Revival

November 12, 2011

Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God – against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight. Conviction of sin, the marvel of forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I have sinned. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.

The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for the gift of tears. If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.

– Oswald Chambers –
My Utmost For His Highest, December 7th

November 8, 2011

We always admire those who stand up when everyone else ducks or bows down. You may be the only one in your generation, but never bend your knee [to difficulties or the culture]. . . . Your knee is to bend solely to Jesus Christ.

– Eric Ludy –

November 7, 2011

There is nothing more boring than being religious. There is nothing more exciting than being a Christian. Sad thing is that countless religious people don’t know the difference between religious and being a Christian.

– Ian Thomas –

November 5, 2011

The reason some of us are such poor specimens of Christianity is because we have no Almighty Christ. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment to Jesus Christ.

– Oswald Chambers –
from My Utmost for His Highest

November 4, 2011

The preoccupations of seventeen-year-old girls – their looks, their clothes, their social life – don’t change much from generation to generation. But, in every generation there seem to be a few who make other choices. Amy Carmichael was one of the few.

– Elisabeth Elliot –
from A Chance to Die (biography about Amy Carmichael), 31

October 31, 2011

Revival is not some emotion or worked-up excitement; it is rather an invasion from heaven which brings a conscious awareness of God.

– JE Orr –
Heart Cry for Revival, p. 48

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.