To whom shall the glory be given? Oh! to Jesus-it is all by Jesus. Trouble does not necessarily bring consolation with it to the believer, but the presence of the Son of God in the fiery furnace with him fills his heart with joy.
Charles Spurgeon
"I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." ~ Albert Einstein
Our problems begin with the way we see life, and not with the life we see." I was told by a 24 year old she does not know how to accept compliments because it was never done in her family. This is a school teacher, I am talking about... All the schooling did not change her views so life is bad unless it fits her mold.
Just as we cannot earn the love of God or buy it with good works, neither can we lose His love nor can it be stolen from us. All we can do is accept it, allowing it to saturate and transform every part of who we are.
Alongside “All truth is God’s truth,” we need to say, “All truth exists to display more of God and awaken more love for God.” This means that knowing truth and knowing it as God’s truth is not a virtue until it awakens desire and delight in us for the God of truth. And that desire and delight are not complete until they give rise to words or actions that display the worth of God.
The happiest people don't have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything.
You know no matter how bad a person hurts you never give up on people because God will never give up on You!
Every reason you give me that you can't is every reason that you should! #NoMoreExcuses It's time to come to Jesus.
Man’s way leads to a hopeless end – God’s way leads to an endless hope.
Christ brings the heart to heaven first, and then the person.
~Richard Baxter~
God did not appoint us to wrath. What does that mean? When you get depressed or down, or when you think you're not worth anything -- when you feel like God doesn't love you -- there's only one person making you feel like that; it is the devil. God has not appointed you to wrath. Satan likes to say, "Well God is really angry with you. God's mad at you." No, God put all of His wrath for you and all your failures -- past, present, and future -- on His Son Jesus Christ.
Again, the promises of God cascade forth, one upon another. "He will not break…He will not quench…He will bring forth …He will not fail." This set of four promises confirms a unique King for the people of God. His uniqueness is seen in how He would deal with bruised reeds and smoking flaxes, as well as in the justice He would eventually establish upon the earth.
FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA
In 1893, at the age of thirty-three, Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, took a train trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to teach a summer school session at Colorado College. Several of the sights on her trip inspired her to write a poem, first published in the Fourth of July edition of the church periodical The Congregationalist in 1895.
A decade earlier, in 1882, church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward was on a ferryboat trip from Coney Island back to his home in New York City after a leisurely summer day. A tune came to him, and he immediately wrote it down. In fact, He was so anxious to capture the tune in his head, he asked a friend and fellow passenger for his shirt cuff to write on!
Ward's music combined with Bates's poem were first published together in 1910 and titled, "America the Beautiful."
When it is all said and done, People are just people. Forgive them, love them, and be the best representation of Jesus you can be to them.
I believe that you and I—and everyone we'll ever meet—have the innate capacity to be heroic, to take daring, courageous and noble steps to make our life better for others, even when in the short term it seems to be at our expense. The capacity to do the right thing, to dare to take a stand and make a difference, is within you now. The question is: when the moment arrives, will you remember you're a hero and selflessly respond in support of those in need?
Judge me not by physical size or appearance, but judge me by the size of my character. -Cornelius Kilgore
“A clear vision, backed by definite plans, gives you a tremendous feeling of confidence and personal power.”
— Brian Tracy
Turn on soothing music before you drift off to sleep. Use a sleep timer so the music will turn off when you’re already in dreamland. You will have a easier time getting to sleep
People have various ideas about spiritual formation and usually they revolve around some kind of legalism, or some kind of program...those things have nothing to do with spiritual formation...Being with Jesus--being formed into His image--that's the key thing. The moment we center on programs we are doomed to failure.
If we want to be people of peace, if we desire to know the peace of God that passes understanding, if we want to be peacemakers in our part of the world, then we need Jesus Christ. Not only will he give us the gift of peace, but he will use us to share his peace with others.
Do not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Do not be intimidated. Be assured. God will carry you through every situation
Let's not be deceived. If anyone has been walking with the Lord, yet regularly gives in to fleshly indulgences -- they are on shaky spiritual ground. I'm not talking about the struggles we all have with our fleshly desires, I'm addressing a lifestyle that is unchanged and one that continues to embrace sin.
“If you want to be free, set others free,” says Mike Mason. “Set people free to complicate your life, embarrass you, affront your standards, step on your toes. Don’t be a doormat, but neither be scandalized when people act human. The more you reel others in and try to squeeze them into your mold, the less you’ll enjoy them. To love people is to enjoy them truly, warts and all. Give everyone the freedom to be imperfect. The American slaves were not set free because they were jolly good fellows, but because they were human beings.”
Oswald Chambers, Might Upmost for His Highest
"It is impossible for a man who is warm to understand one who is cold.” —Alexander Solzhenitzyn
I want to be fruitful. I want to make a difference in people’s lives, in the church, and in the world. I expect this is true for you, also. Though we can exhaust ourselves in our daily routines without thinking about why we do what we do, when we step back and catch our breath we feel a deep desire for fruitfulness. We want our lives to count.
“I’m not surprised by vice. I’m surprised by virtue. Classical Christianity has always had a negative view of human nature…people are broken and fallen and frail. People plod along and make mistakes. But there is a message to all guilt-ridden humanity: there is saving grace and there can be released from that guilt, shame, and sin.”
We can't protect our children from every negative influence out there, but we can surely lead by example.
As followers of Christ, despite the broken and evil affairs of the world, we still have the unique opportunity to promote unity, foster unconditional love, and share the message of real hope in Jesus.
While the agent of renovation is the Divine Spirit, and the condition of renovation is cleaving to Christ, the medium of renovation and the weapon which the transforming grace employs is “the word of truth of the gospel,” whereby we are sanctified.
~Alexander MacLaren~
Christians have one supreme message: the gospel of Jesus Christ’s atoning death, glorious resurrection, and coming kingdom. Be defined by that message. Preach that and let everything else come second.
God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.
~C.S Lewis~
Too often I see Christians focused on just what Christ's death represents -- forgiveness of sin. Although critical, I think Paul's point is to not forget the equally important power Jesus has given us through the resurrection: victory over sin in the present and the presence of sin in eternity.
We aren’t welcome before God because of intellect, skin color, riches, poverty, titles, background, family, notoriety, works, ritual, traditions, creed, beauty, or class.
We’re only welcome through Christ.
Dustin Benge
Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more like Christ.
~Billy Graham~
“Take all this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man.” —
Abraham Lincoln, speaking of the Bible.
You can pray for them and still realize they’re not healthy for you.
I think it probably matters less how sin came into the world -- and more that it's here. Yet some people continue to debate the goodness of man -- as if a man has some redeeming quality to justify eternal life without God's grace. Man doesn't. We're all sinners and have been from the beginning of time. Once we stop arguing this fact, it clears up a lot of confusion -- we see the harsh reality of our own mortality and the futility of trying to do good without Jesus at our core. Where does Jesus fit in your worldview?
We do not just need the individual pearls of truths; we need the string that ties them together. Without systematic theology, pastors are throwing out pearls to people, but they have no string to put them on and hold them together.
Randy Alcorn
There is no form of sin in which we act more satanically than when we indulge in telling a lie.
~Frank Gabelein~
"Never confuse meekness with weakness." ~
Elisabeth Elliot
If I'm filled with myself, almost anything can irritate me. When I'm filled with Jesus, almost nothing can irritate me.
Blessed be God for that fulness which is in Christ, out of which we are all to receive grace for grace. - George Whitefield
The object of faith must be truth. - John Newton
There is something to be done for you which you cannot do for yourself. We will not water down that truth, but give it to you just as it stands in the Scriptures; we want you to feel its power. - Charles Spurgeon
A heart filled with the love of God will night and day be exercising itself in and with thoughts of God's glorious excellencies, rejoicing in them. - John Owen
Such as drink of the joys of heaven are never cloyed; the satiety is without loathing, because they still desire the joy wherewith they are satiated. - Thomas Watson
Glory be to free grace! I can repose myself in Jesus, and am happy in him. - George Whitefield
The Christian is a man who does not only believe in the cross, he glories in it. - Martyn Lloyd-
Jones
Oh what unspeakable comfort it is to cast oneself on the Saviour as a guilty, weak sinner in myself, but as trusting in the gracious promises of God through the Redeemer! - William Wilberforce
If you learn of Jesus you will have rest from the fear of men. - Charles Spurgeon
Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you; so forgiven, that they shall reign over you no more. - John Wesley
If the woman who touched his garment in faith obtained virtue from him to heal her issue of blood, shall not those who cleave unto him continually derive virtue from him for the healing of their spiritual defilements. - John Owen
"The devil's constant strategy is to seek to merge the church and the world so that the people of God lose their distinctiveness and be no longer as 'a city set upon a hill.' The primary way of Satan to achieve this is to confuse what it means to be a Christian." -Iain Murray.
"Nothing is more essential to godliness than social interaction." -John Witherspoon.
"Christ, not Caesar, is the head of the church." -John MacArthur.
"Experience of God's work upon our own souls, is the best qualification to preach it effectually to others." -George Whitefield.
"If we are going to see times of refreshing in our day, ministers of the gospel must have a passion for holiness, a passion for prayer, and a passion for evangelism." -Joshua Mills.
"The day I offered incense to an idol, I went out of my closet without making use of secret prayer." -Origen.
"Our duty is to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." -James W. Alexander.
"If any man would learn to pray, let him think about marrying. No one step or action in life has so much influence on eternity as marriage. It is an heaven or hell in this world." -Charles Wesley.
"He that dies with a good conscience dies well. So beware of the gnawing of an evil conscience. Eschew the torments of an evil conscience, and purge your conscience of everything wherewith it is defiled, and you shall die well." -Robert Bruce.
"Wood, hay, and stubble are above the ground; they catch the eye. Silver, gold, and precious stones are below the ground; nobody sees them. There's a lot of public ministry that's going to go down in ashes." -Leonard Ravenhill.
"This incomprehensible God, who is of Himself and for Himself, cannot be made known to His creatures but by Himself." -Francis Cheynell.
"Upon this rock Christ Jesus will I build my faith, and if I perish, I perish." -Anne Bradstreet.
"Let our complaints be turned into thanksgivings." -Matthew Henry.
"Nothing happens by chance, but every event comes with a Divine solemn message." -Mary Winslow.
"If you want to train your children wisely, note well how God the Father trains His children." -J.C.Ryle.
"The most important thought that has ever crossed my mind was that of my individual responsibility to God." -Daniel Webster.
“The benefit of Christ’s sufficiency is extended to all believers by virtue of their union unto him.” — William Whitaker, How Are We Complete in Christ, 17.
“In having an interest in [Christ], they have enough for the supply of all wants, for the prevention of all dangers, for the procuring [of] all good.” — William Whitaker
“The whole gospel is nothing but one entire mirror of divine goodness.” — Stephen Charnock
“We are empty of all good; but [Christ] is a full fountain, from whom flow all those blessings which concern either our present comfort or future happiness.” — William Whitaker
“God works entirely by His own power—without the least help from anyone.” — George Swinnock
“God isn’t the key to the good life… he defines the good life. He is the good life.” — Tim Chester, You Can Change, 105.
"So long as you are willing to be used by God, you need not fear." — Charles Spurgeon
"If you feel incapable, throw yourself upon the infinite capacity of God." — Charles Spurgeon
"If God has given you an anxiety for the souls of others, with faith get to work in all your feebleness." — Charles Spurgeon
"Hold to God's Word by faith, and you will be strong. God will vindicate his own cause." — Charles Spurgeon
"You must find joy in God, or you will not find joy at all." — Charles Spurgeon
"God does not need your strength; he has more than enough on his own. He asks your weakness, he has none of that." — Charles Spurgeon
"My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there." — Charles Spurgeon
"The most important daily habit we can possess is to remind ourselves of the gospel." — Charles Spurgeon
"Until we get rid of selfishness, we shall never feel constant joy." — Charles Spurgeon
"If Christ has paid the debt, then there is no debt left; it is gone." — Charles Spurgeon
"Blessed is the fact that Christians can rejoice even in the deepest distress." — Charles Spurgeon
"The Christian need not dread sickness, for he has nothing to lose, but everything to gain, by death." — Charles Spurgeon
"We are as clear about God's having forgiven our sin as we are about our having committed it." — Charles Spurgeon
"Even while you are lamenting your many transgressions he is hurling them into the depths of the sea." — Charles Spurgeon
"A doubt as to our forgiveness is fatal to all joy, for it lets in the dread fear of divine wrath." — Charles Spurgeon
"The gospel is all about Christ from beginning to end." – Charles Spurgeon
"Whether Calvinists, or Arminians, or anything else, dear friends, be first and chiefly Christians." — Charles Spurgeon
"The gospel is as free as the air you breathe." — Charles Spurgeon
"If you do not love the Bible, you certainly do not love the God who gave it to us." — Charles Spurgeon
"The Christian is not only delivered from punishment, he is positively absolved from guilt." — Charles Spurgeon
“There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’” - C.S. Lewis
It is possible that those times when we feel disturbed, upset, discouraged, despondent or depressed for no apparent reason, a spiritual force is to blame. We are all in a spiritual battle, whether we are aware of it or not. Chuck Smith
A sheep may fall into the mire, but a swine delights to wallow in the mire. Thomas Brooks
"While some preachers are gifted enough to carry longer messages and others aren’t, underneath that is this reality: five minutes of boring is five minutes too long." -Carey Nieuwhof
If you have room for Christ, then from this day forth remember, the world has no room for you. Charles Spurgeon
I make it my rule, to lay hold of light and embrace it, wherever I see it, though held forth by a child or an enemy. -Jonathan Edwards -
It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. -A.W. Tozer -
“Preaching of the Word, being the power of God unto salvation, and one of the greatest and most excellent works belong to the ministry of the gospel, should be so performed, that the work man need not be ashamed, but may save himself, and those that hear him." - William Perkins
Why do you not read and meditate upon the Word of God? You think it is lack of time, and lack of [intellectual] parts and abilities. I tell you, it is lack of love. If you once found a heart, you will find time, abilities and thoughts to bestow… —Thomas Manton, Works 7:481
Carnal men have [their own version of] self-denial, a cursed one. None deny themselves as much as they: they part with heaven, Christ, peace, all the hopes, all the comforts of the Spirit, merely to please the flesh and gratify their interest in the world. —Thomas Manton, 7:492
So I’ve got to tell you that if you do not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him on one day a week. There is no such thing known in heaven as Sunday worship unless it is accompanied by Monday worship and Tuesday worship and so on. Tozer
The emphasis of Jesus’ life and ministry is His message, the Gospel of His saving grace. Ray Bentley
We must learn to live on the heaven side and look at things from above. How it overcomes sin, defies Satan, dissolves perplexities, lifts us above trials, separates us from the world and conquers the fear of death to contemplate all things as God sees them. AB Simpson
You cannot justify yourself. But you can cry out to the Lord for His mercy to pardon and justify you. God is faithful to hear your cries, for a broken and contrite heart He will not despise (Ps. 51:17). But all of this must be on God’s terms, as outlined in the Bible. Rosaria B.
We have daily reason to sorrow because we are sinners - and greater reason to rejoice, because Jesus has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself! John Newton
As we grow in faith, we come to understand that works are not meant to get God to respond to us. Rather, works are the inevitable response to the goodness and grace He has already lavished upon us. Jon Courson
The mature Christian life is one of constant fleeing to the throne of grace for mercy, grace, and forgiveness of our sins. Our fight with sin ends at our death, when we are glorified; perfection only comes at the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:12–28). Rosaria Butterfield
To follow an enemy of Christ in her walk away from the truth is suicide. Don’t even toy with it. Rosaria Butterfield
When God wanted to bring the children of Israel out of bondage, He did not send an army; He sent one solitary man. So in all ages God has used the weak things of the world to accomplish His purposes. Moody
Our sins are many, but His mercies are more: our sins are great, but His righteousness is greater: we are weak, but He is power. John Newton
There is no doubt that it is by praying that we learn to pray, and that the more we pray, the better our prayers will be. -C.H. Spurgeon -
Nothing is more difficult to counterfeit than virtue. -John Calvin -
Most teens want more out of their Student Ministry than pizza, games, or a 15-minute pep-talk. Because, many of them already know those things will never sustain them, once their faith is challenged by the world, suffering, or cultural agendas.
People like to say, “Well, God knows my heart", when justifying their actions. You're right, God does know our hearts. He calls it deceitful (Jer 17:9).