The extent of the atonement

The extent of the atonement is defined by the intent of the atonement.”
   ~Steven Lawson

You can do more than pray

“You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed”
    ~ John Bunyan

When's the last time you were moved by Christ?

When's the last time your heart, yes your affections were moved by Christ? Where u read something that made u LONG for Him? That made u desire Him more? When's the last time while praying u lost track of time or was upset because time flew so fast? We are His bride, we were purchased by His blood that we might know Him, that we might enjoy His presence, that we might rest in Him!!!!
         ~Julius Mickel

Work to Know Christ More Purely

“Take heed that you rest not satisfied with that knowledge of Christ you have attained, but grow on towards perfection. It is the pride and ignorance of many professors, when they have got a few raw and undigested notions, to swell with self-conceit of their excellent attainments. And it is the sin, even of the best of saints, when they see (veritas in profundo) how deep the knowledge of Christ lies, and what pains they must take to dig for it, to throw by the shovel of duty, and cry, Dig we cannot. To your work, Christians, to your work; let not your candle go out: sequester yourselves to this study, look what intercourses, and correspondence are betwixt the two world; what communion soever God and souls maintain, it is in this way; count all, therefore, but dross in comparison of that excellency which is in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”

~ John Flavel

The trumpet shall one day sound

There is a resurrection after death. Let this never be forgotten. The life that we live here in the flesh is not all. The visible world around us is not the only world with which we have to do. All is not over when the last breath is drawn, and men and women are carried to their long home in the grave. The trumpet shall one day sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. All that are in the graves shall hear Christ's voice and come forth--those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. This is one of the great foundation truths of the Christian religion. Let us cling to it firmly, and never let it go.

~ J.C. Ryle

To be in Christ is to be in the midst of that new creation

To be in Christ is to be in the midst of that new creation, which is to come forth from the ruins of these old heavens and this worn-out earth. If any be in Christ, then to him the new creation has come—‘Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’

He is like one who has already reached his glorious home, who is looking back upon this land of the storm and the curse, as one who has found his way to the city of peace, and laid himself down upon the banks of the pure river, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Thus faith is taught to anticipate the glory, and to dwell in the midst of it, as if it had actually arrived.

If these things be so, then how differently, from what we too often do, should we read such chapters as the two closing ones of Revelation. It is not imagination, dwelling upon pictures, as some speak; it is faith conducting us into the very midst of the reality.

    ~Horatius Bonar

A suitable Savior

If the Son of God had gone from incarnation to the cross without a life of temptation and pain to test his righteousness and his love, he would not be a suitable Savior for fallen man. His suffering not only absorbed the wrath of God. It also fulfilled his true humanity and made him able to call us brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:17).
     ~ John Piper

Be Found in Christ!

“Look to it, my dear friends, that none of you be found Christless at your appearance before him. Those that continue Christless now, will be left speechless then. God forbid that you that have heard so much of Christ, and you that have professed so much of Christ, should at last fall into a worse condition than those that never heard the name of Christ.”

~ John Flavel

Once joined to Christ by faith...

Many shall come from the east and west—and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 8:11)

If we were in the presence of a stern judge, or of a king clothed in awful majesty, we should not dare to sit down.

But there will be nothing to make believers afraid in the kingdom of heaven. Though the sins of their lives ‘were as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow; and though red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ Their sins will be ‘remembered no more;’ ‘sought for, and not found;’ ‘blotted out as a thick cloud;’ ‘cast behind God’s back;’ ‘plunged in the depths of the sea.’

Once joined to Christ by faith, they are complete in the sight of God the Father, and even the perfect angels shall see no spot in them. Surely they may well sit down; and feel at home!

    ~J.C. Ryle