Our Lord’s idea of repentance is as profound and comprehensive as His conception of righteousness. Of the three words that are used in the Greek Gospels to describe the process, one emphasizes the emotional element of regret, sorrow over the past evil course of life, metamelomai; a second expresses reversal of the entire mental attitude, metanoeo; the third denotes a change in the direction of life, one goal being substituted for another, epistrephomai; Repentance is not limited to any single faculty of the mind: it engages the entire man, intellect, will and affections… Again, in the new life which follows repentance the absolute supremacy of God is the controlling principle.
~ Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949)
Tag: Quotes
What Is A Christian?
A Christian is one who recognizes Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, as God manifested in the flesh, loving us and dying for our redemption; and who is so affected by a sense of the love of this incarnate God as to be constrained to make the will of Christ the rule of his obedience, and the glory of Christ the great end for which He lives.
~ Charles Hodge (1797-1878)
Humility & Love
Humility and love are precisely the graces which the men of the world can understand, if they do not comprehend doctrines. They are the graces about which there is no mystery, and they are within reach of all classes… [The poorest] Christian can every day find occasion for practicing love and humility.
~ J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
The Father’s Dream
You [Christian] have within you now all the elements that are necessary to make you all that the Father dreamed that you would be in Christ.
~ E. W. Kenyon (1867-1948)
Poetic Prayer
As in poetry, so in prayer, the whole subject matter should be furnished by the heart, and the understanding should be allowed only to shape and arrange the effusions of the heart in the manner best adapted to answer the end designed. From the fullness of a heart overflowing with holy affections, as from a copious fountain, we should pour forth a torrent of pious, humble and ardently affectionate feelings; while our understandings only shape the channel and teach the gushing streams of devotion where to flow, and when to stop.
~ Edward Payson (1783-1827)
Difficult & Untried
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
~ G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
Melt The World
Kindness makes a person attractive. If you would win the world, melt it, do not hammer it.
~ Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910)
Peace & Quiet
Oh, how great peace and quietness would he possess who should cut off all vain anxiety and place all his confidence in God.
~ Thomas a’ Kempis (1380-1471)
Embraced By Faith
Because all men be sinners and offenders against God, and breakers of His law and commandments, therefore can no man by his own acts, works, and deeds (seem they never so good) be justified, and made righteous before God: But every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousness or justification, to be received at God’s own hands, that is to say, the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses, in such things as he hath offended. And this justification or righteousness, which we so receive of God’s mercy and Christ’s merits, embraced by faith, is taken, accepted, and allowed of God, for our perfect and full justification.
~ Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)
The Mightiest Weapon
Prayer is the mightiest weapon that God has placed in our hands. It is the best weapon to use in every difficulty, and the surest remedy in every trouble. It is the key that unlocks the treasury of promises, and the hand that draws forth grace and help in time of need. It is the silver trumpet that God commands us to sound in all our necessity; it is the cry He has promised always to listen to.
~ J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)
A Prayer Life 