Monastery of the mind.

brinny said:

Good thoughts and meditations.....and edifying verses....

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Yes, i suppose that we share in the Lords sufferings.

Maybe the more abundant life that Christ spoke of is hidden within Christ, in Heaven. He teaches us not to store treasure on earth but in Heaven. Paul says that we are dead and our life is hidden in Christ, where He is seated at the Right hand of God.

Matthew 13:44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Matthew 6:19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Colossians 3 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

brinny said:

...the road is narrow, my brother...

kinda' reminds me of this verse:

"For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." ~Isaiah 50:7

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Amen. I have thought of that verse at times, nice. Thanks.

brinny said:

It is AWESOME when God haz us diggin' in His Word.....He's gonna pour out blessings like rain when that happens......

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I like the Word. It is as you say, delightful.

brinny said:

hahaaaa i do believe you just blessed our delightful Father's heart, my brother!

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brinny said:

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hahaaaa i do believe you just blessed our delightful Father's heart, my brother!

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And perhaps its because He first delighted me. Praise the Lord. Amen, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

brinny said:

the fact that you actually DELIGHTED in the Lord, means that He is inside prompting it hahaaa AWESOME!!!!!

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Amen

brinny said:

...it also means that you have His ear:

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Yes indeed. Praise the Lord.

Sermon #3052 Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit 1
Volume 53 Spurgeon Gems - C. H. Spurgeon Resources & Other Reformed Resources 1
CHRIST’S LONELINESS AND OURS NO. 3052
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1907.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.


“Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour come s, yes, is now come, that you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” John 16:31, 32.
[Another sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is #2271, Volume 38—ALONE , YET NOT ALONE —Read/download the entire sermon, free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.] “Do you now believe?” Then it seems that faith held them fast to Christ, but as soon as fear prevailed they were scattered and left their Master alone. Faith has an attracting and upholding power. It is the root of constancy and the source of perseverance under the power of God’s Spirit. While we believe, we remain faithful to our Lord. When we are unbelieving, we are scattered, “every man to his own.” While we trust, we follow closely. When we give way to fear, we ungratefully forsake our Lord. May the Holy Spirit maintain our faith in full vigor that it may nourish all our other Graces! Faith being strong, no faculty of the inner man will languish, but if faith declines, the energy of our spiritual nature speedily decays. If you believe not, you shall not be established, but “the just shall live by faith” to the fullest force of life. This being noted, our meditation shall now be fixed alone upon the Savior’s loneliness and the measure in which the Believer is brought into the same condition. I. THE LONELINESS OF THE SAVIOR. Note the fact of it. He was left alone—alone just when most, as Man, He needed human sympathy. Solitude to Him, during His earthly life, was often the cause of strength. He was strong in public ministry because of the hours spent in secret wrestling with God on the lone mountainside. But when He came to the hour of His agony, His perfect Humanity pined after human sympathy, yet it was denied Him. He was alone in the Garden of Gethsemane though He took the eleven with Him. Yet must He leave eight of them outside at the garden gate—and the three, the choice, the élite of them all—though they were brought somewhat nearer to the scene of His passion, yet even they must remain at a stone’s cast distance. None could enter into the inner circle of His sufferings where the furnace was heated seven times hotter than it was known to be heated. In the bloody sweat and the agony of Gethsemane, the Savior trod the winepress alone. [See Sermon #2567, Volume 44—THE SINGLE-HANDED CONQUEST—Read/download the entire sermon, free of charge, at http://www.spurgeongems.org.] His specially- favored disciples might have watched with Him, wept with Him and prayed for Him—but they did not. They left His lone prayer to ascend to Heaven unattended by sympathetic cries. He was alone, too, when put upon His trial. False witnesses were found to bear lying testimony against Him, but no man stood forward to attest the honesty, quietness and goodness of His life. Surely one of the many who had been healed by Him, or of the crowds that had been fed by His bountiful hands or, still likelier, some of those who had received the pardon of their sins and enlightenment of their minds by His teaching might have come forward to defend Him! But no, His coward followers are silent when their Lord is slandered. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter” and no pitying voice entreats that He may be delivered. True, His judge’s wife tries to persuade her husband to have nothing to do with Him and her vacillating husband offers to liberate Him if the mob will have it so—but none will raise the shout of “loose Him and let Him go.” He was not literally alone upon the Cross, yet He was really so in a deep spiritual sense. Though a few loving ones gathered at the foot of the Cross, yet these could offer Him no assistance and probably dared not utter more than a tearful protest. Perhaps the boldest there was that dying thief who called Him, Lord, and expostulated with his brother-malefactor, saying, “This Man has done nothing amiss.” [See Sermon #1881, Volume 32—THE DYING THIEF IN A NEW LIGHT


http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols52-54/chs3052.pdf

Matthew 16:24 (ESV)

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

brinny said:

Edifying words and verses as we journey on. Keep on keepin' on, brother in Christ and beloved son of the Most High God.

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Amen, keep on keepin' on.