Quote of the Day

 Love is the Queen of the Christian graces. It is a holy disposition given to us when we are born again by God. True spiritual love is characterized by meekness and gentleness, yet it is vastly superior to the courtesies and kindnesses of the flesh.

We must be careful not to confuse human sentimentality, carnal pleasantries, and human amiability with true spiritual love. The love God commands, first to Himself and then to others, is not human love. If we indulgently allow our children to grow up with little or, no Scriptural discipline, Proverbs plainly says we do not love them, regardless of the human sentimentality and affection we may feel for them. Love is not a sentimental pampering of one another with a loose indifference as to our walk and obedience before the Lord. Glossing over one another’s faults to ingratiate ourselves in their esteem is not spiritual love.

The true nature of Christian love is a righteous principle which seeks the highest good of others. The exercise of love is to be in strict conformity to the revealed will of God. We must love in the truth. Love among the brethren is far more than an agreeable society where views are the same. It is loving them for what we see of Christ in them, loving them for Christ’s sake.

The Lord Jesus Himself is our example. He was not only thoughtful, gentle, self-sacrificing and patient, but He also corrected His mother, used a whip in the Temple, severely scolded His doubting disciples, and denounced hypocrites. True spiritual love is above all faithful to God and uncompromising towards all that is evil. We cannot declare, ‘Peace and Safety’ when in reality there is spiritual decay and ruin!

True spiritual love is very difficult to exercise because it is not our natural love. By nature we would rather love sentimentally and engender good feelings. Also many times true spiritual love is not received in love, but is hated as the Pharisees hated it. We must pray that God will fill us with His love and enable us to exercise it without dissimulation toward all.

 

Arthur Pink

Quote of the Day

Those who think too much of themselves don’t think enough.

  

Amy Carmichael

Quote of the Day

Where is it said (in the Bible) that Christ doth intercede for men that they may have faith if they do such and such things? Nay, what condition can rationally be assigned this desire?  Some often intimate that it is," if they suffer the Spirit to have his work upon their hearts, and obey the grace of God." Now, what is it to obey the grace of God? Is it not to believe? Therefore it seems that Christ intercedeth for them that they may believe, upon condition that they do believe.(!)

John Owen

Quote of the Day

Is life to be defined by what I pursue, or must my pursuit be defined by what life was meant to be?

Ravi Zacharias

Quote of the Day

All ignorance is invincible for us. No ignorance is invincible for the grace of God. The more we endeavor of ourselves to obtain wisdom, the nearer we approach to folly...not that this invincible ignorance excuses the sinner, otherwise there would be no sin in the world.

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

While it is nice to have our problems solved and difficulties removed by others, it is not always best for us. Instead of continuing to answer your questions, I might be of more service if I put you in the way of answering them for yourself. That man is the greatest help to me who casts me back upon God and stimulates me to the study of his Word. 'Study', I say, for while there are many who read it daily, and use the concordance, scarcely any study it. The first requirment is, of course, a spirit of dependence upon the Lord(distrusting our own competency), yet prayer is not meant to encourage slothfulness, and is no substitute for the diligent use of whatever talents God has bestowed upon us...

 

A. W. Pink

Quote of the Day

Lord, I am hunted with such a temptation, dogged with such a lust, either thou must pardon it, or I am damned; mortify it, or I shall be a slave to it; take me into the bosom of thy love, for Christ's sake; castle me in the arms of thy everlasting strength, it is in thy power to save from, or give me up into, the hands of my enemy. I have no confidence in myself or any other: into thy hands I commit my cause my life, and rely on thee.

William Gurnall

Quote of the Day

Why is discipline important? Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire. Saying no to our impulses (even the ones that are not inherently sinful) puts us in control of our appetites rather than vice versa. It deposes our lust and permits truth, virtue, and integrity to rule our minds instead.

John Macarthur

Quote of the Day

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

Charles Spurgeon

Quote of the Day

It is not the level of our spirituality that we can depend on. It is God and nothing less than God, for the work is God's and the call is God's and everything is summoned by Him and to His purposes, the whole scene, the whole mess, the whole package - our bravery and our cowardice, our love and our selfishness, our strengths and our weaknesses. The God who could take a murderer like Moses and an adulterer like David and a traitor like Peter and make of them strong servants of His is a God who can also redeem savage Indians, using as instruments of His peace a conglomeration of sinners who sometimes look like heroes and sometimes like villains, for "we are no better than pots of earthenware to contain this treasure [the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ], and this proves that such transcendent power does not come from us, but is God's alone"(2 Cor. 4:7, NEB).

We are not always sure where the horizon is. We would not know which end is up were it not for the shimmering pathway of light falling on the white sea. The One who laid the earth's foundations and settled its dimensions knows where the lines are drawn. He gives all the light we need for trust and for obedience.

 

Elisabeth Elliot

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Postulating the nonexistence of God, atheism immediately commits the blunder of an absolute negation, which is self-contradictory. For, to sustain the belief that there is no God, it has to demonstrate infinite knowledge, which is tantamount to saying, "I have infinite knowledge that there is no being in existence with infinite knowledge."

Ravi Zacharias

Quote of the Day

When the leaders of the army wished to know what they ought to do, they examined into what they had done when they felt happiest and nearest to God: such are not the means prescribed by Heaven. They should have asked themselves, "What does God command us in His word?" It is not by our feelings that He will guide us, but by His commandments. Our feelings may lead us astray. There is a way which seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The Word of God never misleads us. A Christian's walk is in the Divine commandments: to act according to one's own sensations, one's interior illumination, is the walk of the mystic.

 

J. H. Merle D'aubigne

Quote of the Day

The plain fact is, dear reader, that to the present generation the Most High of Holy Writ is 'the unknown God."  It is just because people today are so ignorant of the Divine character and so lacking in godly fear, that they are quite in the dark as to the nature and glory of divine justice, presuming to arraign it.  This is an age of blatant irreverence, wherein lumps of animate clay dare to prescribe what the Almighty ought and ought not to do.  Our forefathers sowed the wind, and today their children are reaping the whirlwind.  The "divine rights of kings"  was scoffed at and tabooed by the sires, and now their offspring repudiate the "divine rights of the King of kings."  Unless the supposed "rights" of the creature are "respected," then our moderns have no respect for the Creator, and if His high sovereignty and absolute dominion over all be insisted upon, they hesitate not to vomit forth their condemnation of Him.  And, "evil communications corrupt good manners" (I Cor.  15:33)!  God's own people are in danger of being infected by the poisonous gas which now fills the air of the religious world. 

Arthur Pink

Quote of the Day

My Dad on Romans 7:

To the believer, it(the law) still serves to keep our 'fleshy self'(carnal)identified....

Beware of the viewing of self as 'this body'.  We are not what we see and feel in the flesh - the body is the interface for the real me to interact with the physical world….'sin' would have us believe it is our true master, stifling progressive work by instilling a habitual defensive posture.  So, do believers sin and if so, why?  Yes they do sin, but there is now a difference - the 'lusting after the Spirit (Gal.5:16-17) walking and being led by the Spirit, not the flesh.  The law still serves to make clear the sins still dwelling in our fleshly members but when looked to for righteousness it still seems defeating!...So, the goal of the believer is not the perfection of action(law) but perfection of cooperation with the work of God's spirit in us - a completely trusting submitter…(so what do) we expect while we live in our bodies…There is a 'law'(principle, truth) that when I seek(will) to do good, evil will also be at my side seeking to counter it….Many deem themselves failure even when they obey, not knowing what to make of that part of them that did not want to…this is that principle at work in us - accept it as fact so as to be aware of resistance to my submission to God. ..The war is ever present….Never, never accept a defeatists attitude - as clarified earlier in Romans 6, the war is won, but as clarified here, the enemy has not yielded. …When inconsistencies can be accepted as normal and  'lived with' there is cause for concern - this is not normal…These inconsistencies stir in us a 'groaning' as with creation for the redemption of our body' )Rom8:21-23…The reality of the conflict reminds us to be humble - realizing our steady, unending dependence upon our Savior…What are we actively pursuing now?  IS it more the removal of something or the engrafting of what is better?  It is easy to develop a life of 'do nots' …We are more to be defined by what we do than what we don't do…We take comfort in the work of the spirit 'pricking our hearts not having to fret over the 'probability' of our abandoning the faith.

 

Don Lambert

Quote of the Day

Our great honor lies in being just what Jesus was and is. To be accepted by those who accept Him, rejected by all who reject Him, loved by those who love Him and hated by everyone that hates Him. What greater glory could come to any man?"

A. W. Tozer

Quote of the Day

To be poor is  not always pleasant, but worse things than that happen at sea.  Small shoes are apt to pinch, but not if you have a small foot; if we have little means it will be well to have little desires. Poverty is no shame, but being discontented with it is.

 John Ploughman (Charles Spurgeon)

Quote of the Day

By all the castings down of His servants God is glorified, for they are led to magnify Him when He sets them on their feet, and even while prostrate in the dust their faith yields Him praise.  They speak all the more sweetly of His faithfulness, and are the more firmly established in HIs love.  Such mature men as some elderly preachers are, could scarcely have been produced if they had not been emptied from vessel to vessel, and made to see their own emptiness and the vanity of all things round about them.  Glory be to God for the furnace, the hammer, and the file.  Heaven shall be all the fuller of bliss because we have been filled with anguish here below, and earth shall be better tilled because of our training in adversity.

The lesson of wisdom is, be not dismayed by soul-trouble.  Count it no strange thing, but a part of ordinary ministerial experience.  Should the power of depression be more than ordinary, think not that all is over with your usefulness. Cast not away your confidence, for it hath great recompense of reward.  Even if the enemy's foot be on your neck, expect to rise and overthrow him.  Cast the burden of the present, along with the sin of the past and the fear of the future, upon the Lord, who forsaketh not HIs saints.  Live by the day - ay, by the hour. Put no trust in frames or feelings. Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.  Trust in God alone, and lean not on the needs of human help.  Be not surprised when friends fail you: it is a failing world.  Never count upon immutability in man: inconstancy you may reckon upon without fear of disappointment. The disciples of Jesus forsook Him; be not amazed if your adherents wander away to other teachers: as they were not your all when with you, all is not gone from you with their departure.  Serve God with all your might while the candle is burning, and then when it goes out for a season, you will have less to regret.  Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are.  When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed  of being full, except with the Lord.  Set small store by present rewards, be grateful for earnests by the way, but look for the recompensing joy hereafter.  Continue with double earnestness to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you.  Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith's rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide.  Between this and heaven there may be rougher weather yet, but it is all provided for by our covenant Head.  In nothing let us be turned aside from the path which the divine call has urged us to pursue.  Come fair or come foul, the pulpit is our watch-tower, and the ministry our warfare; be it ours, when we cannot see the face of our God, to trust under the shadow of His wings.

Charles Spurgeon

Quote of the Day

Faith is reason at rest in God.

Charles Spurgeon

Quote of the Day

Our Savior did not use any means which might enlist man's lower nature on his side. When I have heard of large congregations gathered together by the music of a fine choir, I have remembered that the same thing is done at the opera house and the music-hall, and I have felt no joy. When we have heard of crowds enchanted by the sublime music of the pealing organ, I have seen in the fact rather a glorification of St. Cecilia than of Jesus Christ. Our Lord trusted in no measure or degree to the charms of music for the establishing his throne. He has not given to his disciples the slightest intimation that they are to employ the attractions of the concert room to promote the kingdom of heaven.

I find no rubric in Scripture commanding Paul to clothe himself in robes of blue, scarlet, or violet; neither do I find Peter commanded to wear a surplice, an alb, or a chasuble. The Holy Spirit has not cared even to hint at a surpliced choir, or at banners, processions, and processional hymns. Now, if our Lord had arranged a religion of fine shows, and pompous ceremonies, and gorgeous architecture, and enchanting, music, and bewitching incense, and the like, we could have comprehended its growth; but he is "a root out of a dry ground", for he owes nothing to any of these.

Christianity has been infinitely hindered by the musical, the aesthetic, and the ceremonial devices of men, but it has never been advantaged by them, no, not a jot. The sensuous delights of sound and sight have always been enlisted on the side of error, but Christ has employed nobler and more spiritual agencies. Things which fascinate the senses are left to be the chosen instruments of Antichrist, but the gospel, disdaining Saul's armor, goes forth in the natural simplicity of its own might, like David, with sling and stone. Our holy religion owes nothing whatever to any carnal means; so far as they are concerned, it is "a root out of a dry ground".

Charles Spurgeon

Quote of the Day

Slavish fear makes the naughty heart imprison truth in his conscience, because, if that had its liberty and authority in the soul,it would imprison, yea, execute every lust that rules the roost; and he that imprisons truth in his own bosom, will hardly lie in prison himself as a witness for truth.

William Gurnall

Quote of the Day

But although we maintain the sacred Word of God against gainsayers, it does not follow that we shall forthwith implant the certainty which faith requires in their hearts. Profane men think religion rests only on opinion, and therefore, that they may not believe foolishly, or on slight grounds, desire and insist to have it proved by reason that Moses and the prophets were divinely inspired. But I answer that the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason. For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely intrusted.

John Calvin

Quote of the Day

It is a bad indication when, in any period, men will so exalt their confessions that they force the Scriptures to a secondary importance, illustrated in one era, when as Tulloch remarks: 'Scripture as a witness, disappeared behind the Augsburg Confession" ...No decrees of councils; no ordinances of synods; no "standard" of doctrines; no creed or confession, is to be urged as authority in forming the opinions of men. They may be valuable for some purposes, but not for this; they may be referred to as interesting parts of history, but not to form the faith of Christians; they may be used in the church to express its belief, not to form it.

L. S. Chafer

Quote of the Day

In Scripture the visitation of an angel is always alarming; it has to begin by saying “Fear not.” The Victorian angel looks as if it were going to say, “There, there.”

C. S. Lewis

Quote of the Day

Here God has written out His glorious name. In this Jewish people we see every divine perfection in act and operation. Omnipotence raised them up at first….Wisdom watched over, led, and guided them unerringly. Faithfulness fulfilled every promise uttered by the lip of Truth. Goodness established them in a noble land, gave them holy laws, divine and instructive institutions, sent among them prophets to teach and priests to minister. Holiness warned, cautioned, and exhorted them, and when they rebelliously spurned the gentle tones of love, how long did Patience bear with them; how often did God return and have mercy on them! When they had sinned "till there was no more remedy" [2 Chr 36:16], when they had consummated the rebellions of fifteen hundred years by that unparalleled deed of blood, the murder of the Son of God, then, after some yet further lingerings and invitations of insulted Mercy, did awful Justice arise, bare his arm for the battle, and strike down the terrible and crushing blows. Now, in what state do we behold them? Even as they have been for the last eighteen hundred years, like a burnt mountain on the plains of Time, scorched and splintered by the lightnings of diving wrath.

Yes! Still preserved in all their woe, still unconsumed by all these penal fires! Preserved! And for what? Let a thousand glorious prophecies answer! That burnt mountain shall yet be clothed with lovely foliage; down its sides shall streams of living water gush; and the nation that now witnesses to the truth, justice and power of God, shall sing till the ends of the earth shall hear and echo back the song, "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love"(Mic 7:18). Then shall the Lord be glorified in Israel, and all His attributes displayed in full-orbed glory, when He shall "call her Hephzibah, and her land Beulah" [Isa 62:4]. What a glorious Jehovah is the LORD God of Israel! With what awe, what love, what fear, what hope, should this character, as exhibited towards Israel, Inspire us!

Horatius Bonar