sign of growth — a loftier idea of God — by C.H. Spurgeon

"But as for me, I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more." Psalm 71:14

“It should never be forgotten that every Christian as he grows in grace should have a loftier idea of God. Our highest conception of God falls infinitely short of his glory, but an advanced Christian enjoys a far clearer view of what God is than he had at the first. Now, the greatness of God is ever a claim for praise. “Great is the Lord, and” — what follows? — ”greatly to be praised” (Psalm 96:4). If, then, God is greater to me than he was, let my praise be greater. If I think of him now more tenderly as my Father — if I have a clearer view of him in the terror of his justice — if I have a clearer view of the splendors of his wisdom by which he devised the atonement — if I have larger thoughts of his eternal, immutable love — let every advance in knowledge constrain me to say: “I will yet praise thee more and more.” I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees thee: therefore while I abhor myself in dust and ashes (Job 42:5,6), my praise shall rise yet more loftily; up to thy throne shall my song ascend. I did but see as it were the skirts of thy garment, but thou hast hidden me in the cleft of the rock Christ Jesus, and made thy glory pass before me, and now will I praise thee even as the seraphs do, and vie with those before the throne in magnifying thy name.”

C.H. Spurgeon, More and more

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0998.htm

wrong approach to religion and God — Iain Duguid

“Many people think that they can strike their own bargains with God. They say, “I like to think of God as . . .”—as if they can decide what God will be like. They want to pick and choose what they will believe and what they will do—and they certainly don’t want a God who makes too many demands on them. “My God isn’t like that,” they will tell you. In other words, they don’t want a God who is God. The real question, however, is not what you would like God to be like God to be like, but what He is really like. And He has revealed Himself as the God who has made a covenant with His people. When the great king comes and offers to establish a covenant with you, you really have only two choices: you can accept the covenant relationship on his terms and receive its benefits, or you can refuse it and face the consequences.

Many people approach religion as if they were interviewing God for a job, the position of “personal deity in my life.” “I want to find a philosophy that works for me,” they say. But if God is really who He claims to be, Almighty God, then that is what He is, whether the idea “works for you” or not. You can interview idols and ideologies, but the God who created the universe offers you only two choices: surrender on his terms of face the consequences.”

— Iain Duguid, Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality: The Gospel According to Abraham

Contentment — Arthur W. Pink

“Most people suppose that contentment is impossible unless one can have gratified the desires of the carnal heart… Contentment comes from within not without; it must be sought from God, not in creature comforts… What is "contentment"? It is the being satisfied with the sovereign dispensations of God’s providence. It is the opposite of murmuring, which is the spirit of rebellion—the clay saying to the Potter, "Why hast Thou made me thus?"…

Contentment, then, is the product of a heart resting in God. It is the soul’s enjoyment of that peace which passes all understanding. It is the outcome of my will being brought into subjection to the Divine will. It is the blessed assurance that God does all things well, and is, even now, making all things work together for my ultimate good. This experience has to be "learned" by "proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Rom. 12:2). Contentment is possible only as we cultivate and maintain that attitude of accepting everything which enters our lives as coming from the Hand of Him who is too wise to err, and too loving to cause one of His children a needless tear.

Let our final word be this: real contentment is only possible by being much in the presence of the Lord Jesus. This comes out clearly in the verses which follow our opening text; "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me" (Phil. 4:12, 13). It is only by cultivating intimacy with that One who was never discontent that we shall be delivered from the sin of complaining. It is only by daily fellowship with Him who ever delighted in the Father’s will that we shall learn the secret of contentment…”

— Arthur W. Pink, Comfort for Christians

http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Comfort/com_16.htm

The gospel — Timothy and Kathy Keller

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful & flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved & accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared to hope. This is the only kind of relationship that will really transform us. Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports & affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God’s saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are & yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us.”

— Timothy and Kathy Keller, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God