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Free-will does not always mean we are free to do our will. We may choose to be a prisoner of sin rather than enjoy true freedom. We thought we can get away with sin but there is always a price for freedom. In fact, it is too high we cannot even afford to pay at all.

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Academic achievements may fade,

but a legacy of integrity, kindness, and humility lasts forever.

What does it profit to gain the world, yet lose one's soul? (Mark 8:36.

Intelligence can take you far, but character takes you further.

For 'a good name is better than riches' (Proverbs 22:1)."

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You will battle with discontent until you let Christ be all that you need.

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Through difficult relationships and circumstances, God works to expose your heart so you will seek the grace that can be found only in Him.

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“If you love sin, you are no child of God, for God is holy. If you are living to please self and are enjoying the pleasures of sin, you are no Christian, for a Christian is one who denies himself, takes up his cross and follows Christ; a Christian is one who is subject to the lordship of Christ, and no man can serve two masters. If when you succumb to temptation you are not cut to the heart, if the fact that you have offended against the Lord God is not followed by genuine contrition and repentance, it is proof you have never been born again; for when a real believer sins he “grieves” the Spirit within him, and the Spirit will cause him to grieve over his wrong-doing. If you are not “fleeing youthful lusts” (2Ti 2:22), if you are not buffeting your body to “keep it under” (1Co 9:27), if you are not “yielding yourself unto God” (Rom 6:13), you have no ground for concluding that you are a member of the household of faith.” AW Pink

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God has mercifully given us a book which is “able to make us wise UNTO SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS” (2 Tim.3:15). By reading that book we may learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do; how to live with comfort, and how to die in peace.

We must never forget that all the education a man's head can receive, will not save his soul from hell, unless he knows the truths of the Bible.

A man may have prodigious learning, and yet never be saved. He may be master of half the languages spoken round the globe. He may be acquainted with the highest and deepest things in heaven and earth. He may have read books till he is like walking encyclopedia. He may be familiar with the stars of heaven,—the birds of the air,—the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the sea. He may be able, like Solomon, to “speak of trees, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on the wall, of beasts also, and fowls, and creeping things, and fishes.”(1 King.4:33) He may be able to discourse of all the secrets of fire, air, earth, and water. And yet, if he dies ignorant of Bible Truths, he dies a miserable man!

Death will make an end of all his attainments (and earthly achievements), and after death they will do him no good at all.

A man may be a very ignorant man, and yet be saved. He may be unable to read a story, or write a letter. He may know nothing of geography beyond the bounce of his own parish, and be utterly unable to say which is nearest to England, Paris or New York. He may know nothing big arithmetic, and not see any difference between a million and a thousand. He may know nothing of history, not even if his land, and be quite ignorant wether his country owes most to Semiramis, Boadicea, or Queen Elizabeth. He may know nothing of the affairs of his own times, and be incapable of telling you whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or the Commander-in-Chief, or the Archbishop of Canterbury is managing the national finances. He may know nothing of science, and its discoveries,—and whether Julius Caesar won his victories with gunpowder, or the apostles had a printing press, or the sun goes round the earth, may be matters about which he has not an idea. And yet if that man has heard Bible Truth with his ears, and believed it with his heart, he knows enough to save his soul. He will be found at last with Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, while his scientific fellow-creature who has died unconverted, is lost forever.

(John Charles Ryle (1816-1900)__Practical Religion)

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Some people love to display their intellect and theological superiority. They are proud of their learning and speaking ability. Such pride had become a serious at Corinth. Some people were arrogant because of their knowledge and puffed up with self-importance. They wanted recognition for their prophetic insights and superior wisdom, and they looked down on others with lesser knowledge and giftedness. As a result of their arrogant misuse of knowledge, they harmed the church body (1 Corinthian 8).

Knowledge without love inflates the ego and deceives the mind. It can lead to intellectual snobbery, an attitude of mockery and making fun of other's views, a spirit of contempt for those with lesser knowledge, and a demeaning way of dealing with people who disagree.

They had a big head but a little heart. Their theology was a clear as ice and twice as cold. Such is the path of one who has knowledge without love. —And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2, ESV)

—Alexander Strauch

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Two vitally important truths about the Christian life: we are pilgrims, and we make progress.

- R.C. Sproul

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“Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long” (Psalm 25:4–5).

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❤️🙏🏼📖 https://www.instagram.com/p/CbeW1ohvaMcOoWWAR3bq7jUMY_agKFj5pfAZO80/?utm_medium=tumblr

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When we enter into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, we learn who we

were created to be and discover the true purpose of our lives: "For we are his workmanship, created

in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them

(Ephesians 2:10, ESV; see also Philippians 3:8-10).

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"Being an obedient Christian necessitates that we deny ourselves, forsake all others, and even be willing to give our lives for the Gospel should circumstances call for it. We can't just pretend like Jesus did not say these things. He did. This is what a true Christian looks like. We are not exempt just because we live in a developed country in the 21st century." —Justin Peters

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Entertainment in Light of Our Submission to Christ

The Lordship of Christ Demands Good Stewardship

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Christians must consider how they can use their resources not for their own leisure and entertainment, but for the work of the gospel.

Recent studies show that the average American watches more than four hours of television per day, which, spread over a 70-year lifespan, amounts to nearly 12 years of viewing time. Some of that may be instructive and diversionary, but such statistics make one wonder what Christ will say to those believers who have spent a sixth of their lives staring at the tube (Romans 14:10-12).

SO ASK YOURSELF how much real benefit you receive by watching television and movies or playing video games, and HOW THAT COMPARES TO THE TIME YOU SPEND IN SPIRITUAL PURSUITS.

How much money do you spend on temporal amusements, and how does that relate to your eternal investments?

How hard do you labor not to advance your own agenda but to further the work of Christ’s kingdom?

These are heart questions every believer needs to ask.

As stewards of the King (Matthew 25:14-30), we have been called to so much more than our own entertainment.

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Plead with this evil world to run from sin, in the hope that they will believe the gospel. Those who are humble-hearted and honest about their sinful condition will listen. Jesus said (in the Parable of the Sower) that they are good soil hearers. Those who are arrogant, proud, and self righteous will not listen. They are hard soil. So make sure you know the difference so that you make a distinction. But don’t give up on somebody who is hard soil. If you were gardening and came across hard soil, just reach for your spade and break it. Then, once it’s broken, plant the seed.  God has given us a tool to break up hard soil. It is the Law of God.  It is the Law that humbles us. It exposes our sin, and shows us that we are very sick and desperately in need of a cure.1Rachel Aliado

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The Need Is the Same

No matter where we are in life, whether we are a criminal in prison or a member in fine standing at our church, we share the exact same need. We need the divine grace that alone can regenerate our empty hearts.

The Bible says, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5–7)

All people must come to the same place before a holy God. We must come to see our need to be born again. No one is too sinful to be beyond the saving power of God. Nor is anyone so good that they do not need it.