Thoughtful Living
Are you living thoughtfully and intentionally—or automatically? It’s so easy to get up each morning, do our work, enjoy some relaxation or entertainment, and fall into bed each night without giving any thought to God’s involvement in our lives. But to be ignorant of how He has blessed, guided, protected, and warned us is a foolish way to live. Just consider the benefits of keeping our spiritual eyes and ears open throughout the day.
Those who are aware of the Lord’s presence during their daily activities enjoy the peace of knowing that He is always in control and working to accomplish His good purposes. Every day’s experiences with Him teach them to know and love Him more.
When we learn to see God’s footprints in our days, we will become aware of the scope of His involvement in our lives. Maybe He strengthened you for a task or opened a door of opportunity. Perhaps He guided your decisions or helped you respond in a godly way to a difficult person.
If our ears are open to the Lord’s warnings and instructions, we won’t repeat the same mistakes again and again. But those who are deaf to His voice will continue in unhealthy thought patterns, negative emotions, and foolish responses.
Each night before you go to sleep, take some time to reflect on the day’s activities. The Lord is constantly with you, guarding and guiding your way. He wants you to see Him in everything and understand life from His perspective as you rely on His wisdom and power to face any challenge.
~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~
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Oh stand and wonder!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity")
"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us--that we should be called the sons of God!" 1 John 3:1
It is an infinite condescension in God to honor us with the title of sons, and therefore we should never think of it, nor ever speak of it--but with much amazement. O sirs! what matter of admiration is this--that the great and glorious God, who has many millions of glorious angels attending Him--that He should . . .
look upon all redeemed people as His sons,
and love them as His sons,
and delight in them as His sons,
and clothe them as His sons,
and feed them as His sons,
and protect them as His sons,
and stand by them as His sons,
and lay up for them as His sons,
and lay out Himself for them as His sons;
that those who have not deserved . . .
a smile from God,
a good word from God,
a bit of bread from God, or
a temporal blessing from God,
should be made the sons of God!
What manner of love is this--that those who have . . .
so highly provoked God,
walked so disobediently and contrary to God,
were so exceeding unlike God,
preferred every lust, and every toy and vanity before God,
fought many years under Satan's banner against God,
refused all the offers of mercy that have been made by God,
that those who have deserved to be . . .
reprobated by God,
damned by God, and
to be thrown to Hell by God--
that these should be made the sons of God!
Oh stand and wonder! Oh stand and admire the freeness of His grace, and at the riches of His grace!
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" 1 John 3:1
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Get out of My sight!
(Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness")
Many now-a-days say that there is no Hell. Multitudes think that all that is spoken of Hell in Scripture is false and mythical. They will not believe that there is a Hell . . .
until they come to feel themselves in Hell,
until they find everlasting flames about their ears,
until they are sentenced to the fire,
until they are doomed to everlasting fire!
The last words that Christ will ever speak to the ungodly will be the most tormenting and horrifying, the most killing and damning, the most stinging and wounding! "Then He will also say to those on the left: Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his demons!" Matthew 25:41
This terrible sentence breathes out nothing but fire and brimstone, terror and horror, dread and woe!
"Depart from Me!" Here is utter rejection: "Pack! Be gone! Get out of My sight! Let Me never see your face again!"
"You who are cursed!" Here is malediction. You shall be cursed in your bodies and cursed in your souls! You shall be cursed of God, and cursed of angels, and cursed of saints, and cursed of devils, and cursed of your companions! Yes, you shall curse your very selves, your very souls. All your former curses, all your maledictions--shall at last recoil upon your own souls!
Now you curse every man and thing which stands in the way of your lusts, and which cross your designs! But at last all the curses of Heaven and Hell shall meet in their full power and force upon you!
"But, Lord, if we must depart, and depart cursed--oh let us go into some good place!"
"No! Depart into the eternal fire!" There is the vengeance and everlasting continuance of it. You shall go into fire, into everlasting fire, which will neither consume itself, nor consume you! Eternity of extreme punishment is the hell of Hell.
If all the fires which ever were in the world were contracted into one fire, how terrible would it be! Yet such a fire would be but as a 'painted fire'--compared to the fire of Hell. The greatest and the hottest fires that ever were on earth--are but ice in comparison to the fire of Hell. Ah! how sad, how dreadful would it be to experience what it is to lie in unquenchable fire--not for a day, a month, or a year, or a hundred, or a thousand years--but forever and ever!
"If it were," says one, "but for a thousand years, I could bear it--but seeing it is for eternity, this astonishes and affrights me!"
"I am afraid of Hell," says another, "because the worm there never dies, and the fire never goes out!"
It is called "unquenchable fire," and "eternal fire." The torments of the damned are . . .
very grievous for the bitterness of them,
and more grievous for the diversity of them,
but most of all grievous for the eternity of them!
Wronged justice can never be satisfied, and therefore the sinner must be forever tormented. The sinner in Hell will sin forever, and therefore he must be punished forever. It will not stand with the unspotted justice and righteousness of God to cease punishing--while the sinner ceases not sinning.
"But, Lord, if I must go into fire, into everlasting fire--then oh, let me have some good company in my misery!"
"No! The devil and his demons shall be your companions!" Ah! who can conceive or express the misery of living with devils and damned spirits and hellish fiends and furies forever!
"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ!" 1 Thessalonians 5:9
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