The Word Preached

Thomas Watson:

"The Word preached is the engine God uses to effect repentance. It is compared to a hammer and to a fire (Jer. 23:29), the one to break, the other to melt the heart. How great a blessing it is to have the Word, which is of such virtue, dispensed! And how hard they who put out the lights of heaven will find to escape hell."

"The Word written is a repository in which God has laid up sovereign oils and balsams to recover sick souls; and the Word preached is the pouring out of these oils, and applying them to the sick patient."

Let Me Rest There...

I was reminded of some of my favorite Jim Elliot quotes from The Shadow of the Almighty. God continues to bring these to my mind and I find myself using Jim's language in my prayers. I thank God for putting Jim Elliot in my path at just the right time when I was in college.

“God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.”

“Father, let me be weak that I might loose my clutch on everything temporal. My life, my reputation, my possessions, Lord, let me loose the tension of the grasping hand.”

“I covenanted with the Father that He would do either of two things: either glorify Himself to the utmost in me or slay me. By His grace I shall not have His second best.”

“O Christ, let me know Thee--let me catch glimpses of Thyself, seated and expectant in glory, let me rest there despite all wrong surging round me. Lead me in the right path, I pray.”

“Father, take my life, yea, my blood if Thou wilt, and consume it with Thine enveloping fire. I would not save it, for it is not mine to save. Have it Lord, have it all. Pour out my life as an oblation for that world. Blood is only of value as it flows before Thine altar.”

“God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame for you.”

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

A Tribute: some of my favorite quotes from John Stott

“All around us we see Christians and churches relaxing their grasp on the gospel, fumbling it, and in danger of letting it drop from their hands altogether.”

"Apathy, selfishness and complacency blossom everywhere in the world except at the cross."

"If the church is central to God's purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives. How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously? How dare we push to the circumference what God has placed at the center?"

“On earth she is often in rags and tatters, stained and ugly, despised and persecuted. But one day she will be seen for what she is, nothing less than the bride of Christ, “free from spots, wrinkles or any other disfigurement,” holy and without blemish, beautiful and glorious. It is to this constructive end that Christ has been working and is continuing to work. The bride does not make herself presentable; it is the bridegroom who labors to beautify her in order to present her to himself.”

"No one who has been to the cross and seen God's immeasurable and unmerited love displayed there can go back to a life of selfishness."

Hope for Prayer

"Prayer finds its hope not in the qualifications of the one praying, but in the character and plan of the God who is hearing."

-Paul Tripp, A Shelter in the Time of Storm, p. 53.

More Precious Every Year

"Let us serve Him faithfully as our Master. Let us obey Him loyally as our King. Let us study His teachings as our Prophet. Let us walk dilligently after Him as our Example. Let us look anxiously for Him as our coming Redeemer of body as well as soul. But above all let us prize Him as our Sacrifice, and rest our whole weight on His death as atonement for sin. Let His blood be more precious in our eyes every year we live. Whatever else we glory in about Christ, let us glory above all things in His cross."

-JC Ryle