Christian Life

January 17, 2014

. . . God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that “God is love;” and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing he is an all sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and over-flowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that he is an unchangeable and eternal being, he is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love.

– Jonathan Edwards –

January 16, 2014

. . . this philosophical postulate that the end of all being is the happiness of man has been sort of covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the angels exist for the happiness of man, everything is for the happiness of man! And I submit to you that this is unchristian! Isn’t man happy? Didn’t God intend to make man happy? Yes. But as a by-product and not a prime-product.

– Paris Reidhead –

January 15, 2014

O, Christian, instead of disputing, let me tell thee how to prove your religion. Live it out! Live it out! Give the external as well as the internal evidence; give the external evidence of your own life.

– Charles Spurgeon –

January 14, 2014

So, then, poor Christian, thou needest not to go pumping up thy poor heart to make it glad. Go to thy Maker, and ask him to give thee a song in the night. Thou art a poor dry well: thou hast heard it said, that when a pump is dry, you must pour water down it first of all, and then you will get some up; and so, Christian, when thou art dry, go to God, ask him to pour some joy down thee, and then you will find them Job’s comforters, after all; but go thou first and foremost to thy Maker, for he is the great composer of songs and teacher of music; he it is who can teach thee how to sing: “God, my Maker, who giveth me songs in the night.”

– Charles Spurgeon –

January 13, 2014

Eternal Light! eternal Light!
How pure the soul must be
When, placed within Thy searching sight,
It shrinks not, but with calm delight
Can live, and look on Thee!

The spirits that surround Thy throne
May bear the burning bliss;
But that is surely theirs alone,
Since they have never, never known
A fallen world like this.

O how shall I, whose native sphere
Is dark, whose mind is dim,
Before the Ineffable appear,
And on my naked spirit bear
That uncreated beam?

There is a way for man to rise
To that sublime abode:
An offering and a sacrifice,
A Holy Spirit’s energies,
An Advocate with God.

These, these prepare us for the sight
Of holiness above;
The sons of ignorance and night,
May dwell in the eternal Light,
Through the eternal Love.

– Thomas Binney –

January 12, 2014

There are people in the presence of God [who are there] only by a technical redemption. You see, what I worry about in this hour is that we are technically Christians, and we can prove that we are Christians. We are Christians, technically. And anybody can flip open a Greek lexicon and show you that you are a saint. But I am afraid of that kind of Christianity, because if I haven’t felt a sense of vileness by contrast with that sense of unapproachable and indescribable holiness, I wonder if I had ever been hit hard enough to really repent. And if I don’t repent, I wonder if I can believe. We are told, “Just believe it, brother. Just believe it. Now, come on, let me take your name and address. Yes, what church would you like to go to?” We have it all fixed up, my brethren. But I’m afraid our fathers knew God in a different manner than that.

– AW Tozer –

January 11, 2014

Sweet, sweet grace of God! It was a happy day, spent with saints and sinners. Street meetings tonight brought me into contact with a successful man who has an empty heart. How shall I praise God sufficiently for the inexplicable miracle of divine grace in my soul? And how explain it to others? I have committed this man’s soul to God, and His Word, expecting to write one day in these [journal] pages of his turning to the Lord and finding great peace. You see these words, Lord, and are my Judge as to whether they are in faith.

– Jim Elliot –

January 10, 2014

Eternity shall be at once a great eye-opener and a great mouth-shutter. It shall be the Rectifier of all injustice (and how vast is injustice!), the Confirmer of martyrs’ blood, the Explainer of years of labor swallowed up in meaningless ruin on earth. Lord, deliver me from sweet doctrinal nothings.

– Jim Elliot –

January 9, 2014

Oh, it is gripping to think that our eyes are to be blessed so as to see Him, ‘so coming in like manner’ as He went away . . . How poorly will appear anything but a consuming operative faith in the person of Christ when He comes. How lost, alas, a life lived in any other light!

– Jim Elliot –