Quote of the Day

Every workman knows the necessity of keeping his tools in a good state of repair...It is true that the Lord...can work with the faultiest kind of instrumentality, as He does when He occasionally makes very foolish preaching to be useful in conversion; and he can even work without agents, as he does when he saves men without a preacher at all, applying the word directly by his Holy Spirit; but we cannot regard God's absolutely sovereign acts as a rule for our action.  He may, in His own absoluteness, do as pleases Him best, but we must act as His plainer dispensations instruct us; and one of the facts which is clear enough is this, that the Lord usually adapts means to ends, from which the plain lesson is, that we shall be likely to accomplish most when we are in the best spiritual condition; or in other words, we shall usually do our Lord's work best when our gifts and graces are in good order, and we shall do worst when they are most out of trim.  This is a practical truth for our guidance.  When the Lord makes exceptions, they do but prove the rule.

  We are, in a certain sense, our own tools, and therefore must keep ourselves in order.  If I want to preach the gospel, I can only use my own voice; and therefore I must train my vocal powers.  I can only think with my own brains, and feel with my own heart, and therefore I must educate my intellectual and emotional faculties...It will be in vain for me to stock my library, or organize societies, or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself; for books, and agencies, and systems, are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling; my own spirit, soul, and body, are my nearest machinery for sacred service...

Charles Spurgeon