Today's encouragement comes from the words which make-up 1 Kings 16:22b, which say this:
" . . . So Tibni died and Omri reigned."These few Holy Spirit-inspired words (above) are almost comical. But this was how it was in the ancient (and even the modern) world: when claimants to the throne battled it out, one won, and the other died. But it dawns on me that there is a much more profound (and legitimate) application of this prin-ciple; and it is this . . .
. . . When Christian churchmen are regenerated, the "old man" of the flesh dies, and the "new man" of the Spirit of Christ reigns. The *experience* of this truth is the struggle all converted souls on earth have to traverse, (and we call this, "sanctification"). Let all us true believers reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, and alive to Christ.
[Puritan quote of the day: "The more a true saint loves God with a gracious love, the more he desires to love Him, and the more uneasy is he at his lack of love to Him.” —Jonathan Edwards, in, "Religious Affections"]
