I'm Back

Sorry for the month-long blog break! To get us going again, I wanted to share some great quotes I came across this week:


“Dear God, the treasures of thy love
Are everlasting mines,
Deep as our helpless miseries are,
And boundless as our sins.
The happy gates of gospel grace
Stand open night and day,
Lord, we are come to seek supplies,
And drive our wants away.”

— Isaac Watts, “The Invitation of the Gospel”


None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are.

—Anne Rice


“One cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see. By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community. Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community, but exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.”

—Francis A. Schaeffer, The Church before the Watching World


Don’t believe everything you think. You cannot be trusted to tell yourself the truth. Stay in the Word.

—Jerry Bridges

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strength for the Week - Selfishly Alone

Selfishly Alone I heard a preacher I like talk about why Christians should go to church.   He used this story as an illustration: ‘A pastor was having a barbeque at his house.   The entire congregation was invited.   There was one man in particular who came with his wife. She was a member of the church, but he himself, though a professing Christian, was not. So while the pastor was grilling, he called the man over and asked him why he did not come to church.   The man replied: “Pastor, I believe in Jesus Christ.   I know my soul is secure. I don’t need church.   I am just fine being a Christian on my own.”   As the conversation continued, the pastor pulled one piece of charcoal that was too hot to touch out of the fire with tongs, and placed it on the ground. When the man was growing tired of the conversation he started to excuse himself, but the pastor asked him to pick up the piece of charcoal first.   The man did and he held it out to the pastor. The pastor said: “When th
Read more

A New Way to Get Strength

Okay, I know I may be behind the times, but I found this new thing called "Blogging". I wonder if anyone else is doing it... Anyway, the days of writing a (mostly) weekly SFTW in Word and e-mailing a document that some could open and some could not are now behind me. Instead, I will be writing right here. Please enter your e-mail address in the little box on the right and subscribe to the SFTW blog. Then, I assume, this internet thingy somehow alerts you when I post something new and you will get a message in your inbox thingy. (Sorry, I didn't mean to get so technical...) Will I post every week? Hopefully. I think with the ease of this new "Blogging" thing, I may even post more than that. Either way, I'd love to have your support in this and I'd love to have you read what God puts on my heart to write. I still love you all!
Read more

Push and Pull

Let me tell you about Juliana (real name used with permission).  She is a young lady that I work with.  As far as I know, she is not a believer, though she is not antagonistic towards talk about God. She said something that struck me a few weeks ago.  While I was speaking to Jenny (see the post from a few weeks back here ) about her upcoming wedding, and as I was asking her about her fiancée’s church membership (or lack thereof), Juliana basically wondered, out loud, if I was trying to convince Jenny and her hubby-to-be to join RFH.  I explained that I was not doing that, but that I firmly believed that Christians should belong to a local church that was doctrinally sound whether it was RFH or not. Then she said, “You’re a religious drug pusher.” Interesting… Now, Juliana is a sassy young woman with a sarcastic streak.  I think she was only joking (though I could be wrong).  And I would hardly consider myself a religion pusher, a faith pusher, or even an evangelist for
Read more