Quotes for the week of 4/15/18

Words To Live By

Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.
― John R.W. Stott (posted 4/15/18)

What a man is alone and on his knees before God, that he is, and no more.
― Robert Murray M'Cheyne (posted 4/14/18)​

The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.
― Oswald Chambers (posted 4/13/18)

You can shut Jesus up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
― C.S. Lewis (posted 4/12/18)

You don't realize God is all you need until God is all you have.
― Tim Keller (Posted 4/11/18)​

How unspeakably wonderful to know that all our concerns are held in the hands that bled for us.
― John Newton (posted 4/10/18)

The point of irresistible grace is not that we can’t resist. We can, and we do. The point is that when God chooses, he overcomes our resistance and restores a submissive spirit. He creates. He says, “Let there be light!” He heals. He leads. He restores. He comforts.

― John Piper (posted 4/9/18)

Liar, Lunatic or Lord?

I recently was reminded of C.S. Lewis' quote from Mere Christianity.  I thought it would be useful to post. The interesting thing is that as you read the gospels, Lewis' assessment is very accurate. Jesus could have been crazy or demonic. The 2000+ year affects seem to rule out crazy and simply the here and now benefits of Christianity seem to rule out demonic. So, along with Lewis, I'm left with one viable conclusion: Jesus is Lord.

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. - Lewis, C.S., Mere Christianity, London: Collins, 1952, p54-56

To God Alone be the Glory

The Purpose of the Church

I ran across this quote by C.S. Lewis on the Gospel-Driven Church blog. Check it out here.

"The Church exists for no other purpose but to draw men into Christ. . . If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other reason."

-- C.S. Lewis

Giving

"The only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. Our charities should pinch and hamper us. If we live at the same level of affluence as other people who have our level of income, we are probably giving away too little."

Lews, C. S.