Are there Prerequisites to Salvation?

A new book that I started reading is The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by puritain Walter Marshall. I picked it up thinking that any book dealing with the subject of sanctification  powered by the Gospel must be a keeper. Of course I haven’t been disappointed in my expectations though I am still just in the [...]

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The Ultimate Aim of the Gospel

I’ve picked up Piper’s God is the Gospel once again and thought that I’d share a quote about the aim of the Gospel. It really made me think and I’m starting to agree more and more that God IS the Gospel. SO here’s the quote:
The ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of God’s [...]

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The Worship Leader

So I’ve been enjoying reading Bob Kauflin’s book, Worship Matters, which is directed to worship (in song) leaders.  Yes, I guess that’s what we have to call them. The truth is that all who are involved in the church service are our leaders in worship, that is, the preacher, the one who prays, the one [...]

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All done with Worldliness…

Well a few days ago I finally finished the book Worldliness by C. J. Mahaney and company. I started reading (and posting) very enthusiastically about the book as I thought it to be a subject that I needed to work on in my own personal life and know more about to help others. I was [...]

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Fear… Sin or just mere Weakness

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:”Fear not, O Zion;
let not your hands grow weak.
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will [...]

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Sacrifice

“Present sacrifice is sustained by the hope of future reward.”
These were the words of John Piper as he preached a sermon called “The Supremacy of Christ Makes us Caring and Daring” from Hebrews 10-12.
Moses was a great example of this as he embraced suffering for a greater reward. “By faith Moses, when he was grown [...]

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The Purpose of the Law

“There is no healing a man till the law has wounded him, no making alive till the law has slain him.”
-C. H. Spurgeon
Truly if we never look into the mirror of the law, we will never see the ugliness of sin, and thus never see the need to become cleansed.
“Therefore the Law has become [...]

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The Remedy

“If you want to begin immediately to weaken the influence of worldliness in your life, take the sound advice from the great physician of the soul, John Owen:

‘When someone sets his affections upon the cross and the love of Christ, he crucifies the world as a dead and undesirable thing. The baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear. Fill your affections with the cross of Christ and you will find no room for sin’”

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Worldliness

As I previously said, I have started reading a book entitled “Worldliness” writen by C. J Mahaney and his gang of Sovereign Grace friends, and I wanted to share a few quotes that have shown me the importance of studying the topic of worldliness.
“Today, the greatest challenge facing American Evangelicals is not persecution from the [...]

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What are you Praying for?

Yesterday I was checking out what was new on the Desiring God blog and found an article entitled “What Should we Pray For” which compiles a list of all the N. T. prayers. I was reading the list this morning and praying at the same time when I came across one of Paul’s requests in [...]

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The Gospel

I’m trying to prepare a devotional that i’ll be sharing this coming week on what gives a Christian power to press on in the midst of hardship. If you know me you probably know my answer. It is the Gospel!!! Now, being that this is a gospel centered Blog, and that the gospel is the [...]

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Hard Times are for our Good

I was reading this morning on the Desiring God Blog, an article entitled, “Bad Times are Good for Missions” and I absolutely love how Piper sees God’s sovereignty in the midst of hard times. Obviously right now America as well as the rest of the world is going through economic uncertainty, but our God is [...]

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God’s Love is Enough…

Earlier this evening I was reading from John Piper’s book of devotions “A Godward Life II” and I came across an article that he wrote about the dark side of missions… He told the story of a former Muslim Christian that returned to Northern Africa and was arrested for smuggling in Bibles… He stood on [...]

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Reality Check!

So last night I picked up a collection of C. S. Lewis’ writings that I’ve had for approximately 200,000 years… (give or take a year or so)… Anyway, I thought that I’d share a paragraph from The Buisness of Heaven that made me think a little bit.
“The Theologians Danger”
“There have been men… who got so [...]

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Tethered to Your Word

This morning I was reading on the Desiring God site John Piper’s newest “Taste and See” article “In Honor of Tethered Preaching”, where he discusses the difference between Bible centered preaching and Entertainment centered preaching… The highlights of the article for me were Calvin’s attitude toward preaching and Piper’s closing prayer. Calvin is quoted in [...]

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Enjoy Your God!

I imagine that most Christians have heard of the following affirmation:
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
If you are a Piper fan like me, you know that he argues that these two things, glorfying God and enjoying God, are not two different things but one. We glorify God by [...]

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The Terrors of Legalism

“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other [...]

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The Importance of Theology

A.W. Pink said, “An unknown God can neither be trusted, served, nor worshipped.” This is an excellent quote from the preface of Pink’s book “The Attributes of God.”
Doctrine and theology are not just for the preacher. They must be studied by every one of Christ’s people. He who does not know God as Sovereign, Almighty, [...]

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Grace Alone!!!

I’ve heard many say (especially here in Romania), “How can you say that you are saved by grace alone? Don’t you need to have good works too?”
Well, My answer is this,
“…for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” -Gal 2:16
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not [...]

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