Today I saw someone wearing a T-shirt with this on it…
“RUN – Hebrews 12:1”
God’s Word always blesses and encourages!
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Have a blessed Lord’s Day!
The Lord gave me the following in September of 2013. I hope it encourages someone today.
“God answers prayer from above.
Quietly, He moves.
There is a lack of faith because there is no fanfare.
He moves quietly, and surely, unseen by human eyes, and it is done.”
Hebrews 10:19-23 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Every believer is a minister …
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Neglect Not The Gift
1 Timothy 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Gill Commentary:
Neglect not the gift that is in thee,…. What qualifies men for the work of the ministry is a gift from God:
it is not of nature, nor is it mere natural abilities and capacity;
nor is it any thing acquired, it is not human learning, or the knowledge of languages, arts, and sciences;
nor is it special saving grace;
for a man may have all these, and yet not be apt to teach, or fit for the ministry;
but it is a peculiar and distinct gift, it is a gift of interpreting the Scriptures, and of dispensing the mysteries of grace to the edification of others;
which, when it meets in a man with all the rest before mentioned, makes him very considerable:
and this gift is in a man;
it is a treasure put into earthen vessels, a good treasure in the heart, out of which a good minister of Christ brings forth many good things, things new and old, both for the delight and profit of men:
and this gift is by no means to be neglected;
this talent should not be hid in the earth, or wrapped up in a napkin;
it should not lie dormant and useless, but should be stirred up, cultivated, and improved, as it may by reading, meditation, and prayer.
JFB Commentary:
Neglect not the gift—by letting it lie unused. In 2Ti 1:6 the gift is represented as a spark of the Spirit lying within him, and sure to smoulder by neglect, the stirring up or keeping in lively exercise of which depends on the will of him on whom it is bestowed (Mt 25:18, 25, 27, 28).
Matthew Henry Commentary:
The doctrine of a minister of Christ must be scriptural, clear, evangelical, and practical; well stated, explained, defended, and applied. But these duties leave no leisure for worldly pleasures, trifling visits, or idle conversation, and but little for what is mere amusement, and only ornamental. May every believer be enabled to let his profiting appear unto all men; seeking to experience the power of the gospel in his own soul, and to bring forth its fruits in his life.
He charges him to beware of negligence: Neglect not the gift that is in thee, v. 14. The gifts of God will wither if they be neglected.
Observe, (1.) Ministers are to be much in meditation. They are to consider beforehand how and what they must speak. They are to meditate on the great trust committed to them, on the worth and value of immortal souls, and on the account they must give at the last. (2.) Ministers must be wholly in these things, they must mind these things as their principal work and business.
Excellent and edifying sermon.
Excerpt …
Everyone claims to be searching for the blessed life but when they refuse to go to God their maker and Judge for his definition of what true blessedness is they’re all destined to a fruitless search. What Jesus describes here is the only true and lasting blessedness anyone can find under the heavens – or ever will find.
What effort men put into this, what pilgrimages they take, what a variety of gurus they go to, what meetings they attend, what sacrifices they make! Rejecting God’s way of blessedness means a life of enormous effort.
Read entire sermon at link …
Matthew Henry Commentary
His melancholy fears and apprehensions: I communed with my own heart, v. 6. Come, my soul, what will be the issue of these things? What can I think of them and what can I expect they will come to at last? I made diligent search into the causes of my trouble, enquiring wherefore God contended with me and what would be the consequences of it.
And thus I began to reason,
Will the Lord cast off for ever, as he does for the present?
He is not now favourable; and will he be favourable no more?
His mercy is now gone; and is it clean gone for ever?
His promise now fails; and does it fail for evermore?
God is not now gracious; but has he forgotten to be gracious?
His tender mercies have been withheld, perhaps in wisdom; but are they shut up, shut up in anger?”
v. 7-9. This is the language of a disconsolate deserted soul, walking in darkness and having no light, a case not uncommon even with those that fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant, Isa. 50:10. He may here be looked upon,
1. As groaning under a sore trouble. God hid his face from him, and withdrew the usual tokens of his favour.
Note, Spiritual trouble is of all trouble most grievous to a gracious soul; nothing wounds and pierces it like the apprehensions of God’s being angry, the suspending of his favour and the superseding of his promise; this wounds the spirit; and who can bear that?
2. As grappling with a strong temptation.
Note, God’s own people, in a cloudy and dark day, may be tempted to make desperate conclusions about their own spiritual state and the condition of God’s church and kingdom in the world, and, as to both, to give up all for gone. We may be tempted to think that God has abandoned us and cast us off, that the covenant of grace fails us, and that the tender mercy of our God shall be for ever withheld from us. But we must not give way to such suggestions as these. If fear and melancholy ask such peevish questions, let faith answer them from the Scripture:
Will the Lord cast off for ever?
God forbid, Rom. 11:1.
No; the Lord will not cast off his people, Ps. 94:14.
Will he be favourable no more?
Yes, he will; for, though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion, Lam. 3:32.
Is his mercy clean gone for ever?
No; his mercy endures for ever; as it is from everlasting, it is to everlasting, Ps. 103:17.
Doth his promise fail for evermore?
No; it is impossible for God to lie, Heb. 6:18.
Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
No; he cannot deny himself, and his own name which he hath proclaimed gracious and merciful, Ex. 34:6.
Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies?
No; they are new every morning (Lam. 3:23); and therefore, How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? Hos. 11:8, 9.
Thus was he going on with his dark and dismal apprehensions when, on a sudden, he first checked himself with that word, Selah, “Stop there; go no further; let us hear no more of these unbelieving surmises;” and he then chid himself (v. 10): I said,
This is my infirmity.
He is soon aware that it is not well said, and therefore, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? I said, This is my affliction” (so some understand it); “This is the calamity that falls to my lot and I must make the best of it; every one has his affliction, his trouble in the flesh; and this is mine, the cross I must take up.” Or, rather, “This is my sin; it is my iniquity, the plague of my own heart.” These doubts and fears proceed from the want and weakness of faith and the corruption of a distempered mind. note,
(1.) We all know that concerning ourselves of which we must say, “This is our infirmity, a sin that most easily besets us.”
(2.) Despondency of spirit, and distrust of God, under affliction, are too often the infirmities of good people, and, as such, are to be reflected upon by us with sorrow and shame, as by the psalmist here:
This is my infirmity.
When at any time it is working in us we must thus suppress the rising of it, and not suffer the evil spirit to speak. We must argue down the insurrections of unbelief, as the psalmist here: But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. He had been considering the years of ancient times (v. 5), the blessings formerly enjoyed, the remembrance of which did only add to his grief; but now he considered them as the years of the right hand of the Most High, that those blessings of ancient times came from the Ancient of days, from the power and sovereign disposal of his right hand who is over all, God, blessed for ever, and this satisfied him; for may not the Most High with his right hand make what changes he pleases?
PEACEMAKERS 