Sunday Psalm

Blessings,
       Lucas C.

Thoughts for Young Men - J. C. Ryle (Part 4)

After being busy with starting my grade 12 school year, playing hockey, studying and teaching Sunday School, working, and enjoying the end of summer, I haven't had the time to blog at all. Today I have some free time though till I have to go to work so I'd like to continue my study of the book Thoughts for Young Men by J.C. Ryle. We have previously looked at chapters 1, 2, and 3. Today we are going to study what Chapter 4 says.     
4. Special Rules for Young Men:                                  As we continue our study about the way that Godly young men need to act, why they need to be exhorted, the special dangers that they face, and how they can receive counsel that will guide their daily lives, today we are going to look at some special rules that us young men need to practice in order to live a God-honouring life. As a young man myself, one of the first things I must practice is to break off every known sin from my life, no matter how small it may be. This speaks of dealing radically with sin. We must examine our hearts. Are there any habits or customs that we practice, that I practice, that dishonour my God? If we find sin like this we must not delay in ridding it from our lives. Any sin that we allow in our lives will darken our heart and deaden our conscience to the negative affect  it will have on us. We must resist sin in the beginning. Although it may seem small and insignificant, we must resist them and make no room for compromise, and never let sin rest peacefully in our hearts. There are many men who have lived their entire life with regret of their sins of old. It may have began with a small lie, or dishonesty but step by step it grew from bad to worse until the man had lost everything, including his soul. We must be especially diligent while we are young to be honest and truthful. "He who is faithful in what is least, is faithful also in much." - Luke 16:10. There are no little sins. Every sin brings man to the same place and that is eternity in hell.

 

 "There are two ways of coming down from the top of a church steeple; one is to jump down, - and the other is to come down by the steps: but both will lead you to the bottom. So also there are two ways of going to hell; one is to walk into it with your eyes open, - few people do that; that other is to go down by the steps of little sins, - and that way, I fear, is only too common. Put up with a few little sins and you will only want more...Well did Jeremy Taylor describe the progress of sin in a man: "First is startles him, then it becomes pleasing, then easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed! Then the man is impenitent, then obstinate, then resolves never to repent, and finally he is damned." young man if you would not come to this tragic end, recall the rule I give you this day, and resolve at once to break off every known sin."

- J. C. Ryle

 

      Besides breaking off every known sin, we must also resolve, by God's help, to shun everything which may give us a chance or occasion to sin. If we wish to be safe from the clutches of evil, we need to avoid the occasions of it. We cannot decide to commit no sin, that is humanly impossible. Instead we must keep a good distance from sin by not even going in its direction. One of the greatest pitfalls of sinning when, "we didn't mean to" is the tendency towards idleness. Yes, young men, only a few idle hours can cause us to fall into grievous sin. It may seem innocent at first, but one step after the other and you find yourself doing things you never intended to do in the first place! Now young men listen to me as a young man myself. I ought to know what we struggle with. Especially in this technological age we must be on our guard! Surfing the web, or Facebook, or YouTube, can be extremely dangerous to our minds and souls. You mind is a computer, the more garbage you put into it, the more will come out. Ask any older man if he remembers sinful images he saw 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. Have they left his mind? Most assuredly not! Do not trifle with your mind and say that later you will repent. You may well repent, but the scars of sin will still be there. J. C. Ryle says,  

 

"This, too, is one great reason why worldly amusements are so objectionable. It may be difficult, in some instances, to show that they are, in themselves, positively unscriptural or wrong. But there is little difficulty in showing that the tendency of almost all of them is most injurious to the soul. They sow the seeds of an earthly and sensual frame of mind. They war against the life of faith. They promote an unhealthy and unnatural craving after excitement. They minister to the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. They dim the view of heaven and eternity, and give false colour of the things of time. They make the heart unfit for private prayer, and scripture reading, and calm communion with God. The man who mingles in them is like one who gives satan vantage ground."               

 

As we travel through the Christian life we must also remember to never forget the eye of God is watching whatever we do. Everywhere we go, in our house, in the filed, in the city, in a crowd, when we're alone, everywhere is the very eye of God. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and good." - Proverbs 15:3. We must realize this fact. God knows us through and through. How little we realize this! May we remember that God is everywhere so that his presence will keep us form sinning. "All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."

- Hebrews 4:13. May we not only remember his presence so that we don't sin, but, let us also remember his presence so that we may do things that would please Him. Mr. Ryle states,

 

Live as in the sight of God. This is what Abraham did, -he walked before Him.

This is what Enoch did, - he walked with Him. This is what Heaven itself

will be, - the eternal presence of God. Do nothing you would not like God to 

see. Say nothing you would not like God to hear. Write nothing you would not

like God to read. Go to no place where you would not like God to find you.

Read no book of which you would not like God to say, "Show it to Me."

Never spend your time in such a way that you would not like to have God

say, "What are you doing?"

 

 

As we remember that the eye of God is with us wherever we go we must be diligent, as Christian young men to use the public means of grace God has provided to us. We need to attend the house of God so that we may worship Him. We go to church not out of duty or for the sake of religion, rather we go because we want to worship God, praise God, hear God's word and to do it with the body of Christ. We do this from our hearts and because God is worthy of our worship and praise.



 

J. C. Ryle says,

"To hear sin cried down, and holiness cried up, to hear Christ exalted, and the

works of the devil denounced, - to hear the Kingdom of Heaven and its

blessedness described, and the world and its emptiness exposed; to hear this

week after week, Sunday after Sunday, is seldom without good effect to the soul." 

 

Finally, another rule that will help young men honour God and keep them from sin is that we must resolve also, wherever we are, to pray. Prayer is the life of a Christian. It keeps him reliant and humble before his God and Maker. It shows us the need for God every day of our lives. Sadly though, many young men are ashamed to pray. What a tragedy in our culture! We go to Bible studies and who shares the most? The young women, they even have to ask to be led because the young men are ashamed of the Word of God. If there is anything so dangerous to our souls it is being ashamed of our Saviour! This is not true of all though. There are some young men who will take up the mantle by themselves and lead others in the study of God's word and lead them in prayer. And when they do, they are mocked by their peers for being 'too spiritual'. Too spiritual? If anyone was too spiritual it was the Lord Jesus Christ! Do you not want to be like Him? If you do not study and do not pray you will never change in to the image of our Lord! Us young men must pray!

 

"Oh that the Lord may give you the Spirit of grace and supplication.

(Zechariah 12:10)! "Will you not from this time cry to Me, ; 'My

Father, you are the guide of my youth?'" (Jeremiah 3:4).

I would gladly allow all the words of this book to be forgotten,

if only this doctrine of the importance of prayer were impressed

upon your heart."

 

Blessings,

       Lucas C. 



Salvation: God's Will

Salvation: God's Will

As a Christian, is my salvation based on God's sovereign will in my life? Is there something that I can do to save myself? To find out, we need to look at what the scripture says. A great passage to turn to would be Acts 13:48 which says, "When the gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been granted to eternal life believed." In this passage, Paul and Barnabas have shared the gospel to the Gentile people. Being convicted in their hearts, they believed in the Word of the Lord. What we are looking at is, who caused this belief in their hearts? In this passage, we see that it was the Lord who granted them faith to believe in His name. Only those who had been elected by God's will, believe in His name. Man was not responsible to have enough faith of his own rather in an instant God gave man His Holy Spirit and through the Spirit's power, man was given the faith to believe in God and call upon His name. This is all the moment of justification.

Another passage we may look at is also in the book of Acts. This passage talks of the Lord's work in our salvation.  Acts 16:11-14 tells the story of the conversion of a woman named Lydia. Specifically I would like to look at verse 14. It says, "A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul." We see that God opened Lydia's heart to the gospel so that she could respond to the words of Paul. It that instant she was saved by God's grace. Not by any human work that she had done, rather it was the inspired Word of God that caused her dead heart to come to life.
Ephesians 2:4-9 are wonderful verses that speak about God saving us. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves, that is why salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone! What a marvelous peace we can have as believers to know that it is God who has saved us and who will keep us in Him for all eternity. He will care for us and protect us while on this earth so that we may bring glory and honour to His great name.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us , even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."

-Ephesians 2:4-9

 

 

Blessings,

       Lucas C.

Be Thou My Vision - Worship Song

This is a lovely song called Be Thou My Vision

played by Carlton Forrester:

 

 

The song speaks of the Lord being our vision at all times. He is also what gives us wisdom and words to speak what He would want us to say. Not only does He give us His word, He protects us and gives us power for the battle against sin. We need not riches or man's praise for God is the one whom we must please, He is the High King of Heaven who will call us to Himself and will forever and always be the ruler over everything.   

 

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

 

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

 

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

 

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
 High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

 

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

 

Blessings, 

       Lucas C.

Un-Holiness (in Mind) and How to Avoid It.

Recently I have written out a few posts on how we as Christians should be holy in our speech and holy in our mind. Today I’m going to write out a sister post to my Holiness in Mind post only we will be looking at the opposite side. That is to say we will be looking at what is means to have un-holy thoughts and words and how we as Christians should avoid them.
I will again be looking at Philippians 4:8, only this time I will be switching out the words to get my point across. When we read this verse, we see what it tells us to think about. For today’s post I’m going to use different words so as to see the things we should not think about.

 Finally brethren, whatever is false, whatever is profane, whatever is wrong, whatever

is base, whatever is defiled, whatever is of deceptive character, if there is anything

terrible, and if anything worthy to be shunned, do not dwell On these things.

 As we see here these are things that Christians should not be thinking about or dwelling on. Just like in my other post, I will unpack each word at a time and explain how we can avoid thinking about the things named above.

False:

Things that are false are a disgrace to God. Proverbs 12:22 says, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord…” God is a perfect God and His every word is tested and proven to be true (2 Samuel 22:31). As Christians our speech must reflect the character of our God. One way to make sure our speech is true and not false is to memorize the word of God. Verses such as, Zechariah 8:16, Ephesians 4:15, and Proverbs 21:28, all talk of speaking truth.

Profane:

The dictionary definition for profane is, ‘characterized as irreverence or contempt of God; irreligious” That which is profane dishonours God and his Word. As a Christian, I need to show respect and reverence for God especially since He sent his Son to die for me! David writes in Psalm 5:7, “But as for me, by your abundant loving-kindness I will enter Your house, At your holy temple I will bow in reverence for you.” One of the greatest ways we can show God reverence is to bow down and worship him with our lips and our lives.

Wrong:
To do something wrong is to do anything that God commands us not to do. It is wrong for us to steal, lie, lust, murder, hate, or anything like these. Not only are we not supposed to practice these things, as Christians we are not to associate or listen to people who practice these things as well (Galatians 5:19-21, Deuteronomy18:14).

Base:
Something that is base is completely immoral or wicked. As Christians we should not even talk about sinful things such as these unless we are exposing them as what they truly are and that is evil and corrupt. Ephesians 5:3-5 explains how we as Christians are to react to this kind of sinfulness in our world it says, "But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."

Defiled:
To be defiled means something is unholy. This is directly opposite to God who is perfectly and absolutely holy and who calls us as Christians to live perfect and holy lives (1 Peter 1:16). God speaks very strongly about those whose minds are defiled, (Titus 1:10-16). We need to be serious in our Christian walk to keep our mind pure. Memorization of God's Word and diligent prayer for His strength will cause us to keep a clean mind in this evil age.

Deceptive Character:
Unlike being of good repute; deceptive character needs to be avoided by Christians. It is, in fact the character of the devil himself (John 8:44). God wishes for his people to speak kindly and truthfully to one another. We must not look like or act like the world or satan, so that our testimony for Christ will not be ruined (2 Peter 3:11).

Worthy to be Shunned:
Sin; that is what must be shunned in the Christian life. It cast satan from Heaven, cast Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, destroyed this entire world, and caused the very Son of God to take on human flesh and come to this earth to die a cruel death on a cross. Sin racks our bodies with disease and illness and eventually like all men before us, we die. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the grave sin would still have control, but thank God for his endless mercy! For, "God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved." -Ephesians 2:4-5.

Blessings,
       Lucas C. 

Sunday Pslam

 

Blessings,

       Lucas C.