Quotes 29 Jun

This is the ugly fact we have to face. The basic reason why prayer is hard is because the sinful, selfish heart does not want to pray. Prayer is in no sense technically difficult. It’s the easiest thing in the world: you just talk to God. The difficult thing is not the doing of it, but the desiring of it. In our fallen nature we do not have within us the desire that we should have for fellowship with the living God. This is the fundamental problem, and the reason why prayerlessness cannot be tackled as an isolated issue, unrelated to the rest of our Christian lives. To find prayer hard is normal, but to give up on prayer indicates a deep spiritual problem. There needs to be change at the level of the heart, coming from a deepening understanding of the gospel and a growing desire for fellowship with God in Christ." —Andrew Randall, 'Following Jesus'

"If we are not willing to confront, how can we report to the Lord Jesus Christ that we love our neighbour as ourselves?" Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Our Battle for Humanness, Moody Monthly, 1983

A wise man will let down the bucket of his tongue into the well of his reason before he pour forth words. —William Jenkyn

'For he is justly numbered among the hypocrites who turns the ministry of spiritual direction into an opportunity for domination.' Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule

Quotes 28 June

""[N]ever underestimate how much you encourage others just by being there, or discourage them by being absent. You need the help and support of your brothers and sisters in Christ, and they need yours. The Bible makes many commands about how we should love one another, serve one another, encourage one another, comfort one another and so on. You cannot obey those commands unless you are meeting with your fellow Christians week by week." —Andrew Randall, 'Following Jesus'

"Under our present circumstances Satan makes his attacks under
subterfuges and disguises.  The victim of his wiles proudly imagines
that the artful sophistries by which he evades truth, stifles
conscience, and justifies himself in his opposition to God, are the
product of his own superior wisdom and insight.  He regards the idea
of the existence of such a being as Satan as a weak superstition, and
the suggestion that he may be unconsciously acting under his
influence and control with contemptuous incredulity."
                -- John L. Nevius D.D. (1896)

‘It’s misleading to say God accepts us the way we are. Rather he accepts us DESPITE the way we are. He receives us only in Christ ... Nor does he mean to leave us the way he found us, but to transform us into the likeness of his Son.’ - Sinclair Ferguson, “The Whole Christ” p.154

Quotes Jun 27

In the presence of a great common foe, I have little time to be attacking my brethren who stand with me in defense of the Word of God.- J. Gresham Machen
@jg_machen

To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

'The decay of the church is never the fault of the world. Inward spiritual decline always precedes outward collapse' Sinclair B. Ferguson 'In the Year of our Lord' (Reformation Trust)

Quotes Jun 25

Perhaps one of the reasons that contemporary secularists not simply reflect religion but hate it is that they know that, while they can easily rise to the levels of hatred that religion has sometimes promoted, they will always find it difficult to rise to the levels of love that it has also encouraged. - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.107

The favoured tactic of the modern day pharisees s to disparage their opponents rather than engaging with their argument. So anyone who opposes abortion is a 'bigot', a term which ends debate. A special lexicon has been developed comprising a short list of words which are used to vilify social conservatives; it includes racist, homophobe, misogynist and Islamophobe. By deploying these terms it is possible to undermine the credentials of anyone making a counter argument and then denying them opportunities to justify their position. - - - Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,208

Jefferson was concerned to resist anything that to him looked like tyranny over the human mind.; his goal was freedom from religion.  - Mostyn Roberts, The Subversive Puritan, Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience, p. 205

Quotes 24 Jun

"Don't pity me for my blindness, for the first face I ever see will be the face of my Lord Jesus." - Fanny Crosby

I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it. - Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

State interference in the church, Williams concluded, will lead to the church becoming a wilderness. - Mostyn Roberts, The Subversive Puritan, Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience, p. 203 (But Williams joined no church in Rhode Island so the church was for him an uncultivated wilderness)

Quotes 24 Jun

God’s normal way of strengthening His ministers and making them fruitful is through suffering.-Andrew Randall,#Catalyst2019 https://blogofdan.co.uk/?p=24716

(Putin) may ... ask God:'Why didn't you put some mountains in Ukraine?' - Tim Marsahll, Prisoners of Geography, p.ix

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

Quotes 22 Jun

Three things it will cost you to know God: 1) It will cost you your pride; 2) It will cost you your ease; 3) It will cost you your everything.-Andrew Randall,#Catalyst2019 https://blogofdan.co.uk/?p=24716

"If I feel myself disinclined to pray, then is the time when I need to pray more than ever."- Charles Spurgeon

It is easier to give good advice than to take it. - La Rochefoucauld