Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 that “this is the will of God, your sanctification.” Parenting is profoundly sanctifying. When we were first married, the new relationship revealed rooms of selfishness in our lives – and within those rooms doors to other rooms, and in those rooms yet other doors and closets. The revelation was the beginning of an ongoing, lifelong housecleaning and the addition of children truly deepened the process. The inconvenience of parenting – the self-giving, the prayer, the dependence upon God, the growth – can be an experience of sanctification like no other… The discipline of parenting can be the road to an enlarged soul and the path to unimagined heights of spiritual development. That’s the way God planned it (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 17. Get this book!
A good teacher like John the Baptist, clears the way, declares the way, and then gets out of the way (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 136. Get this book!
The mark of a good teacher is that what is difficult and complicated becomes simple to understand (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 132. Get this book!
Worship is not confined to the expression of praise through singing, or even praise and prayer, but rather it is the offering of ourselves to God in daily obedience (Romans 12:1), and that only then is our more public worship acceptable to God (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 226. Get this book!
It is not always easy to recognize what is merely a matter of personal taste – and capable, therefore, of being changed – and what is fundamental to worship and should, therefore, be unaltered. We should encourage people to test every contribution by its God-centeredness and its ability to edify, and for all to learn to see debatable issues from other people’s point of view… The most vital truth we must convey is that what is important is not how acceptable our worship is to ourselves or to others, but how acceptable it is to God – a priority sometimes forgotten (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 226. Get this book!
It is no commendation of our leadership if everything collapses when we are not there or when the time comes for us to leave (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 241. Get this book!
The Church of Jesus Christ does not progress beyond the spiritual progress of its leaders (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 217. Get this book!
God’s Law convicts of sin only as I appreciate whose Law it is I have broken (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 139. Get this book!
Prayer is our principle and main work. It has priority over the ministry of the Word in that it must come first. It is by prayer that the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is effectively unsheathed (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 68. Get this book!
Common sense tells us that the highest priority must be given to prayer if we hope to enhance our children’s spiritual development… Effective intercession for our children requires that we pray with the mind engaged, in detail, with appropriate earnestness, and that both parents should often pray for their children together (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 60. Get this book!
Leadership may be defined as the ability…to develop other people’s maximum potential for their own works of service in the body of Christ (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 237. Get this book!
Christian leadership models itself upon our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the paradoxes of His ministry was that although He was so obviously the leader, He was conspicuously the servant. He illustrated and underlined this truth when He washed the disciples’ feet (John 13). We are spiritually effective as leaders as we follow His example. Although leaders, we are first and foremost servants (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 219. Get this book!
A steady diet of performances by soloists or even choirs can have the unintended effect of undermining the corporate, participative nature of our musical worship. People can gradually come to think of worship in terms of passive observation, which we do not see modeled in the Bible. Such a diet may also begin to blur the line between worship and entertainment, especially in a television-sopped culture like ours, where one of our most insidious expectations is to be always entertained. Of course, this blurring is hardly ever intended. But over time, separating the “performers” from “the rest of the congregation” can subtly shift the focus of our attention from God to the musicians and their talent – a shift that is frequently revealed by applause at the end of some performance pieces. Who is the beneficiary of such applause? (Mark Dever and Paul Alexander).
Music, taken from The Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 117, www.crosswaybooks.org.
Manners are about respect and thus are rooted in the Christian ethic modeled by Christ – my life for your life. Self-sacrifice, therefore, is at the heart of manners… Manners do not make the man or woman. The radical reorientation that says “my life for your life” can only come from the regenerating work of Christ, who instills His life and ethic in us. Nevertheless, manners teach the need for and complement of the character that Christ’s life gives. Lives that say “my life for yours” are channels of God’s grace to a needy world (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 124, 133. Get this book!
Here’s our own list that emerged in our childrearing years: 1. Don’t be a tattletale. 2. If you receive a gift you don’t like, do your best not to show disappointment. And say something nice like “Thank you for remembering my birthday.” 3. Don’t gossip. If you do, you won’t be a trustworthy friend, and you will displease God (Prov. 11:11-12; 18:13). 4. Don’t whisper secrets in front of other people. The person left out will get hurt feelings. 5. Cheerfully greet the members of your family in the morning. 6. Always answer when you’re spoken to- and do so respectfully. 7. When you haven’t heard someone clearly, don’t grimace in irritation, but kindly say, “Excuse me?” 8. Always address adults as Mr. or Mrs. or Miss, never by their first names. If they are particularly close family friends, your parents may want you to call them “Aunt” or “Uncle.” This shows respect. In the Southern states children use the friendly but respectful “Miss Suzy” or “Miss Martha” when speaking to adult acquaintances. The important thing here is developing a respect for authority, a quality sadly lacking in our country today (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 127- 128. Get this book!
Children are rude because they are so naturally egocentric. It’s their needs, their comforts, their feelings that they demand be met- usually at the expense of weary parents. Of course, self-centeredness is natural, expected behavior in infancy and tolerable in toddlers, but it becomes downright unbearable in school-age children. Proper manners can be a most effective tool in teaching children that they are not the center of the universe. And as the realization grows, they will be well on their way to becoming civilized rather than savage (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 124. Get this book!
Fathers, leave your self-conscious masculine dignity outside the home. You will never be more a man than when tenderly addressing your family in endearing terms (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 40. Get this book!
A pastor’s books are as essential as the furniture of his home (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 116. Get this book!
Our single-minded purpose in declaring the gospel is to give a clear and accurate presentation of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father purposes and delights in His Son’s supremacy in everything – and not least in the gospel and its preaching. Gospel preaching fails if it does not set forth the glories of our once crucified and now risen and glorified Savior. Everything we proclaim about the gospel must be viewed in its relationship to Him (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 140. Get this book!
Where Christ is truly preached, there is the gospel; and where the gospel is truly believed, there is the church (Mark Ross).
Unity, Liberty, Charity, September 2009, Tabletalk, p. 17. Used by Permission.
We confidently affirm that the right way to approach discipline is to begin with tight control in the early years and then loosen up as the children become older, rather than attempt to rein in children who have not known control for years. Although it is a serious mistake to fail to gain control of your children in the early years, we believe it is equally ineffective and injurious not to let go at the proper time. If you want your sons and daughters to achieve the maturity of a life given over to the control of God, you must trust God and relinquish control to them. It is a spiritual axiom: Your children cannot give to God what they do not own (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway, 2004, p. 120. Get this book!
The final estimate of men shows that history cares not an iota for the rank or title a man has borne, or the office he has held, but only the quality of his deeds and the character of his mind and heart (C.W. Hall).
Samuel Logan Brengle, Salvation Army, 1933, p. 274.
7 A’s of Confession:
1. Address everyone involved and only them. Talk to them about my faults. Do it right away and be persistent. Only talk to people who are part of the problem or part of the solution.
2. Avoid “if”, “but”, “maybe”. That’s just blaming the other party and finding fault with them for my own failure. “If I offended you”, “Maybe I was wrong”, “If you hadn’t said that”, “I’m sorry, but you..”
3. Admit specifically what you did, when possible.
4. Apologize – express your sorrow for your sin
5. Ask for forgiveness. Most people leave this out. The other party might be 99% wrong, but this isn’t about them right now. It’s about your own log.
6. Accept the consequences. Make restitution. It’s what you ought to do. Don’t demand that they pretend nothing happened.
7. Alter your behavior. You won’t be perfect, but you’ll get better. Repent before God (Robert Williams).
There are three kinds of giving: grudge giving, duty giving, and thanksgiving. Grudge giving says, “I have to”; duty giving says, “I ought to”; thanksgiving says, “I want to” (Robert Rodenmeyer).
Quoted in John Blanchard, Gathered Gold, Evangelical Press, 1984, p. 113.
God often comforts us, not by changing the circumstances of our lives, but by changing our attitude toward them (S.H.B. Masterman).
We have experienced substantial joys in professional ministry, but nothing is quite so fulfilling as the personal joy of seeing family friends come to faith… The family is at the very heart of authentic ministry and evangelism. As ministry professionals, we hold the firm conviction that family is ministry and that the most effective spread of the gospel occurs through family. We are also convinced that we were never more effective in evangelism than when we had children at home (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway, 2004, p. 86- 87. Get this book!
A vital element for building a family is instilling a healthy sense of heritage – an appreciation of family roots, both earthly and spiritual. Yet it is increasingly common in our world for children to have no such sense of continuity or regard for family history. Too many feel that they have come from nothing and are bound for nothing- and this goes for Christians, too. Family heritage is a subject of neglect that is in need of rehabilitation. It is one of the disciplines of a godly family (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway, 2004, p. 21. Get this book!
The primary way to overcome Satan is on our knees (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 70. Get this book!
Tenderness will win hearts so hardened that nothing else can move them. Truth spoken in love goes directly to the heart of the hearer and calls forth a kind response… It overcomes prejudice and hardness… It melts and wins where the most logical argument, the most terrible warning, and the severest threatening would produce no more impression than the falling of dew upon a block of granite (Wilson Hogg).
A Hand-Book of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, Free Methodist Publishing House, 1919, p. 342-343.
When people know that we love them, they will accept what we say, even when it has to be a rebuke. It disposes them to listen when otherwise they might be cautious, apprehensive, and suspicious. “Love me,” said Augustine, “and then say anything to me and about me you like.” Richard Baxter’s flock used to say, “We take all things well from one who always and wholly loves us” (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 159. Get this book!
Goodness breaks the spell the enemy tries to cast and renders him powerless (Dan Allender).
Copied from Bold Love by Dan Allender, 1992. Used by Permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com. All Rights Reserved.
As God’s dear children, we, who are by grace adopted, are called into the fellowship of suffering, soon enough to be followed by stupendous glory, with the only begotten Son. The suffering precedes the glory; the cross precedes the crown, both in the order of experience of the eternal Son of God and also in that of adopted sons and daughters of God (Douglas Kelly).
Partakers of Holiness, Tabletalk, Oct. 2004, p. 38, Used by Permission.
Think of it. In order for God to atone for man’s sin, someone had to subject Himself to death. Yet only one who had unlimited ability to atone for sin could do that, only a perfect man. He had to have unlimited ability to atone, because He would be shedding His blood for all humankind. He had to be perfect because God accepts only unblemished sacrifices. Who could do that? Only God. And God the Son shed His own blood for us (Acts 20:28) (Josh McDowell and Bart Larson).
Jesus, a Biblical Defense of His Deity, Josh McDowell and Bart Larson, Here’s Life Publishers, Inc., p. 90.
Material prosperity and physical health do not invariably accompany faithfulness to God. But spiritual health and prosperity do (William Greathouse).
All children, like their parents before them, are rooted in fallen Adam (see Rom. 5:12). The perfect, infallible portrait of every soul who has ever lived was painted by Paul in Romans 3:10-11: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” Sin is so rooted in us that every part of the human personality is tainted. This, of course, doesn’t mean that all people are as bad as they can be or that they don’t do good things (see Luke 11:13). But it does mean that apart from God’s grace and the God-ordained graces of human discipline, children will naturally gravitate to sin – quite apart from the tricks of the devil or their “corrupt” little friends (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 99. Get this book!
We’re too comfortable to be spiritual… We think we will be able to pursue God better without danger or hardship. And yet it works in just the opposite way. Nothing is more difficult than to grow spiritually when comfortable (Tim Bascom).
The Comfort Trap: Spiritual Dangers in the Convenience Culture, Intervarsity, 1993.
We have to know that one of the great marks of spiritual maturity is being able to take admonition and rebuke! This matter of being able to admit faults and seek to correct them is a mark of maturity (Max Forsythe).
Sermon: A Lack of Maturity, Malachi 2:1-9.
Parenting – not politics, not the classroom, not the laboratory, not even the pulpit – is the place of greatest influence. To suppose otherwise is to be captive to the shriveled secular delusion. We must understand that it is through the godly family that God’s grace, a vision of God, a burden for the world, and a Christian character are most powerfully communicated… Parents, don’t abandon your place of influence. It is still true that “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” Believe it (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 16. Get this book!
Who you are is more important than what you say. Bottom line: The quality of your own spiritual life is of greatest importance to your child’s spiritual development. This was one of the most important insights of the Puritans on the subject of the family. Here is what two of them wrote: “Precept without patterns will do little good; you must lead [children] to Christ by examples as well as counsel; you must set yourselves first, and speak by lives as well as words; you must live religion as well as talk religion” (Eleazar Mather). “Be sure to set good example before your children… Other methods of instruction probably will not do much good, if you don’t teach them by a godly example. Don’t think your children will mind the good rules you give them if you act contrary to those rules yourselves… If your counsels are good, and your examples evil, your children will be more like to be hurt by the latter, than benefited by the former” (Benjamin Wadsworth). Larger Quote: (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 61. Get this book!
A few words about spanking: We did! The Scriptures command it: “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him” (Pr. 22:15). While this Scripture does not teach all discipline is corporal, “the rod” has its proper use… Common sense dictates that spanking ought to hurt – some. But all parents must understand that spanking is not a beating. Beating a child is abuse. Spanking is a brief, controlled, painful punishment intended to make the recipient sorry he or she committed the offense that brought it about. Very often only a swat or two is necessary. When administering such discipline, we gave the simple explanation, “What you did was wrong.” We did not refrain from expressing our dismay or anger at the wrongdoing. But we always affirmed our love before and after the discipline. After all, godly discipline is an act of love. Similarly, punishment is not positively effective without a background of praise (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway, 2004, p. 207. Get this book!
True saints do what they do because they are drawn by love. True Christians find that the love of God in Christ is so attractive, so beautiful, that they cannot help wanting to serve Him. There is a splendor, a beauty, about God and His ways that lures humans beings to Him (Gerald McDermott).
Taken from Seeing God: Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality by Gerald R. McDermott, p. 114. Copyright 1995, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Used with permission of the Intervarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.co
We are not encouraged to forsake our sin by having our senses amused or our preferences coddled. The Gospel is inherently and irreducibly confrontational. It cuts against our perceived righteousness and self-sufficiency, demanding that we forsake cherished sin and trust in someone else to justify us. Entertainment is therefore a problematic medium for communicating the Gospel, because it nearly always obscures the most difficult aspects of it – the cost of repentance, the cross of discipleship, the narrowness of the Way. Some will disagree, arguing that drama can give unbelievers a helpful visual image of the Gospel. But we have already been given such visual images. They are the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper and the transformed lives of our Christian brothers and sisters (Mark Dever and Paul Alexander).
Doing Responsible Evangelism, taken from The Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 55, www.crosswaybooks.org.
The local church was the womb that warmed our soul until it was ready for birth. The church fed us on the milk of the Word, providing us with many loving fathers and mothers. It stood with us when we presented our children to God, and it now mothers them. The local church has contributed much to our children’s spiritual nurturing (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 68. Get this book!
To try to avoid leadership, and a leader among leaders, is to avoid not only a fact of life but a spiritual principle (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 219. Get this book!
Leadership in the church should always be shared – that is one reason that the apostolic pattern was to appoint a plurality of elders rather than a solitary elder in all the churches (Acts 14:23). But leaders too need to recognize one of their number as leader. This is an inbuilt principle of life, and we should not despise it. Husband and wife are equal, but leadership naturally rests with the husband. Children are equal in a family, but the oldest is looked to first when a crisis occurs. In some situations there may be one elder or spiritual leader who is actually called “the pastor,” who will be expected to lead his fellow leaders; and in others there will be a team ministry. But in every team there has to be a leader (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 218. Get this book!
True enthusiasm comes from being filled with the Spirit, and as we strive to do that to which we know God has called us, in conscious dependence upon Him, we will then be able to convey our excitement to others and carry them with us (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 222. Get this book!
We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss (Theodore Williams).
The devil is not impersonal like stones or bureaucracies; he is a non-person. The Devil has become all that God is not; he is not beyond personality – he is without it. His purpose in creation is not to destroy God; he knows that he cannot do that. He wants to draw us into the vortex of non-personhood that he has become, and the nothingness of non-being that he is becoming. Satan, in short, aims to take as many of us with him as he can (Nigel Wright).
The Satan Syndrome, Zondervan, 1990, p. 163.
[Mothers], our daughters will be products of their theology. Their knowledge – or lack of knowledge – of who God is and what He has done for them will show up in every attitude, action, and relationship. Their worldview will be determined by their belief system. We must teach our daughters that their value and identity lie in the fact that they are image-bearers of the God of glory. This will protect them from seeking significance in the inconsequential shallowness of self-fulfillment, personal happiness, materialism, or others’ approval. Our daughters must know the wondrous truth that their overarching purpose in life is God’s glory (Susan Hunt).
Taken from: Biblical Womanhood in the Home by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Crossway, 2002, p. 150.
I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough of Him to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation. I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack, please. I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please (Wilbur Reese).
In all our preaching we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit. Like frail sailing crafts with their sails, we are helpless without the wind of the Spirit. No matter how well we have prepared and equipped ourselves, our words fall to the ground apart from the gracious unction that the Lord Jesus, the Head of the church, gives by the Spirit (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 146-147.
The hidden factor in every encouragement we give, or exhortation, or difficult piece of advice or correction, is that God the Holy Spirit indwells the believer to back it up, and to apply it with a force we do not possess. Our confidence that people will react and respond in the right way is not our confidence in human nature but our confidence regarding God’s working in them (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 169. Get this book!
If Christians do not rejoice, it is not because they are Christians, but because they are not Christian enough. Joy is the rational state of the Christian in view of his spiritual position in Christ (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 52. Get this book!
Afraid? Of what? To feel the spirit’s glad release? To pass from pain to perfect peace. The strife and strain of life to cease? Afraid – of that (E.H. Hamilton)?
The badge of courage does not require that we walk through something dangerous. It simply requires that we continue to share God’s love whenever and wherever we are (Tom White).
Voice of the Martyrs.
How can Christian pastors hope to feed their flock on a well-balanced spiritual diet if they completely neglect the 39 books of Holy Scripture on which Christ and all the New Testament authors received their own spiritual nourishment (Gleason Archer)?
A New Look at the Old Testament, Decision, August 1972, p. 5.
The supreme test for them really is whether they have found the hour in church enjoyable, whether the music being good, the singing hearty, the decorations no offense to the eye, the curtains the right shade, the building beautiful, they come away “feeling” better. The sense that truth, saving truth, the truth that liberates, is at once infinitely valuable and infinitely difficult to come by is almost completely absent (Herbert Farmer).
Believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story (K.P. Yohannan).
Prayer is the most effective means of pastoral care… We have been set apart as shepherds and teachers so that we may give time to intercessory prayer. It is no accident that the one present activity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, to which the New Testament refers is His continuing intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). We are never closer to His heart than when we intercede in His Name for His sheep (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 157. Get this book!
We are all out of our depth in pastoral work. Our confidence must never be in our expertise or training or experience, but in God’s ability to use frail instruments filled with His Spirit. For this reason all pastoral work must be linked with prayer. Without the enabling grace of God, no encouragement, exhortation, admonition, or spiritual counsel will do any good; they must be backed by prayer (cf. Romans 15:5-6) (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 168. Get this book!
There’s no gridlock with God…no stalemate…no tie game. If a husband and wife have talked things out, but cannot come to agreement on a matter, the Bible teaches that the husband’s authority prevails. By divine design God has entrusted to the husband leadership and authority with which to wisely and lovingly rule the household. The husband is not guaranteed the smartest decisions–but God does expect him to exercise leadership in the home and to have the power to veto (break up an impasse with his vote). However, this does not give him the right to be arrogant and to flaunt his authority, or to run roughshod over other family members’ feelings. He has no right to refuse to listen to his wife, to withdraw from confrontational discussions, to act in anger, or to act in a non-understanding way (1 Peter 3:7). He has no right to exasperate his children or anyone else in the family. He must love his wife even as Christ loves the church and gave Himself up for it. Because of the Biblical doctrine of ‘male headship,’ I place (and I believe God places) the brunt of the responsibility for family growth, happiness, and harmony, upon the husband. Since he is the one entrusted with leadership, he is the one chiefly responsible for leading the family towards the goal of Christlikeness (Peter Wise).
The broken person…will find that all of the resources of heaven and all of the Spirit’s power are now at his disposal and, unless heaven’s riches can be exhausted or the Spirit’s power can be found wanting, he cannot come up short (Jennifer Kennedy Dean).
He Restores My Soul: A Forty-Day Journey Toward Personal Renewal, Broadman and Holman, 1999, p. 27.
He who sups with the devil had better have a long spoon. The devilry of modernity has its own magic: The [believer] who sups with it will find his spoon getting shorter and shorter-until that last supper in which he is left alone at the table, with no spoon at all and with an empty plate. The devil, one may guess, will by then have gone away to more interesting company (Peter Berger).
Quoted in: Guinness, Dining with the Devil, Baker, 1993, p. 5.
Man’s perennial efforts to take himself in hand, however he attempts it, lead to the greatest bondage in which man misses what he was meant to be. Man’s true freedom does not consist of the unfettered power to direct his life, either in a political or in a Stoic sense. It lies in life with God, lived as it was originally intended by God for man. He only gains this as he denies himself. Paradoxically, the free man does not belong to himself. He belongs to Him who has set him free (J. Blunck).
The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, v. 1, ed. Colin Brown, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com, 1971, p. 718.
All of our discussions of the style and mechanics of worship must be anchored in a deeply biblical and richly gospel-centered understanding of what worship is. We might be tempted at a worship conference to focus exclusively on the style and mechanics of worship. And these are important! But a larger challenge is to link how we approach the week-in, week-out task of planning and leading worship with our theological understanding of worship. Do our planning and leading habits, mechanics, and techniques enable people to experience worship in the deepest, most profound, most Christ-centered way? Does our work form our congregations in a deeply biblical faith? We need a high-octane theology of worship – and one that is not simply articulated in writing, but enacted in our worship and lived out in our lives (John Witvliet).
Reflections on Worship’s Meaning and Purpose – Thinking About Worship, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
I believe young people are indifferent to the church today, not because the church has required too much of them, but because it has demanded so little (Mort Crim).
No church is better able to confirm a call to the ministry than a man’s home church – it is the natural and appropriate proving ground. He should submit himself, therefore, to the spiritual leadership of his church fellowship, asking them to test his call (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 25. Get this book!
Our Lord calls us out of the world; while living in it, we are not to be stained by it (James 1:27). We are to be in it but not to love it (Duncan Rankin).
Restoring Love, Tabletalk, June 2005, p. 55. Used by Permission.
The sin which is not too great to be forsaken, is not too great to be forgiven (Thomas Horton).
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 111.
Sexual intercourse is more than a physical act; it is a symbol of a spiritual relationship and the expression of the complete oneness of two persons in married love… It is…the means by which they are confirmed and nourished in that union. Sexual intercourse is the physical establishment and confirmation of that oneness. The true dignity of sex is in its ability to enhance this personal unity between two persons who have committed themselves to each other in love and marriage. In sexual intercourse the couple becomes joined in an indissoluble unity, called in the Bible “one flesh” (Dwight Small).
Design for Christian Marriage, Revell, 1971, p. 46, 96.
Reformed theologians say that God deems His own glory more important than saving everyone, and that (according to Romans 9) God’s glory is also furthered by the fact that some are not saved. Arminian theologians also say that something else is more important to God than the salvation of all people, namely, the preservation of man’s free will. So in a Reformed system God’s highest value is His own glory, and in an Arminian system God’s highest value is the free will of man (Wayne Grudem and Jeff Purswell).
Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith, Zondervan, 1999, p. 291, www.zondervan.com.
The being of God may as well fail as the promise of God (Timothy Cruso).
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 226.
We should teach and demonstrate that secondary matters should never be allowed to divide Christians… We should take the lead by always asking first, “What do the Scriptures say?” If they are not dogmatic, then we should not be (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 292. Get this book!
God is omniscient and knows everything. He has known everything from the beginning. Nothing is a surprise to God, nor does He ever come into possession of new knowledge. Thus God knows all people. But [foreknowledge] means more than an intellectual knowledge. It means that God knows some in a special way. In grace, in life from eternity. This is the initiative of our salvation. Redemption has its rise to God and not in man (J.P McBeth).
It is a mistake to imagine that prayers must be long in order to be effective and pleasing to God. Martin Luther said: “Look to it that you do not try to do all of it, do not try to do too much, lest your spirit grow weary. Besides a good prayer mustn’t be too long. Do not draw it out. Prayer ought to be frequent and fervent.” It is far better to have ten minutes of concentrated prayer than an hour in which one’s mind wanders from Jerusalem to Timbuktu. A legalistic commitment to duration will inevitable torpedo your prayer life (Kent and Barbara Hughes).
Disciplines of a Godly Family, Crossway Books, 2004, p. 81. Get this book!
The time factor in prayer is very important. In the exercise of prayer God is not tied to our clocks. Neither is He at the other end of the phone to receive and answer our two-minute calls. It takes time to know the mind of God, to shut out the material things of earth and to be wholly abandoned (Hugh McCullough).
No trials are wasted in God’s economy (Derek Prime and Alistair Begg).
On Being a Pastor, Moody Press, 2004, p. 296. Get this book!
[One] objection to the study of theology is that it deceives Christians from simple faith in the Bible. The underlying premise of this objection is that believing is good and knowing is bad. But in fact the Bible lauds both believing and knowing (Rev. 2:23; Matt. 22:37). God has gone to the trouble of revealing information about Himself in creation and His Word. Is it not the height of irreverence to say we should ignore this information? Christianity is about truth and one important way to relate to truth is to know it (Paul Thorsell).
We may often be baffled by the reality of the power of evil as it is manifest in our circumstances. Sometimes that power seems so overwhelming that we are unable to praise within the circumstances of our life. It is then that we do well to recall the words of the Apostle Paul. When writing amidst difficult circumstances to the Church at Ephesus he could say, ‘Giving thanks always for all things unto God.’ He had come to know that no matter what the source of the evil, if we are in Christ, and surrounded by Him as by an atmosphere, all evil has to pass through Him before it comes to us (Robert Norris).
I am the Almighty God, able to fulfill your highest hopes and accomplish for you the brightest ideal that ever My words set before you. There is no need of paring down the promise until it squares with human probabilities, no need of relinquishing one hope it has begotten, no need of adopting some interpretation of it which may make it seem easier to fulfill, and no need of striving to fulfill it in any second-rate way. All possibility lies in this: I am the Almighty God (Marcus Dods).
The Book of Genesis, 1902), p. 161.
No scriptural principles suggest that repeated emotional indulgence [of past trauma] produces healing. Rather, the opposite is suggested by the murderous outcome of Cain’s flaring bitterness (Gen. 4:1-8) and Absalom’s simmering anger (2 Sam. 13:20-29), to cite just two examples. Instead, Philippians 4:8 commands us to dwell on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, morally excellent and praiseworthy.
Jesus at once displayed Godhood and manhood, power and humility, authority and submission, headship and servanthood. In the imperfect state of manhood, men can still, by God’s Spirit, display these same attributes (Judy Rogers).
Family Practice, P&R Publishing, 2001, p. 41-42, Used by Permission.
The Apostle [Paul] is asking in Philippians 1 which is most worthwhile for him, to live or to die. Often has that question presented itself to us, and perhaps we like the Apostle, have answered that “we are in a strait.” But I fear we may have used the words in a sense far different from Paul’s. When we have wished for death, we meant to say, “I know not which alternative I ought most to dread, the afflictions of life, from which death would release me, or the terrors of death, from which life protects me.” In other words, life and death look to us like two evils of which we know not which is the less. As for the Apostle, they look to him like two immense blessings of which he knows not which is the better (Adolphe Monod).
Keep praying, but be thankful that God’s answers are wiser than your prayers (William Culbertson)!
[Repentance is] consciousness of spiritual poverty dethroning pride, a sense of personal unworthiness producing grief, a willingness to surrender to God in genuine humility, and a strong spiritual desire developing into hunger and thirst, enter into the experience of one who wholly abandons sin and heartily turns to Him who grants repentance unto life (Byron Dement).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
[Affection] is one of the key ingredients in the socialization of a child. Without it, a child may seem to assimilate the values taught by the parents without actually adopting them. Proper [affection] prepares the child mentally and emotionally to accept moral tenets and correct patterns for relationships with other people (James Robison).
Taken from: In Search of a Father by James Robison, Tyndale, Copyright © 1979, Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
One of the reasons teenagers are not excited about the gospel is that they do not think they need it. Many parents have successfully raised self-righteous little Pharisees. When they look at themselves, they do not see a sinner in desperate need, so they are not grateful for a Savior (Timothy Lane and Paul David Tripp).
How People Change, New Growth Press, 2006, p. 5, Used by Permission.
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