Salvation

May 28, 2012

The prayer that prevails with God is the prayer into which we throw our whole heart, the prayer of intense earnestness; and it is the Holy Spirit who inspires us to that intense earnestness in prayer. Oh, how cold and formal we are in many of our prayers. How little intense longing there is in our souls to obtain the thing that we ask. We pray even for the salvation of the lost with much indifference, though we ought to realize that if our prayers are not heard they are going to spend eternity in hell. But men and women whose prayer life is under the control of the Holy Spirit, pray with intense earnestness; they cry mightily to God; there is a great burden of prayer in their hearts; they pray sometimes with groanings which cannot be uttered.

– RA Torrey –

May 26, 2012

This is what is so unique about the kingdom of heaven. In other kingdoms, the kings rule from without. Jesus rules from within [us]. Other kings are satisfied as we supply them; Jesus wants to supply us. Other kings desire that we defend them; Jesus wants to be our defense. Other kings want us to serve them; Jesus wants to serve through us. In our absolute poverty, helplessness, we have nothing to offer Him. He can be our total supply and source His life through us. The only blockade to this relationship is our own self-sourcing.

– Stephen Manley –
from “The Poor” (Matthew 5:3)

May 24, 2012

Does your one goal, one drive, all of your plans day and night focus on how to redeem your world? What you cry about, what upsets you, your tiredness, is it all focused on the one thing that beats in the heart of God? Do you see every person with the question of how you can be a redemptive force in their lives? Is every situation of your life viewed with a focus on redemption for the world? May I boldly say that if this is not true for you, you have missed the impact of the Gospel of Matthew and especially this initial call to His disciples [Matthew 4.19].

– Stephen Manley –
from his chapter “A Call to Continuity” in Commentary on Matthew 3-4

May 17, 2012

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

– CS Lewis –

May 13, 2012

A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown.

– JC Ryle –

May 11, 2012

Christ Jesus is my life! (Colossians 3:4)
Would you stubbornly, purposefully, emphatically, and aggressively live like this today with me?

– Jeremiah Bolich –

May 10, 2012

All professing Christians should examine themselves and try their own state. It is not those outside the churches where the dead are to be found; there are only too many inside our churches, and close to our pulpits—too many on the benches, and too many in the pews. The land is like the valley in Ezekiel’s vision, “full of bones, very many, and very dry.” (Ezek. 37:2) There are dead souls in all our parishes, and dead souls in all our streets. There is hardly a family in which all live to God; there is hardly a house in which there is not someone dead. Oh, let us all search and look at home! Let us prove our own selves. Are we alive or dead?

– JC Ryle –

April 29, 2012

A pure heart is one to which all that is not of God is strange and jarring.

– John Tavler –
as was often quoted by Amy Carmichael 

April 27, 2012

Christ is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.

– Hudson Taylor –