Without Mixture

"Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together," Deuteronomy 22:11.

"As Christ was preached under types and figure through the whole Law, we may reasonably suppose that not a single command was then given but what had an eye to Him and His great salvation. But if we find the LORD so strict respecting the outward dress of the body, what may we conclude the LORD would enjoin respecting the inward clothing of the soul? If woolen and linen were offensive to be worn together, surely, we cannot appear before God in the motley dress of Jesus' righteousness and our own. The fine linen, scripture saith, is the righteousness of saints. With this, which Jesus puts on His people, nothing of our own woolen garments must be worn. The righteousness of a creature, had we any, which in fact we have none, cannot be suited to mix with the righteousness of the Creator." -- Robert Hawker in Shreveport Grace Church Bulletin, July 4, 2010

Righteousness

Psalm 141:3 - Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

"Doing righteousness does not constitute one righteous before God, but proves that a man is already righteous before Him, and that he is already born of Him." --Elder P. T. Oliphant, 1914

Glorying Only In The Cross

“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Galatians 6:14

"I cannot, and, God helping me, I will not, while the Lord gives me strength to open my poor mouth, but speak well of love in God and the Holy Spirit, for it was He that laid hold of me in my mad career of sin, put a cry into my heart to cry unto God, and stopped me from going about to establish a righteousness of my own. His invisible hand kept me from being my own murderer. He revealed in my heart pardoning blood and IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS; and some scores of times, when the enemy has come into my poor soul with such a tremendous flood of awful blasphemies against the Holy Trinity, especially against the Holy Spirit, that I have been sunk so low that at times I could see no more hope that God would ever appear in love and mercy for me than He would appear for devils, He has, bless His dear Name, lifted up again a glorious standard, and brought me up again out the horrible pit, and set my feet again upon the Rock of ages."

John Warburton (1776–1857), English Baptist, as quoted in Shreveport Grace Church Bulletin - August 16, 2009

Keeping up with the Joneses

"Quit trying to keep up with the Joneses -- most likely they're headed to divorce or bankruptcy!" [perhaps not an exact quote; made by someone on the radio named Dave Ramsey]

I hope your New Year's Resolution isn't to keep up with the Joneses!

Worth passing on

The following appeared in a Dear Abby column discussing the breast-feeding of babies:

"It never fails to amaze me how a society that participates in the viewing of violence, sex, mean-spiritedness and idle gossip as entertainment can become 'outraged' seeing the act of breast-feeding an infant. It's time we got our priorities straight!" -- T. P. in Manistee, MI

Immorality in society; immorality on TV

Church of Christ evangelist Jimmy Thomas wrote, "It seems to me the height of hypocrisy for one to deplore the immoral condition of our society and then spend much of the time being entertained by the same sins on T.V." -- The Gospel Observer, 27 Sept 1997

Alterations

"The Holy Spirit is not a tailor who alters the robe of righteousness to fit the man, but He is a surgeon who alters the man to fit the robe of righteousness."

The above is not original with me. I heard or read it somewhere and wrote it in the margin of my Bible with Isaiah 61:10 (but with no attribution of who said/wrote it).

Does God Decree Sin?

Thoughts on Does God Decree Sin? by Nathan White. 25 April 2007

"Keeping the law"

"Those who think that they can somehow keep the law or fulfill conditions of obedience are ignorant of both the rigors of the law and the weakness of their own flesh." -- Mike McInnis (elder) Grace Chapel, O'Brien, Florida (e-mail Fri 15 Dec 2006)