So many are looking for special revelation from God while it sits on their shelves gathering dust.

—Burk Parsons

Reformation Heritage Books is having a ridiculous sale on Puritan works until 10/19.

Would highly recommend taking advantage of it: https://www.heritagebooks.org/categories/puritan-warehouse-sale.html

There is a blessedness promised to all that live godly.

—Thomas Watson

Hebrews 12:3-11

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

My prayer is that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.

—C.S. Lewis

True faith in the gospel requires submission to all of it, not just the parts that suit your preferences. When you pick and choose what to believe from the gospel, you’re not actually believing in God’s Word—you’re elevating your own judgment above His truth. This is not submission to Christ but self-worship. The gospel is not meant to be reshaped by your opinions, but to reshape your heart and mind according to God’s will.

You must accept the entirety of the gospel, even the parts that challenge or convict you. Rejecting the difficult or uncomfortable truths means you’re placing your own desires above God’s authority. Faith means trusting that God’s wisdom is far greater than your own, and surrendering fully to His Word, no matter how it confronts or stretches you.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." — Isaiah 55:8

—The Forge (Daily Dose #0037)

THE ERRANT VIEW OF HIS KINGSHIP

I am absolutely convinced that the epidemic of defeatism, depression, and discouragement in modern Christianity stems from our shallow view of Christ’s Kingship. We have lost sight of our King.

Think about it. Most evangelicals rightly understand that Jesus is the final Prophet, the One who declares the very words of God, breathing life into our dead souls so we may be saved! Amen!

Most also understand that He is the true and final Priest, the One who mediates the relationship between God and man, offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice and standing before the Father on our behalf—pleading for us faithfully! Amen again!

But here’s the problem. If we truly believe these things—if we believe He is Prophet and Priest—why do we live like we’re losing? Why is Christianity in the West battered, bruised, and shrinking back in retreat from a culture we should be conquering in His name? The answer is simple: we have abandoned a robust view of His Kingship.

We’ve taken Christ the King, the King of kings, and reduced Him to a figurehead. Instead of boldly proclaiming His reign, we’ve shoved Him into a quiet corner of heaven, as if His authority has no real impact on the earth. We dishonor Him, the Lord of lords, by expecting defeat. We look forward to calamity as though that is our inevitable fate, living like His rule is powerless to transform the world and achieve what He has decreed.

Open your eyes! Scripture shouts the truth at us. Jesus isn’t just reigning over heaven—His authority extends over heaven AND earth (Matthew 28:18). His government, His rule, His Kingly peace isn’t confined to some distant realm (Isaiah 9:6-7). It is advancing on this earth as it already is in heaven (Matthew 6:10) As King, He will bring the nations under His law (Genesis 49:10). He will trample every enemy underfoot (1 Corinthians 15:25). His victory will sweep across the globe until rebellion is utterly crushed, and His dominion stretches from sea to sea (1 Corinthians 15:57).

The truth is, without a full understanding of His Kingship, evangelicalism has degenerated into a feeble, weak-kneed little huddle of cowards. We’ve become the servant who buried his talent, because we misunderstood our Master’s authority. Let’s be clear: He did not leave us here to hide away in our churches, nor to hold back from getting our hands dirty (like a faith filled with white gloved prissies) watching His world spiral into depravity, decay, and death but refusing to get involved. He left us here, as His royal ambassadors, armed with His Kingly authority, to advance His kingdom, take dominion, and conform the world to His will.

Only when we fully understand His roles as Prophet, Priest, and King will we see Christendom rise from the ashes we have driven it, and the Kingdom of God advancing once more.

May God open our eyes to the unstoppable truth of His Lordship over all things.

—My Local Pastor

Psalm 95:1-11

O come, let us sing unto the LORD: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

For the LORD is a great God, And a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: The strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: And his hands formed the dry land.

O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, As in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, Proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath That they should not enter into my rest.”

Voices from church history on the canonicity of the books commonly called apocrypha.

There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have enough—a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice—which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.

—JC Ryle