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