Low views of yourself?

(Octavius Winslow, "Evening Thoughts")

What are you to yourself?
worthless?
vile?
empty?

What is Jesus to you?
precious?
lovely?
all your salvation?
all your desire?

What is sin to you?
the most hateful thing in the world?

What is holiness to you?
most lovely?
most longed for?

What is the throne of grace to you?
the most attractive spot?

What is the cross to you?
the sweetest resting place in the universe?

What is God to you?
your God?
your Father?
the spring of all your joys?
the fountainhead of all your bliss?
the center where your affections meet?

Is it so? Then you are a child of God!

Those low views of yourself . . . .
that brokenness,
that inward mourning,
that secret confession,
that longing for . . .
more spirituality,
more grace,
more devotedness,
more love,
does but prove the existence, reality,
and growth of God's work within you.

Cheer up, precious soul!

That soul never perished, that felt itself
to be vile, and Jesus to be precious!

__________________
1689 Baptist Confession

Psa 55:16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
Psa 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
James Farley, Wilderness Road Baptist Assembly.
Husband of Melissa and father of Ann.
www.wildernessroadbaptist.org

If you don't, you should have.

__________________
Daniel Ritchie
Saintfield, Northern Ireland - Queen's University, Belfast:History/Politics
Member of Dromara Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland (Covenanter)

I have a vanity problem.

__________________

Travis Speegle
Redeemer Presbyterian, PCA (Waco, Tx)
Pacific Cross Roads, PCA (Los Angeles, CA)


"When it comes to trustworthy theologians one can usually honor the rule of thumb that the deader the better."-Dr. John Hannah, DTS (of all places)

A little age will usually take care of that.

Self-Esteem? What has sin made of God's creature?

"I come before thy throne of grace
and throw myself upon my face.
I know that I am but a worm,
So step on me , Lord--and watch me squirm!"

__________________
Sterling Harmon
Coventry, CT
PCA
Deacon
________________

"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk

i wrote a paper on it for my english lit. class. i debunked self esteem. At the time my wife thought I was crazy, now she has come to esteem Christ and his grace and esteem herself as nothing. Self esteem is for the vain, Christ esteem is for the lowly.

__________________
Paul W.
Pastor, SBC, soon to be leaving
Girard, Illinois