“Here is the great evangelical disaster – the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth. There is only one word for this – accommodation: the evangelical church has accommodated to the world spirit of the age… Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation: loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong.”
~ Francis Schaeffer
“For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a Rock, except our God?” – Ps. 18:31
“The doctrine of God’s immutability is of the highest significance for religion. The contrast between being and becoming marks the difference between the Creator and the creature. Every creature is continually becoming. It is changeable, constantly striving, seeks rest and satisfaction, and finds this rest in God, in Him alone, for only He is pure being and not becoming. Hence, in Scripture God is often called the Rock.”
~ Herman Bavinck
“When I let my heart grow cold, my preaching is cold; and when it is confused, my preaching is confused; and I can often observe the effect of this in the best of my hearers: that when I have grown cold in preaching, they have grown cold too; and the next prayers which I have heard from them have been too much like my preaching.”
~ Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor
“It must be well observed that God did not lay aside the relation of a Creator by becoming our Redeemer; but in some respect, the work of redemption is subordinate to that of creation, and the law of the Redeemer is subordinate to the law of the Creator. In the same way, the duties which we owed to God as Creator have not ceased, but the duties we owe to the Redeemer, as such, are subordinate to them. It is the work of Christ to bring us back to God, and to restore us to the perfection of holiness and obedience. And just as he is the way to the Father, so faith in him is the way to our former employment and enjoyment of God. I hope you perceive what I intend in all this: namely, that to see God in his creatures, and to love him, and to converse with him, was the employment of man in his upright estate. This has not ceased to be our duty. In fact, far from it: it is the work of Christ to bring us back to it by faith.”
~ Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor
“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”
~ Psalm 19:1
“By reading the Scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.”
~ Thomas Merton
“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
~ Matthew 4:17
The Christian message has ceased to be a pronouncement and has become instead a proposition. Scarcely anyone catches the imperious note in the words spoken by Jesus Christ. The invitational element of the Christian message has been pressed far out of proportion in the total scriptural scene. Christ with His lantern, His apologetic stance and His weak pleading face has taken the place of the true Son of Man whom John saw—His eyes as a flame of fire, His feet like burnished brass, and His voice as the sound of many waters. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal our Lord as He really is, and He does not paint in oils.
~ A.W. Tozer
“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love…”
~ 2 Timothy 1:7
The Christian spirit should be one of boldness, courage and might. Often times, the timidity and humility that should shroud the Christian’s demeanor is misunderstood as weakness, frailty or even fear. But hidden inside the inner believer, deep inside the heart of the true follow of Christ, there lies the potential for a spirit of holy endurance, perseverance and strength.
The Lord Jesus showed His disciples this kind of reserved yet powerful spirit when He confronted the false teachers and corrupt religious men of His day. He demonstrated that though a meek and lowly figure, He would fashion a whip and drive those evil men out of the temple who sought to desecrate it. The spirit of Christ was a spirit of strength and might.
The spirit God has endowed the believer with is not only one of power, but also of love. It is good that strength and power be tempered by love. It is also worth noting it is only perfect love that truly cast out fear. Nothing will do more in the Christian life to cast out all our fear and doubt and foster in us a boldness for Christ than the love we have for Him.
Paul desired to encourage Timothy in his walk with Christ by reminding him of the kind of spirit God had imparted to him. A spirit not of fear, but of power and love. If you, dear reader, are currently walking in spiritual doubt or fear; if your spirit lacks the power and love you sincerely desire, seek the Lord, draw near to Christ in prayer and supplication, and come to more fully realize the kind of spirit God has intended for you as well.
~ apl
“Do all to the glory of God.”
~ 1 Cor. 10:31b
“What shall befall me in the pursuance of this work, I refer to the disposal of Almighty God, whose glory is dearer to me, not only than my liberty, but than my life.”
~ John Biddle
Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal truthfully are His delight.
~ Proverbs 12:22
Christians should be known for their honesty. We ought to be a trustworthy people. In a day and age where a person’s word doesn’t mean much, where lying lips are too often the norm, the believer’s truthful dealings with his fellow man can stand out as a refreshing testimony for Christ. Delight your Lord dear friend, by dealing sincerely and truthfully in all that you do.
~ apl
A Prayer Life 