Quote of the Day

O Almighty and Everlasting God! How terrible is this world! Behold, it openeth its mouth to swallow me up, and I have so little trust in Thee!.....How weak is the flesh, and Satan how strong! If it is only in the strength of this world that I must put my trust, all is over!......My last hour is come, my condemnation has been pronounced!......O God! O God!......O God! do thou help me against the wisdom of the world! Do this; thou shouldest do this.....thou alone.....for this is not my work, but Thine. I have nothing to do here, nothing to contend for with these great ones of the world! I should desire to see my days flow on peaceful and happy. But the cause is Thine.....and it is a righteous and eternal cause. O Lord! help me! Faithful and unchangeable God! In no man do I place my trust. It would be vain! All that is of man is uncertain; all that cometh of man fails....O God! my God, hearest Thou me not?.....My God, art Thou dead?.....No! Thou canst not die! Thou hidest thyself only! Thou hast chosen me for this work. I know it well!.....Act, then, O God!......stand at my side, for the sake of thy well-beloved Jesus Christ, who is my defense, my shield, and my strong tower...................Lord! where stayest Thou?......O my God! where art Thou?,,,,,,Come! come! I am ready!.....I am ready to lay down my life for Thy truth.....patient as a lamb. For it is the cause of justice - it is Thine!.....I will never separate myself from Thee, neither now nor through eternity!.....And though the world should be filled with devils, - though my body, which is still the work of Thy hands, should be slain, be stretched upon the pavement, be cut in pieces.....reduced to ashes.....my soul is Thine!....Yes! Thy Word is my assurance of it. My soul belongs to Thee! It shall abide for ever with Thee.....Amen!....O God! help me!.....Amen!

Martin Luther

The second morning of Luther's appearance at the Diet of Worms.

Quote of the Day

We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could. I don't wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has.

 

Amy Carmichael

Quote of the Day

We still cannot imagine that today God really doesn't want anything new for us, but simply to prove us in the old way.  That is too petty, to monotonous, to undemanding for us.  And we simply cannot be content with the fact that God's cause is not always the successful one, that we really could be 'unsuccessful': and yet be on the right road.  But this is where we find out whether we have begun in faith or in a burst of enthusiasm.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Quote of the Day

What is fate? Fate is this -- Whatever is, must be. But there is a difference between that and Providence. Providence says, Whatever God ordains must be; but the wisdom of God never ordains any thing without a purpose. Every thing in this world is working for some one great end. Fate does not say that. Fate simply says that the thing must be; Providence says, God moves the wheels along, and there they are. If any thing would go wrong, God puts it right; and if there is any thing that would move awry, he puts his hand and alters it. It comes to the same thing; but there is a difference as to the object. There is all the difference between fate and Providence that there is between a man with good eyes and a blind man. Fate is a blind thing; it is the avalanche crushing the village down below and destroying thousands. Providence is not an avalanche; it is a rolling river, rippling at the first like a rill down the sides of the mountain, followed by minor streams, till it rolls in the broad ocean of everlasting love, working for the good of the human race. The doctrine of Providence is not, that what is, must be; but that, what is, works together for the good of our race, and especially for the good of the chosen people of God. The wheels are full of eyes; not blind wheels. And, my brethren, it is quite certain that no man ever begins the new birth himself. The work of salvation never was commenced by any man. God the Holy Spirit must commence it. Now, the reasons why no man ever commenced the work of grace in his own heart, is very plain and palpable. First, because he cannot; secondly, because he won't. The best reason of all is, because he cannot—he is dead. Well the dead may be made alive, but the dead cannot make themselves alive, for the dead can do nothing. Besides, the new thing to be created as yet hath no being. The uncreated cannot create. "Nay," but you say, "that man can create." Yes, can hell create heaven? Then sin may create grace. What! will you tell me that fallen human nature, that has come almost to a level with the brutes, is competent to rival God; that it can emulate the divinity in working as great marvels, and in imparting as divine a life as even God himself can give? It cannot. Besides, it is a creation; we are created anew in Christ Jesus. Let any man create a fly, and afterwards let him create a new heart in himself; until he hath done the less he cannot do the greater. Besides, no man will. If any man could convert himself, there is no man that would. If any man saith he would, if that be true, he is already converted; for the will to be converted is in great part conversion. The will to love God, the desire to be in unison with Christ, is not to be found in any man who hath not already been brought to be reconciled with God through the death of his Son. There may be a false desire, a desire grounded upon a misrepresentation of the truth; but a true desire after true salvation by the true Spirit, is a certain index that the salvation already is there in the germ and in the bud, and only needs time and grace to develop itself. But certain it is, that man neither can nor will, being on the one hand utterly impotent and dead, and on the other hand utterly depraved and unwilling; hating the change when he sees it in others, and most of all despising it in himself. Be certain, therefore, that God the Holy Spirit must begin, since none else can do so.

  

Charles Spurgeon

Quote of the Day

Let there be no misunderstanding at this point. The Arminian limits the atonement as certainly as does the Calvinist. The Calvinist limits the extent of it in that he says it does not apply to all persons (although as has already been shown, he believes that it is efficacious for the salvation of the large proportion of the human race); while the Arminian limits the power of it, for he says that in itself it does not actually save anybody. The Calvinist limits it quantitatively, but not qualitatively; the Arminian limits it qualitatively, but not quantitatively. For the Calvinist it is like a narrow bridge which goes all the way across the stream; for the Arminian it is like a great wide bridge which goes only half-way across....

 

Loraine Boettner

Quote of the Day

I can pretty clearly distinguish, between skill and malice, and I set no high value on a malice so unskillful.  To burn books is so easy a matter that even children can do it; much more, then, the Holly Father and his doctors.  It would be well for them to show greater ability than that which is required to burn books......Besides, let them destroy my works!  I desire nothing better; for all my wish has been to lead souls to the Bible, so that they might afterwards neglect my writings....If we had a knowledge of Scripture what need would there be of any books of mine?....

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.

Augustine

Quote of the Day

 "I can pretty clearly distinguish, between skill and malice, and I set no high value on a malice so unskillful.  To burn books is so easy a matter that even children can do it; much more, then, the Holly Father and his doctors.  It would be well for them to show greater ability than that which is required to burn books......Besides, let them destroy my works!  I desire nothing better; for all my wish has been to lead souls to the Bible, so that they might afterwards neglect my writings....If we had a knowledge of Scripture what need would there be of any books of mine?...."

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

I am accused of rejecting the holy doctors of the Church.  I do not reject them; but, since all these doctors endeavor to prove their writings by Holy Scripture, Scripture must be clearer and surer than they are.  Who would think of proving an obscure passage by one that was obscurer still?  Thus, the necessity obliges me to have recourse to the Bible, as all the doctors have done, and to call upon it to pronounce upon their writings; for the Bible alone is lord and master.

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

A Thanksgiving

For all Thy blessings given there are many to thank Thee, Lord,

But for the gifts withholden I fain would add my word.

For good things I desired that barred me from the best,

The peace at the price of honour, the sloth of a shameful rest;

The poisonous sweets I longed for to my hungering heart denied,

The staff that broke and failed me when I walked in the way of pride;

The tinsel joys withheld that so content might still be mine,

The help refused that might have made me loose my hand from Thine

The light withdrawn that I might not see the dangers of my way;

For what Thou hast not given, I thank Thee, Lord today.

Annie Johnson Flint

Quote of the Day

So many burdened lives along the way!

My load seems lighter than the most I see,

And oft I wonder if I could be brave,

Patient and sweet if they were laid on me.

But God has never said that He would give

Another's grace without another's thorn;

What matter, since for every day of mine

Sufficient grace for me comes with the morn?

And though the future brings some heavier cross

I need not cloud the present with my fears;

I know the grace that is enough today

Will be sufficient still through all the years.

 

Annie Johnson Flint