Week 48, 2022

Week Forty-eight of Cultivate Delight, where we are actively planning our spiritual endeavors this coming week with the goal of a consistent time spent engaging our hearts with Christ in his word, in prayer, in reflection, and in music. Below are some starting points for reflection, and I hope you find them helpful. The goal is to not just rush through these and then get on with your day. Take your time and reflect throughout the week on these items.

Wherever the Word of God is purely preached, there a church of God exists, even if it swarms with many faults. – John Calvin

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Week 47, 2022

Week Forty-seven of Cultivate Delight, where we are actively planning our spiritual endeavors this coming week with the goal of a consistent time spent engaging our hearts with Christ in his word, in prayer, in reflection, and in music. Below are some starting points for reflection, and I hope you find them helpful. The goal is to not just rush through these and then get on with your day. Take your time and reflect throughout the week on these items.

Every pardon a sinner has is written in Christ’s blood.
Thomas Watson – The Believer’s Privileges in the Covenant of Grace

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Week 46, 2022

Week Forty-six of Cultivate Delight, where we are actively planning our spiritual endeavors this coming week with the goal of a consistent time spent engaging our hearts with Christ in his word, in prayer, in reflection, and in music. Below are some starting points for reflection, and I hope you find them helpful. The goal is to not just rush through these and then get on with your day. Take your time and reflect throughout the week on these items.

Christian holiness is an art of doing more than knowing God’s will, remembering it, and temporarily purposing to do it. It is a continual obedience to God’s word and sacraments through repentant faith.
Daniel Burgess – A Biblical Guide to Hearing and Studying the Word of God

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Week 45, 2022

Week Forty-five of Cultivate Delight, where we are actively planning our spiritual endeavors this coming week with the goal of a consistent time spent engaging our hearts with Christ in his word, in prayer, in reflection, and in music. Below are some starting points for reflection, and I hope you find them helpful. The goal is to not just rush through these and then get on with your day. Take your time and reflect throughout the week on these items.

If Satan’s darts have wounded us, faith cools the scalding heat of sin by applying to us the precious balm of Christ’s blood.
Christopher Love – The Christian’s Combat Against the Devil

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Subtle Drift

Journal Entry // October 30, 2022

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (ESV)

Hebrews 2:1

Of all the warnings in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, drifting away from Christ is the one that most worries me. It worries me in the sense that I can more readily see the drifting of my heart away from Christ at various times and seasons. This continuous slow movement from being a faithful follower of Christ to a place of complacency and apathy is what my sinful thoughts keep pushing me towards. The drift is dangerous because it is oftentimes so gradual that I don’t even realize I am or have drifted until I pay attention. This is the point of the passage. I must pay attention, close attention, to the spiritual state of my heart, mind, and soul. There is no autopilot in the Christian life. There is only careful intentional attention to the details of salvation and grace in my life through Jesus alone.

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Week 44, 2022

Week Forty-four of Cultivate Delight, where we are actively planning our spiritual endeavors this coming week with the goal of a consistent time spent engaging our hearts with Christ in his word, in prayer, in reflection, and in music. Below are some starting points for reflection, and I hope you find them helpful. The goal is to not just rush through these and then get on with your day. Take your time and reflect throughout the week on these items.

As the devil would only dwell in a house that was swept from godliness (Luke 11:25), so the graces of God will not come into the heart that is not cleansed from wickedness, for God will only pour new wine into new vessels (Matt. 9:17).
Henry Smith – A Biblical Guide to Hearing and Studying the Word of God

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A Good Man

Journal Entry // May 22, 2021

When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, [24] for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

Acts 11:23-24 ESV

Barnabas… This is what I want my life to demonstrate. This is how I want those around me to experience the love of Christ. I want to be characterized as a ‘good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.’

That is such a beautiful picture of what the grace of God does to change the heart of a man.

  • When Barnabas arrives he looks at the people and surely sees a group of new believers that are not Jews and were outside his normative understanding of how God works, but his reaction is to see the grace of God being displayed. He takes in the big picture of God’s grace working in the hearts of men and women.
  • And he was glad. Unlike Jonah, Barnabas saw God’s good hand saving the lost and it brought joy to his heart. He saw God working in mysterious ways and rejoiced.
  • He brought a word of encouragement to those around him. He saw God’s work, he let it warm his heart, then he shared this warmness with those around him.
  • For he was a good man… How was he able to do all this? Because he was full of the Holy Spirit and faith. This is the key.
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Week 43, 2022

Week Forty-three of Cultivate Delight, where we are actively planning our spiritual endeavors this coming week with the goal of a consistent time spent engaging our hearts with Christ in his word, in prayer, in reflection, and in music. Below are some starting points for reflection, and I hope you find them helpful. The goal is to not just rush through these and then get on with your day. Take your time and reflect throughout the week on these items.

“Men are elated when they speak with an earthly king, and are bid to his table to eat. Are we elated, when we go before the King of heaven and earth to speak to him by prayer and to hear him by preaching and by the sacraments to feast and feed with him?”
– Stephen Egerton (1555-1621)

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Week 42, 2022

Week Forty-two of Cultivate Delight, where we are actively planning our spiritual endeavors this coming week with the goal of a consistent time spent engaging our hearts with Christ in his word, in prayer, in reflection, and in music. Below are some starting points for reflection, and I hope you find them helpful. The goal is to not just rush through these and then get on with your day. Take your time and reflect throughout the week on these items.

“When saints hear threats of the Law out of God’s word against sin, consider what his mercy is in delivering you from what is deserved.”
– Jeremiah Burroughs, Christ Inviting Sinners to Come to Him for Rest

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Week 41, 2022

Week Forty-one of Cultivate Delight, where we are actively planning our spiritual endeavors this coming week with the goal of a consistent time spent engaging our hearts with Christ in his word, in prayer, in reflection, and in music. Below are some starting points for reflection, and I hope you find them helpful. The goal is to not just rush through these and then get on with your day. Take your time and reflect throughout the week on these items.

“Desires blown by meditation are the sparks that set prayer in a light flame.”
– Samuel Lee (1625–1691), The Nature and Method of Secret Prayer

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