We religious leaders need to look very much more deeply. We can so easily have talks with people, and they can say we have helped, write us grateful letters, even stand steady for a time till the juice we have put into them runs out; but, we may have brought them no hunger for God—because that hunger is no ache in our own heart—nor brought them anywhere near to the end of self.
– Florence Allshorn –
Bring thy lust to the gospel, not for relief, but for further conviction of its guilt: look on him whom thou hast pierced, and be in bitterness. Say to thy soul, What have I done? What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace, have I despised and trampled on! Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Ghost for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord? Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, which the blesses Spirit hath chosen to dwell in? And can I keep myself out of the dust? What can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? How shall I hold up my head with any boldness before him? Do I account communion with him of so little value that for this vile lust’s sake I have scarce left him any room in my heart? How shall I escape, if I neglect so great salvation? In the mean time, what shall I say to the Lord? Love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation; I have despised them all, and esteemed them as a thing of naught, that I might harbour a lust in my heart.
– John Owen –
from The Mortification of Sin
If we are to better the future we must disturb the present.
– Catherine Booth –
Radical Christians are not people who wear Christian t-shirts. Radical Christians are those who bear fruit of the Holy Spirit. … A little boy, Andrew, a Muslim shot him five times through the stomach and left him on a sidewalk simply because he said, “I am so afraid, but I can not deny Jesus Christ! Please don’t kill me! But I will not deny Him!” He died in a pool of blood, and you talk about being a radical Christian because you wear a t-shirt!
– Paul Washer –
You may say, “God doesn’t hate anybody. God is love.” No, my friend. You need to understand something. Jesus Christ taught, the prophets taught, the apostles taught this: that apart from the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord the only thing left for you is the wrath, the fierce anger of God because of your rebellion and your sin.
– Paul Washer –
Anything that cools my love for Christ is “the world.”
– John Wesley –
If Christianity is to make any headway in the present time, it must be proved to be more than a theory.
– Hannah Whitall Smith –
If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.
– Corrie ten Boom –
Naomi had to become empty before God could restore life (1:21, 4:15). The weakness of two widows at the mercy of God He uses to give ancestry to great David and David’s Lord. Naomi’s tendency was to become embittered at her loss, not knowing this was God’s way to make Hi and her name remembered (4:11) in Israel. How like Orpah I am prone to kiss, to display full devotion and turn away; how unlike Ruth, cleaving and refusing to part except at death (1:14-17). Eternal Lover, make Thou Thyself inseparable from my unstable soul. Be Thou the object bright and fair to fill and satisfy the heart. My hope to meet Thee in the air, and never more from Thee to part!
– Jim Elliot –
from his Journals