Preaching is the flexanima*, the allurer of the soul, by which our self-willed minds are subdued and changed from an ungodly and pagan lifestyle to a life of Christian faith and repentance.
– William Perkins –
from The Art of Prophesying, 1592
*(Flexanima is Latin for: moving, affecting, touching)
I believe that a ship will carry me across the ocean, because I have tried it. But, this will not help another man who wants to go, unless he acts on my knowledge. So knowledge of Christ does not help us unless we act on it. That is what it is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to act on what we believe.
As a man steps on board ship to cross the Atlantic, so we must take Christ and make a commitment of our souls to Him. He has promised to keep all who put their trust in Him. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is simply to take Him at His word.
– DL Moody –
from The Way to God
Oh that you might have such a strong love for perishing sinners that you will put up with their rebuffs and rebukes, and say to them, “Strike me if you will, but hear me; ridicule me, but still I will plead with you; cast me under your feet as though I were the offscouring of all things, but at any rate, I will not let you perish, if it be in my power to warn you of your danger.”
– Charles Spurgeon –
from Council for Christian Workers
It was wonderful love that Christ should die for such as we are. What are we? Not only vanity, but enmity. When we were fighting, he was dying; when we had the weapons in our hands, then he had the spear in his side (Romans 5:8).
– Thomas Watson –
from The Lords Supper, 1665
The first step towards the evangelizing of the world is the christianizing of the church.
– Vance Havner –
The most ordinary way by which many are brought to Christ, is by a clear and discernible work of the law, and humiliation; which we generally call the spirit of bondage. … But there is a conviction of sin, an awakening of conscience, and work of humiliation, which as we shall point out, rarely miscarries, or fails of a gracious issue, but ordinarily doth resolve into the Spirit of adoption, and a gracious work of God’s Spirit.
– William Guthrie –
from The Christians Great Interest, 1658
Let us discern what is good and pleasing and acceptable in the sight of the one who created us. Let us contemplate the blood of Christ and note how precious it is to his Father, because its outpouring for our salvation has brought the grace of repentance to all the world.
– Clement –
from The Wisdom of the Apostolic Fathers
“If any man will come after Me,” said Jesus, “the condition is that he must leave something behind,” that is to say, his right to himself. Is Jesus Christ worth it, or am I one of those who accept His salvation but thoroughly object to giving up my right to myself to Him?
– Oswald Chambers –
The teaching of this and that opinion may please a man’s fancy, but it is only the preaching of Christ that changes the heart, that conquers the heart, that turns the heart. Peter, by preaching a crucified Christ, converts three thousand souls at once.
– Thomas Brooks –