Lifting up the downcast series#
Lifting up the downcast free#

To be honest I didn't expect much from a give-away book, but this was actually very good. Then, like the psalmist, we can once more put our hope in God and praise Him.more the author's prayer is that this short book will bring it's readers peace, comfort, and strength to carry on, through the WOrd of God and the word of His faithful people. And they have left us a rich treasury of writings, which can help up in our own struggles. Many believers through the centuries have felt like this at times. Perhaps God seems far at, and we feel bereft and alone. sometimes, like the psalmist, we are downcast and disturbed, dejected and in turmoil, anxious and fearful, overwhelmed, even despairing. And they have left us a rich treasury of writings, which ca Life can bring many challenges, uncertainties & sorrows. He is extending His grace freely to poor downcast sinners in need.Life can bring many challenges, uncertainties & sorrows. He’s not looking around for the A-team to give His mercy to. He’s not only omnipotent, but He’s also merciful. He is certainly strong enough to encourage us to lift us up out of our being downcast.

Theologians refer to this as the omnipotence of God.

Lifting up the downcast free#

Yet be of good comfort, for says the Lord again, my name is Gracious I do not shew mercy because you are good, but because I am good I show mercy out of free love my name is Gracious.”ĭo you see what Bridge is doing here? He is helping us think about who God is, that God is the all-powerful One. But you say, though the Lord is willing to help me, yet I am a poor unworthy creature, and have nothing at all to move God to help me. Yet be of good comfort says the Lord, for my name is Merciful (that is next to the word) ‘the Lord, the Lord, the mighty God.’ As my name is the Mighty God, and therefore I am able to help thee so my name is Merciful, and therefore I am willing to help thee. But though God be strong, and able to help me, yet I fear that God is not willing to help me know God is able and strong enough, but I fear the Lord is not willing, and therefore I am discouraged. All of these bring joy and encouragement to our discouragement. All of these, Bridge tells us, bring hope. As he says in this book, the best answer, the lifting up for one who is downcast or discouraged, is sound doctrine: knowing and believing who God is, knowing and believing who Christ is, knowing and believing what the gospel is. In this book, Bridge explores those things that happen to cause one to be discouraged or downcast. These sermons were published as a book under the title A Lifting Up for the Downcast. That verse reads, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (KJV).

Lifting up the downcast series#

In 1648, Bridge preached a three-sermon series on Psalm 42:11. Then, like the other Puritans we’ve been visiting, he too was ejected. For twenty years, he pastored a Puritan independent church until 1662. He was a member of the Westminster Assembly in the 1640s. Then during the English Civil War, and as Parliament gained control of London, Bridge returned. In 1636, under Charles I, he was exiled to Rotterdam in Holland. It seems as if all of these folks on Five Minutes in Church History lately have gone to Emmanuel College, Cambridge-because they did.Īfter getting his bachelor’s and his master’s degrees, Bridge was ordained in 1627. Can you guess where William Bridge went to college? Emmanuel College, Cambridge. William Bridge was born in 1600, and he died in 1670.

We have one more book from the ten-volume box set by Banner of Truth, and it is by William Bridge. We are almost finished with Puritans at the beach.