Quote of the Day

 I am participating in humbling myself but it is also in the passive which means I, in my action, my action is yielding to it. Not making myself humble, yielding to the process making me humble. And that's my humbling myself under the mighty hand of God: Yielding to the process of making myself humble. A humble self before God then can also include the idea of resignation to His all knowing gracious will. I YIELD. And I'm constantly doing it. I see what God is doing, my pride hates it, my self image is not built up by it. I yield. I yield to it. To see what God will do, and that's a good thing. 

- Don Lambert(study in James)

Quote of the Day

One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.

Elisabeth Elliot

Quote of the Day

What I most desired Thou hast denied, yet I praise Thee:  On what account, I know not, yet I praise Thee: Thou hast done it; that silences me. Thy will makes it indisputable, and renders it my indispensable duty to fall in with it….But what matters it how the affairs of a present world go, if the interests of the next world are secured?....what avails it though the outward man decay, if the inner man grow? Though the temporal condition be perplexed, if the conscience be possessed of spiritual peace? I praise Thee that Thou interposest Thy providence, even in disappointing my enterprises; and dost not give me up to the blind desires of mine own heart, and to wander at random in counsels of mine own.  I can resolve the present case into nothing but Thy will; yet I rejoice more to fall in with Thy will, and to be submissive to Thy disposal, than to have my will in every point performed... 

 

James Meikle

Quote of the Day

February 14th.  Stonewall Jackson to his wife:  Your delightful letter of six pages received a welcome reception this evening.  I am thankful to see that our kind Heavenly Father is again restoring mother to health.  I felt uneasy about her, and thought that Joseph had better make a visit home.  I have made the restoration of mother's health a subject of prayer; but then we know that our dear ones are mortal, and that God does not always answer prayer according to our erring feelings.  I think that if, when we see ourselves in a glass, we should consider that all of us that is visible must turn to corruption and dust, we would learn more justly to appreciate the relative importance of the body that perishes and the soul that is immortal.

Quote of the Day

Then what is a pure heart? In what does it consist? The answer can be given quickly, and you do not have to climb up to heaven or run to a monastery for it and establish it with your own ideas. You should be on your guard against any ideas that you call your own, as if they were just so much mud and filth. And you should realize that when a monk in the monastery is sitting in deepest contemplation, excluding the world from his heart altogether, and thinking about the Lord God the way he himself paints and imagines Him, he is actually sitting—if you will pardon the expression—in the dung, not up to his knees but up to his ears. For he is proceeding on his own ideas without the Word of God; and that is sheer deception and delusion, as Scripture testifies everywhere.

What is meant by a “pure heart” is this: one that is watching and pondering what God says and replacing its own ideas with the Word of God. This alone is pure before God, yes, purity itself, which purifies everything that it includes and touches. Therefore, though a common laborer, a shoemaker, or a blacksmith may be dirty and sooty or may smell because he is covered with dirt and pitch, still he may sit at home and think: “My God has made me a man. He has given me my house, wife, and child and has commanded me to love them and to support them with my work.” Note that he is pondering the Word of God in his heart; and though he stinks outwardly, inwardly he is pure incense before God. But if he attains the highest purity so that he also takes hold of the Gospel and believes in Christ—without this, that purity is impossible—then he is pure completely, inwardly in his heart toward God and outwardly toward everything under him on earth.

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

God's Orchestra

The great Composer writes the theme

And gives us each a part to play;

To some a sweet and flowing air,

Smooth and unbroken all the way;

They pour their full heart's gladness out

In notes of joy and service blent;

But some He gives long bars of "rests,"

With idle voice and instrument.

He who directs the singing spheres,

The music of the morning stars,

Needs, for His full creation's hymn,

The quiet of the soundless bars.

Be silent unto God, my soul,

If this the score He writes for thee,

And "hold the rest," play no false note

To mar His perfect harmony.

Yet be thou watchful for thy turn,

Strike on the instant, true and clear,

Lest from the grand, melodious whole

Thy note be missing to His ear. 

 

Annie Johnson Flint

Quote of the Day

One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy. 

 

Elisabeth Elliot

Quote of the Day

God's Will is only revealed to us step by step.  He reveals more as we obey what we know.  Surrender means that we are prepared to follow God's guidance, wherever or however He guides, no matter what the cost.

Eric Liddell

Quote of the Day

"Be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives." If you didn't care about the Bible, you might say, "Submission has to mean taking a husband the way he is and not trying to change him."  But if you believe what the Bible says, you conclude that submission, paradoxically, is sometimes a strategy for changing him.

John Piper

Quote of the Day

Today it is true almost everywhere, that we are far more concerned about the results of the gospel than we are about the purity of it! We are more concerned in the blessing of man than we are about the glory of Christ! Is not that true? Is it not true that the first great question asked everywhere today is, what are the 'results? What is the fruitage? How many people have been saved in your church last year? I am not saying that the question has no importance, but I do say that, if that is the first question that is asked, it only shows what a low level we are living on! The first question we ought to ask is, How scripturally is the gospel being preached in your church? Is the preacher magnifiying Christ? Is the preacher emphasizing the absolute sufficiency of his finished work? Does the preacher make it plain that God does not ask the sinner to do anything, that Christ has done all for him?

Ah, my friends, when the preachers today are tested by that, there are mighty few of them that will survive the test. How many are there today who tell the poor sinner that he has got to give his heart to God! Well, you say, isn't that right? Isn't that true? Must not the sinner give his heart to the Lord if he is going to be saved? Oh, the tragedy that such a question has to be asked! We talk about progress and advancing; why, we need indoctrinating in the ABC of the gospel! No, my friends, no sinner was ever saved by giving his heart to God. We are not saved by our giving, we are saved by God's giving. Well, but doesn't it say in Scripture, 'Son, give me thine heart'? Yes, it does, but that is not addressed to an unconverted sinner, that is addressed to a son! After God has saved you by grace alone, then your first duty is to dedicate yourself to his service, to give your heart to him, to be used by him as he wills and where he wills and when he wills, and to realize that you are no more your own but the purchased property of another. .....

Arthur W. Pink

Quote of the Day

Many times in my life God has asked me to wait when I wanted to move forward.  He has kept me in the dark when I asked for light.  I like to see progress.  I look for evidence that God is at least doing something. If the Shepherd leads us beside still waters when we were hoping for whitewater excitement, it is hard to believe that anything vital is taking place.  God is silent.   The house is silent.  The phone doesn't ring.  The mailbox is empty.  The stillness is hard to bear - and God knows that.  He knows our frame and remembers that we are made of dust….Of course for most of us this test of waiting does not take place in a silent and empty house, but in the course of regular work and appointments and taxpaying and grocery buying and trying to have the car fixed and get the storm windows up; daily decisions have to go on being made, responsibilities fulfilled families provided for, employers satisfied.  Can we accept patience-taxing ordinary things alongside the four-alarm fires of our lives?................

The longer I live, the more fully I am convinced that the Lord is in charge of everything on this complicated Earth and that nothing happens without His permission.  It's one of the great advantages of old age to be so completely sure of that.  God almighty is sovereign.  He is the One who is paramount, autonomous, unlimited, supreme…the absolute ruler of everything.

It seems to me that our modern church life, with its emphasis on cozy friendship with God, has deprived us somewhat of an awe-filled appreciation for His sovereignty.  It's not that we take issue with it, exactly.  We recognize His hand at work at startling or spectacular moments.  We extol His power to save when He has just protected us from a car accident, we marvel at His glory when we visit the Grand Canon, and we remember the mystery of His ways when somebody dies.  However, as we plod through the ordinary middle ground of our lives, the long distances between the punctuation marks of exultation and desolation, we fail to appreciate God's sovereignty.  We find it particularly hard to comprehend, much less believe, that a good God could still be in charge when our ordinary life is a relentless string of difficulties or when disasters strike.

He is "Most High over the earth" (Psalm 83:18), He is most high over our ordinary muddles and He is most high over what may seem to be catastrophes.  He is most high over international affairs…and all the human squabbles that have ever cropped up.  He is in charge of destruction and He is in charge off salvation.

 

Elisabeth Elliot

Quote of the Day

Psalm 16:5 is one of my life verses now. 'Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup and have made my lot secure.' My 'lot' is what happens to me - my share of that which comes by the will of the Power that rules my destiny. My lot includes the circumstances of my birth, my upbringing, my job, my hardships, the people I work with, my marital status, hindrances, obstacles, accidents and opportunities. Everything constitutes my lot. Nothing excepted......

One morning my computer simply would not obey me. What a nuisance. I had my work laid out, my timing figured, my mind all set. My work was delayed, my timing thrown off, my thinking interrupted. Then I remembered. It was not for nothing. This was part of the Plan (not mine, His). 'Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup.' Now if the interruption had been a human being instead of an infuriating mechanism, it would not have been so hard to see it as the most important part of the work of the day. But all is under my Father's control: yes, recalcitrant computers, faulty transmissions, drawbridges that happen to be up when I am in a hurry. My portion. My cup. My lot is secure. My heart can be at peace. My Father is in charge. How simple!......God came down and lived in this world as a man. He showed us how to live in this world, subject to its vicissitudes and necessities, that we might be changed, not into angels or storybook princesses, not wafted into another world, but changed into saints in this world. The secret is Christ in me, not a different set of circumstances.

 

Elisabeth Elliot

Quote of the Day

I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of wood, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today, and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to the load, before we are required to bear it. 

 

John Newton

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

Duties are ours, events are the Lord's. When our faith goeth to meddle with events, and to hold a court (if I may so speak) upon God's providence, and beginneth to say, "How wilt Thou do this or that?" we lose ground. We have nothing to do there. It is our part to let the Almighty exercise His own office, and steer His own helm. There is nothing left to us but to see how we may be approved of Him, and how we may roll the weight of our weak souls in well-doing upon Him who is God Omnipotent.

Samuel Rutherford

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

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

It is not enough to say, 'Serve one another.' That is true of Christ and his church - they serve each other.  But they do not serve each other in all the same ways.  Christ is Christ.  We are the church.  To confuse the distinctions would be doctrinally and spiritually devastating.  So also the man is the Christ-portraying husband, and the woman is the church portraying wife.  And to confuse these God-intended distinctions, or to abandon them, results in more disillusionment and more divorce and more devastation.  

One of the things that is crystal-clear in Ephesians 5 is that the roles of husband and wife in marriage are not arbitrarily assigned, and they are not reversible any more than the role of Christ and the church are reversible.  The roles of husband and wife are rooted in the distinctive roles of Christ and his church.  The revelation of this mystery is the recovery of the original intention of covenant marriage in the Garden of Eden. 

You can see this more clearly when you ponder what sin did to headship and submission and how Paul's teaching here in Ephesians 5 is so perfectly suited to remedy that corruption.  When sin entered the world, it ruined the harmony of marriage not because it brought headship and submission into existence, but because it twisted man's humble loving headship toward hostile domination in some men and lazy indifference in others.  And it twisted woman's intelligent, willing, happy, creative, articulate submission toward manipulative obsequiousness in some women and brazen insubordination in others.  Sin didn't create headship and submission; it ruined them and distorted them and made them ugly and destructive.

Now if this is true, then the redemption we anticipate with the coming of Christ is not the dismantling of the original, created order of loving headship and willing submission, but a recovery of it from the ravages of sin.  And that's exactly what we find in Ephesians 5:21-33, Wives, let your fallen submission be redeemed by modeling it after God's intention for the church!  Husbands, let your fallen headship be redeemed by modeling it after God's intention for Christ!

John Piper