Category: Quotes

We believe God is living and at work.
Our faith is not in a historical model; it is in a living Lord.

This sense of the aliveness and nearness of God must permeate our evangelism. As Chesterton writes, “Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead. Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will not startle you anymore. But imagine what it would be to live with such men still living, to know that Plato might break out with an original lecture tomorrow, or that at any moment Shakespeare might shatter everything with a single song.” The person who lives in contact with the living God is a person “always expecting to meet Plato or Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast.”
–Rebecca Pippert

Are you truly aware that God is alive? Have you realized that He is the living Lord who still transforms lives? Have you encountered Him lately? Has He changed your life?

Did you meet with Him today? Are you planning to meet with Him tomorrow?

Generosity means a disposition to give to others in a way which has no mercenary motive and is not limited by what the recipients deserve but consistently goes beyond it. Generosity expresses the simple wish that others should have what they need to make them happy. Generosity is, so to speak, the focal point of God’s moral perfection; it is the quality which determines how all God’s other excellences are to be displayed.
–J. I. Packer

Thank you, God, for your generosity toward me.
Help me to be generous to others – with my words, with my resources, with my actions, and with my thoughts.
Help me to generously desire for others to be happy and to have joy at their successes.
Help me to be like You.

Whatever else may be said about this state of affairs, it certainly makes it possible to learn a great deal secondhand about the practice of Christianity. Moreover, if one has been given a good bump of common sense one may frequently be able to use this learning to help floundering Christians of less stable temperament to regain their footing and develop a sense of proportion about their troubles, and in this way one may gain for oneself a reputation for being quite a pastor.

Yet one can have all this and hardly know God at all.
–J. I. Packer

Dr. Packer makes a great point that with all the information available to us from the Bible to the mass of Christian literature in the bookstores to the tons of websites about God and Christianity we can obtain much learning about God and His Word. But just gaining head knowledge about God does not mean you “know” God and have a personal, intimate, saving relationship with Him. And that is what you need.

I can know a lot about the President without knowing him personally.
I can know a lot about past historical people without ever knowing them personally.
And I can know a lot about Jesus without knowing Him personally – without ever making Him my Savior and my Lord.

Make sure that you aren’t one who knows about God but who doesn’t actually know God.
Ask someone who you know has a relationship with Him about how to start your own personal relationship with Him.

Self-expression is inherent in the Godhead…
God is forever seeking to speak Himself out to His creation.
The whole Bible supports this idea.
God is speaking.
Not God spoke, but God is speaking.
He is, by His nature, continuously articulate.
He fills the world with His speaking voice.
–A. W. Tozer

Am I listening?
Are you?

God, give us ears to hear your voice, through our reading of the Word and through our observing your marvelous creation. Help us to not tune you out with all of the competing voices that are trying to take our attention from You today.

Prayer changes me because I am in His presence, and then I either begin to change my requests, or I become able to cope with my circumstances which may or may not change.
–Rosalind Rinker

The more time we spend in His Word and in prayer, the more we will discover the type of prayers that please Him most. Our prayers become less self-focused and become more focused on others. Our prayers become less focused on material needs and become more focused on spiritual needs. Our prayers become less focused on physical health and become more focused on those who are far from Christ. We begin to see with His eyes and allow our hearts to be broken over the things that break His heart.

So Keep praying.
Keep coming into His presence.
Keep allowing Him to change you into a more complete likeness of Christ.