April Quotes

In the stillness of things, when one looks at the stars shining bright in the dark sky, God speaks to us in that silence.

 -Unknown

God has given us the DNA of righteousness. We are saints. Nothing we do will make us more righteous than we already are. Nothing we do will alter this reality. God knows our DNA. He knows that we are "Christ in me."

-John S. Lynch

The saving work of Christ includes deliverance from the death penalty for sin in one’s past life, the power of sin in his present life, and the very presence of sin in the future life.

-Henry Morris

God does not comfort us by showing us the future, but by showing us Himself. 

-Tim Challies

Sometimes when we least expect it, a small cross proves a lovely crown, a seemingly unimportant event becomes a lifelong experience, or a stranger becomes a friend. 

-Louisa May Alcott

“God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). This doesn’t mean we should give only when we’re feeling cheerful. The cheerfulness often comes during and after the act of obedience, not before it. So don’t wait until you feel like giving—it could be a long wait! Just give and watch the joy follow.

-Randy Alcorn

[T]he ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to live.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

-C.S. Lewis

Bible commentator R. C. H. Lenski once noted that people with eager but uncertain vows of allegiance to Christianity are like those who view “the soldiers on parade, the fine uniforms, and the glittering arms and [are] eager to join, forgetting the exhausting marches, the bloody battles, the graves, perhaps unmarked.” 

-John MacArthur

Expecting perfection from ourselves or others is not what holiness is about.

-Kevin DeYoung

Hope for the Gentile

Isaiah 56:1-8, ESV

Thus says the LORD:

“Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed. 

Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, 

“The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; 

and let not the eunuch say,

“Behold, I am a dry tree.” 

For thus says the LORD:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, 

“I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” 

March Quotes

A real Christian is an odd number, anyway. He feels supreme love for the One whom he has never seen; talks with familiarly every day to

Someone he cannot see; expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another; empties himself in order to be full; admits he is wrong so he

can be declared right; goes down in order to get up; is strongest when he is weakest; richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels the worst. He dies so he can live; forsakes in order to have; gives away so he can keep; sees the invisible; hears the inaudible' and knows that which passeth understanding.

- A.W. Tozer

Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten. 

-G.K. Chesterton

The moment that we take a significant step of obedience, we will be tested.

-Unknown

If we have learned to be silent before the Word, we shall also learn to manage our silence and our speech during the day."

-Bonhoeffer

When Jesus Christ is magnified, Believers are unified.

-Chad Johnson

There is sweet joy in feeling that God knows all and, notwithstanding, loves us still.

-J. Hudson Taylor

Peace is not a gift that passes from Christ the giver to us the receivers. His peace is ours because he is ours, and the peace he is experiencing we are experiencing. Our experience of peace is his peace in us because he is in us. Similarly his strength. Paul says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” (Ephesians 6:10). Being “in the Lord” is the same as the branch being in the vine. The strength of the Lord is not merely a gift from him to us. When we are strong against the devil and sin, our strength is his strength. He is being strong in us. We are being strong "in the strength of his might."

-John Piper

Walking by faith will cause all of us to recognize that as children of God we are just pilgrims and strangers down here on this earth.

-J. Vernon McGee

If we followed you for a thousand years, we would need your grace just as much the next day, the next moment, as we did the first day we believed.

-prayer by Paul Tripp

It is easier to serve God without a vision, easier to work for God without a call because then you are not bothered by what God requires, common sense is your guide, veneered over with Christian sentiment. You will be more prosperous and successful, more leisure hearted, if you never realize the call of God. But if once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God wants will always come like a goad, you will no longer be able to work for Him on the common-sense basis.

-Oswald Chambers

God of War

 This week I began reading through Psalms again. The number of verses speaking of war caught my attention. While war is never something to desire, there are times when justice must be carried out, and in the Old Testament times the Lord did call His people to battle. To fight for their land, their homes, and their faith. And it was He who gave them the power, strength, and victory when the occasion arose.

He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze...For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed. (Psalm 18:34, 39-40, ESV)

The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation--the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me, who delivered me from my enemies... (Psalm 18:46-48a)

Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! (Psalm 24:8)

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and bucker and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, "I am your salvation!" (Psalm 35:1-3)

...for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them....Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. (Psalm 44:3-7)

There is no delight in war, but there is great joy in knowing that God gives victory. Wars and battles today are but a shadow of the spiritual battles that take place daily in the hearts and minds of believers. And when justice is pursued and meted out among the nations, we see a glimpse of the righteousness that will reign when King Jesus returns.

In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, the peoples fall under you. 

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprighteness.

Psalm 45:4-6