Viewing: Encouragement - View all posts

Resolutions - Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) 

"Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century revivalist, sat down at age 17 and penned 21 resolutions by which he would live his life. He added to this list until, by his death, he had 70 resolutions. He put at the top of his list: “Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions… Remember to read over these resolutions once a week.” Edwards didn't casually make New Year's resolutions with an expectation of eventually…Read more

The love of Christ - so amazing! 

The love of Christ in its sweetness, its fulness, its greatness, its faithfulness, passeth all human comprehension. Where shall language be found which shall describe his matchless, his unparalleled love towards the children of men? It is so vast and boundless that, as the swallow but skimmeth the water, and diveth not into its depths, so all descriptive words but touch the surface, while depths immeasurable lie beneath. Well might the poet say,

"O love, thou fathomless abyss!" for this love of Christ is…Read more

Real Change - The Power of God's Word 

"The amazing thing is that everyone who reads the Bible has the same joyful thing to say about it. In every land, in every language, it is the same tale: where that Book is read, not with the eyes only, but with the mind and heart, the life is changed. Sorrowful people are comforted, sinful people are transformed, peoples who were in the dark walk in the light. Is it not wonderful to think that this Book, which is such a mighty power if it gets a chance to work in an honest heart, is in our hands today?"…Read more

Sovereignty & Supermacy of Jesus Christ our Lord 

All divine names and titles are applied to Him. He is called God, the mighty God, the great God, God over all; Jehovah; Lord; the Lord of lords and the King of kings. All divine attributes are ascribed to Him. He is declared to be omnipresent, omniscient, almighty, and immutable, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He is set forth as the creator and upholder and ruler of the universe. All things were created by Him and for Him; and by Him all things consist. He is the object of worship to all…Read more

Utterly Persuaded 

"Nothing makes God more supreme and more central than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing – not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends – is going to bring satisfaction to their aching hearts besides God. This conviction breeds a people who passionately long for God on Sunday morning. They are not confused about why they are here. They do not see songs and prayers and sermons as mere traditions or mere duties. They see them as means of getting to God…Read more

Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendor 

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor,
All for love's sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor,
All for love's sake becomes poor.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love's sake becamest Man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising
Heavenward by Thine eternal plan.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love's sake becamest Man.

Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Savior and King, we…Read more

Repentance is Worship 

We do not always think of repentance as worship, but it can be much easier to sing a rousing hymn than to turn away from our favorite sin. A sinful act involves worship of the wrong kind, submitting ourselves at that moment to serve the appetites of our pride or lust, and so repentance is literally a transfer of our worship back to the One who rightfully owns it. . . . . Worship has been misunderstood as something that arises from a feeling which “comes upon you,” but it is vital that we understand that it…Read more

JESUS CHRIST: LUNATIC, LIAR, OR LORD? 

Jesus . . . told people that their sins were forgiven. . . . This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin.

. . . I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.…Read more

There is a God 

"The stars are God's fingerprints. The sun is a mere smidgen of his radiance. The moon is to remind us that he doesn't sleep at night. The vastness of space proclaims the infinity of his wisdom, while the sand pebble indicates his thoroughness with the puniest details. The lion hints at his fearlessness, the bear at his power, the hawk at his keen insight. And yet, those possess only a tidbit of God's omnipotence and omnipresence. Every tree points toward heaven; every bird has a song to sing; even every…Read more

Mocking God? 

"The worship wasn't very good today." "I get so much out of the worship." The worship is so much better over at {insert whatever name here} church." "I really don't get that much out of worship."

Ever heard any of these statements? Ever said any of them? Here is a quote from Steven Charnock to ponder...

"To pretend homage to God and intend only the advantage to myself is rather to mock God than to worship Him. When we believe we ought to be satisfied rather than God glorified, we set God below ourselves…Read more

Proclaim His Salvation 

Biblical worship involves proclamation and leads to proclaiming God's truth with our lives. We're doing more than emoting or having a "worship experience." We're declaring why God is so great, what he has accomplished, and all that he has promised. We all need to be reminded, and proclamation helps us remember.

Peter tells us that we have been saved "that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). We're meant to fulfill this command…Read more

Worship in Life 

We must devote, not only times and places to prayer, but be everywhere in the spirit of devotion; with hearts always set toward heaven, looking up to God in all our actions, and doing every thing as His servants; living in the world as in a holy temple of God, and always worshiping Him, though not with our lips, yet with the thankfulness of our hearts, the holiness of our actions and the pious and charitable use of all His gifts.

(William Law)

Christ-centered Worship 

If you worship Christ as the CREATOR of everything, every cosmic speck across billions of light years of trackless space, the Creator of the textures, shapes and colors that dazzle our eyes: if you worship Christ as the SUSTAINER of all creation, who by his word holds the atoms of your body and this universe together; if you worship him as the GOAL of everything, that all creation is for him; if you further worship Christ as the RECONCILER of your soul—then you worship the God of the Bible. Anything less…Read more

The Importance of Thanksgiving 

The importance and spiritual benefits of thanksgiving in our prayer life cannot be overemphasized. The Bible tells us God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Buth the question is, How do you become humble? It is done by being thankful! A good rule is to be careful (worried) for nothing (Phil 4:6), be prayerful in all things (1 Thess 5:18), and be thankful for anything. It was the sink of thanklessness that caused the ancient world to plunge into the terrible depths of sexual…Read more

The Key to the Open Door of Prayer 

Supplication for pardon, with humble and ingenuous confession of guilt, forms both the preparation and commencement of right prayer. For the holiest of men cannot hope to obtain anything from God until he has been freely reconciled to him. God cannot be propitious to any but those whom he pardons. Hence it is not strange that this is the key by which believers open the door of prayer, as we learn from several passages in The Psalms. David, when presenting a request on a different subject, says, "Remember…Read more

M. L. King Jr. - A Pastoral Prayer (1956) 

O God, our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this golden privilege to worship thee, the only true God of the universe. We come to thee today, grateful that thou hast kept us through the long night of the past and ushered us into the challenge of the present and the bright hope of the future. We are mindful, O God, that man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of things, and humanity is not God. Bound by our chains of sins and finiteness, we know we need a Savior. We thank thee, O God, for the…Read more

Unity 

"Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship."

A. W. Tozer

A Puritan Prayer for the New Year 

NEW YEAR

O LORD,
Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed
in thy presence, in thy service, to thy glory.
Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains,
sanctifies, aids every hour,
that I may not be one moment apart from thee,
but may rely on thy Spirit
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire
to show forth thy praise,
testify thy love,
advance thy kingdom.
I launch…Read more

Happy New Year! 

Happy New Year!

"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." (Ephesians 3:20)

"Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God."  (William Carey)

The Humiliation of God 

This important truth of the humiliation of God the Son (the Incarnation) is part of the great story of redemption.

JOHN 1:10-14 (NIV)
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. TheRead more

A Fifteenth Century Christmas Sermon 

An excerpt from a Christmas sermon by Thomas à Kempis, the fifteenth-century author who penned the devotional classic THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. Notice how this intense meditation on Christmas Eve worship pictures the scene in Bethlehem and draws on the language of the entire biblical record. Try reading this out loud.

Seek the Lord, while he may be found; call on him, while he is near” (Isa. 55:6). Arise, all you faithful of Christ: eagerly gather for this reverent observance of the Lord’s birth. For this is…Read more

Thankful for the Greatness of God 

Psalm 105: 1-3
1 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
Let the whole world know what he has done.

2 Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.

3 Exult in his holy name;
rejoice, you who worship the Lord.

With my whole being, body and soul 

As you enter into your place of worship, let this be the cry of your heart. "I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord.  With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God." (Psalm 84:2)

Love Overwhelming 

"You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you." (Nehemiah 9:6, NLT).

When I think about the grandeur of creation, the immensity of it all, and the fact that the Creator God loves us and thinks of us, I am filled with awe and wonder. In the book of Isaiah, God says, "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts....  And my ways are far beyond anything you couldRead more

Psalm 27:4-6 (NLT)  

Psalm 27:4-6 (NLT) "The one thing I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising the Lord with music." Wherever you…Read more