We are to find as much bitterness in weeping for sin as ever we found sweetness in committing it. Surely David found more bitterness in repenting then he ever found comfort in Bathsheba.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Doctrine of Repentance, 1668
There is No Shortcut to Holiness – William Wilberforce
There is no shortcut to holiness; it must be the business of our whole lives.
– William Wilberforce –
What a Spiritual Awakening Is – Lewis Drummond
A spiritual awakening is no more than God’s people seeing God in His holiness, turning from their wicked ways, and being transformed into His likeness.
– Lewis Drummond –
The Greatest Need of Our Day – Duncan Campbell
A baptism of holiness, a demonstration of godly living is the crying need of our day.
– Duncan Campbell –
God’s House Must Be a House of Prayer – Jim Cymbala
Only turning God’s house into a house of fervent prayer will reverse the power of evil so evident in the world today.
– Jim Cymbala –
Revealing What’s Inside You – John Owen
Temptations and occasions put nothing into man, but only draw out what was in him before.
– John Owen –
1616-1683
The Purity of Gold – Amy Carmichael
The goldsmith never leaves his crucible once it has entered the fire. He periodically lifts out the gold, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back … This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold back into the crucible, the heat of the fire is increased, “It could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now.” “How do you know when the gold is purified?” we asked, and he answered, “When I can see my face in it, then it is pure.”
– Amy Carmichael –
from Gold Cord
Conformity to the Character of God – Jerry Bridges
Many Christians have what we might call a “cultural holiness.” They adapt to the character and behavior pattern of Christians around them. As the Christian culture around them is more or less holy, so these Christians are more or less holy. But God has not called us to be like those around us. He has called us to be like himself. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.
– Jerry Bridges –
People Do Not Drift Toward Holiness – DA Carson
People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
– DA Carson –