Let others after earth aspire, Christ is the treasure I desire. To forsake Christ for the world is to leave a treasure for a trifle; it is to leave eternity for a moment, and reality for a shadow.

Do you desire to actually pray in your praying? Get better acquainted with the Person of your Savior. The best aid to prayer is personal, deepening intimacy, companionship, and a holy familiar conversing with Christ. This opens the heart of the redeemed with secure sweetness!

Becoming a father is the act of a moment. Becoming an effective father is the passion, focus, and discipline of a lifetime. We need wisdom that comes from above. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Learn fatherhood from God our Heavenly Father: the perfect model!

God takes his people through soul-wrenching events. Why? There are always purposes. 1 Teach us to cling to him and pray, 2 To wean us from self and the world, 3 Growth in humility, 4 Cultivating a down-to-earth spirituality, 5 Maturing a tested, purified, and strengthened faith.

What attracts the Almighty to a soul? What makes him say, “I will dwell with this one?” Answer: “A poor and contrite spirit.” Do churches understand and prize this, nourish, and guide hearts into the Spirit’s production of this? Ponder: Isa 57:15, 66:2; our Lord’s Beatitudes.

Christianity 101: Christ paid the debt cannot pay. He died the death we dare not die. He provides acceptance we do not deserve. Then, he calls us to a life we cannot live. Our approach to life changes. Soul health, peace, power and joy flow as we decrease and he increases in us.

The Bible contrast “heart” religion vs “false” or “external” religion. Everything in genuine Christianity is intensely relational. Even faith works by love. Christ is the perfect answer to all my needs. He is precious: therefore my soul goes out to him in believing dependence.

When the Spirit births us into the family of God, he implants a love for the Father, Son, and Spirit. We are brought into a sphere of communion with the Trinity. All our days we are to grow and mature in the rich enjoyment of this astounding privilege, purchased by Christ.

We live in a society that views feelings of unworthiness as contrary to one’s awesomeness. God views honesty with your unworthiness as the doorway to exuberant praise for his great mercies, kindness, and tender love. It is the pathway to rich “with-ness” with God.

It is not he who reads the most, but he who meditates the most, makes the soundest, roundest, sweetest Christian. Beware of shallowness, or a busy skimming of God’s word and godly books. Give yourself to unhurried meditation on God’s truth. Pray for the Spirit’s implanting of it.

To plead before the LORD, we must have such a good view of God, of his generous nature, that if he denies us mercy, he would disparage himself in our eyes. This is faith in the testimony of God. This requires solid familiarity with his purpose in the covenant of grace.

What kills earnest praying? What strikes a death dagger into the heart of earnest pleading? Why do we hear so little pleading, entreaty, and soul-sweat? (Luther). Slight or low views of sin - this is the greatest culprit. This is not too negative. Just blazingly real.

Two types of peace are to be dreaded more than all the troubles in the world: peace with sin, and peace in sin. Paul warns of the deceitful nature of sin. Sin keeps us from knowing the true nature of sin. The evil one puts wind in the sails of a soul traveling down this pathway.

Reality is a nuisance to those who make it up as they go along. Christ Jesus is ultimate reality. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He tutors us in the truth about ourselves, life, and eternity. He sets the soul free from all delusions & deceptions. He alone is wise & safe.

Our founding fathers established America on the Matrix of Liberty. The founding documents need a free people, which requires an ethical people, which demands mature acquaintance with the Bible. Political reform is not enough. We need authentic Christian faith, living, & praying!

Every day we take steps toward eternity. Time is a temporary creation of God, who is eternal. He says, “Oh, that they were wise. That they would consider their latter end.” Wisdom urges us to prepare the most for the place we will live the longest. The death rate is 100%.

Think of this: grace is not a visit, but a habitation. Christ carries his lambs in his bosom, and his mercy does not grow weary.

Where grace reigns, obedience is not bondage but liberty. The heart runs the way of God’s commandments with delight. He that lives by promises walks in obedience. Grace and duty are not enemies, but companions in the way of life.

I have gout in my foot. There are some authors I return to again and again. Sibbes, “A bruised reed is a broken man under a broken condition, yet he is not utterly broken. Though he is bruised, he is not out of the covenant of grace. God will make the bruising beneficial.

The way you think of prayer will shape how you pray. If it is mere duty, joy will die. If it is lifeline communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit through Jesus Christ, it becomes God‘s gift and connection with the Almighty. It makes being under His wings a felt reality.