Friday, March 9, 2012

Fewer Things

Ray Ortlund post:  It's good


The longer I live, the more I care about fewer things, and it’s good.  Here are those fewer things:
1.  God is patient.  “. . . the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience” (Romans 2:4).  Where would I be now, if God were not patient with me?
2.  My wife is my most precious earthly treasure.  “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband” (Proverbs 12:4).  And how I delight in my family!
3.  Everything man-made will fail.  But it’s okay.  Everything God-made will last.  “God’s firm foundation stands” (2 Timothy 2:19).
4.  Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture.  “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).  When the gospel gets through, our relationships become beautiful.
5.  I will die in just a few years.  What matters now is lifting up a bold new generation for Christ.  “I endure everything for the sake of the elect” (2 Timothy 2:10).
6.  God visits weakness with power, suffering with blessing, setbacks with progress.  “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
7.  The Bible is my oxygen.  “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).  How could I live a single day in this world of illusion without God’s inerrant Word?
8.  The grace of God is the endless resource for everything I face.  “Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).
9.  The highest truth is God’s mercy for the undeserving.  “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  It’s all I want to talk about.
10.  Whatever else I lose, I must keep my own walk with the Lord.  “But for me, it is good to be near God” (Psalm 73:28).

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