Category: Graffiti
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Do You Know…?
Do you know the Christ of the Gospels? Or have you fallen into the trap to which Christians (especially, perhaps, Reformed Christians) who love doctrine and systematic theology are sometimes susceptible (unlike John Calvin, it should be said): fascination with dogmatic formula at the expense of love for the Savior’s person? – Sinclair Ferguson, from Yesterday,…
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Salt & Light
“The true Christian cannot be hid, he cannot escape notice. A man truly living and functioning as a Christian will stand out. He will be like salt; he will be like a city set on a hill, a candle set upon a candlestick. But we can also add this further word: The true Christian does…
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3 Responses to Sin
“When we as Christians sin, we can react in one of three ways: 1) We can become hardened to our sin. 2) We can sink into utter despair and say, ‘Its all over.’ I’ve known Christians who have spent twenty years despairing over one sin…. [T]he only right course of action for us as Christians…
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Slow Like Oak
In a culture conditioned to instant everything, perhaps we would do well to pause and consider these words from John Newton, author of the hymn Amazing Grace: “A Christian is not of hasty growth, like a mushroom, but rather like the oak, the progress of which is hardly perceptible, but in time becomes a great…
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Infection of Complacency
Here is a thought from J.C. Ryle that transcends the gulf between 19th Century Britain to speak to 21st Century American Evangelicals: The times require distinct and decided views of Christian doctrine. I cannot withhold my conviction that the professing Church is as much damaged by laxity and indistinctness about matters of doctrine within, as…
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In Constant Prayer
Here is a challenging insight from Robert Benson, taken from his book In Constant Prayer: Our modern church has some distinct advantages over the early church. Or at least I suspect it does. We have better youth programs and better acoustics and finer buildings. We have better literature that is more easily available to…
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Gospel in Context
The gospel is always conveyed through the medium of culture. It becomes good news to lost and broken humanity as it is incarnated in the world through God’s sent people, the church. To be faithful to its calling, the church must be contextual, that is, it must be culturally relevant within a specific setting. The…
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Real Christians SHOULD Dance
I received this quote from my friends at Graced Again. The author, Bob Flayhart, is minister at Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, AL. A Gospel-centered life is the Christian Waltz. A waltz is a dance made up of three steps. Christians need to consider the Christian three step when it comes to growth. In the…
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Natural Born Skeptics
To doubt the good will of God is an inborn suspicion of God with all of us. Besides, the devil…goes about seeking to devour us by roaring: ‘God is angry at you and is going to destroy you forever.’ In all these difficulties we have only one support, the Gospel of Christ. To hold on…
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Faithfulness vs. Floating Along
Here is a helpful insight from D.A. Carson, in his book For the Love of God, that reminds us that while, as Christians, we are Justified and freely forgiven by God through Faith alone in Christ alone, we grow in Spiritual maturity by God’s grace AND our diligent faithfulness: People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort,…
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Stand Strong, Stand True
Here is a profound insight from A.A. Hodge: It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the Truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it. As Proverbs says: Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who…
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Mountaintop Spirituality
The mountain journey is about becoming more aligned with God’s presence and purposes in our lives. …The goal is not the glamour of iridescent light, but Christ-shaped encounters with others. The journey is not about getting out of this world or out of ourselves into some more glamorous place – but about getting as deeply…
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Dynamics of the Spiritual Life
Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons – much less secure than non-Christians, because they have too much light to rest easily under the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God…
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Siamese Twins: Godliness & Prayer
[W]e know that prayer is the most important thing for a Christian to do from the example of godly men in history. It can be safely said that there never has been and never will be a truly godly man who does not pray. Godliness and prayerfulness are Siamese twins; never is one without the…