The Path Of Righteousness And Peace Psalms 23:1-3 Psalms 25:9-10 Psalms 73:21-28 Jeremiah 6:16 Luke 1:76-79 05.06.15

THE PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE

BREAD

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.   Psalms 23:1-3 (NIV)

9 He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. 10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.   Psalms 25:9-10 (NIV)

21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. 23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. 28 But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.   Psalms 73:21-28 (NIV)

16 This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)

76 “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”  Luke 1:76-79 (NIV)

BUTTER

“This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being but becoming; not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” Martin Luther

“The Gospel is God’s explosive power that changes everything. The gospel makes us Christians….  God forgives your sin, declares you righteous in Christ, gives you eternal life, adopts you as His child, and ushers you into an intimate relationship with Himself, through the Holy Spirit. Secondly, the gospel grows us.  The gospel is not merely the way we enter, it is the way we make all progress…it is the ‘way of righteousness from first to last.’…  Since the gospel not only makes us Christians, but also grows us as Christians, the most desperate need of both unbelievers and believers... is to hear and appropriate the Gospel to their lives. Thirdly, the gospel empowers us to serve…with a whole new motivational structure…setting us free to love and serve unconditionally in response to God’s grace in Christ”.   Dick Kaufmann

“God’s wrath is His righteousness reacting against unrighteousness.”   J. I. Packer

“Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives.  Many have so light an apprehension of God’s holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin that consciously they see little need for justification, although below the surface of their lives they are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure.  Many others have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification….drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity…their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.  Few start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.”    Richard Lovelace

“God hath in Himself all power to defend you, all wisdom to direct you, all mercy to pardon you, all grace to enrich you, all righteousness to clothe you, all goodness to supply you, and all happiness to crown you.”   Thomas Brooks

“Would you follow Christ?  Then follow Him in self-denial, in humility, in patience, and in readiness for every good work.  Follow Him with a daily cross upon your back, and look to His cross to make your burden light.  Follow Him as your Guide and Guard, and learn to see with His eyes, and to trust in His arm for defense.  Follow Him as the Friend of sinners, who healeth the broken in heart, and giveth rest to the weary souls, and casteth out none that come unto Him.   Follow Him with faith, resting your whole acceptance with God, and your title to heaven, on His meritorious blood and righteousness.  Lastly, follow Him with much prayer.  For, though He is full of compassion, He loves to be much entreated; and when He is determined to give a blessing, you must yet wrestle with Him for it.  Thus follow Jesus, and He will lead you to glory.”   K. H. Von Bogatzky

“Faith in Jesus crucified is the way of peace to the sinner; so faith in Jesus risen is the way of daily salvation to the saint.”  Hudson Taylor

“Cheered by the presence of God, I will do at each moment, without anxiety, according to the strength which He shall give me, the work that His Providence assigns me.  I will leave the rest without concern; it is not my affair.  I ought to consider the duty to which I am called each day, as the work that God has given me to do, and to apply myself to it in a manner worthy of His glory, that is to say, in exactness and peace.”   Fenelon  

HEART SAVOR

• ·       Christ is my righteousness and my peace.
• ·       Christ guides me in the path of righteousness leading me on to glory.  He is my ever present Leader shining light upon my way guiding my feet safely on the path of peace.
• ·       God has all power to defend me, righteousness to clothe me and wisdom to direct me.  Why would I ever need to be anxious?  The beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him.  He is my Rock and Shield.