HEART

The keeping and right managing of the heart in every condition is the great business of the Christian's life. ---- John Flavel

And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart (Deuteronomy 6:5-6).

The LORD is nigh unto those who are of a broken heart; and saves those who are of a contrite spirit. (Psalm 34:18).

Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise (Psalm 112:7)

 

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25).

 

A hymn to read, sing, play, hum, or whistle, to the glory of God: Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart (George Croly, 1854).

LAW & GOSPEL

The law by which God rules us, is as dear to Him as the Gospel by which He saves us. ---- William Secker.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. YOU shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7).

A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle, to the glory of God: Blest Are the Undefiled (Isaac Watts, 1719).

ALIVE

All that I was, my sin, my guilt,

   My death, was all my own;

All that I am I owe to Thee,

   My gracious God, alone. ---- Horatio Bonar

 

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked...and were by nature the children of wrath....  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ ---- by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:1, 3, 5, 8-9).

 

For you are a people holy to the LORD our God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession...  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your father... (Deuteronomy 9:6-8a).

ILLUMINATION

Unless God's Word illumine the way, the whole life of men is wrapped in darkness and mist, so that they cannot but miserably stray. ---- John Calvin

 

But the LORD's portion is His people, Jacob His allotted heritage. He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for Him, He kept him as the apple of His eye....the LORD alone guided him, no foreign god was with him(Deuteronomy 32: 10, 12.)

 

For You are my lamp, O LORD: and You, the LORD will lighten my darkness (II Samuel 22:39).

 

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you shall go; I will guide you with my eye (Psalm 32:8).

SOVEREIGNTY

God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never skips, and acts with a hand that never fails.  Anonymous.

 

He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are justice; a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He (Deuteronomy 32:4).

 

This God --  His way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true (Psalm 18:30).

 

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

 

According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith...  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuiness of your faith -- more precious than gold...though it is tested by fire -- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ(I Peter 1:4-7).

Truth or Error

Those who preach liberal theology are robbers; they rob God of his sovereignty, Jesus of his divinity, the Holy Spirit of his ministry, the miracles of their credibility, Mary of her virginity, the apostles of their authority, the church of its history and the new birth of its necessity. ---- John Blanchard

 

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign of a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, "Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your souls. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him(Deuteronomy 13:1-4). 

 

Beware of the prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits (Matthew 7:7:15-16a).

 

Now I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve (Romans 16:17-18).

 

A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle, to the glory of the God of truth:

 Break Thou the Bread of Life. Mary A. Lathbury, 1877.  

Fear of God

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).

 

Fear God and give Him glory.... (Revelation 14:7)

Love

Good morning!

God is Love. Love  is an image of God, and not a lifeless image, but the living essence of the divine nature which became full of all goodness. ---- Martin Luther.

The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you. And He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you (Deuteronomy 7:7, 8, 13). 

A hymn to read, sing, or hum to the glory of God: O PRAISE THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD.