We need the energy, passion, and vision of the younger generations and the wisdom of the older. But we must also view and present what God has revealed to us through His Word with hope, victory, compassion, and joy.
Ray Bently~
Having such a wide array of choices can be a blessing. But it can also be a curse. We can feel inundated by our options, unsure of which direction to go in our lives. Some people are so overwhelmed that they cannot even move forward at all. Others make choices that they soon regret. As Christians, we have access to a supernatural guidance system, if you will. God guides us in a wide variety of ways. The Bible teaches us. The Holy Spirit leads us. The community of God’s people discerns with us. Moreover, Jesus Christ can be the cornerstone of our lives, that which orients and supports everything we do.
Take time today to pray that you might be the witness for the Lord that He desires…one who is faithful to Him. Let your light shine...
1. GREAT LEADERS KNOW THAT FUNCTION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN TITLES
2. GREAT LEADERS HAVE A HEALTHY SENSE OF SELFLESSNESS
3. GREAT LEADERS SEE THEIR LEADERSHIP AS ONE PIECE OF A BIGGER PROCESS
4. GREAT LEADERS RECOGNIZE THAT THERE IS A GOD COMPONENT AND A PEOPLE COMPONENT TO ALL SUCCESS
Not all individuals in leadership positions are leaders. A title might give you authority and it might place people under your direction, but it doesn’t mean anyone is following you. For that to be true, you have to be a person worth following, and that’s something a title can’t give you.
I love Jesus. I love God. I love His Truth. I love people.
But I don’t love packaged Christian answers. Those that tie everything up in a nice neat bow. And make life a little too tidy. Because there just isn’t anything tidy about some things that happen in our broken world. The senseless acts of violence we hear about continually in the news are awful and sad and so incredibly evil. And God help me if I think I’m going to make things better by thinking up a clever Christian saying to add to all the dialogue. God certainly doesn’t need people like me — with limited perspectives, limited understanding, and limited depth — trying to make sense of things that don’t make sense.
In a sermon early in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. quoted Jesus’s words from Mark 10 about servanthood. Then he said, “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
In what way shall we attain this settled happiness of soul? How shall we learn to enjoy God? How shall we obtain such an all-sufficient soul-satisfying portion in Him as shall enable us to let go of the things this world as vain and worthless in comparison? I answer this happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures. God has therein revealed Himself unto us in the face of Jesus Christ.
The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts. George Mueller.
As Christians, many believe we are purified from HURT, from PAIN, from ILLNESS simply because we are believers... No, the Bible tells us we are not. We do, however, rejoice in the Promise of HOPE for this World is temporary and our Salvation is for all Eternity...
Christianity is not a matter of fits, starts, and stops,
but an everyday affair.
~David Livingston~
If we use unholy means to try to achieve a Holy end, we are not honoring Christ.
We all have disappointments and challenges, and aches and pains, don't we? I for one am very aware that I'm getting older! But our Bible tells us that Jesus came to give us abundant life, and I see some of us putting off the fullness of God by believing that we are doomed to suffer through this life until we get to heaven. That's not what Jesus taught!
Jesus wants your body, mind, and heart to be alive and full of vitality! Reset your day right now to know that God is the source of all life for you. I promise you, if you seek Him, you will find Him, and true life as well!
If you have one grain of grace, you must die to know how
rich you are.
~William Tiptaft~
I remember some years ago when my doctor said, “Nothing to worry about, Phil—your condition is pretty common for folks in their mid-age!”
Don’t you hate it when someone reminds you? Of all the things you couldn’t count on, there was one thing you could, and that was your youth. Just because you’re near the top of the hill doesn’t mean you’ve passed your peak. Your last chapters can be your best.
When J.C. Penney was ninety-five years old, he affirmed, “My eyesight may be getting weaker, but my vision is increasing.”
Many are anticipating the destination. I hope you are. And I hope you’ll be ready when you get home.
If you're a man or a woman prone to prayer, it's difficult not to be a broken and humble person. The more you spend time in the throne room of God's presence, the more of His character you will make your own, and the more you will realize that the fleshly lifestyle isn't the kind of life you want to live.
Don't allow the enemy to take possession of your life. Surrender it fully to the Lord Jesus and start walking in His Spirit.
If we just focus on the cross of Jesus, then the temptations around us will disappear!
Jesus freely offers you forgiveness, so should you freely forgive. Don't run from your hurts, carrying things you should leave behind.
No matter how far away from God you have drifted, you're always welcome back.
Perhaps ruin has not yet come to you, but you know that your heart has grown cool to the things of God. Whatever your drifting story, make this the day that you point yourself back to the Lord.
When the heart is right, the feet are swift.
~Thomas Jefferson~
If we would have God open His
treasury, we must open ours.
~Thomas V. Moore
Oh foolish man you covet to have when you are seated in the heavenly places. You lack wisdom in looking after the world and knowledge is far from you. I died for you, trust me and all I have for you. Always Jesus
"The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us." — Billy Graham
The Lord is the source of all productivity and abundance in ministry. If your ministry is floundering it is because the Lord is not in control.
f we are going to be justified (declared not guilty and pronounced righteous in Christ), we must be delivered from the law (which condemns us and pronounces us guilty of sin). We are rescued from the law by placing our faith in the Lord Jesus, thereby receiving His justifying grace. "We have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law" (Galatians 2:16).
“What a hollow ring there is to evangelism when it does not overflow from a Christ-filled heart.” —Sherwood E. Wirt
Whatever secret you’re holding inside, God already knows it. He is with you and for you and you are never alone. Bring your thoughts, worries, concerns, and emotions to Him who loves you dearly!
Many of us wake up every day with looming anxieties over our future and weariness we can't shake. We have more questions than answers and live with difficult daily realities and secrets we feel we cannot share. The question remains for most believers: How can I fix it, make sense of it, or solve it?
One little rumor, one little statement about someone that comes from our lips could inflict terrible damage. Don’t let that happen.
"Temporary Christians are not really Christians." — Charles Spurgeon
"For the present blessedness and the eternal happiness of man, let God's Kingdom come." — Charles Spurgeon
"If you belong to Christ, be holy." — Charles Spurgeon
"The worst sort of clever men are those who know better than the Bible." — Charles Spurgeon
"One of my happiest thoughts I that, when I die, I shall enter into rest with Christ." —
Charles Spurgeon
"God did not give us His gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving to us everything we need for life and godliness." –– Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer, 5.
For God never goes back on the bargain that he makes with his children. Grace, in some sense, is glory because grace is the beginning of glory.” — Richard Sibbes
The greatest saint is no more justified than the newest believer. — Sinclair Ferguson
The Spirit of sanctification breaks the ruling power of sin.”
— Richard Sibbes
“Jesus is in every way sufficient to the vast desires of the soul.”
—John Flavel
Romans 3 and the Righteousness of God
1. It is apart from works (v. 21)
2. It is attested by Scripture (v. 21)
3. It is accepted by faith (v. 22)
4. It is applied by grace (v. 24)
5. It is achieved by Christ (v. 24)
-Steve Lawson
"True Bible faith is confident obedience to God's Word despite circumstances and consequences." –– Warren W. Wiersbe
“Glance at the culture, but gaze on Jesus.” — Erwin W. Lutzer, No Reason to Hide, 286
"It is into a dark world that the story of God's plan of redemption comes to shine." —Alistair Begg
"The commission of the preacher in every age is to open up the Scriptures in such a way that the light of the Gospel might shine into the darkness of men's and women's hearts." —Alistair Begg
What's the role of the church in this ever-changing world? Is it different from the responsibilities of the early church? Hear the answer when you join us for a closer look at the apostle Paul's God-given ministry, on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg:
The only way that the wise man of the world will ever become the servant of Jesus Christ is when God by the Holy Spirit opens his eyes to the reality of who he is and of his need of Christ." —Alistair Begg
"The wisdom of God comes to us in our poverty to show us the vastness of all we have in Christ, and it comes to us in our plenty to remind us that the only wealth that matters is what we have in Christ." —Alistair Begg
"In preaching you may humble a man through showing him his sin, but it is a failure unless it ends by pointing him to the grace of God that can enable him to conquer it.” -William Barclay
"A worship service should lift the Lord and build up the saints, not puff up the participants!" -Warren Wiersbe
The commission of the preacher in every age is to open up the Scriptures in such a way that the light of the Gospel might shine into the darkness of men's and women's hearts." —Alistair Begg
The great mistake made by most of the Lord's people is in hoping to discover in themselves that which is to be found in Christ alone. A.W. Pink
In the absence of biblical morality, a new elite will always come forward to dictate arbitrary absolutes to society. Francis A. Schaeffer
There is much that passes for real faith, which is no faith -Octavius Winslow -
If God were not my friend, Satan would not be so much my enemy. -Thomas Brooks -
The Bible is authoritative not because we accept it as such, but because it is the Word of the risen Lord. – Scott Oliphint
Meditation upon the Word of God is one of the most important of all means of grace and growth in spirituality. -A.W. Pink - Holiness, we must never forget, is the prominent characteristic of all who belong to the one true church. -J.C. Ryle -
"Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, thou one God, thou thyself art my portion." - Charles Spurgeon
Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Yet many Christians do worry. They worry because they haven't yet surrendered to the will of God.
Chuck Smith
By craving to be more, man becomes less; and by aspiring to be self-satisfying, he falls away from Him who truly satisfies. Augustine
Every time a soul gets saved, a piece of Satan’s domain falls like lightning! Ray Bentley
Fellowship means partnership. We wonder why we’re not seeing more of the manifestation of the presence of God; it’s because we’re not partnering with the Spirit of God. Tony Evans
It is misleading to say that God accepts us the way we are. Rather, He accepts us despite the way we are. He receives us only in Christ and for Christ’s sake. Nor does He mean to leave us the way He found us, but to transform us into the likeness of His Son. Sinclair Ferguson
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