Quote of the Day

I have been afraid to be too sanguine, lest another blow should come, but, that is wrong.  Thankfulness should not be kept in check by mistrust;  seeing that if disappointment do come, I have had proof that strength and guidance will abundantly come with it.   

  

Caroline Wilson

Quote of the Day

There is an essential difference between the decease of the godly and the death of the ungodly. Death comes to the ungodly man as a penal infliction, but to the righteous as a summons to his Father's palace. To the sinner it is an execution, to the saint an undressing from his sins and infirmities. Death to the wicked is the King of terrors. Death to the saint is the end of terrors, the commencement of glory.

  

Charles Spurgeon

Quote of the Day

We are not doomed to an ultimate conflict with no hope of resolution.  The message of scripture is one of victory- full, final, and ultimate victory.  It is not our doom that is certain, but Satan's.  His head has been crushed by the heel of Christ, who is the Alpha and Omega. 

Above all suffering and death stands the crucified and risen Lord.  He has defeated the ultimate enemy of life.  He has vanquished the power of death.  He calls us to die, a call to obedience in the final transition of life.  Because of Christ, death is not final.  It is a passage from one world to the next.

God does not always will healing.  If He did, He would suffer endless frustration, seeing His will being repeatedly thwarted in the deaths of His people.  He did not will the healing of Stephen from the wounds inflicted by the stones that were hurled against him.  He did not will the healing of Moses, of Joseph, of David, of Paul, of Augustine, of Martin Luther, of John Calvin.  These all died in faith.  Ultimate healing comes through death and after death….Certainly God answers prayers and gives healings to our bodies during this life.  But even those healings are temporary.  Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  But Lazarus died again.  Jesus gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.  Yet every person Jesus healed eventually died.  They died not because Satan finally won over Jesus, but because Jesus called them to die.

When God issues a call to us, it is always a holy call.  The vocation of dying is a  sacred vocation.  To understand that is one of the most important lessons a Christian can ever learn.  When the summons comes, we can respond in many ways.  We can become angry, bitter or terrified.  But if we see it as a call from God and not a threat from Satan, we are far more prepared to cope with its difficulties.

R. C. Sproul

Quote of the Day

In the divine omniscience we see set forth against each other the terror and fascination of the Godhead. That God knows each person through and through can be a cause of shaking fear to the man that has something to hide - some unforsaken sin, some secret crime committed against man or God. The unblessed soul may well tremble that God knows the flimsiness of every pretext and never accepts the poor excuses given for sinful conduct, since He knows perfectly the real reason for it. ”Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” How frightful a thing to see the sons of Adam seeking to hide among the trees of another garden. But where shall they hide? ”Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?… If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day.”

And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.

 

                               A. W. Tozer

Quote of the Day

Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.  In the wilderness God gave Israel the manna every day, and they had no need to worry about food and drink.  Indeed, if they kept any of the manna over until the next day, it went bad.  In the same way, the disciple must receive his portion form God every day.  If he stores it up as a permanent possession, he spoils not only the gift, but himself as well, for he sets his heart on his accumulated wealth, and makes it a barrier between himself and God.  Where are treasure is, there is our trust, our security, our consolation and our God.  Hoarding is idolatry…….Anxiety creates its own treasures and they in turn beget further care.  When we seek for security in possessions we are trying to drive out care with care, and the net result is the precise opposite of our anticipations.  The fetters which bind us to our possessions prove to be cares themselves…It is not care that frees the disciples from care, but their faith in Jesus Christ.  Only they know that we cannot be anxious (vs. 27).  The coming day, even the coming hour, are placed beyond dour control.  It is senseless to pretend that we can make provision because we cannot alter the circumstances of this world.  Only God can take care, for it is he who rules the world.  Since we cannot take care, since we are so completely powerless, we ought not to do it either.  If we do, we are dethroning God and presuming to rule the world ourselves.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Quote of the Day

No one has yet believed in God and the kingdom of God, no one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected, and not been homesick from that hour, waiting and looking forward joyfully to being released from bodily existence.

Whether we are young or old makes no difference.  What are twenty or thirty or fifty years in the site of God?  And which of us knows how near he or she may already be to that goal?  That life only really begins when it ends here on earth, that all that is here is only the prologue before the curtain goes up - that is for young and old alike to think about.  Why are we so afraid when we think about death?.... Death is  only dreadful for those who live in d read and fear of it.  Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God's Word.  Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves.  Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him.  Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle, it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.  How do we know that dying is so dreadful?  Who knows whether, in our human fear and anguish we are only shivering and shuddering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world?  Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith.  But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Quote of the Day

Unbelief looks at the difficulty. Faith regards the promise. Unbelief therefore makes our work a service of bondage. Faith realizes it as a “labour of love.” Unbelief drags on in sullen despondency. Faith makes the patience, with which it content to wait for success, “the patience of hope.” As every difficulty (as we have hinted,) is the fruit of unbelief; so will they all ultimately be overcome by the perseverance of faith. To gain therefore an active and powerful spring of renewed exertion, we must strike our roots deeper into the soil of faith. For the work will ever prosper or decline, as we depend upon an Almighty arm, or an arm of flesh. Few, probably, even of the most devoted servants of God, had duly counted the cost before they put their hand to the plough; and from the want of these preparatory exercises of faith, arises that oppressive faintness which gives the enemy such an advantage in distressing our peace, and enfeebling our exertions. But after all, the grand secret is habitually to have eye upon Christ. Peter–looking at the waves instead of the Saviour–”began to sink.” We too–if we look at the difficulties of our work, and forget the upholding arm of our ever-present Head–shall sink in despondency. Believe–wait–work–are the watchwords of the Ministry. Believing the promise, gives the power to wait. Waiting supplies strength for work, and such working “is not in vain in the Lord.

Charles Bridges

Quote of the Day

We must never hide our colours. There are times when we must dash to the front and court the encounter, when we see that our Captain's honour demands it. Let us neither be ashamed nor a afraid. Our Lord Jesus deserves that we should yield ourselves as willing sacrifices in defense of his faith. Ease, reputation, life itself, must go for the name and faith of Jesus. If in the heat of the battle our good name or our life must be risked to win the victory, then let us say, "In this battle some of us must fall; why should not I? I will take part and lot with my Master and bear reproach for His sake." Only brave soldiers are worthy of our our Lord. Those who sneak into the rear, that they may be comfortable, are not worthy of the kingdom....

Everybody admires Luther! Yes, yes; but you do not want any one else to do the same to-day. When you go to the Zoological Gardens you all admire the bear; but how would you like a bear at home, or a bear wandering loose about the street? You tell me it would be unbearable, and no doubt you are right.

So, we admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago; and the past ages are sort of a bear-pit or iron cage for him; but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. Yet imagine that in those ages past, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and their compeers had said, "the world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better."

It is to-day as it was in the Reformers' days. Decision is needed... We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it. The faith I hold bears on it the marks of my ancestors. Shall I deny their faith, for which they left their native land to sojourn here? Shall we cast away the treasure which was handed to us through prisons, or came to us charred with the flames of Smithfield?

...Stand fast my beloved, in the name of God! I, your brother in Christ, entreat you to abide in the truth. Quit yourselves like men, be strong. The Lord sustain you for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

 

Charles Spurgeon