Nathan Pratt

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

who chose not Jerusalem, but Bethlehem, for his birthplace; not a palace nor a temple, but a stable for his first earthly home? Shall we not be followers of his lowly love? Shall we not deny self? Shall we not stoop for others as he has stooped for us?”

• Horatius Bonar

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

“Would you learn to be self-denied? Go to Bethlehem. See the Word made flesh. He "pleased not himself." Where shall we find such self-denial as at the cradle and the cross? Where shall we read a lesson of self-sacrifice, such as we have in him who made himself of no reputation;

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

“It may not always be clear that all the members sympathize with each other, but it is always clear that Christ sympathizes with each one of his people.”

• C. H. Spurgeon, “Your Only Comfort: Devotions for Hope in Suffering”, Edited by Geoffrey Chang.

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

2/2 Where shall we learn humility if not here? All earthly pride is here rebuked and put to shame. Be not proud, says yon Bethlehem manger. Be clothed with humility, say the swaddling-bands of yon helpless Child.”

• Horatius Bonar, “Family Sermons”

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

1/2 “Would you learn to be humble? Go to Bethlehem. There the highest is the lowest; the eternal Word a babe; the King of kings has not where to lay his head; the Creator of the universe sleeps in a woman's arms. How low he has become; how poor!

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

3/3 indeed distance is altogether annihilated. Love joins us so closely with Christ, that he becomes more to us than our very selves; and though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

• C. H. Spurgeon

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

1/3 “My soul exults in the doctrine that Christ and his people are everlastingly one. This is a very cheering doctrine. He that understands it has an ocean of music in his soul. He that can really grasp and feed upon it will often sit in the heavenly places with his Lord

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

2/3 and anticipate the day when he shall be with him, and shall be like him. Even now, since we are one with him, there is no distance between us, we are nearer to him than anything else can ever be. The very idea of union makes us forget all distance:

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

“Oh that heart and understanding
may grow together, like brother and
sister, leaning on one another!”

• Robert Murray M’Cheyne

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

5/5 Then write thy own words upon my heart and inscribe them on my lips;
So shall all glory be to thee in my reading of thy Word!

• The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

1/5 Bless to my soul all grains of truth garnered from thy Word;
may they take deep root, be refreshed by heavenly dew, be ripened by heavenly rays,
be harvested to my joy and thy praise.

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

4/5 From it show me how my words have often been
unfaithful to thee, injurious to my fellow-men, empty of grace, full of folly, dishonouring to my calling.

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

“Small numbers make no difference to God. There is nothing small that God is in.”

• D. L. Moody

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

Worthy of homage and of praise;
Worthy by all to be adored;
Exhaustless theme of heavenly lays;
Thou, Thou art worthy, Jesus, Lord.

• F. Theodora Wigram

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

@wordsofthislife A favourite supplier of ours. I have an aunt who lives close by them and she always has a jug for us when she visits. Good stuff!

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

”Ah, brethren, God has no light
thoughts of the Cross. No secondary
place in the plan of salvation. It is the
display of God’s righteousness and
grace, the ground of our peace and of
all our blessings.”

• Samuel Ridout

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

“Let us cultivate the spirit of prayer which is even better than the habit of prayer. There may be seeming prayer where there is little devotion. We should begin to pray before we kneel down, and we should not cease when we rise up.”

• Spurgeon, The Treasury of David

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

3/3 and the very hindrance that appears as an obstacle in our path may be a divine testing of our purpose, as well as the assurance that it will be carried out at God's appointed time.”

• Alva J. McClain, Romans: The Gospel of God’s Grace

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

1/3 “Hindrances are not always an evidence that our purposes are wrong. Too often we purpose to do something that we think is according to the divine will, and when we start to do it, a hindrance comes up (or two or three).

[Nathan Pratt @NathanPratt]

2/3 Immediately, with un-seeming haste, we decide that this is not God's will for us, and so we abandon it. But our purpose may be exactly according to the divine will, only perhaps we are trying to carry it out at the wrong time,