Faith’s Checkbook (book review)

Faith's CheckbookWhen you pull out your checkbook, it’s nice to have money in the account so your check will be honored. The same concept holds true for your “spiritual bank account.” Charles Spurgeon has a collection of daily biblical promises called Faith’s Checkbook which will help you realize how fully-funded God has made your spiritual account.

Each day the Spurgeon, called the Prince of Preachers, highlights a promise in God’s Word and unpacks all the riches that promise delivers. Each thought only takes a page, but Spurgeon gives you enough “cash” to provide for you for that day.

What a fantastic year-long journey of faith-building I had with Faith’s Checkbook!

Links & Quotes

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Some reading I checked out today:

“Do not despair, dear heart, but come to the Lord with all your jagged wounds, black bruises, and running sores. He alone can heal, and He delights to do it. It is our Lord’s office to bind up the brokenhearted, and He is gloriously at home at it.” —Charles Spurgeon

David Wilkerson on hearing God’s voice: To Know His Voice.

[VIDEO] Nearly 60 years after rescuing a baby abandoned in the woods, the rescuer and the rescued are reunited.

“We let our fear of what others think of us keep us from doing God-honoring creative projects. We let our pride and our so called self-image keep us from using our God-given talents and abilities. We care more about bringing honor to ourselves than bringing honor to God.” —Stephen Altrogge, in Create

Former abortion worker admits “it’s all about money.” Read more of Carol Everett’s story.

Links & Quotes

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Some interesting reading (and watching) from today:

The Center for Reproductive Rights is trying to force the U.N. to use anti-torture treaties to silence the Church, arguing that the pro-life message “tortures women”! Huh? Check out this post—UN To Criminalize The Pro-Life Movement?—and sign the ACLJ petition to stop this.

[VIDEO] Nick Vujicic and John Maxwell talk about making today bigger than yesterday.

A word to pastors: “The prophet must hear the message clearly and deliver it faithfully, and that is indeed a grave responsibility; but it is to God alone, not to men.” —A.W. Tozer

“If I am not today all that I hope to be, yet I see Jesus, and that assures me that I shall one day be like Him.” —Charles Spurgeon

A good reminder about Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail in this post: When Waiting Doesn’t Work.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote that the answer to objectionable speech ’is more speech, not enforced silence.’ This seems a most reasonable proposition. If you are offended by someone’s position, you can counter it with your own arguments and expose their error for the world to see and reject. It is a concept that has served our Republic well in the fight for liberty and freedom.” Read more in We Need More First Amendment Freedom.

The so-called global warming “science” is becoming more and more philosophy and conjecture. The title of the article in the esteemed Nature is Key West Antarctic Glaciers Retreating Unstoppably, but the text of the article is very un-scientific and vague. Please read the article for yourself and note phrases like these (emphasis added):

  • Radar observations suggest
  • …would raise sea levels by 1.2 meters if they melted
  • …glaciers are likely to disappear
  • …melting over the next century will probably cause… 
  • And my favorite: “Global sea levels are currently rising about 3 millimetres per year. Most of that comes from the thermal expansion of the warming oceans; some also comes from melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica.” To which I ask: how do we know this isn’t a part of the normal warming and cooling cycle? 

Happy Mother’s Day

We Love MomsHere are a dozen of my favorite Mother’s Day quotes…

“All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.” —Abraham Lincoln

“A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.” —Tenneva Jordan

“I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine—she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.” —Adabella Radici

“My mom is a never-ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune.” —Graycie Harmon

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” —Elizabeth Stone

Augustine wrote in Confessions that his mother Monica “wept to God for me, shedding more tears for my spiritual death than other mothers shed for the bodily death of a son.” In the midst of her prayers, Monica shared her concerns with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and he said, “It cannot be that the son of those tears be lost.”

“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” —Abraham Lincoln

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.” —George Washington

“The devil never reckons a man to be lost so long as he has a good mother alive. O woman, great is thy power!” ―Charles Spurgeon

“I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.” —John Wesley

“Your motherhood is in God’s sight holier and more blessed than you realize.” —Andrew Murray 

“To be a mother is the greatest vocation in the world. No being has a position of such great power and influence. She holds in her hands the destiny of nations, for to her is necessarily committed the making of the nation’s citizens.” —Hannah Whitall Smith

Links & Quotes

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Some interesting reading I found today.

“The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart—it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence and tenderness and sex and betrayal that benefits mankind. It is not the collection of pretty little anecdotes mouthed by pious little church mice—it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone. It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask.” —Rich Mullins

As I have said before, tolerance is only afforded to those who say “anything goes.” Anyone who says there is a right/wrong, truth/lie is labeled intolerant, as illustrated in this story of the Benham brothers losing their TV show deal

…and to further prove the point, Yahoo Joins Google In Banning Pro-Life Ads.

It’s pretty obvious… that the Judeo-Christian concept of God held the key to the rise of the West, and that is the belief in a rational Creator God, because that had the implication, then, that the creation was itself rational—that is to say, it obeys rules” (Rodney Stark). Read more in How Christianity Created Science (And Why Atheism Wouldn’t Have).

Detroit Tiger fans (like me!) will enjoy this: A Numerical Guide To The History Of The Detroit Tigers.

“Has the enemy tried to tell you that God has bypassed you? Have you been tempted to conclude that the Lord isn’t with you? Have you almost given up your faith? Put your hope in the Lord’s Word to you: ‘I will never leave you, nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). ‘The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know Your name will put their trust in You: for You, Lord, have not forsaken them that seek You’ (Psalm 9:9-10).” —David Wilkerson

… this inscription from Jerusalem may signal widespread—if elementary—literacy during the time of David and Solomon.” Read more about this archeological discovery in Jerusalem.

“Let us meditate on the Lord’s holy name that we may trust Him the better and rejoice the more readily.” —Charles Spurgeon

Links & Quotes

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Here are the links to some interesting reading I found today.

Great news! U.S. Supreme Court Affirms Prayer At Government Meetings.

A sober word for pastors: “I fear that sometimes our own eloquence and our own concepts may get in the way, for the unlimited ability to talk endlessly about religion is a questionable blessing.” —A.W. Tozer

“The more of Heaven there is in our lives, the less of earth we shall covet.” —Charles Spurgeon 

Ladies, looking for a pro-life OB/GYN? Check out this directory.

Good: Why We Need To Start Taking The Sabbath Seriously.

Dr. Tony Evans on homosexuality, the church, and Christianity.

“When God causes us to have no mercy on our sins, then He has great mercy on us. When we are angry with evil, God is no more angry with us. When we multiply our efforts against iniquity, the Lord multiplies our blessings.” —Charles Spurgeon

Did someone say Islam was “a religion of peace”? Guess they forgot to tell these guys…

Links & Quotes

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Here are the links to some interesting reading I found today.

“It is right and inevitable that we should be much concerned about the salvation of those we love. But we must be careful not to expect or demand that their salvation should conform to some ready-made pattern of our own.” —C.S. Lewis

Well, this is interesting. Follow your tax dollars to the countries that are enemies of America.

[PHOTOS] An accurate recap of the tragedy in Benghazi, and the cover up of that terrorist attack…

…and here’s why the media is now covering up the cover up of Benghazi: [INFOGRAPHIC] The relationship between the media and the Obama administration.

“What we practice, not (save at rare intervals) what we preach, is usually our great contribution to the conversion of others.” —C.S. Lewis

“What a bondage it is when the child of God is sold under sin, held in chains by satan, deprived of his liberty, robbed of his power in prayer and his delight in the Lord! Let us watch that we come not into such bondage; but if this has already happened to us, let us by no means despair. But we cannot be held in slavery forever. The Lord Jesus has paid too high a price for our redemption to leave us in the enemy’s hand. The way to freedom is, ‘Return unto the Lord your God.’” —Charles Spurgeon

[VIDEO] A good reminder from John Maxwell: Find a friend that you can edify today.

Links & Quotes

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Here are the links to some interesting reading I found this weekend.

“The dominant model of how speech works is that it is planned in advance—speakers begin with a conscious idea of exactly what they are going to say. But some researchers think that speech is not entirely planned, and that people know what they are saying in part through hearing themselves speak.” Check out more of this fascinating report You Don’t Always Know What Youre Saying.

A balanced approach is vital. “Beware any teacher or preacher who has little use for doctrine or church history.” —T.M. Moore

“Lastly, as the best advice I can give, seek more of the Spirit of God, for this is the way to become Christ-like. Vain are all your attempts to be like Him till you have sought His Spirit. Take the cold iron, and attempt to weld it if you can into a certain shape. How fruitless the effort! Lay it on the anvil, seize the blacksmith’s hammer with all your might; let blow after blow fall upon it, and you shall have done nothing. Twist it, turn it, use all your implements, but you shall not be able to fashion it as you would. But put it in the fire, let it be softened and made malleable, then lay it on the anvil, and each stroke shall have a mighty effect, so that you may fashion it into any form you may desire. So take your heart, not cold as it is, not stony, as it is by nature, but put it into the furnace; there let it be molten, and after that it can be turned like wax to the seal, and fashioned into the image of Jesus Christ.” —Charles Spurgeon

John Stonestreet has a timely reminder in his commentary Race And Redemption.

A great piece on euthanasia: What Happened To Switzerland?

Links & Quotes

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Here are the links to some interesting reading I found this weekend.

“The Holy Spirit does not belong to you. Are you charismatic? He is bigger than your signs and wonders event. Are you Reformed? He will not be limited by your theology.” —R.T. Kendall

“The worst thing that can happen to a man is to succeed before he is ready.” —Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Where is the outrage in the American mainstream media?! Kidnapped School Girls In Nigeria Sold As Child Brides.

It’s funny that many secularists believe that Christian myths about Jesus evolved over time until they were written down generations later. This is the thesis in Bart Ehrman’s latest book. It’s not accurate. It’s funny because there are things believed by some of the same secularists that actually are myths that evolved over time to create the impression that Christianity is a science stopper and anti-intellectual. One of these myths is about the scientific revolution that was purportedly initiated by Copernicus and the supposed subsequent opposition from the church to his heliocentric theories.” Read more of this eye-opening post: Copernicus And The Scientific Revolution.

Disney’s Peter Rummell shares how the Imagineers keep the great ideas coming.

“The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden— that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.” —C.S. Lewis

“When sin is pardoned, our greatest sorrow is ended, and our truest pleasure begins. Such is the joy which the Lord bestows upon His reconciled ones, that it overflows and fills all nature with delight. The material world has latent music in it, and a renewed heart knows how to bring it out and make it vocal.” —Charles Spurgeon

Links & Quotes

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Some great reading I found today.

“So, go ahead, hold your grudge. Keep your bitterness. Continue stirring up strife. If you do, you will be in total rebellion against God and His Word and you’ll open yourself up to satan. You will become spiritually blind and hardened in heart. On the other hand, if you are spiritual—willingly obedient to God’s Word—then no matter how injured you are, you’ll show the peaceable wisdom of gentleness by forgiving.” —David Wilkerson

“It is nobler to forgive and let the offense pass. To let an injury rankle in your bosom and to meditate revenge is to keep old wounds open and to make new ones. Better forget and forgive.” —Charles Spurgeon

[VIDEO] Sen. Ted Cruz is right: John Kerry should resign over his comments on Israel.

Another breakthrough study says embryonic stem cells can be created from adult cells; there is zero need to abort babies to harvest their stem cells.

Have you ever wondered why Planned Parenthood is so pro-death? Check out some of the hateful statements from their founder, Margaret Sanger, in this post.