I am a recovering self-centered pragmatic pray-er — a believer who spent many of my first years in Christ thinking of God more as a sugar daddy than the
sovereign Father. Prayer, for me, had more in common with programming a heavenly computer than surrendering to a loving Master. I worked harder at claiming God’s promises for my ease than being claimed by God’s purposes for His kingdom.  Instead of being still and knowing that God is God, my prayer life was that of an antsy man, trying to help God be God.

Alas, this was a manifestation of the man-centered gospel that distorted my view of God and, therefore, enfeebled my practice of prayer. Thankfully, continued growth in grace has led me to a better understanding of the gospel, which, in turn, has radically reoriented my prayer life. It’s not cliché; it’s wondrously true: the gospel changes everything... READ MORE

Contentment is one of the most difficult Christian virtues to attain. Almost
four hundred years ago, Jeremiah Burroughs referred to the “rare jewel” of
Christian contentment. It is safe to say that contentment is no more common in our day than it was in Burroughs’. Yet, it remains one of the most crucial
virtues. A contented Christian is the one who best knows God’s sovereignty and
rests in it. A contented Christian trusts God, is pure in heart, and is the one
most willing to be used of God — however God sees fit.  We live in a world that breeds discontent. We are bombarded with the message that to be happy we need more things, less wrinkles, better vacations, and fewer troubles. But, ultimately, the problem is the sinful human heart. We are often discontented in our jobs, our marriages, our churches, our homes — in most areas of our lives. We can easily despair that we will never be able to attain contentment. But the Bible teaches us not only that we must be content (Heb. 13:5), it teaches us that we can be content...
Read the rest of William Barcley's Article HERE

It is no novelty, then, that I am preaching; no new doctrine.  I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, that are called by nickname CALVINISM, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.  By this truth I make a pilgrimage into (the) past, and as I go, I see father after father, confessor after confessor, martyr after martyr, standing up to shake hands with me...Taking these things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land of the ancients peopled with my brethren;  I behold multitudes who confess the same as I do, and acknowledge that this is the religion of God's own church."  C.H. Spurgeon

"God, The Determiner of history, prepares the man for the hour and the hour for the man. As the sole Builder of His church, the Lord Jesus Christ appoints the time when and the place where each man will find himself on the grander stage of history.  With infinite genius and perfect design, Christ sovereignly chooses His men (John 15:16), calling them from their mothers' wombs (Jere.1:5;  Luke 1:15; Gal.1:15-16) to fulfill the specific work they will do (Eph.2:10).  Even the very success they will enjoy is determined by Christ, who alone causes the growth (1Cor.3:6-7)."   
                                Steve Lawson  "Foundations of Grace"  pg.41

Here's the full Q&A session from the last post:

In a questions and answers session at the Ligonier 2010 National Conference, Alistair Begg and R.C. Sproul answered the question, 
“Why don’t Christians care that they sin?”

I am not what I ought to be.
Ah! how imperfect and deficient.
Not what I might be,
considering my privileges and opportunities.
Not what I wish to be.
God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like  him.
I am not what I hope to be;
ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as He is.
Not what I once was,
a child of sin, and slave of the devil.

Thought not all these,
not what I ought to be,
not what I might be,
not what I wish or hope to be, and
not what once was,

 I think I can truly say with the apostle,
“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

-John Newton (1725-1807), cited in Letters of John Newton, p. 400.