By Robert Flynn on
7/30/2008 3:57 PM
"By consequence, 'whatsoever he doeth , it is all to the glory of God.' In all his employments of every kind, he not only aims at this (which is implied in having a single eye ), but actually attains it. His business and refreshments, as well as his prayers, all serve to this great end. Whether he 'it in the house, or walk by the way,' whether he lie down, or rise up, he is promoting, in all he speaks, or does, the one business of his life. Whether he put on his apparel, or labor, or eat and drink, or divert himself from too wasting labor, it is to advance the glory of God, by peace and goodwill among men. His one invariable rule is this: 'Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, even the Father, through Him.'" John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/30/2008 3:44 PM
"Don't talk don't fool don't try to mess around I'll make a monkey outta you You sign your name right on that dotted line boy I'll be damned" AC DC
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By Robert Flynn on
7/29/2008 7:32 PM
There is much more here that meets the eye. A quick look at the history of the day gives us the impression that what really is happening in Rome is that the women have become the men!
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By Robert Flynn on
7/29/2008 3:43 PM
There are a great many in this world who possess a faith which is so similar to a genuine saving faith that they themselves are deceived.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/28/2008 7:29 PM
Changed the truth of God into a lie - In the place of the true worship of God, they established idolatry. In various places of Scripture idols are termed lies. Isa 44:20; Jer 10:14; Jer 13:25. The true God was known among the primitive inhabitants of the earth, those who first became idolaters literally changed the truth of God into a lie: they did know the true God, but they put idols in his place. Dr Adam Clarke
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By Robert Flynn on
7/27/2008 7:26 PM
Gave them up — This divine abandonment of men is here strikingly traced in three successive stages, at each of which the same word is used (Rom 1:24, Rom 1:26; and Rom 1:28, where the word is rendered “gave over”). “As they deserted God, God in turn deserted them; not giving them divine (that is, supernatural) laws, and suffering them to corrupt those which were human; not sending them prophets, and allowing the philosophers to run into absurdities. He let them do what they pleased, even what was in the last degree vile, that those who had not honored God, might dishonor themselves” [Grotius] as cited in A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/27/2008 3:56 PM
We are evil, O God, and help us to see it and amend. We are good, and help us to be better. Look down upon thy servants with a patient eye, even as Thou sendest sun and rain; look down, call upon the dry bones, quicken, enliven; recreate in us the soul of service, the spirit of peace; renew in us the sense of joy.
When we look into the mirror, what do we see? We see with Earthly eyes! But when we look to the Savior, we see with the eyes of Christ. Then will we know the true...
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By Robert Flynn on
7/26/2008 7:23 PM
Here is a place in Holy Scripture that gives exacting refutation to the idea that man climbed out of the tree and began worshiping a stick and then worked his way up to worshiping God. We did not evolve but rather declined or degenerated. What kind of "Sonlight" do we seek? Do we wish to bask in the glorious glow of the incorruptible God or would we rather recline in the tanning booth? According to this writ we are prone to the latter. Is this really our "free will" choice or rather the choice of the depraved?
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By Robert Flynn on
7/26/2008 3:55 PM
To-day we go forth separate, some of us to pleasure, some of us to worship, some upon duty. Go with us, our guide and angel; hold Thou before us in our divided paths the mark of our low calling, still to be true to what small best we can attain to. Help us in that, our maker, the dispenser of events — Thou, of the vast designs, in which we blindly labor, suffer us to be so far constant to ourselves and our beloved. Robert Louis Stevenson-Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
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By Robert Flynn on
7/26/2008 3:40 PM
Another reason for lack of assurance is that we tend to trust our feelings rather than the Word of God.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/25/2008 7:21 PM
Professing themselves to be wise - This was the common boast of the philosophers of antiquity. The very word by which they chose to be called, “philosophers,” means literally “lovers of wisdom.” (Barnes) This is also our boast of today. How many of us think that we know? A short walk through the halls of our institutions of national government reveal 565 opposing opinions. The reality is that as humankind we don't care much about right, we just want to win the argument. This boasting about our wisdom is not a new thing!
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By Robert Flynn on
7/25/2008 3:54 PM
Lord, receive our supplications for this house, family, and country. Protect the innocent, restrain the greedy and the treacherous, lead us out of our tribulation into a quiet land.
Look down upon ourselves and upon our absent dear ones. Help us and them; prolong our days in peace and honour. Give us health, food, bright weather, and light hearts. In what we meditate of evil, frustrate our will; in what of good, further our endeavours. Cause injuries to be forgot and benefits to be remembered.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/25/2008 3:39 PM
Many believers lack assurance. Since we live in a performance oriented society, we often transfer this expectation from the world into our religious expectations. The problem with this expecation is that "our salvation is not based upon our own performance, but on our relationship to Jesus Christ." (Billy Graham)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/24/2008 7:17 PM
Even the words of “Marcus Tullius Cicero,” the Roman philosopher and politician in the waning years of the Roman Republic, (de Natura Deorum, lib. ii. c. 6) will show that they had the knowledge of one God. “There is something in the nature of things, which the mind of man, which reason, which human power cannot effect; and certainly what produces this must be better than man. What can this be called but “God?...What can be so plain and manifest, when we look at heaven, and contemplate heavenly things, as that there is some divinity of most excellent mind, by which these things are governed?”
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By Robert Flynn on
7/24/2008 3:37 PM
“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” (Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Johnson, June 13, 1823, University of Virginia on-line library).
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By Robert Flynn on
7/23/2008 7:10 PM
You do not see God, and yet you acknowledge him as God by his works; Cicero.
For the invisible things of him - The expression “his invisible things” refers to those things which cannot be perceived by the senses. It does not imply that there are any things pertaining to the divine character which may be seen by the eye; but that there are things which may be known of him, though not discoverable by the eye. We judge of the objects around us by the senses, the sight, the touch, the ear, etc. Paul affirms, that though we cannot judge thus of God, yet there is a way by which we may come to the knowledge of him. What he means by the invisible things of God he specifies at the close of the verse, “his eternal power and Godhead. ” The affirmation extends only to that; and the argument implies that that was enough to leave them without any excuse for their sins. Dr. Albert Barnes
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By Robert Flynn on
7/22/2008 6:57 PM
By their ungodliness he proves that although all men have a most clear and evident mirror in which to behold the everlasting and almighty nature of God, even in his creatures, yet they have fallen away from those principles to most foolish and stupid ideas of their own brains, in their worship of God and of what God requires of them. Geneva Bible Study Notes
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By Robert Flynn on
7/21/2008 6:52 PM
"The Word of God continues to stand in the World. The cross of Christ, although it occurred nineteen hundred years ago, continues to stand as the great witness to the wrath of God. Similarly, the wrath of God is being revealed continuously upon those who break the laws of God in nature. It is a standing revelation" Dr. Alva J. McClain, Romans: The Gospel of God's Grace.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/20/2008 6:47 PM
Our misery and ruin being the product and consequent of our iniquity, that which will show us the way of salvation must needs show us the way of justification, and this the gospel does. The gospel makes known a righteousness. While God is a just and holy God, and we are guilty sinners, it is necessary we should have a righteousness wherein to appear before him; and, blessed be God, there is such a righteousness brought in by Messiah the prince (Dan_9:24) and revealed in the gospel; a righteousness, that is, a gracious method of reconciliation and acceptance, notwithstanding the guilt of our sins. Mathew Henry (1662 - 1714)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/19/2008 6:42 PM
This is probably one of the most profound verses in Scripture. The nugget that first strikes me here is the use of the phrase "I am not ashamed." Paul could have said he was "proud." But then when the English language would come along we could have a wrong notion. In our language there are two kinds of proud. There is the pride that is the opposite of being ashamed. Then there is the pride that is the opposite of humility.
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By Tony Barnes on
7/18/2008 6:40 PM
Before embarking on a mission, every good soldier or Marine knows that logistics is important. The Operations Plan is consulted, equipment is prepared, ammunition and weapons are issued, food and water are packed, communications are checked and double checked and the order is given to "move 'em out." Anyone that did not engage those essentials of an operation would be a fool indeed.
However, we (and I include myself) will often embark on the operation Jesus Christ has for us that...
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By Robert Flynn on
7/18/2008 6:30 PM
"I am ready ... - I am prepared to preach among you, and to show the power of the gospel, even in the splendid metropolis of the world. He was not deterred by any fear; nor was he indifferent to their welfare; but he was under the direction of God. And as far as he gave him opportunity, he was ready to make known to them the gospel, as he had done at Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, and Corinth." Dr. Albert Barnes (1798-1870)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/17/2008 6:23 PM
I am not a debtor because of world's favors toward me, rather I am a debtor to the world because of God's special favor toward me! I was dead in sin, foolish and disobedient and washed away my sin and declared me righteous-for no reason-that I would have no reason for boasting. Thank you God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for saving me from my sin. I confess that apart from you there is no good thing within me. Help me today to follow you in all my ways that my path might be straight.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/17/2008 7:59 AM
Question: Ought I not be left to the grace of God in my own heart?
The body of Christ in America is like unto a thousand rivets flying in close formation. A great assemblage of metal but hardly an airplane.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/16/2008 6:19 PM
"One of those undesigned coincidences which strongly show that both books are genuine; compare Romans 15:23-24 with Acts 19:21. A forger of these books would not have thought of such a contrivance as to feign such a purpose to go to Rome at that time, and to have mentioned it in that manner. Such coincidences are among the best proofs that can be demanded, that the writers did not intend to impose on the world." Dr. Albert Barnes (1798-1870)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/16/2008 8:29 AM
That is why it was not surprising that, at that time, I did not rejoice over the wonder of redemption, and that others could not see the joy of Jesus in me. And it was no wonder that I was not happy. I had taken the wrong path, the path of cheap grace, which was not the way of Jesus Christ and which could never lead me to the goal. If we do not fight, we will not be crowned. And what a fight the Lord demands of us! It is a fight to the point of shedding blood, as the letter to the Hebrews tells...
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By Robert Flynn on
7/16/2008 7:57 AM
"True spiritual Liberty is one of the most glorious things in the World, but it is little under stood and frequently abused by many." William Penn
Liberty or license? This is the question of our day. When the rest of the world is finding new ways of practicing hedonism and self-indulgence (neither of which is a new thing) what prevents the church from impacting the same lost persons with the Good News?
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By Robert Flynn on
7/15/2008 7:55 AM
Love God and Do What You Please (Saint Augustine)
Some would say that this phrase would be a call to sin without restraint or that it would become a motto for loose living. However, the first part of the phrase is, "Love God." If we truly love God, then it would follow that the things we do that please us would please Him as well. This is true Christian Liberty! Is there any Scriptural basis for this?
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By Robert Flynn on
7/15/2008 6:22 AM
"There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism," (Eph 4:5 NLT)
We enjoy comfort from our common faith. We bring comfort to others and at the same time receive comfort.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/14/2008 8:14 AM
A personal attitude of the heart that comes from the Holy Spirit that creates a longing for fellowship with other believers. Here Paul wishes to visit a group of believers that have not had the benefit of the direct teaching of the Apostles. His wish is to establish (comfort and strengthen) them in the faith.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/14/2008 7:52 AM
True spiritual Liberty is one of the most glorious things in the World, but it is little under stood and frequently abused by many. I beseech Almighty God to preserve you, His people, in the right knowledge and use of the liberty, which Jesus Christ is redeeming us into. William Penn
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By Robert Flynn on
7/13/2008 7:52 AM
James 4:14-15 "How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it's here a little while, then it's gone. What you ought to say is, 'If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.'" (NLT)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/12/2008 7:35 PM
I want to call your attention first of all to that word serve. It means literally 'to serve as a priest.' It was the Greek word used in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament to refer to the service of the priests in the temple, including the idea of worship. The same word is translated 'worship' in Philippians 3:3. This word is a commentary on what true Christian service ought to be: we serve God as priests, and therefore every act of our service should be rendered to God as an act of worship. In this light the distinction between sacred and secular disappears. The very ground you walk on is holy, and every trivial act acquires meaning. If you remember that, all your Christian service (no matter what it is) will become to you significant of that time when we shall be before the throne of God and 'serve him day and night in his temple' (Revelation 7:15). Again the same Greek word is used that Paul uses here." Dr. Alva J. McClain, Romans: The Gospel of G
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By Robert Flynn on
7/11/2008 7:31 PM
"Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God." Amy Carmichael
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By Robert Flynn on
7/11/2008 6:40 AM
Giving thanks for the providence and tender mercies of the day is fitting lest we presume upon the watchcare of His Sabboth Rest while we sleep defensless were it not for His Grace.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/10/2008 7:47 PM
How do you start your day? Is it with coffee only? We would think ourselves misused if we did not fill our stomachs with food. But what if we began our day without fellowship with the Father? Take a short sojourn with the Lion of Dundee and see if you might find some encouragement for your souls.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/10/2008 7:20 PM
The same way Paul is a "called apostle," and we are "called of Christ," we are also "called as saints." Because I belong to Christ, I am a most holy thing. A mind boggling statement certainly not reflective of the face I shave every morning.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/9/2008 7:45 PM
"When thou prayest let thy words be few, but thy thoughts and affections many, and above all let them be profound. The less thou speakest the better thou prayest....External and bodily prayer is that buzzing of the lips, that outside babble that is gone through without any attention, and which strikes the ears of men; but prayer in spirit and in truth is the inward desire, the motions, the sighs, which issue from the depths of the heart. The former is the prayer of hypocrites and of all who trust...
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By Robert Flynn on
7/9/2008 7:17 PM
The fruit of the olive in its wild state is small and worthless.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/8/2008 7:07 PM
Hebrews 5:8-9 "Even though Jesus was God's Son, He learned obedience from the things He suffered. In this way, God qualified Him as a perfect High Priest, and He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him." (NLT)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/8/2008 6:31 AM
We are His lambs, and therefore ought to be ready to suffer, even to the death, without complaining. John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection
"Do everything without complaining and arguing," (Philippians 2:14 NLT)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/7/2008 7:02 PM
"There is a striking contrast between the verbs used. As to His humanity, He was made of the seed of David, but as to His deity, He was declared. Humanity is a created thing but deity is uncreated. The human nature, or flesh of Christ, was made at a definite point in human history, but His divine nature was existing from eternity and needed only to be declared that men might see it." Dr. Alva J. McClain, Romans, The Gospel of Grace.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/6/2008 6:52 PM
Divinity and humanity God come down as a man. Jesus' birth has spawned many questions and through the years all manner of answers have arisen. But in our day, when women are implanted with embryos created in the laboratory, most of the questions fall silent. It is not hard to see how the Holy Spirit creating a zygot within the Virgin Mary making her the surrogate for the God-man.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/5/2008 6:47 PM
Romans 1:2 - A Promise Kept
"which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures," (NASB)
"(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)" (KJV)
"God promised this Good News long ago through His prophets in the holy Scriptures." (NLT)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/4/2008 6:41 PM
Romans 1:1 - Who has your ear?
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God," (NASB)
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God," (KJV)
This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach His Good News." (NLT)
Slave (SLAVE, n.)
1. A person who is wholly subject to the will of another; one who has no will of his own, but whose person and services are wholly under the control of another. In the early state of the world, and to this day among some barbarous nations, prisoners of war are considered and treated
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By Robert Flynn on
7/4/2008 6:33 AM
Lord, enlighten us to see the beam that is in our own eye, and blind us to the mote that is in our brother’s. Robert Louis Stevenson-Vailima Prayers and Sabbath Morn
How quick we are to see fault in others! How crafty we are to justify our own actions and rationalize their effect.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/3/2008 6:23 AM
No matter how much we anticipate the pending loss of a loved one, knowing the result of age, ill health, or injury will have its way in the end, their death still comes unexpectedly. Our hearts are never ready to say goodbye. Isaiah says that "we all do fade as a leaf." James says that our life is like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Why is it then that as vapors we should cling so tightly to our sojourn here? Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NASB)
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By Robert Flynn on
7/2/2008 6:29 AM
Lord, the creatures of thy hand, thy disinherited children, come before Thee with their incoherent wishes and regrets:
"Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves." (1 Corinthians 6:9 NLT)
We often wallow in our "vain resentments" and miss the blessing of Christ's work of Grace upon our hearts.
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By Robert Flynn on
7/1/2008 6:17 AM
PRAYER has to do with the entire man. Prayer takes in man in his whole being, mind, soul and body. It takes the whole man to pray, and prayer affects the entire man in its gracious results. E. M. Bounds — The Essentials of Prayer
"Yes you have been with me from birth; from my mother's womb you have cared for me. No wonder I am always praising you!" "Psalm 71:6 NLT)
The heart of prayer is found in the bending of the knee. It is found in the contrite heart of him who would confess that his heart is like a valley of dry bones that needs to be brought back to life (Ezekiel 37).
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