"If you want God’s grace, all you need is need, all you need is nothing."

Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

"Rest you in this; that your faith may be shaken, but it cannot be destroyed if you are resting upon Christ. Your little temporary foundations that may have overlain Christ may move, but the rock of Christ Jesus never can."

charles spurgeon

growth

The real issue is Where are we focusing our attention?

Are we working hard to perform?

Or are we working hard to rest in Christ's performance for us?

- Tullian Tchividian

"Work our your own salvation with fear and trembling [there's hard work on our part, but what are we fighting for?]... for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." -Philippians 2:13

Jesus has accomplished for us all of the things that we need to do and to be.

He was perfect, he was stainless, he was kind, he was loving, he was selfless.

He trusted, he prayed, he served, he worked, he bled, he did everything...

faith & doubting

When you can't trace God's hand, you must trust in his heart.

There is sufficient certainty to sustain us in mystery.

"The heart that hath never doubted has not yet learned to believe... the heart that cannot produce a doubt has not yet understood the meaning of believing." - c.h.s

*

"The ocean love of God, so broad that even the wing of imagination could not traverse it, sends forth its treasures of the rain of grace, which drop upon our hearts..." chs

Identity in Christ

"Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. ... Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."
~ Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis

anticipating

"The purest and most exhilarating joy is the delight of glorifying God, and so anticipating the time when we shall enjoy him for ever."
~chs

grieved by sin

"A man who fears not God, will break all his laws with an easy conscience,
but one who is the favorite of heaven,
who has been indulged to sit at royal banquets,
who knows the eternal love of God to him,
cannot bear that there should be any evil way in him
that might grieve the Spirit and bring dishonor to the name of Christ.
A very little sin, as the world calls it, is a very great sin to a truly awakened Christian."

.chs.

his love knows best

"Fixing my heart on the blessed fact that what the Lord does is right and best, simply because he does it, I feel the anchor hold in the depths of his love - and no tempest is powerful enough to drive faith's barque from these moorings."
~Susannah Spurgeon

The Secret of the Gospel

"The secret of the Gospel is that we do better when we realize that it's not about our doing better. Growth does not come by going out to find what we're missing, but by living in the reality of what we DO have. Because of Jesus, I have everything. Everything I long for in Christ, I already have."
~Tulian Tchividjan

sailing into glory - charles h. spurgeon

"Suppose, dear friend, the thought of departing from this world to the glory-world should ever startle you.[...] Your vessel is in the pool, as it were, or in the dock; she is going out on her voyage; oh, but you will not go alone, nor have to track your course through paths unnavigated or unknown before![...] The Atlantic that severs us from Canaan is white with the sails of the vessels that are on voyage thither. Fear not, they have not been wrecked; we hear good news of their arrival - there is good hope for you. There are no icebergs on the road, no mists, no counter currents, and no sunken vessels or quicksands; you have but to cut your moorings, and with Christ on board you shall be at your desired haven at once."

I absolutely love this quote. Our voyage takes trust - "cut your moorings" - but it will always be completed, because God is a perfect and gentle captain. We have nothing to fear.

|| chs ||

"One moment will suffice, if Jesus speaks, to make the despairing happy, and the unbelieving full of confidence... This is the standing miracle of the church, performed by Christ today even as aforetime. Paralysed souls who could neither do nor will, have been able to do valiantly, and to will with solemn resolution. The Lord has poured power into the faint, and to them that had no might he hath increased strength. He can do it still."

The Fullness of God

"The Father has stored up in Christ Jesus,

as in a reservoir, for the use of all his people,

his eternal love and his unbounded grace,

that it may come to us through Christ Jesus,

and that we may glorify him.

All power is put into his hands,

and life, and light, and grace, are to the full at his disposal.

'He shutteth and no man openeth, he openeth and no man shutteth.'

He has received gifts for men;

yea, for the righteous also.

Not only as the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,

is he the possessor of heaven and earth,

and therefore filled with all fullness,

but seeing that as the Mediator

he has finished our redemption,

'he is made of God unto us wisdom,

and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.'

Glory be to his name for this double fullness."

.C.H.S.

The Daily Spurgeon

i'm subscribed to the daily spurgeon and let me tell you, it's amazing.

almost every day i get an email with a quote from morning & evening or one of spurgeon's other works.

the one i got yesterday met me RIGHT. exactly. where i was. like totally.

praise the Lord that he knows what we are going through at every single moment.

even when we haven't told others about what struggles we're facing (which is a huge help by the way. so do it!)... he still knows.

and let's face it... even when we haven't been praying for his help in a particular area, but we've been having a hard time...

he still knows. and he reveals truth to us.

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." -Romans 8:28

wow.

even through my guilty feelings & lack of prayer, he is drawing me to him!!

how great, how awesome, how unlike this world is our God!

here's the quote...

O you who feel your unworthiness this morning, who have been seeking salvation earnestly, and suffering the weight of sin, Jesus will freely give to you what you cannot earn or purchase, he will give it as an act of his own free, rich, sovereign mercy; and he is prepared, if you come to him, to give it to you now, for so has he promised, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

just a great, amazing reminder that it is Jesus who PROMISES to sanctify us.
and when we are painfully aware of our sin, this is actually a good thing.
before the Holy Spirit gave us this awareness, we would have dismissed our sin as no big deal.
Christ is working in us!
we needn't be discouraged, because our hope is not in ourselves! which is awesome. for me at least! :)


and i would suggest that everyone subscribe to the daily spurgeon.
you can do that by clicking "subscribe by email" on the right panel (duh!).
:)

C.H.S

"There must be no lower standard for us than the perfection of Christ. No attainment must ever satisfy us until we are conformed to his image who is the firstborn among many brethren. You will tell me I am holding up a high standard. I am; but then you have a great helper, and I will show you in a moment how you may be of good cheer concerning this business." C.H.S

Rutherford-

"Black sun, black moon, black stars, but...O BRIGHT, infinitely bright... Lord Jesus."

Comforts from the Cross

...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be hold and without blemish. || Ephesians 5:25-27.

" He has clothed you in a 'robe of righteousness' (Isaiah 61:10)... When he looks at you, he smiles with contentment and deep affection. He has cleansed you completely so that you are radiant, without any stain or shadow of guilt or impurity. Your wedding dress is as it should be: glistening, white, pure... think: He won't fail to present me to himself 'in splendor' (Ephesians 5:26) because it has, in fact, already been accomplished. "

-Elyse Fitzpatrick, Comforts from the Cross