QUOTES

"If we are ever going to number our days rightly or figure out life's meaning and purpose, it will only be through divine grace." —Alistair Begg

"Any true believer longs for the day when evil will be destroyed when sin will be no more." —Alistair Begg

"Either we live in chaos, or we live under the all-seeing eye of the God of Psalm 139." —

Alistair Begg

"When was the last time you extended an invitation to Jesus, who knows all about your troubles, pains, and difficulties—the things that other people can't know and can't fix? The risen Christ comes and stands at the door and knocks." —Alistair Begg

There is an abundance of controversial theology, but a death of practical holiness. —

JC Ryle, Old Paths, Pg. 106

A weak Christian and a strong Christ shall be able to do all. —

Puritan Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, 41

God’s address to His servants is always for the purpose of eliciting a faith-filled and faithful response to His sovereign, saving initiative." - Dennis E. Johnson "Preaching is, and always will be, an outer declaration of the preacher’s inner life. As such, it is imperative that the preacher cultivates the essential characteristics of authenticity, ownership, brokenness and meekness." -Justin Thornton

I am an unrepentant believer in the power of preaching." - John Stott

Preaching is that wise means of God by which the wisdom of the world is shown to be foolishness, and the folly of the gospel, as the world conceives it, is shown to be true wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:21). —James Montgomery Boice

Let everything that has the value now which it will have upon a sick bed... -Jonathan Edwards - God is the only desirable good, nothing without him is worthy of our hearts. -John Bunyan -

“Come to Jesus…see all your sins laid on Him ... I write this because I love you - but how much more God loves you." — Hudson Taylor

No man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves. -John Calvin -

“If we are to live by the gospel every day, all tendency to compare ourselves with other believers, not to mention unbelievers, must be put away.” - Jerry Bridges. The Discipline of Grace, 43 Failure to begin our thinking or arguing with the Word of Christ will set us down the road to foolish ignorance. – Greg Bahnsen

God's ability has a critical relationship with His promises. The more we trust His ability, the more sure we are of His promises. Man's ability is one of the basic reasons we often doubt human promises. This is one of the significant differences between God's promises and man's promises. Man's ability often runs into human impossibilities. The Lord is not limited by the "impossibility factor."

In recent days, we have meditated upon many of the strategic promises of God. When considering promises, the ability of the one making the promises is a vital concern. If we examine God's ability and His promises with an open heart, growth in faith will always be the result. In our present verses, God's promise-keeping ability is assured by His role in creation and by His rule over mankind.

"Christ is both the door to heaven and the way to heaven. He is all in all to us." —

Charles Spurgeon

His grace is unearned and unwarranted. He alone has paid the price.

Let’s not waste our memory banks. Let’s fill them with important information. It’s great to carry the Bible in your pocket, backpack, or purse. It’s also great to have it on your phone. But the best place to carry the Bible is in your heart.

The same sun that melts wax hardens clay. And the same Gospel which melts some people to repentance hardens others in their sins. Charles Spurgeon

From the beginning of my Reformation I have asked God to send me neither dreams, nor visions, nor angels, but to give me the right understanding of His Word, the Holy Scriptures; for as long as I have God's Word, I know that I am walking in His way. Martin Luther

Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification. -J.C. Ryle -

To those to whom Christ is the hope of future glory, he is also the life of present grace. -John Owen –

When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety. -A.W. Tozer –

He that gives us heaven will surely give us all that is needful on the road thither. -C.H. Spurgeon –

A hypocrite may be willing to embrace Christ as a priest to save him from wrath, from the curse, from hell, from everlasting burnings, but he is never willing to embrace Christ as a prophet to teach him, and as a king to rule and reign over him. —Thomas Brooks, Works 3:446

Let him who seeks grace implore neither the saints, nor even the blessed mother of Christ; but ask it from the Father in the name of Christ His Son.

—John Davenant (1572-1641) , Geneva Series Commentaries: Colossians, Pg. 36

The trees perhaps are cut down out of which our coffins will be made. —JC Ryle, Old Paths, Pg. 104

We need to hear the Gospel every day, because we forget it every day. Martin Luther

"The gospel is all about Christ from beginning to end." – Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon

"Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of."

— Charles Spurgeon

"Man, until sovereign grace opens his ears, is deaf to the heavenly harmonies of the love of God in Christ Jesus." — Charles Spurgeon

"It is a blessed thing when darkness below gives us an eye to the light above." — Charles Spurgeon

"If there be anything I know, anything that I am quite assured of beyond all question, it is that praying breath is never spent in vain." — Charles Spurgeon

"You need a Savior strong and mighty, risen from the dead." — Charles Spurgeon

"We pray with boldness, but the boldness which springs from grace, not pride." — Charles Spurgeon

"You should fear nothing and nobody so long as you can glorify God." — Charles Spurgeon

"We believe in Jesus. We have no other confidence. Where could we find any other?"

— Charles Spurgeon

"Christ in the heart is better than corn in the barn." — Charles Spurgeon

"Giving is true having." — Charles Spurgeon

"Trying to earn salvation is insufferable pride. What does Jesus need of us?" — Charles Spurgeon

"To believe is to give up self-reliance and to rely upon the Lord Jesus." — Charles Spurgeon

"Do not look to human strength, but look to the abounding mercy of God in Christ Jesus."

— Charles Spurgeon

"A theologian who is acquainted with all the latest issues of his science but who stands speechless at a sickbed and knows no answer to the questions of the lost sinner's heart isn't worthy of his title and office." - Herman Bavinck

“Good expository preaching does not impress the congregation; it feeds them.”

- Walter Liefeld

“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear! It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, and drives away our fear.” — John Newton

Every sin is a forsaking of the Lord our God. If the heart knows not, if it considers not, that it is an evil thing and a bitter, evil in itself, bitter in its effects, fruit, and event, it will never be secured against it.

John Owen

God does not look at what duties we perform, as to their number and tale, or as to their nature merely, but whether we do them with that intension of mind and spirit which he requireth.

John Owen

“One day when George MacDonald…was talking with his son, the conversation turned to heaven…‘It seems too good to be true,’ the son said at one point. A smile crossed MacDonald's whiskered face. ‘Nay,’ he replied, ‘it is just so good it must be true.’” —

Larry Dixon

"Of all people who engage in controversy, we, who are called Calvinists, are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation."

- John Newton.

"To realize the existence of God and to trust in him, especially to trust in his mercy, through Jesus Christ, is the essential matter. As for the life and walk of faith, they are the most singular things in the world."

- Charles Spurgeon

Don't be weary with your work, don't be thinking that everything is against you, that you seem to be doing little good. Work on, hope on, pray on!

D.L. Moody

The true Christian is called to be a soldier and must behave as such; He is not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence, and security. He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven, like one traveling in an easy carriage.

JC Ryle

"Promptness is one of the brightest excellencies in faith's actings. Delay spoils all."

- Charles Spurgeon

Whatever subject I preach, I do not stop until I reach the Savior, the Lord Jesus, for in Him are all things.

Spurgeon

God save us from hiding from ourselves our secret faults. Let us be willing to be spoken to by the rough preacher’s stern voice! Let us be greedy to read those passages of Scripture that try us most.

Spurgeon

“Grace is not sought nor bought nor wrought. It is a free gift of Almighty God to needy mankind.” —

Billy Graham

Barna Research: Half of US adults (51 percent) said they believe that the miracles of the Bible happened as they are described. The numbers, however, were lower among millennials (ages eighteen to thirty) compared to baby boomers (ages fifty to sixty-eight) by 43 percent versus 55 percent.

Asked whether miracles are possible today, two out of three Americans (67 percent) said yes, with only 15 percent saying no. The others weren’t sure. Again, there were generational differences, with young adults less likely (61 percent) to believe than boomers (73 percent). Incidentally, Republicans were more likely to believe in modern miracles (74 percent) than Democrats (61 percent) — a statistic on which I offer no comment.

“The late great Dr. E.V. Hill was once asked if he thought Jesus was Caucasian as depicted in paintings. This was his reply:

“I don't know anything about a white Jesus... I know about Christ, a Savior named Jesus. I don't know what color He is.

He was born in the brown Middle East; He fled to black Africa; and He was in heaven before the gospel got to white Europe. So, I don't know what color He is.”

“I do know one thing: if you bow at the altar with color on your mind, you'll get up with color on your mind. Go back again - and keep going back until you no longer look at His color, but at His greatness and His power - His power to save!"

It is interesting to me how the ways I used to think and act (which I thought were well within the parameters of reasonable Christian behavior), I no longer consider being acceptable. How do I know? Because the Spirit of God has revealed greater truth and deeper understanding -- and I have responded accordingly. If you are serious about growing in Christ, you must first face and deal with the sin you know of in your life. Christ's death may have saved us from the penalty of sin -- but it hasn't saved us from its consequence.

“The life of a Christian is wondrously ruled in this world, by the consideration and meditation of the life of another world.” —

Richard Sibbes

Bring your spouse into your world. Pray with and for each other. Talk about your struggles and disappointments. Listen to each other. (Set down that smartphone.) All marriages face trials. Christian marriages have supernatural resources to overcome them.

Randy Alcorn

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

~Ronald Regan~

🙉 You may not want to hear it.

🙈 You may not be looking for Jesus.

🙊 Not talking about it won’t stop it.

Rapture Imminent!

I have discovered a truth that has never failed and has never been compromised. The truth is that it is beyond the realm of possibilities that one has the ability to out-give God. Even if I give the whole of my worth to Him, He will find a way to give back to me much more than I gave.

~C.H. Spurgeon~

As believers, we now have direct access to the presence of God through Christ — our eternal High Priest and sacrifice for sin. Are we living in the reality of that access?

~A.W. Tozer~

Jesus came not only to teach but to save, not only to reveal God to mankind but also to redeem mankind for God.

~John R. W. Stott~

The Gospel of Christ is becoming less accepted in America partly due to the view that whatever you want to believe is true. Though it’s important to be free to hold the conviction that whatever you think to be authentic is, just because you believe it doesn’t make it so.

Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God's grace.

~C.H. Spurgeon~

Stubbing your toe in the night as you try to make your way in the dark can cause great pain. Wearing a shoe could have been your protection, or just a glimmer of light might have saved you the agony of this experience.

In the same way, Jesus is the light in a very dark world.

I have come to the conclusion that there are informants and reporters in life. Some people are both and they feel that it is communication. And there is a third person that says nothing at all....

Dreams are free! Might as well dream big!

LOCKED UP IN FORT KNOX

This isn't a specifically spiritual message, but it is kind of inspiring. Did you know the United States' original Declaration of Independence spent World War II in Fort Knox?

In 1941, just over two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the signed Declaration, together with the Constitution, was removed from public display and prepared for evacuation out of Washington, D.C.

Under the supervision of armed guards, the founding document was packed in a specially designed container, latched with padlocks, sealed with lead, and placed in a larger box. All told, 150 pounds of protective gear surrounded the parchment. On December 26 and 27, accompanied by Secret Service agents, it traveled by train to Louisville, Kentucky, where a cavalry troop of the 13th Armored Division escorted it to Fort Knox.

The Declaration was returned to Washington, D.C., in 1944.

It is very easy to say, “I am a Christian,” when everything is going well. But when everything gets bad, then your Christianity is really proven.

The Christian who is careless in Bible reading

is careless in Christian living.

~Max Reich~

It is so sad that Americans are so infatuated with gossip, backbiting, and the pain of others as if we can look in the mirror and see ourselves better. I love Paul's words when he says if I boast I will boast in my weakness and infirmities. God help us, not to take comfort in other’s misery, but use it as an opportunity and reminder to pray for one another.