God Still Uses Clay Pots

~ John MacArthur

The New Testament was not written by the elite of Egypt. It was not written by the elite of Greece, Rome, or even Israel. The greatest scholars in the world at that time were down at Egypt; they were in the greatest library of antiquity at Alexandria. The most distinguished philosophers were in Athens; the most powerful leaders of men were in Rome; and the religious geniuses were in Israel’s temple. But God never used any of them! He just used clay pots. He passed by Herodotus, the historian; Socrates, the philosopher; Hippocrates, the father of medicine; Euclid, the mathematician; Archimedes, the father of mechanics; Hipparchus, the astronomer; Cicero, the orator; and Virgil, the poet. He passed by them all. Why? Clay pots served His purposes better. From a human viewpoint (and perhaps in their own minds), all those prominent people were magnificent vessels. But someone deeply impressed with his own value isn’t going to see value in the gospel. So God chose peasants, fishermen, smelly guys, and tax collectors—clay pots chosen to carry, proclaim, and write the priceless treasure we call the gospel.

God is still doing it that way. He is still passing by the elite. He is still passing by the hard-hearted, non-listening, proud intellectuals. They may be sitting in their ivory towers in the universities and seminaries, or in their bishoprics and their positions of authority in the churches, but God is finding the humble who will carry the treasure of saving truth.

Continue: http://www.ligonier.org/blog/god-still-uses-clay-pots/

Real Joy Comes from God

~ Burk Parsons

Christianity is a religion of joy. Real joy comes from God, who has invaded us, conquered us, and liberated us from eternal death and sadness—who has given us hope and joy because He has poured out His love within our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us (Rom. 5:5). Joy comes from God, not from within. When we look within, we just get sad. We have joy only when we look outside ourselves to Christ. Without Christ, joy is not only hard to find, it’s impossible to find. The world desperately seeks joy, but in all the wrong places. However, our joy comes because Christ sought us, found us, and keeps us. We cannot have joy apart from Christ, because it doesn’t exist. Joy is not something we can conjure up.

Joy isn’t the absence of sadness—it’s the presence of the Holy Spirit. And although the Holy Spirit produces joy within us, He often does so by humbling us so that we would take our eyes off ourselves and fix our eyes on Christ. Real joy exists even amid real sadness, and real joy doesn’t always mean there’s a smile on our faces. It sometimes means we are on our knees with tears of repentance. Charles Spurgeon admitted, “I do not know when I am more perfectly happy than when I am weeping for sin at the foot of the cross.” Joy comes in repentance and forgiveness and by daily looking to Christ and living for His glory, not by looking to self and living for our glory. But if we live each day bearing the shame of yesterday and the anxieties of tomorrow, we will never experience the joys of today. So let us always be quick to run to the cross to seek the joy that only Christ can give, for trying to find joy apart from Christ is like trying to find day without the sun.

 

Continue: http://www.ligonier.org/blog/real-joy-comes-god/

For Culturally Illiterate Science Reporters, Canaanite DNA Yields Occasion to Slap Bible Around

https://evolutionnews.org/2017/07/for-culturally-illiterate-science-reporters-ancient-canaanite-dna-yields-occasion-to-slap-the-bible-around/

How we walk

Love – Joy

What cost?

10 Things You Should Know about the Biblical Covenants

https://pjcockrell.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-biblical-covenants/

 

And

Why We Must Understand the Covenants to Understand the Bible

https://pjcockrell.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/why-we-must-understand-the-covenants-to-understand-the-bible/

5 Reasons To Rejoice

“It is both his privilege and duty to rejoice in the Lord. “

– A.W. Pink

RESCUED

The Apostle Paul says to those who have rejected the righteousness of God, that in “your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom 2:5), and “He will render to each one according to his works” (Rom 2:6), but for those who have trusted in Christ, God has placed our sins upon Him Who “knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of Christ” (2nd Cor 5:21)…and rescued from the wrath of God. That’s a great reason to rejoice.

REGENERATED

When the Holy Spirit comes into a person’s heart, He convicts them of their sin, just as the Apostle John quoted Jesus as saying, “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:18). This is where regeneration begins, where God gives us a new heart and new desires with that new heart (Ezk 36:26). It will be a regenerated heart that will seek to obey God. Rejoice that you have a new heart, and a heart that seeks to please God.

REDEEMED

The Apostle Peter wrote that God saved you and me, but “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1st Pet 1:18b-19). Like Boaz was Ruth’s kinsman redeemer, Jesus is our Redeemer, Who redeemed our soul from the pit of hell. Rejoice about that!

 The others are at: https://www.christianquotes.info/images/4-reasons-to-rejoice-2/

“King of My Heart” – video by Kutless

(Podcast) The Formation of the New Testament (w. Dr. Leo Percer)

https://bellatorchristi.com/2017/07/23/podcast-the-formation-of-the-new-testament-w-dr-leo-percer/