II Timothy 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 14  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15  And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (KJV)

Psalm 1
1  Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2  but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3  He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4  The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6  for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 32:9
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

We have all been unwise, like a mule
Your commandments we have refused

Fallen into blinding pride, by lust consumed
Your ancient landmarks we have removed

Your Word is no longer our soul's delight
No longer valiant for truth, in our own eyes wise

We bend out tongues like bows for lies
Call evil good, put darkness for light

Every thought of our heart is backsliding
We walk according to our own devices

We turned away from goodness and grace
Spurned the true Vine, the pilgrim's way

Like sheep we have wandered and gone astray
Foolish and brutish, insisting on our own evil way

Walking in the counsel of our own imagination
In the midst of deceit we have made our habitation

Running headstrong down the path of utter demise
Drinking of broken cisterns, how can we be wise?

Undiscerning, carried about by every wind of doctrine,
Falling prey to devilish schemes and human cunning

Children, tossed to and fro, now without a single root
Brazenly declaring, "We are lords, we will not bow to You."

Jeremiah 9
3  They bend their tongue like a bow;
falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me, declares the LORD.
4  Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
and put no trust in any brother,
for every brother is a deceiver,
and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5  Everyone deceives his neighbor,
and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
they weary themselves committing iniquity.
6  Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.

Amos 2:4  Thus says the LORD:

“For three transgressions of Judah,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have rejected the law of the LORD,
and have not kept his statutes,
but their lies have led them astray,
those after which their fathers walked.

5  So I will send a fire upon Judah,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

Hosea 5:10
The princes of Judah have become
like those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.

We thirst, we wither, groan and languish
No longer do we prosper and flourish

"Peace, peace!" was the temptress' promise
But we found no joy, our souls have no rest

O, God, to this prodigal place, condescend
Divine grace pour down, bring us to our senses

By our adulterous hearts You are crushed
Your Spirit we have grieved and quenched

Vile sinners against Your light and love,
We are unworthy to be called Your sons

Lamentations 5
15  The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has been turned to mourning.
16  The crown has fallen from our head;
woe to us, for we have sinned!
17  For this our heart has become sick,
for these things our eyes have grown dim,
18  for Mount Zion which lies desolate;
jackals prowl over it.
19  But you, O LORD, reign forever;
your throne endures to all generations.
20  Why do you forget us forever,
why do you forsake us for so many days?
21  Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old—
22  unless you have utterly rejected us,
and you remain exceedingly angry with us.

Hosea 6:4
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away.

Our love is as the dew that goes away early
Your love steadfast, enduring throughout eternity

Our righteousness is as filthy garments
Your righteousness pure, undefiled, spotless

Our way is crooked, vain and stumbling
Your way straight, profitable, humbling

We have been plundered, seized as spoil
You are goodness, wheat, wine and oil

O, Lord, we confess we have been rebellious
Flame of Jehovah, for Your name be zealous

Out of Egypt, You did call us
O, God, how can You give us up?

You drew us with bands of love
O, God, how can You give us up?

We are as untrained calves
You are our Passover Lamb

Divine justice pronounces, "Burn them!"
But Your mercy yearns, "How can I spurn!"

But for Your grace, we would be as Sodom and Gomorrah
If You had not left a very small remnant – utterly destroyed

Hosea 11
8  How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9  I will not execute my burning anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not a man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
10  They shall go after the LORD;
he will roar like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west;
11  they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria,
and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD.

Chasten us, and we will be chastened.
Discipline us, and we will be disciplined.
Humble us, and we will be humbled.
Break us, and we will be broken.
Wash us, and we will be washed.
Circumcise us, and we will be circumcised.
Breathe upon us, and we will breathe.
Quicken us, and we will be quickened.
Revive us, and we will be revived.
Turn us, and we will be turned.
Lead us, and we will be led.
Return us, and we will return.
Gather us, and we will be gathered.
Restore us, and we will be restored.
Reform us, and we will be reformed.
Renew us, and we will be renewed.
Satisfy us, and we will be satisfied.
Rejoice us, and we will rejoice.

Jeremiah 31
9  With weeping they shall come,
and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10  “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11  For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12  They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
and they shall languish no more.
13  Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14  I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the LORD.”
15  Thus says the LORD:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.”
16  Thus says the LORD:
“Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the LORD,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17  There is hope for your future,
declares the LORD,
and your children shall come back to their own country.
18  I have heard Ephraim grieving,
‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
like an untrained calf;
bring me back that I may be restored,
for you are the LORD my God.
19  For after I had turned away, I relented,
and after I was instructed, I slapped my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
20  Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the LORD.

Divine Justice said, Make them as Admah; set them as Zeboim; but Mercy said, How shall I do it? Hos. xi. 8,9.

Do you understand the grievous offense it is to our holy God to turn away, even in the smallest point, even in the thoughts and intents of the deepest recesses of your heart, from the Word of God and walk in your own way?

Hebrews 4:11  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13  And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Saturday, September 22 [1739]. Underwent inexpressible agonies of soul for two or three days, at the remembrance of my sins, and the bitter consequences of them. All the while I was assured God has forgiven me; but I could not forgive myself for sinning against so much light and love. I felt something for that which Adam felt when turned out of Paradise; David, when he was convicted of adultery; and Peter, when with oaths and curses he had thrice denied his Master. At length, my Lord looked upon me, and with that look broke my rocky heart, and I wept bitterly. When in this condition, I wondered not at Peter's running so slowly to the sepulchre, when loaded with the sense of his sin. Were I always to see myself such a sinner as I am, and as I did then, without seeing the Saviour of sinners, I should not be able to look up.

Have you begun know in a real sense the extent of your sinfulness in light of the breadth and length and depth and height of God's love, mercy and grace for you in the Lord Jesus Christ?

What is Biblical mourning? (Ash Wednesday)
Biblical mourning, assurance and false guilt
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Why the Cross? Part 1-The Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin
Things to Look for in a Church: Humility before God leading to confession, repentance & fruits worthy of repentance
Lenten Reflections: "all that is talked about the sufferings of Jesus" (Joseph Hart)
Bible Reading: Lamentations 1:12-Is His Sacrifice nothing to you?
"I thirst! I thirst!" Whitefield's experience of joy (letter 51 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Dear children | Hosea 2:5 For their mother hath played the harlot
Dealing with past sins & guilt: God's good gift of guilt
sin's cold deception, my Father's warm reception
the lost treasures of Christianity & the call to pray for revival (Bible reading: Ezra 1)
never underestimate the prowling lion
dedication 2010 (reflections on God's Word & God's grace)
postcards from England: "The Burden for Revival" (ML-J)
Postcards from England: do you care?
postcards from England: we're never to give way to false gospels
Keep your heart with diligence, Take heed, beware the little foxes
Resolved to be abandoned to God's will
God's Love in Christ Freely Electing ~ Shall we break Your commands again?
"Going up?" | Discernment: "God's Breath ~ world's breaths" | my calling
Two Fountains ~ Where are you drinking? What is flowing? Don't waste your drinking!
Are you really Mine?
What is a nominal Christian?
Half a heart, half a heart (How long? If the LORD is God, follow Him)
When I fed them to the full ~ Jeremiah 5:7
His seed (If ye be Christ's ~ He came seeking fruit)
Blessed Be God for His Kindness Which Leads Us to Repentance
I asked to know Your love
Letter 7 on assurance and fighting for joy (remember His love for us while we were sinners)
Letter 25 on assurance and fighting for joy (a strong craving ≠ His joy)
true repentance leads to joy (Letter 37 on assurance & fighting for joy)

Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Photo credit: Juancito found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juancito.jpg | PD

Does your mouth tell of the LORD's righteous acts and His deeds of salvation all the day? Do you remind others of Christ's righteousness, His alone?

Acts 4:19 Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20  for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Have you ever found yourself in the same position as Peter and John were, where you couldn't help but speak of the Lord Jesus Christ?

John 7:37  On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

You may profess to be a Christian, but have you ever drunk of the living Christ? Have you tasted and seen He is good? Have you experienced times when those rivers of living water spring up and burst and flow out of your heart through the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit to witness to others of God's mercies and grace?

In Philippians 3, though the apostle Paul already knew Christ, he wrote of pressing on to know Christ more. In Ephesians 1 and 3, though the Ephesian Christians were saved, though they had entered into a knowledge of God's inheritance, though they knew of Christ's love for them, yet Paul was praying for these saints to enter into an even greater and deeper and higher and knowledge of their inheritance and of God's love for them in Jesus Christ. Are you urgently desiring these things for yourselves? Do you pray such prayers for yourself and all the saints? I would urge you to read those chapters prayerfully and then ask God to give you grace to examine your own life, your prayers, your desires and your ambitions in light of God's Word.

In II Corinthians, Paul writes of the love of God controlling believers.

Have you ever known such an experience of the love of God? Is the love of God increasingly controlling, compelling and constraining you so you no longer desire to live for yourself but desire to live for Christ and to be an ambassador for Christ? Are your ambitions holy or worldly?

If the love of God is not controlling you, who or what is? Who or what is your master? To whom or what are you bowing? Have you usurped God's rightful place to reign? How are you continuing to bow to and serve your own selfish, fleshly desires? How are you being controlled by the world's desires? Are you standing firmly in the center of your life, controlling your life and not rendering yourself to God's Spirit to work in you – in effect quenching and grieving and limiting the Holy Spirit of God?

If you are a new creation, you are an ambassador for Christ: you are sent out into the world, just as our Lord was sent into this world ... John 20:21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Have you known Almighty God's endowment through His promised Holy Spirit? Have you seen the living God working in you an increasing desire and ability to fulfill Jesus' commandment to be His witnesses to the end of the earth?

If you have been saved by grace, if you have been drawn to God's house, ought you not be exulting in God's goodnesses to you and exalting Him before all peoples?

if you have drunk of Christ's living water, ought not rivers of living water be bubbling up and flowing out of you into the dry and parched world?

If you have known God's love, ought His love not be compelling you to know Him more and to live to Him and to make Him and His praises known to the ends of the earth?

Through whom else does God make His appeal to a lost world but through His own chosen people?

LORD God, open our lips, that we might drink of You more and more deeply, so our mouths will declare Your praise more and more widely, that we might work out what You are working in us for Your good pleasure and for the glory of Your name.

we are but worms ~ nothing good dwells in us, nothing but our Christós
Jeremiah 23 - THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Advent #2 WHY HAS JESUS COME? to give his life as a ransom for many
Bible Reading: Lamentations 1:12-Is His Sacrifice nothing to you?
Forgiveness & cleansing of sin leads to God's Commission: "Penitents should be preachers"
Have you adopted God's purpose for the nations for your joy & His glory?
every brand snatched is a brand dispatched ~ Reflections on 9/11, Redemption & God's Mission
Is your ambition holy? / What are you living for? (Louis Paul Lehman) / The Christian's Aim
In which circle do you take your stand? ~ Hewitson's holy ambition ~ Are you a true disciple?
Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit
The flags unfurled ... Christ's eternal banner | Lloyd-Jones ~ a third type of assurance
Can there be more? | letter 113 on assurance & fighting for joy
"Follow me and I will make you fishers of men" | How are we to follow Jesus?
True Calvinism Is NOT
my soapbox
Blogging to build up the ruined Church of God (includes Piper on preaching as expository exultation)
may you hear joy & gladness (letter 83 on assurance & fighting for joy)
Bible Reading: Things To Look for in a Church–What We Find in Solomon's Temple, # 3: Worship
Things To Look for in a Church, 9: "Pearl Freaks" (a.k.a. a Kingdom-Obsessed People)
What is a nominal Christian?
Barabbas we save, Jesus Christ we slay (the mockery of profession ~ decisional regeneration)
Don't Waste Your Singleness | Single one ... be single-eyed
"And Jacob was left alone" ~ Don't waste your loneliness

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.
 
Photo credit: The Woman of Samaria at the Well by James Tissot found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Woman_of_Samaria_at_the_Well_%28La_Samaritaine_%C3%A0_la_fontaine%29_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg - PD - c. 1886-1894

 
Psalm 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 3  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 4  How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land? 5  If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 6  If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

I. The mournful posture they were in as to their affairs and as to their spirits. 1. They were posted by the rivers of Babylon, in a strange land, a great way from their own country, whence they were brought as prisoners of war. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. Their conquerors quartered them by the rivers, with design to employ them there, and keep them to work in their galleys; or perhaps they chose it as the most melancholy place, and therefore most suitable to their sorrowful spirits. If they must build houses there (Jer. xxix. 5), it shall not be in the cities, the places of concourse, but by the rivers, the places of solitude, where they might mingle their tears with the streams. We find some of them by the river Chebar (Ezek. i. 3), others by the river Ulai, Dan. viii. 2. 2. There they sat down to indulge their grief by poring on their miseries. Jeremiah had taught them under this yoke to sit alone, and keep silence, and put their mouths in the dust, Lam. iii. 28, 29. "We sat down, as those that expected to stay, and were content, since it was the will of God that it must be so." 3. Thoughts of Zion drew tears from their eyes; and it was not a sudden passion of weeping, such as we are sometimes put into by a trouble that surprises us, but they were deliberate tears (we sat down and wept), tears with consideration--we wept when we remembered Zion, the holy hill on which the temple was built. Their affection to God's house swallowed up their concern for their own houses. They remembered Zion's former glory and the satisfaction they had had in Zion's courts, Lam. i. 7. Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her misery, all her pleasant things which she had in the days of old, Ps. xlii. 4. They remembered Zion's present desolations, and favoured the dust thereof, which was a good sign that the time for God to favour it was not far off, Ps. cii. 13, 14. 4. They laid by their instruments of music (2): We hung our harps upon the willows. (1.) The harps they used for their own diversion and entertainment. These they laid aside, both because it was their judgment that they ought not to use them now that God called to weeping and mourning (Isa. xxii. 12), and their spirits were so sad that they had no hearts to use them; they brought their harps with them, designing perhaps to use them for the alleviating of their grief, but it proved so great that it would not admit the experiment. Music makes some people melancholy. As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart. (2.) The harps they used in God's worship, the Levites' harps. These they did not throw away, hoping they might yet again have occasion to use them, but they laid them aside because they had no present use for them; God had cut them out other work by turning their feasting into mourning and their songs into lamentations, Amos viii. 10. Every thing is beautiful in its season. They did not hide their harps in the bushes, or the hollows of the rocks; but hung them up in view, that the sight of them might affect them with this deplorable change. Yet perhaps they were faulty in doing this; for praising God is never out of season; it is his will that we should in every thing give thanks, Isa. xxiv. 15, 16.

Song of Solomon 5:9  What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us? 10  My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.

Isaiah 24:14  They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. 15  Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

my other letters on assurance and fighting for joy, including these:

Naphtali News: musing on this ocean of Xanga/Revelife
Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit, Come! (Joseph Hart)
As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
O, Lord, I have need of endurance today (yet You are here with me in the midst)
Though beyond all measure I be pressed ~ "the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials"
In darkest place
even in my disappointment - still blessed by my Father
when grace delays, has Love gone astray? ~ a hymn of assurance
In hope against hope believe, Blessed are all who believe
"And they cast him out." (John 9) ~ Providence is not surprised
By Shimei Cursed, By Jordan Refreshed (II Samuel 16:5-14)
In the multitude of our anxieties, the Lord's comforts alone delight our souls