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“For the righteous LORD loves justice. The virtuous will see His face.” (Psalms11:7 TLB)

Whatever happened to Virtue? Somewhere along the way we shifted gears and covertly turned a cold shoulder to such notions. And now we are a Nation more given to Vice than to Virtue. How did this happen?

Somewhere back there several years ago, a group of so-and-so’s decided to do a social experiment, which was founded upon the faulty notion that Life and all things in it is better without God. And they call this Enlightenment.

According to these illuminated and superior souls — Business is better without God. Politics are better without God. Education is better without God. Sex is better without God. Money is better without God. Society is better without God. The Arts are better without God. But, clearly, such thinking is pure nonsense — and we see the full fruit of these sown seeds now shown openly in the dismal indifference which characterizes a society of non-virtuous people.

But God is moving among us even still. He is summoning a people who hunger for that which is virtuous. Maybe you are one of them, and your heart is being drawn to the higher and nobler things of God. If that be so, then let me leave you today with Paul’s timeless counsel: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things.” (Php 4:8).

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Excerpt from “Rylisms” – James Ryle

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“If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless” (James 1:26).

You can learn much about a person’s character if you listen long enough to what he says. In the same way, others learn much about you as they listen to what you say. Do your words reveal a pure heart? Remember Paul’s admonition to “let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29).

Make that your goal each day so you can know the blessing and grace of disciplined speech! Ask the Lord to guard your tongue from speaking anything that might dishonor Him. Be aware of everything you say.

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Excerpt from “Drawing Near” – John MacArthur

and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

The world promises us so many benefits and pleasures. However, the world’s promises are always conditional, always temporal, and they can never truly satisfy. More often than not, the promises the world gives will never be fulfilled.

Unlike the world, not only does God not lie, He cannot lie. When we are in Christ, when we abide in Him, we can be assured that what He promises, He will do.

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:17-20)

Do you ever feel like God could not possibly love you? Do your thoughts condemn you with the past and convince you that you can never be good enough for God? You need to know that these thoughts are lies of the enemy. You have before you the proof and the promise of all that you are in Christ. Keep these words close at hand, so that when Satan accuses, you can combat his lies with God’s truths.

Excerpt from “What It Means To He A Christian” – Sandra Bivens Smith

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Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

We win our victories by holding to it. We conquer, not in any brilliant fashion—we conquer by continuing. We master shorthand when we stick to shorthand. We master Shakespeare when we stick to Shakespeare. Wandering cattle are lean kine, whether they pasture in Britain or in Beulah. A certain radiant and quiet doggedness has been one of the marks of all the saints, for whom the trumpets have sounded on the other side.

In the log-book of Columbus there is one entry more common than all others It is not “Today the wind was favorable.” It is “Today we sailed on. “And to sail on, every common day, through fog and storm, and with mutiny on board, is the one way to the country of our dreams. Days come when everything seems doubtful, when the vision of the unseen is very dim. Days come when we begin to wonder if there can be a loving God at all.

My dear reader, hold to it. Continue trusting. Keep on keeping on. It is thus that Christian character is built. It is thus the “Well done” is heard at last.

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Excerpt from “Devotional Sermons” – George H. Morrison

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“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

HOW CLOSE life and death are! In the above verse there is only a comma between them, and every one of us stands where that comma stands, between life and death. Life is the vestibule of death, and death is close on the heels of life. The throb and beat of the pulse; the swing of the pendulum this way or that!

Christ must be the model of our life. Every man works to a model. Consciously or not, we are always imitating somebody, and every true follower of Christ seeks to approximate to the measuring of the stature of our Lord—”Beholding, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.”

Christ must be the aim of life. That His will may be done on earth as in heaven; that others may know and love and serve Him as we do; that He may be the crowned King of men—that must be our purpose and aim. External things have no power over the one who can say: “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”; then we can triumph over Death itself, and say: “To die is gain.”

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Excerpt from “Our Daily Walk” F.B. Meyer