John Trapp on Repentance

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | | Posted On Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 8:18 AM

"Amendment of life is the best repentance."
John Trapp


Thomas Brooks on Being an Example

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 8:52 AM

"Example is the most powerful rhetoric."
Thomas Brooks


R.J. Rushdoony on Christ's Atoning work and the Law

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 7:00 AM


"The purpose of Christ's atoning work was to restore man to a position of covenant-keeping instead of covenant-breaking, to enable man to keep the law by freeing man "from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2), "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us" (Rom 8:4). Man is restored to a position of law-keeping."
R.J. Rushdoony


Samuel Rutherford on the Transitoriness of Prosperity

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, January 28, 2013 at 7:00 AM

"Build your nest upon no tree here; for you see God has sold the forest to death"
Samuel Rutherford


Henry Smith on Marriage

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Friday, January 25, 2013 at 7:43 AM

"When Adam was away, Eve was made a prey."
Henry Smith


Vavasor Powell on Persecution

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 7:31 AM

"Much grace exercised, brings persecution:  for the sweeter and better the fruit is, the more slinging there will be at the tree."
Vavasor Powell
(1617-1670)

William Gurnall on Regeneration

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 7:53 AM

"Thou must be righteous and holy. before thou canst live righteously and holily."
William Gurnall


John Flavel on Providence

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 8:56 AM


If therefore in doubtful cases you would discover God's will, govern yourselves in your search after it by the following rules:

1. Get the true fear of God upon your hearts. Be really afraid of offending him. God will not hide his mind from such a soul. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant" (Psalm 25:14).

2. Study the Word more, and the concerns and interests of the world less. The Word is light to your feet (Psalm 119:105), that is, it has a discovering and directing usefulness as to all duties to be done and dangers to be avoided.  It is the great oracle at which you are to enquire.  Treasure up its rules in your hearts, and you will walk safely.  "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee" (Ps 119:11).

3. Reduce what you know into practice, and you shall know what is your duty to practice. "If any man do his will he shall know of the doctrine" (John 7:17). "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments" (Psalm 111:10).

4. Pray for illumination and direction in the way that you should go. Beg the Lord to guide you in straits and that he would not permit you to fall into sin.  This was the holy practice of Ezra:  "Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and our little ones, and for all our substance" (Ezra 8:21)

5. And this being done, follow Providence so far as it agrees with the Word and no further. There is no use to be made of Providence against the Word, but in subservience to it.
John Flavel
(From: The Mystery of Providence)



Samuel Rutherford on Knowledge

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, January 21, 2013 at 7:00 AM


"I may be a bookman, and yet be an idiot and stark fool in Christ's way! Learning will not beguile Christ. The Bible beguiled the Pharisees, and so may I be misled."
Samuel Rutherford


Elisha Coles on God's Judgement

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Friday, January 18, 2013 at 8:05 AM

"His will is the rule of righteousness, and righteousness is the rule of His will."
Elisha Coles
(1608 - 1688)


Andrew Willet on Covetousness

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 7:45 AM


"It is a common saying that a hog is good for nothing whilst he is alive: not good to bear or carry, as the horse; nor to draw, as the ox; nor to clothe, as the sheep; nor to give milk, as the cow; nor to keep the house, as the dog; but ad solan mortem nutritur (fed only to the slaughter). So a covetous rich man, just like a hog, doth no good with his riches whilst he liveth, but when he is dead his riches come to be disposed of.  "The riches of a sinner are laid up for the just.""
Andrew Willet
(1562-1621)


George Gillespie on the Scriptures and Civil Magistrates

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Wednesday, January 16, 2013 at 6:52 AM


"48.  For to that end also in the holy Scripture profitable, to show which is the best manner of governing a commonwealth, and that the magistrate, as being God's minister, may by this guiding star be so directed, as that he may execute the parts of his office according to the will of God, and may perfectly be instructed to every good work; yet the minister is not said properly to treat of civil businesses, but of the scandals which arise about them, or in the cases of conscience which occur in the administration of the commonwealth, so also the magistrate is not properly said to be exercised about the spiritual things of the church, but rather about those external things which adhere unto and accompany the spiritual things."
George Gillespie 
(From: CXI Propositions Concerning the Ministry and Government of the Church)


John Calvin on the Necessity of Scripture

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 9:32 AM


"Suppose we ponder how slippery is the fall of the human mind into forgetfulness of God, how great the tendency to every kind of error, how great the lust to fashion constantly new and artificial religions. Then we may perceive how necessary was such written proof of the heavenly doctrine, that it should neither perish through forgetfulness nor vanish through error nor be corrupted by the audacity of men. It is therefore clear that God has provided the assistance of the Word for the sake of all those to whom he has been pleased to give useful instruction because he foresaw that his likeness imprinted upon the most beautiful form of the universe would be insufficiently effective."
John Calvin

John Flavel on God's Faithfulness

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Monday, January 14, 2013 at 6:25 AM

"As God did not at first choose you because you were high, so He will not forsake you because you are low."
John Flavel


J.C. Ryle on Church Attendance

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Friday, January 11, 2013 at 7:00 AM


"We shall all do well to remember the charge: “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is.” (Heb. 10:25). Never to be absent from God’s house on Sundays, without good reason – never to miss the Lord’s Supper when administered in our own congregation – never to let our place be empty when means of grace are going on, this is one way to be a growing and prosperous Christian. The very sermon that we needlessly miss, may contain a precious word in season for our souls. The very assembly for prayer and praise from which we stay away, may be the very gathering that would have cheered, established, and revived our hearts. We little know how dependent our spiritual health is on little, regular, habitual helps, and how much we suffer if we miss our medicine."
J.C. Ryle


Thomas Watson on Worship and the Hearing of God's Word

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 7:00 AM


"Many come to the word only to feast their ears; they like the melody of the voice, the mellifluous sweetness of the expression, the newness of the notion, Acts xvii. 21. This is to love the garnishing of the dish more than the food; this is to desire to be pleased, rather than edified. Like a woman that paints her face, but neglects her health: so they paint and adorn themselves with curious speculations, but neglect their soul's health. This hearing doth neither sanctify the heart, nor the sabbath.
Thomas Watson


John Calvin on Worship of God

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at 6:54 AM

"And we ought to note this fact even more diligently:  all men have a vague general veneration for God, but very few really reverence him;  and wherever there is great ostentation in ceremonies, sincerity of heart is rare indeed."
John Calvin


William Wilberforce on Ends of Religion

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 7:01 AM


"Is it not the great end of religion, and, in particular, the glory of Christianity, to extinguish the malignant passions; to curb the violence, to control the appetites, and to smooth the asperities of man; to make us compassionate and kind, and forgiving one to another; to make us good husbands, good fathers, good friends; and to render us active and useful in the discharge of the relative social and civil duties?"
William Wilberforce

Martyn-Lloyd Jones on Preaching

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, January 7, 2013 at 7:00 AM


"My argument is, therefore, that a man who feels he is competent, and that he can do this easily, and so rushes to preach without any sense of fear or trembling, or any hesitation whatsoever, is a man who is proclaiming that he has never been "called" to be a preacher.  The man who is called by God is a man who realizes what he is called to do, and he so realizes the awfulness of the task that he shrinks from it.  Noting but this overwhelming sense of being called, and of compulsion, should ever lead anyone to preach."
Martyn-Lloyd Jones


J.C. Ryle on Trials

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Friday, January 4, 2013 at 10:25 AM


"How would the great work of sanctification go on in a person if they had no trial? Trouble is often the only fire which will burn away the dross that clings to our hearts. Trouble is the pruning–knife which Christ employs in order to make us fruitful in good works. The harvest of the Lord’s field is seldom ripened by sunshine only. It must go through its days of wind, rain and storm."
J.C. Ryle


Increase Mather on Following God over Men

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 9:42 AM


"[Although resistance would provoke] great sufferings, [it was] better to suffer than sin.  Let them trust in the God of their fathers, which is better than to put confidence in princes.  And if they suffer, because they dare not comply with the wills of men against the will of God, they suffer in a good cause."
Increase Mather


Jonathan Edwards on Salvation

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at 7:00 AM


"You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary."
Jonathan Edwards


J.C. Ryle on the Christian's Walk

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 7:30 AM


‎"A Christian is a walking sermon. They preach far more than a minister does, for they preach all week long."
J.C. Ryle