chapterSIX: Going to the Table

"Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." 1 Corinthians 6:28

Ryle writes about the sobering truths in the taking of Communion which so many of us today do not fully understand, misinterpret, and take for granted.

The Necessity of Mortification of Sin in Believers: the foundation

The Foundation of Mortification

Romans 8:13

"If you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live."

The Conditionality: A Certain Connection

There is a certain infallible connection and coherence

between true mortification and eternal life.

The Persons: Believers

The choicest believers, 

who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, 

ought yet to make it their business all their days 

to mortify the indwelling power of sin.

The Cause and Means: The Holy Spirit

Mortification from a self-strength, 

carried on by ways of self-invention, 

unto the end of a self-righteousness

is the soul and substance of all false religions in the world.

The Duty: Mortify the Deeds of the Body

The mortification of indwelling sin remaining in our mortal bodies,
that it may not have life and power
to bring forth the works or deeds of the flesh,
is the constant duty of believers.

The Promise: You Shall Live

The vigor, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life 

depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.

--Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers by John Owen

ruminating...

lately i've found myself ruminating over some issues that ultimately exposed my lack of dependence on the saving Word of God. i've found myself pondering concepts discussed in "The Good Christian Girl." in a decade, am i going to end up as just an admin assistant and just super unmotivated because people told me pursuit of higher education or being a career woman was unBiblical? at the age of 35, am i going to still be single and living at home because people told me to pursue singleness and not set my hopes on marriage? 
generally, have i submitted certain aspects of my life to the words of man over the Word of God? and then i realized, i was becoming dependent on the words of man rather than running to my Bible first for guidance. i've been feeling fatigued from tossing around all these questions of worry and doubt, of life decisions and career choices...feeling really dejected, lost, unmotivated...

yet J.C. Ryle puts it so plainly:
"There is only one answer to all these questions. A man must make his Bible the rule of conduct. He must make its leading principles the compass by which he steers his course through life. By the letter or spirit of the Bible he must test every difficult point and question. "To the law and to the testimony! What saith the Scripture?" He ought to care nothing for what other people may think right. He ought not to set his watch by the clock of his neighbour, but by the sun-dial of the Word."

people are good resources, but the Word of God is really all we need, beyond sufficient, something we can trust in and set our hopes on.. and it'll never lead us in the wrong direction

you know what's sad?
when your non-Christian friends are way more understanding, gentle, compassionate, and forgiving than your fellow brethern in Christ. that can't be right.

chapterFIVE: bible-reading

Praying = most important in practical religion
Bible-reading = nothing more important, except praying

Happy is that man who possesses a Bible!
Happier still is he who reads it !
Happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it, and makes it the rule of his faith and practice.

to have the Bible is one thing, and to read it quite another.

8 reasons why you should value the Bible highly, study it regularly, and make yourself thoroughly acquainted with its contents:

to think that the state of our souls was once like the miserable state of a cockroach flailing its legs helplessly on its back...

"Totally disgusting and totally helpless. What a picture of us in our sin, when Christ died for us."

amazing grace.

"on Christ the Solid Rock i stand...

... all other ground is sinking sand!"

thinking back to yesterday's visit to the g-parents' house and my uncle's lovely, drunken monologue on my deadbeat life ... mmm, what a motivational speaker he is.

and then...
parents: you don't have to follow your church people around all the time! your uncle's offering you a job opportunity in napa! it's nice there, wine country.
me: what's wrong with wanting to stay at a good church?! [didn't even wanna address the wine country part]
uncle: hey, i think she's being influenced too much by Christianity!

well then, praise God. as i once again begin sending job apps into the abyss, may he tame my anxious soul, that i may wait patiently on His grace, His timing, His sovereignty. may i live and work for His glory alone, lest it all be in vain...lest it all be on sinking sand.

Lordship Salvation, summarized in the most awesome way possible

“He that does not receive the gospel with all its difficulties, does not receive it as it is proposed to him. He that does not receive Christ with his cross as well as his crown, does not truly receive him at all. It is true that Christ invites us to come to him to find rest, and to buy wine and milk: but then he also invites us to come and take up the cross, and that daily, that we may follow him; and if we come only to accept the former, we do not in truth accept the offer of the gospel, for both go together, the rest and the yoke, the cross and the crown: and it will signify nothing, that, in accepting only the one, we accept what God never offered to us. They that receive only the easy part of Christianity, and not the difficult, at best are but almost Christians; while they that are wholly Christians receive the whole of Christianity, and thus shall be accepted and honoured, and not cast out with shame, at the last day.”

Jonathan Edwards, Charity and its Fruits

http://www.puritanbookclub.com/?p=556