Book Review: C.H. Spurgeon, All of Grace

The object of this book is the salvation of the reader

This 128 paged book that’s about 8 inches long is one that I would call a pocket dynamite. It fits in the back pocket of my jeans but has contents that would last forever.

In All of Grace, Spurgeon tackled the essentials of faith. He explains in detail, and in old english, the truths on justification and our nothingness.

Spurgeon concentrates on the technicalities or what happens in the background throughout salvation. It will give you a solid idea on what Justification is and an understanding on Faith and Grace.

One chapter in particular that made me weep as I understood the gravity of it was on Man’s Nothingness. It’s the 11th chapter that he entitled as I Can Do Nothing!. It will give you an understanding on Romans chapter 5.

It contains 20 short, concrete and straightforward chapters that goes from Justification to Preservation. It won’t leave you hanging as a perfect conclusion was written towards the end.

If you would like to see and understand God’s grace, then I would highly suggest you to read this book. I’d probably suggest that you’d get to pickup a more modern translation as I endured thee, thy, and all the -est from this guy.

The Lord does, in fact, produce the new birth in all who believe in Jesus, and their believing is the surest evidence that they are born again.
- C.H. Spurgeon

Psalm 104 Notes: Trust, Faith, Creation and Suffering

O Lord, how manifold are your works. In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures

Psalm 104:24

The whole Psalm 104 talks about the things that we normally see happen around us. But one thing I cannot deny as I was pondering on this Psalm is how everything just works together like a perfectly planned blueprint of creation. Everything, working together.

One thing that I have picked up from this is seeing and being confident in trusting the Lord’s wisdom.
I look all around and there, everywhere, I see the Lord’s wisdom through his creation.

Book Review: Don't Waste Your Life

After 9 days of 1 chapter each, I would say, this book by far… the most enjoyable book I have read this year (hehe).

But with all seriousness. Don’t Waste Your Life is something that I would suggest all Christians to read. This book will certainly act as a compass to where we should look and what we should look at.

It addresses the most common sickness known to men, and Christians alike, is complacency. We tend to see the cross of Christ, learn about salvation and sit back relax and be satisfied that we won’t suffer from guilt of sin and the fires of hell. This book should challenge you to look more beyond that.

So if you want to challenge yourself to look beyond that mediocrity and know what we should be gunning for, go ahead and pick this book up. Read it, understand it and hopefully enjoy it. Hopefully you’ll get to understand that it’s not us that we should be making much of, but Him who is worthy of all praise. Let’s all strive to understand and be satisfied by that fact so that in the end, we’ll look back and say yes, we didn’t waste our life.

God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever. — John Piper

A Blog About God's Grace and the Seriousness of Sin

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:10-12

Gift - noun

something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient orwithout its being earned

----

And if there's anything that wrecks my heart more, its this.

"He does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities."

I don't think one would get to see this clearly if one wouldn't consider the seriousness of sin.

Let me share to you how I came into having an idea of how serious sin is.

Psalm 1 Notes

So I was helping my Bubby memorize Psalm 1 for her Bible Study group a few weeks ago. As we kept on repeating and repeating the verses, it was like a nail being hammered to me as I found these verses more beautiful than I have initially thought.
 
Here are my notes on the 1st Psalm.

Top 5 Books Read in 2010

This is the year that I have flushed down quite a number of books down my library. So here, I give you the top 5 books that I have read last year.
1. Dug Down Deep - Joshua Harris

This book helped me out a lot when it comes to guiding me to where I should go with this new desire of knowing God. I just considered myself saved last March of 2010 and this book most certainly brought in the light to shine the things that I have been totally missing my whole life. Finding out who God is through scripture.
I've come to learn that theology matters. And it matters not because we want a good grade on a test but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. What you believe about God's nature-- what he is like, what he wants from you, and whether or not you will answer to him--affects every part of your life.- Joshua Harris, Dug Down Deep

2. Your Mind Matters - John Stott

This book set a blaze a fire within me to just know more and more and more. Any feeling that I feel should always be set ablaze by the truth that the Bible testifies about God. In lieu to what Dug Down Deep was, a lot of people has ideas about God. Oprah has one, Deepak Chopra has one, and probably your next door neighbor has one. In order for us not to be easily deceived we need to set our foot on the very book that testifies about the real God.
We shouldn't just bank on our feelings and emotions about God. Our hearts can easily deceive us. Everything else should be set in motion about the facts, the realities and what we know in our head and then catapult our emotions to what we know is real.
I am not pleading for a dry, humorless, academic Christianity, but for a warm devotion set on fire by truth. - John Stott, Your Mind Matters
3. Justification By Faith Alone - R.C. Sproul

To better understand where our faith totally lies I would suggest one should pick up this little dynamite by R.C. Sproul. This book answers on where our whole faith lies. What is it that we believe that Christ has accomplished on the Cross. How are we, Christian followers, declared righteous before the sight of God.
Without sola fide (justification by faith alone) one does not have the gospel; and without the gospel one does not have the Christian faith. - R.C. Sproul, Justification by Faith Alone
4. This Momentary Marriage - John Piper

I have always been the guy that has respected and take relationships seriously. It's not just something people should try out, it's something everyone should work for. And I thought I've got it all together before I even get to read this book. Dr. Piper has managed to rearrange the seriousness of relationships, commitments, and covenants to a whole new level.
As Dennis Rainey stated on his review that this is not just a How To on marriage, this is a why to book about marriage.
This Momentary Marriage managed to point the whole model of marriage back to the Gospel. And I wouldn't just recommend married or those to be married couples to read this book, I would also suggest single people with a desire to be married one day to grab a hold on this book.
Staying married, therefore, is not mainly about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant. "Till death do us part" or "As long as we both shall live" is a sacred covenant promise- the same kind Jesus made with his bride when he died for her.
Christ will never leave his wife. Ever. There may be times of painful distance and tragic backsliding on our part. But Christ keeps his covenant forever. Marriage is a display of that! That is the ultimate thing we can say about it. It puts the glory of Christ's covenant-keeping love on display. - John Piper, This Momentary Marraige
5. Triumph Over Temptation - John Owen

Recently finished and instantly loved. I've been munching on this book for quite some time now because I just have to admit, it's not an easy read. John Owen is one of the prominent Puritans that came out of their days and his treatise on The Mortification of Sin has been one of his most celebrated writings.
This book is a compilation of his three treatises regarding sin. These works of Owen are Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, Of Temptation, and The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin.
Anyone who would want to understand or at least see the glimpse of the corruption that we have within us should get a grab of this book. If you could recall the verse in the book of Jeremiah that describes the nature of our hearts as being deceitful, it is because of the sin that dwells within us.
This has totally acted as a mirror in my life and every chapter made me reflect on everything that I have done, am doing and what could possibly do. This book made me extra gracious to the people that I am leading as well since you'll start to understand the corruption that we have within our lives.
I enjoyed reading the last portion which discusses the mortification of sin since it gave out practical things to follow or to check with regards to the sins that we would want to cut off from our lives.
This book will truly help you point out that our salvation is truly of the Lord's and not from us.
When we realize a constant enemy of the soul abides within us, what diligence and watchfulness we should have!
We need to be awake, then, if our hearts would know the ways of God.
Our enemy is not only upon us as it was with Samson, but is also in us. - John Owen, Triumph Over Temptation
Notables:
1. Dangerous Duty of Delight - John Piper
2. Pierced by the Word - John Piper
3. The Five Points of Calvinism - Edwin Palmer
4. The Reformation - Stephen Nichols
5. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God - D.A. Carson