Daily living by faith on Christ is what makes the difference between the sickly and the healthy Christian, between the defeated and the victorious saint.
– AW Pink –
Christian Life
December 11, 2013
And shall I fear
That there is anything that men hold dear
Thou would’st deprive me of
And nothing give in place?
That is not so —
For I can see Thy face
And hear Thee now:
“My child, I died for thee.
And if the gift of love and life
You took from Me,
Shall I one precious thing withhold —
One beautiful and bright
One pure and precious thing withhold?
My child, it cannot be.”
– Betty Stam –
December 10, 2013
…I thank Thee that Thou art risen from the dead, that at this very moment Thou dost indwell me in the person and power of Thy divine Spirit; that Thou hast never expected of me anything but failure, yet Thou hast given to me Thy strength for my weakness, Thy victory for my defeat, Thyself for all my bankruptcy! I step out now, by faith, into a future that is limited only by what Thou art! To me to live is Christ!
– Ian Thomas –
December 9, 2013
There is nothing fuller than full, and nothing longer than forever, so you cannot offer me anything better than life with Jesus.
– John Piper –
December 8, 2013
It is God who sets us free. Not only free from punishment, curse, uneasiness and terror, but also free from sin itself. You know that He was manifested so that He might take away our sins. Let us receive this thought deep into our hearts – it is God who takes away our sins. The better we grasp this, the more blessed our lives will be. Not everyone receives this. Some seek only to be freed from the consequences of sin, fear, darkness, and punishment. It is for this reason that they do not come to the true rest of salvation. They do not understand that to be saved is to be freed from sin. Let us hold it firmly. Jesus saves through the taking away of sin.
– Andrew Murray –
December 7, 2013
But feelings cannot be our ultimate authority because, as we all know, they are so changeable, and unreliable. They come and they go, and you never know what they may be. ‘I dare not trust the sweetest frame’, says a hymn-writer, because it may have gone by tomorrow. If I am to be governed by my feelings I shall find myself constantly changing—sometimes happy, sometimes miserable, sometimes feeling that all is well, sometimes that everything is going wrong, sometimes thrilled by reading the Bible, at other times having to force myself to get something out of it, feeling dry, arid, dull, stupid! Is not that your experience? If so, how can you rely on feelings as your authority?
Then remember, too, that feelings can be so easily counterfeited. If what is nice is of necessity good, if what gives me a pleasant, comfortable feeling must be right, then I have no answer whatsoever to the cults. I would just have to say: ‘Well, go to them. Anything that makes you feel better, anything that gives you a kind of release and relief is good; follow it. Anything that makes you a better man must be right, go after it.’ If we rely merely upon the pragmatic test of what makes me feel better we have no standard at all. I cannot criticize any teaching. It is so entirely subjective that I have no standard whatsoever.
– Martyn Lloyd-Jones –
December 6, 2013
Fact is fact. Truth is truth. It does not matter how you feel. We do not listen to our feelings. We believe the truth of God’s Word.
– Eric Ludy –
December 5, 2013
I would believe God’s word before my feelings any day. How do we deal with an inquirer who has accepted Christ, but who lacks assurance that he has eternal life? We do not ask him to look at his feelings, but we take him to some such passage as John 3.36. We tell him to read it and he reads: ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’ ‘Who says that?’ we ask. ‘God says it.’ ‘Is it true?’ ‘Oh, certainly it is true; God says it.’ ‘ Who does God say has everlasting life?’ ‘He that believeth on the Son.’ ‘Do you believe on the Son?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘What have you then?’ ‘O, I don’t know, I don’t feel yet that I have eternal life,’ ‘ But what does God say?’ ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.’ ‘Are you going to believe God or your feelings?’ We hold the inquirer right there until on the simple, naked word of God, feeling or no feeling, he says, ‘I know I have eternal life because God says so,’ and afterward the feeling comes.
– RA Torrey –
December 4, 2013
It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer.
– George Müller –