Onesimos Apologia Ministry (OAM)

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This morning's verse:

Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. - 2 Peter 3:18

"Grow in grace" — not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fulness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward — having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to "grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour." He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know Him is "life eternal," and to advance in the knowledge of Him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus — as the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for love always cries, "Nearer, nearer." Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in His human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present glorious intercession, and in His future royal advent. Abide hard by the Cross, and search the mystery of His wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace. # morning_Devotion # morning_and_evening #C_H_Spurgeon

“Make careful choice of the books which you read. Let the Holy Scriptures ever have the pre-eminence, and next them, the solid, lively, heavenly treatises, which best expound and apply the Scriptures; and next those, the credible histories, especially of the church, and tractates upon inferior sciences and arts: but take heed of the poison of the writings of false teachers, which would corrupt your understandings: and of vain romances, play-books, and false stories, which may bewitch your fantasies, and corrupt your hearts.” Richard Baxter

Q. 46. What was the estate of Christ’s humiliation? A. The estate of Christ’s humiliation was that low condition, wherein he for our sakes, emptying himself of his glory, took upon him the form of a servant, in his conception and birth, life, death, and after his death, until his resurrection. Q. 47. How did Christ humble himself in his conception and birth? A. Christ humbled himself in his conception and birth, in that, being from all eternity the Son of God, in the bosom of the Father, he was pleased in the fulness of time to become the son of man, made of a woman of low estate, and to be born of her; with divers circumstances of more than ordinary abasement. Q. 48. How did Christ humble himself in his life? A. Christ humbled himself in his life, by subjecting himself to the law, which he perfectly fulfilled; and by conflicting with the indignities of the world, temptations of Satan, and infirmities in his flesh, whether common to the nature of man, or particularly accompanying that his low condition. Q. 49. How did Christ humble himself in his death? A. Christ humbled himself in his death, in that having been betrayed by Judas, forsaken by his disciples, scorned and rejected by the world, condemned by Pilate, and tormented by his persecutors; having also conflicted with the terrors of death, and the powers of darkness, felt and borne the weight of God’s wrath, he laid down his life an offering for sin, enduring the painful, shameful, and cursed death of the cross. Westminster large catechism Share | Onesimos | apologia | invite

"Christian faith is completely destroyed, the promises of God and the whole gospel are completely destroyed, if we teach and believe that we should not know God’s necessary foreknowledge and the necessity of the things that will happen. For this is the greatest comfort of Christians in all difficulties: to know that God does not lie, but does everything unchangeably, and that his will cannot be resisted, changed, or stopped. But now, since God has taken my salvation out of my hands and placed it in his hands, making it depend on his choice and not mine, and has promised to save me, not by my own work or effort but by his grace and mercy, I am sure and certain both that he is faithful and will not lie to me, and that he is too great and powerful for any demons or any troubles to break him or take me away from him. “No one,” he says, “shall snatch them out of my hand because my Father who has given them to me is greater than all” [John 10:28–29]. So it happens that, if not all, some, and indeed many, are saved, whereas by the power of free choice no one would be saved, but all would perish together." Luther: [ The bondage of the will]

There is quiet rest and full refreshment in Christ for sinners that are weary and heavy laden with sin.

Jonathan Edwards Share | Onesimos | apologia | invite