Category: Quotes

To Be As Christ

~ A Prayer Life ~ 1 Comment

O GOD,

Thy main plan, and the end of thy will
      is to make Christ glorious and beloved in heaven
  where he is now ascended,
  where one day all the elect will behold his glory
  and love and glorify him for ever.
Though here I love him but little,
  may this be my portion at last.
In this world thou hast given me a beginning,
  one day it will be perfected in the realm above.
Thou hast helped me to see and know Christ,
  though obscurely,
  to take him, receive him,
  to possess him, love him,
  to bless him in my heart, mouth, life.
Let me study and stand for discipline,
    and all the ways of worship,
  out of love for Christ;
  and to show my thankfulness;
  to seek and know his will from love,
  to hold it in love,
  and daily to care for and keep this state of heart.
Thou hast led me to place all my nature
    and happiness in oneness with Christ,
  in having heart and mind centered only on him,
  in being like him in communicating good to others;
This is my heaven on earth,
But I need the force, energy, impulses of thy Spirit
  to carry me on the way to my Jerusalem.
Here, it is my duty,
  to be as Christ in this world,
  to do what he would do,
  to live as he would live,
  to walk in love and meekness;
  then would he be known,
  then would I have peace in death.

~ Valley of Vision

A Leveling Doctrine

~ A Prayer Life ~ Leave a comment

“Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.”

~ 1 Thess. 1:4

“Election is a leveling doctrine; it levels us all to the same position. Because we all are in that common position of ruin as descendants of Adam, there is nothing which can commend us to God. But therefore it is also possible for the greatest sinner to be saved. God does not look at us to find a reason why He should save us rather than others. He knows there is nothing to be found with us. But He has found everything He was looking for in His beloved Son! Because He has brought about a perfect redemption and obedient satisfaction to God’s law, God does not need anything from us. We may go unto Him and say, ‘Lord, nothing in my hands I bring; simply to Thy cross I cling.’ That is salvation.”

~ Cornelis Pronk

Face & Overcome

~ A Prayer Life ~ 2 Comments

“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.”

~ 1 Corinthians 16:13

“True holiness does not make a Christian evade difficulties, but face and overcome them. Christ would have His people show that His grace is not a mere hothouse plant, which can only thrive under shelter, but a strong, hardy thing which can flourish in every relation of life.”

~ J.C. Ryle

Our Soul’s Preserver

~ A Prayer Life ~ Leave a comment

The toils of day are over;
We raise our hymn to Thee,
And ask that free from peril
The hours of dark may be.
O Jesus, keep us in Thy sight,
And guard us through the coming night.

Be Thou our souls’ Preserver,
O God, for Thou dost know
How many are the perils
Through which we have to go.
Lord Jesus Christ, O hear our call
And guard and save us from them all.

~ Prayer of Anatolius (5th Century)

Avoid Unworthy Affection

~ A Prayer Life ~ 1 Comment

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

~ Colossians 3:32

“Fellowship with God is like a delicate little plant, for a long nurturing is the price of having it, while it vanishes in a second of time, as soon as we try to seat some other unworthy affection beside Him.”

~ Frank C. Laubach

The Kingdom of God

~ A Prayer Life ~ 2 Comments

“He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God… because for this purpose I have been sent.”

~ Luke 4:43

“The whole of the preaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles is concerned with the kingdom of God.”

~ Herman Ridderbos

A Fountain of Life

~ A Prayer Life ~ 2 Comments

“The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life.”

~ Proverbs 14:15a

As the waters of all true wisdom find their original source in God alone, so the many streams which flow out from wise godly people serve as a refreshing supply of the Lord’s spring. The teaching of the wise, of those who first seek God’s face and depend on His counsel, can be a blessing to others. God grants His people the privilege of sharing in His wisdom and He gifts Christ’s church with the knowledge and understanding to accomplish all His holy will. May we find and keep company with the wise, and drink deeply thereof, for there is a fountain of life.

~ apl

Too Much Praise

~ A Prayer Life ~ 2 Comments

“I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.” 

~ Psalm 9:1-2

“But there are times when those who sing, and sing well, have too much praise in their soul for it to enclose itself in words. Like some strong liquors which cannot use a little vent, but foam and swell until they burst each hoop that binds the barrel; so, sometimes, we want a larger channel for our soul than that of mouth and tongue, and we long to have all our nerves and sinews made into harpstrings, and all the pores of our body made mouths of thankfulness. Oh, that we could praise with our whole nature, not one single hair of our heads, or drop of blood in our veins, keeping back from adoring the Most High. When this desire for praise is most vehement, we fall back upon silence, and quiver with the adoration which we cannot speak.”

~ Charles Spurgeon 

They Go Together

~ A Prayer Life ~ 4 Comments

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…”

~ Philippians 2:12

“You cannot take Christ for justification unless you take Him for sanctification… You can no more separate justification from sanctification than you can separate the circulation of the blood from the inhalation of the air. Breathing and circulation are two different things, but you cannot have the one without the other; they go together, and they constitute one life. So you have justification and sanctification; they go together, and they constitute one life.”

~ A.A. Hodge (1823-1886)

A Second Adam

~ A Prayer Life ~ Leave a comment

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”

~ 1 Corinthians 15:22

“The Christ of God was not then first crucified when the Jews brought Him to the Cross; but Adam and Eve were His first real murderers; for the death which happened to them in the day when they did eat of the earthly tree was the death of the Christ of God or the divine life in their souls. For Christ had never come into the world as a second Adam to redeem it, had He not been originally the life and perfection and glory of the first Adam.”

~ William Law