Palm Sunday In the person of Christ, the formidable law of God, which by itself appalls us by its read more

Palm Sunday In the person of Christ, the formidable law of God, which by itself appalls us by its vast comprehensiveness and truth, and makes us hide ourselves from its dread sanctity, is brought down into the life of a brother, ... and we see it illustrated and ratified in human action, we see righteousness that makes us feel more bitterly our sin, that makes us look more disparagingly upon our own efforts, yet leaves in us a longing to be like Him, as if we ought to be as He is.

The New Testament is uniformly consistent in seeing something as being wrong in man himself... These analyses of man are read more

The New Testament is uniformly consistent in seeing something as being wrong in man himself... These analyses of man are based on man's responsibility for his evil actions; they are not saying that it is simply his motions that have gone astray: it is man's will that is the central problem.

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 I apprehended it a Matter of great Necessity to imprint read more

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 I apprehended it a Matter of great Necessity to imprint true catholicism on the Minds of Christians, it being a most lamentable thing to observe how few Christians in the World there be, that fall not into one Sect or another .... And if they can but get to be of a Sect which they think the holiest (as the Anabaptists and the Separatists), or which is the largest (as the Greeks and the Romans), they think then that they are sufficiently warranted to deny others to be God's Church, or at least to deny them Christian love and communion.

Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687 The humblest and the most unseen activity in the world read more

Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687 The humblest and the most unseen activity in the world can be the true worship of God. Work and worship literally become one. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever; and man carries out that function when he does what God sent him into the world to do. Work well done rises like a hymn of praise to God. This means that the doctor on his rounds, the scientist in his laboratory, the teacher in his classroom, the musician at his music, the artist at his canvas, the shop assistant at his counter, the typist at her typewriter, the housewife in her kitchen -- all who are doing the work of the world as it should be done are joining in a great act of worship.

You can read all the manuals on prayer and listen to other people pray, but until you begin to pray read more

You can read all the manuals on prayer and listen to other people pray, but until you begin to pray yourself you will never understand prayer. It's like riding a bicycle or swimming: You learn by doing. .. Luis Palau March 14, 2001 Most evangelicals believe that if a passage of the Bible seems unclear in its meaning, it should be interpreted in the light of Scripture "as a whole". But what does "Scripture as a whole" mean? In practice, if not theory, it means the working systematic theology of the interpreter, or of his own theological tradition. An evangelical... would not hold to that tradition unless he believed that it did represent the wholeness of the biblical witness. Nevertheless, if this state of affairs has been correctly described, he is now in a serious difficulty. For if the Bible must always accord with a theology that has already been accepted, how can the truth of a biblical passage ever confront him afresh with an unfavorable judgment?

Lord, before I commit a sin, it seems to me so shallow that I may wade through it dry-shod from read more

Lord, before I commit a sin, it seems to me so shallow that I may wade through it dry-shod from any guiltiness; but when I have committed it, it often seems so deep that I cannot escape without drowning.

A Christian is a man who feels repentance on Sunday for what he did on Saturday and is going to read more

A Christian is a man who feels repentance on Sunday for what he did on Saturday and is going to do on Monday.

He is not a good Christian who is not heartily sorry for the faults even of his greatest enemies. And read more

He is not a good Christian who is not heartily sorry for the faults even of his greatest enemies. And if he will be so, he will lay them bare no further than is necessary to some good end.

Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373 The witness has never failed. Repeatedly, the light has shone read more

Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373 The witness has never failed. Repeatedly, the light has shone forth in the darkness, held aloft by hands that perished in the destruction of the institution that failed. Christians tend to defend the institution of their own creation with tenacity. It is institutional Christianity that has often shackled the Church... Many of the missionary institutions of the Church are expendable. They should always be treated as expendable. ... Leonard M. Outerbridge, The Lost Churches of China July 24, 1996 Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471 Men stand much upon the title of 'orthodox', by which is usually understood, not believing the doctrine of Christ or His apostles, but such opinions as are in vogue among such a party, such systems of divinity as have been compiled in haste by those whom we have in admiration; and whatever is not consonant to these little bodies of divinity, tho' possibly it agree well enough with the Word of God, is error and heresy; and whoever maintains it can hardly pass for a Christian among some angry and perverse people. I do not intend to plead for any error, but I would not have Christianity chiefly measured by matters of opinion. I know no such error and heresy as a wicked life... Of the two, I have more hopes of him that denies the divinity of Christ and lives otherwise soberly and righteously and godly in the world, than of the man who owns Christ to be the Son of God and lives like a child of the devil.