Quotes that give Food for Your Soul

Greetings All!

     This week's "thoughts" come from various authors.  They are timeless truths having to do with salvation or growth in godliness. They are self-explanatory and obviously written from a grounding in Scriptural truth mixed with the "yes" of personal experience. Take a moment to meditate on each one and you will surely find food for your soul as well as guidance for walking with Christ.  Enjoy.

     "Always respond to every impulse to pray. The impulse to pray may come when you are reading or when you are struggling to understand a text. I would make an absolute law of this -- always obey such an impulse.  Where does it come from?  It is the work of the Holy Spirit (Phil. 2:12-13). This often leads to some of the most remarkable experiences in the life of the minister. So never resist. Never postpone it. Never push it aside because you are busy. Give yourself to it; yield to it... Such a call to prayer must never be regarded as a distraction. Always respond to it immediately and thank God if it happens to you frequently."

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)  "Preaching and Preachers."

     "Tell the young, tell the poor, tell the aged, tell the ignorant, tell the sick, tell the dying -- tell them about Christ. Tell them of His love; tell them of His doings; tell them what He has done for the chief of sinners; tell them what He is willing to do until the last day of time; tell it to them over and over again.  Never be tired of speaking of Christ. Say to them broadly and fully, freely and unconditionally, unreservedly and undoubtingly -- 'Come unto Christ, as the penitent thief did; come unto Christ and you shall be saved."

J. C,. Ryle (1816-1900) Sermon - "Christ's Greatest Trophy."

     "Grace stands in direct opposition to any supposed worthiness on our part. To say it another way: Grace and works are mutually exclusive. As Paul said in Romans 11:6, "And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; for if it were, then grace would no longer be grace."  Our relationship with God is based on either works or grace. There is never a works-plus-grace relationship with Him."

Jerry Bridges (1929-2016) "Transforming Grace."

     "Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him... To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce hardened hearts and awaken moribund souls." 

R. C. Sproul  (1939- ____)     "The Holiness of God."

     "Grace does away with the distance between the sinner and God, which sin had created. Grace meets the sinner on the spot where he stands; grace approaches him just as he is. Grace does not wait till there is something to attract it, nor until good reason is found in the sinner for its flowing to him...  It was free, sovereign grace when it thought of the sinner; it was free grace when it found him and laid hold of him, and it is free grace when it hands him up into glory." 

Horatius Bonar  (1808-1889)  Sermon -  "God's Purpose in Grace."

     "I know of no other way to triumph over sin long-term, than to gain a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction in God."

John Piper  (1946- _____)    "Desiring God."

     "If heaven were by merit, it would never be heaven to me, for if I were in it I should say, "I am sure I am here by mistake... I have no claim to it."  But if it be by grace and not by works, then we may walk into heaven with boldness."

Charles H. Spurgeon   (1834-1892)

"When I stand before the throne, 

  Dressed in beauty not my own, 

  When I see Thee as Thou art,

  Love Thee with unsinning heart,

  Then Lord shall I fully know -- not till then, 

  How much I owe." 

Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)

That about sums it up for today!  

Blessings on your tomorrow, Pastor Jeff

Collective Thoughts of Richard Sibbes

Greetings All,

     This weeks "thought" consists of many individual thoughts by a man named Richard Sibbes (1577-1635). He was one of the greatest Puritans of his age and greatly influenced the direction and content of Puritan preaching, theology, and writing in both his homeland of England and in America.

Of him Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote: "I shall never cease to be grateful to Richard Sibbes, who was balm to my soul at a period in my life when I was overworked and badly overtired, and therefore subject in an unusual manner to the onslaughts of the devil.... I found at that time that Richard Sibbes... was an unfailing remedy. His books The Bruised Reed and The Soul's Conflict quietened, soothed, comforted, encouraged, and healed me."

     That seems to have been the stated purpose of Sibbes preaching, for he wrote: "To preach is to woo.... The main scope of all [preaching] is, to allure us to the entertainment of Christ's mild, safe, wise, victorious government [or Lordship]." And historian William Haller says of his sermons: "They were the most brilliant and popular of all the utterances of the Puritan church militant.” Charles Spurgeon's so cherished Sibbes writings that he asked his wife Suzanne to read to him from Sibbes' book "The Bruised Reed" when he was bedridden. In fact, just reading that one book, as I've told many, will change your attitude toward the Puritans.

     Here are some gems taken from his writings. Enjoy.

     On July 4,1635, the day before his death, he told a friend: "I commend and bequeath my soul into the hands of my gracious Savior, who hath redeemed it with his most precious blood, and appears now in heaven to receive it."

     Of Jesus' righteous life of obedience, and His atoning death for sin, the merits of which God graciously credits to the the account of the believing sinner, he wrote: “God knows we have nothing of ourselves, therefore in the covenant of grace he requires no more than he gives, but gives what he requires, and accepts what he gives.”

     The following quotes will ring true to anyone who has walked with Christ for any length of time.

     “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us... No sin is so great but the satisfaction of Christ and His mercies are greater; it is beyond comparison. Fathers and mothers in tenderest affections are but beams that point and lead us upwards to the infinite mercy of God in Christ”

     "Measure not God's love and favor by your own feeling. The sun shines as clearly in the darkest day as it does in the brightest. The difference is not in the sun, but in some clouds which hinder the manifestation of the light thereof.” 

     "Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.”

     "Weakness, with acknowledgement of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect his strength in us; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to him in whom our strength lies.” 

     "Whatsoever is good for God's children they shall have it; for all is theirs to help them towards heaven; therefore if poverty be good they shall have it; if disgrace or crosses be good they shall have them; for all is ours to promote our greatest prosperity."

     "Self-emptiness prepares us for spiritual fullness."

     "The love of a wife to her husband may begin from the supply of her necessities, but afterwards she may love him also for the sweetness of his person; so the soul first loves Christ for salvation but when she is brought to Him and finds what sweetness there is in Him then she loves Him for Himself."

     "Partial obedience is not obedience at all; to single out easy things that do not oppose our lusts, which are not against our reputation, therein some will do more than they need; but our obedience must be universal to all God's commandments, and that because He commands it. Empty relationships are nothing; if we profess ourselves God's servants and do not honour Him by our obedience, we take but an empty title." 

     "When we are foiled, let us believe we shall overcome; when we have fallen, let us believe we shall rise again. Jacob, after he received a blow which made him lame, yet would not give over wrestling (Gen. 32:25) till he had obtained the blessing. So let us never give up, but, in our thoughts knit the beginning, progress and end together, and then we shall see ourselves in heaven out of the reach of all enemies."

     "It is evident that our conversion is sound when we loathe and hate sin from the heart."

     "Let us lay ourselves open to the Spirit's touch. When the Spirit has ruling sway in our lives he fine-tunes our souls much like a musical instrument, and then he plays our lives as a piano concerto before God... The Holy Spirit must rule; he will have the keys delivered to him. We must submit to his government, and when he is in the heart he will subdue bit by bit all high thoughts, rebellious risings, and despairing fears."

     As we approach the celebration of Christ's incarnation, I offer these as truths for you to meditate upon so as to stir afresh the glowing embers of your love for Jesus. In Him, Pastor Jeff