Meditations

Jun
1st

Sat

Beware of following Christ from any secondary motive. Follow Christ for His own sake, if you follow Him at all.

—

J.C. Ryle

May
26th

Sun

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

— Ephesians 5:1-2

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

— 1 John 4:12

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

— Matthew 6:21

May
18th

Sat

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you… [that your] hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

— Colossians 2:1-5

Apr
18th

Thu

And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

— Joshua 21:44-45

Apr
14th

Sun

Ephesians 4:17-24

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!-assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Oct
15th

Sat

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

— Romans 15:4

Blessed Be Your Name, by Matt Redman. Sung and preformed by myself. This is the first song I learned on guitar.

Oct
13th

Thu

There’s a place where the streets shine
With the glory of the Lamb.
There’s a way, we can go there,
We can live beyond time.

Because of You, because of You
Because of Your love, Because of Your blood.

No more pain, no more sadness
No more suffering, no more tears.
No more sin, no more sickness
No injustice, no more death

Because of You, because of You
Because of Your love, because of Your blood.
All our sins are washed away,
And we can live forever…

— Because of You by Paul Oakley

Aug
30th

Tue

Joy is a great deal more difficult to express than pain…if you look at contemporary music, nobody at all expresses joy… there’s neither joy nor light. That comes with color… I’ve written very few poignant pieces. I’m not made for that. I love Light, Joy, and Glory in the divine sense.

— French composer Olivier Messiaen

Aug
13th

Sat

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for fall men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

— Romans 5:18-21

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from othe wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

— Romans 5:9-10

Jul
27th

Wed

Suffering is one experience here on earth that we won’t have in heaven. And that in itself is a remarkable opportunity. It is the opportunity to glorify God in spite of our suffering — you won’t ever have this opportunity again — so glory in God.

Jan
2nd

Sun

The doctrine of the Trinity calls us to recognize, and ponder, and rejoice in the sheer reality of who God essentially is, at home in the happy land of the Trinity above all worlds. To recognize this is to come face-to-face with the final foundation of all God’s ways and works. And when we have carried out the thought experiment of thinking away everything we can (both redemption and creation), leaving nothing but God, we are not left with a formless and solitary divine blur. Instead we confess that God exists essentially and eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christians have much to say about grace. But the ground of grace is God’s absolute triune self-sufficiency.

— Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God