Chosen By A Sinner Quotes

God has set apart His people from before the foundation of the world to be His chosen and peculiar inheritance. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit when he subdues our corruptions, imparts to us grace, and leads us onward in the divine walk and life of faith. Christian men are not to be used for anything but God. They are a set-apart people; they are vessels of mercy, they are not for the devil’s use, not for their own use, not for the world’s use, but for their Master’s use. He has made them on purpose to be used entirely, solely and wholly for Him. O Christian people, be holy, for Christ is holy. Do not pollute that holy Name wherewith you are named. Let your family life, your personal life, your business life, be as holy as Christ your Lord would have it to be. Shall saints be shams when sinners are so real?

Adam and Eve didn't know what they would win or what they would lose until they'd both won and lost it. It's like that poem we read. The guy doesn't know what the meaning is of the road he took until he got to the end of it. You choose first, then you find out what you've chosen after. Every choice has a price. Sometimes we don't know what it is until after we've paid it.

She had chosen Dante because she found the rhyme scheme pleasingly jaunty, but she realized too late that the Inferno's tale of sinners being cruelly punished in the afterlife was much too bloody and disturbing to be suitable for young minds. Penelope could tell this by the way the children hung on her every word and demanded "More, more!" each time she reached the end of a canto and tried to stop.

I don’t want the sun to rise without you, so could you please stay with me until we’re old and we’ve lived every day this life gave us.

I've noticed that there is danger in spending all this time writing about those "publicans and sinners" over there in the great and spacious building. If our spot near the tree of life becomes a Rameumptom where we congratulate each other on our chosen-ness and look down on everyone else, then we're occupying nothing more than a branch office of the great and spacious.

And even though I’ll have to pretend that I don’t know you love me, I’ll wait patiently to hear you say those words to me again.

My purposes do not always include God’s good. I am a sinner.

You’re the only woman for me, Mariya. I’ve waited patiently while building my empire, and now that I’m the head of –” I catch myself before saying Italian mafia in front of Elvis. “Now that I’m at the top, there’s only one thing missing from my life.” I step closer to her as I admit, “You.” My thumb brushes over the diamond on her finger. “Everything I have, everything I am, is yours, Mariya.

Giving up alcohol is an asceticism for the modern do-gooder, drinking being, like sex, a pleasure that humans have always indulged in, involving a loss of self-control, the renunciation of which marks the renouncer as different and separate from other people. To drink, to get drunk, is to lower yourself on purpose for the sake of good fellowship. You abandon yourself, for a time, to life and fate. You allow yourself to become stupider and less distinct. Your boundaries become blurry: you open your self and feel connected to people around you. You throw off your moral scruples, and suspect it was only those scruples that prevented the feeling of connection before. You feel more empathy for your fellow, but at the same time, because you are drunk, you render yourself unable to help him; so, to drink is to say, I am a sinner, I have chosen not to help.

The power of grace is such that God declares sinners saints, blesses those who deserve a curse, and honors the dishonorable. We may be convinced of our sinfulness and worthlessness, but God, through Jesus, has declared otherwise. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are blessed; we are chosen; we are predestined; we are heirs; we have been redeemed and forgiven!

I am a runaway, lost at sea. I am a broken bird, yearning to fly free. I am a sinner, unworthy and unholy. I am a rose, wilting slowly. I am a raindrop, touching your cheek. I am a child who plays hide and seek. I am nothing, and yet I am everything. I am contradictions and complexities. I am a face with a hundred entities. I am love and I am hate. I am the voice that cannot communicate. I am a melody, haunting and sad. I am a soul that has slowly gone mad. I am death in a living body. I am a dangerous opium poppy. I am rage, running through my veins. I am pain, bound in chains. I am isolation, imprisoned in my mind. I am abandoned and left behind. I am tenderness, soft and kind. I am trust, naïve and blind. I am remorse, shattered and frozen. I am the path I have not chosen. I am sadness, drowning in an ocean. I am faith, yearning for devotion. I am madness, rebellious and wild. I am sanity, safely filed. I am wisdom, cursed and blessed. I am a name that will burn in your chest. I am a journey, destination unknown. I am a heart turned to stone. I am forever alone.

There will be no annulment, Principessa.

Thank God the man doesn’t know about the filthy things I want to do to his baby girl. He’d probably kill me with his bare hands.

I fully intend on sharing a bed with you, mia regina. I’m already thinking of her as ‘my queen.

Promises by EMO

I wrap an arm around Mariya to keep her locked to my side, then murmur, “Whatever you want, mia regina.

I can’t cook or do anything wives are supposed to do, but I love you, and I’m hoping that will be enough.

You’re mine, Mariya Cotroni.” Christ, hearing my last name attached to her name is everything

So many times, I had chosen not to be with her. Too busy. Too tires. Don't feel like dealing with it. Church? No thanks. Sinner? Sorry. Come down to visit? Can't do it, maybe next week.

Find a person once deeply involved in church who has chosen to leave it, and you will likely hear that something harsh obtruded into that person's faith. Perhaps it was some Christians' judgmental attitude about a marriage situation. How many divorced people have left the church when made to feel like second-class citizens? Or perhaps it was disapproval of a habit, like smoking. Having treated emphysema and removed cancerous lungs, I hate smoking. And I hate what divorce does to its victims, especially the children. But I must not allow my views on smoking or divorce to drive people away. For a model, I must look to Jesus, who opposed the sin but loved the sinner. Though he openly declared God's laws, somehow he conveyed them with such love that he became known as the friend of sinners.

Sometimes difficulty clarifies things. And sometimes realizing that the road you’ve chosen is a demanding one gives you the courage to stay on that road. It reveals the nature of our relationship with God. It sounds cute and comforting to say “God is in control,” and people who say that may imagine sitting on their daddy’s lap behind the wheel of the family car, going “Vroom vroomy vroom!” while Daddy does the steering. In reality, when God is in control, it feels more like one of those movies where some amateur has to step up and land the airplane or steer the ship to safety through a crashing storm, with an expert giving them instructions remotely through a headset. In theory, following the expert’s instructions will help us get in safely; but our fear, panic, self-doubt, and lack of skill are not exactly comforting. Yes, God is in control, but we’re the ones who are in for a rough ride.

Getting sober never felt like I had pulled myself up by my own spiritual bootstraps. It felt instead like I was on one path toward self-destruction and God pulled me off of it by the scruff of my collar, me hopelessly kicking and flailing and saying, “Screw you. I’ll take the destruction please.” God looked at tiny, little red-faced me and said, “that’s adorable,” and then plunked me down on an entirely different path. I am like a Lutheran Nikita. I was allowed not to die in exchange for working for God. I’d get a life back, a rich one I’d never have chosen out of a catalog, a life where I would marry a nice man, go to college, have a couple babies, attend seminary, become ordained as a Lutheran Pastor, and start a church. I’d get my life back, but eventually I’d have to work for God. I’d have to become God’s bitch.

Your dissatisfaction with the Church seems to me to come from an incomplete understanding of sin. This will perhaps surprise you because you are very conscious of the sins of Catholics; however what you seem actually to demand is that the Church put the kingdom of heaven on earth right here now, that the Holy Ghost be translated at once into all flesh. The Holy Spirit rarely shows Himself on the surface of anything. You are asking that man return at once to the state God created him in, you are leaving out the terrible radical human pride that causes death. Christ was crucified on earth and the Church is crucified in time, and the Church is crucified by all of us, by her members most particularly because she is a Church of sinners. Christ never said that the Church would be operated in a sinless or intelligent way, but that it would not teach error. This does not mean that each and every priest won’t teach error but that the whole Church speaking through the Pope will not teach error in matters of faith. The Church is founded on Peter who denied Christ three times and couldn’t walk on the water by himself. You are expecting his successors to walk on the water. All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful. Priests resist it as well as others. To have the Church be what you want it to be would require the continuous miraculous meddling of God in human affairs, whereas it is our dignity that we are allowed more or less to get on with those graces that come through faith and the sacraments and which work through our human nature. God has chosen to operate in this manner. We can’t understand this but we can’t reject it without rejecting life.

Lincoln was raised in the thick of Old School Calvinism. In Kentucky and Indiana, his parents belonged to a fire-breathing sect called Separate Baptism, in which congregants heard—in the tradition of Jonathan Edward’s famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”—that they were bound for eternal hellfire, and nothing they could do or say or think would change their fate. Preachers did allow that a chosen few were ordained for grace and would be saved, but these fortunate ones had been selected by God before time began. As one Baptist preacher in Lincoln’s Kentucky explained it, “Long before the morning stars sang together . . . the Almighty looked down upon the ages yet unborn, as it were, in review before him, and selected one here and another there to enjoy eternal life and left the rest to the blackness of darkness forever.” Such Baptist ministers were so intense that it has been said that they “out-Calvined Calvin.

When the pre-requisites of ascending life, when everything strong, plucky, masterful and proud has been eliminated from the concept of God, and step by step he has sunk down to the symbol of a staff for the weary, of a last straw for all those who are drowning; when he becomes the pauper’s God, the sinner’s God, the sick man’s God par excellence, and the attribute “Saviour,” “Redeemer,” remains over as the one essential attribute of divinity: what does such a metamorphosis, such an abasement of the godhead imply? —Undoubtedly, “the kingdom of God” has thus become larger. Formerly all he had was his people, his “chosen” people. Since then he has gone travelling over foreign lands, just as his people have done; since then he has never rested anywhere: until one day he felt at home everywhere, the Great Cosmopolitan — until he got the “greatest number,” and half the world on his side. But the God of the “greatest number,” the democrat among gods, did not become a proud heathen god notwithstanding: he remained a Jew, he remained the God of the back streets, the God of all dark corners and hovels, of all the unwholesome quarters of the world!

When everything necessary to ascending life; when all that is strong, courageous, masterful and proud has been eliminated from the concept of a god; when he has sunk step by step to the level of a staff for the weary, a sheet-anchor for the drowning; when he becomes the poor man's god, the sinner's god, the invalid's god par excellence, and the attribute of "saviour" or "redeemer" remains as the one essential attribute of divinity - just what is the significance of such a metamorphosis? what does such a reduction of the godhead imply? - To be sure, the "kingdom of God" has thus grown larger. Formerly he had only his own people, his "chosen" people. But since then he has gone wandering, like his people themselves, into foreign parts; he has given up settling down quietly anywhere; finally he has come to feel at home everywhere, and is the great cosmopolitan - until now he has the "great majority" on his side, and half the earth. But this god of the "great majority," this democrat among gods, has not become a proud heathen god: on the contrary, he remains a Jew, he remains a god in a corner, a god of all the dark nooks and crevices, of all the noisesome quarters of the world!... His earthly kingdom, now as always, is a kingdom of the underworld, a souterrain kingdom, a ghetto kingdom.... And he himself is so pale, so weak, so décadent.

Mariya Koslov – the only woman alive with the power to drive me fucking crazy. Christ, does she drive me crazy.

Of course.” I wouldn’t miss it for the world. It’s an excuse to be around the woman I consider my future wife.

I love the balance between us. Mariya’s direct and fucking strong, but she never tries to compete for absolute control in our relationship. It’s a give and take that’s hot as fuck. There’s no doubt in my mind this woman was made for me. She’s my soul mate in every way.

G-Wagon

Whoever you have your sights on can go fuck herself. You’re marrying me.

Are you coming to Mariya’s birthday party tomorrow night?” Viktor asks. “Of course.” I wouldn’t miss it for the world. It’s an excuse to be around the woman I consider my future wife.

I want a man who melts at the sight of me, who sees no other woman but me, who will burn down this planet for me.

Elli had mentioned that you were going to marry a woman named Amelia?” I snort. “That was my father’s plan. Not mine.” Giving him a quick look, I ask, “Why?” “Because…” He pauses. “We had a different plan.” I give him a quick look when he continues, “You and Ellington were to marry.” “Wait. You and my father had agreed for me and her to get married?” I make sure I heard him right. “Yeah.” He nods. “She was to be your chosen, and then you’d get married.” A rough laugh escapes my lips that I can’t stop. “Fucking perfect.” “What is?” “I begged him to do whatever it took to make her my chosen, and he said you didn’t want her involved with the Lords in any way. Her mother too.

When Satan was thrust out of heaven, he determined to make the earth his kingdom. When he tempted and overcame Adam and Eve, he thought that he had gained possession of this world; “because,” said he, “they have chosen me as their ruler.” he claimed that it was impossible that forgiveness should be granted to the sinner, and therefore the fallen race were his rightful subjects, and the world was his. But God gave his own dear Son—one equal with himself—to bear the penalty of transgression, and thus he provided a way by which they might be restored to his favor, and brought back to their Eden home. Christ undertook to redeem man and to rescue the world from the grasp of Satan. The great controversy begun in heaven was to be decided in the very world, on the very same field, that Satan claimed as his.

He is a hardened sinner who commits sin and yet simultaneously entertains the belief that he is one the God’s ‘chosen few

We are saved only by grace through faith.

The doctrine of predestination is controversial not because the Bible is unclear or because there are good arguments on all sides. It is controversial because sinful man lacks intelligence to grasp the truth and integrity to admit the truth. He demands salvation from God but refuses to give him the glory. He reserves a decisive role for himself, and declares that although God makes salvation possible for everyone, he makes it actual for no one until each person permits God to save him.   He convinces himself that he is the master of his soul, and that no one can take it out of his hands. Jesus said, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you" (John 15:16), but sinful man retorts, "You have 'chosen' me only because you know that I would choose you, so that my will logically precedes and determines your will!" He says, "If conversion is necessary, then by my will I will turn against my wickedness, even my own evil will, by my might I will escape from Satan's hold and sin's grip, and by my power I will turn to Christ and permit him to save me, as if I need him at all."   The religious sinner resents this representation. He obscures his thoughts with beautiful words and reverent expressions, but he is driven by such wickedness and defiance that he makes himself the center of the universe, so that even God must bow down and serve him. Thus "free will" is Satan's slogan, and Arminianism is his creed. On the other hand, the Christian faith declares, "Salvation comes from the LORD" (Jonah 2:9) – really and wholly from God.

Wow Josh, were you not the one who told us at breakfast this morning, why these people are the way they are? Here you are condemning and judging them already. You forget Jesus did not go on the cross for the righteous but for the sinners and these people qualify for that. Stop being judgemental and start demonstrating Godly Love; you were a sinner too. Don’t forget that.

Thus our Confession, agreeably to Scripture, represents each of the divine persons as acting a distinct part in the glorious work of human redemption, and as entirely concurring in counsel and operation. The Father chose a definite number of mankind sinners to eternal life; the Son laid down his life for those who were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and obtained for them eternal redemption, and the Holy Spirit applies the pure redemption to them in due season. Here all is perfect harmony. The Son fulfils the will of the Father, and the Spirit’s work is in entire accordance with the purpose of the Father and the mediation of the Son. But according to the scheme of general redemption, or of universal atonement, this harmony is utterly destroyed. The Son sheds his blood for multitudes whom the Father never purposed to save, and the Spirit does not put forth the influence necessary to secure the application of salvation to all for whom Christ died!

The 144,000 have the patience of the saints; they keep the commandments of God, and they also have the faith of Jesus. For them the doors of heaven will swing wide open. They enter as those who have a right to the tree of life, and with holy boldness they go with Jesus even into the presence of God. In this group God completes the demonstration of His power to save. The vilest sinners can be made fit companions for the saints in light. If these persons chosen from the last and weakest generation can endure the test given them, there is no excuse for the fall of Adam. He, in the fullness of strength, failed in the smallest test; these, in all the weakness of humanity, pass a test infinitely greater. Hence, God cannot be accused of requiring more of Adam than he could do. God is now looking for candidates for immortality. He is looking for men and women to make up the number required in the last demonstration. He wants converted, sanctified, dedicated people, such as will not boast of their attainments, but who in humility will follow in the Master's footsteps, exercise the faith He did, have the patience needed to finish the work, and at last enter with Him through the gates into the city.

Viktor’s dad, Uncle Demitri, is my godfather, and Dad is Viktor’s godfather.

Turning toward the entrance, my lips curve up as I watch my parents walk into the entertainment room, followed by Uncle Demitri, Aunt Ariana, and Viktor.

Printsessa.” I’m engulfed in a tight hug. “Happy birthday, my baby-girl.

Uncle Alexei snaps, “You fucking got married?” “Calm down.” Aunt Bella tries to keep him from losing his shit. “Yelling won’t fix anything.” “I’m not yelling,” he mutters as he sits down again, then he looks at my father.

If you harm a hair on my daughter’s head, I’ll kill you without hesitation.

Thank you for celebrating my baby girl’s birthday with us.” Thank God the man doesn’t know about the filthy things I want to do to his baby girl. He’d probably kill me with his bare hands.

Uncle Alexei raises an eyebrow. “It started the moment you said your vows, printsessa.

Lucrezia Castiglione could make any man stop and second-guess himself. But I’m not any man. I’m Dante fucking Terlizzi, the chosen one for taking over the family when my father retires. Lesser men may crumble under Lucrezia’s withering stare, but not me. I do not stumble or fall; I bow to no one. She’ll learn that soon enough.

I want to be a leader of freedom, love and truth. But Universe has chosen Jesus Christ. So I am an ordinary person and sinner… Rosen Markov 2024

There can be no separation of the Word of God from the church’s speech. God could speak to us today apart from human mediation, but he has chosen instead to address us through other sinners whose mouth he consecrates.

it’s easier to arrange a life in which it looks like you’ve chosen it all, as opposed to facing the truth: You have lost your ability to choose any of it.

Loved Then he calls us loved. “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.” If you are a believer in Christ, God, the maker of the universe, chose you, set you apart for himself, and loves you. He is for you and not against you. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

How could such a woman as she was be permitted to draw so near to Christ? Certain captious spirits will demand, “How should Jesus give to such unworthy ones such acceptance, such manifestations of himself, such privileges?” Our Lord took upon himself to defend her, and therefore she might well afford to hold her tongue. So shall it be with you. If Satan accuse you, and your enemies with loud-mouthed accusations cry out against you, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who will certainly plead your cause and clear you. Jesus by his defensive parable shows that he was justified in letting the woman approach, because great love prompted her. There was no sin in her approach, but much to commend, since her motive was excellent, and the motive is the true measure of a deed. She felt intense love and gratitude towards the person who had forgiven her; therefore, her acts were not to be forbidden , but commended. He justifies her and incidentally justifies himself. Had he not done well in having won a sinner’s heart to penitence and love? Was not election justified in having chosen one to such holy devotedness and fervency? At the last great day, the Lord will justify his grace before the eyes of the whole universe, for he will allow the grace-wrought virtues of his chosen ones to be unveiled, and all eyes shall see that grace reigns through righteousness. Then shall they for ever be silenced who accused the grace of God of leading to licentiousness, for they shall see that in every case free forgiveness led to gratitude, and gratitude to holiness. Thechosen shall be made choice men. Grace chose them notwithstanding all their deformities; but when it has cast about thema supernal beauty, they shall be the wonder and admiration of the universe, evidently made to be the noblest and best of mankind. Show me where grace ever created sin! You cannot, but lo, in what a manner has grace created holiness! It is not ashamed to let its chosen sheep appear before the great dividing Shepherd’s throne, for of them all it shall be said, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink.” Grace does not smuggle men into heaven, but brings them up to heaven’s requirements through the Spirit and the blood.

Although evangelicals constitute far from a majority of Americans, the president’s bottomless support for them has enabled the Christian right to dictate administration policy, creating a tyranny of the minority that they see as a divine assignment and a last chance to save America. Trump’s white evangelical supporters, then, have chosen to see him not as a sinner but as a strongman, not as a con man but as a king who is courageously unshackling them from what they portray as liberal oppression.

Chapter 8 I am a saint If I walked into any church in America and asked how many perceived themselves as a sinner saved by grace, almost everyone would raise their hands. But then if I asked how many perceive themselves as saints, few, if any, would raise their hands. My response would be: Which is the most biblically accurate statement of who you are as a Christian? Does the Bible refer to the believer as a sinner or a saint? Did Paul address his letters to the sinners at Ephesus or to the saints? Look at the truth in 1 Corinthians 1:2, "To the Church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours" (NASB). Tragically, many Christians live their lives as though the passage reads, "To others in the church who are struggling to be sanctified, sinners by calling (or saints by hard work), with some who call upon the name of the Lord, my Lord, but I'm not sure about theirs." Every Child of God Is a Saint The overwhelming and consistent message of the New Testament is that we are all saints by the grace of God, sanctified because we are in Christ Jesus. Every child of God is a saint because he is in Christ Jesus. The most overwhelming concept in the early parts of Ephesians is the tremendous inheritance we have in Christ. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing *in Christ*. For he chose us *in Him* before the creation of the world” Ephesians 1:3-4 (emphasis added). Forty times in the one book of Ephesians, references are made to either you being in Christ or Christ in you. And for every verse throughout the Bible that talks about Christ being in you, 10 verses can be found that talk about you being in him. Go through the rest of Ephesians 1 and see how many times you can find this truth. In verse 7 you will find, “*in Him* we have redemption.” In verse 11 it says “*in Him* we were also chosen.” Verse 12 will tell you that your hope lies *in Christ*. Verse 13 says that you were included *in Christ* when you heard the word of truth. The problem is not that the Bible does not clearly identify believers as saints - it does! The primary problem is, we just do not see it! So Paul says in Ephesians 1:18, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance *in the* saints” (emphasis added).

God isn't limited to forcing people against their will to repent and be reconciled to him. Got has the power ... to change the human will to see the ugliness and destructiveness of sin, and to turn away from it and embrace the grace that is freely given by God. Take the Apostle Paul, for example. On the road to Damascus, as he is on his way to persecute Christians, Christ reveals himself to Paul in such a way as to cause Paul to see the harm that he is doing and the pain that he is causing Christ (Acts 9:1-19). This compels him to turn away from his violent way of life and open himself up to the light of Christ's forgiveness and empowerment to become a new person (2 Cor. 5:17). Paul wasn't seeking to choose Christ. He had chosen to reject Christ and to try to stamp out those who had accepted Christ as the Messiah. So, to those who say that God cannot ensure that someone will choose God, I ask them this: Did God do something wrong to Paul on the road to Damascus? Did God "rape" or "brainwash" Paul? I don't think so. Out of love, God overwhelmed Paul with a vision of truth that left Paul in repentance and a desire to love Christ. If God can do this for Paul, this hardened murderer of Christians who scripture says is the "chief of all sinners" (1 Tim 1:15), then why can't God do this for anyone?

The First Great Awakening had been characterized by fear of an angry God who had chosen peoples and who smote sinners; the Second was oriented toward saving people from damnation and offering personal redemption.

29. “I…Will Draw All Men unto Me” “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”—John 12:32 My soul, it is blessed and refreshing to the faith of God’s children to behold in their almighty Redeemer the same properties as are attributed to the Father and the Spirit, and more especially in the points which concern their personal salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ told the Jews that none could come to Him except the Father, Who had sent Him, should draw them (Joh 6:44). And in the same chapter, He ascribes unto the Holy Spirit “the quickening51 power” which draws to Christ (v 63). But that His own sovereign power and Godhead is also included in this act of grace, He here teaches us by describing Whose love and grace it is that sinners are drawn by! Precious Lord Jesus, let my eyes be ever unto You for the quickening, reviving, restoring, comforting, and all healing graces that You now are exalted—as a Prince and a Savior—to give unto Your people. And dearest Lord, I beseech You, let my views of You and my meditation of You, in this most endearing character, be sweet in the consideration also that You, as the Head of Your church and people, must be the Head of all spiritual, life-giving influences. Surely, blessed Jesus, the head cannot be happy if the members be not made blessed; the source and fountain of all goodness must send forth streams to impart of its overflowing fullness. And is it not for this very purpose that, as the God-man Mediator,52 the Father has given You power over all flesh, so that You should give eternal life to as many as the Father has given You (Joh 17:2)? And will not Jesus delight to dispense all blessings to His people—to His chosen who are the purchase of His blood, the gift of His Father, and the conquests of His grace? I feel my soul warmed with the very thought! I say to myself, “Did my Lord and Savior say, when upon earth, that He was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, and to give out of His fullness grace for grace (Luk 4:18; Joh 1:16-17)? And did my Lord say, moreover, that when He was lifted up, He would draw all men unto Him? And shall I not feel the drawing, the compelling graces of His Spirit, bringing my whole heart, soul, and spirit into an unceasing desire after Him, unceasing longing for Him, and everlasting enjoyment of Him? Precious, blessed Lord Jesus, let the morning, noon-day, and evening cry of my heart be in the language of the church53 of old, and let the cry be awakened by Your grace, and answered in Your mercy: “Draw me, we will run after thee...we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love” (Song 1:4).

The first thing that impressed itself on me as I gave him the once-over was his air of respectability. I had always supposed that poachers were tough-looking eggs who wore whatever they could borrow from the nearest scarecrow and shaved only once a week. He, to the contrary, was neatly clad in formfitting tweeds and was shaven to the bone. His eyes were frank and blue, his hair a becoming grey. I have seen more raffish Cabinet ministers. He looked like someone who might have sung in the sainted Briscoe's church choir, as I was informed later he did, being the possessor of a musical tenor voice which came in handy for the anthem and when they were doing those 'miserable sinner' bits in the Litany. He was about the height and tonnage of Fred Astaire, and he had the lissomness which is such an asset in his chosen profession. One could readily imagine him flitting silently through the undergrowth with a couple of rabbits in his grasp, always two jumps ahead of the gamekeepers who were trying to locate him. The old ancestor had compared him to the Scarlet Pimpernel, and a glance was enough to tell me that the tribute was well deserved. I thought how wise Jeeves had been in suggesting that I entrust to him the delicate mission which I had in mind. When it comes to returning cats that have been snitched from their lawful homes, you need a specialist. Where Lloyd George or Winston Churchill would have failed, this Graham, I knew would succeed.

It was not the justification of sin, but the justification of the sinner that drove Luther from the cloister back into the world. The grace he had received was costly grace. It was grace, for it was like water on parched ground, comfort in tribulation, freedom from the bondage of a self-chosen way, and forgiveness of all his sins. And it was costly, for, so far from dispensing him from good works, it meant that he must take the call to discipleship more seriously than ever before. It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace.

We have seen that the beginning of all sanctification is separation to God as His possession to be at His disposal. Isn’t this just what the blood proclaims? That the power of sin is broken; we are loosed from its bonds; we are no longer its bondservants; but we belong to Him who purchased our freedom with His blood. Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:20). This is the language which tells us that we are God’s possession. Because He desires to have us entirely for Himself, He has chosen us, bought us, and set upon us the distinguishing mark of the blood to live only for His service. The idea of separation is clearly expressed in the words we often repeat, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach (Hebrews 13:12-13). Going out from all that is of this world was the characteristic of Him who was holy and undefiled, separate from sinners, and this must be the characteristic of all His followers.

Almost Like the Blues" "I saw some people starving There was murder, there was rape Their villages were burning They were trying to escape I couldn't meet their glances I was staring at my shoes It was acid, it was tragic It was almost like the blues It was almost like the blues I have to die a little between each murderous plot and when I'm finished thinking I have to die a lot There's torture, and there's killing and there's all my bad reviews The war, the children missing, lord It's almost like the blues It's almost like the blues Though I let my heart get frozen to keep away the rot my father says I'm chosen my mother says I'm not I listened to their story of the gypsies and the Jews It was good, it wasn't boring It was almost like the blues It was almost like the blues There is no God in heaven There is no hell below So says the great professor of all there is to know But I've had the invitation that a sinner can't refuse It's almost like salvation It's almost like the blues It's almost like the blues

You’re supposed to dunk your chosen in water to cleanse them from past fucks. And it’s done in front of a congregation to show ownership. Two fellow Lords who happened to be my best friends were enough. She wears our brand. She’ll belong to me until the day she dies.

Through anything and across any distance, he’d said. She knew Darien well enough to read between his lines, and she knew that through anything meant death. The truth hidden behind his carefully chosen words was like a fist cracking through her ribcage and ripping out her heart. Her bloody, still-beating heart. Darien’s promise meant he wasn’t sure if he would come back.

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