Quotes for the Week

“The outcome of the great war is not in question. It is certain. Christ will reign victoriously forever. The only question we must answer is this: Will we fight on His side or against Him? We must answer this question not just once, with our words, but daily, with our choices.”
- Randy Alcorn, Heaven, 103.

“Nothing can be more evident than the fact that in the sight of God our sins are incomparably more numerous, aggravated, and criminal than they appear to us. He regards us as deserving of an endless punishment, while we scarcely perceive that we deserve any punishment at all.”
- Edward Payson, Sins Evaluated by the Light of Heaven.

“Oh, What dreadful atheism is bound up in that man’s heart, who is more afraid of the eye of his father, his pastor, his child, his servant than he is of the eye, the presence of the Lord.”
- Thomas Brooks, The Privy Key of Heaven.

“Clearly, millions of our neighbors believe that moralism is our message. Nothing less than the boldest preaching of the Gospel will suffice to correct this impression and to lead sinners to salvation in Christ.”
- Albert Mohler, Why Moralism Is Not the Gospel - - And Why So Many Christians Think It Is (from a blog post)

“Our original sinfulness and natural inclination to evil are seldom sufficiently considered. The wickedness of men is often attributed to bad examples, bad company, peculiar temptations, or the snares of the devil. It seems forgotten that every man carries within him a fountain of wickedness. We need no bad company to teach us, and no devil to tempt us, in order to run into sin. We have within us the beginning of every sin under Heaven.”
- J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark, 142.

Quotes for the Week

"Have you never thus led others into sin? Perhaps some, who are now lost forever, may be lamenting in outer darkness and despair the fatal hour when they became acquainted with you."
- J. G. Pike, Persuasives to Early Piety.

“All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was written your reach and you have lost it forever.”
- C. S. Lewis, Problem of Pain, 147.

"There seems to be a kind of conspiracy, to forget, or to conceal, where the doctrine of Hell comes from. The doctrine of Hell is not 'mediaeval priestcraft' for frightening people into giving money to the church: it is Christ's deliberate judgment on sin . . . We cannot repudiate Hell without altogether repudiating Christ."
- Dorothy Sayers, A Matter of Eternity, 86.

"A Christ-centered church is not a showcase for saints but a hospital for sinners."
- Randy Alcorn, Heaven, 35.

Quotes for the Week

"One of the greatest frustrations in the Christian ministry, and a principle cause of "weariness in well doing," is the inability to calculate the spiritual outcome of faithful labors in the work of the Lord. For this reason we must be cautious in putting too much stock in what we often call "visible results." We serve a Sovereign God who has promised that His Word will not return void. The ultimate harvest is assured, but it will only come "at the proper time," that is in God's own good time."
- Timothy George, Galatians (NAC), 426.

"A person cannot claim to accept the Gospel and the obligations that come with it and at the same time live in obedience to the flesh instead of the Spirit."
Ronald Y. K. Fung, The Epistle to the Galatians (NICNT), 294.

"I suspect, however, that the more basic reason we avoid or ignore the idea of God's wrath is that we simply don't think of our sinfulness as warranting the degree of judgment inferred by the expression."
- Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life, 49.

“All the simplicity in the world can do no good, unless you preach the simple gospel of Jesus Christ so fully and clearly that everybody can understand it. If ‘Christ crucified’ has not His rightful place in your sermons, and sin is not exposed as it should be, and your people are not plainly told what they ought to believe, and be, and do — your preaching is of no use!”
- J. C. Ryle, The Upper Room, 54.

“Jesus gives his bride full liberty to take all that He has to be their own; He loves them to help themselves freely to His treasure and appropriate as much as they can possibly carry. The boundless fullness of His all-sufficiency is as free to the believer as the air he breathes.”
- Charles Spurgeon, Morning By Morning, 190.

Plan Your Run with Jesus: A Fall Challenge Care of John Piper

(This is from a John Piper Sermon on Hebrews 11.39-12.2)

Rather, all of us should listen and obey. Here's what I would suggest. Between now and Labor Day, pick a day or a half day and get away by yourself - away from the house, the phone, the beeper, the TV, the radio and all other people. Take a Bible and a pad of paper and plan your fall run with Jesus.

On that pad of paper note the entangling sins. Note the seemingly innocent weights and encumbrances that are not condemned explicitly in the Bible, but which you know are holding you back in the race for faith and love and strength and holiness and courage and freedom. Note the ways you subtly make provision for these hindrances (Romans 13:14): the computer games, the hidden alcohol or candy, the television, the videos, the pull-tab stop on the way home, the magazines, the novels. In addition, note the people that weaken you. Note the times that are wasted, thrown away.

When you have made all these notations, pray your way through to a resolve and a pattern of dismantling these encumbrances, and resisting these sins, and breaking old, old habits. And don't rise up against the Bible at this point and say, "I can't change." It is an assault on God if you read Hebrews 12:1 and go away saying: "It can't happen. Hindrances can't be removed. Sins can't be laid aside." God has not spoken this command for nothing. And this entire book is written to undergird these practical commands. So go back and read the book and ask God to take all the glorious truth that is here (about the superiority of Christ, and the power of his death and resurrection, and the effectiveness of his intercession for you) and make this truth explosive with life-changing power. Carry some of the story to your small group and get them to pray for you. Find someone you trust and ask them to check in with you and support you. That is what Hebrews 3:12-13 says we should do. Don't drift from this moment into this Sunday afternoon. Before this day is over choose a day or a half-day and get away to plan your fall run with Jesus.

Quotes for the Week

"The church's worst enemy is the man of little faith within its membership, not the faithless man of the world."
- Iain Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 185.

“Let us be very careful that we never exalt any minister, or sermon, or book, or tract, or friend above the Word. Cursed be that book, or tract, or human counsel, which creeps in between us and the Bible, and hides the Bible from our eyes!”
- J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 137.

"We can begin each day with the deeply encouraging realization that I am accepted by God, not on the basis of my personal performance, but on the basis of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ."
- Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life, 18.

"There would be absolutely no benefit to us if Jesus merely lived and died as a private person. It is only because He lived and died as our representative that His work becomes beneficial to us."
- Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life, 37.

Quotes for the Week

“Whatever your circumstances, and however difficult they may be, the truth is that they are ordained by God for you as part of His overall plan for your life.”
- Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, 74.

"If you're a Christian, you've been radically transformed from the inside out. Your disposition, your desires, and the entire direction of your life have been essentially altered. You man not yet be completely changed, but you're already fundamentally changed. You've been lifted to new heights."
- Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable, 108.

"In and of itself, your longing for acceptance isn't a bad thing. God, in fact, created you for acceptance. This longing, however, was meant to be satisfied by God alone."
- Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable, 170.

"It is true, many ministers of God meet with hard things which might discourage them, and trouble and grieve their spirits; but this consideration, that God is pleased to employ them in such a service near to Himself, that though they cannot do good to themselves, yet they may do good to others, this should quiet them."
- Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 174.

Wednesday's Quotes - July 8, 2009

“Is not this one of our greatest sins as Christians today? We may talk a lot about loving God, we may express it in our worship with great emotion, but what does it mean when we are so critical of other Christians, so ready to jump to negative conclusions about other people, so slow to bear their burdens, so unwilling to step into their shoes? Such lovelessness totally contradicts what we profess and flagrantly disobey God’s commands.”
- David Jackman, The Message of I John, 131.

“What an unsuitable thing might a believer think it, to hate someone in this world whom he must love eternally; and to contend and strive with those, even for matters of small moment, with bitterness and rigidity, with whom he shall have an eternal, uninterrupted unity and fellowship.”
- Hugh Binning, Christian Love, 27-28.

“Christians make a difference in this world by being different from this world; they don’t make a difference by being the same.”
- Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable, 9.

“We need to remember that God has established his church as an alternative society, not to compete with or copy this world, but to offer a refreshing alternative to it. When we forget this, we inadvertently communicate to our culture that we have nothing unique to offer, nothing deeply spiritual or profoundly transforming.”
- Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable, 15.

PS - I know I'm a day late, sorry.

Wednesday's Quotes - July 1, 2009

When you share the Gospel, you share “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” Sharing the Gospel is like walking around in a thunderstorm and handing our lightning rods. You don’t know when the lightning is going to strike or who it will strike, but you know what its going to strike - the lightning rod of the gospel. And when it does, that persons lightning rod is going to be charged with the power of God and he or she is going to believe.”
- Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 102.

“It may well be questioned whether a man knows the value of the Gospel himself, if he does not desire to make it known to all the world.”
- J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew, 410.

“Surely you have all things, because you have Him for your portion who has all things: God has all things in Himself, and you have God for your portion, and in that you have all, and this is the mystery of contentment.”
- Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 68.

“The perspective of the Bible, by contrast, that God’s patience and forbearance will one day run out. The time will come when He acts in judgment because of His holiness. And when He does, He will place truth forever on the throne and evil forever on the scaffold. All that has broken and defiled life will be finally, and irrevocably, overthrown.”
- David Wells, The Courage to be Protestant, 130.

“Our lives, though are nourished not by spiritual experiences we can seek, but by God applying to us the truth of His Word.”
- David Wells, The Courage to be Protestant, 182.

“There has never been a ‘good old day’ since the Great Thud in Eden. Every age is filled with sin, sinners, God’s love, and work to be done. Each generation has its resistance to the Gospel, and each culture is equally far from God because of sin and equally close to God because of His love. As Solomon repeatedly says, there is nothing new under the sun.”
- Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission, 51.

Wednesday's Quotes

This time I want to share with you some of my favorite quotes from David Wells book, The Courage to be Protestant.

When our knowledge of God's truth is diminished, our understanding of God is diminished, and no amount of contrived mystery through ancient liturgies or gathering in the presence of dim, flickering candlelight can compensate for this loss. (from page 18)

I therefore think of myself as Reformational in the sense that I affirm its solas: in Scripture alone is God's authoritative truth found, it is by Grace alone that we are saved, and this salvation is received through faith alone. Only after each of these affirmations is made can we say that salvation from start to finish is to the glory of God alone. (page 21)

Many other factors have no doubt affected our changing internal landscape. But the key factors are undoubtedly that we have been disconnected from place, from family, from the past, and from an external God who has the power to reach into our lives and pull them around. But consuming has affected us, too. What we do as practiced consumers is to make daily inventories of our needs and how they might have changed. As I will suggest, it is probably our constant consuming with the constant choosing and reevaluating that it requires, that has strengthened the relativism that now ripples through all of our live making the very idea of a truth that is fixed and unchanging seem strange. (page 70)

There will certainly be more from Wells.

Wednesday's Quote of the Day

"The New Testament portrays the ‘Christ event’, which happened two thousand years ago as the finished, perfect work of God for the salvation of all his people, both Jew and Gentile. The Gospel - the first coming of Christ - wins for believers all the riches of glory. The acceptance of the believer with God is perfect the moment he believes because Christ and his work are perfect. The status of the believer can never be improved upon - he possesses all the riches of Christ. There is nothing the believer will possess in glory that he does not now possess in Christ. All this he possesses by faith, but that it is by faith does not make it any less real."

Graeme Goldsworthy, The Goldsworthy Trilogy, 119.

Wednesday's Quote of the Day

"But we also need to be reminded of the relationship of God's word to the reasoning of man the creature about what is true - one does not take a pocket flashlight and shine it on the sun to see if the sun is real! The truth of God's word cannot be subjected to the puny light of man's self-centered reason."

Graeme Goldsworthy, The Goldsworthy Trilogy, 59.

Persevering in Prayer - Piper Quote

"The point is not to finally break down God's resistance but to discover, by patient prayer, God's wisdom as to the way and time the prayer should be answered. He is not disinclined to help His children and glorify His name. He simply knows better than we do when and how the answer should come. Therefore, our persistence in prayer shows both our confidence that God is our only hope and that He will act in the best way and the best time in response to our persistent pleas."

Tension in the Christian Life

"I am not what I ought to be. Ah! How imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be. I abhor that which is evil, and I would cleave to that which is good. I am not what I hope to be. Soon, soon I shall put off mortality and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Though I am not what I ought to be, what I wish to be, and what I hope to be, yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was, a slave to sin and Satan; I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge, 'By the grace of God, I am what I am.'"

- John Newton

In light of Josh's post on the pre-regenerate work of the Holy Spirit I thought this quote on the tension that remains even in the regenerate heart was apt, so I thought I would share it with you.

Love with Eternity in View

I have been reading Hugh Binnings Christian Love very slowly as a devotional aid and I came across this gem that I wanted to share with you.

What an unsuitable thing might a believer think it, to hate someone in this world whom he must love eternally; and to contend and strive with those, even for matters of small moment (importance), with bitterness and rigidity, with whom he shall have an eternal, uninterrupted unity and fellowship. Should we not be assaying here, how that glorious garment suits us? And there is truly nothing makes a man so heaven-like or God-like as this - much love and charity.

Hugh Binning, Christian Love, 27-28.

More Gold from Piper

Here is another Quote from Piper’s Seeing and Savoring Christ. I have been pleasantly surprised by the depth and quality of this little book, I highly commend it to you as a devotional resource, your eyes will be turned to the beauty Christ on every page and be led in prayers that will challenge you to a closer walk with God. This reading is in the chapter on the suffering of Christ and I found it to be very powerful, enjoy.

Two great purposes were accomplished in the suffering of Christ, which are really one purpose. First, “Christ . . . suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The suffering of Jesus brought us to God who is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore. Second, in the very hour of death the Father and the Son were glorified. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (John 13:31). Our joy in savoring God and his glory in saving us are one. That is the glory of Christ’s incomparable sufferings.

The Excellence of Christ

I have been reading Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper and I have been really been impacted by the book. Over the coming days I will share with you some of the great quotes from this fantastic book. I want to begin with a passage describing the excellence of Christ as seen in His mixture of excellencies.

For example, we admire Christ for his transcendence, but even more because the transcendence of his greatness is mixed with submission to God. We marvel at him because his uncompromising justice is tempered with mercy. His majesty is sweetened by meekness. In his equality with God he has a deep reverence for God. Though he is worthy of all good, he was patient to suffer evil. His sovereign dominion over the world was clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission. He baffled the proud scribes with his wisdom, but was simple enough to be loved by children. He could still the storm with a word, but would not strike the Samaritans with lightning or take himself down from the cross.

Lordship of Christ

"There is not an of any sphere of life over which Jesus Christ does not say, Mine."
- Abraham Kuyper

Praying to the Real God

Prayer, if it is in any sense to be "meaningful", must be an encounter with the "real" God. The real God can be frightening. If you have never stood before God and been terribly afraid, then you have never stood before God. He isn't safe, He isn't always nice, He isn't accommodating, and He isn't in the business of making us feel comfortable with our rebellion.

Steve Brown, Approaching God: How to Pray, 21.