Musings & Meditations

MUSINGS ON LIFE. MEDITATIONS ON THE WORD.

The following quotes are some musings and meditations inspired by my readings, or taken from my various articles, sermons and marginal notes in my Bible over the years. ~ JET

1. We often find more comfort and hope in reading of the failures and falls of great saints who repented, were forgiven and restored, than in the record of their deeds of heroism

2. It is not the strength of faith that saves, but the object in which that faith is placed. Great faith in a rotten bridge will not carry you safely over the chasm, but even little faith in a strong bridge will guarantee your safe conduct.

3. If you have Jesus and nothing else, you have everything. If you have everything else but not Jesus, you have nothing.

4. That same Scriptures that show us the need of God’s grace to redeem us also show us the need of God’s government to rule us.

5. If God has saved you from being a Publican, beware that you do not become a Pharisee.

6. It is in meditating upon the agonies and sufferings of a dying Saviour on the cross that we can best see the exceeding sinfulness of our sins that put Him there.

7. As a sinner I have no right to complain; as a saint I have no reason to complain.

8. It is not possible to hate any sin too much; nor is it possible to love the Saviour too greatly.

9. It is vain to pray that God would reveal His will for you tomorrow if you are not willing to submit to His revealed will for you today.

10. No error, however fervently believed or fanatically practiced, will ever lead to a more holy life.

11. It is not virtue to be silent when you should speak, neither is it valour to speak when you should be silent. (Ecc 3:7)

12. If a church really cares where you are going to spend your eternity, it will not preach what you want to hear, it will preach what you need to hear.

13. The man who says he has no creed but the Bible has a creed; he just has an unwritten one, susceptible to alterations and prone to constant change.

14. Prayer does not make our work unnecessary. Prayer makes our work effective.

15. By our speaking, we move men; by our supplications, we move God.

16. He that refrains from sinning because others are watching, but is willing to indulge those same sins when alone, has not learned the fear of the Lord.

17. Neither the devil nor the world care too much about those who merely profess to be a Christian, as long as they don’t actually practice being one.

18. Genesis is not the final truth on the subjects it reveals, but the first truths on which those subjects rest.

19. The closer we live in communion with the Lord, the clearer to us His counsel will be.

20. The further the Church strays from God, the less spiritual and more worldly and fleshly her worship becomes.

21. It is a sure sign that worship is no longer in spirit and in truth when there is less of Christ and more of ceremony.

22. An idol is any Person, Place, Possession, Position or Passion that you love more than Jesus Christ.

23. There is hardly any greater proof that I am growing in both the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ than to be continually thinking less of myself and more of Christ.

24. Beware of any church that compromises the Word of God. Once a church compromises biblical truth, it is only a matter of time before it compromises biblical morals.

25. The record of great revivals in history reveal that they: Commence with Prayer, Create a hunger for God’s Word, Cultivate a desire for holiness, Conquer inordinate love for worldly matters, and Conclude with passion for souls. Where these are lacking, it should not be considered a true, biblical revival.

26. God intended the family to be a “church in miniature” and a foretaste of heaven. When each member lives according to the divine plan, it will be just that.

27. The great failure of the Christian church is not so much a failure to serve its surrounding Culture but a failure to faithfully and obediently serve the Sovereign CHRIST!

28. When a church rejects the authority of Jesus Christ over the practices of those within, it loses its authority to speak for Jesus Christ about the practices of those without.

29. How sad, that while Christians debate and divide over aspects of Christ’s Second Coming, millions of souls have never heard about His first.

30. Salvation that is absolute comes to us from God through a full Christ. Service that is acceptable is offered by us to God through a full consecration.

31. It is spiritual suicide to throw ourselves down by sin trusting that God’s angels will bear us up in safety.

32. No musician performs in an orchestra and then tunes his instrument. First the instrument is tuned, and then he is ready to play. So it is with the Christian. Life will be discordant throughout the day if your heart, mind and soul have not first been tuned at the beginning by reading the Word, meditation on the Word and prayer.

33. The peace of God within you is only possible if the God of peace is with you.

34. To think that God sees and knows all about us ought to gratify the saint, terrify the sinner and purify the church.

35. Gospel salvation not only brings about a proper relationship between God and us as sinners, but a privileged relationship between a Father and us as His sons.

36. God would not only have us relate to Him as subjects to their King and servants to their Lord, but also as sons to their heavenly Father.

37. Some people have comfort but no trials, others have trials but no comfort. Believers have comfort in their trials.

38. Where God is the Teacher, the lessons are both effectual and enduring. (see Ps 119:33).

39. The more bitter the cause that drives us to prayer, the sweeter are the answers when they come.

40. To be fully convinced of God’s love is the greatest motive we need to obey Him.

41. What pride remains in our heart when we chafe under our afflictions and trials as if we had a right to complain, but are not thankful for God’s mercies, as if we had a right to them.

42. God’s law makes us fearful to continue in sin; God’s love makes us unwilling to carry on in sin.

43. The church of Jesus Christ has always had to face two great enemies: persecutors from without and false teachers from within and the latter is the worst.

44. A true Christian would rather serve the Lord faithfully and suffer disgrace, than compromise the faith in order to obtain this world’s honours.

45. Better to have the world’s displeasure and God’s “Well done!” than the world’s “Well done” and God’s displeasure.

46. Fear of God that does not come from a love of God is not true fear; love for God that is not accompanied with a fear of God is not true love.

47. The problem many people have with Christianity is not that it has been weighed in the balances and found lacking; the problem is that it has been examined, found too difficult and rejected.

48. It is not enough just to be active. The question is. “What are you active about?” Many busy people are just cleaning up their own mess.

49. What is a witness, but a martyr, for the words in our Bible are the same. A witness for Jesus Christ is one who has given up everything for the cause of Christ.

50. Sometimes it is the “fear of men” that snares us, but often it is the “praise of men” that silences our testimony (see Pro 29:25; John 12:42,43).

51. When we work for Christ, we work with Christ. (1 Cor 3:9 “We are workers together with him”).

52. The Lord of Glory does not need your acts of self-denial in order to enrich His kingdom, but accepts them so that He might enrich your character.

53. What you are in prayer . . . you are!

54. We have no reason or right to stop praying before God has stopped giving.

55. Be thankful for the day of small things, but pray for the day of great things!

56. Preparation time is never wasted time. You can cut down more trees with less effort when you use a sharpened axe.

57. Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the contentment in knowing that, even in the conflict, I am in the will of God.

58. When struggling with a lack of assurance of salvation it is best to dwell more on God’s love for you and less on your love to God.

59. The measure of our love to Christ must be to love Him without measure.

60. The measure of God’s love is that it cannot be measured.

61. It is a wise investment of time to be certain that what you are living for is worth dying for.

62. Why would any man be proud of being an agnostic? To boast of one’s ignorance and to publicly proclaim you ‘know nothing’ is surely the height of folly.

63. The greatest calamity of the hypocrite is not the deception of others but deception of himself.

64. You cannot hope for a forgiven heart if you are not willing to have a forgiving heart.

65. Do not be easily swayed by your critics. Many will disapprove of your actions not so much for the faults you have, but for having faults that differ from theirs.

66. If I am the subject of gossip, may I be thankful for four things: First, if it is not true, thank God it is not. Second, if it is true, be thankful the gossipers do not know all my sins. Third, whatever sins of mine are known, God knows infinitely more and yet has forgiven me them all! Fourth, be thankful that they are the ones who gossip against me, and not I against them.

67. There can be no conversion of the sinner, except he first knows conviction of sin.

68. The Bible is a Book that reveals great miracles, but perhaps the greatest miracle of all is the Bible itself!

69. God has never placed a person in a church and given them a fault-finding ministry.

70. One of the greatest enemies of the church today is not the world without, but the worldly members within.

71. You cannot know the truth without knowing the facts; but simply “knowing the facts” does not mean you hold the truth.

72. A confession of our belief in and loyalty to the Bible is not enough. Gross denials of biblical truth often exist alongside a professed regard for the authority of the Bible.

73. What is commonly diagnosed as ‘depression’ today, used to be called “conviction of sin” by our forefathers.

74. You need to get into God’s Word if God’s Word is ever going to get into you. You must put your heart into its study, if it is going to get into your heart.

75. First men doubt the truth, then they deny the truth and finally they depart from the truth. But they cannot destroy the truth.

76. Free grace does not grant us a license to sin, it gives us a liberty to serve.

77. One major reason men find so much fault with the Bible is because the Bible finds so much fault with them.

78. Sin’s joys are at best temporary and always false, but its miseries are lasting and always true.

79. To be truly miserable, yield to the temptations of any sin; to be truly happy, resist those temptations at any cost.

80. First sin deceives a man, then it defiles him, next it dishonours him and ultimately it destroys him. (e.g. Achan)

81. The more we forget the Lord our Creator, the more we will fear man the creature.

82. When given the choice between sinning or suffering you will never sin by choosing the suffering.

83. It is infinitely better to glorify God with our suffering than to grieve Him with our sinning.

84. Most men wish to be free from the misery of their sinful living, but few are willing to give up the sins that brought on that misery.

85. It is vain to pray for pardon if there is no desire to strive for purity.

86. The glory of God’s salvation is seen in the absolute consistency between God’s mercy and His justice.

87. Nothing gives me more confidence and comfort than knowing that the hands that hold my future bear the scars of paying for my sins.

88. When I think I do not deserve to be hated by others, it helps to remember that I do not deserve to be loved by God.

89. The only positive thing you can say about some people is that they are consistently negative.

90. You can safely trust God with your future because He knows the year ahead of you right now better than you will know the year at the end of it looking back.

91. To recall sins of the past with any sense of pleasure is to commit those sins over again. (see Ezekiel 23:19)

92. No matter how young you are, you are always old enough to die.

93. God has set a great division of labour between Him and His people. If only we would learn to focus on taking care of the Lord’s business first, we would find that He perfectly takes care of ours.

94. To be clear, I always answer my critics. Depending on the situation, sometimes I answer with speech and sometimes I answer with silence. This is biblical.

95. No government ever “gives” you anything that they did not take from you in the first place. Government rebates are like a thief returning your socks after first stealing all your clothes, with the added insult of an expectation you will be grateful for his act of “kindness”.

96. Too many Christians think they are holding to “Christian standards” when really all they are doing is embracing the world’s standards ten years later.

97. The pulpit is not a place for ecclesiastical showmen to display their talents.
The pulpit is not a place for self-styled comedians to regale the people with humour.
The pulpit is not a place for churchmen to use some scripture text ripped out of context in order to make a commentary on the latest news of the day.
The pulpit is the place where the sole focus must be Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried, risen, ruling and coming again and is to be proclaimed with power and passion.

98. The Bible is filled with histories of men and women who are “unsung heroes”. Hebrews 11 chronicles some of the great men and women of faith. It is interesting that Joshua is not mentioned, but Rahab the harlot is. God is revealing a valuable and amazing truth by this. Those whose labours are easily overlooked by the world and who serve in relative obscurity, need not fear that their faith and faithfulness will pass unnoticed in that day of Christ’s great review of His church.

99. It is a false gospel to make God’s love and God’s law to appear as enemies. It is God’s love for man that is the motive of His government; it is man’s love for God that is the motive for his submission to that government.

100. Any attempt to use any kind of force (either physical or through manipulation of emotions) to get the ungodly person into a church is neither scriptural nor effective. The only time Jesus Christ ever exercised force in His ministry was to drive wicked men out of the temple, never to drive them in.