Categories
Quotes

A Love For Holiness

Many a criminal will weep when his sentence is read, not because he has come to love righteousness, but because his freedom to do more unrighteousness is being taken away. That kind of weeping is not true evangelical repentance. And it does not lead to radical Christian obedience.

The only true sorrow for not having holiness comes from a love for holiness, not just from fear of the consequences of not having it.
–John Piper

I pray that I will always experience true sorrow over my sins, and that I will be truly repentant of not being holy, instead of simply upset because my freedom is taken away.

Categories
Quotes

While We Were Yet Sinners, Christ Died For Us

…Jesus takes full responsibility for the constituent parts of his body. “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” he told his disciples, and these were the very scalawags who so exasperated him and would soon desert him at his hour of greatest need. I think of Peter, whose bluster, love, hot-headedness, misdirected passion, and faithless betrayal preview in embryo form nineteen centuries of church history. On “rocks” like him, Jesus built his church, and he promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
–Philip Yancey

I am a sinner saved by grace.
I am so grateful that Jesus chose me.

Categories
Quotes

Trying Christianity

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
–G.K. Chesterton

One of my favorite quotes.

Too many people have “thrown out” Christianity without ever “trying” it. (not that you can really “try” Christianity, though you can truly investigate it.) But to the many who say that Christianity is of no value – that it is an outdated, unnecessary religion – the truth is that most of them have in no way truly investigated Christianity – they have been unwilling to give a fair look at the claims of who Jesus is and what He has done.

In my own experience, I have found that Christianity is difficult, but its value is immeasurable and worth my very life.

Categories
Quotes

A High View of Both Sin and Grace

“Abhor what is evil.” A gospel-centered community acknowledges the presence of sin and welcomes the confession of sin. But a truly gospel-centered community never reduces the severity of sin…. When God saves us, our attitude toward sin changes. Sin doesn’t become easier to commit; it becomes more despicable to us than ever.
–Matt Chandler

Another current Christian leader – Russell Moore – tells us that we need to hold a “high view” of grace AND a “high view” of sin. What he means is that we do not reduce either one. We hold to what the Bible says about sin – that it is deplorable to God. We don’t begin excusing sin. We remind ourselves that we are sinners who commit terrible actions against God’s plans. And yet, we also hold a high view of grace, that reminds us that where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. That sin is deplorable but grace can cover over every deplorable sin.

May we all continue to abhor what is evil and keep shouting to others the marvelous message of grace!

Categories
Quotes

What God Tells You To Pray For: Workers

Jesus’ harvest vision was leveraged by prayer. Prayer is continually connected to the mission of God in the life of Jesus. We have no ability to transform anything without God’s power. Jesus explained the power needed for the harvest was found in the resource of praying, ‘The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest’” (Matt. 9:37-38). The source for harvest workers is not in recruitment strategies, but in prayer. Prayer recognizes God as eternally resourceful.
–Ed Stetzer & Thom Rainer

God calls us to be people of prayer. And He instructs us about what we should pray. As you pray for the harvest and for more people to answer the call to work in the harvest, God will also begin transforming you into a worker for His kingdom purposes. Take time to stop and pray that God will send more into the harvest fields today.