325. We often don't always know why things happen to us and others in a given situation or cirumstance but we know why we trust God who does know why. DAVE BROWN
326. To love another person is to see the face of God. VICTOR HUGO
327. The true division of humanity is this: the luminous and the dark. VICTOR HUGO
328. The word which God has written on the brow of every man is hope. VICTOR HUGO
329. It is the heart that is not yet sure of its God that is afraid to laugh in His presence. GEORGE McDONALD
330. Christ is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all." - J. HUDSON TAYLOR
331. There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history. SIR ISAAC NEWTON
332. The saint never knows the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it. OSWALD CHAMBERS
333. It is not what I do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through me. God does not want worldly successes, He wants me. He wants my heart in submission to Him. Life is not just a few years to spend on self indulgence and career advancement. It is a privilege, a responsibility, a stewardship to be lived according to a much higher calling, God's calling. This alone gives true meaning to life. ELIZABETH DOLE
334. Faith is the bird that sings while it is yet dark. MAX LUCADO
335. We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. A.W. TOZER
336. The person who has gone to the cross with Christ is facing one direction,can never turn back, and no longer has any plans of their own. A.W.TOZER
337. Unless I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by clear reason ... I am bound by the Scripture I quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to violate one's conscience. I cannot do otherwise. MARTIN LUTHER
338. In answer to the question, "How must the Word of God be preached?" John Wycliffe once answered, "Appropriately, simply, directly, and from a devout, sincere heart.
339. There is a limit, for "The Lord knoweth them that are His," but in the preaching of the Gospel we are not bound by the decree which is secret, but by our marching orders, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved. He who bade me preach to every creature did not bid me exempt one soul from my message. CHARLES SPURGEON
340. Whatever we have of this world in our hands, our care must be to keep it out of our hearts, lest it come between us and Christ. MATHEW HENRY
341. It was great condescension that He who was God should be made in the likeness of flesh; but much greater that He who was holy should be made in the likeness of sinful flesh. MATHEW HENRY
342. Just as the sinner's despair of any hope from himself is the first prerequisite of a sound conversion, so the loss of all confidence in himself is the first essential in the believer's growth in grace. A.W. PINK
343. If our religion be of our own getting or making, it will perish; and the sooner it goes, the better; but if our religion is a matter of God's giving, we know that He shall never take back what He gives, and that, if He has commenced to work in us by His grace, He will never leave it unfinished. CHARLES SPURGEON
344. Whatever subject I preach, I do not stop until I reach the Savior, the Lord Jesus, for in Him are all things. CHARLES SPURGEON
345. There are two great truths which from this platform I have proclaimed for many years. The first is that salvation is free to every man who will have it; the second is that God gives salvation to a people whom He has chosen; and these truths are not in conflict with each other in the least degree. CHARLES SPURGEON
346. The quickest way to slay error is to proclaim the truth. The surest mode of extinguishing falsehood is to boldly advocate Scripture principles. Scolding and protesting will not be so effectual in resisting the progress of error as the clear proclamation of the truth in Jesus. CHARLES SPURGEON
347. Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain. JOHN CALVIN
348. Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments. JOHN CALVIN
349. Faith is like breath in an infant's lungs. Breath is not the cause of life; but where there is no breath, there is no life. Even so, faith is not the cause of life, but where there is no faith, there is no spiritual life. JOHN GILL
350. The Godhead of Christ is that which stamps value upon His sufferings and renders the whole of His obedience, in life and in death, infinitely meritorious and effectual. JOHN GILL
351. Preaching duty, is preaching the law; preaching the free grace of God, and salvation by Christ, is preaching the gospel; to say otherwise, is to turn the gospel into law and to blend and confound both together. JOHN GILL
352. Indeed, all that God does in time, or will do to all eternity, is only telling his people how much he loved them from everlasting. JOHN GILL
353. For if there was no justification before faith, there can be none by it, without making faith the cause or condition of it. JOHN GILL
354. They who truly come to God for mercy, come as beggars, and not as creditors: they come for mere mercy, for sovereign grace, and not for anything that is due. JONATHAN EDWARDS
355. The greatest judgment which God Himself can, in this present life, inflict upon a man is, to leave him in the hand of his own boasted free-will. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY
356. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he no brain of his own. CHARLES SPURGEON
357. Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear much about faith. ``Faith is not enough,'' they say, ``You must do good works, you must be pious to be saved.'' They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, ``I believe.'' That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn't come from this `faith,' either. Instead, faith is God's work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. (John 1:13). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn't stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters about faith and good works with many words. Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire! Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who think they're smart enough to define faith and works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask God to work faith in you, or you will remain forever without faith, no matter what you wish, say or can do. MARTIN LUTHER, from "An Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans
357. The First Commandment: You must not have other gods. That is, I must be your only God. QUESTION: What does this saying mean? How should we understand it? What does it mean to have a god? What is God? ANSWER: To have a god means this: You expect to receive all good things from it and turn to it in every time of trouble. Yes, to have a god means to trust and to believe in Him with your whole heart. I have often said that only the trust and faith of the heart can make God or an idol. If your faith and trust are true, you have the true God, too. On the other hand, where trust is false, is evil, there you will not have the true God either. Faith and God live together. I tell you, whatever you set your heart on and rely on is really your god. MARTIN LUTHER, from Larger Catechism
358. My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that You have protected me, by Your grace. Forgive, I pray, all my sins and the evil I have done. Protect me, by Your grace, tonight. I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen. MARTIN LUTHER, Evening Prayer
359. My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that You kept me safe from all evil and danger last night. Save me, I pray, today as well, from every evil and sin, so that all I do and the way that I live will please you. I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy Angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen. MARTIN LUTHER, Morning Prayer
360. The Gospel, like its blessed Master, is always crucified between two thieves -- legalist of all sorts on the one hand and Antinomians on the other; the former robbing the Saviour of the glory of his work for us, and the other robbing him of the glory of his work within us. - James Henley Thornwell, from Antinomianism 361. Wherever man may stand, whatever he may do, to whatever he may apply his hand, in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, in the world of art, and science he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of God, he is employed in the service of his God, he has strictly to obey his God, and above all, he has to aim at the glory of his God. - ABRHAM KUYPER
362. We do not segment our lives, giving some time to God, some to our business or schooling, while keeping parts to ourselves. The idea is to live all of our lives in the presence of God, under the authority of God, and for the honor and glory of God. That is what the Christian life is all about. - R. C. SPROUL
363. The Evangelical is not afraid of facts, for he knows that all facts are God's facts; nor is he afraid of thinking, for he knows that all truth is God's truth, and right reason cannot endanger sound faith. He is called to love God with all his mind; and part of what this means is that, when confronted by those who, on professedly rational grounds, take exception to historic Christianity, he must set himself not merely to deplore or denounce them, but to out-think them. It is not his business to argue men into faith, for that cannot be done; but it is his business to demonstrate the intellectual adequacy of the biblical faith and the comparative inadequacy of its rivals, and to show the invalidity of the criticisms that are brought against it. This he seeks to do, not from any motive of intellectual self-justification, but for the glory of God and of His gospel. A confident intellectualism expressive of robust faith in God, whose Word is truth, is part of the historic evangelical tradition. If present-day Evangelicals fall short of this, they are false to their own principles and heritage. - J. I. PACKER
364. "It is a great mistake ... to suppose that we who are called 'conservatives' hold desperately to certain beliefs merely because they are old, and are opposed to the discovery of new facts. On the contrary, we welcome new discoveries with all our hearts, and we believe that our cause will come to its rights again only when youth throws off its present intellectual lethargy, refuses to go thoughtlessly with the anti-intellectual current of the age, and recovers some genuine independence of mind. In one sense, indeed, we are traditionalists ... But on the whole, in view of the conditions that now exist, it would perhaps be more correct to call us 'radicals' than to call us 'conservatives' ... We are seeking in particular to arouse youth from its present uncritical repetition of current phrases into some genuine examination of the basis of life; and we believe that Christianity flourishes not in the darkness, but in the light. A revival of the Christian religion, we believe, will deliver mankind from its present bondage. Such a revival will not be the work of man, but the work of the Spirit of God. But one of the means which the Spirit will use, we believe, is an awakening of the intellect ... The new Reformation, in other words, will be accompanied by a new Renaissance; and the last thing in the world that we desire to do is to discourage originality or independence of mind. J. Greshem Machen
365. The peace of the rational soul is the ordered agreement of knowledge and action. AUGUSTINE
366. There is no longer a Christian mind ... the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion -- its morality, its worship, its spiritual culture; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which sets all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, the view which relates all human problems social, political, cultural to the doctrinal foundations of the Christian Faith, the view which sees all things here below in terms of God's supremacy and earth's transitoriness, in terms of Heaven and Hell. HARRY BLAMIRES
367. He's [God] a hedonist at heart...He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore...He's vulgar, Wormwood. He has bourgeois mind. There are things for humans to do all day long...sleeping, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it's of any use to us. C. S. LEWIS, Screwtape Letters
368. For my part, I believe we ought to work not only at spreading the gospel (that certainly) but also at a certain preparation for the gospel. It is necessary to recall many to the Law of Nature before we talk about God. For Christ promises forgiveness of sins: But what is that to those who since they do not know the Law of nature, do not know that they have sinned? Who will take medicine unless he knows he is in the grip of disease? Moral relativity is the enemy we have to overcome before we tackle atheism. C. S. LEWIS, Letter Calabria
369. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you may talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet if at all only in a nightmare. All day long we are in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities it is with awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal, Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit -- immortal horrors or ever lasting splendors." C. S. LEWIS, Weight of Glory
370. In the chapter, "Farewell to Shadowlands," the children are afraid of being sent away from Narnia. Aslan assures them that they will not - and a wild hope rises in them. Aslan tells them that there was a real railway accident. "Your father and mother and all of you are -- as you used to call it in the Shadowlands -- dead. The term is over: the holiday has begun. The dream is ended. This is the morning...things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And as for us, this is the end of all stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia have only been the cover of the Great Story which none on earth has read; which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before." C. S. LEWIS, Last Battle
371. Jill transported to the land of Aslan is stranded in a strange forest because of pride and foolishness. She becomes extremely thirsty, finds a stream but a lion is there. The Lion bids her to come and drink. The voice was not like a man's but "deeper, wilder, and stronger" - a "sort of heavy golden voice". "May I - could I - would you mind going away while I do?", said Jill. The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its mountainous bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic. "Will you promise not to - do anything to me if you do come?", said Jill. "I make no promise, " said the Lion. Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer. "Do you eat girls?", she said. "I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms", said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. it just said it. 'I daren't come and drink", said Jill. "Then you will die of thirst", said the Lion. "Oh dear!", said Jill coming a step nearer. "I supposed I must go and look for another stream then." "There is no other stream", said the Lion. C. S. LEWIS, Silver Chair
372. Unless the gospel is preached with contemporary relevance it has not been preached. MARTIN LUTHER
373. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing [ablishing slave trade trading] you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be with you who can be against you. JOHN WESLEY, letter to William Wilberforce 10 days before Wesley's death
374. Upon these foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation (Holy Scripture), depend all human laws; that is to say no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. WILLIAM BLACKSTONE
375. I have often loved darkness,
observed lying vanities,
forsaken thy mercies,
trampled underfoot they beloved Son,
mocked thy providence,
flattered thee with my lips,
broken thy covenant,
It is of thy compassion that I am not consumed.
Lead me to repentance, and save me from despair;
Let me come to thee renouncing, condemning, loathing myself,
but hoping in the grace that flows even to the chief of sinners.
At the cross may I conmtemplate the evil of sin, and adhor it,
look on him whom I pierced,
as one slain for me, and by me.
- From The Valley of Vision
376. We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvationof a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ's death not only may be saed, but are saed, must be saed, and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saed. CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
377. No more soul-destroying doctrine could well be devised than the doctrine that sinners can regenerate themselves, and repent and believe just when they please...As it is a truth both of Scripture and of experience that the unrenewed man can do nothing of himself to secure his salvation, it is essential that he should be brought to practical conviction of that truth. When thus convinced, and not before, he seeks help from the only source whence it can be obtained. CHARLES HODGE
378. But the expression implies that it is God's mere will and sovereign pleasure, which supremely orders this affair. It is the divine will without restraint, or constraint or obligation...The sovereignty of God in his absolute, independent right of disposing of all creatures according to his good pleasure. JONATHAN EDWARDS
379. ...the attributes of God were visible in their fullness on the day Jesus died. God's nature poured out on Golgotha in a cosmic flood of revelation, and the world quaked. Justice was done, mercy was granted, redemption was accomplished, power was displayed, holiness was vindicated, community was reestablished, perfect wisdom was demonstrated, and love ran wild. God ripped the veil of the invisible and sang through the life, death and resurrection of his son, "Here I am. This is what I look like. Worship!"...When the world asks, "What is God like?" we should be able to say, "Look at the church." As the body of Christ, we are to be like Jesus so that we too reveal God to the world. We are called to fully manifest in our communities and lives the core competencies of God as displayed by Christ. That means we strive to do justice, show mercy, pursue holiness, speak truth, enjoy beauty, create community, maintain unity, practice wisdom, and show love. That's what Jesus did. When he left, God did not leave the world without a witness. He left us. Our purpose is to be Christ in the world and display God in his fullness through our witness as individuals and communities. As we do that we join God's unrelenting quest to be known in all of his fullness, in the glory of his complete revelation. WILLIAM R. L. HALEY
380. ...Just as it is the mark of bad people to put even good things to bad use, so on the contrary it is the mark of God to put even bad things to good use...the pagan has a fornicating soul, the bad Christian an adulterous one. The pagan soul has no lawful husband: it is corrupted by prostituting itself with a variety of demons. And why is the bad Christian's soul adulterous? Because it neither loves chastity nor leaves its husband...That you do it willingly [pray for your enemy], that you are glad to do it, that you are delighted according to the inner man to obey your Lord and pray for your enemy - this shows you are gold. But that as soon as you begin to pray your fleshly weakness starts opposing you - that's the dross from which God wishes to purify you in the furnace. AUGUSTINE, from Sermon 15