Two unequivocal signs of grace; a desire to be thoroughly washed and cleansed,—”Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin,” (Psalm 51:2)—and a willingness to appear before God for that end, without concealment and without guile,—”I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me” (Psalms 51:3).
– Robert Candlish –
from The Prayer of a Broken Heart: Expository Discourses on Psalm 51, 1873
The man who would truly know God must give time to Him.
– AW Tozer –
When God breaks into a life or a community, nothing else matters save the person of Jesus, the glory of Jesus, the name of Jesus.
– Stephen Olford –
Revivals begin with God’s own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them new fervor and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones…
– Andrew Bonar –
Revival is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people—restoring, reanimating, and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing.
– Stephen Olford –
Will you say that godliness is unpleasant, because it makes a man sorry for his ungodliness?… Would you wish a man that hath lived so long in sin and misery, to have no sorrow for it in his return—especially when it is but a healing sorrow, preparing for remission, and not a sorrow joined with despair, as theirs will be that die impenitently?
– Richard Baxter –
1615-1691
Psalms 104:4; He makes his ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of other things. Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame.
– Jim Elliot –
from his journal, July 7, 1948
We cannot have flowers without roots, or fruit without trees. We cannot have the fruit of the Spirit, without vital union with Christ, and a new creation within.
– JC Ryle –
from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Volume 2: Luke 6:27-38), 1856
The history of God’s specific movements with the Church is not the history of His adding something, but of His bringing back to the primal fullness with which He filled His Son.
– T. Austin-Sparks –