God is pursuing with omnipotent passion...

God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose. If we do this, God’s omnipotent committment to His name will be over us like a banner, and we will not lose, in spite of many tribulations. ...John S. Piper image

Hail to the Lord’s anointed...

Hail to the Lord’s anointed, great David’s greater Son!

Hail in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun!

He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free;

To take away transgression and rule in equity.

He comes in succor speedy to those who suffer wrong;

To help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong;

To give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light,

Whose souls, condemned and dying, were precious in His sight.

He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth;

Love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in His path to birth.

Before Him, on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go,

And righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.

Kings shall fall down before Him, and gold and incense bring;

All nations shall adore Him, His praise all people sing;

For He shall have dominion o’er river, sea and shore,

Far as the eagle’s pinion or dove’s light wing can soar.

For Him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend;

His kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end:

The mountain dews shall nourish a seed in weakness sown,

Whose fruit shall spread and flourish and shake like Lebanon.

O’er every foe victorious, He on His throne shall rest;

From age to age more glorious, all blessing and all blest.

The tide of time shall never His covenant remove;

His Name shall stand forever, His Name to us is Love.

...James Montgomery image

Every growth of spiritual life...

Every growth of spiritual life, from the first tender shoot until now, has been the work of the Holy Spirit....The only way to more life is the Holy Spirit. You will not even know that you want more unless He works in you to desire it....The Spirit of God must come and make the letter alive, transfer it to your heart, set it on fire, and make it burn within you, or else its divine force and majesty will be hid from your eyes....Prayer is the creation of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do without prayer, and we cannot pray without the Holy Spirit. ...CH Spurgeon image

Thou hast given so much to me...

Thou hast given so much to me

Give one thing more-a grateful heart;

Not thankful when it pleaseth me,

But such a heart whose pulse may be

Thy praise.

...George Herbert image

This way of seeing our Father in everything...

This way of seeing our Father in everything makes life one long thanksgiving and gives a rest of heart, and, more than that, a gayety of spirit, that is unspeakable. Some one says, "God's will on earth is always joy, always tranquility." And since He must have His own way concerning His children, into what wonderful green pastures of inward rest, and beside what blessedly still waters of inward refreshment is the soul led that learns this secret. If the will of God is our will, and if He always has His way, then we always have our way also, and we reign in a perpetual kingdom. He who sides with God cannot fail to win in every encounter; and, whether the result shall be joy or sorrow, failure or success, death or life, we may, under all circumstances, join in the Apostle's shout of victory, "Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ!" ...Hannah Whitall Smith

Let your desire for God's glory be a growing desire...

Let your desire for God's glory be a growing desire. You blessed Him in your youth, do not be content with such praises as you gave Him then. Has God prospered you in business? Give Him more as He has given you more. Has God given you experience? Praise Him by stronger faith than you exercised at first. Does your knowledge grow? Then sing more sweetly. Do you enjoy happier times than you once had? Have you been restored from sickness, and has your sorrow been turned into peace and joy? Then give Him more music; put more coals and more sweet frankincense into the censer of your praise. Practically in your life give Him honour, putting the "Amen" to this doxology to your great and gracious Lord, by your own individual service and increasing holiness. ...CH Spurgeon image

Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy...

Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers (like people who write generic anniversary cards for a living). On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship. ...John Piper image

Many of us have had to stand alone for years...

Many of us have had to stand alone for years witnessing to the power of Christ to save His people to the uttermost. Like Joshua and Caleb, we have had to follow God alone as we followed Him wholly. But this is the real victory of faith and the proof of our uncompromising fidelity. Let us not, therefore, complain when we suffer reproach for our testimony or stand alone for God. Let us, rather, thank Him that He so honours us and stand the test so that He can afterwards use us when the multitudes are glad to follow. ...AB Simpson image

How comforting it is to know the Bigness of God...

How comforting it is to know the Bigness of God in the times of our deepest pain. What a blessed salve it is to our broken and wounded hearts to know that the Creator of the universe, he who holds all the stars in his hand, carries us in his heart. He knows us by name, he is intimately acquainted with every thought, he hears every heart cry and understands every motive of our heart and he loves us still. ...Katherine Walden image

We never reach a place in the Christian life...

We never reach a place in the Christian life where it is no longer necessary to watch and pray lest we fall into temptation. A constant coming back in spirit to our Center, which is Christ the Lord, is our only safeguard.  
-Frederick Julius Huegel image

Believe and trust...

"Believe and trust; through stars and suns,

Through life and death, through soul and sense,

His wise, paternal purpose runs;

The darkness of His Providence

Is starlit with Divine intents."

...LB Cowman image by John Lemieux

Granting that we are always in the presence of God...

Granting that we are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in His presence in a very different sense; for they, as it were, see that He is looking upon them, while others may be for days together without even once recollecting that God sees them.
...Teresa of Avila  image by A. Sparrow

Whatever man may stand...

Whatever man may stand, whatever he may do, to whatever he may apply his hand - in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, in the world of art, and science - he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of God. He is employed in the service of his God. He has strictly to obey his God. And above all, he has to aim at the glory of his God. ...Abraham Kuyper image by Bill Jacobus

Christian life...

If we get our information from the biblical material there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life. ...Eugene Peterson image by Andrew Taylor 

Ah, I have kept Him waiting when I ought not...

Ah, I have kept Him waiting when I ought not, but He has waited even then. Always waiting - so patient with my foolishness, my weakness, my fear. Our fellowship is with God, and fellowship is friendship, and friendship means that partnership which, on His part, is the accommodating of His strength to my weakness. ...G. Campbell Morgan image

May the fiery and sweet strength of Thy love...

May the fiery and sweet strength of Thy love, I pray Thee, O my Lord, absorb my soul, and make all things under heaven as nothing unto me, that for the love of Thy love I may die, as Thou didst deign to die for love of mine. Amen. ...St. Francis of Assisi image

Feast of Michael and all Angels

Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. image

Just Disconnect
It was said of John Henry Newman that he was never less alone than when alone. Newman liked the peace and quiet of isolation: it allowed him to read, to think and to write.

I confess to some sympathy for Newman on this. I do not like the hyperconnectivity of the current world. As an administrator at Westminster, I had a seminary cell phone. I had to upgrade it to a smartphone last year because Verizon indicated they would no longer support the vintage model I then possessed. I remember that, when I went in to exchange it, the man behind the counter looked at the phone, looked at me and then, choking back the laughter, declared "You're that guy!" Shamed into silence, I nodded mutely and mumbled my mandated request for a smartphone.

Now, having stepped down from the administration, I have rid myself of the thing and reverted to a phone that (and yes, this sounds terribly outdated, I know) simply allows me to phone people. You know, like they did in the olden days. Sadly, I am sure that the free market will ensure that it will be 'no longer supported' within a few years. At that point I will have to pay extra every month for a data package to provide data which I have no interest in receiving, but until then, I can resist, Canute-like, the incoming tide of things I really do not need or like but which others have determined that I apparently 'must have.'...

Changing the World Begins with Prayer
...The work of reaching and changing the world is, indeed, a work done on our knees. And, it is a work that takes on the nature of fierce and intense warfare. After all, one of Satan’s chief weapons is to cut off communication with God, communication that takes place in prayer. John Piper is certainly correct when he writes, “Prayer is meant by God to be a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom … not for the enhancement of our comforts but for the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom.”...

The incentive to peacemaking is love...

The incentive to peacemaking is love, but it degenerates into appeasement whenever justice is ignored. To forgive and to ask for forgiveness are both costly exercises. All authentic Christian peacemaking exhibits the love and justice-and so the pain-of the cross. ...John Stott image by Ben

The risen life of Jesus...

The risen life of Jesus is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a Christian. Our daily experience ought to be that there comes, wavelet by wavelet, that silent, gentle, and yet omnipotent influx into our empty hearts, this very life of Christ Himself. ...Alexander MacLaren image by Les Chatfield

Let's knock holes in the darkness...

Robert Louis Stevenson, one evening, stood transfixed at his nursery window watching the lamplighter in the street. When his nanny asked the boy what he was doing he replied: "I'm watching the man knocking holes in the darkness." We live in a universe made dark by sin. Let's knock holes in the darkness. ...Selwyn Hughes  image by Kevin Dooley