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Wednesday 31 January 2018

Quotes 1 Feb 18

“If God is not sovereign, then God is not God.”- R. C. Sproul (1939–2017)

The Communist version of a grammar Nazi?
Punctuation Marx

You will philosophise men into hell, but never into heaven. --C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 62 [1916]
http://www.spurgeon.us/mind_and_heart/quotes/p2.htm#philosophy

I go about with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.  The two go well together, for the concentrated study of the newspaper is a Christian's duty as this Age draws to its close. --Christabel Pankhurst (1880-1958) (Speech at Albert Hall, London; September 1926)

"Though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him."- @CSLewisDaily

Tuesday 30 January 2018

Quotes 31 Jan 18

"A leader is a person with a magnet in his heart and a compass in his head."~ Howard Hendricks

The prospect of martyrdom brought Luther ever closer to God, ...As he wrote to Spalatin,' In Ali this I fear nothing as you know.'- Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther Renegade and Prophet, p.123

The difference between men and human beings is that human beings can be reproduced by
unskilled labour.~ Arthur C. Clarke

Computers are like old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.~ Joseph B. Campbell 1904-87

How do you know when God is at the centre of your life?  When God's at the centre, you worship. When he's not, you worry. Worry is the warning light that God has been shoved to the sideline.  The moment you put him back at the centre, you will have peace again.--Rick Warren (1954-    ) _The Purpose Driven Life_ [2002], Chapter 40

Monday 29 January 2018

Quotes 30 Jan 18

A good prayer should not be long and should not be drawn out, but should be frequent and fiery.- -Martin Luther in Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther Renegade and Prophet, p.147

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. -Mother Teresa

I have seen the writing on the wall. It’s in Arabic. - http://archbishopcranmer.com/rejoice-rejoice-young-rees-mogg-donned-underpants-rebellion-bowler-hat-bulldoggedness/#respond

I have friends who are atheists. It’s such rubbish. There’s this mate of mine he said come back to my flat and I’ll make you a cup of tea and we’ll talk the whole thing through. So I go back with him and he puts the kettle on. “ The thing is, Frank the universe-it just happened. A big bang, an accident, no one made it happen. There’s no great designer, no thought went into it or planning, it just happened- do you get it?…. Anyway, that cup of tea won’t make itself”
I said, “Why not?”- Frank Skinner on atheists:

Some praise books for their girth, as though they were written to exercise our arms, not our wits. --Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658) _The Art of Worldly Wisdom_ [1647], Maxim 27 

Sunday 28 January 2018

Quotes 29 Jan 18

Many of the Bible characters fell just in the things
in which they were thought to be strongest.  Moses
failed in his humility, Abraham in his faith, Elijah
in his courage, for one woman scared him away to
that juniper-tree; and Peter, whose strong point was
boldness, was so frightened by a maid, as to deny
his Lord.
     --Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)
      (In Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert's
      _Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers_ [1895]

Disdain not your inferior, though poor, since he may be
your superior in wisdom, and the noble endowments
of mind.
     --George Shelley (1666-1736)
      _Sentences And Maxims Divine, Moral, And
       Historical, In Prose And Verse_ [1730]

Lord, save me from my own stupidity. Amen.- Chris Hatch@LondonHatch

"Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word and signifieth good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that maketh a man's heart glad and maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy." -- William Tyndale

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of
certainties through my love for the truth;
and truth rewarded me.
     --Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
      _All Said And Done_ [1974]

Friday 26 January 2018

Quotes 27 Jan 18

The problem was not, and  has never been a failure of mainstream Muslims to condemn terrorism, or to denounce the Islamic State. The problem is their reluctance to seriously acknowledge or engage with the Islamic State intellectualy. Instead their defence of Islam is typified by the refrain, "Islam is a religion of peace'' combined with happy talk about mercy and love. They do not address the Scriptures Islamic State cites about war or hate. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p215

"Always stand to it that your creed must bend to the Bible, and not the Bible to your creed, and dare to be a little inconsistent with yourselves, if need be, sooner than be inconsistent with God’s revealed truth." — C. H. Spurgeon

Abuse gets the headlines but passivity is the silent killer of manhood.- Gavin Peacock@GPeacock8

 I gave up rock 'n' roll for the rock of ages. I used to be a glaring homosexual until God changed me. --Little Richard (1932-    )(In Raymond Obstfeld's _Jabberrock_ [1997],"You Gotta Serve Somebody")

The only way to get our values right is to see, not the beginning, but the end of the way, to see things, not in the light of time, but in the light of eternity.--William Barclay (1907-1978) (In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Eternity")

Quotes 26 Jan 18

“I loved football. But there is something more valuable in my life. A greater glory, like Eric Liddell would say.”- Gavin Peacock@GPeacock8

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right
to tell people what they do not want to hear.
     --George Orwell (1903-1950)
      _The Freedom Of The Press_ [1945] (essay)

Corruptissima re public leges. The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.- Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome

'I knew that the cross was simultaneously, the point of greatest suffering, the point of death and transformation, and the symbolic centre of the world'- Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life

There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble
men that public opinion.
     --Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)
      _Proverbs From Plymouth Pulpit_ [1887]

Wednesday 24 January 2018

Quotes 25 Jan 18

What a person thinks about God’s Word in reality reflects what a person thinks about God.—John MacArthur

If God accepts us, what does it matter who rejects us?
If God rejects us, what does it matter who accepts us?
Joshua D JonesBlueCheezWhisky

'In Islam, Allah is a solitary being, a monad. Because he is a monad, he cannot be love, for who was there for him to love in eternity?'-Ian Hamilton, The Gospel-Shaped Life, p 2.

When I think what an aid tobacco is to friendship and Christian patience, I have sometimes regretted that I never began to smoke.- Gresham Machen@jg_machen

I'm all in favour of nannies, but not the nanny state.- Jacob Rees-Mogg in The Free Nation Jan 2018 p.4

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Quotes 24 jan 18

We get angry when we feel like God owes us a better life than we have.- Tim Keller@timkellernyc

“There is no ideal place for us to serve God except the place He sets us down .”
—Spurgeon

It is not difficult to govern Italians, just useless. - Benito Mussolini quoted in Histories of Nations ed Peter Furtado p.237

Faith is not a distant view but a warm embrace of Christ.- John Calvin

Money never made a man rich; on the contrary, it always smites men with a greater craving for itself. =Seneca, Letter CXIX. On Nature as Our Best Provider, 9

Monday 22 January 2018

Quotes 23 Jan 18

“It shall greatly help ye to understand the Scriptures if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom and to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what goeth before and what followeth after. ” ― Miles Coverdale

The Scriptures represent the Holy Spirit, not only as moving, and occasionally influencing, the saints, but as dwelling in them as his temple, his proper abode, and everlasting dwelling-place. -Jonathan Edwards.

The readiness of the English to apologise for something they haven't done is remarkable, and it is matched by an unwillingness to apologise for what they have done. - Henry Hitchings, Sorry!: The English and Their Manners, 2013

I challenge anybody in their darkest moment to write what they're grateful for, even stupid little things like green grass or a friendly conversation with somebody on the elevator.  You start to realize how rich you are. -Jim Carrey (1962-    )_Reader's Digest_ [November 2003], "Quotable Quotes"

Baptism and the Supper make the gospel see-able, touchable, taste-able. The Word leads us to Christ by the ear; the sacraments by the eye. They don’t give us a better Christ; they help us get Christ better - Robert Bruce

Sunday 21 January 2018

Quotes 22 Jan 18

... this militancy ... has everything to do with religion: misguided, fanatical, ideological and politicised religion. It is the religion of resentment, envy, powerlessness and nihilism. It does however have nothing to do with the merciful teachings of our Prophet ... - Hamza Yusuf, The Plague Within  quoted in Graeme Wood, The Way of Stranger

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. -Martin Luther King, Jr.@famos_quotes

As I expected, the UK will cave into the EU on everything and we will leave the EU in name but probably not in reality.   That’s because the EU Commission has the enormous advantage of not having to answer to an electorate and because the UK government does and knows that about half that electorate are opposed and that numerous politicians, media, civil servants and academics are doing their utmost to try and undermine and prevent Brexit.- https://theweeflea.com/2017/12/05/led-18-brexit-graham-norton-tim-farron-the-men-who-live-as-dogs-paedophilia-education-youtube-censorship-kevin-mckenna/

“Some for example, the Dutch prime minister, Mr. Andries Van Agt, were reasonable, but most were not. I had the strong feeling that they had decided to test whether I was able and willing to stand up to them. It was quite shameless: they were determined to keep as much of our money as they could” (Margaret Thatcher)

“But Thatcher was finding that ‘give and take’, in European terms, meant, ‘you give, we take’”- in The Great Deception by Booker and North.

Friday 19 January 2018

Quotes 20 Jan 18

Would the boy you were be proud of the man you are?
     --Laurence J. Peter (1919-1990)
      (In Leonard Roy Frank's
      _Quotationary_ [2001], "Pride")

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
     --Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
      _On the Middlesex Election_ [1771] (speech)

We are quite ignorant of the real power of our
habits until we try to give them up.
     --C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)
      _Letter to Mrs. Percival Wiseman_ [May 26, 1942]

Death slew not him, but he made death his ladder to the skies.
     --Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
      _An Epitaph Upon Sir Philip Sidney_ [1591], Line 20

There is no education like adversity.
     --Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
      _Endymion_ [1880], Chapter 61

Thursday 18 January 2018

quotes 19 Jan 18

Government is like fire: too useful to do without, too dangerous ever to trust.                      - unknown

"Our today has a reality of meaning beyond our present. The refining and the preparation have a day of fulfillment ahead." ~ Edith Schaeffer, Affliction ~ Edith Schaeffer, Affliction http://dlvr.it/QBPfLT

“The worlds of Christianity and Islam, however, have developed differently in one fundamental respect. The Christian faith won over an existing empire in an extremely slow and painful process and its universalism was originally conceived in spiritual terms that made a clear distinction between God and Caesar. By the time it was embraced by the Byzantine emperors as a tool for buttressing their imperial claims, three centuries after its foundation, Christianity had in place a countervailing ecclesiastical institution with an abiding authority over the wills and actions of all believers. The birth of Islam, by contrast, was inextricably linked with the creation of a world empire and its universalism was inherently imperialist. It did not distinguish between temporal and religious powers, which were combined in the person of Muhammad, who derived his authority directly from Allah and acted at one and the same time as head of the state and head of the church. This allowed the prophet to cloak his political ambitions with a religious aura and to channel Islam’s energies into ‘its instruments of aggressive expansion, there [being] no internal organism of equal force to counterbalance it.’”- Ephraim Karsh, “Islamic Imperialism: A History.”[v] Introduction (P. 5)

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn
in no other.
     --Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
      _Poor Richard's Almanac_ [December 1743]

God works in us by the Holy Spirit to accomplish the very imperatives he demands of us.- Derek Thomas@DerekWHThomas

Wednesday 17 January 2018

Quotes 18 Jan 18

Oh how sweet it would be to spend myself wholly for God, and in his cause, and to be freed from selfish motives in my labours.- David Brainerd@BrainerdQuotes

Marriage is the procreative, lifelong union of one man and one woman, as husband and wife, and is meant to signify the covenant love between Christ and his bride the church" -  Article 1 of the Nashville Statement @CBMWorg.

Patriotism is a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it. -George Bernard Shaw

'You illuminate the Scriptures so well...the great joy that I felt was that of being a simple congregant being taught...above me there is only God......Yes, above all things I do think of myself as just a simple Christian.... it's the values of Christian living that root me, guide me, define me.' HM Queen Elizabth to Billy Graham, 1954, in The Crown, episode six, season two

"As for me, I have braved the sneer of men because I feared the frown of my Lord"— C. H. Spurgeon

Tuesday 16 January 2018

Quotes 17 Jan 18

The Lord showed me, so that I did see clearly, that
he did not dwell in these temples which men had
commanded and set up, but in people's hearts . . .
His people were his temple, and he dwelt in them.
       --George Fox, born (1624-1691)
         _Journal_ [1694]

"MOST Christians fail to fulfill the Christian ideal. This bitter and bracing fact cannot be too much insisted upon in this and every other moral question. But, perhaps, it might be suggested that this failure is not so much the failure of Christians in connection with the Christian ideal as the failure of any men in connection with any ideal. That Christians are not always Christian is obvious; neither are Liberals always liberal, nor Socialists always social, nor Humanitarians always kind, nor Rationalists always rational, nor are gentlemen always gentle, nor do working men always work. If people are especially horrified at the failure of Christian practice, it must be an indirect compliment to the Christian creed."
--G.K. Chesterton: "Daily News," Feb. 13, 1906

To be fit for heaven a man must be perfect.  Go, you
who think you can prepare yourselves, be perfect
for one day.
     --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
      _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 62 [1916]

Florida Senator Marco Rubio:
  Well, let me be clear about one thing: There's only
  one savior and it's not me.  It's Jesus Christ, who
  came down to earth and died for our sins.
     --Dialogue from the Fox News-Google Republican
       presidential debate at Des Moines, Iowa;
       January 28, 2016

A knowledge of the Bible without a college course is
more valuable than a college course without the Bible.
     --William Lyon Phelps (1865-1943)
      (In Marion Parker's _Thoughts Of The Great:
       A Scrapbook of Quotations_ [1960])

Monday 15 January 2018

Quotes 16 Jan 18

Every girl should use what Mother Nature gave her before 
Father Time takes it away. 
     --Laurence J. Peter (1919-1990) 
      _Peter's Quotations: Ideas For Our Time_ [1977], "Beauty" 

It is a general error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. 
-Edmund Burke 

Islam is not science but religion. It is highly - though not infinitely - malleable, with no definite conclusions. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p243

...the first prerequisite for exercising a preaching ministry. Christian ministers are to speak as men who have experienced the wonder of God’s forgiving grace in Christ. It is this perhaps more than anything else that knocks the conceit out of us. -Ian Hamilton @BannerofTruth

Why are so many people in the church so worldly? Because they devote 99% of their attention to the world and 1% to God’s word.- Desiring God@desiringGod

Sunday 14 January 2018

Quotes 15 jan 18

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.
     --Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
      _Reflections On The Revolution In France_ [1790]

The best portion of a good man's life is the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. -William Wordsworth

The Christian family: a place without confusion of the sexes; where a husband loves his wife and a wife respects her husband; where children are loved, taught and disciplined and where they obey their parents; a place of love and order with Christ at the centre.- - Gavin Peacock@GPeacock8

"A tear is enough water to float a desire to God." — C. H. Spurgeon

You can fool some of the people all of the time and
all of the people some of the time, but you can
make a damn fool of yourself any old time.
     --Laurence J. Peter (1919-1990)
      _Peter's Almanac_ [December 3, 1982]

Saturday 13 January 2018

Quotes 13 Jan 18

If Islamic State support is a communicable disease, an infection of the mind, then (Ajem) Chowdary is its Typhoid Mary. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p179

Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again. -Nelson Mandela

"The greatest mistake that we make with our own lives is to snatch at the particular objects we desire... If we realized the riches that lie within everyone of us we should know that we can all afford to be spendthrift of nine-tenths of the possessions we treasure; success, praise, and good opinion among men, achievements, and still more material well-being ... Never be afraid of throwing away what you have; if you can throw it away it is not really yours. if it is really your you cannot throw it away. And you may be certain that if you throw it away, whatever in you is greater than you will produce something in its place. never be afraid of pruning your branches. Trust the future and take risks. In moral, as in economic affairs, the rash man is he who does not speculate."
- R H Tawney

One of the oddest aspects of the sexual revolution is its tendency to present the problem as the solution. For instance, during the 1980s, the least acceptable response to the AIDS crisis was the promotion of abstinence. Promiscuity was held to be normative, opponents of it were decried as idiotic and prudish, and any acceptable solution had to be built on these foundational truths.
Thirty years on, the failed pattern continues. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that researchers are calling for sex education to reflect the increasing range of sexual activity in which young people are engaged. The change in sexual habits is presented not as a problem, but as a reality to be accommodated. This makes perfect sense, given the divorce of sexual activity from any kind of moral framework or personal narrative. As sex is essentially amoral (except when consent is absent—and then it is only the violation of consent, not the sex, that is immoral), so the education that surrounds it is amoral, too.- Carl R. Trueman, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/11/scam-artists-and-sex-education

I had grown very fond of this dying woman [her
mother].  As we talked in the half-darkness I
assuaged an old unhappiness; I was renewing the
dialogue that had been broken off during my
adolescence and that our differences and our
likenesses had never allowed us to take up again.
And the early tenderness that I had thought
dead forever came to life again.
     --Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
      _A Very Easy Death_ [1966]



Thursday 11 January 2018

Quotes 12 Jan 18

The current horror show in Syria is, at best, the beginning of another cycle of religious war. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p245

"I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.”- Ronald Reagan’s comment during a pre-election debate with Walter Mondale.  (At the time Mondale had been a senior U.S. senator for many years, and was well into middle age.)

The home is not a democracy. There is an order and authority structure. Children are required to honour and obey their parents, with fathers taking a lead in discipline and instruction. To embrace this brings fruit, but to ignore it brings ruin upon families and society.- Gavin Peacock @GPeacock

More things we worry about are things that won't even matter to us a few months from now.- Life Quotes‏ @liife_quote

So tell me what is the currently accepted scientific definition of reality?-  @johnmabey
I had no idea there was one. I didn't think science addressed such questions.- Peter Hitchens

Wednesday 10 January 2018

Quotes 11 Jan 18

 I cannot be angry at God, in whom I do not believe. 
     --Simone De Beauvoir (1908-1986) 
      _The Observer_ [January 7, 1979] 

...London. It was then, and perhaps still is, the world capital for certain types of loudmouth jihadis, -- the types to have been exiled from their own countries, less often for their odious political views than because they simply would not shut up. - Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p 152

War is deception - Hadith, Bukhari 3029, Muslim,58 quoted in Graeme Wood, The Way of Strangers, p165

I'm not denyin' the women are foolish; God Almighty made 'em to match the men.--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819-1880) _Adam Bede_ [1859], Chapter 53 

Listen to this carefully. The Canadian Government are for ‘free speech’.  Except when it promotes ‘hate’. Which means they are not for free speech because they can just say everything they disagree with is ‘hate’.  Have they not read 1984!- David Robertson‏ @theweeflea

Quotes for 10 Jan 18

"Before the Supreme Court (pro-abortion) ruling, there was no dirtier word you could say to a doctor than 'abortion,'... after the ruling, abortion not only became legal, it became [viewed as] ethical." ~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, quote… http://dlvr.it/Q8yzqw

Christ's righteousness gives us a title to heaven, but there must be a holiness to give us a fitness for heaven.—Stephen Charnock

It is the devil's masterstroke to get us to accuse him.  --George Meredith (1828-1909)

But the rector of St Helen's, Prebendary Dick Lucas, ... Asked whether he forgave the bombers he said: "I'm not aware that anyone has asked for forgiveness."- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/church-torn-apart-by-ira-bomb-reopens-1326639.html

(Cromwell) was the wisest and most gallant of all men whom this age, rich in heroes, has produced - John Owen, Oxford Orations, Sixth Oration 9 Oct 1657

Monday 8 January 2018

Quotes for 9 Jan 18

...eldership is one office comprising two functions and embracing two categories of elder.- Ernest C Brown, Qualified, Commisioned and Accountable.

How is it that Jesus Christ is in Ireland only as a Lion staining all his clothes with the blood of his enemies? And there is no-one to show that Christ is a lamb sprinkled with his own blood for his friends? Oh that Jesus Christ might possess the Irish. - Owen, Works 7:235, 8:235

I think Fasting is such a help, if nothing else it reminds us we need God more than we need food.- Paul Levy, https://ealinglevy.wordpress.com/2018/01/06/yr-2-day-127/

"The state is the family’s enemy. The state grows by the family’s failure, and the state has an interest in persuading people that the family can do nothing on its own" - A Esolen.

Gathered worship is our weekly celebration of victory that the war is won, that our enemy's head is crushed, and that our future is secure in our returning and conquering king.- Burk Parsons@BurkParsons

Quotes 8 Jan 18

“To know that God knows everything about me and yet loves me is indeed my ultimate consolation.”- R. C. Sproul (1939–2017)

Thoughtful people are safer.  Do something well, and
that is quick enough.  What is done immediately is
undone just as fast, but what must last an eternity
takes that long to do.  Only perfection is noticed,
and only success endures.
     --Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658)

[Anthony Trollope at a dinner at George Eliot's house]
'I sit down every morning at 5:30 with my watch on my desk, and for three
hours I regularly produce 250 words every quarter of an hour.'...
'There are days and days together,' she groaned out, 'When I cannot write a line.'
'Yes!' said Trollope, 'with imaginative work like yours that is quite natural; but with my mechanical stuff it's a sheer matter of industry.  It's not the head that does it-- it's the cobbler's wax on the seat and the sticking to my chair.'
-- Frederic Harrison, Studies in Early Victorian Literature, 1895
      _The Art of Worldly Wisdom_ [1647], Maxim 57

A man's god is that for which he lives, for which he
is prepared to give his time, his energy, his money,
that which stimulates him and rouses him, excites,
and enthuses him.
     --Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)
      (In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection
       of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Idolatry")
- show quoted text

That gentleness...which Christ showed, he requires also from his servants.—John Calvin


Friday 5 January 2018

Quotes 5 Jan 18

“God does not always act with justice. Sometimes he acts with mercy. Mercy is not justice, but it also is not injustice. Injustice violates righteousness. Mercy manifests kindness and grace and does no violence to righteousness. We may see nonjustice in God, which is mercy, but we never see injustice in God.”- R. C. Sproul (1939–2017)

“In times of adversity, believers comfort themselves with the solace that they suffer nothing except by God’s ordinance and command, for they are under his hand.” - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion,

 BlackFriday is the Feast Day of St Mammon.- Archbishop Cranmer‏ @His_Grace

The American College of Pediatricians urges healthcare professionals, educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.- https://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children

Thirty years had elapsed since the martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton for heresy; and during that period the Protestant doctrines [...] were promulgated by many daring preachers, who, with rude but ready eloquence, averred the truths which they were ready to seal with their blood. Amongst these, the most eminent was John Knox, a man of a fearless heart and a fluent eloquence; violent, indeed, and sometimes coarse, but the better fitted to obtain influence in a coarse and turbulent age, capable at once of reasoning with the wiser nobility, and inspiring with his own spirit and zeal the fierce populace. Toleration, and that species of candour which makes allowance for the prejudices of birth or situation, were unknown to his uncompromising mind; and this deficiency made him the more fit to play the distinguished part to which he was called. -- Sir Walter Scott, History of Scotland, 1830

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Quotes 4 Jan 18

"'Oh!' but they will say, 'it is ridiculous—a man trusting in God.' Yes, but you do not
think it ridiculous to trust in yourselves."— C. H. Spurgeon

By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach. - Winston Churchill

1 I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art,
my only trust and Savior of my heart,
who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;
I pray thee from our hearts all cares to take.

2 Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,
reigning omnipotent in every place:
so come, O King, and our whole being sway;
shine on us with the light of thy pure day.

3 Thou art the life, by which alone we live,
and all our substance and our strength receive;
sustain us by thy faith and by thy power,
and give us strength in every trying hour.

4 Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,
no harshness hast thou and no bitterness:
O grant to us the grace we find in thee,
that we may dwell in perfect unity.

5 Our hope is in no other save in thee;
our faith is built upon thy promise free;
Lord, give us peace, and make us calm and sure,
that in thy strength we evermore endure.
- Jean Calvin, Translator -Elizabeth Lee Smith (1868, alt.),French Psalter, Strasbourg, 1545; 

“The reason I read the Bible is because I am stone-cold dead without Christ and his word.” Piper- Desiring God @desiring God 

“God answered Job’s questions not with words but with himself.”- R. C. Sproul (1939–2017)

Quotes 3 Jan 18

John Duncan, when distributing the elements , saw a woman in a seat near the front of the church pass the cup untasted while the tears coursed down her cheeks. He left his place at the table, stalled down into the aisle, ad, taking the cup from the elder, gave it himself to the weeping woman with the words, ' Tae' it woman: it's for sinners' G F Barbour, The Life of Alexander Whyte, p310.

Calvin held that the Lord's Supper should be set before the church very ofter, and at least once a week ...The frequency of the communion in Geneva was restricted by the civil magistracy - against Calvin's continued protests - and a quarterly celebration was the most that could be achieved. - David B Calhoun, Knowing Gd and Ourselves, p 319

 "My validity and my status are found in being before the God who is there. My basic validity and my basic status do not depend upon what men think of me." ~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality http://dlvr.it/Q8B9CN

So great is the influence of preconceived opinion, that it brings darkness over the mind in the midst of the clearest light.- John Calvin @JohnCalvinDaily

"If, now, there be grace enough for sinners in an all-sufficient God, it is in Christ; and, indeed, in any other there cannot be enough. The Lord gives this reason for the peace and confidence of sinners, Isaiah chapter 54;4-5, "you shall not be ashamed, neither shall you be confounded; for you shall not be put to shame." But how shall this be? So much sin, and not ashamed! So much guilt, and not confounded! "Your Maker," says he, "is your husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called". This is the bottom of all peace, confidence, and consolation, – the grace and mercy of our Maker, of the God of the whole earth." John Owen, The Glory of Christ(Page 61)

Monday 1 January 2018

Quote 2 Jan 18

 He (Calvin) was granted citizenship only in 1559, eighteen years after his return from Strasbiurg and five years before his death. 'Calvin's name is so closely linked with Geneva that it is often forgotten that he was a resident alien, a hired hand, a Frenchman in a foreign land.' wires Elsie Makes (John Calvin: writing on Pastoral Piety II - David B Calhoun, Knowing Gd and Ourselves, p 330

It i indeed bad to live under a prince with whom nothings permitted; but much worse under one by whom everything is allowed. - John Calvin, Institutes of Religion, IV.20.10,quoted in David B Calhoun, Knowing Gd and Ourselves, p 324

“I have a peaceful study, as a refuge from the hurries and noise of the world around me; the venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me, and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals.” — Samuel Davies

Only when a mosquito lands on your testicles do you realise there is always a way to solve  problems without recourse to violence. - unknown ? Confucius

“If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will? Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts be not wrought upon to delight in him. I dare boldly say, believers will find it as thriving a course as ever they pitched on in their lives. Sit down a little at the fountain, and you will quickly have a further discovery of the sweetness of the streams. You who have run from him, will not be able, after a while, to keep at a distance for a moment." John Owen, The Glory of Christ(Page 36)

Devotions

Paul Levy gave us a challenging sermon New Year's Eve morning from the story of Martha and Mary showing how the most important thing is to stay close and listen to Jesus.
   This and the resolutions season prompt this blog post. I note that a year ago I resolved to start the day with the Lord, not my computer.Yes, I was having daily devotions but had not been going them priority. I resolved to do so and with some surprise and definite thankfulness I can say my daily routine after getting ups total my medicines with coffee or other drink than prayer and Bible reading.
   It took me decades after becoming a Christian to maintain daily devotions.This I find is the common pattern though not right. here are various reasons why I was not a regular keeper of disciplined devotional time. First is inherent sinfulness and the devil's assaults.He wants us away from the Lord. I am by nature undisciplined. I also had another reason for inconsistency. I was bipolar. This went undiagnosed for years but did contribute to having times when was down and not feeling like devotions or being up and thinking I did not need that time before the Lord each morning. I think the bipolar bit did not help regular devotions.
   But convinced to the necessity and battling moods I did persevere so that after decades I was a man of daily devotions and now I can say they have priority.
   Others may differ but I must have the quiet time first thing in the day. I have to give the Lord priority and not forget Him or lie in my own strength.
   It I have one minor criticism of Paul's sermon it is that he said little about the practicalities of daily devotions. People vary. We change habits over time but I will share my present routine as obviously I find what I do to be a blessing though in no way will I be suggesting it as the prescriptive way to go.
   The obligatory part is you must draw close to God in prayer and Bible study. The former is never easy though disciplines routine helps.Ways of Bible study will vary. I am not a meditative person who will suck at length to find sweet nourishment from on or two verses. My mind is such that I want to read chapters. Decades ago I red the banner of Truth recommendation of M'Cheynes daily pattern. It gets you reading two old and one new testament chapters a day IIRC. I developed these habits so I did at least two old, one new plus a palm daily. Psalms are so Important. All of spiritual life is there. I have for several years read several psalms a day. I have categorised them as to type to prayers and found a key verses in each. Psalms are big in my devotions. I have read the whole book several times a year, sometimes even twice a month. As I say I am more a bulk reader than a meditator'
   For the past several years I have read the old testament once a year and the new perhaps twice.
   Next the helps I use.
For prayer I have several lists to remind me of petitions - list of church members, church activities, churches in our denomination, countries where persecution is rife, covenant children baptised but noe far away from the Lord, the sick and troubled. These are my basic petition reminders.
   The Lord's Prayer remind me to praise, give thanks and confess my sin too. Other aids to prayer are B The Valley of Vision, puritan prayers collected by Arthur Bennett and A Way To Pray, also published by Banner and I have reviewed it on Amazon. It is Palmer Robinson's revision of Mathew Henry's book on prayer, simply the best instruction in prayer I have ever read.
   Bible reading I now use ESV study Bible. I no longer often need the study note and my version has changed over the years as I have blogged before going from AV=KJV to RSV, NIV and now ESV. Whatever you do do not chop around different versions every few days. Become familiar with one version long term so you can the more readily quote from memory. My changes have been over the years according to the current use of my church fellowship at the time.
   I have over the years used various commentaries and aids to understanding. At present I have The New Century Bible Commentary on Psalms. I do a psalm a day with it but mainly for the help on categorising Psalms rather than word by word analysis. Is a given psalm a lament. confession, thanksgiving whatever.
   The my present Old Testament aid is a rereading on my best ever OT book, Promise and Deliverance by De Graff. I have again reviewed on Amazon. There are four volumes. The Old testament ones are IMO of unequalled excellence, Christ entered, covenant theology telling of the biblical stories. I do not read many books more than once by all the ones I have mentioned so far have been read more than once.
   My final daily devotion id to read a section from Calvin's Institutes. I confess I have often read parts but not repeatedly the whole. Use the Battles translation. Twentieth century is so much easier than 19th century English. I see there is now a modern translation from the Banner. I would not use any other theological studbook in devotions but Calvin's Institutes are in a class of their own. They are to other systematics what the Heidelberg is to the Westminster standards. Al  mare sound but Heidelberg and Calvin have a unique warmness which is such a help to draw one close to the Lord.
  So, it you have persevered this far with this post I conclude by telling you, no more blog reading this minute.. Get with the Lord.