glorycloud's Diaryland Diary

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Christ is the source of grace

It is in the ongoing death flow 9:23 AM Tuesday morning here in southwest Michigan. Outside it is snowing and gray. On the ground is a layer of ice and snow today. I was thinking of doing some more raking today, but now that seems an idle dream.

This morning I got up around 6 o'clock AM. I expected Carol to be home by 6:30 AM because this morning she has to drive her sister-in-law Gail to Grand Rapids, but she got home around 7:05 AM. She plans to get up at 11 o'clock AM and drive over to Freedom Village to pick Gail. Today Caro's brother Dave and his wife Gail find out from their doctor how advance the cancer has spread in Dave's body. Dave was suppose to go with Gail and Carol but he is now to weak to travel. They had rented a special van to take Dave, but now it is not in the plan.

I have been having one of those morning where I am constantly finding to keep my eyes open. I just want to fall into a dream state. What I should do is go for a brisk walk around the neighborhood. But what I do is go sit in the living room and doze like an old man. Sad to watch my slide into old age. I am a old fat bald man becoming stiff and out of focus.

This morning I made myself oatmeal for breakfast. After I ate my mush I wrote in my paper diary and read from these books for morning devotions-

'John 1-12' New Testament IV Reformation Commentary On Scripture Edited By Craig S. Farmer

'Reformed Preaching: Proclaiming God's Word from the Heart of the Preacher to the Heart of His People' by Joel R. Beeke

I will quote from 'John 1-12' Reformation Commentary on Scripture as an example of Reformed preaching-
"Repentance Precedes Grace. Wolfgang Musculus: We see here that we need two things in order to become partakers of heavenly grace. First, we need to have our sins brought to mind in such a way that we are truly afflicted by a sense of our sinfulness. Unless this happens, it will be useless for us to hear about the greatness of heavenly grace, something we see with this woman. For this reason, the preaching of repentance preceded the gospel of grace. It stings more when others admonish us even one time about our sins, especially hidden sins, than if our conscience reproves us ten times in private. The woman knew that the man she had was not hers, and yet she was not able to be driven to repentance by the pricks of her own conscience. She was, however driven to repentance by an admonishment coming from someone else. This is the same sort of thing that happened to David in 2 Samuel 11-12. He was not ignorant of his sins, but he was not driven to repentance until he heard the testimony of the prophet Nathan. Second, we need to recognize that Christ is the source of grace. This happens through the preaching of the gospel which leads us into knowledge of Christ. Without this, the preaching of repentance is for nothing. Commentary On John 4:17-18." pg. 134

It is now 9:53 AM Tuesday morning. I will close to get a fresh cup of coffee and try to not asleep on this cold snowy day.

9:55 a.m. - 2018-11-20

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