Good works shall follow them …

In our best duties we have defilement, Isa. 64:6. Self, unbelief, form, drop themselves into all that we do. We may be ashamed of our choicest performances. God hath promised that the saints’ good works shall follow them. Truly, were they to be measured by the rule as they come from us, and weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, it might be well for us that they might be buried for ever. But the Lord Christ first, as our high priest, bears the iniquity, the guilt, and provocation, which in severe justice doth attend them, Exod. 28:38; and not only so, but he washes away all their filth and defilements.

source: John Owen, Of Communion with God

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Who cares?

“Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.”

—Psalm 142:4

“Humble yourselves . . . under the mighty hand of God,
casting all your anxieties on him,
because he cares for you.”

—1 Peter 5:6-7

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The whole ground of my consolation

The day before his death, Owen wrote to a friend…

I am going to Him whom my soul has loved, or rather who has loved me with an everlasting love—which is the whole ground of my consolation … Live, and pray, and hope, and wait patiently, and do not despond; the promise stands invincible, that He will never leave us, nor forsake us.

328 years ago on August 24, 1683 John Owen met his Savior face to Face.

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How to see God’s hand in suffering

John Flavel, in 1678, instructs readers to see God as the author of all circumstances in life, including suffering:

Set before you the sovereignty of God. Eye Him as the Being infinitely superior to you, at whose pleasure you and all your have subsist (Psalm 115:3), which is the most conclusive reason and argument for submission (Psalm 46:10). For if we, all we have proceeded from His will, how right is it that we be resigned up to it!

Set the grace and goodness of God before you in all afflictive providences. O see Him passing by you i the cloudy and dark day, proclaiming His name, ‘The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious’ (Exodus 34:6).

Eye the wisdom of God in all your afflictions. Behold it in the choice of the kind of your affliction, this, and not another; the time, now and not at another season; the degree, in this measure only, and not in a greater; the supports offered you under it, not left altogether helpless; the issue to which it is overruled, it is to your good, not ruin.

Set the faithfulness of the Lord before you under the saddest providences. 
O what quietness will this breed! I see my God will not lose my heart, if a rod can prevent it. he would rather hear me groan here than howl hereafter. His love is judicious, not fond. He consults my good rather than my ease.

Eye the all-sufficiency of God in the day of affliction. See enough in Him still, whatever is gone. Here is the fountain still as full as ever, though this or that pipe is cut off, which was wont to convey somewhat of it to me.

Lastly, eye the immutablity of God. Look on Him as the Rock of ages, ‘The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). Eye Jesus Christ as ‘the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.’

The Mystery of Providence, 1678, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2006), 130-132

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Spiritual Struggle

The Lord turned the captivity of Job.

(source: Job 42)

I asked the Lord to take it out of my heart and he did.

(source: Someone struggling with a hurt in their heart)

Lead us not into testing that confirms in sin but deliver us from Satan.

(source: Recent study on Matthew 6:13)

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The Borders of Sin

Christ sometimes, by some strong impulse of actual grace, recovers the soul from the very borders of sin… To show his saints what they are, their own weakness and infirmity, he sometimes suffers them to go to the very edge and brow of the hill and then causes them to hear a word behind them saying, ”This is the right way, walk in it,”—and that with power and efficacy, and so recovers them to himself.

Source: John Owen – from Of Communion With God, volume 2 of Works, page 143-144

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How to see God’s hand in suffering

John Flavel, in 1678, instructs readers to see God as the author of all circumstances in life, including suffering:

Set before you the sovereignty of God. Eye Him as the Being infinitely superior to you, at whose pleasure you and all your have subsist (Psalm 115:3), which is the most conclusive reason and argument for submission (Psalm 46:10). For if we, all we have proceeded from His will, how right is it that we be resigned up to it!

Set the grace and goodness of God before you in all afflictive providences. O see Him passing by you i the cloudy and dark day, proclaiming His name, ‘The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious’ (Exodus 34:6).

Eye the wisdom of God in all your afflictions. Behold it in the choice of the kind of your affliction, this, and not another; the time, now and not at another season; the degree, in this measure only, and not in a greater; the supports offered you under it, not left altogether helpless; the issue to which it is overruled, it is to your good, not ruin.

Set the faithfulness of the Lord before you under the saddest providences. 
O what quietness will this breed! I see my God will not lose my heart, if a rod can prevent it. he would rather hear me groan here than howl hereafter. His love is judicious, not fond. He consults my good rather than my ease.

Eye the all-sufficiency of God in the day of affliction. See enough in Him still, whatever is gone. Here is the fountain still as full as ever, though this or that pipe is cut off, which was wont to convey somewhat of it to me.

Lastly, eye the immutablity of God. Look on Him as the Rock of ages, ‘The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). Eye Jesus Christ as ‘the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.’

The Mystery of Providence, 1678, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2006), 130-132

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Quotes

… when God designs to forgive us, he changes our hearts and turns us to obedience by his Spirit; for when he leaves us in our hardness, we must necessarily be ever afflicted by his hand until we at last perish.

Source: John Calvin on Zechariah 8:14-15

The will of man without grace is not free, but is enslaved, and that too with its own consent.

Source: D’Aubigne, History Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century, Vol I, Book II, Chapter IX

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Pastors and discouragement

Pastors, Trials and Temptations | Challies Dot Com
http://www.challies.com/quotes/trials-and-temptations

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Mark Dever, The Deliberate Church

Four Priorities

Preaching: “because God’s power for building His people is in His Word, particularly as we find it in the Gospel.”

Prayer: “Prayer shows our dependence upon God… it reminds us that converting individuals and growing churches are His works, not ours.”

Personal Discipling Relationships: “The goal is to get to know them, and to love them in a distinctively Christian way by doing them good spiritually.  Initiate personal care and concern for others.”

Patience: “Accomplishing healthy change in churches for the glory of God and the clarity of the Gospel does not happen in the first year after the new pastor arrives…Patience in the pastorate requires thinking in terms of twenty, thirty, forty, or even fifty years of ministry.. Stay with them.  Keep teaching.  Keep modelling.  Keep loving.”

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