“No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor that is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one’s talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off.” (Leonard Ravenhill)

“Whole days and weeks I have spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer.” (George Whitefield)

When God shares His burden with us.

There have been many times in my life as a Christian that I have encountered someone hurting, poverty stricken, diseased, or abandoned and have been moved with compassion. With tears I have sought God to help me deal with the sorrow that I have felt on behalf of another struggling, less fortunate soul. It has only been recently our Lord has given me a glimpse of understanding into the mystery of compassion.

Read more...

It doesn’t matter if public opinion embraces a certain concept or if the majority of believers accept a certain standard. If that concept or standard is contrary to the will of God, it must be questioned, challenged, or rejected. …Fellow soldiers, holy servants of the risen Lord, blood bought disciples of the Master, heed the call. It’s now or never; it’s time to put up or shut up. Either we take a stand once and for all, or forever hang our heads in shame. History is awaiting our move. So on with it! Let’s start a revolution!
(Dr. Michael L. Brown)

“ ‘Take up thy cross and follow me.’ I heard the blessed Savior call; how can I make a lesser sacrifice, when Jesus gave His all?”
(A.H. Ackley – taken from the hymn “Take up Thy Cross” in 1922)

"One thing you knew about a man walking down the road carrying a cross; he wasn’t coming back.”
(Leonard Ravenhill)

“If possible, I would have finalized the training of every one of my soldiers with twenty-four hours hanging over Hell, to see it’s eternal torment.”
(William Booth)

Read more...

“Yet I consider it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus…. For indeed he was sick almost unto death….Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem; because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life…
(Philippians 2:25-30)

“Those who truly love Christ, and are heartily in interest on His kingdom, will think it very well worth their while to hazard their health and life to do Him service, and promote the edification of His church.”
(Matthew Henry)

“We need a baptism of honesty in the courts of the Lord.”
(Leonard Ravenhill)

“Honesty is the best policy.”
(Unknown)

“Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed and faithful are the wounds of a friend.
(Prov. 27:5&6)

“No man has truly repented until his sin has wounded him, until the wound has broken him and defeated him and taken all of the fight and self-assurance out of him and he sees himself as the one who nailed his Savior to the tree.”
(A, W. Tozer)

“Never mistake remorse for repentance; remorse simply puts a man in hell while he is on earth, it carries no remedial quality with it at all, nothing that betters a man. . . Repentance is not a reaction, remorse is. Remorse is – I will never do the thing again (but it is only a temporary emotion without any power to change). Repentance is that I deliberately become the opposite of what I have been. . .the disposition of the Son of God can only enter my life by the road to repentance”.
(Oswald Chambers)

“But Saul met Christ and heard His voice. Then when the fire eating Pharisee, whose stormy soul was corroding with the acid of religious bitterness, was met by Deity, Saul was turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God."

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in 1989. I stepped out of the car and headed throught the doors of the fireman's recreation hall in Albion, NewYork. My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty and anxiety was at an all time high. This was the morning that I was to speak publically for the first time. I had practiced preaching my message to myself about twenty times that morning. I thought it sounded good at home, but I was so nervouse that I was sure I would vomit as soon as I stood behind the pulpit. I sat and shook while the announcements were being read, I remember God speaking to my heart "Just keep it simple."

“We may never get one half or one quarter of the way toward the ideal. But never try to degrade God’s purpose and bring it down to our level. But by the grace of God put the standard up there where Jesus put it, and then get as near to it as you can.”
(John G. Lake)

“Every church is either supernatural or superficial.”
(Leonard Ravenhill)

“The majority of what we see in churches across America is simply man’s best effort to make up for the lack of the presence of God”.
(Dr. Michael L. Brown

“For Him and Through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
(Romans 11:36)

The critical need of the church at this moment is men . . . We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul because they have already died to the allurements of this world. Yes, if evangelical Christianity is to stay alive, it must have men again – the right kind of men. It must repudiate the weaklings who dare not speak out, and it must seek in prayer and much humility the coming again of men of the stuff of which prophets and martyrs are made.”
(A.W. Tozer)

Dust covers Sam's feet as he walks down the road. For weeks this young entrepreneur has carefully planned his journey. Skillfully weighing the cost/benefit factor, he makes his way toward Jericho.

Read more...

When two churches meet

There is a lot of talk these days about our methods of presenting the message of Jesus. I've never been one for following the latest fads, and in regards to the gospel, I don't think I will start now. Our methods are one thing, but the message is another. I'm not against dramas, special songs, or Power Point presentations, but I strongly disagree if any of these things trivialize or soften the cross of Jesus.

“It is only before the throne of grace that we become endued with holy fire; but he who waits there long and believingly will imbibe that fire, and come forth from his communion with God, bearing the tokens of where he has been. For the individual believer, and above all, for the laborer in the Lord’s vineyard, the only way to gain spiritual power is by secret waiting at the throne of God for the baptism.”
(Wm. Arthur)

“The doom oh the doom of barren trees. They shall be hewn down and cast into the fire. God will deal with them as men deal with dried trees that cover the ground. He will mark them by some signal token of His displeasure. He will cut them down to death, and cast them into the fires of Hell, a fire blown by the billows of God’s wrath and fed with the wood of barren trees.”
(M. Henry)

“Beware of the barrenness of a busy life.”
(Corrie Ten-Boom)