God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Jesus Christ the New Creation

Some believers get confused over the idea that Jesus Christ was a new creation
because of the fact He never had a beginning, and is eternal. Since Jesus wasn't a
created being and has always been, how can He be considered the new creation?

The answer is that God redefined what creation really was. The original creation was spoken and shaped and formed by God into existence. While it was a reflection of Jesus Christ, it wasn't exact.

The difference between the old and new creation is the new creation is birthed from heaven, as evidenced time and again by the words of Jesus when He said He wasn't of this world but came from above.

So when Jesus told Nicodemus he had to be born from above if he wanted to see the
kingdom of God, it was a reference to a birth, not an improvement on the old creation or something added to it. It's also why Jesus told His disciples they were not of this world.

All of this is to say that a person truly born of God has the very life of Jesus Christ dwelling in them by the Holy Spirit. This life is the only way the kingdom of God can be seen and tasted.

As a matter of fact, that life begins to express itself in and through the person bearing that life, and it changes that person within and without.

Consequently, when Jesus Christ testified before Pontius Pilate that His kingdom wasn't of this world, it wasn't a reference of indifference to the visible world, but a reference to the source of the kingdom, which was God and heaven itself.

He didn't have his angels and followers fight because He had no interest in taking over a dead and condemned world, He could have done that at any time. What He was doing was introducing an entirely new creation, a totally new life form that was alien to everything in the world they knew.

That new creation was His very life, and while separate from mankind, does dwell within the spirits of those that believe Christ is the son of God. He who has the Son has this life within them.

What begins to happen with this new creation is it dwells in the innermost being of people, and transforms them into the very image of Jesus Christ. It happens through the work of the Cross and resurrection life being released as a result.

In the end, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as people commit their lives fully to Him and cooperate in His ultimate purpose, which is to have a people conformed to His very likeness.

This birthing and growing process of the new creation brings about the kingdom of God on earth in the same measure God's people obey and cooperate with Him.

The building of this kingdom is accomplished through the love of and obedience to God being shared among His people as they grow into a temple fit for the King.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Oswald Chambers Quotes

Oswald Chambers Quotes



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You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.
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We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.
====================
The dearest friend on earth is a mere shadow compared to Jesus Christ.
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Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.
====================
Certain things can only be dealt with by ignoring them; if you face them you increase their power. It is absurd to say, Pray about them; when once a thing is seen to be wrong, don't pray about it, it fixes the mind on it; never for a second brood on it, destroy it by neglect.
====================
If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart.
====================
Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don't want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of 'good time' is seldom in sync with ours.
====================
The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance
====================
The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.
====================
Patience is more than endurance. A saint's life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says--'I cannot stand anymore.' God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God's hands. Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by the patience of faith. 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
====================
Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.
====================
At times God puts us through the discipline of darkness to teach us to heed Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and we are put into the shadow of God's hand until we learn to hear Him...Watch where God puts you into darkness, and when you are there keep your mouth shut. Are you in the dark just now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? Then remain quiet...When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get into the light.
====================
One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God.
====================
The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience.
====================
The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone.
====================
We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life - those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength.
====================
No healthy Christian ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not.
====================
Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing...Certainty is the mark of the common-sense life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation.
====================
What hinders me from hearing is that I am taken up with other things. It is not that I will not hear God, but I am not devoted in the right place. I am devoted to things, to service, to convictions, and God may say what He likes but I do not hear Him.
====================
Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to "go out" in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to "go out" through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.
====================
Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
====================
Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God. This will mean that all the other boundaries of life, whether they are mental, moral, or spiritual limits, are completely free with the freedom God gives His child; that is, a worshiping child, not a wayward one. A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind, or spirit. Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God’s blessing cannot rest on him.
====================
God gives us the vision, then he takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we will have patience.
====================
God plants His saints in the most useless places. We say, 'God intends me to be here because I am so useful.' Jesus never estimated His life along the line of the greatest use. God puts His saints where they will glorify Him, and we are no judge at all of where that is.
====================
Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is small. Sanctification is simply the wonderful expression or evidence of the forgiveness of sins in a human life. But the thing that awakens the deepest fountain of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven his sin. Paul never got away from this. Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.
====================
The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it.
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We have to take the first step as though there were no God. It is no use to wait for God to help us, He will not: but immediately we arise we find He is there.
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When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.
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We have to keep letting go, and slowly and surely the great full life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.
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The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word.
====================
Only one in a thousand sits down in the midst of it all and says—I will watch my Father mend this. God must not be treated as a hospital for our broken “toys,” but as our Father.
====================
A sentimentalist is one who delights to have high and devout emotions stirred whilst reading in an arm-chair, or in a prayer meeting, but he never translates his emotions into action. Consequently a sentimentalist is usually callous, self-centred and selfish, because the emotions he likes to have stirred do not cost him anything.
====================
When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.
====================
Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.
====================

Romantic Comedy "A Strange Brand of Happy" Starring Rebecca St. James Coming this Fall

It would be great to get the word out about the upcoming romantic comedy starting Rebecca St. James, as the wholesome and funny film offers a terrific story that includes a subtle Christian theme; albeit one that is not in your face.

Rebecca St. James is a singer, songwriter and actress who has championed causes such as pro-life and sexual purity.

As for the film, its set for a release date of September 13, 2013, at this time to be shown in 42 cities. The hope of the producers and St. James is for people to pre-order tickets so more theaters will show the film.

With that in mind, here is a preview of the movie below.



Here is a list of the cities the movie will be showing in as of this writing:

 Mobile, AL
 Huntington Beach, CA
 Los Angeles, CA
 Colorado Springs, CO
 Ft. Collins, CO
 Bradenton, FL
 Albany, GA
 Atlanta, GA
 Savannah, GA
 Naperville, IL
 Elkhart, IN
 Fort Wayne, IN
 Indianapolis, IN
 Kansas City, KS
 Ashland, KY
Florence, KY
 Lexington, KY
 Louisville, KY
 Minneapolis, MN
 Warrensburg, MO
 Omaha, NE
 Las Vegas, NV
 Canton, OH
 Cincinnati, OH
 Cleveland, OH
 Columbus, OH
 Dayton, OH
 Findlay, OH
 St. Clairesville, OH
 Tiffin, OH
 Shawnee, OK
 Pittsburgh, PA
 Charleston, SC
 Franklin, TN
 Johnson City, TN
 Knoxville, TN
 Murfreesboro, TN
 Dallas, TX
 Houston, TX
 Kennewick, WA
 Morgantown, WV

Quotes from Helen Keller

Helen Keller Quotes


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Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therin to be content.
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Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.
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Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
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No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
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One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
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We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.
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When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
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The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.
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Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
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Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.
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Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
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Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.
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Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.
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It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel towards our distant goal.
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Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.
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No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
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I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
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Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.
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The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
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I thank God for my handicaps for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.
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I believe that life is given us so that we may grow in love, and I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower.
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It gives me a deep, comforting sense that things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal.
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What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
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Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.
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Once I knew only darkness and stillness. My life was without past or future. But a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.
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The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse. 
======================

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Amy Carmichael Quotes


Amy Carmichael Quotes


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It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desires which He creates.
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We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could. I don’t wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has.
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But God is the God of the waves and the billows, and they are still His when they come over us; and again and again we have proved that the overwhelming thing does not overwhelm. Once more by His interposition deliverance came. We were cast down, but not destroyed.
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I wish thy way.

And when in me myself should rise,

and long for something otherwise,

Then Lord, take sword and spear

And slay.
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Bare heights of loneliness…a wilderness whose burning winds sweep over glowing sands, what are they to HIM? Even there He can refresh us, even there He can renew us.
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Satan is so much more in earnest than we are–he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.
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If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying “Peace, peace,” where is no peace; if I forget the poignant word “Let love be without dissimulation” and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
================
What is the secret to great living? Entire separation to Christ and devotion to Him. Thus speaks every man and woman whose life has made more than a passing flicker in the spiritual realm. 
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If you would live in victory.…you must refuse to be dominated by the seen and the felt.
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There may be love, understanding love, all around us, and yet we may be needing some word of life in our own soul, something that would do what only the Divine can do. “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
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It is a solemn thing to find oneself drawn out in prayer which knows no relief till the soul it is burdened with is born. It is no less solemn afterwards, until Christ is formed in them.
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The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is  a “field full of wheat and tares,
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Joy is not gush. Joy is not mere jolliness. Joy is perfect acquiescence ~ acceptance, rest ~ in God’s will, whatever comes.
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A centipede was happy till one day, a toad in fun said, ‘Pray, which leg goes after which?’ Which strained his mind to such a pitch he lay distracted in a ditch, considering how to run. I think there are a good many toads in the world, and sometimes, not in fun at all but very seriously, they manage “to strain our minds to such a pitch”, that instead of going on in simplicity we may easily find ourselves distracted in a ditch, not running, but only considering how to run.
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If my attitude be one of fear, not faith, about one who has disappointed me; if I say, "Just what I expected," if a fall occurs, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
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If I take offence easily; if I am content to continue in cold unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
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There is only one way of victory over the bitterness and rage that comes naturally to us--To will what God wills brings peace.
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Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace. If you refuse to be hurried and pressed, if you stay your soul on God, nothing can keep you from that clearness of spirit which is life and peace. In that stillness you will know what His will is.

================
Do not fight the thing in detail: turn from it. Look ONLY at your Lord.
================
And shall I pray Thee change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
But, no, Lord, no, that never shall be, rather
I pray Thee blend my human will with Thine.
I pray Thee hush the hurrying, eager longing,
I pray Thee soothe the pangs of keen desire—
See in my quiet places, wishes thronging—
Forbid them, Lord, purge, though it be with fire.
================
If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider 'not spiritual work' I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
================
There have been times of late when I have had to hold on to one text with all my might: "It is required in stewards that a man may be found faithful." Praise God, it does not say "successful.
================
God Hold us to that which drew us first, when the Cross was the attraction, and we wanted nothing else.”
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The only expenditure, and all its outworkings, for which God can be held to be responsible is that which He directs.
================
If I make much of anything appointed, magnify it secretly to myself or insidiously to others; if I let them think it “hard,” if I look back longingly upon what used to be, and linger among the byways of memory, so that my power to help is weakened, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
================

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Alan Chambers Loses His Way

It's unclear what has led to the departure of Alan Chambers from Biblical Christianity, but he has apparently collapsed under the pressure of hate groups and his own unwillingness to repent from his homosexual leanings.

Just because you have a ministry attempting to free homosexuals from their sin doesn't mean you've been freed from sin. This is one of the big problems with Christianity, as people pressure those wanting to help others into the public eye without having their own sin dealt with first.

Chambers has unfortunately just went the false and demonic post-modern way of thinking, where everything is determined by how an individual interprets just about anything. There is not truth here, and a having a conversation is simply another way of saying there will never be a meeting of minds because each person perceives their own reality, and that reality is as viable as anyone else's. That's a simplified look at post-modern thinking, but is definitely part of it.

In one of his first post-modern decisions, Chambers decided not to only apologize for what he did through Exodus International, which rightly worked to deliver homosexuals from their bondage to sin, but he also apologized for the church.

He said he wants to apologize to the gay community "for years of undue suffering and judgment at the hands of the organization and the church as a whole."

Only someone going post-modern would have the arrogance to apologize for something he has no authority whatsoever to do. The idea that Chambers thinks he represents the Church of Jesus Christ borders on being a megalomaniac.

Sickeningly he said he want "to see bridges built" between homosexuals and the church. He has no right to biblically do this because the first step towards any real conversation, as John the Baptist and Jesus both said, was to repent. Repentance is turning away from sin, so there is no way to build bridges between true believers in Jesus Christ and homosexuals until they confess and repent of their homosexual sin. At that point Jesus will step in and set them free.

To show his fallen mindset, he added this, "We've fought the culture war, and we've lost. It's time for peace." There has been no failure in the culture war from a Christian perspective, as the battle will continue until the day Jesus Christ returns. There are only those that cave in and go out to the outer court to be trampled.

The idea of making homosexuals comfortable in their sin while condemning them to an eternity in the lake of fire for refusing to repent and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the ultimate act of hatred. Those who do so in the name of the god of tolerance are the real haters, and will answer to God for not warning people of their sin.

Alan, it's not too late for you to repent for doing what is right. Don't cave into the hatred of those manipulating you into believing you're hateful.

Homosexuality is a sin that must be repented of, and it's one that isn't determined at birth. Anyone can be saved and delivered from any sin, and just because you've struggled with same-sex attraction doesn't mean you were born that way or Jesus Christ failed you. You have to let it go and die to your self-centered ways. The cross is enough for that, and all we have to do is call out to God for deliverance and He will be there.

That and surrounding yourself with believers who will support you while you fight the good fight, knowing that God is faithful to deliver you out of all your struggles.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Hudson Taylor Quotes


Hudson Taylor Quotes


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Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success.
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God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies.
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I am so weak that I can hardly write, I cannot read my Bible, I cannot even pray, I can only lie still in God's arms like a little child, and trust.
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The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.
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Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit's power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power.
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Many Christians estimate difficulty in the light of their own resources, and thus they attempt very little and they always fail. All giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence to be with them.
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To every toiling, heavy-laden sinner, Jesus says, Come to me and rest. But there are many toiling, heavy-laden believers, too. For them this same invitation is meant. Note well the words of Jesus, if you are heavy-laden with your service, and do not mistake it. It is not, Go, labor on, as perhaps you imagine. On the contrary, it is stop, turn back, Come to me and rest. Never, never did Christ send a heavy laden one to work; never, never did He send a hungry one, a weary one, a sick or sorrowing one, away on any service. For such the Bible only says, Come, come, come.
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Whatever is your best time in the day, give that to communion with God.
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As our Father makes many a flower to bloom unseen in the lonely desert, [let us] do all that we can do, as under God's eye, though no other eye ever take note of it.
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I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up by asking Him to do His work through me.
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At the timberline where the storms strike with the most fury, the sturdiest trees are found.
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It is no small comfort to me to know that God has called me to my work, putting me where I am and as I am. I have not sought the position, and I dare not leave it. He knows why He places me here-whether to do, or learn, or suffer.
==============
All at once came the thought – If you are simply obeying the LORD, all the responsibility will rest on Him, not on you! What a relief!! Well, I cried to God – You shall be responsible for them, and for me too!
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Devotion to GOD is still a voluntary thing; hence the differences of attainment among Christians.
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I believe we are all in danger of accumulating – it may be from thoughtlessness, or from pressure of occupation – things which would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves, and the retention of which entails loss of blessing.
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I besought Him to give me some work for Him, as an outlet for love and gratitude; some self-denying service, no matter what it might be, however trying or however trivial.
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If we are faithful to GOD in little things, we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trials of life.
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Let us give up our work, our thoughts, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into His hand, and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about, or to make trouble about.
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Our eyes must be upon the Lord, not upon His people. His means – not ours, not theirs, but His means are large; and to a faithful steward He will prove a faithful master.
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The more we rest on this fact, – that we do not know the way we are going, but that we have a GUIDE who does know; that we do not know how to accomplish our service, but that He never leaves us to devise our own service; – the more restful does our life become.
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The work . . . is steadily growing and spreading – especially in that most important department, native help. . . . The future hope of China doubtless lies in them. I look on all us foreign missionaries as platform work round a rising building; the sooner it can be dispensed with the better; or rather, the sooner it can be transferred to other places, to serve the same temporary purpose, the better for the work sufficiently forward to dispense with it, and the better for the places yet to be evangelized.
==============
Wave after wave of trial rolled over us; but at the end of the year some of us were constrained to confess, that we had learned more of the loving-kindness of the Lord than in any previous year of our lives.
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When the heart submits, then Jesus reigns When Jesus reigns, there is rest.
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You are not sent to preach death and sin and judgment, but life and holiness and salvation – not to be a witness against the people, but to be a witness for God – to preach the good news – Christ Himself.
==============
The vine . . . is not the root merely, but all - root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit: and Jesus is not only that: He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we ever dreamed, wished for, or needed.
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Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. We know how the Lord Jesus became fruitful – not by bearing His Cross merely, but by dying on it. Do we know much of fellowship with Him in this?
==============
Argument almost always leaves behind a sore feeling in the heart of the one who has been worsted. By loving teaching, by Christ-like living, we are to win this people for our Lord. They do not understand what disinterested love and unselfishness mean: you are to go and live it among them.
==============

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Quotes

Quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer



================
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
================
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
================
The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.
================
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
================
In a word, live together in the forgiveness of your sins, for without it no human fellowship, least of all a marriage, can survive. Don’t insist on your rights, don’t blame each other, don’t judge or condemn each other, don’t find fault with each other, but accept each other as you are, and forgive each other every day from the bottom of your hearts…
================
There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort. For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled one remains connected to the other person through it. It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness. God in no way fills it but much more leaves it precisely unfilled and thus helps us preserve -- even in pain -- the authentic relationship. Further more, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy. One bears what was lovely in the past not as a thorn but as a precious gift deep within, a hidden treasure of which one can always be certain.
================
A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.
================
I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.
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We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.
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Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
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Not hero worship, but intimacy with Christ.
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To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depths of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom.
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Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected. In the wilderness God gave Israel the manna every day, and they had no need to worry about food and drink. Indeed, if they kept any of the manna over until the next day, it went bad. In the same way, the disciple must receive his portion from God every day. If he stores it up as a permanent possession, he spoils not only the gift, but himself as well, for he sets his heart on accumulated wealth, and makes it a barrier between himself and God. Where our treasure is, there is our trust, our security, our consolation and our God. Hoarding is idolatry.
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How would you expect to find community while you intentionally withdraw from it at some point? The disobedient cannot believe; only the obedient believe.
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Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
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Being free means "being free for the other," because the other has bound me to him. Only in relationship with the other am I free.
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Unless we have the courage to fight for a revival of wholesome reserve between man and man, we shall perish in an anarchy of human values… . Socially it means the renunciation of all place-hunting, a break with the cult of the “star,” an open eye both upwards and downwards, especially in the choice of one’s more intimate friends, and pleasure in private life as well as courage to enter public life. Culturally it means a return from the newspaper and the radio to the book, from feverish activity to unhurried leisure, from dispersion to concentration, from sensationalism to reflection, from virtuosity to art, from snobbery to modesty, from extravagance to moderation.
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Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.
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Christian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.
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Let him who cannot be alone beware of community... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone... Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation and despair.
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Will not the very moment of great disillusionment with my brother or sister be incomparably wholesome for me becuase it so thoroughly teaches me that both of us can never live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and deed that really binds us together, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ? The bright day of Christian community dawns wherever the early morning mists of dreamy visions are lifting.
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The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the division which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his disciples will be condemned on all sides for undermining family life, and for leading the nation astray; they will be called crazy fanatics and disturbers of the peace. The disciples will be sorely tempted to desert their Lord. But the end is also near, and they must hold on and persevere until it comes. Only he will be blessed who remains loyal to Jesus and his word until the end.
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Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.
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Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.
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The community of the saints is not an "ideal" community consisting of perfect and sinless men and women, where there is no need of further repentance. No, it is a community which proves that it is worthy of the gospel of forgiveness by constantly and sincerely proclaiming God's forgiveness...Sanctification means driving out the world from the Church as well as separating the Church from the world. But the purpose of such discipline is not to establish a community of the perfect, but a community consisting of men who really live under the forgiving mercy of God.
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Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.
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If Christ has been given us, if we are called to his discipleship we are given all things, literally _all_ things. He will see to it that they are added unto us. If we follow Jesus and look only to His righteousness, we are in his hands and under the protection of Him and His Father. And if we are in communion with the Father, nought can harm us. God will help us in the hour of need, and He knows our needs.
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Who is pure in heart? Only those who have surrendered their hearts completely to Jesus that he may reign in them alone. Only those whose hearts are undefiled by their own evil--and by their own virtues too. The pure in heart have a child-like simplicity like Adam before the fall, innocent alike of good and evil: their hearts are not ruled by their conscience, but by the will of Jesus.
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Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light.
================

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Andrew Murray Quotes

Andrew Murray Quotes



A believer may pass through much affliction, and yet secure very little blessing from it all. Abiding in Christ is the secret of securing all that the Father meant the chastisement to bring us.
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God has no pleasure in afflicting us, but He will not keep back even the most painful chastisement if He can but thereby guide His beloved child to come home and abide in the beloved Son.
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Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature; the Eternal Love humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to win and serve and save us.
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Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord, where I can go in and shut the door, and kneel to my Father in secret, and am at peace as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and above is trouble.
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The sooner I learn to forget myself in the desire that He may be glorified, the richer will be the blessing that prayer will bring to myself. No one ever loses by what he sacrifices to the Father.
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God has a plan for His Church upon earth. But alas! we too often make our plan, and we think that we know what ought to be done. We ask God first to bless our feeble efforts, instead of absolutely refusing to go unless God go before us.
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Humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.
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The highest glory of the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the diving glory.
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Being filled with the Spirit is simply this - having my whole nature yielded to His power. When the whole soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God Himself will fill it.
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The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it.
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Prayer [is] the quiet, persistent living of our life of desire and faith in the presence of our God.
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Humility is the only soil in which the graces root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as God to do all.
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In the light of His example we can see, in the faith of His power we too can prove, that suffering is to God’s child the token of the Father’s love, and the channel of His richest blessing.
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If we are truly to live as redeemed ones, we need not only to look at the work Christ did to accomplish our redemption, but to accept and realize fully how complete, how sure, how absolute the liberty is wherewith He hath made us free. It is only as we ‘stand fast in our liberty in Christ Jesus,’ that we can have our fruit unto sanctification.
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True happiness is always self-forgetful: it loses itself in the object of its joy. As the joy of the Holy Ghost fills us, and we rejoice in God the Holy One, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Every providence is God’s will; whatever happens, meet God in it in humble worship. Every precept is God’s will; meet God in it with loving obedience. Every promise is God’s will; meet God in it with full trust. A life in the will of God is rest and strength and blessing.
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You are the branch.—You need be nothing more. You need not for one single moment of the day take upon you the responsibility of the Vine. You need not leave the place of entire dependence and unbounded confidence.
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And we shall understand how simple, to do the single-hearted, is the secret of holiness: just Jesus.
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...separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates God. Come out for God... given up... by divine grace... acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort. Bow humbly before Him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's teaching that in your flesh "there dwelleth no good thing," and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. You must deny self once for all. Denying...
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All earthly things are the shadows of heavenly realities—the expression, in created, visible forms, of the invisible glory of God.
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The life is the most precious thing a man has; the life is all he is; the life is himself. This is the highest measure of love: when a man gives his life, he hold nothing back, he gives all he has and is.
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Believer! study the humility of Jesus. This is the secret, the hidden root of thy redemption. Sink down into it deeper day by day. Believe with thy whole heart that this Christ, whom God has given thee, even as His divine humility wrought the work for thee, will enter in to dwell and work within thee too, and make thee what the Father would have thee be.
===============

Monday, June 3, 2013

Quotes from Jeanne Guyon

Jeanne Guyon Quotes


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To rob God of nothing; to refuse Him nothing; to require of Him nothing; this is great perfection.
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The more wants we have, the further we are from God, and the nearer we approach him, the better can we dispense with everything that is not Himself.
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Faith and the cross are inseparable: the cross is the shrine of faith, and faith is the light of the cross.
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Prayer is the key of perfection and of sovereign happiness; it is the efficacious means of getting rid of all vices and of acquiring all virtues; for the way to become perfect is to live in the presence of God.
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I have never found any who prayed so well as those who had never been taught how. They who have no master in man, have one in the Holy Spirit.
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Nothing less than a divine operation can empty us of the creature and of self, for whatever is natural tends constantly to fill us with the creature, and occupy us with ourselves.
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It is in vain for man to endeavor to instruct man in those things which the Holy Spirit alone can teach.
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It is only by the death of self that the soul can enter into Divine Truth, and understand in part what is the light that shineth in darkness.
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How rare is it to behold a soul in an absolute abandonment of selfish interests, that it may devote itself to the interests of God!
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Whenever we endeavor to bring about our own perfection, or that of others, by our own efforts, the result is simply imperfection.
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All consolation that does not come from God is but desolation; when the soul has learned to receive no comfort but in God only, it has passed beyond the reach of desolation.
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Self-seeking is the gate by which a soul departs from peace; and total abandonment to the will of God, that by which it returns.
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“The Lord is very jealous over any saint who is utterly abandoned to Him.  He does not let that believer have any pleasures at all outside of Himself.”
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“The greatest satisfaction I can have is the knowledge that He is what He is; and that, being what He is, He never will be otherwise. If I am saved at last, it will be the free gift of God; since I have no worth and no merit of my own.”
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“I entreat you, give no place to despondency. This is a dangerous temptation–a refined, not a gross temptation of the adversary. Melancholy contracts and withers the heart, and renders it unfit to receive the impressions of grace. It magnifies and gives a false colouring to objects, and thus renders your burdens too heavy to bear. God’s designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise."
======================
“But the misfortune is that people wish to direct God instead of resigning themselves to be directed by Him. We wish to take the lead, and to follow in a way of their own selection instead of submissively and passively following where God sees fit to conduct them. And hence it is, that many souls who are called to the enjoyment of God himself and mot merely to the  gifts of God, spend all their lives in pursuing and in feeding on little consolations.”
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As one sees a river pass into the ocean, lose itself in it, its water for a time distinguished from that of the sea, till it gradually becomes transformed into the same sea, and possesses all its qualities; so was my soul lost in God, who communicated to it His qualities, having drawn it out of all that it had of its own. Its life is an inconceivable innocence, not known or comprehended of those who are still shut up in themselves or only live for themselves.
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My soul was not only brought into harmony with itself and with God, but with God's providence. In the exercise of faith and love, I endured and performed whatever came in God's providence, in submission, in thankfulness, and silence.
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I entreat you, give no place to despondency. This is a dangerous temptation–a refined, not a gross temptation of the adversary. Melancholy contracts and withers the heart, and renders it unfit to receive the impressions of grace. It magnifies and gives a false colouring to objects, and thus renders your burdens too heavy to bear. God’s designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise.
======================
To penetrate deeper in the experience of Jesus Christ, it is required that you begin to abandon your whole existence, giving it up to God. . . . You must utterly believe that the circumstances of your life, that is, every minute of your life, as well as the whole course of your life-anything, yes, everything that happens-have all come to you by His will and by His permission. You must utterly believe that everything that has happened to you is from God and is exactly what you need.
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True simplicity regards God alone; it has its eye fixed upon Him, and is not drawn toward self; and it is as pleased to say humble as great things. All our uneasy feelings and reflections arise from self-love, whatever appearance of piety they may assume. The lack of simplicity inflicts many wounds. Go where we will, if we remain in ourselves, we shall carry everywhere our sins and our distresses. If we would live in peace, we must lose sight of self, and rest in the infinite and unchangeable God.
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The soul seeks God by faith, not by the reasonings of the mind and labored efforts, but by the drawings of love; to which inclinations God responds, and instructs the soul, which co-operates actively. God then puts the soul in a passive state where He accomplishes all, causing great progress, first by way of enjoyment, then by privation, and finally by pure love.
======================

Quotes from Watchman Nee

 Watchman Nee Quotes

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"People shall never enter the kingdom of God through our encouragement, persuasion, argument, inducement, excitement, or attraction; entrance can be gained only by new birth, by nothing less than the resurrection of the spirit."
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"It is imperative that man receive God's life. The way of salvation cannot be in human reform, for "death" is irreparable. Sin must be judged before there can be rescue out of death. Exactly this is what has been provided by the salvation of the Lord Jesus."
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"'nothing is ever wasted on the Lord."
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"Love flows from the denial of the self life."
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"The nature of God's love is unchangeable."
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"Our rest lies in looking to the Lord, not to ourselves."
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"God does not delight in our cowardice and withdrawal."
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"Actually, only God can satisfy a Christian's heart; man cannot."
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"You and I must be perfectly willing to part with anything at any moment. It matters not whether I leave two thousand dollars or merely two. What matters is whether I can leave what ever I have without a twinge of regret."
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"He does not want our heart to be attached anywhere because He wants us to serve Him freely."
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"Unless self love is abandoned the believer shall forever shrink back when called actually to take up the cross for Christ."
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"Spiritual advancement is measured by faithful obedience."
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"I want nothing for myself; I want everything for the Lord."
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"Never adopt an attitude of indifference, for if you do you will suffer for it."
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"Separation to God, separation from the world, is the first principle of Christian living."
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"One gains by losing self for others and not by hoarding for oneself."
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"By accepting His death as our death we enter into this union with the Lord."
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"the character of the world is morally different from the Spirit-imparted life we have received from God."
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"We may love to say many things, but if these are not uttered in the Holy Spirit it is better to say nothing."
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"The flesh makes self the center and elevates self-will above God's will."
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"Christians should never initiate anything presumptuously on the basis of need, profit, or merit."
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"Fellowship means among other things that we are ready to receive of Christ from others. Other believers minister Christ to me, and I am ready to receive."
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"The greatest negative in the universe is the Cross, for with it God wiped out everything that was not of Himself: the greatest positive in the universe is the resurrection, for through it God brought into being all."
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“How true it is that without the guidance of the Holy Spirit intellect not only is undependable but also extremely dangerous, because it often confuses the issue of right and wrong.”
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“Genuine spiritual knowledge lies not in wonderful and mysterious thoughts but in actual spiritual experience through union of the believer's life with truth.”
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Frequently many children of God turn within themselves, that is, they look into their soul to determine whether they have peace, grace or spiritual progress.  This is most harmful and is not of faith.  It diverts them from gazing upon Christ to looking at themselves.
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Human nerves are rather sensitive and are easily stirred by outside stimuli.  Words, manners, environments and feelings greatly affect us.  Our mind engages in so many thoughts, plans and imaginations that it is a world of confusion... The Lord Jesus implores us: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matt. 11:29).  If we are favorably inclined to yield to the Lord, to take up His yoke, and to follow Him, our soul shall not be aroused inordinately.
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"Soulish Christians generally bend to certain directions. Most of them lean either towards emotion or towards reason."
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The God Who can change a sinner into a Christian by giving him His life can
equally transform the fleshly Christian into a spiritual one by giving him
His life more abundantly.
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"We must have a spirit of power towards the enemy, a spirit of love towards men, and a spirit of self-control towards ourselves."
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"Let us recognize this one thing: burden is the secret of prayer. If a person does not feel within him burden to pray for a particular matter he can hardly succeed in prayer. In a prayer meeting some brothers and sisters may mention a great many subjects for prayer. But if you are not touched inwardly, you cannot pray."
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"But when the cross is working deeply a believer comes to know himself. He realizes how undependable are his ideas, feelings and desires."
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"Revelation is the first step to holiness, and consecration is the second. A day must come in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ."  
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"For years, maybe, you have tried fruitlessly to exercise control over yourself, and perhaps this is still your experience; but when once you see the truth you will recognize that you are indeed powerless to do anything, but that in setting you aside altogether God has done it all. Such discovery brings human striving and self-effort to an end."
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"It is imperative that believers recognize a spirit exists within them, something extra to thought, knowledge and imagination of the mind, something beyond affection, sensation and pleasure of the emotion, something additional to desire, decision and action of the will."
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In order for the inner man to be strengthened with power through the Holy
Spirit, the children of God must discharge their responsibility.  They need
to yield specifically to the Lord, forsake every doubtful aspect in their
life, be willing to obey fully God's will, and believe through prayer that
He will flood their spirit with His power.
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"That strong self-assertive will of mine must go to the Cross, and I must give myself over wholly to the Lord. We cannot expect a tailor to make us a coat if we do not give him any cloth, nor a builder to build us a house if we let him have no building material; and in just the same way we cannot expect the Lord to live out His life in us if we do not give Him our lives in which to live. Without reservations, without controversy, we must give ourselves to Him to do as He pleases with us. “Present yourselves unto God” (Romans 6:13)."
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Quotes from A.W. Tozer


Quotes from A.W. Tozer

“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.”

― A.W. Tozer

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“It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“Made as we were in the image of God we scarcely find it strange to take again our God as our All. God was our original habitat and our hearts cannot but feel at home when they enter again that ancient and beautiful abode.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us. ”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith.”
“The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“Jesus calls us to his rest, and meekness is His method. The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort.”

― A.W. Tozer, Pursuit of God

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“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

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“The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly
has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.”

― A.W. Tozer

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“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts”

“Nothing is complete in itself but requires something outside itself in order to exist.”

― A.W. Tozer

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“God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust”
“We might be wise to follow the insight of the enraptured heart rather than the more cautious reasoning of the theological mind.”

― A.W. Tozer

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“The problem of why God created the universe still troubles thinking men; but if we cannot know why, we can at least know that He did not bring His worlds into being to meet some unfulfilled need in Himself, as a man might build a house to shelter him against the winter cold or plant a field of corn to provide him with necessary food. The word 'necessary' is wholly foreign to God.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“Let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there.”

― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

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“We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals...The tragic results of this spirit all all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies...the glorification of men, trust is religious externalities....salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such of these are the symptoms of an evil disease.”

― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

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“Hardly anything else reveals so well the fear and uncertainty among men as the length to which they will go to hide their true selves from each other and even from their own eyes.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“Secularism, materialism, and the intrusive presence of things have put out the light in our souls and turned us into a generation of zombies.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“Between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God.”

― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

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“He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves - blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“The filling of the Holy Spirit brings a sharp separation between the believer and the world.
Actually, after Pentecost, they were looking at another world. They really saw another world.
Nowadays, we perceive that even a large part of evangelical Christianity is trying to convert this world to the church. We are bringing the world in head over heels--unregenerated, uncleansed, unshriven, unbaptized, unsanctified. we are bringing the world right into the church. If we can get some big shot to say something nice about the church, we rush into print and tell about this fellow and what nice things he said. I don't care at all about big shots because I serve a living Saviour, and Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings. I believe every man ought to know this ability to see another world.”

“Many's very human habit of trusting in himself is generally the last great obstacle blocking his pathway to victory in Christian experience.”

“Everything God does has purpose and intention behind that design. It is a master design, and every little thing has its proper place and function.”

“The cross stands high above the opinions of men and to that cross all opinions must come at last for judgment.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is.”

― A.W. Tozer

====================

“Now, brethren, this is one of our greatest faults in our Christian lives. We are allowing too many rivals of God. We actually have too many gods. We have too many irons in the fire. We have too much theology that we don't understand. We have too much churchly institutionalism. We have too much religion. Actually, I guess we just have too much of too much.”

― A.W. Tozer