God never ceases to speak to us, but the noise of the world without and the tumult of our passions
within bewilder us and prevent us from listening to him.
– Fenelon –
Consecration
October 25, 2011
All Christians are not in proper relationship with their Lord. The present obvious dearth of revival is largely due to the fact that the majority of Christians are out of touch with the source of Divine power. Even at conventions, the first work needed is to get things put right in the lives of those attending. To give a sick stomach an overdose of cream is to risk indigestion. Even a sick stomach prefers the taste of cream to the flavor of the bitter medicine. Still the bitter medicine is necessary, and it does not prevent the enjoying and digesting of good food afterwards-rather it creates the actual appetite of good health, which is quite distinct from the false cravings of indigestion.”
– J.E. Orr –
October 21, 2011
The popular notion that the first obligation of the church is to spread the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is false. Her first obligation is to be spiritually worthy to spread it. Our Lord said “Go ye,” but He also said, “Tarry ye,” and the tarrying had to come before the going. Had the disciples gone forth as missionaries before the day of Pentecost it would have been an overwhelming spiritual disaster, for they could have done no more than make converts after their likeness, and this would have altered for the worse the whole history of the Western world and had consequences throughout the
ages to come.
– AW Tozer –
from Of God and Men, 35-37.
October 17, 2011
God is not dead. The gospel has lost none of its power. It is we Christians who have lost OUR power with God. God is able right now to give us the same times of blessing that He gave this church one hundred years ago—even greater! Are you willing to let God search your hearts to see that there are no sins which grieve God and keep back the blessing?”
From a sermon of the father of William Chalmers Burns preached at the gravesite of James Robe, whose pastoral efforts brought a great revival in Kilsyth Scotland in 1742
October 15, 2011
We are quite certain that what we are cannot be the end of God’s design. When I see a block of marble half chiselled with just perhaps a hand peeping out from the rock, no man can make me believe that that is what the artist means it should be. And I know I am not what God would have me to be, because I feel yearnings and longings within myself to be infinitely better, infinitely holier and purer, than I am now. And so it is with you; you are not what God means you to be; you have only just begun to be what He wants you to be. He will go on with His chisel of affliction, using wisdom and the graving tool together, till by and by it shall appear what you shall be for; you shall be like Him, and you shall see Him as He is. Oh! what comfort this is for our faith, that from the fact of our vitality and the tact that God is at work with us, it is clear, and true and certain, that our latter end shall be increased. I do not think that any man yet has ever got an idea of what a man is to be. We are only the chalk crayon, rough drawings of men; yet when we come to be filled up in eternity, we shall be marvellous pictures, and our latter end indeed shall be greatly increased.
– Charles Spurgeon –
October 12, 2011
Recognizing and admitting sin is not enough – Revival must result in Reform – or it is merely the expression of enthusiasm.
– Arthur Wallis –
October 10, 2011
You shall find this to be God’s usual course: not to give his children the taste of his delights till they begin to sweat in seeking after them.
– Richard Baxter –
October 9, 2011
Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, all His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy.
– A.W. Tozer –
October 8, 2011
Be courageous, O Christian! Be not dispirited, as though your spiritual enemies could never be destroyed; THOU ART CHRIST’S, and sin has NO right to thee. You are able to overcome them not in your own strength – the weakest of them would be too much for you in that; but you can and SHALL overcome them by the blood of the Lamb. Do not ask, “How shall I dispossess them, for they are greater and mightier than I?” but GO to the Strong for strength, wait humbly upon God, and the mighty God of Jacob will surely come to the rescue, and you shall sing of victory through HIS GRACE!
– Charles Spurgeon –
from AMEN & AMEN!