.
 Your love and affections continually yearn towards me.
 You are always making providence work for my good.
 You have set me as a signet upon your arm.
 Your love is strong as death, many waters cannot quench it; neither can the floods drown it.
 Surprising grace! Though in myself abhorred, You see me in Christ and washed in His blood, and thus I stand accepted in Your presence. I am thus continually in Your favor, continually with You!"

Here is comfort for the tried and afflicted soul: "Nevertheless!"

O say it in your heart, and take the peace it gives, "Nevertheless, I am continually with You!"

[nChrist]

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Surely it is better to go to Heaven with the few--than to Hell with the many!

(J.C. Ryle)

We have no reason to be discouraged and cast down, if the religion we profess is not popular and few agree with us.

We must remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

Repentance, and commitment to Christ, and holiness of life have never been fashionable.

The true flock of Christ has always been small.

Surely it is better to go to Heaven with the few--than to Hell with the many!

[nChrist]

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Some benefits of sickness and affliction

(J.C. Ryle)

Sickness helps . . .
  to remind men of death,
  to make men think seriously of God, and their souls, and the world to come,
  to soften men's hearts, and teach them wisdom,
  to abase and humble us,
  to try men's religion, of what sort it is.

The storms of winter often bring out the defects in a man's dwelling. In the same way, sickness often exposes the gracelessness of a man's soul. Surely anything that makes us find out the real character of our faith, is a good thing.

Sicknesses, losses, crosses, anxieties and disappointments--seem absolutely needful to keep us humble, watchful and spiritual-minded. They are as needful as the pruning knife to the vine; and the refiner's furnace to the gold.

There is no commentary that opens up the Bible, so much as sickness and sorrow!

There are no lessons so useful--as those learned in the school of affliction.

By affliction, God . . .
  shows us our emptiness and weakness,
  draws us to the throne of grace,
  purifies our affections,
  weans us from the world,
  and makes us long for Heaven!

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No time is so well spent!

(J.C. Ryle)

Prayer is . . .
  the mightiest weapon that God has placed in our hands,
  the best weapon to use in every difficulty,
  the surest remedy in every trouble,
  the key that unlocks the treasury of promises,
  the hand that draws forth grace and help in time of need,
  the silver trumpet that God commands us to sound in all our necessity,
  the cry He has promised always to listen to, just as a loving mother listens attentively to the cry of her child.

Be sure that no time is so well spent, as that which a man spends on his knees.

What is the reason that some believers are so much brighter and holier than others?
I believe the difference, in nineteen cases out of twenty, arises from different habits in private prayer.
I believe that those who are not eminently holy, pray little--and those who are eminently holy, pray much.

What is the cause of most backslidings?
I believe, as a general rule, one of the chief causes is neglect of private prayer.
People are backsliders on their knees, long before they backslide openly in the eyes of the world.

Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor.
Jesus can understand you!
 
"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Colossians 4:2

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How astonishing is all of this!

(Jonathan Edwards)

How astonishing it is, that One who is forever blessed and is infinitely and essentially happy--should endure the greatest sufferings that ever were endured!

How astonishing it is, that One who is the supreme Lord and Judge of the world--should be arraigned and stand at the judgment seat of mortal worms, and then be condemned!

How astonishing it is, that One who is the living God and the fountain of all life--should be put to death!

How astonishing it is, that One who created the world and gives life to all His creatures--should be put to death by His own creatures!

How astonishing it is, that One of infinite majesty and glory, and so the object of the love, praises and adoration of angels--should be mocked and spit upon by the vilest of men!

How astonishing it is, that One who is infinitely good and who is love itself--should suffer the greatest cruelty!

How astonishing it is, that One who is infinitely beloved by the Father--should be put to inexpressible anguish under His own Father's wrath!

How astonishing it is, that One who is the King of Heaven, who has Heaven for His throne and earth for His footstools--should be buried in the dungeon of the grave!

How astonishing is all of this!

And yet this is the way that God's wisdom has fixed upon as the way of sinners' salvation, as neither unsuitable nor dishonorable to Christ.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us--that we should be called children of God!" 1 John 3:1

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They are loving an imaginary God!

(Jonathan Edwards)

Some people have no sense of the vileness of their sin, and no sense of God's infinite and holy opposition to it. They think that God has no higher standards than they have. So they get on well with Him and feel a sort of love for Him--but they are loving an imaginary God, not the real God!

There are others whose self-love produces a sort of love for God simply because of the material blessings they have received from His providence. There is nothing commendable in this either.

Self-love can produce a merely natural gratitude to God. This can happen through wrong ideas about God, as if He were all love and mercy, and no avenging justice; or as if God were bound to love a person because of the person's worthiness. On these grounds men may love a God of their own imaginations, when they have no love at all for the true God.

[nChrist]

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(John Newton, Gadsby's Hymnal #1100)

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above,
not on earthly things." Colossians 3:1-2

    1.  Let worldly minds the world pursue,
            It has no charms for me;
        Once I admired its trifles too,
            But grace has set me free.

    2.  Its pleasures now no longer please,
            No more content afford;
        Far from my heart be joys like these,
            Now I have seen the Lord.

    3.  As by the light of opening day
            The stars are all concealed;
        So earthly pleasures fade away,
            When Jesus is revealed.

    4.  Creatures no more divide my choice;
            I bid them all depart;
        His name, and love, and gracious voice,
            Have fixed my roving heart.

    5.  Now, Lord, I would be thine alone,
            And wholly live to thee;
        But may I hope that thou wilt own
            A worthless worm like me?

    6.  Yes, though of sinners I'm the worst,
            I cannot doubt thy will;
        For if thou hadst not loved me first,
            I thee had hated still.

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That soul never perished, that felt itself to be vile, and Jesus to be precious!

(Octavius Winslow)

What are YOU to yourself? Worthless? Vile? Empty?

What is JESUS to you? Precious? Lovely? All your salvation? All your desire?

What is SIN to you? The most hateful thing in the world?

What is HOLINESS to you? Most desired? Most longed for?

What is the THRONE OF GRACE to you? The most attractive spot?

What is the CROSS to you? The sweetest resting place in the universe?

What is GOD to you? Your God? Your Father? The spring of all your joys? The fountainhead of all your bliss? The center where your affections meet?

Is it so? Then you are a child of God! Those low views of yourself--that brokenness, that inward mourning, that secret confession; that longing for more spirituality, more grace, more devotedness, more love--does but prove the existence, reality, and growth of God's work within you.

Cheer up, precious soul! That soul never perished, that felt itself to be vile, and Jesus to be precious!

[nChrist]

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The Bible cannot quicken, nor sanctify, nor comfort!

(Octavius Winslow)

"Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction!" 1 Thessalonians 1:5

Apart from the Spirit, the Bible cannot quicken, nor sanctify, nor comfort. It may be . . .
  read constantly,
  and searched deeply,
  and known accurately,
  and understood partially,
  and quoted appropriately.
Yet, left to its own unassisted power, it comes but in word only, producing no hallowing, no abiding, no saving results.

Unaccompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is inactive and inoperative--a mere dead letter!

All that we spiritually know . . .
  of ourselves,
  of God,
  of Jesus,
  of His Word--
we owe to the supernatural teaching of the Holy Spirit. All the real light, sanctification, strength and comfort we possess on our way to glory--we must ascribe to Him.


SPURGEON: "We might preach until our tongues rotted, until we should exhaust our lungs and die--but never a soul would be converted without the Holy Spirit's power attending the Word.
If the Holy Spirit does not renew the hearts of our hearers, we cannot do it.
If the Holy Spirit does not regenerate them, we cannot.
If He does not send the truth home into their souls, we might as well speak into the ear of a corpse!"

"Open my eyes, that I may see wonderful things in Your law!" Psalm 119:18

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What shadows we are--and what shadows we pursue!

(Octavius Winslow)

"We were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow!" Job 8:9

"He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure." Job 14:2

"What is your life? You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James 4:14

All is shadow here below!

The world is a shadow--and is passing away!

The creature is a shadow--and the loveliest and the fondest may be the first to die!

Health is a shadow--fading, and in a moment gone!

Wealth is a shadow--today upon the summit of affluence, tomorrow at its base, plunged into poverty and dependence!

Human friendships and creature affections are but shadows--sweet and pleasant while they last; but, with a worm feeding at the root of all created good, the sheltering gourd soon withers, exposing us to the sun's burning heat by day, and to the frost's cold chill by night!

Oh, yes! "Passing Away!" is indelibly inscribed upon everything here below!

Yet how slow we are to realize the solemn lesson: "What shadows we are--and what shadows we pursue!"

Unconverted reader, what is your life--but a vapor that passes away?
And what are your pursuits, but shadows--unreal, unsatisfying, evanescent?

Your rank, your wealth, your honors, your pleasures, are but phantoms which appear but for a little while, and then are lost in the deeper shadow of the grave, and the still deeper and longer shadow of eternity!

Oh, turn from these dreams and hallucinations, and, as a rational, accountable, immortal being, on your way to judgment--fix your mind upon your solemn, endless future! You are going to die! And, oh, when that dread hour comes, so real and appalling--how then will your past trifling life appear?

"As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more." Psalm 103:15-16

"My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass." Psalm 102:11

"Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow." Psalm 144:4

"So teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

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Christian, think about this!

(Richard Baxter)

"Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us!" Ephesians 5:2

Is it a small thing in your eyes to be loved by God--to be the son, the spouse, the beloved, the delight of the King of glory?

Christian, think about this! You will be eternally embraced in the arms of the love which was from everlasting, and will extend to everlasting--of the love which brought the Son of God's love . . .
  from Heaven to earth,
  from earth to the cross,
  from the cross to the grave,
  from the grave to glory--
that love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spat upon, crucified, pierced--which fasted, prayed, healed, wept, sweated, bled, died. That love will eternally embrace you!

"May you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is! May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully!" Ephesians 3:18-19

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More fit to be called a devil than a parent!

(Richard Baxter)
 
"Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." Ephesians 6:4

Parents! Your example and life are a continual and powerful sermon which is always seen by your children!

Parents! Your children have an everlasting inheritance of happiness to attain--and it is that which you must bring them up for. They have an endless misery to escape--and it is that which you must diligently teach them. If you don't teach them to know God, and how to serve Him, and be saved, and to escape the flames of Hell--you teach them nothing, or worse than nothing. It is in your hands to do them the greatest kindness or cruelty in all the world! Help them to know God and to be saved, and you do more for them than if you helped them to be kings or princes.

If you neglect their souls, and bring them up them in ignorance, worldliness, ungodliness, and sin--you betray them to the devil, the enemy of their souls, even as truly as if you sold them to him! You sell them to be slaves to Satan! You betray them to him who will deceive them and abuse them in this life--and torment them in eternity!

If you saw but a burning furnace, much more the flames of Hell--would you not think that man or woman more fit to be called a devil than a parent, who could find in their hearts to cast their child into it? What monsters then of inhumanity are you, who read in Scripture what is the way to Hell, and who they are that God will deliver up to Satan, to be tormented by him--and yet will bring up your children in that very way, and will not take pains to save them from it!

If you love them, show it in those things on which their everlasting welfare depends. Do not say you love them, and yet lead them unto Hell! If you do not love them, yet do not be so unmerciful to them as to damn them! You cannot possibly do more to damn them, than to bring them up in . . .
  ignorance,
  carelessness,
  worldliness,
  sensuality and
  ungodliness!
There is no other way to Hell. And yet, will you bring them up in such a life--and say that you do not desire to damn them?

But if you train up your children in ungodliness, you may as well say that you intend to have them damned! And is not the devil more excusable, for dealing thus cruelly to your children--than you who are their parents, who are bound by nature to love them, and prevent their misery?

Let me seriously speak to the hearts of those careless and ungodly parents, who neglect the holy education of their children. Oh, do not be so unmerciful to those who you have brought into the world! Oh, pity and help the souls that you have defiled and undone! Have mercy on the souls that must perish in Hell, if they are not saved! Oh help them who have . . .
  so many enemies to assault them;
  so many temptations to pass through;
  so many difficulties to overcome;
  so severe a judgment to undergo!
Help them who are so weak, and so easily deceived and overthrown!
Help them speedily--before sin hardens them, and Satan makes a stronger fortress in their hearts!

Oh be not cruel to their souls!
Do not sell them to Satan, and that for nothing!
Do not betray them by your ungodly negligence, to Hell!
If any of them will perish, let it not be because of you--who are so much bound to do them good.
The undoing of your children's souls is a work much fitter for Satan, than for their parents!

Consider how odious soul-betraying parents are--who betray their children to be the slaves of Satan here, and the firebrands of Hell forever! O do not join with the devil in this unnatural, horrid wickedness!

"Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
 You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from Hell." Proverbs 23:13-14

(Please forward this to every parent you know!)

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Pithy gems from John Flavel, 1628-1691

   ~  ~  ~  ~

The Christian shall gain that which he cannot lose--by parting with that which he cannot keep.
     
   ~  ~  ~  ~

Jesus is the fountain, ocean, and center of all delights and joys!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

Out of Christ's condemnation--flows our justification!
Out of His agony--comes our victory!
Out of His pain--comes our ease!
Out of His stripes--comes our healing!
Out of His gall and vinegar--comes our honey!
Out of His curse--comes our blessing!
Out of His crown of thorns--comes our crown of glory!
Out of His death--comes our life!
O what a melting consideration is this!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

Christ is not sweet--until sin is made bitter to us!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

If God should damn you to all eternity--your eternal sufferings could not satisfy for the evil that is in one vain thought! O the depth of the evil of sin!

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Pithy gems from Octavius Winslow, 1808-1878

   ~  ~  ~  ~

So completely was Jesus bent upon saving sinners by the sacrifice of Himself--that He created the tree upon which He was to die; and nurtured from infancy, the wicked men who were to nail Him to the accursed wood!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

Christ took your cup of grief, your cup of the curse, pressed it to His lips, drank it to its dregs--then filled it with His sweet, pardoning, sympathizing love, and gave it back for you to drink, and to drink forever!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

It is because we have such shallow views of God's love--that we have such defective views of God's dealings.
We blindly interpret His providential dealings--because we so imperfectly read the engravings of His heart!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

Seasons vary, circumstances change, feelings fluctuate, friendships cool, friends die--but Christ is ever the same!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

Prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul--and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of the spiritual life!

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The cultivation of an insignificant life

(J.H. Jowett)

It is possible to evade a multitude of trials by the cultivation of an insignificant life.
 

    Only One Life!

    Two little lines I heard one day,
    Traveling along life's busy way;
    Bringing conviction to my heart,
    And from my mind would not depart:
    Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
    Only what's done for Christ will last!

    Only one life, yes only one,
    Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
    Then, in 'that day' my Lord to meet,
    And stand before His Judgment seat.
    Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
    Only what's done for Christ will last!

    Only one life, the still small voice,
    Gently pleads for a better choice
    Bidding me selfish aims to leave,
    And to God's holy will to cleave.
    Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
    Only what's done for Christ will last!

    Only one life, a few brief years,
    Each with its burdens, hopes and fears;
    Each with its days I must fulfill,
    living for self, or in His will.
    Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
    Only what's done for Christ will last!

    When this bright world would tempt me sore,
    When Satan would a victory score;
    When self would seek to have its way,
    Then help me Lord with joy to say:
    Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
    Only what's done for Christ will last!

    Give me Father, a purpose deep,
    In joy or sorrow Your word to keep;
    Faithful and true what e'er the strife,
    Pleasing You in my daily life.
    Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
    Only what's done for Christ will last!

    Oh let my love with fervor burn,
    And from the world now let me turn;
    Living for You, and You alone,
    Bringing You pleasure on Your throne.
    Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
    Only what's done for Christ will last!

    Only one life, yes only one,
    Now let me say, "Your will be done!"
    And when at last I'll hear the call,
    I know I'll say "twas worth it all!"
    Only one life, 'twill soon be past,
    Only what's done for Christ will last!
            Author unknown
     

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you.
 Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you
 know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:58