“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” As bread is the first need of the body, so forgiveness is for the soul. The provision for the one is as sure as for the other. We are children, but we are also sinners. We owe our right of access to the Father’s presence to the precious blood of Christ and the forgiveness it has won for us.
– Andrew Murray –
from Teach Me To Pray
None can do this work on the soul of man but God: not the most learned and holy teachers or the wisest and most affectionate parents, or the greatest princes.
– Richard Baxter –
1615-1691 AD
When the heart lies low, it can stoop to a low condition. A Christian looking at his sins wonders that it is no worse with him; he does not say his mercies are small, but his sins are great. He knows that the worst piece God carves him is better than he deserves; therefore he takes it thankfully upon his knees.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Godly Man’s Picture
The last word of our Lord to the church was not the Great Commission. The last thing He said to the church was “Repent.” He said that to five out of seven.
– Vance Havner –
(see Revelation 2-3)
Sin has not only put a film on the eye, but destroyed the capacity to see. It has ruined the faculty of spiritual insight, and struck the soul with blindness. The only perfect cure is the salve of experimental grace. A man may have all the learning in the world, and all the culture the schools can afford, and yet be a mere novice in spiritual understanding.
– Asbury Lowrey –
We religious leaders need to look very much more deeply. We can so easily have talks with people, and they can say we have helped, write us grateful letters, even stand steady for a time till the juice we have put into them runs out; but, we may have brought them no hunger for God—because that hunger is no ache in our own heart—nor brought them anywhere near to the end of self.
– Florence Allshorn –
Press them to believe on Him immediately, intersperse prayers with your exhortations preacher and thereby call down fire from heaven even the fire of the Holy Ghost, speak every time my dear brother as if it were your last, weep out if possible every argument and as it were compel them to cry “behold how he loveth us”!
– George Whitefield –
Bring thy lust to the gospel, not for relief, but for further conviction of its guilt: look on him whom thou hast pierced, and be in bitterness. Say to thy soul, What have I done? What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace, have I despised and trampled on! Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Ghost for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord? Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, which the blesses Spirit hath chosen to dwell in? And can I keep myself out of the dust? What can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? How shall I hold up my head with any boldness before him? Do I account communion with him of so little value that for this vile lust’s sake I have scarce left him any room in my heart? How shall I escape, if I neglect so great salvation? In the mean time, what shall I say to the Lord? Love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation; I have despised them all, and esteemed them as a thing of naught, that I might harbour a lust in my heart.
– John Owen –
from The Mortification of Sin
Radical Christians are not people who wear Christian t-shirts. Radical Christians are those who bear fruit of the Holy Spirit. … A little boy, Andrew, a Muslim shot him five times through the stomach and left him on a sidewalk simply because he said, “I am so afraid, but I can not deny Jesus Christ! Please don’t kill me! But I will not deny Him!” He died in a pool of blood, and you talk about being a radical Christian because you wear a t-shirt!
– Paul Washer –