The quote below is from someone named Dinwiddle on Esther 1:5-7. Do we not do well to even examine ourselves under such light without thinking that this troublesome problem only applies to men like King Ahasuerus? Does it not cut deeply?
If not under the grace of God, men will submit to greater hardships and burdens in pursuit of things that are sinful and disappointing than in the pursuit of what is necessary to true honour and happiness.
When tempted to be disgusted at the dullness of another, or to be revenged on one who has wronged you, call to remembrance God's infinite patience and longsuffering with yourself.-A. W. Pink
A "god" whose will is resisted, whose designs are frustrated, whose purpose is checkmated, possesses no title to Deity, and so far from being a fit object of worship, merits nought but contempt.-A. W. Pink
The Lord is gracious in his gifts, gracious in his love, gracious in his salvation. Everything he gives, is from his mercy, and is ever to be so acknowledged. But Jesus’s gifts, are not himself: I cannot be satisfied with his gifts, while I know that to others he gives his person. It is Jesus himself that I want. Though he give me all things that I need, yet if he be to me himself all things that I need, in him I have all things. Hence, therefore, let us see, that Jesus not only gives us all, but that he is our all. (from Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary on Psalms 149:1-2)
If you believe that the Bible is God’s very Word-read it, study it, meditate upon it, and obey it. What does it gain you if you believe that the Bible is God’s Word and yet do not listen to God speak in His Word?-Unknown
The art of economics consists of looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.-Henry Hazlitt [These principles of economics also have some validity in the spiritual realm.]
A mite of spirit is of more worth than a mountain of flesh.-Stephen Charnock
If we are honest with ourselves, we see ourselves as sinners-sinners saved by grace, but nevertheless sinners. We are never surprised to see sin in ourselves; we should not be surprised to see sin in others.-Mark Rushdoony
One of the characteristic signs that a culture is under divine judgment is a loss of wonder in the greatness of God’s works.-James Nickel
Our weakness renders God’s power more illustrious. He delights in and under our weakness, to manifest most of His helping power. As the stars never shine so gloriously as in the sharpest frosty night, so the power of God never appears so signally and conspicuously as in and under our weakness.-William Burkitt
It is the praise of omnipotency to work by improbabilities: God delights to do great things by weak and unlikely means, knowing that the weakness of the instrument redounds to the greater honour of himself, the principal agent.-William Burkitt
Every effort on the part of man to salvage some tattered remains of his own goodness so that he may make his own contribution to salvation and earn merit with God is pride.-Herman Hanko
Just as we must learn to obey God one choice at a time, we must also learn to trust God one circumstance at a time…We honor God by choosing to trust Him when we don’t understand what He is doing or why He has allowed some adverse circumstance to occur.-Jerry Bridges
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful-Samuel Johnson
The need of the hour for today’s ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.-Spurgeon
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.-Pearl Buck
The soul finds its greatest joy and most profound delight in the contemplations of God, not self.-Unknown
David, in his dying hours, under the spirit of prophecy, described Christ as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds, 2Samuel 23:4; and another prophet represented the remnant of Jacob begotten to Christ in the midst of many people, as the dew is from the Lord, Micah 5:7. Probably to show that sovereign grace will give to Christ an abundance of souls like the dew drops, so numerous as to be perfectly incalculable. And they shall come, as the dew cometh, of heavenly extraction, being born of God, and not of the will of the flesh, John 1:13. And unperceived, unnoticed, unknown, as the silent dew-drops of the morn; for the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, Luke 17:20. And as they are begotten, like the dew, without the aid of man; so also shall they be preserved by the same predisposing cause, without man's deserts. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, Zechariah 4:6. (From Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary on Psalm 110:3)David, in his dying hours, under the spirit of prophecy, described Christ as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds, 2Samuel 23:4; and another prophet represented the remnant of Jacob begotten to Christ in the midst of many people, as the dew is from the Lord, Micah 5:7. Probably to show that sovereign grace will give to Christ an abundance of souls like the dew drops, so numerous as to be perfectly incalculable. And they shall come, as the dew cometh, of heavenly extraction, being born of God, and not of the will of the flesh, John 1:13. And unperceived, unnoticed, unknown, as the silent dew-drops of the morn; for the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, Luke 17:20. And as they are begotten, like the dew, without the aid of man; so also shall they be preserved by the same predisposing cause, without man's deserts. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, Zechariah 4:6. (From Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary on Psalm 110:3)
A little faith, or lively exercise, will carry a believer through great difficulties. But if the Lord for the trial of our grace, and to let us see what mere feathers we are in the wind of temptation, if the Lord for a moment withdraws the arm of his strength, by which our faith is upheld; depend upon it, in that moment we fall. (from Hawker on Judges 11:30)
Reader! it is most blessed to see, and yet more blessed to experience, our own personal interest in those divine teachings. I the Lord teacheth, thee to profit, may be discerned and read by every enlightened eye as the title page of the whole of inspiration. And when, in the corrections and visitations of the Lord, by the Lord's great army, we plainly discover the Lord's hand; when in the locusts and palmer worms of the earth, we both hear the rod and who hath appointed it; when the fatherly reproofs of a gracious God in Christ are sanctified to bring the heart to Christ: oh! how blessed are the awakening judgments of our God, in rousing his people from the sottish stupidity and indolence in which the world and its pursuits have intoxicated the soul, and calling home the heart to Jesus and his salvation. (from Hawker’s Reflections on Joel 1)
(Read Psalm 24:6) Here is all safe, all is secure. But if our admission into God’s holy hill here below in church communion, or our everlasting admission into the heaven above, depended upon our clean hands and a pure heart; or even taking into our view Christ’s righteousness, as a partly-procuring cause to make our hands clean and our hearts pure; when will any man, that knows what passes every day within, find confidence of ever ascending there? Surely nothing short of the righteousness of Christ himself, as the very righteousness in which his seed and the generation of them that seek his face, are accepted and justified, can give comfort now, or confidence in the day of judgment. (Robert Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary) |
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