Sunday, July 17, 2011

1 Timothy 6: 18, 19

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life - 1 Timothy 6:18, 19 (ESV).

Saturday, July 09, 2011

John Calvin on Of Meditating on the Future Life

We duly profit by the discipline of the cross, when we learn that this life, estimated in itself, is restless, troubled, in numberless ways wretched, and plainly in no respect happy; that what are estimated its blessings are uncertain, fleeting, vain and vitiated by a great admixture of evil. From this we conclude, that all we have to seek or hope for here is contest;that when we think of the crown we must raise our eyes to heaven. For we must hold, that our mind never rises seriously to desire and aspire after the future, until it has learned to despise the present life.

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Henderickson Publishers, 2008 (1581), p. 465.

Saturday, July 02, 2011

Jeremiah 17: 5-10

Thus says the LORD:"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit."

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
"I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds."

Jeremiah 17: 5-10 (ESV)