Quote of the Day

The longing to see Christ that burned in the breasts of those first Christians seems to have burned itself out.  All we have left are the ashes.  It is precisely the 'yearning' and the 'fainting' for the return of Christ that has distinguished the personal hope from the theological one.   Mere acquaintance with correct doctrine is a poor substitute for Christ and familiarity with New Testament eschatology will never take the place of a love-inflamed desire to look on His face.

If the tender yearning is gone from the advent hope today there must be a reason for it; and I think I know what it is, or what they are, for there are a number of them.  One is simply that popular fundamentalist theology has emphasized the utility of the cross rather than the beauty of the One who died on it.   The saved man's relation to Christ has been made contractual instead of personal.  The 'work' of Christ has been stressed until it has eclipsed the person of Christ.   Substitution has been allowed to supersede identification.   What He did for me seems to be more important than what He is to me.   Redemption is seen as an across-the-counter transaction which we 'accept,' and the whole thing lacks emotional content.   We must love someone very much to stay awake and long for his coming, and that may explain the absence of power in the advent hope even among those who still believe in it.  

Another reason for the absence of real yearning for Christ's return is that Christians are so comfortable in this world that they have little desire to leave it.   For those leaders who set the pace of religion and determine its content and quality, Christianity has become of late remarkably lucrative.   The streets of gold do not have too great an appeal for those who find it so easy to pile up gold and silver in the service of the Lord here on earth.   We want to reserve the hope of heaven as a kind of insurance against the day of death, but as long as, we are healthy and comfortable, why change a familiar good for something about which we actually know very little?   So reasons the carnal mind, and so subtly that we are scarcely aware of it.

Again, in these times religion has become jolly good fun right here in this present world, and what's the hurry about heaven anyway?   Christianity, contrary to what some had thought is another and higher form of entertainment.   Christ has done all the suffering.   He has shed all the tears and carried all the crosses; we have but to enjoy the benefits of His heartbreak in the form of religious pleasures modeled after the world but carried on in the name of Jesus.  So say the same people who claim to believe in Christ's second coming.

- A. W. Tozer

Quote/Excerpt of the Day

We do have our favorites.  They tend to fall into the general category of Scripture Encouragement.  There are many sacred words and they say many things, but it’s the Bible Balm that has caught our eye.  With a partitioned Bible preparing so many options for us, you might think it would be hard to choose.  But no.  The people have voted.  The customers know what they want. 

·        *  Jeremiah 29:11

·        *  John 10:10

·         * Philippians 4:13

·         * Joshua 1:9

If you didn’t already know, the addresses direct us to these:

·         “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

·         “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

·         “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

·         “Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Good, positive verses all.  But the shocking news to most people is that there is a parallel universe Bible.  It is rarely talked about and almost never explored.  In that other world every positive and negative is reversed.  Every verse has its anti-verse.  In the parallel universe Bible, the favorite anti-verses are:

·         * Deuteronomy 28:29

·         * 2 Corinthians 2:16

·         * Isaiah 49:4

·         * Deuteronomy 28:65

What? You don’t know these?  You’ve never seen them on a scenic piece of Christian framed art?  OK, well, here’s what they say:

·         “You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.”

·         “We are an aroma that brings death.”

·         “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all”

·         “The LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.”

The real revelation may be that these anti-verses too are in the Bible (our Bible, in this universe).  They are set apart, numbered and included in the lineup just like all the rest.  It’s just that nobody ever wants to use them.  They aren’t ever selected.  They are more like bombs than balm.  But there they are.  Why?  If they are unusable, why are they there?  Do we need them for anything at all?  (And why do I have a suspicion that anyone being confronted with these verses will suddenly develop a strong interest in the original context, so as to nicely distance themselves from any unpleasant implications?)

- From "Saving the Bible from Ourselves" - By Glen Paauw

Quote of the Day

We find thus by experience that there is no good applying to heaven for earthly comfort.  Heaven can give heavenly comfort; no other kind.  Earth cannot give earthly comfort either, as there is no earthly comfort in the long run.

C. S. Lewis

Quote of the Day

We may if we please, confine our study of Scripture to what is immediately edifying, skimming lightly over all pages which do not serve a direct purpose of devotion, and ignoring every difficulty which does not yield to the faculty of practical insight, to the power of spiritual sympathy with the mind of the Spirit, which the thoughtful Christian necessarily acquires in the habitual excessive of bringing Scripture to bear on the daily needs of his own life.  This use of Scripture is full of personal profit, and raises no intellectual difficulties.  But it does not do justice to the whole Word of God.  It cannot exhaust the whole mind of the Spirit.  It is limited for every individual by the limitations of his own spiritual experience.  Reading the Bible in this way, a man comes to a very personal appreciation of so much of God's truth as is in immediate contact with the range of his own life.  But he is sure to miss many truths which belong to another range of experience, and to read into the inspired page things from his own experience which involve human error.  In this way he becomes narrow, and full of prejudice, which prevent him from seeing that the Bible is larger than his knowledge of it, and that other men whose needs are different from his may be quite in the right in getting things out of the Scripture which he does not know, does not need, and is inclined to call false or dangerous.  

William Robertson Smith

(Disclaimer:  his stance in his writings on higher criticism is wrong)

Quote of the Day

My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,

Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;

'Tis His to lead me there - not mine, but His—

At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

So faith bounds forward to its goal in God,

And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;

 Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard

Till God hath full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

No matter if the way be sometimes dark,

No matter though the cost be oft-times great,

He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark;

The way that leads to Him must needs be strait.

One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay;

One thing I do, I press towards my Lord;

My God, my glory here, from day to day,

And in the glory there my great Reward.

F. Brook

Quote of the Day

    It is habitual with some persons to spy out the dark side of every question or fact: they fix their eyes upon the “waste places,” and they study them till they know every ruin, and are familiar with the dragons and the owls. They sigh most dolorously that the former times were better than these, and that we have fallen upon most degenerate days. They speak of “shooting Niagara,” and of all sorts of frightful things. I am afraid that a measure of this tendency to write bitter things dwells in almost all of us at this present season, for certain discouraging facts which cannot be ignored are pressing heavily upon men’s spirits. The habit of looking continually towards the wildernesses is injurious because it greatly discourages; and anything that discourages an earnest worker is a serious leakage for his strength. Perhaps a worse result than honest discouragement comes of depressing views, for they often afford an apology for indifference and inaction. The smallest peg suffices to hang an excuse upon when we are anxious to escape from the stern service of faith. “I pray thee have me excused,” is a request which was supported in the parable by the flimsiest of pretences, and discouragement makes one of the same sort. The sluggard’s argument is on this wise,-”I will not attempt the work, for it is far too heavy for my poor strength. I fear the times are ill adapted to any special effort; indeed, I am not quite certain that success will ever attend the general work.” It is therefore a dreadful thing when the Christian church begins to be discouraged, and means must be used to stay the evil. Such means we would use this day. Lo, we lift the standard of the divine promise. “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,” sounds out like a silver trumpet in the front of the host. Be encouraged, O ye of the faint heart; there are no more difficulties now than there were of old. The cause is no more in jeopardy than it was a thousand years ago. The result, the end, the consummation of all things is absolutely certain: it is in his hand who cannot fail, therefore be of good courage, and in waiting upon the Lord renew your strength.
 

C. H. Spurgeon

Quote of the Day

Lately I've had the occasion to fly a lot around the country, preaching here and there. Even though I'm here on Sundays, it seems like my weeks have been spent in airports, sometimes for a long time, as I've had mechanical delays and things like that. And I've become very much aware of a book that I knew was out there but I see literally all over all the airports that I've been in, in the last month or so, it has been labeled, at least, the best selling religious book of the time. The title of it is Your Best Life Now. I have seen stacks and stacks and stacks of those books everywhere I've gone.

Out of curiosity, I want to know what's in the book and so I found this on page 5, “God wants this to be the best time of your life.” On another page it says, “Happy, successful, fulfilled individuals have learned how to live their best life now. On another page it says, “As you put the principles found in these pages to work today, you will begin living your best life now.” And that is absolutely true if you're not a Christian. This is it, you better get the book because your next life is going to be infinitely worse than this one.

This is your best life now. In fact, it's your only life because in the world to come, you will only exist in a perpetual state of dying with no hope, no satisfaction, no meaning, no joy and no future and no relief from eternal suffering. That's the worst life possible. And this is your best life, if your next life is in hell.

But, on the other hand, if you are a child of God and your sins are forgiven and you've come to embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, this is not even close to your best life.......

Contrary to what is popular today, even in religious circles, even in quote/unquote religion circles, even in the name of Jesus, the Lord is not promising you here and now a full, happy, rich, satisfying, trouble-free life of health, wealth and success. Oh He does promise that. Absolutely...a full, rich, satisfying, trouble-free life of health and wealth and success and absolute joy and peace and perfection...but not now...not now. In fact, quite on the other hand, our Lord has promised to those who know Him and love Him in this life...trouble, persecution, rejection, difficulty, trials, temptation, pain, suffering, sorrow, sickness and even physical death.

So, for Christians, this is our worst life now. It isn't that it's bad, but comparatively it's the worst when you think about the life to come, which is the best. Your best life as a Christian begins when this life ends.

- John Macarthur

Quote of the Day

 God often comforts us, not by changing the circumstances of our lives, but by changing our attitude toward them.

 

S. H. B. Masterman

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

A Christian knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins, his sorrows, his afflictions, his temptations, his vexations, his oppressions, his persecutions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of all his hopes, his joys, his delights, his comforts, his contentments.

Thomas Brooks