The outpourings of the Spirit will bring about the work of conversion in a wonderful manner. They will result in the calling of new laborers who will be zealous to carry the gospel to the nations of the world.
– Charles L. Chaney –
The Birth of Missions in America
Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.
– Daniel 9:3-5 –
Our sins are debts that none can pay but Christ. It is not our tears, but His blood; it is not our sighs, but His sufferings, that can testify for our sins. Christ must pay all, or we are prisoners forever.
– Thomas Brooks –
Where we have failed is in the practical application of the teaching concerning the crucified life. Too many have been content to be armchair Christians, satisfied with the theology of the cross. Plainly Christ never intended that we should rest in a mere theory of self-denial. His teaching identified His disciples with Himself so intimately that they would have had to be extremely dull not to have understood that they were expected to experience very much the same pain and loss as He Himself did.
The healthy soul is the victorious soul and victory never comes while self is permitted to remain unjudged and uncrucified. While we boast or belittle we may be perfectly sure that the cross has not yet done its work within us. Faith and obedience will bring the cross into the life and cure both habits.
– AW Tozer –
From Man – The Dwelling Place of God, ch. 18, “Boasting or Belittling”
Candor compels me to acknowledge that it is a lot easier to write about this than it is to live it. Self is one of the toughest plants that grows in the garden of life. It is, in fact, indestructible by any human means. Just when we are sure it is dead it turns up somewhere as robust as ever to trouble our peace and poison the fruit of our lives.
Yet there is deliverance. When our judicial crucifixion becomes actual the victory is near; and when our faith rises to claim the risen life of Christ as our own the triumph is complete.
– AW Tozer –
From Man – The Dwelling Place of God, ch. 18, “Boasting or Belittling”
If you are looking for an example of humility, look at the cross.
– Thomas Aquinas –
The only crown Jesus ever wore on earth was a crown of thorns.
– Elisabeth Elliot –
Denying ourselves and taking up our cross isn’t a little side issue — it is absolutely necessary to becoming or continuing to become a disciple of Jesus.
– John Wesley –
The victorious Christian neither exalts nor downgrades himself. His interests have shifted from self to Christ. What he is or is not no longer concerns him. He believes that he has been crucified with Christ and he is not willing either to praise or deprecate such a man.
– AW Tozer –