Joel Beeke on the Heidelberg Catechism

From the Meet the Puritans site (which is great btw)

Meet the Puritans

Meet the Puritans with Joel Beeke on Christ the Center (mp3)

Meet the Puritans (book)

Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory?

From the Of First Importance blog. Put this one in your reader for a daily dose of the gospel. This blog is my favorite of all the ones I read.

“The victory lies not with us, but with Christ, who has taken on him both to conquer for us and to conquer in us. The victory lies neither in our own strength to get it, nor in our enemies’ strength to defeat it. If it lay with us, we might justly fear. But Christ will maintain his own government in us and take our part against our corruptions. They are his enemies as well as ours.

Let us therefore be `strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’ (Eph. 6:10). Let us not look so much at who our enemies are as at who our judge and captain is, nor at what they threaten, but at what he promises. We have more for us than against us. What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory?”

—Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1998), 122

Imputed Righteousness, Tainted Repentance, and the Grace of God

This prayer was posted on a monthly handout for the members of SGBCjax. I find myself returning to it often.

CONTINUAL REPENTANCE

A Puritan Prayer

O GOD OF GRACE,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul,clothing me with a bridegroom's robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bring forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day's work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.