Author: Jessica

Our Divine Captain: Finding Peace in Our God-Given Lot

by Jessica, posted in Christian Living

Charles Spurgeon reminds me that God’s infinite wisdom never fails.  Every circumstance we face and every “lot” we inherit has been hand-selected by the unerring grace of our loving Father.  Yet, for this wisdom to truly comfort me, it must be paired with His power.  As R. C. Sproul writes in Chosen by God, “If God is sovereign but not good, we have reason to fear.  If God is good but not sovereign, we have no guarantee.  But God is both sovereign and good.”

My peace flows from the truth that God is both perfectly sovereign and perfectly good.  Because He possesses both power and goodness, when my “divine Captain” steers me through difficult routes, it is for my own protection and spiritual growth.

Continue reading “Our Divine Captain: Finding Peace in Our God-Given Lot” →

Charles Spurgeon on Marriage and the Believer’s Union With Christ

by Jessica, posted in Christian Living, Christian Womanhood

In his sermon, “The Saint One With His Savior,” Charles Spurgeon paints a beautiful portrait of a faithful wife and a happy marriage.  While his description mirrors the Christian husband and wife, it ultimately points to something even greater: the spiritual union between the believer and our first love and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Our identity is found in Him, and like a devoted spouse, our greatest joy is to please our Savior in all that we do.

Spurgeon writes:

Continue reading “Charles Spurgeon on Marriage and the Believer’s Union With Christ” →

A New Year Devotion from Matthew Henry: Trusting Our Times to God

by Jessica, posted in Christian Living

On January 1, 1713, the Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote the reflections below that feel especially timely as I enter the new year of 2026.  As I read them, I am reminded how impossible it is to live up to such devotion without God’s help.  May our gracious God guide and strengthen me, helping me to approach this year with the same spirit of submission and commitment that Henry exemplified in his writing:

Continue reading “A New Year Devotion from Matthew Henry: Trusting Our Times to God” →

Eight Helps for Progress in Holiness (from Thomas Brooks)

by Jessica, posted in Christian Living

I was reading Thomas Brooks’ The Crown and Glory of Christianity, and his chapter on “Eight means, helps, and directions for progress in holiness,” stood out to me.  I wanted to jot down some of my takeaways as reminders and encouragement.

Continue reading “Eight Helps for Progress in Holiness (from Thomas Brooks)” →

Finding Hope in a Troubled World

by Jessica, posted in Christian Living

This quotation by a 17th-century pastor, Willem Teellinck, reminds me of God’s sovereign providence and offers encouragement in light of today’s news and event (from Redeeming the Time, p. 36):

“When you begin to consider the things which are happening all over the world, always remember that the Lord is working in them.  He who can bring light out of darkness, will yet from the completed and combined work bring forth something glorious.  Be not therefore too much vexed that there appears somewhere to come an ill stroke in your own affairs, or in the affairs of God’s people in your day, as is now the case; for the Lord would not permit this to take place, did He not mean to use it as a background to give the whole work a more beautiful lustre.”

Weeding the Garden of the Heart: Lessons from Thomas Watson

by Jessica, posted in Christian Living

From Thomas Watson’s Sermon, The Spiritual Watch:

Keep your heart as you would keep a garden.  Your heart is a garden (Song of Solomon 4:12); weed all sin out of your heart.  Among the flowers of the heart, weeds will be growing—the weeds of pride, malice, and covetousness: these grow without planting and cultivating. Therefore be weeding your heart daily by prayer, examination, and repentance.

Weeds hinder the herbs and flowers from growing; the weeds of corruption—hinder the growth of grace.  Where the weed of unbelief grows—it hinders the flower of faith from growing.

Weeds spoil the walkways.  Christ will not walk in a heart overgrown with weeds and briars.  Christ was sometimes among the lilies (Song of Solomon 6:3)—but never among the thistles.

Trusting God Amid Confusion: A Reflection on James Durham’s Sermon

by Jessica, posted in Christian Living

Reading a troubling news yesterday made this quotation poignant to me:

“And therefore: Let us stay our faith here, that our Lord is still working in all these confusions.  And when matters are turned upside down to human appearance, our blessed Lord is not nonplussed and at a stand when we are; he knows well what he is doing, and will make all things most certainly, infallibly, and infrustrably to work for his own glory, and for the good of his people.”

—James Durham, Christ Crucified: The Marrow of the Gospel in 72 Sermons on Isaiah 53, Sermon 34 (on Isa. 53.9), p. 358