Christian Life

July 25, 2011

Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks. — Someone has said very aptly: Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength. First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.

– Thomas a Kempis –
from The Imitation of Christ

July 24, 2011

I tremble for those who are preaching the truth – the truth as it is in Jesus, the gospel in its simplicity, in its purity, in its fullness – but preaching it “in persuasive words of wisdom” and not “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor 2.4), preaching it in the energy of the flesh and not in the power of the Holy Spirit.  There is nothing more deadly than the gospel without the Spirit’s power.

– RA Torrey –
from The Baptism with the Holy Spirit, 35-36

July 23, 2011

God’s work of refining and purifying the soul must go on until his servants are so humbled, so dead to self, that when called into active service, they may have an eye single to the glory of God.”

– EG White –
in Review and Herald April 10, 1894

July 22, 2011

But how is it possible that a believer, having sin in him–sin of such intense vitality, and such terrible power as we know the flesh to have–that a believer having sin should yet not be doing sin? The answer is: “In Him is no sin. He that abideth in Him sinneth not.” When the abiding in Christ becomes close and unbroken, so that the soul lives from moment to moment in the perfect union with the Lord its keeper, He does, indeed, keep down the power of the old nature, so that it does not regain dominion over the soul. We have seen that there are degrees in the abiding. With most Christians the abiding is so feeble and intermittent, that sin continually obtains the ascendency, and brings the soul into subjection. The divine promise given to faith is: “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” But with the promise is the command: “Let not sin reign in your mortal body.” The believer who claims the promise in full faith has the power to obey the command, and sin is kept from asserting its supremacy. Ignorance of the promise, or unbelief, or unwatchfulness, opens the door for sin to reign.

– Andrew Murray –

July 21, 2011

Dear Christian, in affliction abide in Christ. When you see it coming, meet it in Christ; when it is come, feel that you are more in Christ than in it, for He is nearer you than affliction ever can be; when it is passing, still abide in Him. And let the one thought of the Saviour, as He speaks of the pruning, and the one desire of the Father, as He does the pruning, be yours too: “Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth, that it may bring forth more fruit.” So shall your times of affliction become your times of choicest blessing–preparation for richest fruitfulness.

— Andrew Murray –
from School of Obedience

July 20, 2011

All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.

– Hudson Taylor –

July 19, 2011

The mighty men of God, who throughout the centuries have wrought great things by prayer, are the men who have had much painful toil in prayer. Take for example, David Brainerd, that physically feeble, but spiritually mighty man of God. Trembling for years on the verge of consumption tuberculosis), from which he ultimately died at an early age, Brainerd felt led of God to labor among the North American Indians in the early days (1700’s), in the primeval forests of Northern Pennsylvania, and sometimes of a winter night he would go out into the forest and kneel in the cold snow when it was a foot deep and so labor with God in prayer that he would be wringing wet with perspiration even out in the cold winter night hours. And God heard David Brainerd, and sent such a mighty revival among the North American Indians as had never been heard of before, as indeed had never been dreamed about.

– R. A. Torrey –

July 18, 2011

Our mistake is that we want God to send revival on our terms. We want to get the power of God into our hands, to call it to us that it may work for us in promoting and furthering our kind of Christianity. We want still to be in charge, guiding the chariot through the religious sky in the direction we want it to go, shouting “Glory to God,” but modestly accepting a share of the glory for ourselves in a nice inoffensive sort of way. We are calling on God to send fire on our altars, completely ignoring the fact that they are OUR altars and not God’s….

– A. W. Tozer –

July 17, 2011

To look back upon the progress of the divine kingdom upon earth is to review revival periods which have come like refreshing showers upon dry and thirsty ground, making the desert to blossom as the rose, and bringing new eras of spiritual life and activity just when the Church had fallen under the influence of the apathy of the times, and needed to be aroused to a new sense of her duty and responsibility…. Every mighty move of the Spirit of God has had its source in the prayer chamber.

– EM Bounds –