Posted in Henry, Matthew, holiness on June 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »
We have reason to desire to grow in every grace, and have need of the Spirit’s influence in order to growth in grace; and the way to obtain this is by prayer. We are beholden to god not only for the stock put into our hands at first, but for the improvement of it also.
(source: Matthew Henry, 1Thessalonians 3:12-13)
Posted in uncategorized on June 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Providence
Elect
Sovereignty
Active obedience
Passive obedience
Representative man
Regeneration
Special grace
Common grace
Preservation of the saints
Posted in Calvin, John, holiness, sin on June 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Those who walk after the Spirit are not such as have wholly put off all the emotions of the flesh, so that their whole life is redolent with nothing but celestial perfection; but they are those who sedulously labor to subdue and mortify the flesh, so that the love of true religion seems to reign in them. He declares that such walk not after the flesh; for wherever the real fear of God is vigorous, it takes away from the flesh its sovereignty, though it does not abolish all its corruptions.
Source: John Calvin on Romans 8:1-4
Posted in Packer, J.I., Puritans on June 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Truth obeyed, said the Puritans, will heal.
Source: J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, 1990, reprint (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 65
Posted in sanctification on June 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »
We need Christ in us as well as Christ for us. How shall I, how shall society, find healing and Purification within? Let me answer by reminding you of what they did at Chicago. In all the world there was no river more stagnant and fetid than was Chicago River. Its sluggish stream received the sweepings of the watercraft and the offal of the city, and there was no current to carry the detritus away. There it settled, and bred miasma and fever. At last it was suggested that, by cutting through the low ridge between the city and the Desplaines River, the current could be set running in the opposite direction, and drainage could be secured into the Illinois River and the great Mississippi. At a cost of fifteen millions of dollars the cut was made, and now all the water of Lake Michigan can be relied upon to cleanse that turbid stream. What Chicago River could never do for itself, the great lake now does for it. So no human soul can purge itself of its sin; and what the individual cannot do, humanity at large is powerless to accomplish. Sin has dominion over us, and we are foul to the very depths of our being, until with the help of God we break through the barrier of our self-will, and let the floods of Christ’s purifying life flow into us. Then, in an hour, more is done to renew, than all our efforts for years had effected. Thus humanity is saved, individual by individual, not by philosophy, or philanthropy, or self-development, or self-reformation, but simply by joining itself to Jesus Christ, and by being filled in Him with all the fulness of God.”
Source: A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology (1907)
Andrew Groves 