To Encourage

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” (Martin Luther) 

“This darkness is very deep, but our God has gone deeper still. When you have been to Calvary, even Ravensbrook [Concentration Camp] looks small.” (Corrie Ten Boom, quoted in Peter J. Kreeft, The Philosophy of Tolkien (San Francisco, 2005), page 186.) 

“True faith is man’s weakness leaning on God’s strength.” (D.L. Moody)

“There is a history full of grace behind us, and a prophecy full of glory before us.” (C.H. Spurgeon)

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”  (C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity)

“We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us.” (2 Corinthians 6:8 NLT)

“God’s sovereignty does not negate our responsibility to pray, but rather makes it possible for us to pray with confidence.”  (Jerry Bridges)

“Life is not measured by length but by depth. Birthdays tell us how long we have been on the road, not how far we have travelled.”  (Vance Havner)

One of my favorite prayers in the Bible: “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” (2 Chronicles 20:12 ESV) (posted by Justin Taylor)

“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart,…” (Jeremiah 15:16 ESV)

“On these pages you will find the living Christ, and you will see Him more fully and more clearly than if He stood before you, before your very eyes.”(Erasmus’ preface to his Greek New Testament, quoted in Earl D. Radmacher, editor, Can We Trust The Bible? (Wheaton, 1979), page 92.)

To Challenge

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” (C.S. Lewis)

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.” (C.S Lewis)

“Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him. We will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts.” (C.T. Studd – Great Missionary Statesman to Africa who founded World Evangelization Crusade)

“Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” (C.T. Studd)

“Make my life a prayer to You 

I wanna do what you want me to 

No empty words and no white lies 

No token prayers no compromise 

I wanna tell the world out there 

You’re not some fable or fairy tale 

That I’ve made up inside my head 

You’re God the Son and You’ve risen from the dead”

(Keith Green – from his album No Compromise)

“There is no healing a man till the law has wounded him, no making him alive till the law has slain him.” (C.H. Spurgeon)

“Grace leads to rest, not complacency.” (Scotty Smith)

“The effect of the cross is…we are silenced by the severity of our sin and we are stunned by the glory of our God.” (Is. 52:13-53:12) (David Platt)

Evangelism & Discipleship

“I simply argue that the cross should be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church.  I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles but on a cross between two thieves; on the town’s garbage heap; at a crossroad so cosmopolitan they had to write his title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek, . . . at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble.  Because that is where he died.  And that is what he died for.  And that is what he died about.  That is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen ought to be about.” (George MacLeod, quoted by Richard C. Halverson, Perspective, 6 January 1988 as quoted by Ray Ortlund Jr. on his blog) 

“Discipleship: When Jesus said to make disciples, the disciples understood that to mean that they should make out of others what Jesus has made out of them.” (Don Whitney – Professor at Southern Seminary, Louisville, KY)

“Jesus sends the church into the world to do his will, just as the Father sent the Son into the world to do his will. The church is sent in a similar way Jesus was sent, though with a different mission. Jesus was sent by the Father (incarnated) to save a people for himself, and with them all of creation (Lk. 19:10; Col. 1:20). Jesus sends the church into the world in like manner (cultural immersion, relational identification, divine purpose/agenda) to make disciples of all nations. Jesus fully incarnated, taking on flesh in order to rescue the world from sin, death and hell. Following his example and command we, obviously to a lesser degree, ‘incarnate,’ in order to make disciples as we make his excellencies known (Mt. 28:18-29; 1 Pet. 2:9).” (Ed Stetzer)

 The Holy Spirit

“Without the Spirit we can neither love God nor keep His commandments.” (Augustine)

“The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation. We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God.”  (Francis Chan)

“Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.” (Corrie Ten Boom)

Selah!