Benjamin Franklin

"Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden but it is forbidden because it's hurtful. Nor is a Duty beneficial because it is commanded, but it is commanded, because it's beneficial."

C.S. Lewis

"He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only."

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Leslie Flynn

“Two chickens tied at the legs and thrown over a clothes line may be united, but they do not have unity.”

Leslie Flynn, Great Church Fights
taken from Swindoll's Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes

Gabe Sylvia

"It's not legalistic to be obedient"

Kris Decker

Oh God our Father, Jesus our Brother, Holy Spirit our helper and comforter,
Remove the calloused heart and replace it with a heart after your heart oh God.
Open blind eyes.
Open deaf ears.
Warm cold emotions and set us aflame with warmth and passion for Christ.
Strengthen weary and apathetic hands and feet to serve God’s people, His Church.
Awake and prepare us who are asleep and lazy, unaware of the return of our Judge, King, Friend, Savior, and Lord.
Revive us Oh Lord that we your people may rejoice in you.
Make us ready to meet Jesus.
Amen.

Kris Decker - Renovatus Prayer

Kris Decker

"What Jesus requests, he provides"

Lynn Deshazo

Lord, You are more precious than silver.
Lord, You are more costly than gold.
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds,
And nothing I desire compares to You.

Lord, Your Love is higher than mountains.
Lord, Your Love is deeper than seas.
Lord, Your Love encompasses the nations,
And yet, You live right here inside of me!

Who can weigh the value of knowing You?
Who can judge the worth of who You are?
Who can count the blessings of loving You?
Who can say just how great You are?

Lord, You are more precious than silver.
Lord, You are more costly than gold.
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds,
And nothing I desire compares to You.

And nothing I desire compares to You.

Kris Decker

"Love is sacrificial action"

Gabe Sylvia

"Love is being committed to someone else's good or glory"

Dallas Willard

"Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone."

Matthew Stephen Soleto

Still Holding Me

The world around us, it does crumble, and the wind pushes waves on the seas,
and nothing that is here is constant except for change.
There is a Beacon with a light that's steady, and it points to safety from the rocky shores,
where sailing souls can find their only rescue - a peace that is found amidst the storm.

(chorus)
He's still holding you; He's still holding me, and He's the One still calming raging seas.
He never left us here; He still calms our fears; He wipes away our tears; His name is Jesus.

Only Christ can fix the problems we are facing. Only He knows what we really need.
He alone can give us passage to the harbor so that with Him we can ever be.
He is constant, yes He's always shining, pointing to our Father, God above;
bringing peace to us and reconciliation between Him and us and others that He loves.

Augustus Toplady

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
let me hide myself in thee; 
let the water and the blood, 
from thy wounded side which flowed, 
be of sin the double cure; 
save from wrath and make me pure. 
 

Not the labors of my hands 
can fulfill thy law's commands; 
could my zeal no respite know, 
could my tears forever flow, 
all for sin could not atone; 
thou must save, and thou alone. 

Nothing in my hand I bring, 
simply to the cross I cling; 
naked, come to thee for dress; 
helpless, look to thee for grace; 
foul, I to the fountain fly; 
wash me, Savior, or I die. 

While I draw this fleeting breath, 
when mine eyes shall close in death, 
when I soar to worlds unknown, 
see thee on thy judgment throne, 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
let me hide myself in thee. 

J. I. Packer

"I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face"

J. I. Packer, My Path of Prayer, p. 56

D. A. Carson

"Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray.  We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer.  We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray.  That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray...What we actually do reflects our highest priorities.  That means we can proclaim our commitment to prayer until the cows come home, but unless we actually pray, our actions disown our words."

D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, p. 19

Edward Welch

...the psalmist says, "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?  But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared" (Ps. 130:3-4).
Do you ever think that your sins are too bad, and that forgiveness for those sins requires you to get your act together first?  If so, you don't fear God.  You are minimizing his forgiveness.  You are acting as though his forgiveness is ordinary, just like that of any person or make-believe god.  If you think like that, you don't believe he is holy.  In contrast, the fear of the Lord leads us to believe that when God makes promises too good to be true, they are indeed true."

Edward Welch, Running Scared, p. 195

Edward Welch

"We can work up the motivation to approach someone in love, but when we are rebuffed we might find that our goal was not so much to love as to find a different strategy to help us be loved.  Persistence in rebalancing* demands the impossible.  It demands the work of the Spirit of love."

*Ed Welch asserts that a person will walk in freedom if they are loving more than they are needing love.  This recalibrating of giving more love than the love that you need is what he is referring to as "rebalancing".

Edward Welch, Running Scared, pg. 186-187