Christianity is not a mere correction of some activities in our lives. It is completely beyond a token attendance to a different organization. There is a ‘signing up’ taking place. It is a change in location from one group to another group. ‘Jesus’ is our new location. We change our focus to Him. What motivates us is now Him. Jesus is the all-encompassing driving force of our lives.
– Stephen Manley –
The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn
– Martin Luther –
The main reason why men dote upon the world, and damn their souls to get the world, is, because they are not acquainted with a greater glory. Men ate acorns, till they were acquainted with the use of wheat. Ah, were men more acquainted with what union and communion with God means, what it is to have ‘a new name, and a new stone, that none knows but he that hath it’ (Rev. 2:17); did they but taste more of heaven, and live more in heaven, and had more glorious hopes of going to heaven, ah, how easily would they have the moon under their feet.
– Thomas Brooks –
from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 1652
Christians often have little faith in prayer as a power in real life. They do not embrace cordially, in feeling as well as in theory, the truth which underlies the entire scriptural conception and illustration of prayer, that it is literally, actually, positively, effectually, a means of power.
– Austen Phelps –
From The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer, 1859
If this God be our God; or if our God be such a God, and could we but attain to that knowledge of the breath, and length, and depth, and height that is in him, as the apostle here prays, and desires we may, we should never be afraid of anything we shall meet with, or that shall assault us in this world.
– John Bunyan –
from All Loves Excelling, 39
There is no power like that of prevailing prayer – of Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief, Jesus in sweat of blood. Such prayer prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God.
– Samuel Chadwick –
If you could only know what one feels on finding oneself … where the least ray of the Gospel has not penetrated! If those friends who blame … could see from afar what we see, and feel what we feel, they would be the first to wonder that those redeemed by Christ should be so backward in devotion and know so little of the spirit of self-sacrifice. They would be ashamed of the hesitations that hinder us. … We must remember that it was not by interceding for the world in glory that Jesus saved it. He gave Himself. Our prayers for the evangelization of the world are but a bitter irony so long as we only give of our superfluity, and draw back before the sacrifice of ourselves.
– François Colliard –
from On the Threshold of Central Africa
I want to devote my life to the prayer that can bring down God’s blessing.
– Andrew Murray –
The main reason why men dote upon the world, and damn their souls to get the world, is, because they are not acquainted with a greater glory. Men ate acorns, till they were acquainted with the use of wheat. Ah, were men more acquainted with what union and communion with God means, what it is to have ‘a new name, and a new stone, that none knows but he that hath it’ (Rev. 2:17); did they but taste more of heaven, and live more in heaven, and had more glorious hopes of going to heaven, ah, how easily would they have the moon under their feet.
– Thomas Brooks –
from Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 1652