C. G. Trumbull
Those who are readiest to trust God without other evidence than His Word always receive the greatest number of visible evidences of His love.
上帝给我们的祝福中间，有两个是我们所最不欢迎的：一个是迟延，一个是苦难。上帝常用迟延和苦难来试验我们；但是在这一切中间却站着上帝的誓约--祂在基督裡与我们所立的新约。所以让我们为着迟延和苦难来讚美祂罢，因为这是祂给我们的祝福。
C. H. Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon was once asked, "How do you defend the Bible?" "Very easy" he responded. "The same way I defend a lion. I simply let it out of its cage.
The Lord gets His best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.
Sin is Christicide.
He that deserves nothing should be content with anything.
If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word - Prayer. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.
Elisabeth Elliot
Elisabeth Elliot, at Urbana 76, told of her brother Thomas Howard. Their mother let him play with paper bags she'd saved if he put them away afterwards. One day she walked into the kitchen to find them strewn all over the floor. Tom was out at the piano with his father singing hymns. When confronted, he protested, "But Mom, I want to sing." His father stated, "It's no good singing God's praise if you're disobedient."
God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.
The God who created, names and numbers the stars in the heavens also numbers the stars of my head. He pays attention to very big things and to very small ones. What matters to me matters to Him, and that changes my life.
The God who created, names and numbers the stars in the heavens also numbers the stars of my head. He pays attention to very big things and to very small ones. What matters to me matters to Him, and that changes my life.
Elisabeth Elliot, at Urbana 76, told of her brother Thomas Howard. Their mother let him play with paper bags she'd saved if he put them away afterwards. One day she walked into the kitchen to find them strewn all over the floor. Tom was out at the piano with his father singing hymns. When confronted, he protested, "But Mom, I want to sing." His father stated, "It's no good singing God's praise if you're disobedient."
Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering.... The love of God did not protect His own Son.... He will not necessarily protect us - not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process.
The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better and a lot bigger.
John MacArthur
As Christians we accept one foundational truth - God - and everything else makes sense. An atheist denies God and has to accept incredible explanations for everything else. It takes more faith to deny God than to believe in Him.
The cost of true greatness is humble, selfless, sacrificial service. The Christian who desires to be great and first in the kingdom is the one who is willing to serve in the hard place, the uncomfortable place, the lonely place, the demanding place, the place where he is not appreciated and may even be persecuted. Knowing that time is short and eternity is long, he is willing to spend and be spent. He is willing to work for excellence without becoming proud, to withstand criticism without becoming bitter, to be misjudged without becoming defensive, and to withstand suffering without succumbing to self pity.
The cost of true greatness is humble, selfless, sacrificial service. The Christian who desires to be great and first in the kingdom is the one who is willing to serve in the hard place, the uncomfortable place, the lonely place, the demanding place, the place where he is not appreciated and may even be persecuted. Knowing that time is short and eternity is long, he is willing to spend and be spent. He is willing to work for excellence without becoming proud, to withstand criticism without becoming bitter, to be misjudged without becoming defensive, and to withstand suffering without succumbing to self pity.
A. W. Tozer
The unattended garden will soon be overrun with weeds; the heart that fails to cultivate truth and root out error will shortly be a theological wilderness.
Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
John White
A good witness isn't like a salesman, emphasis is on a person rather than a product. A good witness is like a signpost. It doesn't matter whether it is old, young, pretty, ugly; it has to point the right direction and be able to be understood. We are witnesses to Christ, we point to him.
You have established a new relationship with the powers of darkness. Whatever you were before you were a Christian... you are now a sworn foe of the legions of hell. Have no delusions about their reality or their hostility, but do not fear them. The God inside you terrifies them. They cannot hurt you, let alone hurt you, but they can still seduce, and they will try. They will also oppose you as you obey Christ. ... you are serious about Christ being your Lord and God, you can expect opposition.
Has it never dawned upon you that the essence of witnessing is just plain honesty? You are salt - whether you feel like it or not. You are not told to act like salt but to be what you are. You are a light. God has done a work in your life. Don't try to shine. Let the light that God put there shine out. It demands no more than honesty. It demands honesty before unbelievers. In fact such honesty is ninety per cent of witnessing. Witnessing is not putting on a Christian front as to convince prospective customers. Witnessing is just being honest, that is, being true to what God has made you in your speech and everyday behaviour.
Jim Elliot
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him.
G. Campbell Morgan
A father and his young daughter were great friends and much in each other's company. Then the father noted a change in his daughter. If he went for a walk, she excused herself from going. He grieved about it, but could not understand. When his birthday came, she presented him with a pair of exquisitely worked slippers, saying, I have made them for you. " Then he understood what had been the matter for the past three months, and he said. "My darling, like these slippers very much, but next time buy the slippers and let me have you all the days. I would rather have my child than anything she can make for me. " Some of us are so busy for the Lord that He cannot get much of us. To us He would say, "I know your works, your labor, your patience, but I miss the first Love."
Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given. Waiting for God means power to do nothing save under command. This is not lack of power to do anything. Waiting for God needs strength rather than weakness. It is power to do nothing. It is the strength that holds strength in check. It is the strength that prevents the blundering activity which is entirely false and will make true activity impossible when the definite command comes.
The prayer life does not consist of perpetual repetition of petitions . The prayer life consists of life that is always upward and onward and Godward.
Katherine Walden
When I find myself racing around, trying to fill a day with mindless tasks or petty entertainment, this is usually the time that God whispers to my heart to draw away with Him and to silence my heart as He wishes to speak.
Unforgiveness is like a scratch on an old record. The song never goes on to the end, it keeps the beautiful music yet to be released unheard and all that resounds are the same old three or four chords again and again and again.
While the Lord calls me to be wise and discerning, he reminds me often that his discernment cannot dwell in a cynical distrustful heart. With Him, there is no hidden agenda and no ulterior motive. His gifts are free for the taking but I cannot take these gifts if my hands are already full of my own weapons of self- protection. Therefore, He asks me to lay down the shields that I have forged for protection and to pick up the shield of faith in their place. He asks me to take Him at His Word.
If, when searching for God's will and direction, you cannot hear clearly - ask yourself this. Have you obeyed the last task the Lord directed you to perform? If not, repent, go do the task if the Lord still directs and then pray again for direction.
John Wesley
When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me.
Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.
John Wesley tells of a dream he had. In the dream, he was ushered to the gates of Hell. There he asked, "Are there any Presbyterians here?" "Yes!", came the answer. Then he asked, "Are there any Baptists? Any Episcopalians? Any Methodists?" The answer was Yes! each time. Much distressed, Wesley was then ushered to the gates of Heaven. There he asked the same question, and the answer was No! "No?" To this, Wesley asked, "Who then is inside?" The answer came back, "There are only Christians here." (1 Cor 1:10-17)
Though I am always in a haste, I am never in a hurry, because I never undertake more work than I can go through with perfect calmness of spirit.
Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God.
Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will. Let be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You. Let me have all things, let me have nothing, I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours. So be it. Amen.
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