Character

The Man God Needs – EM Bounds

It is not great talents nor great learning nor great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God – men always preaching by holy sermons in the pulpit, by holy lives out of it. These can mold a generation for God.
– EM Bounds –

The Driving Force Of Our Lives – Stephen Manley

Christianity is not a mere correction of some activities in our lives. It is completely beyond a token attendance to a different organization. There is a ‘signing up’ taking place. It is a change in location from one group to another group. ‘Jesus’ is our new location. We change our focus to Him. What motivates us is now Him. Jesus is the all-encompassing driving force of our lives.

– Stephen Manley –

No Man Is Safe Apart From God – Oswald Chambers

Beware of the people who tell you life is simple.  Life is such a mass of complications that no man is safe apart from God.  Coming to Jesus does not simplify life; it simplifies my relationship to God.

– Oswald Chambers –

Reason Why Men Damn Their Souls to Get the World – Thomas Brooks

The main reason why men dote upon the world, and damn their souls to get the world, is, because they are not acquainted with a greater glory. Men ate acorns, till they were acquainted with the use of wheat. Ah, were men more acquainted with what union and communion with God means, what it is to have ‘a new name, and a new stone, that none knows but he that hath it’ (Rev. 2:17); did they but taste more of heaven, and live more in heaven, and had more glorious hopes of going to heaven, ah, how easily would they have the moon under their feet.

– Thomas Brooks –
from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 1652

The act of praying – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

 is the very highest energy of which the human mind is capable; praying, that is, with the total concentration of the faculties. The great mass of worldly men and of learned men are absolutely incapable of prayer

– Samuel Taylor Coleridge –

Godly Men Do Not Indulge in Sin – Thomas Watson

A godly man does not indulge sin. Though sin is in him, he is troubled at it and would gladly get rid of it. There is as much difference between sin in the wicked and sin in the godly—as between poison being in a serpent and poison being in a man. Poison in a serpent is in its natural place and is delightful—but poison in a man’s body is harmful and he uses antidotes to expel it. So sin in a wicked man is delightful, being in its natural place—but sin in a child of God is burdensome and he uses all means to expel it.

– Thomas Watson –
from The Godly Man’s Picture, 1666