I’ll be happy when…..

From Karen, a lovely attitude, apt words, and truly helpful thinking!

Heavenlyjava

I’ll be happy ‘when’…

How many of us have said those words. “I’ll be happy when…” when I loose weight, when I get well, when I can go to Paris, when I get married, when I have a baby, when I get a job, when I get some money in the bank, when I get a house, when I…well you fill in the gaps. Over the last few years I have written posts like ‘Have you got all your ducks in a row?’ (in the heavenlyjava archives). In it I ask the same question. What is happiness, how  do we get it and more importantly, how do we keep it?

These are big questions, and ones that have no easy answer. A wise man once said “happiness is an illusion, only suffering is real”. What he is saying is that happiness per se is in itself an ephemeral state…

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A Little Time With The 1689: Day 240

Reformed Baptista elaborates on this paragraph from the 1689 London Baptist Confession. This was a help to me because I sometimes struggle with assurance.

“True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God’s withdrawing the light of his countenance, and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light, yet are they never destitute of the seed of God and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived, and by the which, in the meantime, they are preserved from utter despair.”

reformed baptista

Day 240

Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation.

Chapter 18, Paragraph 4.

“…yet are they never destitute of the seed of God, and Life of Faith,…”

Scripture Lookup

1 John 3:9
Luke 22:32

Reflection

You’re struggling with assurance. Through neglect of the ordinary means God has provided, falling into a particularly grievous sin, struck by a powerful temptation, or not enjoying the blessing of God’s countenance, you wonder if you were ever saved to begin with. It sure doesn’t feel that way right now. What do you do, then?

Those who are truly in Christ, although they may have little assurance that they are His, are never cut off from God’s promise of keeping them until the end. If you hate your sin, love Christ, and desire to please God, these are indications that you are one of His. The Holy Spirit is still within you, for…

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Food Fight at The Masters Table

Bless the Lord for how He works to correct us!

Spiritual Abuse Sanctuary

Let me preface this post by saying I don’t belong to Facebook, or Pal Talk. I used to belong to Pal Talk a number of years ago. In the beginning I found a group where one could worship the LORD JESUS, and felt the Holy Spirit moving amongst those who gathered there. But that group disbanded for some reason. Since then, lets just say it seems to have become a haunt for every evil spirit out there, with constant infighting, insults, mud slinging and “bouncing out of the room” or “red dotting”, those who disagreed with, or questioned, even innocently, something the speaker is saying. And this, mind you, happens in “Christian” rooms.

After several bad experiences, I decided it wasn’t a healthy environment for spiritual growth and/or fellowship and so, I left and moved on.

Now, about Facebook, as I said, I never felt led to join, and having…

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WHEN IS THE TIME TO TRUST?

Read this and trust!

PEACEMAKERS

Let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece – Judg 6:39

There are degrees to faith. At one stage of Christian experience we cannot believe unless we have some sign or some great manifestation of feeling. We feel our fleece, like Gideon, and if it is wet we are willing to trust God. This may be true faith, but it is imperfect. It always looks for feeling or some token besides the Word of God. It marks quite an advance in faith when we trust God without feelings. It is blessed to believe without having any emotion.

There is a third stage of faith which even transcends that of Gideon and his fleece. The first phase of faith believes when there are favorable emotions, the second believes when there is the absence of feeling, but this third form of faith believes God and His Word when…

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The Spirit is Given

Blessed truth in winsome words!

Proverbs 25:11
A word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

He Hath Said

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. – John 16:7

It is a great gain to us not to have the Savior here. And see you how it is? He said, “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.” Now, it is a nobler thing to have the Spirit of God dwelling in us than it would be to have Jesus Christ dwelling upon earth. For, as I have hinted, if He were on earth we could not all get at Him; He could only be in one place at a time, and how would the poor be able to get where He is? And if He wandered all the world yet in the natural…

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