Christ Alone

We are apt to think that we are not in a right state, that we do not feel enough, instead of remembering that our business is not with self, but Christ. Let me beseech thee, look only to Christ; never expect deliverance from self, from ministers, or from any means of any kind apart from Christ; keep thine eye simply on Him; let His death, His agonies, His groans, His sufferings, His Merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look for Him; when thou liest down at night look for Him.' Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 42

God's Glory

He loved to proclaim 'the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' Christ - He was the 'glorious, all-absorbing topic' of Spurgeon's ministry and that Name turned his pulpit labours into 'a bath in the waters of Paradise.' Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 40

Holy Spirit

A preacher, he says, 'ought to know that he really possess the Spirit of God, and that when he speaks there is an influence upon him that enables him to speak as God would have him,.. Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 36-37

Holy Spirit

'God has come unto us, not to exalt us, but to exalt Himself.' Moreover he saw nothing singular in his confidence in the Holy Spirit, for he regarded this as the mark of every true messanger of God. Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 36

Spurgeon

'His power of reading was perhaps never equalled... He took in the contents almost at a glance and his memory never failed him as to what he read. He made a point of reading half-a-dozen of the hardest books every week. I several times had an opportunity of testing the thoroughness of his reading and I never found him at fault.' (Dr. Wright, quoted in Spurgeon's Autobiography 4, 273.) At the time of his death Spurgeon had a library of 12,000 books and it is said 'he could have fetched almost any one of them in the dark.' Similarly, we read that 'Mr. Spurgeon at one time as he sat on his platform, could name every one of his five thousand members'. Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, p. 33

Humility

In this connection it was no coincidence that, like John Calvin who desired no epitaph to mark his grave, Spurgeon wished for nothing more than the letters 'C.H.S.' to mark his tombstone. Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon p. 17

Divine Authority

He foresaw an age coming for the church when successw would not be the norm and when statistics and majorities would be a very misleading guide to the truth. He did not claim attention to his message because of its success but because of its Divine authority. 'Long ago I ceased to cound head, truth is usually in the minority in this evil world'. (Charles Spurgeon)

Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon p. 16-17

Prayer Time

I can think of no better way to begin an early morning season of prayer than to mingle Scripture with a fifteen or twenty minute taste of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections, or Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, or Sibbes' Bruised Reed, or Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, or Boston's Fourfold State, or Burrough's Christian Contentment, or Ryle's Holiness, or Bridges' Christian Ministry, or Brook's Precious Remedies, or Flavel's Method of Grace.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 70

Old Books

...after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.

C.S. Lewis, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 69

Pray

O brother, pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; rather fast, and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper - but sleep too - than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber.

A.A Bonat, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 64

Prayer

A good clever barber must have his thoughts, mind and eyes concentrated upon the razor and the beard and not forget where he is in his stroke and shave. If he keeps talking or looking around or thinking of something else, he is likely to cut a man's mouth or nose - or even his throat. So anything that is to be done well ought to occupy the whole man with all his faculties and members. As the saying goes: he who thinks of many things thinks of nothing and accomplishes no good. How much more must prayer possess the heart exclusively and completely if it is to be a good prayer.

Peter Beskendorf, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 63

Prayer

Therefore, the apostles combine "prayer" and "the ministry of the Word" and free themselves from time-consuming good deeds.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 62

Prayer

The apostles said, "We will devote ourselves to prayer" (Acts 6:4) ... "devote ourselves" the unbending commitment of the apostles to preserve time for prayer. It means "to persist at" and "remain with." Acts 10:7 - the loyalty with which some soldiers served Cornelius. Strong and persistent and unwavering in one's assignment.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 61

Prayer

Prayer was a time-consuming labor during which other duties had to be set aside.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 61

Pray

This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours! I suspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious exercises, as private devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading, etc. Hence, I am lean and cold and hard. I had better allot two hours or an hour and a half daily. I have been keeping too late hours, and hence have had but a hurried half-hour in the morning to myself. Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through prayer - almighty prayer, I am ready to say - and why not? For that it is almighty is only through the gracious ordination of the God of loving truth. On then, pray, pray, pray!

William Wilberforce, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 57

God's Grace

But brothers, the proper goals of the life of a pastor are unquestionably beyong our reach. The changes we long for in the hearts of our people can happen only by a sovereign work of grace.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 54

Prayer

Prayer is the coupling of primary and secondary causes. It is the splicing of our limp wire to the lightning bolt of heaven.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 53

Happiness

Their problem is not that they want to be satisfied but that they are far too easily satisfied.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 51

God's Glory

God glorifies Himself toward the creatures... in two ways: 1. By appearing to... their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself... God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it... He that testifies his idea of God's glory [doesn't] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.

Jonathan Edwards, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 50-51

Christian Hedonism

"Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." You cannot please God if you do not come to Him as rewarder. Therefore, worship which pleases God is the hedonistic pursuit of God in whose presence is fullness of Joy and in whose hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 50

Worship

There are two possible attitudes in genuine worship: delight in God or repentance for the lack of it.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 50

Happiness

Pascal was right when he said: "All men seek happiness without exception. They all aim at this goal however different the means they use to attain it... They will never make the smallest move but with this as its goal. This is the motive of all the actions of all men, even those who contemplate suicide."

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 48

Happiness

"It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can."

C.S. Lewis, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 47

Happiness

"Resolved, To endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of , or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of."

Jonathan Edwards, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 47

Christian Hedonism

Immanuel Kant, died in 1804 was the most powerful exponent of the notion that the moral value of an act decreases as we aim to derive any benefit from it. Acts are good if the doer is "disinterested." We should do the good because it is good. Any motivation to seek joy or reward corrupts the act.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 46-47

Happiness

By Christian hedonism I do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. I mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals pg. 46

Christ's Second Coming

Jehovah's Witnesses claim that Jesus Christ returned in 1914 in an invisible way. That runs contrary to everything the New Testament teaches about the Lord Jesus' return.

-Liam Goligher, A Window On Tomorrow P.68

World Thought

The World's Philosophy has been stated to be this: to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.

-Liam Goligher, A Window On Tomorrow P.57

Eschatology

Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God had come, and that the Kingdom of God was coming. It has yet to come in its fullness, in its consummation. It is one Kingdom, he taught, in two stages. The first stage of the coming Kingdom of God is secret, and hidden in the hearts and minds of all who put their faith in him. The second stage of the coming of the Kingdom will be public, open, manifest, for all the world to see.

-Liam Goligher, A Window On Tomorrow P.46

The Gospel

He entered Jerusalem on a donkey, and was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver as Zechariah had said (9.9; 11:12-13). He was despised and rejected of men as Isaiah had said (53:3). He was pierced in his hands and his feet as the Psalmist had said (22:16). He was buried among the rich, and raised again from the dead (Isaiah 53:9,11).

-Liam Goligher, A Window On Tomorrow P.45

Amillennialism

Amillennialism has taught us to take the church seriously. The church age is not a blip in God's plan, but an essential part of his purposes.

-Liam Goligher, A Window on Tomorrow Pg. 33

The Spirit, The Message of the Cross

In this passage there is only one fundamental division in the human race. On the one side are those without the Spirit, who are in consequence culpably ignorant of the message of the crucified Messiah; on the other side are those with the Spirit, who in consequence grasp the message of the cross.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 62.

Crucified Messiah

In the first century, it must have sounded like a contradiction in terms, like frozen steam or hateful love or upward decline or godly rapist-only far more shocking. For many Jews, the long-expected Messiah had to come in splendor and glory; he had to begin his reign with uncontested power. “Crucified Messiah”: this juxtaposition of words is only a whisker away from blasphemy, since every Jew knows that God himself has declared that everyone who hangs in shame on a tree stands under God’s curse (Duet. 21:23). How could God’s Messiah be under God’s curse? How could God’s Messiah be crucified? To the Jew, the very idea is a “stumbling block” (1:23), the ultimate scandal. That is what Paul himself thought before he was converted. He was outraged that the fellow Jews should honor as Messiah, indeed as God himself, a man whom God had obviously cursed (see Gal. 1:13-14; 3:13)

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 21-22.

The Gospel

In other words, there has not only been an objective, public act of divine self-disclosure in the crucifixion of God’s own son, but there must also be a private work of God, by his Spirit, in the mind and heart of the individual. That is what distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever, the “mature” from the people of this age and the rulers of this age. If we “see” the truth of the gospel, therefore, it has nothing to do with our brilliance or insight; it has to do with spirit of God. If we should express unqualified gratitude to god for the gift of his Son, we should express no less gratitude to God for the gift of the Spirit who enables us to grasp the gospel of his Son.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 52.

Fleshly vs. Spirit-filled Christians

In other words, Paul has behaved not in line with the “wisdom” that reflects the point of view of sinful human nature, but in line with God’s grace. Similarly, in 1Corinthians 3:3 Paul tells the Corinthians that they are acting in ways that are characteristic of people without the Spirit-of people who, precisely because they do not have the Spirit, have nothing to fall back on but their own sinful human nature, their “fleshly” nature. They are acting like pagans.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 73.

Worship

In Isaiah 6 we see a clear portrayal of what happens to a person in the mystery of the Presence. Isaiah, overpowered within his own being, can only confess humbly, “I am a man of unclean lips!” I remind you that Isaiah recognized the “strangeness” – something of the mystery of the Person of God. In that Presence, Isaiah found no place for joking or for clever cynicism or for human familiarity. He found strangeness in God, that is, a presence unknown to the sinful and worldly and self-sufficient human.

A person who has sensed what Isaiah sensed will never be able to joke about “the Man upstairs” or the “Someone
up there who likes me.”

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship, 74.

Baptism

In India, baptism represents a total commitment to live no longer by the world’s standards, but in allegiance to Jesus Christ.

- David Jinno, Jesus' Foot, 22.

Authentic Believers

In all the revivals of the 1730’s there were many striking similarities and perhaps foremost in significance among these common features was the oneness of conviction evident in the ministers involved with respect to the nature of the preaching needed by their age. Prior to the 1730’s, the state of professing Christians in most parts of the English-speaking world appeared reminiscent of the wise and foolish virgins, ‘they all slumbered and slept’. There was small difference between the church and the world. Almost any degree of religious interest, or of adherence to the forms of religion, was considered enough to justify a person’s Christian profession, and all who grew up in the church were commonly treated as belonging to Christ, irrespective of evidence to the contrary.

- Ian Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 124-125.

Hell

If you love beautiful things, you had better stay out of hell, for hell will be the quintessence of all that is morally ugly and obscene. Hell will be the ugliest place in all of creation. When rough-talking men say that something is “as ugly as hell,” they employ a proper and valid comparison. Hell is that reality against which all ugliness is measured.”

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 111.

You are a counselor...

If you are alive on this planet, you are a counselor! You are interpreting life, and sharing those interpretations with others. You are a person of influence, and you are also being influenced. There are people in your life who have your ear. Perhaps without ever knowing it, they will shape your thinking, direct your desires, and influence your plan of action. The issue is not who is counseling. All of us are. The core issue is whether that counseling is rooted in the revelation of the Creator. - Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 46.

Rejoicing in Christ

If we would…rejoice in [Christ] as triumphantly as the first Christians did; we must learn, like them to repose our entire trust in him and to adopt the language of the apostle, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ” [Galatians 6:14], “who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” [1 Corinthians 1:30].

- William Wilberforce, Quoted in Roots of Endurance, 157.

Marriage

If we find that our affection for our husband is waning or has subsided altogether, then we do not need to look any further than our own hearts. Where sin is present, warm affection dissipates.

- Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal, 29.

Spiritually Immature

If some who have the Spirit are slow to display this rising maturity, the kindest interpretation is that they are “worldly.” In these matters they are acting like “mere men” instead of like Christian men and women, men and women empowered by the Spirit of God. They are wretchedly, unacceptably, Spiritually immature.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 75.

Desires of the Heart

If my heart is ruled by the desire for a certain thing, it will affect my relationship with God in two principal ways. First, it will shape my attitude when I pray. I will pray self-demanding prayers. If a certain set of desires rules my heart, I will not want God to be a wise, loving, sovereign, Father who gives me what he knows is best. Instead, I will want a divine waiter who delivers what I have set my heart on. When a certain set of desires rules our hearts, we reduce prayer to the menu of human desire. We shrink God from his position of all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful Father to a divine waiter we expect to deliver everything we ask. He will not let there be peace until he alone controls our hearts. He fights for us, for the thoughts and desires of our hearts.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 83.

Counseling, Ministry

If it is true that there is more informal ministry than formal ministry in any given week, then surely we should evaluate the quality of our counsel in those informal moments.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 21.

Counseling

If it is true that all human beings are constantly trying to make sense out of life, then all of life is counseling or personal ministry. Counseling is the stuff of human life! We are always interpreting and always sharing our interpretation with one another. This “sharing” ultimately amounts to advice or counsel about how to respond to life.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 45.

Prophecy

If indeed it is God’s intention that this gift continue to be used in the church, then our failure to allow or encourage its use can only result in our spiritual detriment, and we can expect, if we follow scriptural guidelines and avoid abuses, that its renewed use will bring added spiritual blessing and vitality to our churches.

- Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, 216.

Prophecy

If a message is the result of conscious reflection on the text of Scripture, containing interpretation of the text and application to life, then it is a teaching.

- Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, 321.

Joy

If a man can rob you of your joy, he can rob you of your usefulness.

- John Piper, Roots of Endurance, 149.

Worship

I would warn those who are cultured, quiet, self-possessed, poised and sophisticated, that if they are embarrassed in church when some happy Christian say “Amen!” they may actually be in need of some spiritual enlightenment. The worshiping saints of God in the Body of Christ have often been a little bit noisy.

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 15.

Heaven in the Home

I was privileged, in the spring, to visit in a home that was to me – and I am sure to the occupants – a little bit of Heaven. There was beauty there. There was a keen appreciation of the finer tings of life, and an atmosphere in which it was impossible to keep from thinking of God. The room was bright and white and clean, as well as cozy. There were many windows. Flowers were blooming in pots and vases, adding their fragrance and beauty. Books lined one wall– good books- inspiring and instructive- good books- good friends. Three birdcages hung in the brightness and color of this beautiful sanctuary, and the songsters voiced their appreciation by singing as if their little throats would burst.

Nature’s music, nature’s beauty- nature’s peace…. It seemed to me a kind of Paradise that had wandered down, an
enchanted oasis- home.

- Peter Marshall, Quoted in Feminine Appeal, 100.

Devaluing Ourselves

I tell you again that God has saved us to be worshipers. May God show us a vision of ourselves that will disvalue us to the point of total devaluation. From there He can raise us up to worship Him and to praise Him and to witness.

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 78.

Prophecy

I could tell as many as a dozen similar cases in which I pointed at somebody in the hall without having the slightest knowledge of the person, or any idea that what I said was right, except that I believed I was moved by the Spirit to say it;

- Charles Spurgeon

Love

I am deeply persuaded that the foundation for people-transforming ministry is not sound theology; it is love. Without love, our theology is a boat without oars. Love is what drove God to send and sacrifice his Son. Love led Christ to subject himself to a sinful world and the horrors of the cross. Love is what causes him to seek and save the lost, and to persevere until each of his children is transformed into his image. His love will not rest until all of his children are at his side in glory. The hope of every sinner does not rest in theological answers but in the love of Christ for his own. Without it, we have no personally, relationally, or eternally.

This love is not a band-aid attempting to cope with a cancerous world. It is effective and preserving. It is jealous, intent on owning us without competition. It faces that fact of who we are and how we need to change and simply goes to work. Any hope for the problems we face-with our own hearts and with a dark and corrupt world-is found in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for us.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 117

How Awesome is that Day to Me

How awesome is that day to me - O day of hallowed history! Set time in God’s determined plan To sacrifice the Son of Man. What famous work that day was done By Jesus Christ, His Perfect Son! The Second Adam, sent to save, Humbly obeying to the grave! How savage is that day to me - O day of pure brutality! When Christ, the Son of God Most High, Was fiercely whipped and hung to die. And O the horror of my sin, Seen there in His appalling skin! For God struck down- as meant for me- The sinless One, at Calvary. How precious is that day to me - O day of purchased liberty! In Him, a freeman now I live; My sins, through death, did God forgive. No wrath at length looms o’er my head, But loving kindness there instead. His righteousness, my guilt replaced, And Love, this ransomed soul embraced! O awesome, savage, precious day - ‘Tis God the Savior on display! What peerless, holy, gracious Mind Would fashion such a Grand Design? — Kevin Hartnett

Homemaking

Homemaking – being a full-time wife and mother – is not a destructive drought of uselessness but an overflowing oasis of opportunity; it is not a dreary cell to contain one’s talents and skills but a brilliant catalyst to channel creativity and energies into meaningful work.

- Dorothy Patterson, Feminine Appeal, 96.

Truth

Holding the truth and permeating all our ministry with the greatness and sweetness of truth for the transformation of our people’s lives is the main part of our ministry.

- John Piper, Roots of Endurance, 63.

The Privelege of Hearing the Gospel

It is a great privilege to hear the gospel. You may smile and think there is nothing very great in it. The damned in hell know. Oh, what would they give if they could hear the gospel now? If they could come back and entertain but the shadow of a hope that they might escape from the wrath to come? The saved in heaven estimate this privilege at a high rate, for, having obtained salvation through the preaching of this gospel, they can never cease to bless their God for calling them by his word of truth. O that you knew it! On your dying beds the listening to a gospel sermon will seem another thing than it seems now.”

- C.H. Spurgeon

Pride

Remember that pride is the worst viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul’s peace and of sweet communion with Christ. It was the first sin committed and lies lowest in the foundation of Satan’s whole building, and is with the greatest difficulty rooted out, and is the most hidden, secret, and deceitful of all lusts, and often creeps insensibly into the midst of religion, even, sometimes, under the disguise of humility itself.

– Jonathan Edwards

Sin vs. Forgiveness

“You cannot sin so much as God can forgive. If it comes to a pitched battle between sin and grace, you shall not be so bad as God shall be good. I will prove it to you. You can only sin as a man, but God can forgive as a God. You sin as a finite creature, but the Lord forgives as the infinite Creator.”

- Charles Spurgeon

Calvinism Abused

"The amount of misrepresentation to which Calvin's theology has been subjected is enough to prove his doctrine of total depravity several times over."

- J. I. Packer

Word and Spirit

"We must never divorce what God has married, namely his Word and his Spirit. The Word of God is the Spirit's sword. The Spirit without the Word is weaponless; the Word without the Spirit is powerless."

- John Stott, The Message of Thessalonians, 34

Parenting: Changing diapers for the glory of God

Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason (which the pagans followed in trying to be most clever), takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, "Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labour at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? 0 you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful. carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise."

What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, "0 God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers. or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? 0 how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight."

A wife too should regard her duties in the same light, as she suckles the child, rocks and bathes it, and cares for it in other ways; and as she busies herself with other duties and renders help and obedience to her husband. These are truly golden and noble works. . . .

Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith, my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil's fools.

- Martin Luther (The Estate of Marriage, 1522)

Exposing Sin, Applying Grace

Only by seeing our sin do we come to see the need and wonder of grace. But exposing sin is not the same thing as unveiling and applying grace. We must be familiar with grace and exponents of its multifaceted power, and know how to apply it to a variety of spiritual conditions. Truth to tell exposing sin is easier than applying grace; for, alas, we are more intimate with the former than we sometimes are with the latter. Therein lies our weakness.

- Sinclair Ferguson

The blessing of obedience

I have never known disobedience to the definite command of a parent, even if that parent were mistaken, that was not followed by retribution. Conquer through the Lord. He can open any door. The responsibility is with the parent in such a case, and it is a serious one. When the son or daughter can say in all sincerity, "I am waiting for Thee, Lord, to open the way," the matter is in His hands and He will take it up.

- J. Hudson Taylor, Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, 66.

Bounds on The Preacher's Personal Holiness

The gospel of Christ does not move by popular waves. It has no self-propagating power. It moves as the men who have charge of it move. The preacher must impersonate the gospel. Its divine, most distinctive features must be embodied in him. The constraining power of love must be in the preacher as a projecting, eccentric, an all-commanding, self-oblivious force. The energy of self-denial must be his being, his heart and blood and bones.

---

He must go forth as a man among men, clothed with humility, abiding in meekness, wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove; the bonds of a servant with the spirit of a king, a king in high, royal, independent bearing, with the simplicity and sweetness of a child. The preacher must throw himself, with all the abandon of a perfect, self-emptying faith and a self-consuming zeal, into his work for the salvation of men. Hearty, heroic, compassionate, fearless martyrs must the men be who take hold of and shape a generation for God. If they be timid timeservers, place seekers, if they be men pleasers or men fearers, if their faith has a weak hold on God or his Word, if their denial be broken by any phase of self or the world, they cannot take hold of the Church nor the world for God.

The preacher’s sharpest and strongest preaching should be to himself. His most difficult, delicate, laborious, and thorough work must be with himself. The training of the twelve was the great, difficult, and enduring work of Christ. Preachers are not sermon makers, but men makers and saint makers, and he only is well-trained for this business who has made himself a man and a saint. It is not great talents or great learning or great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God—men always preaching by holy sermons in the pulpit, by holy lives out of it. These can mould a generation for God.¹

^{- E.M. Bounds}

Too Wedded Our Times

Historically, Christians often messed up the Biblical balance in this area by being too wedded to their times and therefore failing to listen carefully and thoughtfully to Scripture. In times of war, famine, or major social disruption, it is not uncommon for untaught Christians to cry, “It is the end!” They don their ascension robed and forget that Jesus told us that no one knows the time or the day or the hour or the season of his return. Alternatively, when things are going reasonably well, when society seems relatively stable, when there is no war on the horizon, when most people in our culture have enough to eat, and when the general mood is hedonistic and success-oriented, untaught Christians adopt their own form of triumphalism. They point out that God is their Father, he is the great King, and therefore (they argue) they should all live as princes and princesses.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross in Christian Ministry, 105.

Holiness: The response of love

His endeavours after holiness are no mire the self-conscious strivings of a moralist: rather they are the response of love to the God who had made him a new creature in Jesus Christ. Sanctification he saw now as a personal experience flowing from communion with God and fellowship with Christ. In his Diary he can write: ‘I think I find in my heart to be glad from the hopes I have that my eternity is to be spent in spiritual and holy joys, arising from the manifestation of God’s love, and the exercise of holiness and burning love to him’.

- Ian Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 44.

Grace to Overlook Offenses

He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more. He overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it.

- Charles Spurgeon

Wilberforce

He anonymously visited in prison a famous infidel named Richard Carlile who was imprisoned for his blasphemous writings. When Wilberforce took out a small Bible, Carlile said, “I which to have nothing to do with that book; and you cannot wonder at this, for if that book be true, I am damned forever!” To which Wilberforce replied, “No, no, Mr. Carlile, according to that book, there is hope for all who will seek for mercy and forgiveness; for it assures us that God hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.

- John Piper, Roots of Endurance, 135.

Shattering Human Boasting

God’s ultimate reason for this choice is of utmost importance: it is “so that no one may boast before him” (1:29). Not only has he shamed and nullified the world by choosing so many people whom the world does not highly esteem, God has taken this step to shatter human boasting. God acts to redeem fallen men and women because he is gracious, and for no other reason.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 30.

My most significant need...

God’s purpose is not that we would be personally happy (nice job, marriage, family, church, neighborhood, vacation, retirement), but that we would become participants in his divine nature! In doing this, God is addressing my most significant need. This need is not eternal or emotional, but moral. What we need most is a heart ruled by the Lord rather than by “evil desires.” We need to be progressively freed from our slavery to the god-replacements that imprison us in self-absorbed pursuit of our own glory.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands,264.

From Good to Best

God, of course, in his great compassion and love, does not ask us to give up that which is good, except to lead us to that which is best.

- David Jinno, Jesus' Foot, 92.

Inherent Dependence

God knew that even though Adam and Eve were perfect people living in perfect relationship with him, they could not figure out life on their own. They were not created to be independent. God had to explain who they were and what they were to do with their lives. They did not need this help because they were sinners. They needed help because they were human.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 40.

Grace

God is painting his grace on the canvas of human souls. One day we will stand with him in Glory and see that canvas completed, and we won’t be able to do anything but worship. What is our part in all of this? We are God’s brushes. He wants to soak us on the palette of his grace and paint more of his goodness on yet another soul. The question is, “Are we soft brushes in his hands?” A hard, dried out brush doesn’t pick up the paint well and mars the surface it was meant to beautify.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 275.

God is not impressed...

God is not impressed by the public philosophies, political clout, and extravagant wealth that the world so greatly admires. And the Corinthian believers should have recognized the point and disavowed such pagan allegiances themselves.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 29.

Worship

God had created man so He could look into him and see reflected there more of His own glory than He could see reflected in the starry skies above. But now the mirror was dimmed and blurred. When God would look at sinful man, He no longer could see His own glory.

Disobedient man had become sinful man. He had failed to fulfill the purpose of his creation – to worship his Creator in the beauty of holiness.

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 53.

Salvation

From about half-past ten at night to about half-after midnight – fire! O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob – not the God of the philosophers and the wise. The God of Jesus Christ who can be known only in the ways of the Gospel. Security – feeling – peace – joy – tears of joy. Amen.

- Blaise Pascal quoted in Whatever Happened to Worship, 90-91.

Doctrine of Justification by Faith

For the doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace. …A right view of these things is not possible without a right understanding of justification: so that, when justification falls, all true knowledge of the grace of God in human life falls with it, and then, as Luther said, the church itself falls. A society like the Church of Rome, which is committed by its official creed to pervert the doctrine of justification, has sentenced itself to a distorted understanding of salvation at every point. Nor can these distortions ever be corrected till the Roman doctrine of justification is put right. And something similar happens when Protestants let the thought of justification drop out of their minds; the true knowledge of salvation drops out with it, and cannot be restored till the truth of justification is back in its proper place. When Atlas falls, everything that rested on his shoulders comes crashing down too.

- J.I. Packer, Faith Alone, 69.

Church

For most of us, church is merely an event we attend or an organization we belong to. We do not see it as a calling that shapes our entire life.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, xii.

Foolishness...

Foolishness controls the man who is open to no one’s counsel and the person who sees little need to study God’s Word.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 14-15.

Preaching

First, to preach the Word of God you must be convinced that it is the Word of God. Second, you must be ruthless with yourself in allowing it to speak. Third, you must keep in mind that its theme is God’s gracious redemption of sinners through the saving work of His Son. We do not truly preach if we do not preach Christ. fourth, to preach the Word of God you must study diligently. Fifth, you must have a clear theme that is supported by equally clear points. Sixth, you must use language that your people can understand. Seventh, you must employ the element of persuasion. Eighth, you must trust God to use His Word to do His work. Ninth, you must pray well. While true preaching is hard, genuine praying is harder. Tenth, you must think about what you are doing.

- Thomas Ascoll, Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry, 272-282.

Holy Spirit

Fanaticism thus gave rise to a greater danger – the danger that opportunity was being given not merely to condemn excess but to undermine faith in the Holy Spirit and in the nature of true religion. Orthodoxy instead of being established in the land by the Awakening might accordingly be discredited.

- Ian Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, 229.

Moving Beyond Our Agenda

Every situation, relationship, trial, or blessing belongs to him. None of it belongs to us. We cannot be satisfied with pleasing ourselves in what we say and do, but must ask what would please him. People who approach life this way are ready to serve as God’s instruments of change. They see beyond their own agenda and are motivated by his. They are convinced that there is nothing more worthwhile in life. People who live this way speak the truth to others out of a recognition of their own need and out of thankfulness for the help of God faithfully sends their way.

- Pauld David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 222.

Prayer

Every day the children get up before dawn-4 a.m. – for an hour of prayer. It is remarkable to see such intensity and depth in a group of people praying as in these children ranging from four years of age to their teens. They prayed with a deep burden for the lost, for the brothers and sisters in the ministry, for their parents And their relatives, for the brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. They prayed with tears streaming down their faces, crying out the Lord for these things, and especially for the salvation of India. They didn’t do this just once or twice, but their groanings before the throne of grace happened every day. Nor was it because they were made to do this. Experience knows when one is simply praying or doing anything simply because it is expected. These were prayers from the heart.

- David Jinno, Jesus' Foot, 93.

You are a Child of Your Time

Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it.

- Thomas Ascoll, Letters on Pastoral Ministry, 205.

Serve

...it is the giver who gets the glory.

And that, perhaps, is the most important thing of all. The only right way to serve God is in a way that reserves for Him all the glory. "Whoever serves (must do it) as one who serves by the strength that God supplies - in order that in everything God may be glorified" (1 Pet. 4:11). How do we serve so God is glorified? We serve by the strength He supplies. When we are at our most active for God, we are still the recipients. God will not surrender the glory of the benefactor, ever!

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 44

Obedience

We will not serve by trying to put our power at His disposal for His good, but by doing what is necessary so that His power will be ever at our disposal for our good. This means obedience.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 43

Healer

Even trusting our doctor to tell us wise and healing things to do may leave us trying to do them in our own strength. God is not only the doctor who prescribes. He is the nurse who lifts up our powerless head and puts the spoon in our mouth (or hangs the bag of intravenous medicine). And His is the medicine.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 41

Service

The difference between Uncle Same and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won't enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus won't enlist you unless you are sick. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I cam not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17).

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 41

Service

All the other so-called gods make man work for them. Our God will not be put in the position of an employer who must depend on others to make his business go. Instead He magnifies His all-sufficiency by doing the work Himself. Man is the dependent partner in this affair. His job is to wait for the Lord.
What is God looking for in the world? Assistants? No. The gospel is not a help-wanted ad, God is not looking for people to work for Him but people who let Him work mightily in and through them: "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him" (2 Chron. 16:9). God is not a scout looking for the first draft choices to help His team win. He is an unstoppable fullback ready to take the ball and run touchdowns for anyone who trusts Him to win the game.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 40

Service

The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won't enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus won't enlist you unless you are sick.

What is God looking for in the world? Assistants? No. The gospel is not a help-wanted ad. It is a help-available ad. God is not looking for people to work for Him but people who let Him work mightily in and through them.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 39

Gratitude

Gratitude will always degenerate into the debtor's ethic if it only looks back on past grace and not forward as well to future grace. We honor the nature and aim of God's goodwill by trusting Him to work for us from now on, which means that gratitude functions well as a motive only as it gives rise to faith. Gratitude says to faith, "Keep trusing your Father for more grace; I know He will supply. I have experienced it, and it was sweet." Gratitude does help motivate the radical obedience of love, but it does so indirectly through the service of faith in future grace.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 38

Gratitude

This immediately excludes the debtor's ethic. Any attempt to express a gratitude by paying God back would contradict the nature of His gift as free and gracious. Any attempt to turn from being a beneficiary of God in order to become God's benefactors would remove the stumbling block of the cross where my debt was so fully paid that I am forever humbled to the status of a receiver, not a giver. "Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies" (1 Pet. 4:11 NASB)
Instead, the way our joy expresses the value of free grace is by admitting we don't deserve it, and by banking our hope on it and doing everything we do as a recipient of more and more grace. "God is able to make all grace abound to you, [so that] ...you may have an abundance for every good deed" (2 Cor. 9:8 NASB). Good deeds do not pay back grace; they borrow more grace.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 38

Gratitude

So the secret of how gratitude motivates obedience is in the nature of joy. All joy has in it an impulse to demonstrate the beauty and value of its object.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 37

Gratitude

Just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: "Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificant?" It isn't out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is imcomplete until it is expressed.
It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and trhen to have to keep silent because the people you are with care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 37

Joy

All joy is gregarious. It has in it a demonstrative impulse.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 36

Joy

The cause of joy is always a perceived value. The greater the value to us, the greater our joy in receiving it.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 36

Gratitude

Gratitude is a species of joy which arises in your heart in response to the goodwill of someone who does or tries to do you a favor.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 36

Obedience

Have you ever tried to find a Biblical text where gratitude or thankfulness is the explicit motive for obedience to God? Stories like the sinful woman (in Lunke 7:36-50) and the unforgiving servant (in Matt. 18:23-35) come to mind, but neither speaks explicitly of gratitude as a motive.
Why is this explicit motive for obedience - which in contemporary Christianity is probably the most commonly used motive for obedience to God - (almost?) totally lacking in the Bible? Could it be that a gratitude ethic so easily slips over into a debtor's ethic that God chose to protect His people from this deadly motivation by not including gratitude as an explicit motive for obedience?
Instead He lures us into obedience with irresistibly desirable promises of enablement (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:27; Matt. 19:26; Rom. 6:14; 1 Cor. 1:8-9; Gal. 5:22; Phil. 2:13, 4:13; 1 Thess. 3:12; Heb. 13:21) and divine reward (Lunke 9:24; 10:28; 12:33; 16:9, 25; 10:35-36; Heb. 11:24-26; 12:2; 13:5-6).

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 34-35

Good Deed

Good deeds do not pay back grace; they borrow more grace.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 33

Justification By Faith

Say to your beloved flock: "Christ offers you this today as a gift. If you see Him as true and precious, if you receive the gift as your greatest treasure in life and trust in it, you will have a peace with God that passes all understanding. You will be a secure person. You will not need the approval of others. You will not need the ego-supports of wealth or power or revenge. You will be free. You will overflow with love. You will lay down your life in the cause of Christ for the joy that is set before you. Look to Christ and trust Him for your righteousness."

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 32

Righteousness

(1 Cor. 1:30) ...Christ became for us "righteousness; we are "in Christ Jesus"; Christ, not faith, is our righteousness.

John Bunyan, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 30

Righteousness

It's not our righteousness that we get in Christ. It is God's righteousness. We get it not because our faith is righteous but because we are "in Christ." Faith unites us to Christ. And in Christ we have an alien righteousness.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 29

Righteousness

Arguments why "faith counted as righteousness":
1. First, at the end of verse 6 (Rom. 4:6), " God counts righteousness apart form works." Faith is not the thing counted as righteousness, but righteousness is the thing counted to us. What is counted to our account here is not faith but righteousness.
2. Second, (Rom. 3:21-22) it is God's righteousness that comes to us through faith. Faith is what unites us to God's righteousness. Faith is not God's righteousness which is imputed (reckoned) to us in our union with Christ.
3. Third, (2 Cor. 5:21) we have a double "imputation; God imputed our sins to Christ and God imputed His righteousness to us.
4. Fourth, (1 Cor. 1:30) says that Christ became for us "righteousness", that we are "in Christ Jesus"; Christ, not faith, is our righteousness.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 28-30

Justification By Faith

Three signals that justification is by "faith alone."

1. First, justification is a verdict delivered by God in a moment.
2. Second, the stupendous answer is that "Christ died for the ungodly". Point to the word ungodly is stress that faith is not our righteousness.
3. Third, "his faith is counted as righteousness."

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 26-27

Justification

If you work for your justification, what you are doing is trying to put God in your debt. And if you succeed in getting God to owe you something, then you can boast before men and God. If you worked for justification and you succeeded, you would not get grace, but a wage. God would owe it to you. And when you got it, you would be able to say, "I deserve this." And that, Paul says, is not what Abraham did.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 25

Good Deed

Every good deed we do in dependence on jGod does just the opposite of paying Him back; it puts us ever deeper in debt to His grace. And that is exactly where God wants us to be through all eternity.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 33

Justification By Faith

One day as I was passing into the field... this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in the heaven. And methought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he wants [lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, "The same yesterday, today, and forever." Heb. 13:8. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons;... now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.

John Bunyan, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 24

Justification By Faith

I wish the reader to understand that as often as we mention faith alone in this question, we are not thinking of a dead faith, which worketh not by love, but holding faith to be the only cause of justification. It is therefore faith alone which justifies, and yet the faith which justifies is not alone: just as it is the heat alone of the sun which warms the earth, and yet in the sun it is not alone, because it is constantly cojoined with light. Wherefore we do not seperate the whole grace of regeneration from faith, but claim the power and faculty of justifying entirely for faith, as we ought.

John Calvin, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 23

Justification By Faith

As all mankind are, in the sight of God, lost sinners, we hold that Christ is their only righteousness, since, by his obedience, he has wiped off our transgressions, by his sacrifice, appeased the divine anger; by his blood, washed away our stains; by his cross, borne our curse; and by his death, made satisfaction for us. We maintain that in this way man is reconciled in Christ to God the Father, by no merit of his own, by no value of works, but by gratuitous mercy. When we embrace Christ by faith, and come, as it were, into communion with him, this we term, after the manner of Scripture, the righteousness of faith.

John Calvin, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 22

Justification By Faith

I had indeed been captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanidng Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. But up till then it was...a single word in Chapter 1 (:17), "In it the righteousness of God is revealed," that had stood in my way. For I hated that word "righteousness of God," which according to the use and custom of all the teachers, I had been taought to understand philosophically regarding the formal or active righteousness, as they called it, with which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner,

Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blashemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God, and said, "As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with his righteous wrath!" Thus I raged with a fierce and troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul at that place, most ardently desiring to know what St.Paul wanted.

At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, "In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, 'He who throughfaith is righteous shall live.'" There I began to understand (that) the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift fof God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which (the) merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Here I felt that I was altoghether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. Here a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me... And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word "righteousness of God." Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 20-21

Justification By Faith

Wherever the knowledge of it is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion abolished the Chruch destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown.

John Calvin, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 17

Justification By Faith

This doctrine is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.

Martin Luther, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 17

Work

God aims to get all the glory in our redemption. Therefore He is adamant that He will work for us and not we for Him.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 15

Work - Employment

The Son of Man has not come seeking employees. He has come to employ Himself for our good. We dare not try to work for Him lest we rob Him of His glory and impugn His righteousness. The apostle Paul says, "Now to one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly; his faith is counted as righteousness" (Rom. 4:4-5). This is a warning not to pursue justification by working for God. It is a gift. We have it by faith alone. And even when we "workout" our slavation in fear and trembling, we must see it as a peculiar kind of working: the only reason we can will to lift a finger is that God is the one "who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 15

Righteous

For God to be righteous, He must devote Himself 100 percent, with all His heart, soul, and strength, to loving and honoring His own holiness in the display of His glory.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 14

Righteousness

God acts in righteousness when He acts for His own name's sake. For it would not be right for God's to esteem anything above the infinite glory of His own name.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 14

Righteousness

At root, the righteousness of God means that He has a right assessment of His own ultrimate value. He has a just regard for His own infinite worth, and He brings all His actions into conformity to this right judgment of Himself.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 13

Holiness

The holiness of God is the absolutely unique and infinite value of His being and His majesty. To say that our God is holy means that His value is infinitely greater than the sum of the value of all created beings.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 13

God's Glory

His holiness is His intrinsic worth - utterly unique excellence. His glory is the manifest display of this worth in beauty. His glory is His holiness on display. His glory is His holiness on display.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 13

God As Holy

When we describe God as holy we mean that He is one of a kind. There is none like Hi. He is in a class by Himself.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 12

Spiritual Leadership

...defined spiritual leadership as "knowing where God wants people to be and taking the initiative to get them there by god's means in reliance on God's power."

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 11

God's Glory

We have told our people a hundred times, "Do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). But have we given them the foundation of this command? God loves His glory. He loves it with infinite energy and passion and commitment. And the Spirit of God is ablaze with this love. That is why children of God love the glory of God; they are led by this blazing Spirit (Rom. 8:14).

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 9

God's Glory

God's most fundamental allegiance is to His own glory. He is committed to being God before He is committed to being anything else.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 9

God Centered

Why is it important to be stunned by the God-centeredness of God? Because many people are willing to be God-centered as long as they feel that God is man-centered. It is a subtle danger. We may think we are centering our lives on God, when we are really making Him a means to self-esteem. Over against this danger I urge you to ponder the implications, brother, that God loves His glory more than He loves us and that this is the foundation of His love for us.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 6-7

God's Glory

God's first commitment is to His own glory and that this is the basis for ours. I had never heard anyone say that God does everthing for His glory, too, and that is why we should. I had never heard anyone explain that the role of the Holy Spirit is to burn in me what He has been burning with for all eternity: God's love for God. Or more precisely, God the Father's delight in the panorama of His own perfections reflected as a perfect image in His Son.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 5-6

God's Glory

God loves His glory more than He loves us, and this is the foundation of His love for us.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 5

Ministry - Pastoral

The life-giving preacher is a man of God, whose heart is ever athirst for God, whose soul is ever following hard after God, whose eye is single to God, and in whom by the power of God's Spirit the flesh and the world have been cruciified and his ministry is like the generous flood of a life-giving river.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 3

Ministry - Pastoral

We are fools for Christ's sake. But professionals are wise. We are weak. But professionals are strong. Professionals are held in honor. We are in disrepute. We do not try to secure a professional lifestyle, but we are ready to hunger and thirst and be ill-clad and homeless.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, pg. 1

Ministry - Pastoral

The preacher...is not a professional man; his ministry is not a profession; it is a divine institution, a divine devotion.

E.M. Bounds, Brothers We Are Not Professionals, pg. 1

Ministry - Pastoral

We could wish for peace. And we should labor for unity in the truth. But in this fallen world the gospel is always the aroma of life for some and the aroma of death for others (2 Cor. 2:15-16). So ours is a besiged joy but will always be undaunted because of the triumph of Christ. And ours is a tearful joy, but will always be undaunted because of the triumph of Christ. And ours is a tearful joy, but our tears are the tears of God-centered joy impeded in the extension of itself to others.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professional, Preface

Evaluating Motives

Evaluate our motives: “What are my reasons for considering this opportunity? Are they selfish or God-honoring?” “Will pursuing this venture glorify God and honor the gospel?” “Is this an undertaking that will help my husband?” “Will it enhance and enrich the lives of my family?” “Does this endeavor hinder my role as caretaker of my home?” - Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal, 92.

True Salvation

Edwards argues that there are always certain things missing from the ‘affections’ of those who have no true grace. Humility is missing. Thus he regarded much talk of ‘great experiences’ as no mark of real godliness.

- Ian Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 258.

Edwards on Church Growth

Edward, while replying that it was lack of holiness, not lack of numbers, which hindered the advance of the church…’success’ is not to be judged in the short-term. The Christian’s business is to honour God, and in his own time God will honour his truth and those who are faithful to it.

- Ian Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography, 471.

Prophecy

“Many of our errors where spiritual gifts are concerned arise when we want the extraordinary and exceptional to be made the frequent and habitual. Let all who develop excessive desire for ‘messages’ through the gifts take warning from the wreckage of past generations as well as of contemporaries… The Holy Scriptures are a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.”

- Donald Gee, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, 323.

The Transforming Power of the Cross

Does anyone truly understand the message of the cross apart from brokenness, contrition, repentance, and faith? To repeat rather mechanically the nature of the transaction that Christians think took place at Golgotha is one thing; to look at God and his holiness, and people and their sin, from the perspective of the cross, is life changing. What Paul says, then, is that our self-centeredness, our sin, is so deep that we cannot truly see the cross for what it is, apart from the work of the Spirit. What the Spirit accomplishes in us is more than mere application of truth already grasped. Paul’s point is that truly grasping the truth of the cross and being transformed cannot be separated- and both are utterly dependant on the work of the Spirit.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 65.

Needs

Demand quickly morphs into need (“I will”). I now view the thing I want as essential to life. This is a devastating step in the eventual slavery of desire.

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 86.

Death

Death, which hovers over us, the ultimate specter. Death is a tyranny that no one escapes. Its power extends far beyond the mere experience of it. Because it looms just over the horizon, it casts its long shadow backward and constrains us all our lives. Even the attempt to live our lives by suppressing the thought of death is an abysmal response that mutely attests the power of its tyranny. So also does our habit of setting “life goals,” on the morbid assumption that all we have is threescore years and ten, more or less. How would our life goals change if we were planning not only for seventy years of existence here, but also for eternity? Isn’t this party what Jesus meant when he told us to lay up treasure in heaven (Matt.6: 19-21)?

- D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 87.

Worship

Consecration is not difficult for the person who has met God. Where there is genuine adoration and fascination, God’s child wants nothing more than the opportunity to pour out his or her love at the Savior’s feet.

- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 89.

Doctrine

Christianity necessarily and intrinsically involves doctrine. Again, it is more than doctrine but by no means less. The right believing of right doctrine is at least to some degree a necessary condition for justification and therefore for salvation. Right doctrine protects the believer from falsehood and superstition.

- R.C. Sproul, Faith Alone, 78.

Servanthood, Leadership

Christian leaders are, in the first place, “only servants.” In this context, Paul does not mean “servants of the church,” but “servants of Jesus Christ,” for here it is the Lord who “has assigned to each his task.” Moreover, they are specifically called “servants of Christ” in 1 Corinthians 4:1.

- D.A. Carson, The Cross in Christian Ministry, 75.

Objective Faith

Christian faith certainly does involve and require a personal, relational, subjective response. Faith is not the activity of a disinterested spectator. The passion of personal involvement and commitment of which Soren Kierkegaard wrote is certainly necessary to saving faith. But personal encounter does not negate objective and propositional truth; indeed it presupposes it. I cannot have faith in nothing. My faith must have content or an object. Before I can have a personal relationship with God or anyone else, I must first be aware of them to some degree. I must have some intelligible understanding of what or whom I am believing, I cannot have God in my heart if he is not in my head. Before I can believe in, I must believe that.

It is possible to be aware of a proposition and even affirm the truth of that proposition and still lack a personal faith in
it. But I cannot have the personal relationship without any understanding, information, or knowledge of the object
of my faith. A faith without an object is sheer subjectivism.

- R.C. Sproul, Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification, 77.

Consummation

Once Jesus is seen as the goal of creation and the eschatos, the consummation can be seen as reachable (in one sense, as already reached!) before the end of natural world history. This is possible because the eschatos is a person, not just a set of forthcoming things. In terms of the person of Jesus it therefore becomes possible to make the apparently contradictory statement that the consummation comes before the end.

-Adrio Konig, The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology P. 39

Eschatology

With the rise of Scholasticism, eschatology was increasingly relegated to the closing chapter of theological texts, where it covered a number of such last "things" as the resurrection, the resurrection body, and immortality.

-Adrio Konig, The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology P. 35

Lord of Creation

In brief then Christ is both the Lord of the whole of the history of created reality and the destination toward which all creation is moving-the destination which will be reached through him, the decisive One.

-Adrio Konig, The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology P. 31

Creation-Christ's Goal

If Christ is the goal of creation (Col 1:16), only in him can things exist harmoniously (v.17) and only thought him can they be reconciled (v.20).

-Adrio Konig, The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology P. 29

Christ in Creation

Christ is not merely the beginning of creation in a temporal sense, but that as pilot and ruler he accompanies creation-or rather takes it along with him. He is not the desists' "beginning" who left creation to its own devices; he is rather the helmsman of creation, which is why everything can be brought together in him (Eph. 1:10).

-Adrio Konig, The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology P. 24

Hermeneutic- Rule with Prophetic

The promises of the Bible are not predictions which serve as prescriptions for future history so that the future can be describe in advance and calculated in detail. If this were so, a promise would become impotent immediately upon its fulfillment and thereafter be of no more than historical interest.

-Adrio Konig, The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology P. 19

Eschatology-Christ's work

Eschatology includes Christ's past work, his earthly activity, crucifixion, and resurrection, as well as his present work through the Holy Spirit.

-Adrio Konig, The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology P. 15

Hebrews 1: 1-2

Heb. 1:1-2 indicates decisively that the incarnation is an eschatological event. There is no talk here of the end of a certain period of time which would imply that, at a later stage, yet another and final end time would dawn.

-Adrio Konig, The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology P. 7

Repentance, The Cross

Can we look upon a suffering Saviour with dry eyes? Shall we not be sorry for those sins which made Christ a man of sorrow? Shall not our enormities, which drew blood from Christ, draw tears from us? Shall we sport any more with sin and so rake in Christ’s wounds? Oh that by repentance we could crucify our sins afresh!

- Thomas Watson

Mini-kings

But this is where we get ourselves into trouble. We don’t really want to live as ambassadors. We would rather live as mini-kings. We know what we like and the kind of people we want to be with. We know the kind of house we’d like to own and the car we want to drive. Without even recognizing it, we quickly fall into a “my desire, my will, and my way” lifestyle, where the things we say and do are driven by the cravings of our own hearts. If we were honest, we would have to confess that the central prayer of our hearts is “my kingdom come.”

- Paul David-Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 105.

Sin, Glory Robbers

But there is only one stage and it belongs to the Lord. Any attempt to put ourselves in his place puts us in a war with him. It is an intensely vertical war, a fight for divine glory, a plot to take the very position of God. It is the drama that lies behind every sad earthly drama. Sin has made us glory robbers. We do not suffer well, because suffering interferes with our glory. We do not find relationships easy, because others compete with us for glory. We do not serve well, because in our quest for glory, we want to be saved.

- Paul David-Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, 34-35.