Cultivating Biblical Godliness - How Should We Consider Christ in Affliction?

Book Description:

Hebrews 3:1 and 12:3 tell us that the most effective means for enduring affliction is to consider Christ, the fountainhead of all vital Christianity. But how, you ask, and in what ways must I consider Him?

In this booklet, Joel R. Beeke shows how our consideration of the passion, power, presence, patience and perseverance, prayers, plenitude, preciousness, promises, purposes, and plan of Christ provide strength for living through and profiting from the deepest sorrows of this world. Seek grace to live Christianly today in and through your afflictions, and you will soon discover with the apostle, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).

Author:

Joel R. Beeke is president of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and a pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Cultivating Biblical Godliness Series
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, "The world today is looking for, and desperately needs, true Christians. I am never tired of saying that what the Church needs to do is not to organize evangelistic campaigns and attract outside people, but to begin herself to live the Christian life. If she did that, men and women would be crowding into our buildings. They would say, 'What is the secret of this?' " Many people who are new to the church need instruction in the most basic aspects of godly living. Even where churches are engaged heavily in discipleship, visitors and members often have gaps in their understanding and practice. One of the greatest needs of our time is for the Spirit of God to cultivate biblical godliness in us in order to put the glory of Christ on display through us, all to the glory of God the Father. For these reasons, Joel Beeke and Ryan McGraw are coediting a series of booklets titled Cultivating Biblical Godliness. These booklets treat matters that are vital to Christian experience, and each contribution aims to address a wide variety of people and circumstances at a fundamental and introductory level. This includes teaching people what to believe in order to practice personal holiness as well as specific directions on how to cultivate biblical godliness in relation to issues that are common to God's people. The distinctive feature of this series is its experiential tone. While some booklet series aim to enlighten the mind, these booklets aim to warm the affections as well. The goal is to promote communion with the triune God and to transform the entire person in thought, speech, and behavior. To this end, we intend to include a wide range of authors whom the Spirit has blessed to skillfully stir up the church to personal holiness and affection to Christ through their preaching and writing ministries. We need a Christianity that puts the transformative power of God in the gospel on display through developing a communion with God that is visible to the world. Our prayer is that through this series, the Lord would revive His church by producing Christians who are full of love for Christ, who deny themselves in order to follow Him at great personal cost, and who know the joys of walking with the triune God. This is the kind of Christianity that we need. This is the kind of Christianity that the triune God has used to turn the world upside down. May He be pleased to do so again.

Editors:
Joel R. Beeke is President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, a pastor of Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a prolific author.
Ryan M. McGraw is pastor of First OPC in Sunnyvale, CA. He is also author of The Day of Worship: Reassessing the Christian Life in Light of the Sabbath.

Endorsement:

"This world is ever filled with storms and affliction. No one can pass through it without experiencing the challenges of both. But as a storm can sometimes clear a path as well as create disruption, so affliction, when sanctified by the Holy Spirit, brings blessings more precious than gold. Specifically, as Dr. Beeke powerfully demonstrates from Scripture, afflictions drive the Christian to the ultimate true balm in this world of woe, the Lord Jesus. Afflictions can thus be a means of grace, highlighting for us and reminding us of the saving sufficiency of the Lord Jesus in all our circumstances. Enormously helpful!"
--Michael A. G. Haykin, chair and professor of church history and director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky

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