Seeking God begins with recognizing who He is and then inviting Him into our life as Lord and Savior. If He is not Lord of all, then He is not Lord at all. For some of us, the problem is not that we lack a personal relationship with God. Our problem is that we are not "making room" for that relationship.
"To avoid criticism...do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." - Elbert Hubbard
If you feel unloved or struggle to accept yourself, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth of our heavenly Father's love for you—and to sink it deep into your heart. Receive the truth that He reveals. It will be a completely different story about your value as an individual.
God has given our generation everything we need to alter the course of human suffering. Change must start with us! With our transformation! Ours is the wealthiest generation of Christians ever! We can be more effective—if only we try!
They that know God will be humble; they that know
themselves cannot be proud.
~John Flavel~
Understanding comes a little at a time over a lifetime. James said: “The man who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and makes a habit of doing so is not the man who hears and forgets. He puts that law into practice and wins true happiness.” (James 1:25).
Take all the bad that has happened in your life and instead of using it to be the Victim, Burn that anger into fuel to become the Victor!!
We, who are born again, have a new identity. Our priorities, responses and choices should reflect the identity HE has given us. When we live according to who the Lord says we ARE, rather than who we used to be, we will experience a confidence in the identity God has given us in Christ.
Some of the hardest people to reach are those who are at rest in their house, those who, because of all they have, may not see their real spiritual condition. I think it’s a mistake to appeal only to unhappy, lonely, and empty individuals when we share the gospel. Not everyone is unhappy, empty, and lonely at every given moment.
Satan is not stupid; he knows when there is an open door to oppress, depress and harass you! Shut the door on Satan...
A mere intellectual understanding of Jesus will not bring a full understanding of the mystery of God. Much of what God desires for us to know—the “hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge”— comes from the love we give to one another, and the maturing that occurs as we learn to deny ourselves and care for others.
The true depth of understanding comes when our hearts are bound together in love.
Ray Bently
We should praise the Lord because his matchless goodness calls forth praise. It’s rather like when you read a great book or see a great movie. You just have to tell somebody! The more you know God, the more you experience him, the more you are moved to proclaim his goodness.
God is good. He is worthy of all praise. And because, in the act of praising God, we experience Him and his goodness in a fresh and transforming way.
Churches are fruitless and failing because the men leading those churches had “missed their way,” when it came to the divine call to ministry.
~C.H. Spurgeon~
I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips.
~Franklin D. Roosevelt~
“Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you.” —William Arthur Ward
As the Holy Spirit works the grace of God in our hearts, the various aspects of spiritual fruit are manifested through us. "The fruit of the Spirit is… kindness." Kindness is moral goodness and integrity conveyed toward others. It includes showing concern and consideration to people, desiring not to offend them. "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another" (Ephesians 4:31-32).
We have become so accustomed to our bondage that we now think of our chains as freedom. Unfortunately, it is only when we are free that we realize how bound we once were.
Our actions should be in concert with our prayers—we should pray to find happiness in God and then take the kind of actions that will help us find happiness in God
Randy Alcorn
The grace of God is not only His dynamic for producing spiritual fruit in our lives, but it is also His means of developing good works in us as well.
You can't expect God to fix what you won't hand over to Him.
God has wisely kept us in the dark concerning future events and reserved for himself the knowledge of them, that he may train us up in a dependence upon himself and a continued readiness for every event.
~Matthew Henry~
It is but right that our hearts should be on God when the heart of God is so much on us.
~Richard Baxter~
Sometimes we worship because we’ve had a victory. But sometimes we worship until we see one.
God demonstrated to Joshua that there would be times in life where worship would be the way to victory. Worship will be the way you defeat your Enemy. Worship will be what brings you the very freedom you so badly desire.
Saving faith is confidence in Jesus; a direct confidential transaction with him.
~Richard Fuller~
“In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.”
—Augustine
Mark Twain said regarding his own father: "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
Don't miss your daily invitation to grow deeper in God's love. Seek Him in His Word. Look for Him in the faces of the people around you. Accept the hard things as part of what makes you a deeper, more compassionate person. Give away the love God gives you freely, abundantly, wisely, and with a grateful heart.
A Sunday school teacher said to her class of young students, “Can any of you tell me what a saint is?” One of the girls in the class thought about some stained glass windows of the apostles that she saw. So she said, “Those are people that the light shines through.”
Salvation is found, not in self or in them, but in Him.
The poorest person on earth is not the one without money. It is the one without JESUS.
Biblical humility isn't about self-deprecation or putting oneself down. It's about having the right view of oneself in relation to God and others and recognizing our constant need for God's grace and guidance.
There is a fine line between waiting on God and what God is doing and keep moving forward. In the Old Testament, they were separate entities but in the new, they can happen at the same time.
“We have a responsibility to the truth of God's word!
We cannot serve the Lord if we pick and choose our duties. He who enlists in the army of the Most High, surrenders his will to the discipline of the army and the bidding of the Captain.
Charles Spurgeon
Put away the distractions; look and listen for God to speak to you.
Christ’s example teaches us how we are to deal with those with whom we disagree. Sometimes we must be forceful and sometimes we must be gentle—forceful with the wolves and gentle with Jesus’ lambs.
R.C. Sproul
We live in a world that views work itself as a curse, but work is a pre-fall construct. Work is a gift from God that brings Him glory & displays the nobility of being His image bearers.
"True Christianity is a struggle, a fight, and warfare. He that pretends to condemn fighting and teaches that we ought to sit still and yield ourselves to God appears to me to misunderstand his Bible, and to make a great mistake."
JC Ryle (Holiness)
The Rapture is a great mystery revealed to Paul by God alone. The Rapture implies that there will come a time when God will bring His children home in the blink of an eye.
The dangerous side of ministry leadership is when your gifts and talents take you further, than your character and integrity can sustain you.
Often, our default is to “shuffle around shepherds”, instead of taking time to raise up more. We have to get back to calling out the called, and discipling those called to ministry leadership.
When the Apostle Paul and his team left their home church of Antioch, they were "commended to the grace of God." The believers at Antioch trusted in the Lord to impart sufficient grace for this demanding mission.
The grace of God is not only His dynamic for producing spiritual fruit in our lives, but it is also His means of developing good works in us as well. The Apostle Paul had a powerful testimony to this truth. Paul became an early church leader who was engaged in more good works than any other believer. "I labored more abundantly than they all."
As the Holy Spirit works the grace of God in our hearts, the various aspects of spiritual fruit are manifested through us. "The fruit of the Spirit is… kindness." Kindness is moral goodness and integrity conveyed toward others. It includes showing concern and consideration to people, desiring not to offend them. "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another" (Ephesians 4:31-32).
Don’t miss your daily invitation to grow deeper in God’s love. Seek Him in His Word. Look for Him in the faces of the people around you. Accept the hard things as part of what makes you a deeper, more compassionate person. Give away the love God gives you freely, abundantly, wisely, and with a grateful heart.
“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love.” —Thornton Wilder
The Bible says, “According to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22 NLT).
But that never got to the heart of the problem. In fact, the definition of the Old Testament word atonement means “covering.” At best, it was just a cover-up. But it didn’t get rid of the stain.
Before you became a Christian, you were not free. You were a captive, a slave. But Jesus Christ came and paid the redemption price for you. That is the Good News.
If someone wanted to free a loved one from slavery, they could go to the slave market and pay the price. They could purchase freedom for the enslaved person. This is what Christ has done for us. He redeemed us. He purchased our freedom. And it all came about through the blood that He shed for us.
OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”
Though God’s love is unsought, undeserved, and unconditional, it is possible for us to be out of harmony with Him.
Stay in a place where God can show His love to you. Keep yourself from all that is unlike Him, from all that would violate God’s love and grieve Him. Stay away from the things that would tear you down. Instead, stay close to the Lord and around people who will build you up spiritually.
We need to fight for each other, not against each other.
All of us believers need to learn how to be better at loving others. It’s critical given that God is love and we’re made in His image and are meant to reflect Him. How can you love those around you today?
OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”?
“This is one problem Jesus came into the world to redress,” Mike Mason wrote. “He let us crucify Him to show us how much we push everyone away, even the Son of God. As the dust settled on Calvary, some of us realized what we were missing. We realized how much we wanted love and how much He wanted us. And so we invited Him to come back and live in our hearts…and something wonderful happened. We began to wake up to how badly we’d been treating people and how much we missed each other. We began to want one another with a deep, pure love. And so the church was born.” Mike Mason, Practicing the Presence of People
OSWALD CHAMBERS
The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.
God wants His sons and daughters to come back to His Son to experience a one-on-one encounter with a real Savior who could silence their shame once and for all.
If you want to be an unhappy person, then try to be a happy person. In other words, if you try to find happiness by pursuing it, you never will attain it.
When people try to find happiness in someone or something, it always will be a little bit beyond their reach, a little bit elusive, a little bit hard to get. They think it will be in that next relationship, that next experience, that next possession, or that next accomplishment.
Here’s the good news for us as Christians. When we seek to fulfill the purpose for which God created us—which is to glorify Him, honor Him, and bring Him pleasure—then we will find happiness.
“The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.” - C.S. Lewis
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” - C.S. Lewis
We are not redeemed from the service of the Law by Christ, but [from] the 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 of the law. —Puritan Thomas Manton, Works 8:284
Live in daily expectation of dying, and die daily in humble expectation of living for evermore. —Andrew Fuller, Works 2:453
Where forgiveness of sin is, there is also power against sin, and strong resolutions to labour against it; and where there is 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, it will show itself in works of 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. —Puritan Richard Sibbes, Works 7:173
There is no rest for the soul but in coming to Jesus. —Andrew Fuller, Works 2:713
The legalist kills sin, and opposes it out of a principle of self-love, that he may be kept out of hell, or procure a title to heaven: but the true believer is principally acted [to kill sin] from a principle of love to Christ. —Ebenezer Erskine, Whole Works in 2 Volumes 1:428
John Bunyan’s advice for killing sin: spend all your strength on the sin you are most inclined to, whatever it may be, because: “If a man has that grace, as to trample upon and mortify his darling sin, he will more easily and more heartily hate and fly the rest.” (Works 2:532)
Stop looking for the perfect church. Instead, go worship the perfect Savior with a congregation of flawed people who need grace just as much as you do.
"Hold everything earthly with a loose hand; but grasp eternal things with a death-like grip." — Charles Spurgeon
Keep us, Lord, from shying away from such valuable truth and experience as the ministry of the Holy Spirit because of the excesses of a few fanatics. We lose too much, and we can’t afford the loss. Amen. Tozer
An idle man's brain— is the devil's workshop! John Bunyan
Show me a man that will lie and steal and get drunk and ruin a woman,—do you tell me he is my brother? Not a bit of it. He must be born into the household of faith before he becomes my brother in Christ. Moody
"Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible." — Charles Spurgeon
Because God started this new life in me, I don’t have to finish it. He is going to finish it. He is the one that holds me up. He’s the one that keeps me. I’m in good hands. Because he loves me. And He’s got me.
"Satan is sure to try to hinder us when we are earnest in prayer." — Charles Spurgeon
We must also let God be God. We must also allow Him the freedom to do what He wants to do in our lives no matter how painful it might seem. It was for the joy set before Him that Jesus, our Friend, our Lord, our Model endured the Cross. Jon Courson
To think light of sin, is to think light of Christ and His blood. —Ralph Erskine (1685-1752), Works 3:213
“Clouds may gather, but the Lord can blow them away.” — Charles Spurgeon
Christianity is not engrossed by this transitory world, but measures all things by the thought of eternity. John Gresham Machen
The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God's continuous speech. It is the infallible declaration of His mind. -A.W. Tozer -
Nothing but an almighty personal Friend will ever meet the legitimate needs of a man's soul. -J.C. Ryle -
Christ died" - that is history; "Christ died for our sins" - that is doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble union, there is no Christianity. John Gresham Machen
“Do you love Jesus? Do you really love Him? Then manifest your love for Him by feeding and tending those for whom He died. Learn to love people.” - David Helm
"God has loved you long, he has loved you well, he loved you forever, and he still shall love you." — Charles Spurgeon
The Christian is not a good man. He is a vile wretch that has been saved by the grace of God. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
"It is our daily lament that we cannot love God enough." — Charles Spurgeon
"When suns shall cease to shine and moons to show their feeble light, God shall still love on forever and forever." — Charles Spurgeon
O it is good sailing with an infallible Pilot at the helm, who has the wind and weather at his command. - John Newton
"His strong love stands like a granite rock, unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity." — Charles Spurgeon
"Omnipotent love will not allow omniscience to recollect your sin: 'I will remember their sin no more.'" — Charles Spurgeon
"Scripture does not say the Common prayer-book teaches us how to pray, but the Spirit." -John Bunyan.
The redeemed have gained more through the last Adam than they lost through the first Adam. -A.W. Pink -
Show me, then, a soul just passed from death unto life, and I will show you an evidence that Jesus is alive... Octavius Winslow -
“Our boredom is simple blindness. If the Father can be infinitely and eternally satisfied in him, then he must be overwhelmingly all-sufficient for us—in every situation, for all eternity.” — Michael Reeves, Authentic Ministry, 14.
Away with lying, swearing, drinking, whoring believers. Will you pretend to be the people of a holy God, the members of a holy Jesus, the federates of a holy covenant, and yet wallow in your sins, or retain any known iniquity in your hearts? —Ebenezer Erskine, Works 1:292
"Doing the work of God is dangerous but not doing the work of God is more dangerous." -Sabina Wurmbrand
Remember that the mercy of God in Christ Jesus is your only hope, cling to it. Charles Spurgeon
God is the ruler of history. His times are well chosen. The Roman Empire was an instrument in his hand. And so are the nations of the modern world. John Gresham Machen
"Believe that Christ loves you as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness." — Charles Spurgeon
Paul did not merely tolerate others. He genuinely loved others, quirks, and all. Ray Bentley
If Christ has risen the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation. The kingdom of darkness has been overthrown. Satan has fallen like lightning from heaven; and the triumph of truth over error, of good over evil, of happiness over misery, is forever secured. Charles Hodge
Sanctification is not a work of nature, but a work of grace. It is a transformation of character effected not by moral influences, but supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. Charles Hodge
Jesus Christ went more willingly to the cross—than we do to the throne of grace. —Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm, Pg. 11
When we are weak, then are we strong. When most empty of self, we are most full of God. Charles Hodge
We should be diligent to make our stand against evil. And if God says that the Word is what cleanses us, then we should go to the Word daily. Chuck Smith
"We shall not long have love for man if we do not first and chiefly cultivate love for God." — Charles Spurgeon
The grace of God exalts a man without inflating him, and humbles a man without debasing him. Charles Hodge
"Believe in Jesus and trust him and you shall never be made ashamed of your confidence." — Charles Spurgeon
This is true religion, to approve what God approves, to hate what he hates, and to delight in what delights him. Charles Hodge
Christian liberty is freedom from sin, not freedom to sin. -A.W. Tozer -
If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for. -C.H. Spurgeon -
"When we deal seriously with our sin, God will deal gently with us." — Charles Spurgeon
"The general religion of mankind is 'do,' but the religion of the Christian is 'done.'" — Charles Spurgeon
"If you meet with a system of theology which magnifies man, flee from it as far as you can." — Charles Spurgeon
I find all my happiness in a crucified God. - George Whitefield
"What shall children do when parents abuse their authority by forbidding duty or commanding sin? In such cases, children are to obey God rather than their parents." -John Flavel.
"All that you can possibly need is in Jesus." — Charles Spurgeon
"We must have the Word of the Lord. With this Word alone we can withstand the devil." — Charles Spurgeon
If we can trust the sufferings of Christ for our sake then we can trust Christ when we suffer for His sake. -A.W. Tozer -
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