Fullness

If we consider the depth and breadth of God’s care and blessings in our lives, we will realize that it is only right that we should give thanks in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Sadly, however, we are more inclined to view our lives in terms of what we lack than in view of what we have already received. Instead of seeing the fullness of what we have received in Christ, we tend to approach our experiences from the perspective of deficiency. Our gratitude ages quickly when we overlook God’s gifts, take them for granted, or regard them as our due.  ― Ken Boa

Every Day Tasks

“There is no other way in which one's life will so surely and so quickly become transfigured — as in the faithful, happy, cheerful doing of everyday tasks. We need to remember that this world is not so much a place for doing things — as for making character. Household life is not primarily a sphere for good cooking, tidy keeping of things, thorough sweeping and dusting, careful nursing and training of children, hospitable entertainment of friends, and the thousand things that must be done each day. Home is a sphere for transforming souls into radiant beauty. But we must take heed always that we do our tasks, whatever they are, with love. Doing any kind of work unwillingly, fretfully, with complaint and murmuring, hurts the life.” ― J.R. Miller

Duties become Privileges

"Duties become privileges, when Christ is their source of life."

~ Charles Bridges, An Exposition of Psalm 119, pg. 471

Slow to wrath ... great understanding

"He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly."  Proverbs 14:29 KJV

Matthew Henry's Commentary:

Note, 1. Meekness is wisdom. He rightly understands himself, and his duty and interest, the infirmities of human nature, and the constitution of human society, who is slow to anger, and knows how to excuse the faults of others as well as his own, how to adjourn his resentments, and moderate them, so as by no provocation to be put out of the possession of his own soul. A mild patient man is really to be accounted an intelligent man, one that learns of christ, who is Wisdom itself.

Note, 2. Unbridled passion is folly proclaimed: He that is hasty of spirit, whose heart is tinder to every spark of provocation, that is all fire and tow, as we say, he thinks hereby to magnify himself and make those about stand in awe of him, whereas really he exalts his own folly; he makes it known, as that which is lifted up is visible to all, and he submits himself to it as the government of one that is exalted.

Quotes for the Day

 "Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments." (Psalm 119:21)
"Pride brings forth error, and error provokes God to inflict the curse, of which his rebukes are but the fore-runner."
— Spurgeon's Devotional Bible
 
"O let me not wander from thy commandments." (Psalm 119:10b)
"... let it be remembered, that daily progress in the heavenly walk is not maintained by yesterday's grace. Humble and dependent prayer must fetch in a fresh supply continually.
— Charles Bridges, An Exposition of Psalm 119

Repeatable Post

Read: Where Are You?

In prayer ...

"In prayer Jesus slows us down, teaches us to count how few days we have, and gifts us with wisdom. He reveals to us that we are so caught up in what is urgent that we have overlooked what is essential. He ends our indecision and liberates us from the oppression of false deadlines and myopic vision."

— Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, pg.114

Goodreads

To Live By Grace Means ...

To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side, I learn who I am and what God's grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, "A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God."

The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelists, charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two-class citizenship theory operative in many American churches. For grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. All that is good is ours, not by right, but by the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there is much we may have earned — our degree, our salary, our home and garden, a Miller Lite, and a good night's sleep — all this is possible only because we have been given so much: life itself, eyes to see and hands to touch, a mind to shape ideas, and a heart to beat with love. We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt. This and so much more is sheer gift; it is not reward for our faithfulness, our generous disposition, or our heroic life of prayer. Even our fidelity is a gift. "If we but turn to God," said St. Augustine, "that itself is a gift of God." My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it."

— Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, pg. 25

Goodreads

Repeatable Post

 Read: Prayer with Thanksgiving is a Shield Against Fear and Self-Absorption

Sunday Meditation

Q. 56. What believest thou concerning "the forgiveness of sins"?

A. That God, for the sake of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, neither my corrupt nature, against which I have to struggle all my life long; (a) but will graciously impute to me the righteousness of Christ, (b) that I may never be condemned before the tribunal of God. (c)

(a)	1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 2 Cor.5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 2 Cor.5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
(b)	Jer.31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Ps.103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Ps.103:4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Ps.103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Ps.103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Mic.7:19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Rom.7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Rom.7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Rom.7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
(c)	Rom.8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Rom.8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Rom.8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: Rom.8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Published in Heidelberg Catechism