Category: Holiness

  • God’s Divine Power

    His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness… (2 Peter 1:3a) “Divine” here from theios only used three times in the NT, but commonly used in other Greek literature when speaking about deity. It has no inherent theological meaning, but is defined by the context of the particular…

  • Words of Ryle 12.10.2012

    J.C. Ryle on the happiness of holy men, …let us never be ashamed of making much of sanctification, and contending for a high standard of holiness. While some are satisfied with a miserably low degree of attainment, and others are not ashamed to live on without any holiness at all—content with a mere round of…

  • God Loves Despite Our Sin

    In yesterday’s post I made a reference at the end about how we should seek to know God despite the ugly sins of our past. I started thinking about my own past sins, and felt so ashamed of them and how they displeased God. Then I began to reflect on the lives of David and…

  • Knowing God’s Will

    How do we know God’s will? We have all been at one of life’s crossroads where we hoped God would speak to us directly from heaven. I know I have many times. But instead of telling us what specific choices to make, God is only concerned with our knowledge of Him. He wants the devotion…

  • How To Tie A Knot Without Breaking The Sabbath

    The Jewish Talmud is a treasure trove of legalism. There are rules for everything, especially about keeping the Sabbath. There’s even a section on what kinds of knots one can tie on the Sabbath. Here’s a section discussing if it’s okay for a woman to tie the bands of her hood, …The case is, that…

  • Become Friends With The World And Become An Enemy With God

    In my reading of Ryle’s Holiness today, I came across this convicting quote on Lot’s wife and her looking back at Sodom as it was being destroyed, motivated by her idolatrous love of the world: That look was a little thing, but it told of secret love of the world in Lot’s wife. Her heart…

  • How To Get God’s Attention

    All these things my hand has made,and so all these things came to be,declares the LORD.But this is the one to whom I will look:he who is humble and contrite in spiritand trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:2 ESV) How do we get God’s attention? How do we do this? He has made it plain.  He will…

  • Holding Our Thoughts And Affections Captive

    Little time today to write, but one thing I’ve been wrestling heavily with is the theme of holding “every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:5). This is very powerful and convicting language. The Greek means literally “to lead away.” Paul says that ALL thoughts–not some–must be led away from disobedience and towards obedience…

  • The Cost Of Following Christ

    I wanted to share a quote I found very encouraging from J.C. Ryle’s book Holiness (free here) on the cost of following Christ: In the last place, it will cost a man the favour of the world. He must be content to be thought ill of by man if he pleases God. He must count it no…

  • Don’t Try Back Handsprings Without Training

    Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way. (Proverbs 19:2 ESV) This Proverb really struck me today, firstly because its meaning isn’t as obvious as other Proverbs (it isn’t for me, anyway). In other translations the Hebrew word for “desire” is instead rendered “soul.” After looking more…