Hello, friends. Here are some thoughts I've had in the past few days, summed up in hopes of benefiting you. I'm collecting my weekly ideas at www.michaelspotts.tumblr.com.
~ Michael:.
Grace may not cause us to forget the past, but it moves us to love in spite of it.
~ Michael:.
Grace may not cause us to forget the past, but it moves us to love in spite of it.
Love
is not selfless, rocks are selfless. Love is when self finds greater
satisfaction in the benefit of another, than in other avenues of
self-pleasure. So then, love is not selfless, it is self-sacrificing.
Your favorite attribute of a pastor outside of the pulpit, should be that he gives you Christ in the pulpit.
True spirituality does not consist in private visions and secret promptings, but is to love God and others freely, with satisfaction, despite the costs, in grateful response to the love we have received in Christ.
Christ came to give abundant life, and the life He came to give was Himself, abounding in our hearts through faith.
Without due fear of God in His holiness, there is no basis for seeking, receiving, or responding with appreciation to grace in Christ.
With Christ’s cross, I have died to every failure of the past and future; and by His raising, I am free to live this present moment with the unbounded vitality of resurrection.
The great significance of Christ’s death was not that a man died on cross, but that He was God incarnate, suffering physically and spiritually to immeasurable extremes, to save the very ones who despised Him.
Deeper than the nails and thorns, Jesus was cut by the wrath of God’s justice, and cut off from the presence of His Father.
Christian, never excuse your sins, but always trust that He loves your soul more than you hate your flesh.
We are rubble in the hands of one greater than Michelangelo. We feel ourselves to be hard as rock and yet He molds us like clay.
Insight is the phenomenon of wisdom manifesting so clearly, it becomes as something visible to the mind.
The silence of strangers is better than the banter of liars.
The essence of godliness is not to have moral strength, but to sense one’s natural moral weakness and depend instead on God to overcome and incline the heart to holiness.
When Paul resolved to preach nothing but Christ crucified, he meant to relate all things—absolutely all—whether duties or circumstances, to the finished work of Christ. He meant to preach their relationship to Our Representative, Jesus, who stands before God on behalf of His people.
All those years I wish I had known how to progress in godliness. We grow in gracious character by dwelling consciously in Triune grace—by resting in the Father to receive us freely in the Son; and in Christ, to work presently in and through us by his Holy Spirit.
Paul understood what many Christian teachers forget, that because no one can fulfill even one command perfectly, every exhortation brings further condemnation if not grounded in faith of Christ’s Representation, and causes desperation if not established in the Spirit’s sovereign sanctification.
In Christ, God receives us as having measured up to His standard. The mark is there for us to imitate in love.
Your favorite attribute of a pastor outside of the pulpit, should be that he gives you Christ in the pulpit.
True spirituality does not consist in private visions and secret promptings, but is to love God and others freely, with satisfaction, despite the costs, in grateful response to the love we have received in Christ.
Christ came to give abundant life, and the life He came to give was Himself, abounding in our hearts through faith.
Without due fear of God in His holiness, there is no basis for seeking, receiving, or responding with appreciation to grace in Christ.
With Christ’s cross, I have died to every failure of the past and future; and by His raising, I am free to live this present moment with the unbounded vitality of resurrection.
The great significance of Christ’s death was not that a man died on cross, but that He was God incarnate, suffering physically and spiritually to immeasurable extremes, to save the very ones who despised Him.
Deeper than the nails and thorns, Jesus was cut by the wrath of God’s justice, and cut off from the presence of His Father.
Christian, never excuse your sins, but always trust that He loves your soul more than you hate your flesh.
We are rubble in the hands of one greater than Michelangelo. We feel ourselves to be hard as rock and yet He molds us like clay.
Insight is the phenomenon of wisdom manifesting so clearly, it becomes as something visible to the mind.
The silence of strangers is better than the banter of liars.
The essence of godliness is not to have moral strength, but to sense one’s natural moral weakness and depend instead on God to overcome and incline the heart to holiness.
When Paul resolved to preach nothing but Christ crucified, he meant to relate all things—absolutely all—whether duties or circumstances, to the finished work of Christ. He meant to preach their relationship to Our Representative, Jesus, who stands before God on behalf of His people.
All those years I wish I had known how to progress in godliness. We grow in gracious character by dwelling consciously in Triune grace—by resting in the Father to receive us freely in the Son; and in Christ, to work presently in and through us by his Holy Spirit.
Paul understood what many Christian teachers forget, that because no one can fulfill even one command perfectly, every exhortation brings further condemnation if not grounded in faith of Christ’s Representation, and causes desperation if not established in the Spirit’s sovereign sanctification.
In Christ, God receives us as having measured up to His standard. The mark is there for us to imitate in love.
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