True Fire Fitness

07/08/2022

"It is only the fear of God's judgment that can deliver us from the fear of man's judgment."

- George Whitefield

07/29/2020

04/03/2020

How to Respond When You Falter

"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." (Romans 7:19)

Christians do not live only in defeat. But neither do we live only in perfect victory over sin. And in those times when we fail to triumph over sin, Romans 7:14–25 shows us the normal way a healthy Christian should respond.

We should say:

- I love the law of God (verse 22).

- I hate what I just did (verse 15).

- Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death (verse 24)?

- Thanks be to God! The victory will come through Jesus Christ my Lord (verse 25).

In other words, no Christian wants to live this way — in defeat. No Christian settles to live this way. But if we do live this way for a time, we shouldn't lie about it.

No hypocrisy. No posing. No boasted perfectionism. No churchy, pasted smiles or chipper superficiality.

God save us from blindness to our own failures and the consequent quickness to judge others.

God help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others.

God give us the honesty and candor and humility of the apostle Paul in this text!

01/01/2018

May the Lord grant you wisdom, knowledge and peace in 2018. May He reveal Himself to your heart and lift up your soul, so that you may come to have a deeper understanding of Him in all things. May you live a life that glorifies His grace, love and abounding goodness. May the year 2018 be the "Year of the Lord's Favor" in your life. Amen.

09/21/2017

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13:14

12/04/2015

God will have His own People

For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” Acts:8:10

This should be a great encouragement to try to do as much good as you can, since God has chosen for Himself; among the vilest of the vile, the worst of the worst, the most drugged out and drunken, an elect people who must be saved. When you take the Word to them, you do so because God has ordained that you are to be the messenger of life to their souls, and they must receive it, for so the decree of predestination runs.

They are as much redeemed by His blood as are the saints that stand before the eternal throne. They are Christ's property, and yet perhaps they are still lovers of the bars and taverns, and haters of holiness; but if Jesus Christ purchased them then he will have them.

God is not unfaithful to forget the price which his Son has paid for these souls. The Father will not suffer that the substitutionary death of His beloved Son on Calvary, would in any single case, be an ineffectual, dead thing. Thousands of thousands of the redeemed ones are not regenerated and brought to salvation yet, but regenerated they must be; and this is our comfort when we go forth to them with the quickening Word of God.

Not only is this so, but these ungodly ones are prayed for by Christ before the throne of the God Most High. "I do not pray for these alone," prays our great Intercessor, "but also for them which shall believe in me through their word." Poor, ignorant souls, they know nothing about praying for themselves, but Jesus prays for them.

Their names are on his breastplate, and before long they must bow their stubborn knee, breathing the repentant sigh before the throne of grace. "The time of fig fruit is not yet." The predesignated moment has not struck; but, when it comes, they shall obey, for God will have his own; they must, for the Spirit is not to be withstood when he comes forth with fullness of power--they must become the willing servants of the living God.

"My people shall be willing in the day of my power." "He shall justify many." "He shall see of the bounty of his soul." "I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong.

11/11/2015

"Underneath are the everlasting arms."
Deuteronomy 33:27

God--the eternal God--is himself our support at all times, and especially when we are sinking in deep trouble. There are seasons when the Christian sinks very low in humiliation. Under a deep sense of his great sinfulness, he is humbled before God till he scarcely knows how to pray, because he appears, in his own sight, so worthless. Well, child of God, remember that when thou art at thy worst and lowest, yet "underneath" thee "are everlasting arms." Sin may drag thee ever so low, but Christ's great atonement is still under all. You may have descended into the deeps, but you cannot have fallen so low as "the uttermost;" and to the uttermost he saves. Again, the Christian sometimes sinks very deeply in sore trial from without. Every earthly prop is cut away. What then? Still underneath him are "the everlasting arms." He cannot fall so deep in distress and affliction but what the covenant grace of an ever-faithful God will still encircle him. The Christian may be sinking under trouble from within through fierce conflict, but even then he cannot be brought so low as to be beyond the reach of the "everlasting arms"--they are underneath him; and, while thus sustained, all Satan's efforts to harm him avail nothing.

This assurance of support is a comfort to any weary but earnest worker in the service of God. It implies a promise of strength for each day, grace for each need, and power for each duty. And, further, when death comes, the promise shall still hold good. When we stand in the midst of Jordan, we shall be able to say with David, "I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." We shall descend into the grave, but we shall go no lower, for the eternal arms prevent our further fall. All through life, and at its close, we shall be upheld by the "everlasting arms"--arms that neither flag nor lose their strength, for "the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is weary."

11/10/2015

Want to reduce your risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis? How about increase your life expectancy? These two studies suggest ways that changing your diet and getting in shape could help...

09/15/2015

"He shall not be afraid of evil tidings."
Psalm 112:7

Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you are distressed by them, what do you have that is more than other men?

Other men have not your God to fly to; they have never proved his faithfulness as you have done, and it is no wonder if they are bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear: but you profess to be of another spirit; you have been begotten again unto a lively hope, and your heart lives in heaven and not on earthly things; now, if you are seen to be distracted as other men, what is the value of that grace which you profess to have received? Where is the dignity of that new nature which you claim to possess?

Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you would, doubtless, be led into the sins so common to others under trying circumstances. The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God; they murmur, and think that God deals hardly with them. Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do?

Moreover, unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape from difficulties, and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present pressure. Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Your wisest course is to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, "Stand still and see the salvation of God." For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you will be unable to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty, and sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward? Saints have often sung God's high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and trembling, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High?

Then take courage, and relying in sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your covenant God, "let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

09/15/2015

Where does all the anger, hostility and fear come from? Where does a person and a people (collectively) produce all of these things in their lives, which becomes so evident and manifest itself in so much destruction personally, locally, nationally and globally?

It stems from the God given desire to know "unconditional and eternal love"...to feel it, experience it, to be secure in it. You were made to be loved by your Creator and to love your Creator you were made.

Mankind cannot find it anywhere in this world, no matter how much money, drugs, s*x. alcohol, fame, power...it can only be filled by the very source of it... Jesus Christ. All other roads lead to emptiness. Unfortunately, most of us have wasted a lot of time and life before we finally settle that matter.