12 Quotes that Touches the Heart

Greetings All,

Today's "thoughts" are a little different than most weeks.  Today, as I was glancing through my Bible, my eye focused on some of the quotes I had written into the side columns and empty page spaces over the last 30 years or so. They are thoughts that obviously touched my heart in some way or I would not have taken the time to pen them into those spaces. Thus I offer you 12 of the many I have written there. I do not know what books some of these came from, but in the cases where I do, I give the reference.  I trust one or two may touch your heart as well.  In fact, if one happens to do so, just out of curiosity, let me know!  Enjoy.

     "God, of your goodness give me yourself, for you are enough for me. If I ask anything less, I know I shall continue to want. Only in you, I have everything." 

Lady Julian of Norwich

     "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all." 

Isaac Watts, Celebration Hymnal

     "A loud cry in the ears of God is that burning love of the soul that cries out: "My God and my love, You are all mine, and I am all Yours." Deepen your love in me, O Lord. Let your love possess me and raise me above myself with a fervor and wonder beyond imagination.  Let me sing the song of love. Let my soul spend itself in your praise, rejoicing in your love."

Thomas A'Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

"Oh, Lord!  If I worship you from fear of hell, burn me in hell; 

and if I worship you form hope of paradise, exclude me from it.

But if I worship you for your own sake -- 

then withhold not from me your eternal beauty." 

Anonymous

     "There was once in man [before the Fall] a true happiness, of which there now remains to him only an empty trace which he vainly tries to fill with things from his environment. Yet all these efforts are inadequate, for the infinite abyss can only be filled with an infinite and immutable object, that is, by God Himself."

Blaise Pascal, Pensees

     "The saint has spiritual joy and pleasure by a kind of effusion of God upon the soul. In these things the redeemed have communion with God; that is, they partake with Him and of Him." 

Jonathan Edwards,  On Knowing God

     "We must return to New Testament Christianity, not in creed only, but in complete manner of life as well.  Holiness, obedience, humility, simplicity, earnestness, self-control, modesty and cross-bearing must again be made a living part of the total Christian concept and be carried out in everyday conduct. We must cleanse the temple of hucksters and moneychangers and come fully under the authority of our risen Lord once again."

A. W. Tozer

     "Prayer for revival will prevail when it is accompanied by a radical amendment of life and not before. All night prayer meetings that are not preceded by practical repentance may actually be displeasing to God -- to obey is better than sacrifice [I Samuel 15:22]...  God is not interested in increased church attendance unless those who attend amend their ways and begin to live a holy life [Isaiah 1:10-20]."

A. W. Tozer

     "As grace is at first from God, so it is continually from Him and is maintained by Him... Men are dependent on the power of God for every exercise of grace, for carrying on that work in the heart, for subduing sin and corruption, for increasing holy principles, and enabling us to bring forth fruit in every good work."

Jonathan Edwards, from the sermon, "God Glorified in Man's Dependence." 

     "Can one be spiritually content apart from the continual experience of the divine presence? Can one be a true Pilgrim without a passionate yearning for the Divine Reality?" 

Anonymous

     "Strength and struggle go together. The supreme reward of struggle is strength. Life is a battle and the greatest joy is to overcome. The pursuit of easy things makes men weak. It is in following the path of least resistance that makes both rivers and men crooked."

Ralphe Parlette 

     "A leader is a person who, on a large scale, is able to rise above their own fears and anxieties and so succeed in changing the world. They can work for years at their purposes, but they also have to have something absolutely mold their vision. What is not before their eyes must be more real to them than what is. When people have a vision of what they want to do and are willing to accept torture, danger, difficulty, anxiety, instability, insecurity and even death, then they are leaders. And if they are successful, then that certifies it." 

Norman Mailer, TV Interview  (Mailer originally used the word "hero" in place of "leader.")

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Eternal Perspectives -- A Collection of Quotations on Heaven, the New Earth, and Life After Death

Greetings All!

Just over 15 years ago I had an older gentleman in my church in Honduras ask me: "Pastor, why is it that no one preaches on heaven anymore?  Everything seems to be focused on the here and now."  He was right then, and his words only more so now.  Heaven is not a common sermon topic anymore -- and the lack of it is seen in the lack of life in many churches. Without an eternal perspective, our priorities as Christians become stunted, get twisted, and can even become unchristian.

Thus, in honor of him (who left these earthly shores a few years back) I offer you these selections from Randy Alcorn's book, "Eternal Perspectives -- A Collection of Quotations on Heaven, the New Earth, and Life After Death."  It is a massive collection of quotes on that topic from Christian's throughout the ages. I trust the one's I've selected (read and meditated upon, two or three a day) will increase your hunger to know more and cause you to see the benefit of such a renewed focus. Enjoy.

"Christians are living too much in the "present now" -- and [therefore] the anticipation of better things to come has almost died out in the Church of Christ. We find ourselves so well-situated now, that we don't really need any of tomorrow's heaven. We don't need to hope -- we have everything well enough now."

A. W. Tozer

"All beauty in the world is either a memory of Paradise, or a prophecy of the coming transfigured world."

Nicholas Berdyaev

"O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without You, it would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have you still, it would be a heaven to me, for You are all the heaven I need."

Samuel Rutherford

A mere glimpse of heaven would be enough to re-energize us and give us renewed strength to persevere till the end.  "In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She'd already been the first woman to swim the English channel both ways. The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside her, told her she was close and could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out.  It wasn't until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than a half mile away. At a news conference the next day she said: "All I could see was the fog... I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it."

C. J. Mahaney

"On a tombstone in Indiana that dates back more than one hundred years is written: 

"Pause, stranger, when you pass me by;

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so you will be. 

So prepare for death and follow me.

An unknown passerby scratched these additional words on the tombstone:

"To follow you I'm not content,

Until I know which way you went."

Ron Rhodes

"Only the pure in heart will see God, because only the pure in heart want to see God.  Heaven would not be heaven to those who detest holiness here. Those who seek not God's presence now, would never be happy to dwell in it for all eternity then. And God is just, He will never give the Christ-rejecting unbeliever then, what they don't want now."

"He who hopes to be gathered with saints in heaven, while he only loves the gathering of sinners on earth, is deceiving himself." 

J. C. Ryle 

"God loves us enough to tell us the truth. There are two eternal destinations, not one, and we must choose the right path if we are to go to heaven. All roads do not lead to heaven. Only one does -- Jesus Christ... As human beings, we have a terminal disease called mortality. The current death rate is 100 percent. Unless Christ returns soon, we're all going to die. We don't like to think about death, yet worldwide, 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, and nearly 11,000 every hour.  If the Bible is right about what happens to us after death, that means that 250,000 people every day go either to heaven or to hell."

Randy Alcorn

"More important than all the physical beauty of the heavenly city; more important than the fellowship we will enjoy eternally with all God's people from all nations and all periods of history; more important than our freedom from pain and sorrow and physical suffering... more important by far than any of these will be the fact that we will be in the presence of God and enjoying unhindered fellowship with Him."

Wayne Grudem

"Some of you while sitting here today (in worship) have been trying to lift up your minds to heavenly contemplation, but you cannot. The business has gone so wrong this week; the children have vexed you so much; sickness has been in the house so sorely; you yourself feel in your body quite out of order for devotion -- these enemies break your peace...  [But remember] life is but a moment. In short time you will appear in eternity. And though impatience counts it long, yet faith corrects her and reminds her that one hour with God will make the longest life seem but a point in time, a mere nothing, a watch in the night, a thing that was and was not, that has come and gone."

Charles Spurgeon

"The reason why we have no ease of heart or soul [is that] we are seeking our rest in things which can never satisfy, and not seeking to know God, almighty, all-wise, all-good...  We shall never cease wanting and longing until we possess Him in fullness and joy. Then we shall have no further wants. Meanwhile, His will is that we go on knowing and loving until we are perfected in heaven...  The more clearly the soul sees His Blessed face, by grace and love, the more it longs to see it in all its fullness."

Julian of Norwich

"When the Bible defines eternal life, it is not in terms of location or duration, but in terms of relationship with God: 'This is eternal life,' says Jesus, 'that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent' (John 17:3)." 

Daniel Brown

     May your contemplation of eternity move you to live more fully in the present, and resolve once-and-for-all where you shall spend it.  Alcorn is right when he says, "not all roads lead to heaven."  That is what the Bible clearly teaches, along with the twin truth, that, "Only one road leads there -- Jesus Christ."

That others may know Him, Pastor Jeff