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Monday 30 October 2017

Quotes 30 Oct 17

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. ” ― Epictetus  c. AD 50 – 135) Greek Stoic philosopher.

“Today German philosophy, like the philosophy of the rest of the continent, has been ravaged not just by doubt (as it should be) but by decades of deconstruction. It is pulled itself and everything else apart, without having any notion of how to put anything – let alone itself – back together again” - Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe(p223)

In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will 
acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political 
evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. 
I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black 
race, and while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the 
latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks 
are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially 
and physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary 
for their instruction as a race, and I hope will prepare and lead them to 
better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known and 
ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. - Robert E. Lee

It is a small thing to endure hard words from time to time, if you are not yet able to bear hard blows. The reason why you take such trifles to heart is that you are still worldly, and pay greater regard to men's opinions than you ought.-Thomas A' Kempis (1380-1471)_The Imitation Of Christ_ [c. 1420], Book 3, Chapter 46

"I offer you no amusement. I tell you no comical stories, but I seek to break your hearts with the hammer of the Word of God!”- Spurgeon

Friday 27 October 2017

Quotes 28 Oct 17

There is a danger in looking for weeds instead of rejoicing at the flowers.- Pete Cotton

"Those who would not eat the forbidden fruit must not come near the forbidden tree." -Matthew Henry. 

“Christ is so in love with holiness that at the price of his blood he will buy it for us” John Flavel

The world hates Jesus but Jesus is not around so they hate us.we are the most peaceful people existing and yet we are the most hated.- David Robertson‏ @theweeflea  

‘“We must aim at the abolition of the family,” which was founded upon the “ archaic and irrational teachings” of Christianity.’- Gay Liberation Front manifesto 1979 quoted in Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down.

Quotes 27 Oct 17

It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable; but that is true faith which holds by the Lord's faithfulness when friends are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed, and the light of our Father's countenance is hidden. A faith which can say, in the direst trouble, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him," is heaven-born faith.- Spurgeon

“Here (secular humanism) are all the elements for a religious faith that shall not be confined to sect, class, or race. Such a faith has always been the common faith of mankind. It remains for us to make it explicit and militant.”- John Dewey , “A Common Faith” 1935

“They corrupt the word” means “they alter or change its meaning”, yet no one is able to change even a single word from any Book of God. The meaning is that they interpret the word wrongly…The word “Tahrif” [corruption] signifies to change a thing from its original nature; and there is no man who could corrupt a single word of what proceeds from God, so that the Jews and Christians could corrupt only by misrepresenting. - Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas, Muhammad’s cousin and one of his companions

"The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife."-Theodore Roosevelt

Let us war with the error but still love the brother for the measure of truth which we see in him; above all let us love and spread the truth ourselves. - Spurgeon

Wednesday 25 October 2017

Quotes 26 Oct 17


Religion is not the opium of the people but the vitamin of the week. - Regis Debray, God and the Political Planet

“Pakistanis, let’s be clear, are not the only people who commit sexual offences, and overwhelmingly the sex offenders’ wings of prisons are full of white sex offenders. But there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men… who target vulnerable young white girls.“We need to get the Pakistani community to think much more clearly about why this is going on and to be more open about the problems that are leading to a number of Pakistani heritage men thinking it is OK to target white girls in this way. These young men are in a western society, in any event, they act like any other young men, they’re fizzing and popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that, but Pakistani heritage girls are off-limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically. So they then seek other avenues and they see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care… who they think are easy meat.”- Jack Straw 2011

“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”― Epictetus

"To believe in God for me is to feel that there is a God, not a dead one, or a stuffed one, but a living one, who with irresistible force urges us towards more loving." ~Vincent Van Gogh

Weep, weep for those
Who do the work of the Lord
With a high look
And a proud heart.
Their voice is lifted up
In the streets, and their cry is heard.
The bruised reed they break
By their great strength, and the smoking flax
They trample.
Weep not for the quenched
(For their God will hear their cry
And the Lord will come to save them)
But weep, weep for the quenchers
For when the Day of the Lord
Is come, and the vales sing
And the hills clap their hands
And the light shines
Then their eyes shall be opened
On a waste place,
Smoldering,
The smoke of the flax bitter
In their nostrils,
Their feet pierced
By broken reed-stems . . .
Wood, hay, and stubble,
And no grass springing.
And all the birds flown.
Weep, weep for those
Who have made a desert
In the name of the Lord.
Lament by Evangeline Paterson (In _Complete Works of Francis Scaeffer,Vol IV, page 205)

Tuesday 24 October 2017

Quotes 25 Oct

A wise man may look ridiculous in the company of fools.-Thomas Fuller, M.D. (1654-1734), _Gnomologia_ [1732]

In the list of pointless institutions that exist in the UK the Greens hover somewhere between the Scotland-Uranus trade association and the campaign to grant tax advantages to dolphins. They exist to give Holyrood a rainbow complexion and make us feel guilty about climate change. The extent to which they are out of touch is highlighted by their aversion to aeroplanes and cars. This ignores the fact that cheap air travel and mass-produced automobiles were two of the most liberating changes in the lives of poor people in the past 50 years or so. It allowed access to distant relatives and friends that had been the exclusive preserve of rich people and royalty.- http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/15611193.Kevin_McKenna__This_ban_smacks_of_pandering_to_the_middle_class_dilettantes/?ref=twtrec

“In Jesus, God is 100% for us. Do you live in this paradise?” Do you go to bed in this paradise?”- John Piper

People fall in private, long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it, is often not discovered until it is down on the ground.-  J.C. Ryle

The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibiotic--in short, the closest thing to a genuine panacea--known to medical science is work. - Thomas Szasz

Quotes 24 Oct

“Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.” ― Epictetus

In August 2015 Angela Merkel announced that Europe was open to refugees and she declared, “We can do this”. Much of the media, like the Economist, backed her and said that her move was brave, decisive and right. And yet in 2010 in Potsdam she had made a speech in which she admitted that “the approach to build a multicultural society and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other has failed, utterly failed”. Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe(Page 96)

Let no broken hearted sinner exclude himself, when he is not by Christ excluded from mercy: His grace is His own, to bestow.    John Flavel

"It is a great mistake to give a man who has not been convicted of sin certain passages that were never meant for him. The Law is what he needs...do not offer the consolation of the gospel until he sees and knows he is guilty before God. We must give enough of the Law to take away all self-righteousness. I pity the man who preaches only one side of the truth--always the gospel, and never the Law." -DL Moody

"Of all self-torture, that of importing future trouble into present account is, perhaps,
the most insane." — C. H. Spurgeon

Sunday 22 October 2017

Quotes 23 Oct

Everyone discriminates.Wise people simply discriminate on the basis of superior criteria.- Joshua D Jones  ðŸ§€ 🥃‏ @BlueCheezWhisky

“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.― Epictetus

“Politicians, academics, journalists and others had learnt the tough lesson that criticising Islam, in the manner in which Dutch society was able to criticise every other religion, was at the very least something that changed your life and was also – unless you have police protection – likely to be deadly. The country that in the past had fostered religious doubt and produce rationalist thinkers like Spinoza, was now very anxious on the subject of religion” Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe page 139

The true Europe affirms the equal dignity of every individual, regardless of sex, rank or race. This also arises from our Christian roots. Our gentle virtues are of an unmistakably Christian heritage: fairness, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, peace-making, charity. Christianity revolutionized the relationship between men and women, valuing love and mutual fidelity in an unprecedented way. The bond of marriage allows both men and women to flourish in communion. Most of the sacrifices we make are for the sake of our spouses and children. This spirit of self-giving is yet another Christian contribution to the Europe we love.itself as the forerunner of a universal community that is neither universal nor a community.- The Paris Statement, http://archbishopcranmer.com/paris-statement-true-false-europe/

“This is the end; but for me, the beginning of life.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (before being led to death) having preached Is. 53 & 1Pet 1:3

Friday 20 October 2017

Quotes 21 Oct

The true Europe also draws inspiration from the Classical tradition. We recognize ourselves in the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. As Europeans, we strive for greatness, the crown of the Classical virtues. At times, this has led to violent competition for supremacy. But at its best, an aspiration toward excellence inspires the men and women of Europe to craft musical and artistic works of unsurpassed beauty and to make extraordinary breakthroughs in science and technology. The grave virtues of the self-possessed Romans and the pride in civic participation and spirit of philosophical inquiry of the Greeks have never been forgotten in the real Europe. These inheritances, too, are ours.itself as the forerunner of a universal community that is neither universal nor a community.- The Paris Statement, http://archbishopcranmer.com/paris-statement-true-false-europe/

"The doorstep of the palace of wisdom is a humble sense of ignorance."— C. H. Spurgeon

Mental illness cannot separate you from the love of God. When the world says, “bipolar,” God says, “beloved.”- Desiring God‏Verified account @desiringGod

“Wherefore the Holy Spirit is sent, and his work is to glorify the Son. Now, as I said, we have a Spirit come forth whose whole business is to glorify himself; whereby we may easily know whence he is." John Owen, The Glory of Christ(Page 258)

Look to the cross, think of the cross, meditate on the cross--and then go and set your affections on the world if you can! - J. C. Ryle

Thursday 19 October 2017

Quotes 20 Oct 17

God did not choose us because He foresaw we would come to Christ. Faith is the consequence of election, not the cause of it~Jonathan Edwards

The false Europe also boasts of an unprecedented commitment to equality. It claims to promote non-discrimination and the inclusion of all races, religions and identities. Here, genuine progress has been made, but a utopian detachment from reality has taken hold. Over the past generation, Europe has pursued a grand project of multiculturalism. To demand or even promote the assimilation of Muslim newcomers to our manners and mores, much less to our religion, has been thought a gross injustice. A commitment to equality, we have been told, demands that we abjure any hint that we believe our culture superior. Paradoxically, Europe’s multicultural enterprise, which denies the Christian roots of Europe, trades on the Christian ideal of universal charity in an exaggerated and unsustainable form. It requires from the European peoples a saintly degree of self-abnegation. We are to affirm the very colonization of our homelands and the demise of our culture as Europe’s great twenty-first century glory—a collective act of self-sacrifice for the sake of some new global community of peace and prosperity that is being born.itself as the forerunner of a universal community that is neither universal nor a community.- The Paris Statement, http://archbishopcranmer.com/paris-statement-true-false-europe/

The Church of Rome may represent a perversion of the Christian religion; but naturalistic liberalism is not Christianity at all.- J. Gresham Machen‏ @jg_machen

One of the marks of spiritual maturity is the quiet confidence that God is in control . . . without the need to understand why He does what He does. -Charles R. Swindoll (1934-    )(In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Maturity")

I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude . . . keeps me going or cripples my progress.  It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope.  When my attitudes are right, there's no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream to extreme, no challenge too great for me. -Charles R. Swindoll (1934-    ) _Strengthening Your Grip: Essentials In An Aimless World_ [1982], "On Attitudes"


Quotes 19 Oct 17

'He openly declares that He does not pray for the world, for He is solicitous only for His own flock [the disciples] which He received from the Father's hand. But this might seem absurd; for no better rule of prayer can be found than to follow Christ as our Guide and Teacher. But we are commanded to pray for all, and Christ Himself afterwards prayed for all indiscriminately, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.' I reply, the prayers which we utter for all are still limited [efficaciously] to God's elect. We ought to pray that this and that and every man may be saved and so embrace the whole human race, because we cannot yet distinguish the elect from the reprobate...we pray for the salvation of all whom we know to have been created in God's image and who have the same nature as ourselves; and we leave to God's judgement those whom He knows to be reprobate' (John Calvin, Comment on John 17: 9)

“Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks… Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.” ~Albert Einstein

To sustain the belief that there is no God, atheism has to demonstrate infinite knowledge, which is tantamount to saying, "I have infinite knowledge that there is no being in existence with infinite knowledge.”- Ravi Zacharias

Man can see stars collide 130 million light years away, but we can't see each other's point of view. - unknown

Worse than the misery that comes after sin is the greater misery when God gives us over to more sin.- John Piper‏Verified account @JohnPiper

Tuesday 17 October 2017

Quotes 18 Oct 17

'Paul makes grace common to all men, not because it in fact extends to all, but because it is offered to all. Although Christ suffered for the sins of the world, and is offered by the goodness of God without distinction to all men, yet not all receive him' (John Calvin, Comment on Romans 5: 18).

When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age?  Everything else in marriage is transitory. -Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) (In William Safire and Leonard Safir's _Words of Wisdom_[1989], "Marriage,Contemplation of")

Politics is not the art of the possible.  It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable. -John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) _Ambassador's Journal_ [1969]

The irony of Bill Clinton’s wife complaining about a man who used his power to gain sexual favours from young interns seems to have been lost on her.  - David Robertson‏ @theweeflea,https://theweeflea.com/2017/10/16/led-13-harvey-weinstein-juncker-in-a-bar-bertrand-cantat-freedom-to-steal-in-london-flu-and-sexual-orientation-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-abortion-act-thomas-the-tank-engine-the-threa/

“The divine nature is the reason and cause of all worship; so that it is impossible to worship any one person, and not worship the whole Trinity."John Owen, The Glory of Christ (Page 260)

Monday 16 October 2017

Quotes 17 Oct 17

I still can hardly believe it.  I, with shriveled, bent fingers, atrophied muscles, gnarled knees, and no feeling from the shoulders down, will one day have a new body, light, bright, and clothed in righteousness--powerful and dazzling. Can you imagine the hope this gives someone spinal-cord injured like me?  Or someone who is cerebral palsied, brain-injured, or who has multiple sclerosis?  Imagine the hope this gives someone who is manic-depressive. No other religion, no other philosophy promises new bodies, hearts, and minds.  Only in the Gospel of Christ do hurting people find such incredible hope.-Joni Eareckson-Tada (1949-    )_Heaven: Your Real Home_ [1995], Chapter 3

Heaven will be deeply appreciated by the disabled, who will be liberated from ravaged bodies and minds, and by the sick and elderly who will be free from their pains and restrictions.  They will walk and run and see and hear, some for the first time. Hymn writer Fanny Crosby said, "Don't pity me for my blindness, for the first face I ever see will be the face of my Lord Jesus." -Randy Alcorn (1954-    ) _Money, Possessions, And Eternity_ [2003]

No free government now exists in the world, unless where Christianity is acknowledged, and is the religion of the country. Christianity is part of the common law of this state. It is not proclaimed by the commanding voice of any human superior, but expressed in the calm and mild accents of the common law of the State. Its foundations are broad, and strong, and deep: they are laid in the authority, the interest, the affections of the people. Waiving all questions of hereafter, it is the purest system of morality, the firmest auxiliary, and only stable support of all human laws.-The State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 1824. Updegraph v. Commonwealth; 11 Serg. & R. 393, 406 (Sup.Ct. Penn. 1824)

The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men. -Samuel Adams  (1722 -1803),  letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775. Quotation marks were used by Adams.
The statement was first used by James Burgh (1714-1775) in his Political Disquisitions (published in three volumes in 1774-1775).

"When you can't trace His hand, you must learn to trust His heart" - Spurgeon

Quotes 16 Oct 17

" Home to a young boy is merely a filling station. " - William D. Blake (pilgrimwb@aol.com)http://www.scopesys.com/today/ 21 Aug 17

Those who pirated Tyndale’s work used satirical colophons; one, poking fun at More,  claimed to be ‘Printed in Utopia’;, another claimed that it was, ‘Printed at St Peter’s in Rome cum priveligio apostolico. while a third was ‘printed in Basle by Adam Anonymous’. - Brian Moynahan, Book of Fire

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ” ― Epictetus

In then long run, however, Mohammed wins out. Christianity spreads primarily by conversion, Islam by conversion and reproduction. Samuel P Huntington, The Clash of Civilisations, p 65

“The more we grow in faith and spiritual light, the more sensible are we of our present burdens, and the more vehemently do we groan for deliverance into the perfect liberty of the sons of God. This is the posture of their minds who have received the first fruits of the Spirit in the most eminent degree. The nearer anyone is to heaven, the more earnestly he desires to be there, because Christ is there.” John Owen, The Glory of Christ(Page 384)


Friday 13 October 2017

Quotes 14 Oct 17

There are also limits to Australian multiculturalism. These may be summarized as follows: +multicultural policies are based upon the premises that all Australians should have an overriding and unifying commitment to Australia, to its interests and future first and foremost; +multicultural policies require all Australians to accept the basic structures and principles of Australian society - the Constitution and the rule of law, tolerance and equality, Parliamentary democracy, freedom of speech and religion, English as the national language and equality of the sexes; and +multicultural policies impose obligations as well as conferring rights: the right to express one's own culture and beliefs involves a reciprocal responsibility to accept the right of others to express their views and values. As a necessary response to the reality of Australia's cultural diversity, multicultural policies aim to realize a better Australia characterized by an enhanced degree of social justice and economic efficiency. = Australian Government, Dept of Social Services, Settlement and Multicultural Affairs

Englishmen have ancestors. Australians have previous.- Advert for Marston's Bitter seen in a gents at Lords.

World War II would end the system of unilateral action , the exclusive alliances, the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have been tried for centuries - and have always failed. Instead we will have a universal organisation of peace-loving Nations and the beginnings of a permanent structure of peace. - Franklin D Roosevelt, Address to the conference reporting on the Yalta conference, 1 Mar 1945

Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.—C. S. Lewis

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” ― Epictetus

Thursday 12 October 2017

Quotes 13 Oct 17

'Tis known by the name of perseverance in a good cause--and of obstinacy in a bad one.-Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)_Tristram Shandy_ [1760]; Book 1, Chapter 17

"There is no truth more suited to impart confidence and strength, comfort and joy in the Lord than this one of union with Christ." –Murray

It is not permitted to scrutinize the mysteries on high with the intention of comprehending them.~Thomas Aquinas

You are as much serving God in training your own children, as you would be if you lead an army to battle for the Lord.- Charles Spurgeon‏ @Spurgeon_

The patrons of the false Europe are bewitched by superstitions of inevitable progress. They believe that History is on their side, and this faith makes them haughty and disdainful, unable to acknowledge the defects in the post-national, post-cultural world they are constructing. Moreover, they are ignorant of the true sources of the humane decencies they themselves hold dear—as do we. They ignore, even repudiate the Christian roots of Europe. At the same time they take great care not to offend Muslims, who they imagine will cheerfully adopt their secular, multicultural outlook. Sunk in prejudice, superstition and ignorance, and blinded by vain, self-congratulating visions of a utopian future, the false Europe reflexively stifles dissent. This is done, of course, in the name of freedom and tolerance.itself as the forerunner of a universal community that is neither universal nor a community.- The Paris Statement, http://archbishopcranmer.com/paris-statement-true-false-europe/

Quotes 12 Oct 17


It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it Lighthouses do not ring bells and fire a cannon to call attention to their shining-they just shine.--Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)

A wise man, like the moon, shows only his bright side to the world. -John Churton Collins (1848-1908) _The English Review_ [April 1914],  "Some Maxims And Reflections"

Fox declared, ‘You will say that Christ saith this, and the apostles sat this: but what canst thou say? ’It cut me to the heart’ Margaret Fox recalled; ‘I saw clearly we were all wrong. So I sat down in my pew again and cried bitterly.’ He ‘opened us a book that we had never reading, nor indeed had never heard it was our duty to read in it, to wit the light of Christ in our consciences.’ - Fox, Journal 2, p. 512,; I Ross, Margaret Fell p. 11 quoted in C HILL, THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWNp. 257

Europe, in all its richness and greatness, is threatened by a false understanding of itself. This false Europe imagines itself as a fulfilment of our civilization, but in truth it will confiscate our home. It appeals to exaggerations and distortions of Europe’s authentic virtues while remaining blind to its own vices. Complacently trading in one-sided caricatures of our history, this false Europe is invincibly prejudiced against the past. Its proponents are orphans by choice, and they presume that to be an orphan—to be homeless—is a noble achievement. In this way, the false Europe praises itself as the forerunner of a universal community that is neither universal nor a community.- The Paris Statement, http://archbishopcranmer.com/paris-statement-true-false-europe/

Long as I live I’ll bless Thy Name,
My King, my God of love;
My work and joy shall be the same
In the bright world above.
Isaac Watts

Tuesday 10 October 2017

Quotes 11 Oct 17

There has been nothing like this spontaneous outbreak democracy in any army English or continental before the year 1647, nor was there anything like it thereafter till the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils met in 1917 in Russia. - D Brailsford, Sport and Society, pp. 181, 410-12 QUOTED IN C HILL, THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN p. 63

Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.-Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) _Reader's Digest_ [May 1979], "Quotable Quotes"

“God’s word is like throwing open a window of bright morning sunshine on the roaches of sin masquerading as satisfying pleasures.”- Desiring God‏ @desiringGod 

...courage is not simply _one_ of the virtues, but the form of every
virtue at its testing point, which means, at the point of highest
reality.  A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will
be chaste or modest or merciful only on conditions.  Pilate was merciful
till it became risky.- C. S. Lewis, _The Screwtape Letters_, 29

Know what Freud wrote in his diary when he was 77? "What do women want?  My God, what do they want?"
Fifty years this giant brain spends analyzing women. And he still can't find out what they want.  So this makes him the world's greatest expert on female psychology? -Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) _Slam The Door Softly_ [1970]

Monday 9 October 2017

Quotes 10 Oct

Guard your thoughts--and there will be little fear about your actions.- J.C. Ryle

 “Behold how many long for that bodily health, and receive it from Him; they are healed by Him, but not for Him. How are they healed by Him, and not for Him? When they have received health they become wanton; they who when sick were chaste, have become adulterers: they who when in illness injured no man, on the recovery of their strength attack and crush the innocent: they are healed but not unto Him. Who is he who is healed unto Him? He who is healed inwardly. Who is he who is healed inwardly? He who trusts in Him, that when he shall have been healed inwardly, reformed into a new man, afterwards this mortal flesh too, which does languish for a time, may in the end itself even recover its most perfect health. Let us therefore be healed for Him. But that we may be healed for Him, let us believe in His right hand.”   (Augustine on Psalm 98 – Nicene and PN – p.481)

Sin always carries a degree of darkness with it; and the more it prevails, the more it darkens and deludes the mind. - Jonathan Edwards.

“You will certainly carry out God's purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John.”- C. S. Lewis‏ @CSLewisDaily

William Tyndale wrote  ‘the most influential book there has ever been in the history of language, English or any other. -  Melvyn Bragg, The Adventure of English, quoted in Travel with William Tyndale.

Sunday 8 October 2017

Quotes 9 Oct 17

"Because the believer is united to Christ, suffering is inevitable." –Dr. Carl Trueman, Westminster Seminary‏ @WestminsterTS

To God the Spirit’s Name
Immortal worship give,
Whose new-creating power
Makes the dead sinner live.
Isaac Watts

"As appetite comes with eating, so prayer with praying...Go into your chamber, shut the door, and cultivate the habit of praying audibly. Write prayers and burn them. Formulate your soul. Pay no attention to literary form, only to spiritual reality. Read a passage of Scripture and then sit down and turn it into prayer, written or spoken...Pray as your actual self, not as some fancied saint...Prayer is not only a necessity of faith, it is faith itself in action" (P.T. Forsyth).

"He lived for us, he died for us; he was ours and all he did, in all he suffered.”- John Owen, The Glory of Christ(Page 165)

 "I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, “You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.” My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will. A poor haul of fish will any gospel fisherman make if he takes none but those who are eager to leap into the net. Oh, for five minutes of the great Shepherd’s handiwork!" ~ Charles Spurgeon

Friday 6 October 2017

Quotes 7 Oct 17

Our Lord has . . .
  many weak children in his family,
  many dull pupils in his school,
  many raw soldiers in his army,
  many lame sheep in his flock.
Yet He bears with them all, and casts none away.
Happy is that Christian who has learned to do likewise with his brethren.- J.C. Ryle

Sin forsaken--is one of the best evidences of sin forgiven. - J.C. Ryle

“Let your occasional thoughts of Christ be many, and multiplied every day.” John Owen, The Glory of Christ(Page 317)

"Grace is what makes Christianity unique among all world religions and philosophies. Only the Christian faith has grace. No man would have made this up. We love our merit badges too much.None of us would have come up with the concept of divine unmerited favor." - Jared C. Wilson

Life in modern liberal democracies is to some extent thin or shallow and that life in modern Western Europe in particular has lost its sense of purpose.  - Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe, p 258

Thursday 5 October 2017

Quotes 6 Oct 17

I don't have to watch the evening news to see that the world is bad, I only have to look at myself. I am not browbeating myself here; I am only saying that true change, true life-giving, God-honoring change would have to start with the individual. I was the very problem I had been protesting. I wanted to make a sign that read "I AM THE PROBLEM!" -Donald Miller (1971-)_Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality_ [2003], Chapter 2

“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ” ― Epictetus

Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.-Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)_Autobiography_ [1731-1759], Chapter 6

I believe that secular entertainment is one of the biggest tools that Satan uses to mislead people. He desensitizes us through it: murder, violence, sexual immorality, you name it.  Sin has slowly but surely become acceptable to us because we see it all the time so it's no longer shocking. -"Michelle Bain" (Jennifer O'Neill)(In the film _Time Changer_ [2002], written and directed by Rich Christiano) 01:02:00

"Every Christian should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it." ~ John Stott

Wednesday 4 October 2017

Quotes 5 Oct 17

“Mohammed is now the most popular boy’s name in England and Wales. The official line is so what, Britain will still remain Britain when most of the men are called Mohammed rather than Harry or Dafydd. “…..`’By 2015 there were more British Muslims fighting for ISIS than for the British armed forces. ‘`- Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe P31306356845

“No man is free who is not master of himself.” ― Epictetus

There is no such thing as frustrating or baffling or undermining God's designs; for he is great in counsel and wonderful in working~Edwards.

It is rash, however, to claim that the decline in church attendance or in people professing religious belief would somehow rebound if the Church of England were more fully to embrace liberal values............Where congregations have increased sharply, it has tended to be among evangelical churches which, while dispensing with the smells and bells, have tended to preach a more censorious message on same-sex relationships. In the Catholic Church, meanwhile, traditionalist parishes are thriving while more liberal ones disappear.- https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/09/religion-is-on-the-decline-yet-our-society-is-underpinned-by-faith/

"Class, you will forget almost everything I will teach you in here, so please remember this: that God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He has been speaking through asses ever since.So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself.And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway." -Rich Mullins (1955-1997)

Quotes 4 Oct 17

Where faith still exists it is either wholly uninformed - as in the evangelical communitises - or it is wounded and weak. - Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe, p 212

It may be a terrible generalisation to say this, but beneath this surface existence everything else in European thought and philosophy is a mess. - Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe, p 223

Here joy begins to enter into us, there we enter into joy.—Thomas Watson

Islam has no place in Slovakia. Migrants change the character of our country. We do not want the character of this country to change, - Robert Fico, PM of Slovakia, Der Standard 27 May 2016 quoted in - Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe, p 230

There is another Christian aspect to this. Secular Humanism has no answer to Islam and cannot assimilate it – because Islam is a political system that cannot share the values of secular humanism. But Christianity can deal with Islam. Why? Because we recognize with Muslims that there is one God, the Creator of heaven and earth; because we recognize that we are more than just ‘blobs of carbon floating from one meaningless existence to another’; because we share an emphasis on the importance of families and social justice; because we too recognize the importance of being right with God, we can speak to Muslims at a level which the secular humanist cannot.  But whereas the Muslim hopes that God in the end will have mercy on them – the Christian is able to offer full and free forgiveness because of Christ. Christians have no ISIS, but we do have the new birth. What if God was permitting millions of Muslims to come to Europe so that they could hear about Christ? D Robertson There is another Christian aspect to this. Secular Humanism has no answer to Islam and cannot assimilate it – because Islam is a political system that cannot share the values of secular humanism. But Christianity can deal with Islam. Why? Because we recognize with Muslims that there is one God, the Creator of heaven and earth; because we recognize that we are more than just ‘blobs of carbon floating from one meaningless existence to another’; because we share an emphasis on the importance of families and social justice; because we too recognize the importance of being right with God, we can speak to Muslims at a level which the secular humanist cannot.  But whereas the Muslim hopes that God in the end will have mercy on them – the Christian is able to offer full and free forgiveness because of Christ. Christians have no ISIS, but we do have the new birth. What if God was permitting millions of Muslims to come to Europe so that they could hear about Christ? - David Robertson https://theweeflea.com/2017/08/11/the-strange-death-of-europe-part-2-immigration/

Monday 2 October 2017

Quotes 3 Oct 17

"I like no people better than those of Yorkshire", Henry Venn (1770).

It is true that the King never dies; the demise is immediately followed by the succession; there is no interval: the Sovereign always exists; the person only is changed.-Lord Lyndhurst, Viscount Canterbury v. Att.-Gen. (1843), 1 Phill. 322.

He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable,
or dangerous to do so. --Walter Lippman (1889-1974) _A Preface to Morals_ [1929]

The UK needs to build a city the size of Liverpool every year to house all the new people who come to Britain each year – let alone the primary school places and the strains on the National Health Service.Whilst many immigrants work hard and overall provide a benefit to the economy – the fact is that according to a report from University College London in 2013 entitled “the fiscal effects of immigration to the UK” the overall cost to the UK economy of immigration between 1995 and 2011 was at least £114 billion.“During Britain’s EU debate one millionaire pro-EU entrepreneur insisted that migration into Britain was necessary because he didn’t want his daughter to become a “potato picker”Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe, p 212 (page 50)https://theweeflea.com/2017/08/11/the-strange-death-of-europe-part-2-immigration/

There’s not a plant or flower below
But makes His glories known;
And clouds arise, and tempests blow,
By order from His throne.
Isaac Watts

Quotes 2 Oct 17

“The idea that she might subordinate her feelings for the good of some higher purpose did not sit easily with Diana. Because according to this new mantra, there is no higher purpose than simply what one feels”- Rod Liddle

“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems”  Epictetus  c. AD 50 – 135) Greek Stoic philosopher.

So long as Islam remains Islam (which it will) and the West remains the West (which is more dubious), the fundamental conflict between two great civilisations and ways of life will continue to define their relations in the future even as it has defined them for the past fourteen centuries. -  Samuel P Huntington, The Clash of Civilisations, p 212

“Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents." Translation by Sharon Lebell” ― Epictetus, The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness

If we take our meaning in life from our family, our work, a cause, or some achievement other than God, they enslave us.-  Tim Keller Wisdom‏ @DailyKeller