The fear of God is the soul of godliness. John Murray
And now....what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all HIs ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God will all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD....for your good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).
Whatever ability a faithful Christian may posses, he ought to possess it for his fellow believers, and he ought to make his own interest subservient to the well-being of the church in all sincerity ---- John Calvin.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord....To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. But God has so composed the body....that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (I Corinthians 12:4-7, 12, 14, 24b-27).
While providence supports, Let saints securely dwell; That hand which bears all nature up Shall guide His children well. ---- Philip Doddridge
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31, KJV).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle, to the glory of God: God Will Take Care of You. "Be not dismayed what e'er betide, God will take care of you; beneath His wings of love abide, God will take care of you. God will take care of you, through ev'ry day, o'er all the way; He will take care of you, God will take care of you.
It is not for us to imagine that we can prove the truth of Christianity by our own arguments; nobody can prove the truth of Christianity save the Holy Spirit. ---- J. I. Packer
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (I Corinthians 1:21-24).
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (I Corinthians 2:13,14)
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: Break Thou the Bread of Life.
"Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me , as Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea; throughout the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord, my spirit pants for Thee, O living Word."
Prayer is the rope up in the belfry; we pull it, and it rings the bell up in heaven. ---- Christmas Evans
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working (James 5:16b, ESV).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: Sweet Hour of Prayer. "Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear to Him, whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless: and since He bids me seek His face, believe His Word, and trust His grace, I'll cast on Him my ev - 'ry care, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer (stanza 3).
When Christ takes the burden of guilt off a sinner's shoulders He places the yoke of obedience upon his neck. ---- Anonymous
Justification supplies the only efficient motive to obedience. ---- Ernest F. Kevan
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:5).
....God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.... (II Corinthians 5:19).
Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all Thy commandments. I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies. Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way. (Psalms 119: 6, 59, 128).
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them (Ezekiel 36:27).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: Trust and Obey.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way....
The devil's master stroke is that of dividing forces that ought to stand together. ---- G. Campbell Morgan
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3).
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment (I Corinthians 1:10).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: Blest Be the Tie That Binds
Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above.
Afflictions are sent for this end, to bring us to the throne of grace, to teach us to pray and to make the word of God more precious to us. ---- Matthew Henry
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your Word. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes (Proverbs 119:67, 71).
Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2).
For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (II Corinthians 4:11).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: Sweet Hour of Prayer.
Our faith itself, though it be the bond of our union with Christ through which we receive all His blessings, is not our Saviour. We have but one Saviour; and that one Saviour is Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing that we are and nothing that we can do enters in the slightest measure into the ground of our acceptance with God. Jesus did it all. ---- Benjamin B. Warfield
Behold,the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, "Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him" (Isaiah 62:11).
....we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ ( Romans 5:1).
....looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: Ye Servants of God, Your Master Proclaim.
Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer, and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble. ---- Philip Melanchthon
If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; And it shall come to pass, when he cries unto me, that I will hear, for I am gracious (Exodus 22:23, 27).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: O Safe to the Rock That is Higher Than I.
Whether special creation is endorsed by every scientist in the world or rejected by all of them is of monumental irrelevance.. The Christian says God created the world because the Bible says so. ---- John Blanchard
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible (Hebrews 11:3).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of the Creator: I Sing the Almighty Power of God.
Oh, ye infidel philosophers, teach me how to find joy in sorrow, strength in weakness, and light in darkest days; how to bear buffeting and scorn; how to welcome death, and to pass through it into the sphere of life, and this not for me only, but for the whole world that groans and travails in pain; and till you can do this, speak not to me of a better revelation than the Bible. ---- H. W. Beecher
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12).
For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12, 16-19).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched.
If you would learn self-mastery, begin by yielding yourself to the One Great Master. ---- Johann F. Lobstein
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive (Colossians 3:12-13).
It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD (Lamentations 3:26).
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God (I Peter 2:19-20).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken.
For contemplation, he, and valor formed; for softness she, and sweet attractive grace; he for God only, she for God in him. ---- John Milton
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." But there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of the ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:18, 20b-24).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle, to the glory of God: O Happy Home, Where Thou Art Loved.
True repentance consists in the heart being broken for sin and broken from sin. Some often repent, yet never reform; they resemble a man travelling in a dangerous path, who frequently starts and stops, but never turns back. ---- Bonnell Thornton
To do so no more is truest repentance. --- Martin Luther
By it [repentance], a sinner...so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments. ---- Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter XV
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the LORD God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions... (Ezekiel 18:30-31).
"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD , your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster (Joel 2:12-13).
For what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! (II Corinthians 7:11).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: God Be Merciful Unto Me
The religion of some people is constrained, like the cold bath when used, not for pleasure, but from necessity for health, into which one goes with reluctance, and is glad when able to get out. But religion to the true believer is like water to a fish; it is his element; he lives in it and could not live out of it. ---- John Newton
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 2:21).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: CHRIST, OF ALL MY HOPES THE GROUND.
It is not the eye that sees the beauty of the heaven, nor the ear that hears the sweetness of music or the glad tidings of a prosperous occurrence, but the soul, that perceives all the relishes of sensual and intellectual perfections; and the more noble and excellent the soul is, the greater and more savory are its perceptions. ---- Jeremy Taylor
But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25-28).
("...for the fruit of life is found in all that is good and true) (Ephesians 5:9).
Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things...practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:5-9).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle to the glory of God: MAY THE MIND OF CHRIST MY SAVIOR.
