Stephen Davey

You can die a martyr’s death, in one heroic act of faith. Many heroes of the faith have done just that. God, most likely, will not call most of us to that kind of death. But He is calling us to that kind of life! Frankly, there are many Christians who might even be willing to win the martyr’s crown; who are willing and eager to die for Jesus Christ. How many, though, are just as eager to live for Christ? Living for Christ can be mundane; ordinary; routine. I love the little poem that reads: 

To live above with the saints we love, 

That will be grace and glory, 

But to live below with the saints we know, 

Well, that’s another story. 

Ladies and gentlemen, God is not calling you to die a martyr’s death and go to heaven; He is calling you to live a martyr’s life on earth.

Stephen Davey, Sermon on Romans 12:1

D.A. Carson

  So what we need, then, is a prayer life that thanks God for the people of God, and then tells the people of God what we thank God for.
  This obvious lesson may have a bearing on the rising incidence of applause in many Western churches.  Applause used to be unknown.  Then it came to be deployed after special music.  Now it is sometimes heard punctuating sermons.  This is, I think a regressive step.  True, some might consider this to be a kind of cultural equivalent to a voiced "Amen!"  I take the point, and would not want to introduce new legalism by banning applause outright.  But the fundamental difference between "Amen!" and applause must be noted: the "Amen!" is directed to God, even if it serves to encourage the person who is ministering, while applause in our culture signals approval of the performer.  God is left out, and the "performer" may the more easily be seduced into pride.  This is one of the several ways by which the rules of entertainment world have subtly slipped into corporate worship and are in danger of destroying it from within.

D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, pg. 88

Robert Murray M'Cheyne

"What a man is alone on his knees before God, that he is, and no more."

Robert Murray M'Cheyne, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p.16

D.A. Carson

"When it comes to knowing God, we are a culture of the spiritually stunted.  So much of our religion is packaged to address our felt needs—and these are almost uniformly anchored in our pursuit of our own happiness and fulfillment.  God simply becomes the Great Being who, potentially at least, meets our needs and fulfills our aspirations.  We think rather little of what he is like, what he expects of us, what he seeks in us.  We are not captured by his holiness and his love; his thoughts and words capture too little of our imagination, too little of our discourse, too few of our priorities."

D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p.15-16

Martin Luther King Jr.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

Abraham Lincoln

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

Abraham Lincoln

Jim Valvano

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."

Jim Valvano

Jim Valvano

"I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust em."

- Jim Valvano

Darrell W Johnson

    Will the churches of our time stand when the pressure increases?  Will you, will I, stand as the test get tougher?  The only clue we have is how we are doing in the lesser tests that come our way now.
    "I know your pressure," says the Lord.
    It seems only fair to conclude by telling you that there is a way out of the pressure.  Just don't get serious about loving Jesus.  Just go with the flow of the culture.  Just settle for a comfortable, run-of-the-mill, watered-down kind of discipleship--"Christianity Lite."  Just settle for a status-quo-blessing kind of discipleship.  And there will be no pressure.  And there will also be no passion.
    "I know your pressure," says the One who loves us.  In the nature of things he cannot lift it.  Sustain us in it, yes.  Use it for his glory, yes.  But lift it, no.  For his presence is the reason the pressure comes!  When I remember that I can keep going.  And even do so with a strange sort of joy.

Discipleship on the Edge: An Expository Journey Through the Book of Revelation, Darrell W Johnson, p.74

John Piper

"One of the reasons that today in the Western church our joy is so fragile and thin is that the truth is so little understood--the truth, namely, that eternal life is laid hold of only by a persevering fight for the joy of faith.  Joy will not be rugged and durable and deep through suffering where there is not resolve to fight for it."

John Piper, When I Don't Desire God, p.37

John Piper

"If Christ is followed only because his gifts are great and his threats are terrible, he is not glorified by his followers.  A defective lord can offer great gifts and terrible threats. And a person may want the gifts, fear the threats, and follow a lord whom they despise or pity or find boring or embarrassing, in order to have the gifts and avoid the threats.  If Christ is to be glorified in his people, their following must be rooted not mainly in his promised gifts or threatened punishments, but in his glorious Person."

~John Piper, When I Don't Desire God, p.36

John Piper

"Physical tastes like hot fudge vs. caramel are morally neutral. It's not right or wrong to like the one over the other.  But having a spiritual taste for the glory of Christ is not morally neutral.  Not to have it is evil and deadly.  Not to see and savor Christ is an insult to the beauty and worth of his character.  Preferring anything above Christ is the very essence of sin.  It must be fought."

John Piper, When I Don't Desire God, p.33

John Piper

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.  Therefore, to make pretensions about honoring him more, while not calling people to the most radical, soul-freeing satisfaction in God alone, is self-contradictory.  It won't happen.  God is  glorified in his people by the way we experience him, not merely by the way we think about him.  Indeed the devil thinks more true thoughts about God in one day than a saint does in a lifetime, and God is not honored by it.  The problem with the devil is not his theology, but his desires. Our chief end is to glorify God, the great Object.  We do so most fully when we treasure him, desire him, delight in him so supremely that we let goods and kindred go and display his love to the poor and the lost."

~John Piper, When I Don't Desire God, p.30-31

John Piper

“Boasting is the response of pride to success. Self-pity is the response of pride to suffering. Boasting says ‘I deserve admiration because I have accomplished so much.’ Self-pity says, ‘I deserve admiration because I have suffered so much.’ Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong. Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak. Boasting sounds self-sufficient. Self-pity sounds self-sacrificing. The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy. But the need arises from a wounded ego, and the desire is not really for others to see them as helpless, but as heroes. The need that self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness. It is the response of unapplauded pride.”

~John Piper, Sovereign Grace Blog

Kris Lundgaard

"Your mind can only protect against the deceit of the flesh if you are cross-eyed.  That is, you can only keep the rottenness of sin and the kindness of God in mind if you fix your eyes on the cross.  What shows God's hatred of sin more than the cross?  What show's God's love to you more than the cross?  If you want to know exactly what sin deserves, you have to understand the cross.  If you want to know how infinitely deep the rot of sin reaches, you have to think through all the implications of the cross.  If you want to know how far God was willing to go to rescue you from sin, you have to see his precious Son hanging on the cross for you."

Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within, p.66

Jerry Bridges

“Faith in Christ and a reliance on ourselves, even to the smallest degree, are mutually exclusive.”

Jerry Bridges, The Disciple of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness, p. 50-51

Rebecca Pippert

“If the cross shows me that I am far worse than I had ever imagined, it also shows me that my evil has been absorbed and forgiven. If the worst thing any human can do is kill God’s son, and that can be forgiven, then how can anything else not be forgiven?”

Rebecca Pippert, Hope Has Its Reasons, p. 104

D.A. Carson

"Here then is a practical test as to whether the excellence I pursue is really for the glory and praise of God or for my own self-image.  If the things I value are taken away, is my joy in the Lord undiminished?  Or am I so tied to my dreams that the destruction of my dreams means I am destroyed as well?"

D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p.142

D.A. Carson

"The church is to see itself as an outpost of heaven.  It is a microcosm of the new heaven and the new earth, brought back, as it were, into our temporal sphere.  We are still contaminated by failures, sin, relapses, rebellion, self-centeredness; we are not yest what we ought to be.  But by the grace of God, we are not what we were.  For as long as we are left here, we are to struggle against sin, and anticipate, so far as we are able, what it will be like to live in the untarnished bliss of perfect righteousness.  We are to live with a view to the day of Christ."

D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p.137

Anonymous

"The disposition of a sincere heart in prayer is a repentant heart"

Anonymous

D.A. Carson

"If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent us an economist.  If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist.  If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician.  If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor.  But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior."

D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p.109

Gabe Sylvia

"Have we [the church] become bored with Christ?...What more must Christ do that He hasn't already done to be your Hero?"

Gabe Sylvia

D.A. Carson

"I know pagans who find satisfaction and fulfillment by teaching nuclear physics.  In any Christian view of life, self-fulfillment must never be permitted to become the controlling issue.  The issue is service, the service of real people.  The question is, How can I be most useful?, not, How can I feel most useful?  The goal is, How can I best glorify God by serving his people?, not, How can I feel most comfortable and appreciated while engaging in some acceptable form of Christian ministry?  The assumption is, How shall the Christian service to which God calls me be enhanced by my daily breath, by my principled commitment to take up my cross daily and die?, not, How shall the form of service I am considering enhance my career?  This is not to deny that Christians may derive joy from work honestly offered to God, whether that work is vocational ministry or research into the properties of quarks.  But it is one thing to find joy in the work to which we are called, and another to make joy the goal of life, the fundamental criterion that controls our choices.  It is one thing to weigh a Christian leader's evaluation of our gifts, and another so to focus on our perception of our gifts that self-worship has crept in through the back door.  It is one thing to think of people as a live audience that will appreciate our displays of homiletical prowess, and another that passionately shapes each sermon to convey the truth to God's people for their good."

D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p.83

Mike Ross

"Hypocrisy is robbing God of his glory and claiming it for yourself...it is taking what is meant for God's glory and using it for my own."

Mike Ross

Oswald Chambers

"The work we do is of no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God.  It is simply the scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan."

Oswald Chambers, quoted by Harry Schaumburg, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, p. 119Publish Post

Justin Martyr

"The greatest grace God can give anyone is to send a trial which cannot be born with one's own powers - and then sustain that person with His own grace so he may endure to the end and know the true source of salvation." - St. Justin Martyr

Thomas Watson

On the relationship between a Christian and sin he wrote, "Though sin lives in him, yet he does not live in sin."...The apostle John in the verses cited above [1 John 5:13; 1 John 3:7; 1 John 3:9-10] is making the point that you cannot be a true believer and embrace sin as a way of life.

Harry Schaumburg quoting Thomas Watson on the relationship between a Christian and sin, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, p. 113

Harry Schaumburg

"Conviction is a deep sorrow for sin. It is not disgust or the shame of being caught.  True conviction is founded on convincing evidence of our wickedness and that God has good reason for having placed us under His wrath.  Conviction is the full persuasion of the truth of God, found in the gospel, of our unholy condition and God's holy state."

Harry Schaumburg, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, p. 104

Oswald Chambers

"The conviction of sin is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person.  It is the beginning of an understanding of God."

Oswald Chambers, quoted by Harry Schaumburg, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, p. 104

John Piper

"When dealing with the impurity of inward sexual lust, Jesus demands whatever it takes to defeat it because our souls are at stake."

John Piper on Matthew 5:29-30, quoted by Harry Schaumburg, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, p. 104

Charles Spurgeon

"Oh, if men could but see the slime of the serpent upon their pleasurable sins, the venom of asps upon their dainty lusts, and the smoke of hell upon their proud and boastful thoughts, surely they would loathe that which they now delight in.  If sin connects us with the devil himself, let us flee from it as from a devouring lion.  The expression [sin as works of the devil] is a word of detestation: may it enter into our hearts and make sin horrible to us."

Charles Spurgeon preaching on 1 John 3:8 in 1883, quoted by Harry Schaumburg, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, p. 103

John Calvin

"What is proclaimed concerning the mercy of God is seized by some as an occasion of licentiousness; while others are hindered by slothfulness from meditating on 'newness of life.'  But the manifestation of the grace of God unavoidably carries along with it exhortation to a holy life."


John Calvin, quoted by Harry Schaumburg, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Redemption for  Broken Relationships, p. 103

David Powlison

David Powlison, paraphrasing John Calvin, wrote, “The evil in our desires often lies not in what we want, but in the fact that we want it too much.” It’s difficult to improve upon this insight. The “cravings of sinful man” are legitimate desires that have become false gods we worship. It’s wanting too much the things of this fallen world. A sinful craving is when a legitimate desire for financial success becomes a silent demand for financial success; an interest in clothes and fashion becomes a preoccupation; love of music morphs into an obsession with the hottest band; or the desire to enjoy a good movie becomes a need to see the latest blockbuster.

There may be nothing wrong with these desires in and of themselves; but when they dominate the landscape of our lives, when we must have them or else!-we’ve succumbed to idolatry and worldliness. And as Calvin says, our hearts are a perpetual factory of idols. We’re pumping out these thingson a regular basis.

Harry Schaumburg

Putting God first is the first of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament.  In the New Testament Jesus reiterates this primary commandment: "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and will all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30).  That is why idolatry is the essence of sin.  If we seek our own will and what we want to do, we seek what satisfies us before we seek God; we first seek out what feeds our well-being---and we can end up seeking spirituality above seeking God and His will.  Thus we end up placing our values above God Himself.  And the result is that God is not God in our hearts!  It is not "my utmost for His highest;" it is "my utmost for myself."

Harry Schaumburg, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, p.101

Harry Schaumburg

"Sin is a failure to let God be God"

~ Harry Schaumburg, Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships,  p,101

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote, "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up."

Jim Valvano

“Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding”-Jim Valvano

Jim Valvano

“I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust em.”

David Augburger

“Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.” –David Augsburger

Michael Card

“The best way to demonstrate that you love people is to listen to them.” –Michael Card

Mike Ross

"No one understands the grace of God like a hard working farmer"


Mike Ross teaching on 2 Timothy 2 at the Christ Covenant Men's Retreat 2010

Mike Ross

Some Quotes from Mike Ross on the Fear of Failure from the Christ Covenant Men's Retreat 2010
"You can only become what God has gifted you to be"

"Lost Boys [men today] can't handle failure"

"The most fearful sex is male because we believe that failure is not manly"

"Men will fail and it is often better for us that we fail"

"If you haven't failed, you probably are not a man."

Mike Ross

"Falsehood cannot bear the weight of reality, only truth can."

Mike Ross, Christ Covenant Men's Retreat 2010

John Wesley

John Wesley’s Dying Words

At 88 years of age, John Wesley passed away on Wednesday, March 2, 1791. His last words were spoken twice, with great fervour, "The best of all is, God is with us." He lifted his arms and said again, "The best of all is, God is with us."

Mike Ross

"Being a man is the most difficult thing in the world because it is the most opposed thing in the world"

~ Mike Ross, Christ Covenant Men's Retreat 2010

Mike Ross

"Distort gender and you will distort God. The gender of God portrays something essential about Himself."

~ Mike Ross, Christ Covenant Men's Retreat 2010

Tim Chester

“Telling a slave to be free is to add insult to injury. But telling a liberated slave to be free is an invitation to enjoy his new freedom and privileges.”

Tim Chester, You Can Change (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2010), 49.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Octavius Winslow

“Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy; — but the Father, for love!”

Octavius Winslow, quoted by John Stott in The Message of Romans (Downers Grove, Ill.; Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 255

Edward Welch

"One of God's remarkable words to us has been that faith is not a leap into the unknown.  Maybe some people can leap based merely on one person's word, but not anyone with a smidgeon of fear or anxiety.  Faith, instead, is a shift of confidence and trust to One who has always proven faithful."


Edward Welch, Running Scared, p. 306