No flesh shall glory in His presence, and the religious flesh is no more acceptable than the irreligious.
–T. Austin-Sparks –
No flesh shall glory in His presence, and the religious flesh is no more acceptable than the irreligious.
–T. Austin-Sparks –
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 ESV)
The majority of us are too indifferent, too religiously sentimental to be caught up in the sweep of the Apostle Paul’s intercession. Have we a lesser idea than that God should do in us what He wants to do? Are we prepared to pray with Murray McCheyne, “Lord, make me as holy as Thou canst make a sinner saved by grace”?
– Oswald Chambers –
from If You Will Ask
We want the corruption of the world and yet still go to heaven. We want to be like the world with the pleasure of sin but still have the benefits of salvation. But Scripture is clear, though we are in the world, we are not to be OF the world. We are to be entirely different than the world.
– Eric Ludy –
The neglected heart will soon be a heart overrun with worldly thoughts; the neglected life will soon become a moral chaos; the church that is not jealously protected by mighty intercession and sacrificial labors will before long become the abode of every evil bird and the hiding place for unsuspected corruption. The creeping wilderness will soon take over that church that trusts in its own strength and forgets to watch and pray.
– AW Tozer –
The Book of books is called the Holy Bible because it has a holy author, and aims at a holy purpose, the production of holiness in its readers.
– Daniel Steele –
A godly man does not indulge sin. Though sin is in him, he is troubled at it and would gladly get rid of it. There is as much difference between sin in the wicked and sin in the godly—as between poison being in a serpent and poison being in a man. Poison in a serpent is in its natural place and is delightful—but poison in a man’s body is harmful and he uses antidotes to expel it. So sin in a wicked man is delightful, being in its natural place—but sin in a child of God is burdensome and he uses all means to expel it.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Godly Man’s Picture, 1666
[Amy Carmichael’s] great longing was to have a “single eye” for the glory of God. Whatever might blur the vision God had give her of His work, whatever could distract or deceive or tempt other to seek anything but the Lord Jesus Himself she tried to eliminate.
– Elisabeth Elliot –
To someone asking for some means to get more strength in his arms and hands to be able to seize and hang on to things, a physician would say that his whole constitution must be built up and strengthened. So the cure of a weak faith is only found by revitalizing our whole spiritual life through close fellowship with God.
– Andrew Murray –
from Teach Me To Pray
The law may chain up the wolf, but it is the Gospel that changes the wolfish nature.
– Samuel Bolton –
from The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, 1645