Sunday, September 27, 2009

For by grace are ye saved

The words of John Bunyan an unspecified number of years before his soul was comforted with the witness of the Holy Spirit: "Sometimes I would tell my condition to the people of God; which, when they heard, they would pity me, and would tell me of the promises; but they had as good have told me, that I must reach the sun with my finger, as have bidden me receive or rely upon the promises: and as soon I should have done it. All my sense and feeling were against me; and I saw I had an heart that would sin, and that lay under a law that would condemn." ~ John Bunyan in Grace Abounding

Saturday, September 26, 2009

The strait gate and narrow way

"And though I was much troubled, and tossed, and afflicted, with the sight and sense and terror of my own wickedness, yet I was afraid to let this sight and sense go quite off my mind . . . I had seen some, who . . . seeking rather present ease from their trouble . . . cared not how they lost their guilt, so they got it out of their mind . . . but they grew harder and blinder . . . This made me afraid, and made me cry to God the more, that it might not be so with me.

In this condition I went a great while but when comforting time was come . . . I began to give place to the word which with power, did over and over make this joyful sound within my soul ... And with that my heart was filled full of comfort and hope, and now I could believe that my sins should be forgiven me." ~ John Bunyan in Grace Abounding

Thursday, September 24, 2009

A seeking heart

"But all this while, as to the act of sinning, I was never more tender than now . . . But my original and inward pollution; That, that was my plague and affliction . . .

Sin and corruption, I said, would as naturally bubble out of my heart, as water would bubble out of a fountain: I thought now, that every one had a better heart than I had . . . and thus I continued a long while, even for some years together.

My soul is dying, my soul is damning. Were my soul but in a good condition, and were I but sure of it, ah! how rich should I esteem myself, though blessed but with bread and water!" ~ John Bunyan in Grace Abounding

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bedrock Christianity

"Gold! could it have been gotten for gold, what would I have given for it? Had I had a whole world, it had all gone ten thousand times over for this, that my soul might have been in a converted state. How lovely now was every one in my eyes, that I thought to be converted men and women. They shone, they walked like a people that carried the broad seal of heaven about them." ~ John Bunyan in Grace Abounding

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Overflowing peace

"Let the redeemed give thanks and praise
To a forgiving God!
My feeble voice I cannot raise
Till washed in Jesu's blood:

Till at thy coming from above
My mountain-sins depart,
And fear gives place to filial love,
And peace o'erflows my heart.

Restored by reconciling grace,
With present pardon blest,
And fitted by true holiness
For my eternal rest."

- Charles Wesley

Friday, July 3, 2009

Seek, and ye shall find

"Jesus, the promised help supply,
Support the feeble, fainting mind,
Nor let me in the winter fly,
But seek till I acceptance find,
But ask, till I am saved from sin,
And knock, till mercy takes me in."

- Charles Wesley

Spiritual reality

"We as well as the first Christians, must receive the Holy Ghost, before we can be truly called the children of God . . . I will not say, all our letter-learned preachers deny this doctrine in express words; but however, they do in effect; for they talk professedly against inward feelings, and say, we may have God's Spirit without feeling it, which is in reality to deny the thing itself. And had I a mind to hinder the progress of the gospel, and to establish the kingdom of darkness, I would go about, telling people, they might have the Spirit of God, and yet not feel it." - George Whitefield