Every month Logos has a free downloadable resource. The one for this month is the 6 vol. from the works of John Owen, "Temptation and Sin."
John Owen’s treatises on temptation and sin stem from his pastoral concern for the church in England. These works have provided invaluable insight into the human condition and God’s grace to Christians for centuries.
"O God," Achyamma prayed, "Please let just one of my 6 boys be a preacher!" That morning, while cooking breakfast, this heart sick mother vowed to fast every Friday until God saw fit to answer her prayer.
Three and a half years went by, but nothing seemed to change.
Finally only the youngest, a scrawny, shy boy of 16, was left. But like David, he was the one that God had chosen.
This book "Revolution in World Missions," is the story of God's guiding hand in the life of K.P. Yahannan. I would encourage you to go to www.gfa.org to learn more about how God is using these normal people to accomplish abnormal things!
Luther, you know, when Melancthon was dying, went to his death-bed, and said, “Melancthon, you shall not die!”
“Oh,” said Melancthon, “I must die! It is a world of toil and trouble.”
“Melancthon,” said he, “I have need of thee, and God’s cause has need of thee, and as my name is Luther, thou shalt not die!”
The physician said he would.
Well, down went Luther on his knees, and began to tug at death. Old death struggled mightily for Melancthon, and he had got him well nigh on his shoulders.
“Drop him,” said Luther, “drop him, I want him.”
“Ho,” said death, “he is my prey, I will take him!”
“Down with him,” said Luther, “down with him, death, or I will wrestle with thee!”
And he seemed to take hold of the grim monster, and hurl him to the ground, and he came off victorious, like Orpheus with his wife, up from the very shades of death. He had delivered Melancthon from death by prayer!
“Oh,” say you, “that is an extraordinary case.” No, beloved, not one-half so extraordinary as you dream. I have men and women here who have done the same in other cases; that have asked a thing of God, and have had it; that have been to the throne, and showed a promise, and said they would not come away without its fulfillment, and have come back from God’s throne conquerors of the Almighty; for prayer moves the arm that moves the world."
Many would be saints if everybody would encourage them; but as soon as a hard word is spoken they are offended. They would go to heaven if they could travel there amidst the hosannas of he multitude, but when they hear the cry of “Crucify him, crucify him,” straightway they desert the man of Nazareth, for they have no intention to share his cross, or to be despised and rejected of men.
The true saints of God are prepared to endure scoffing, and jeering, and scorning; they accept this cross without murmuring, remembering him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. They know that their brethren who went before “resisted unto blood, striving against sin,” and as they have not yet come to that point, they count it foul scorn that they should be ashamed or confounded in minor trials, let their adversaries do what they may. Those who are to sing Christ’s praise in heaven must first have been willing to bear Christ’s shame below. Numbered with him in the humiliation must they be, or they cannot expect to be partakers with him in the glory.
And now, dear brethren and sisters, how is it with us? Are we willing to be reproached for Christ’s glory? Can we bear the sarcasm of the wise? Can we bear the jest of the witty?
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Voice From Heaven."
My Dad
loves football, as a result my siblings and I have grown up watching,
talking and playing it. (Though I haven't done much of the
'playing' since my brothers passed 5ft. It got a little to intense
for me.) With such a background I was quite familiar with names
like 'John Elway', Tony Dungy and Tim Tebow.(My father's heroes.)
So
when I saw that a book by Coach Dungy was available for review from
Tyndale Publishing I was intrigued. And the more I learned about
'The Uncommon Daily Life Challenge' the more I wanted to read it. I was
so excited, that I requested a PDF copy and read that even
before that actual book arrived at my door. It was totally worth it!
The format and practical genres were great, but they were nothing in
comparison to the actual words. Take this quote from Jan. 3rd,
for instance.
“We have a perfect
role model.
Christ is our
example on how to treat other people.
Christ is out
example on the influence we can and should have on those around us.
Christ is the
classic and eternal example of the role model WE are called to be.
No
other role model even comes close to Him.”
After reading that I realized that all
to often I have gotten caught up in finding and reading good books by
good men and forgotten about the best Book and the perfect Man.
In
Philippians 3:12 Paul states that he is striving for the perfection
of Christ. No one will ever be perfect in this lifetime, but I
realized that I should be HOURLY striving to be like Christ. Not only
that, I should be looking around to see who I can challenge to do the
same thing.
One of
my favorite things about this book is the 'Uncommon Keys'
at the bottom of each page. For example the one fore Jan 3rd
was this-
“Today
and everyday, remember that you are a personal representative of
Jesus Christ. Always strive for perfection of Christ- for yourself
and for those around you.”
Watch
this video to learn more about The Challenge-
Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds,
Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness,
Implant in me true lowliness of spirit,
Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence,
Open in me a fount of penitential tears,
Break me, then bind me up;
Thus will my heart be a prepared dwelling for my God;
Then can the Father take up abode in me,
Then can the blessing Jesus come with healing in his touch,
Then can the Holy Spirit descend in sanctifying grace;
O Holy Trinity, three Persons and one God,
inhabit me, a temple consecrated to Thy glory.
When Thou art present, evil cannot abide;
In Thy fellowship is fullness of joy,
Beneath Thy smile is peace of conscience,
By Thy side no fears disturb,
no apprehensions banish rest of mind,
With Thee my heart shall bloom with fragrance;
Make me meet, through repentance, for Thine indwelling.
Nothing exceeds Thy power,
Nothing is to great for thee to do,
Nothing too good for thee to give.
Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love,
limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name.
Let angels sing for sinners repenting, prodigals restored,
backsliders reclaimed, Satan's captives released,
blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up,
the despondent cheered, the self-righteous stripped,
the formalist driven from a refuge of lies,
the ignorant enlightened,
and saints built up in their holy faith.
I ask great things of a great God.
This is an excerpt from "The Valley of Vision," an amazing collection of Puritan prayers and devotions published by: The Banner of Truth TrustP.O. Box 621, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013, U.S.A.
"A lifelong pursuit of knowing God should embody the Christian's existence. According to eminent theologian J.I. Packer, however, Christians have become enchanted by modern skepticism and have joined the "gigantic conspiracy of misdirection" by failing to put first things first. Knowing God aims to redirect our attention to the simple, deep truth that to know God is to love His Word.
What began as a number of consecutive articles angled for "honest, no-nonsense readers who were fed up with facile Christian verbiage" in 1973, Knowing God has become a contemporary classic by creating "small studies out of great subjects." Each chapter is so specific in focus (covering topics such as the trinity, election, God's wrath, and God's sovereignty), that each succeeding chapter's theology seems to rival the next, until one's mind is so expanded that one's entire view of God has changed.
Author Elizabeth Eliot wrote that amid the lofty content Packer "puts the hay where the sheep can reach it--plainly shows us ordinary folks what it means to know God." Having rescued us from the individual hunches of our ultra-tolerant theological age, Packer points the reader to the true character of God with his theological competence and compassionate heart. The lazy and faint-hearted should be warned about this timeless work--God is magnified, the sinner is humbled, and the saint encouraged."
Every month Logos has a free downloadable resource. The one for this month is the 6 vol. from the works of John Owen, "Temptation and Sin."
