Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God in prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.
– Hudson Taylor –
1832-1905
Abiding
Preach with the Anointing – Duncan Campbell
Preaching truth without the anointing of the Holy Ghost is helping the devil to damn souls. There’s nothing on earth today so deadening as preaching without heaven’s anointing. Refrain from preaching unless you know that the dew of heaven is on your soul.
– Duncan Campbell –
Holiness of Life – Robert Murray M’Cheyne
Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourself to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words from God. Luther spent his best three hours in prayer.
– Robert Murray M’Cheyne –
Too Busy? – AB Christiansen
Too busy; O forgive, Dear Lord, that I should ever be, too much engrossed in earthly tasks, to spend an hour with thee.
– AB Christiansen –
Joy is Found in Self-Abandonment – Elisabeth Elliot
The world looks for happiness through self-assertion. The Christian knows that joy is found in self-abandonment. “If a man will let himself be lost for My sake,” Jesus said, “he will find his true self.”
– Elisabeth Elliot –
A Mighty Longing After God – AW Tozer
I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.
– AW Tozer –
The Root of All Godliness – William Carey
Prayer —secret, fervent, believing prayer—lies at the root of all personal godliness.
– William Carey –
Hold Christ More Closely – JC Ryle
Let us hold to Christ more closely, love him more heartily, live for him more thoroughly, copy him more exactly, confess him more boldly, follow him more fully. Religion like this will always bring its own reward. Worldly people may laugh at it. Weak brethren may think it extreme. But it will wear well. In sickness it will bring peace. In the world to come it will give us a crown of glory that fades not away.
– JC Ryle –
from Sickness
Can’t Live the Christian Life Without the Spirit – DL Moody
You might as well try to hear without ears, or breathe without lungs, as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart.
– Dwight L. Moody –