I perceive your case in this world smelleth of a fellowship and communion with the Son of God in His sufferings. Ye cannot, ye must not, have a more pleasant or more easy condition here, than He had, who "through afflictions was made perfect" (Heb2:10). We may indeed think, Cannot God bring us to heaven with ease and prosperity? Who doubteth but He can? But His infinite wisdom thinketh and decreeth the contrary; and we cannot see a reason of it, yet He hath a most just reason. We never with our eyes saw our own soul; yet we have a soul. We see many rivers, but we know not their first spring and original fountain; yet they have a beginning. Madam, when ye are come to the other side of the water, and have set down your foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back again to the waters and to your wearisome journey, and shall see, in that clear glass of endless glory, nearer the bottom of God's wisdom, ye shall be forced to say, "If God had done otherwise with me than He hath done, I had never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory." It is your part now to believe, and suffer, and hope, and wait on; for I protest, in the presence of that all discerning eye, who knoweth what I write and what I think, that I would not want the sweet experience of the consolations of God but for all the bitterness of affliction. Nay, whether God come to His children with a rod or a crown, if He come himself with it, it is well. Welcome, welcome, Jesus, what way soever Thou come, if we can get a sight of Thee! And sure am I, it is better to be sick, providing Christ come to the bedside and draw by the curtains, and say, "Courage I am Thy salvation," than to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited of God.
-Samuel Rutherford, From His Letters.
Showing posts with label Rutherford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rutherford. Show all posts
November 01, 2010
October 18, 2010
Idols Are Usually Nice Things....Bummer, Eh?
--Samuel Rutherford
Maybe personal happiness, ease or even delightful things aren't really as important as we would like to make them?
September 02, 2008
Our Favorite Quotes Part 2
You have chosen the roughest road, but it leads straight to the hilltops.
- John Bunyan
"Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die." — Jonathan Edwards
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
As waters are purest, when they are in motion--so saints are generally holiest, when in affliction. Some Christians resemble those doltish children, who will learn their lessons--no longer than while the rod is on their backs! In the greatest affliction--the Lord has sealed the sweetest instruction, "It was good for me to be afflicted--so that I could learn Your statutes!" Psalm 119:71
--William Secker
There is a difference between a truce and peace. A truce is when people put down their guns and don't shoot for awhile. True peace is when conflict is resolved and the parties to it become friends. Some think peace happens the instant the war stops. But that doesn't resolve the conflict unless the underlying issues are dealt with. Otherwise cessation of open hostility only brings about a cold war, which is still a war. That may result in a state worse than if the fighting had continued. A conflict driven underground can smolder and slowly destroy both sides. Two people who are at war with each other shouldn't be separated so they can't see each other. Rather, the cause of their conflict needs to be resolved so that they can come together in love. Biblical peace never evades issues--it isn't peace at any price. The peace of the Bible conquers the problem and builds bridges between people. That may involve struggle, pain, and anguish, but real peace is the result.
-John MacArthur
There is no death of sin without the death of Christ. -John Owen
To forsake Christ for the world, is to leave a treasure for a trifle...eternity for a moment, reality for a shadow. -William Jenkyn
But I perceive God will have us to be deprived of whatsoever we idolize, that He may have His own room. -Samuel Rutherford
The truth is too important to kill it in the streets for the sake of peace. --RC Sproul
Poverty and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride. -Richard Sibbes
Some of His children must go into the furnace to testify that the Son of God is there with them.
--Elizabeth Prentiss
In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.
- Richard Baxter
Grant, O Lord my God that I might never fall away in sucess or in failure; that I may not be prideful in prosperity nor dejected in adversity. Let me rejoice only in what unites us and sorrow only in what separates us. May I strive to please no one or fear to displease anyone except Yourself. May I seek always the things that are eternal and never those that are only temporal. May I shun any joy that is without you and never seek any that is beside you. O Lord, may I delight in any work I do in you and tire from any rest that is apart from you. My God, Let me direct my heart toward you, and in my failings, always repent with a purpose of ammendment.
--St. Thomas Aquinas
Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
--Proverbs 17:28
Should such a one as you faint in the day of adversity? Call to mind the days of old. The Lord liveth. Trust in Him, although He should slay you. -Samuel Rutherford
It is not my ability but my response to God's ability that counts.
--Corrie Ten Boom
An afflicted life looks very like the way that leads to the kingdom. -Samuel Rutherford
"You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness." -C.S. Lewis
"The minister must speak from the heart or he cannot speak to the heart."--Anthony Burgess in Section IV: The nature of sanctifying grace (regeneration) with the counterfeit thereof
His cry not forward, but Follow. -William Guthrie
Thou art beaten that thou mayest be better. -John Bunyan
Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.
-John Bunyan
Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will. -Jonathan Edwards
"Whenever you find a man who says he doesn't believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later." -C.S. Lewis
September 01, 2008
Our Favorite Quotes Part 1
Think it not hard if you get not your will, nor your delights in this life; God will have you to rejoice in nothing but himself.
--Samuel Rutherford
And because you complain so much of sin, I ask you why doth not your conscience more accuse you of the sin of unthankful denying or extenuating the mercies of God, and no more magnifying them? And for overlooking so much the meritorious righteousness of Christ, while you complain for want of more of your own? I would not deceive you by telling you that you need none in yourself and that all your righteousness is out of you in Christ: I know that your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, and the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, and he that doth righteousness is righteous. But at what bar or tribunal? Only at that of grace, which supposeth the reconciling, pardoning righteousness of Christ. It is not at the bar of rigorous justice according to the law, which requireth innocence to justification; there Christ only is your righteousness, and you have none and must dream of none but that which floweth from his and stands in subordination to it and is you title to it and improvement of it, even your thankful accepting a free-given Savior, Head and Lord, and pardon and the Spirit to sanctify you more and fit you for communion with God and for glory. Esteem most, choose first, and seek most the love of God the Father, the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, and this subordinate righteousness will certainly prove the meritorious perfect righteousness of Christ to be for you, instead of a perfect righteousness of your own.
-Margaret Baxter
"Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”--Martin Luther, from his commentary on the book of Galatians.
As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for every love. -George MacDonald
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.
-Martin Luther
I think I see more of Christ than I ever saw; and yet I see but little of what may be seen.
-Samuel Rutherford
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."--Jim Elliott
We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety. Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. --Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is a mercy that I am in any measure more aware of my danger and have any desire to be holy.
-Margaret Baxter
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
...God by Jesus, takes away . . .all my sins, His own wrath, and my deserved condemnation! All good things . . .are treasured up in Christ, were procured for me by Christ, flow to me through Christ, and are conferred on me for the sake of Christ!
--James Smith
Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols.
-John Calvin
"The more purely God's word is preached, the more deeply it pierces and the more kindly it works." -- WILLIAM GOUGE
It was good for them to suffer here, for they shall reign hereafter--to bear the cross below, for they shall wear the crown above; and that not their will but His was done on them.
--Elizabeth Prentiss
The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying. -John Flavel
If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. -Saint Augustine
True liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will. -Jonathan Edwards
Let me speak to your conscience. Where is your zeal? Where is your zeal for the glory of God, and for extending the Gospel throughout the world? You know well, that it is very low. You know well, that your zeal is a little feeble glimmering spark, that just lives, and no more—it is like a thing ready to die. Surely there is a fault somewhere, if this is the case. This state of things ought not to be. You, the child of God—you, redeemed at so glorious a price—you, ransomed with such precious blood—you, who are an heir of glory such as no tongue ever yet told, or eye saw; surely you ought to be a man of another kind. Surely your zeal ought not to be so small.
~ J.C. Ryle
I want to see little children adorning every home as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside. I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish and more and more loving because they have come. I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused.
-Elizabeth Prentiss
--Samuel Rutherford
And because you complain so much of sin, I ask you why doth not your conscience more accuse you of the sin of unthankful denying or extenuating the mercies of God, and no more magnifying them? And for overlooking so much the meritorious righteousness of Christ, while you complain for want of more of your own? I would not deceive you by telling you that you need none in yourself and that all your righteousness is out of you in Christ: I know that your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, and the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, and he that doth righteousness is righteous. But at what bar or tribunal? Only at that of grace, which supposeth the reconciling, pardoning righteousness of Christ. It is not at the bar of rigorous justice according to the law, which requireth innocence to justification; there Christ only is your righteousness, and you have none and must dream of none but that which floweth from his and stands in subordination to it and is you title to it and improvement of it, even your thankful accepting a free-given Savior, Head and Lord, and pardon and the Spirit to sanctify you more and fit you for communion with God and for glory. Esteem most, choose first, and seek most the love of God the Father, the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, and this subordinate righteousness will certainly prove the meritorious perfect righteousness of Christ to be for you, instead of a perfect righteousness of your own.
-Margaret Baxter
"Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”--Martin Luther, from his commentary on the book of Galatians.
As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for every love. -George MacDonald
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.
-Martin Luther
I think I see more of Christ than I ever saw; and yet I see but little of what may be seen.
-Samuel Rutherford
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."--Jim Elliott
We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety. Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. --Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is a mercy that I am in any measure more aware of my danger and have any desire to be holy.
-Margaret Baxter
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
...God by Jesus, takes away . . .all my sins, His own wrath, and my deserved condemnation! All good things . . .are treasured up in Christ, were procured for me by Christ, flow to me through Christ, and are conferred on me for the sake of Christ!
--James Smith
Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols.
-John Calvin
"The more purely God's word is preached, the more deeply it pierces and the more kindly it works." -- WILLIAM GOUGE
It was good for them to suffer here, for they shall reign hereafter--to bear the cross below, for they shall wear the crown above; and that not their will but His was done on them.
--Elizabeth Prentiss
The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying. -John Flavel
If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. -Saint Augustine
True liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will. -Jonathan Edwards
Let me speak to your conscience. Where is your zeal? Where is your zeal for the glory of God, and for extending the Gospel throughout the world? You know well, that it is very low. You know well, that your zeal is a little feeble glimmering spark, that just lives, and no more—it is like a thing ready to die. Surely there is a fault somewhere, if this is the case. This state of things ought not to be. You, the child of God—you, redeemed at so glorious a price—you, ransomed with such precious blood—you, who are an heir of glory such as no tongue ever yet told, or eye saw; surely you ought to be a man of another kind. Surely your zeal ought not to be so small.
~ J.C. Ryle
I want to see little children adorning every home as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside. I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish and more and more loving because they have come. I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused.
-Elizabeth Prentiss
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