Sin is . . .
("The Lamb of God!" James Hamilton)
"Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?" Job 22:5
Man is made up of divers lusts and passions! Pride, ambition, envy, vanity, resentment, anger, covetousness, immorality, cruelty--these and many evil appetites and emotions besides, flow through all his nature in fierce and malignant currents, and are his very being's poisoned blood and fevered pulse! They break out . . .
in oaths and curses,
in fightings and violence,
in debauchery and orgy;
in spoken falsehood and acted lies,
in words of lewdness and deeds of shame!
Sin is . . .
earth's great burden,
humanity's deforming blot,
the enemy of God,
the transgressor of His law,
the great soul-poison and heart-plague,
the only thing which really defiles man,
pollution, misery, guilt,
incipient Hell,
the only thing to which we can give, in its fullest sense, the emphatic name of evil.
Jesus could not look on sin without abhorrence. The sight of that cursed thing which had insulted His heavenly Father and filled a happy world with woe and horror, kindled His zeal and revenge; and while the Lamb's gentleness encouraged the sinner, the Lion's fury still flashed upon the sin.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!" Romans 6:23
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Dust you are and to dust you will return!
(Charles Spurgeon)
"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Genesis 3:19
"All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return!" Ecclesiastes 3:20
Augustine used to say he did not know whether to call it a dying life--or a living death. I leave the choice between those two expressions to you.
This is certainly a dying life--its march is marked by graves.
Nothing but a continuous miracle keeps any one of us from the sepulcher!
Were omnipotence to stay its power but for a moment--we would return to our native dust.
It is a dying life--and it is equally true that it is a living death.
We are always dying.
Every beating pulse we count, leaves but the number less.
The more years we count in our life--the fewer remain.
Are you afraid of dying? Oh! never be afraid of that--be afraid of living.
Living is the only thing which can do any harm--dying can never hurt a Christian.
Christian! You are nearer your eternal home than you thought you were--and every moment you are getting nearer still!
Oh, it would be indeed horrible if we could not die!
Who wants to be chained to this poor life for centuries?
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."
"I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far!"
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Accepting God's Gift of Love
Many people simply can't believe that the Lord loves them. Others believe that He loves them, but only when they are pleasing Him in some way. Why is it so hard for us to accept His unconditional love?
One reason is that we have a hard time loving others without condition. We might say the words "I love you" to our spouse, children, friends, co-workers, or fellow believers but all too often are calculating in our mind whether or not they've lived up to our standard. We sometimes excuse ourselves from loving certain people because their behavior upsets or annoys us. The fact that we place restrictions on extending favor causes us to wrongly assume that the Lord does likewise.
Another reason is poor self-image. Considering ourselves unworthy, we refuse to accept God's love. You know what? None of us are worthy of the heavenly Father's goodness and mercy—so you can let go of that excuse once and for all. We're not coming to Him based on our worth. Rather, we're coming to Him based on His grace, and our position is secure in Christ. To put yourself down as "beneath His grace" is to trample on His loving, generous gift. God arranged an awesome divine way for us to be reconciled to Him, and His greatest desire is for relationship with each of us.
If you feel unloved or struggle to accept yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of our heavenly Father's love for you—and to sink it deep into your heart. Receive the truth that He reveals. It will be a completely different story about your value as an individual.
~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~
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