Self-Control

Show me a man who is unwilling to exercise self-control and I'll show you a man who is striving towards ruin. Self-control is a matter of the will. You purpose you will or you will not. That's the distinction between self control or lack of it. Young people, the sooner you can learn this lesson, the better. It's a valuable lesson that I would have to rank it in the top five maybe of lessons of life to learn: Someones gonna be in charge, someones gonna give the orders. Is it going to be your body or is gonna be your spirit? That is the essence of self-control and if it's your body, then I say you're on the road to ruin.

The Apostle Paul he didn't sugar-coat it. Has anyone written more New Testament Scripture than the Apostle Paul? He was responsible for forming and expositing the doctrines, and yet he leaves the possibility open that if he does not discipline his body and make it his slave, he's going to be, in the end, cast away regardless of how much preaching he's done to others. That is a weighty statement.

2nd Timothy 3 describes those who are without self control, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and in the end they perish. They might hold to a form of godliness, but there's no power in it; we're talking about self-control here. It's such an imperative that Jesus said, "If you're going to be my disciple you're going to have to daily deny yourself." The sins of the flesh kill their thousands, but self-control kills ten-thousands. Lack of self control is like a fountain head of which all other sins flow out of.

- Clint Leiter

Living by your Feelings

Conrad Murrell said, "If you don't bring your though life into captivity with what you know is true, you will live a wretched miserable life." I want to submit to you that the exact same is true with regard to your feelings. If you don't bring your feelings into captivity to what you know is true, you will live a wretched, miserable defeated life. Many Christians are wretched and miserable precisely because they make their feelings the barometer of their spiritual life.

-Garrett Holthaus

Showers of Blessing

"I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing." - Ezekiel 34:26

Here is sovereign mercy—“I will give them the shower in its season.” Is it not sovereign, divinemercy?—for who can say, “I will give them showers,” except God? There is only one voice which can speak to the clouds, and bid them beget the rain. Who sendeth down the rain upon the earth? Who scattereth the showers upon the green herb? Do not I, the Lord?

So grace is the gift of God, and is not to be created by man. It is also needed grace. What would the ground do without showers? You may break the clods, you may sow your seeds, but what can you do without the rain? As absolutely needful is the divine blessing. In vain you labour, until God the plenteous shower bestows, and sends salvation down.

Then, it is plenteous grace. “I will send them showers.” It does not say, “I will send them drops,” but “showers.” So it is with grace. If God gives a blessing, he usually gives it in such a measure that there is not room enough to receive it. Plenteous grace! Ah! we want plenteous grace to keep us humble, to make us prayerful, to make us holy; plenteous grace to make us zealous, to preserve us through this life, and at last to land us in heaven. We cannot do without saturating showers of grace.

Again, it is seasonable grace. “I will cause the shower to come down in his season.” What is thy season this morning? Is it the season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. “As thy days so shall thy strength be.”

And here is a varied blessing. “I will give thee showers of blessing.” The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God’s blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If he gives converting grace, he will also give comforting grace. He will send “showers of blessing.” Look up today, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering.

- C. H. Spurgeon

To Walk with God

By faith in Christ I walk with God,
With heav'n, my journey's end, in view;
Supported by his staff and rod,
My road is safe and pleasant too.

I travel through a desert wide,
Where many round me blindly stray;
But he vouchsafes to be my guide,
And will not let me miss my way.

Though snares and dangers throng my path,
And earth and hell my course withstand;
I triumph over all by faith,
Guarded by his almighty hand.

The wilderness affords no food,
But God for my support prepares;
Provides me ev'ry needful good,
And frees my soul from wants and cares.

With him sweet converse I maintain,
Great as he is, I dare be free;
I tell him all my grief and pain,
And he reveals his love to me.

Some cordial from his word he brings
When'er my feeble spirit faints;
At once my soul revives and sings,
And yields no more to sad complaints.

I pity all that worldlings talk
Of pleasures that will quickly end;
Be this my choice, O Lord, to walk
With thee, my Guide, my Guard, my Friend!

- John Newton

What Then Should You Feel?

When you awake to see a glowing red sunrise, shedding its beams and light upon a snow-covered earth, reflecting beauty which only the Creator can display, what should you feel and do?

"When morning guilds the skies, my heart awakening cries, "May Jesus Christ be praised!"

- Mack T.

Ashamed of Christ

The wickedness of being ashamed of Christ is very great. It is a proof of unbelief. It shows that we care more for the praise of men whom we can see, than that of God whom we cannot see.

It is a proof of ingratitude. It shows that we fear confessing Him before man who was not ashamed to die for us upon the cross. Wretched indeed are they who give way to this sin. Here, in this world, they are always miserable. A bad conscience robs them of peace. In the world to come they can look for no comfort. In the day of judgment they must expect to be disowned by Christ to all eternity, if they will not confess Christ for a few years upon earth.

Let us resolve never to be ashamed of Christ. Of sin and worldliness we may well be ashamed. Of Christ and His cause we have no right to be ashamed at all. Boldness in Christ’s service always brings its own reward. The boldest Christian is always the happiest person.

- J. C. Ryle