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How Not to Preach – David Wilkerson

I’m not about to put up a silly skit and preach a 15-minute message on “how to cope” to a multitude of people who are dying and going to hell. I tremble at the thought.

– David Wilkerson –

How You Can Know How Spiritual You Are – Leonard Ravenhill

Not how many meetings you go to.
Not how many gifts you have.
Not how many sermons you preach.
Not how many records you’ve made.
Tell me what time you spend alone with God …
and I’ll tell you how spiritual you are.

– Leonard Ravenhill –

A Profession of Religion Without Practice – JC Ryle

I must honestly declare my conviction that, since the days of the Reformation, there never has been so much profession of religion without practice, so much talking about God without walking with Him, so much hearing God’s words without doing them, as there is in England at this present date. Never were there so many empty tubs and tinkling cymbals! Never was there so much formality and so little reality. The whole tone of men’s minds on what constitutes practical Christianity seems lowered. The old golden standard of the behaviour which becomes a Christian man or woman appears debased and degenerated. You may see scores of religious people (so-called) continually doing things which in days gone by would have been thought utterly inconsistent with vital religion. … The ancient tenderness of conscience about such things seems dying away and becoming extinct, like the dodo; and when you venture to remonstrate with young communicants who indulge in them, they only stare at you as an old-fashioned, narrow-minded, fossilized person, and say, “Where is the harm?” In short, laxity of ideas amoung young men, and “fastness” and levity among young women, are only too common characteristics of the rising generation of Christian professors.

– JC Ryle –
1816-1900 AD

Guard Against All Worldly Distractions – William Wilberforce

To so please God, it is also essential to guard against all the distractions of worldly cares. It needs the cultivation of heavenly-mindedness and a spirit of continual prayer. It requires you to watch incessantly over the workings of your own deceitful heart.

– William Wilberforce –
from Real Christianity, 1797

Nothing Escapes the Lord’s Notice – Ignatius

Nothing escapes the Lord’s notice—indeed, even our hidden secrets are present to him. So let us act in everything we do as if he were dwelling within us, so that we may be his temples and he may be our God within us. Indeed, that is already the case, and will appear obvious to the extent we love him.
– Ignatius –
from The Wisdom of the Apostolic Fathers

Don’t Be Weary In Doing Good – John Wesley

Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing!

– John Wesley –