“Yes, for Him I want to be kept...

“Yes, for Him I want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in me He may show forth some tiny sparkle of His light and beauty; kept to do His will and His work in His own way; kept, it may be, to suffer for His sake; kept for Him, that He may do just what seemeth Him good with me; kept, so that no other lord shall have any more dominion over me, but that Jesus shall have all there is to have;—little enough, indeed, but not divided or diminished by any other claim.”   -Frances Ridley Havergal

Holiness...

Holiness comes not of blood—parents cannot give it to their children: nor yet of the will of the flesh—man cannot produce it in himself: nor yet of the will of man—ministers cannot give it you by baptism. Holiness comes from Christ. It is the result of vital union with Him. It is the fruit of being a living branch of the True Vine.   -J.C. Ryle

“Everything that God brings into our life...

“Everything that God brings into our life 

is directed to one purpose: 

that we might be conformed to the image of Christ.” 

-Erwin W. Lutzer

Prayer and a holy life are one...

Prayer and a holy life are one. They mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone... We are in danger of substituting churchly work and a ceaseless round of showy activities for prayer and holy living. A holy life does not live in the closet, but it cannot live without the closet. If, by any chance, a prayer chamber should be established without a holy life, it would be a chamber without the presence of God in it.  -E.M. Bounds

“The ability of God is beyond our prayers...

“The ability of God is beyond our prayers, beyond our largest prayers! I have been thinking of some of the petitions that have entered into my supplication innumerable times. What have I asked for? I have asked for a cupful, and the ocean remains!  I have asked for a sunbeam, and the sun abides!  My best asking falls immeasurably short of my Father’s giving: it is beyond what we can ask.”  –J. H. Jowett

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord...more

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord; but few of us willing to do little things... Look at that wonderful sermon that [Jesus] preached to that lone woman at the well of Samaria. He was tired and weary, but he had time and the heart to preach to her. This is but one of many instances in the life of the Master from which we may learn a precious lesson. If the Son of God had time to preach to one soul, cannot every one of us go and do the same?  

-Dwight Lyman Moody image

The Death of Church and Pub

by Carl R. Trueman

8/24/23

Excerpt:

The nature of community is changing. The old village has gone. One can lament the passing of parish churches and village pubs, but the type of community that birthed them has gone forever. But the human need for community—rich, real, personal community—will exist as long as our individual identities are tied up with looking into the faces of those who are “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.” In other words, that need will exist as long as we are human beings made in God’s image. And the answer is hospitality. Churches and Christians need to think about what this looks like in our modern world as much as they think about other aspects of the faith. And the good news is that the very things Christian decry in our current culture, from its superficiality to its instability to its hopelessness—make this a time of unparalleled opportunity.  

Full essay here-excellent!  image

Behold, I have refined you...

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; 

 I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 

 -Isaiah 48:10 

As sure as God puts His children in the furnace of affliction, 

He will be with them in it.  ~Charles Spurgeon

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice...

 

Pastor Rob Burns: Peace Within

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. -Philippians 4:4-9

Let us pardon those who have wronged us...

Let us pardon those who have wronged us. For that which others scarcely accomplish—I mean the blotting out of their own sins by means of fasting and lamentations, and prayers, and sackcloth and ashes—this it is possible for us easily to effect without sackcloth and ashes and fasting, if only we blot out anger from our heart, and with sincerity forgive those who have wronged us.  -St. John Chrysostom

No matter what we pray for...

No matter what we pray for, whether it be temporal or spiritual things, little things or great things, gifts for ourselves or for others, our prayers should really resolve themselves into a quiet waiting for the Lord in order to hear what it is that the Spirit desires to have us pray for at that particular time.  

-O. Hallesby

Jesus! where’er thy people meet...

Jesus! where’er thy people meet,

There they behold thy mercy-seat;

Where’er they seek thee, thou art found,

And every place is hallow’d ground.

 

Dear Shepherd of thy chosen few!

Thy former mercies here renew;

Here to our waiting hearts proclaim

The sweetness of thy saving name.

-William Cowper

Every full-time Christian worker needs a prayer team standing with him...

Every full-time Christian worker needs a prayer team standing with him, strengthening him, and covering him with intercession. Every Christian ministry needs a burden-bearing team of prayer warriors. The effectiveness of any such ministry will depend upon the godliness of the team and the power of prayer that is marshaled behind it. God will bless any person or ministry as prayer support is deliberately enlisted and the prayer partners kept carefully informed and guided in prayer. Blessed is that person or ministry that has not only enlisted the aid of prayer helpers, but has intercessor-watchmen who carry a continual burden for the ministry.   -Wesley L. Duewel

When the poor and needy seek water...

When the poor and needy seek water,

    and there is none,

    and their tongue is parched with thirst,

I the Lord will answer them;

    I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

 I will open rivers on the bare heights,

    and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

I will make the wilderness a pool of water,

    and the dry land springs of water.

 I will put in the wilderness the cedar,

    the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.

I will set in the desert the cypress,

    the plane and the pine together,

 that they may see and know,

    may consider and understand together,

that the hand of the Lord has done this,

    the Holy One of Israel has created it.

-Isaiah 41:17-20

Christ Victorious

Christ Victorious (Lyric Video) – Kenwood Music

Christ is building His kingdom...

Christ is building His kingdom with earth’s broken things. Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth’s broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. He can lift earth’s saddest failure up to heaven’s glory.   —J.R. Miller

We find the Christian life so difficult...

We find the Christian life so difficult because we seek for God’s blessing while we live in our own will. We should be glad to live the Christian life according to our own liking. We make our own plans and choose our own work, and then we ask the Lord Jesus to come in and take care that sin shall not conquer us too much, and that we shall not go too far wrong; we ask Him to come in and give us so much of His blessing. But our relation to Jesus ought to be such that we are entirely at His disposal. -Andrew Murray

The Spirit-filled life...

“The Spirit-filled life is not a special, 

deluxe edition of Christianity. 

It is part and parcel of the total plan of God

 for His people.” -A.W. Tozer

The great need of our day is prayer...

We live in a day characterized by the multiplication of man’s machinery and the diminution of God’s power. The great cry of our day is work, work, work, new organizations, new methods, new machinery; the great need of our day is prayer. It was a master stroke of the devil when he got the church so generally to lay aside this mighty weapon of prayer. The devil is perfectly willing that the church should multiply its organizations, and deftly contrive machinery for the conquest of the world for Christ if it will only give up praying.  -R.A. Torrey 

Come Love, come Lord...

Come Love, come Lord, and that long day

For which I languish, come away;

When this dry soul those eyes shall see,

And drink the unseal’d source of Thee;

When glory’s sun faith’s shades shall chase,

Then for Thy veil give me Thy face.

-Richard Crashaw