"So whether we are at home or away,
we make it our aim to please Him."
-2 Cor. 5:9
"For the love of Christ controls us,
because we have concluded this:
that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
and he died for all, that those who live might
no longer live for themselves but for him who
for their sake died and was raised."
-2 Cor. 5:14-16
we make it our aim to please Him."
-2 Cor. 5:9
"For the love of Christ controls us,
because we have concluded this:
that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
and he died for all, that those who live might
no longer live for themselves but for him who
for their sake died and was raised."
-2 Cor. 5:14-16
See therefore that you live upon God's approval as that which you chiefly seek, and will suffice you: which you may discover by these signs.1. You will be most careful to understand the Scripture, to know what doth please and displease God. (Psalm 19:7-11; 2 Peter 1:3-4)
2. You will be more careful in the doing of every duty, to fit it to the pleasing of God than men. (1 Cor. 10:31)
3. You will look to your hearts, and not only to your actions; to your ends, and thoughts, and the inward manner and degree. (Psalm 139:23-24)
4. You will look to secret duties as well as public and to that which men see not, as well as unto that which they see. (Psalm 19:14)
5. You will reverence your consciences, and have much to do with them, and will not slight them: when they tell you of God's displeasure, it will disquiet you; when they tell you of his approval, it will comfort you. (Acts 24:16; Heb. 4:12-16)
6. Your pleasing men will be charitable for their good, and pious in order to the pleasing of God, and not proud and ambitious for your honour with them, nor impious against the pleasing of God. (Roms. 15:2)
7. Whether men be pleased or displeased, or how they judge of you, or what they call you, will seem a small matter to you, as their own interest, in comparison to God's judgment. You live not on them. You can bear their displeasure, censures, and reproaches, if God be but pleased. These will be your evidences. (1 Cor. 4:1-5)
3 comments:
"1. You will be most careful to understand the Scripture, to know what doth please and displease God. (Psalm 19:7-11; 2 Peter 1:3-4)"
Not only this...but you will FEAR displeasing God. This is most important to me personally, as it must drive all my decision-making.
Thanks again Steve...wonderful for me first thing in the morning. :D
“You will look to your hearts, and not only to your actions; to your ends, and thoughts, and the inward manner and degree.”(Psalm 139:23-24) I’m continually impressed by the fact that for so many of the men whose writings you share with us here, the preponderance of their thoughts really focus our hearts and minds on the “inward manner and degree”. I love that --- nothing is ever hidden from His searching, trying and knowing. What comfort and counsel!
Thank you, Steve, for these wonderfully edifying moments in His Word.
Making Psalm 139 my prayer,
Debbie
7. Whether men be pleased or displeased, or how they judge of you, or what they call you, will seem a small matter to you, as their own interest, in comparison to God's judgment. You live not on them. You can bear their displeasure, censures, and reproaches, if God be but pleased. These will be your evidences. (1 Cor. 4:1-5)
As I read that I was reminded of what I read last night--Thomas Watson said there is a sinful serving of men that consists of three things. 1) When we prefer men's injunctions before God's institutions... 2) When we voluntarily prostitute ourselves to impure lusts of men... 3) When we are advocates in a bad cause, pleading for any impious, unjustifiable act; when we bapstize sin with the name of religion, and with our oratory wash the devil's face, this is to be the servants of men...
Thanks again for taking us to men with deep thoughts of God.
Post a Comment