Est.

  I hope you are as encouraged by these as I have been! 

I'd heard the name often enough but I had only read one or two of his quotes.  Here are a few that I thought are particularly worth sharing.  "For eighteen centuries every engine of destruction that human science, philosophy, wit, reasoning or brutality could bring to bear against a book has been brought to bear against that book to stamp it out of the world, but it has a mightier hold on the world today than ever before. If that were man’s book it would have been annihilated and forgotten hundreds of years ago…  It stands absolutely unshaken today. At times almost all of the wise and great of the earth have been pitted against the Bible, and only an obscure few for it. Yet it has stood." "The great need to-day in individuals, in churches and in preachers is that the Wind of God blow upon us."  "God has not changed; and His ear is just as quick to hear the voice of real prayer, and His hand is just as strong to save, as it ever was."  "There must ...

"We must meet the present emergency with a spirit of optimism. This is no time for repining, no time for looking backward, no time for self-pity or defeated complaining. We are on the winning side and we cannot lose. “Lo I am with you” makes ultimate defeat impossible. Surely the days are evil and the times are waxing late, but the true Christian is not caught unawares. He has been forewarned of just such times as these and has been expecting them. Present events only confirm the long-range wisdom of Jesus Christ and prove the authenticity of the prophetic Word. So the believer actually turns defeat into victory and draws strength from the knowledge that the Lord in whom he trusts has foretold events and is in full command of the situation. Let us beware allowing our spiritual comforts to rise and fall with world news or the changing political and economic situation. We who leaned Upon Jesus and Trust in the watchful love of a Heavenly Father are not dependent upon those things fo...

"Believe me, you cannot stand still in your souls. Habits of good or evil are daily strengthening in your hearts. Every day you are either getting nearer to God, or further off. Every year that you continue unrepentant, the wall of division between you and heaven becomes higher and thicker, and the gulf to be crossed deeper and broader. Oh, dread the hardening effect of constant lingering in sin! " From J. C. Ryle's "Thoughts for young men". (In which authority do you trust? Man's opinion or God's Word?)

 

Sorry if some of these are blurry, don't know why that happened but hopefully if you click on them, it should become clear. I found these encouraging. Hope you do too. Most quotes from the book "Dangers of a shallow faith." The last is a prayer from today's devotional.

“Come, warm your hearts, all intellectual capacities, at this fire; O come, all ye created faculties, and smell the precious ointments of Christ; O come, sit down under this shadow, taste and eat the apples of life. O that angels would come, and generations of men, and wonder, admire, adore, fall down before the unsearchable wisdom of this gospel art of the unsearchable riches of Christ!”  “I pray God that I may never find my will again. Oh, that Christ would subject my will to His, and trample it under His feet.” “Our fair morning is at hand, the day-star is near the rising, and we are not many miles from home; what matters the ill entertainment in the smoky inns of this miserable life? We are not to stay here, and we will be dearly welcome to him whom we go to.” “We may sing beforehand, even in our winter storm, in the expectation of a summer sun at the turn of the year; no created powers can mar our Lord Jesus' music, nor spill our song of joy. Let us then be glad a...

"Lord, let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am." ~ David Brainerd "We should always look upon ourselves as God's servants, placed in God's world, to do his work; and accordingly labour faithfully for him; not with a design to grow rich and great, but to glorify God, and do all the good we possibly can." ~ David Brainerd "There is a God in heaven who overrules all things for the best; and this is the comfort of my soul." ~ David Brainerd "Let me forget the world and be swallowed up in the desire to glorify God." ~ David Brainerd "Further, Take heed that you faithfully perform the business you have to do in the world, from a regard to the commands of God; and not from an ambitious desire of being esteemed better than others." ~ David Brainerd "I have received my all from God. Oh, that I could return my all to God." ~ David Brainerd "If you hope for happiness in the w...

“I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished...I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it.” “Intimate knowledge of God is possible if we habitually search His Holy Scriptures & translate what we find into obedience.” “The word of God is our only standard, and the Holy Spirit our only teacher.” “If the Holy Spirit guides us, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.” “Our heavenly Father never takes anything from his children unless he means to give them something better.” “Laying up treasures in heaven will draw the heart heavenward.” “The individual who...

"Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live. The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out." "God doesn't expect the impossible from us. He wants us to expect the impossible from Him!" "Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray that He would empty us." "We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining- they just shine." "The work of the Spirit is to impart life, to implant hope, to give liberty, to testify of Christ, to guide us into all truth, to teach us all things, to comfort the believer, and to convict the world of sin." "If a man just stops to think what he has to praise God for, he will find there is enough to keep him singing praises for a week." "The Bible was not given for our information but f...

"One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake." "If you are a stranger to prayer, you are a stranger to the greatest source of power known to human beings." "The only way to keep a broken vessel full is to keep it always under the tap." "Conversion is a complete surrender to Jesus. It's a willingness to do what he wants you to do." "The reason you don't like the Bible, you old sinner, is because it knows all about you." "Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in." "A revival does two things. First, it returns the Church from her backsliding and second, it causes the conversion of men and women; and it always includes the conviction of sin on the part of the Church.  What a spell the devil seems to cast over the Church today!" "Let's quit fiddling with religion ...

Let all who desire to please Christ, watch and pray against self-esteem. It is a feeling which is deeply rooted in our hearts. Thousands have come out from the world, taken up the cross, professed to forsake their own righteousness, and believe in Christ, who have felt irritated and annoyed when a person has been more honored than themselves. These things ought not so to be. We ought often to ponder the words of Paul, “Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves.” (Phil 2:3) Blessed is that person who can sincerely and gladly rejoice when others are exalted, though they themselves are overlooked and passed by! – J.C. Ryle  https://www.facebook.com/ChristianDevotionalReadings  found here: https://www.facebook.com/cr8edbychrist/?fref=ts Philippians 2:5-11 New King James Version (NKJV) The Humbled and Exalted Christ 5  Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ J...

"Our job is to introduce people to Jesus, then get out of the way." "If you don't expect to hear God speak to you, you won't be ready to hear Him when He does." "Let us strive to follow the great Fountain of Light wherever He goes, and see Him with open face. Oh, for an eye more quick to discern His dealings! Oh, for an ear more ready to hear His voice." J.C. Ryle. "We have been led to the cross of Christ- our shackles of guilt have been broken off; we are no longer slaves, but children of the Living God." C.H. Spurgeon. "However sinfully and carelessly men may go on while they live, they secretly cling to the hope that they will be found among the saints when they die. It is all a delusion." J.C. Ryle

(I haven't quite finished the book, but I'm really enjoying it so far.) "In life," said the preacher, "it isn't enough to be a signpost, just pointing the way to righteousness. We have to walk that way ourselves." "Perhaps I'm a bit old-fashioned," she said quietly. "But I feel His presence so wonderfully. He often comes into the scullery with me. I never feel ashamed of His seeing me with my coarse apron on. He understands. You see, I just trust Him, so I know it's all right. I used to worry a lot years ago, but now I find it all so simple. All you have to do is to take Him at His Word." "And for myself, sir, why every day I take out of my mind whatever is unwholesome - or I should say I have it taken out for me." "How?" "By prayer. Every night I am still for a bit." "But it is not always easy to be still. I have little time for doing nothing." "Ah, but a man isn't ...

(picture found on facebook: Revival Library) "Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be, Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wand'ring heart to Thee." Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.  Romans 5:20

"We must get on our knees before our open Bible and allow the Holy Spirit to break our hearts and create a passion for Christ as we've never had before. We must ask for a passion of such a nature that the things of this world will begin to diminish in their attraction for us. A passion for Christ will enable us to rise above our culture and look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let us be alert to the season in which we are living. It is the season of the Blessed Hope, calling for us to cut our ties with the world and build ourselves on this One who will soon appear. He is our hope - a Blessed Hope enabling us to rise above our times and fix our gaze upon Him.  As Bible-believing Christians, it is imperative that we stay fully alert to the times in which we live. Our enemy is a master deceiver and a con artist of the highest order, diverting our attention from the Blessed Hope with the problems we face every day. Understanding Bible prophecy will create a pass...

"Redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin and through Jesus Christ can receive an unsullied heredity, viz., the Holy Spirit."   Oswald Chambers "God is always right, always trustworthy, and He loves us deeply."  Mark Thomas I thought these were really great reminders.

"You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame. God has called you to a higher standard.  Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest; your best for His glory." " The honour of Jesus Christ is at stake in your bodily life. "                                                                       (Oswald Chambers) "May this day be a day of power with me as to some noble effort for the glory of God and the good of my fellowmen! I am wholly at Thy disposal; willing, yea, eager to be used of Thee for Thy holy purposes." "Let us not fear any danger, for He is mighty to save !" "This day let us just stow ourselves away in our hiding place and sit and sing under the protection of our Covert. Blessed Jesus! Blessed Jesus! How we love The...