Trials

November 18, 2011

Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.

– C. T. Studd –

November 8, 2011

We always admire those who stand up when everyone else ducks or bows down. You may be the only one in your generation, but never bend your knee [to difficulties or the culture]. . . . Your knee is to bend solely to Jesus Christ.

– Eric Ludy –

August 26, 2011

There is no such thing as a Christianity without a cross. There is no such things as a Christianity without a cost. It costs everything.

– Nick Thompson –

August 25, 2011

God has made me as bread for His chosen ones, and if it is necessary for me to be ground in the teeth of lions in order to feed His children, then blessed be the name of the Lord.

– St. Ignatius, Early Christian Martyr
(quoted in Cowman, Streams in the Desert, 1996, pg 238)

August 10, 2011

Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little in comparison with eternal realities.

– Robert Murray M’Cheyne –

August 4, 2011

God’s time for revival is the very darkest hour, when everything seems hopeless. It is always the Lord’s way to go to the very worst cases to manifest His glory.

– Andrew Gih –

July 25, 2011

Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks. — Someone has said very aptly: Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength. First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.

– Thomas a Kempis –
from The Imitation of Christ

July 21, 2011

Dear Christian, in affliction abide in Christ. When you see it coming, meet it in Christ; when it is come, feel that you are more in Christ than in it, for He is nearer you than affliction ever can be; when it is passing, still abide in Him. And let the one thought of the Saviour, as He speaks of the pruning, and the one desire of the Father, as He does the pruning, be yours too: “Every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth, that it may bring forth more fruit.” So shall your times of affliction become your times of choicest blessing–preparation for richest fruitfulness.

— Andrew Murray –
from School of Obedience

July 10, 2011

Have you had your Gethsemane?

– Leonard Ravenhill –