God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. If you have never thought of Him in these terms, then you have not yet begun to think about Him in the way he wants you to. God’s Word describes those covenants, proclaiming Him to be a covenanting God. In a sense, the Bible is the book of His covenant. We even call it that – the Old and the New Covenants (Testaments)! --Sinclair Ferguson

A gentleman, who lived at Ealing, taught—

“There is no limit to the power of thought.”

I still, however, can’t help sometimes feeling

... That thought alone does not account for Ealing.

~GKC

Time bears away all things, even the mind. -Virgil (70-19 BC) _Eclogues_ Book IX, Line 51

The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may

demolish a man's business but build up his character. The blow

at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner

man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives,

be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is that we shall

lose if we flinch or rebel.- Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901), Thoughts for Eve

Let it be a settled principle with us, never to be satisfied with mere outward church-membership. We may be inside the net, and yet not be in Christ. The waters of baptism are poured on myriads who are never washed in the water of life. The bread and wine are eaten and drunk by thousands at the Lord's table, who never feed on Christ by faith. Are we converted? Are we among the "good fish?" This is the grand question. It is one which must be answered at last. The net will soon be "drawn to shore." The true character of every man's religion will at length be exposed. There will be an eternal separation between the good fish and the bad. There will be a "furnace of fire" for the wicked. ~ J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 153, 154.