Sunday, July 24, 2011

New Site Update

I've moved!

I won't be blogging from here (Blogspot) any longer. Logging into my Blogspot requires me to sign out from my Gmail account (I'm using my old hotmail account to run my blogspot) and I find it a hassle at times. Thus, I'll be blogging from Wordpress instead.


Love,
Jue.


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Leading Subject is... Christ.

"Keep before your mind, an ever-present truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ is an actual living person, and deal with him as such. I fear the personality of our Lord is sadly lost sight of many Christians in the present day. Their talk is more about salvation than about the Savior; more about redemption than about the Redeemer; more about justification than about Jesus; more about Christ's work than about Christ's person.. If you would grow in grace, and have joy and peace in believing, then beware of falling into this error. The leading subject (of all these) was the loving heart of an actual living Christ.. Oh, there is all the difference in the world between an idea and a person." - J. C. Ryle.

Monday, July 18, 2011

All We Have Is Christ

"We're in a world where sin and death is reigning, and it's going to peel, strip away from us; our most intimate relationships, our wife, our children, everything is going to be stripped. Really... all we have is Christ."
- Bob Jennings.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

On a Thursday Afternoon

I feel like scribbling something here, as I look at how impersonal my blog is!

That's the last thing I want to be.. to be impersonal. I'm talking more than just mere people-to-people impersonal, but between people (I'm meaning myself here) and my great God impersonal.

Knowledge on its own is not sufficient. Ever. I've heard it more than a few times. Maybe you have, too.

But in my small head and brain, I find it hard to be wrapped around the truth that knowledge is never sufficient. I think I'm learning to accumulate a lot of head knowledge, but without wisdom, I'm learning that knowledge is a very dangerous thing! (A man with all the knowledge in the world about guns yet lacks wisdom sure is a dangerous man).

To be honest, I feel as though I am getting so excited to know so much more about God, but deep down inside maybe I don't know God.. Or maybe I do know God, but I'm not known by Him.

I'm writing this pretty calmly as I got this realization a few days ago, not today. God has been too kind for revealing these kind of things to me, rebuking me (my prayer is that You would rebuke me daily O God). Lord, the last thing I want is that I would have to hear You say this to me, "Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you!"

I don't really know where to move on from here.. But I can only say that this is humbling me, this realization is humbling me, instead of how knowledge only feeds pride into my inner being. God, I pray for true wisdom, daily.. Teach me Your ways O Lord, your decree, help me to trust in You in all my ways, and not to lean on my own understanding, but in all my ways acknowledge You as Lord, then You will make my paths straight.

Lord! I want to be known by You. And I know that You are opening my heart slowly to You as You are revealing these things belonging to Your heart to me.

Lord, I pray for Your grace to help me turn the knowledge about You to the fear, knowledge and reverence of You!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Spurgeon Says

Charles Spurgeon, in a sermon dated November 2, 1884:

The best preaching is, “We preach Christ crucified.”

The best living is, “We are crucified with Christ.”

The best man is a crucified man.

The more we live beholding our Lord’s unutterable griefs, and understanding how he has fully put away our sin, the more holiness shall we produce.

The more we dwell where the cries of Calvary can be heard, where we can view heaven, and earth, and hell, all moved by his wondrous passion—the more noble will our lives become.

Nothing puts life into men like a dying Savior.

Get close to Christ, and carry the remembrance of him about you from day to day, and you will do right royal deeds.

Come, let us slay sin, for Christ was slain.

Come, let us bury all our pride, for Christ was buried.

Come, let us rise to newness of life, for Christ has risen.

Let us be united with our crucified Lord in his one great object—let us live and die with him, and then every action of our lives will be very beautiful.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

How Bunyan Views Humility

One of my dearest friend (check our her blog) posted this on my Facebook wall, and thought of posting it up here..

A little old English from John Bunyan, but this is how he views humility! Thought you would like to read it, Jue! :) ♥

"If thou find me short in things, impute that to my love of brevity.
[if you find that my work is lacking, it is because I love to be concise]

If thou find me besides the truth in aught [any respect], impute that to my infirmity.
[if you find my writings to be missing any part of the truth, it is because of my weakness as a human]

But if thou find anything here that serves to your furtherance and joy of the faith, impute that to the mercy of God bestowed on thee and me.
[if you find anything encouraging in me, it is because of the mercy of God on you & me]

Yours to serve you with what little I have."
[his note to his readers]

~ John Bunyan, Note to Reader, “Saved by Grace,” in The Works of John Bunyan, 1:336."

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

God, be merciful to me, a Pharisee!

Taken from Tony Reinke's blog at http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/god-be-merciful-to-me-a-pharisee/:

Did Paul preach the gospel of Jesus? That was the question Dr John Piper sought to address last night at T4G in a message that became one of my personal conference highlights. The sermon manuscript and audio (forthcoming) can be found here. At one point Piper connected the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9–14 (his main text) and Paul’s words in Philippians 3:4–9. It’s quite interesting to read the two accounts together:

Jesus (Luke 18:9–12):

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

Paul (Philippians 3:4–6):

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Jesus (Luke 18:13–14):

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Paul (Philippians 3:7–9):

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Paul preached the gospel of Jesus–and it was this gospel that changed his life forever.