10 Quotes From “Notes On Ezekiel”

The Complete Works Of Oswald ChambersI loved reading Oswald Chambers’ insights on the book of Ezekiel as I read that book of the Bible side-by-side. Seeing what Chambers saw is astounding! You can read by book review of Notes On Ezekiel by clicking here. Below are a few quotes I especially appreciated.

“If you imagine you are called on to be isolated and aloof…you will be as free from sanity as from the Spirit of God.”

“We have to beware lest our impatience makes us infidel; impatience means unbelief in God’s providence, and is due to lack of right relationship of the personal life to God.”

“What is called practical work is the greatest hindrance in God’s dealing with souls. We rush through life and call ourselves practical, we mistake bustle for busyness, activity for real life, and when the activities stop we go out like vapor, our work is not based on the fundamental energy of God.” 

“We are not here to serve God, but for God; the self-consciousness of being a saint never enters in.”

“There is no call of God to be prosperous, but there is a call to be a proclaimer of God’s truth to the gates of death. It is the winsome note that men want today—‘I don’t mind listening as long as you talk about the kindness of God, but don’t tell me God damns sin, don’t tell me He allows no quarter for lying or for lust.’ The Gospel awakens an intense craving and an equally intense resentment. The snare of the devil, through God’s own servants, comes when they say ‘Now remember the people.’ Never water-down God’s Word to suit men’s experience. … Be possessed with unflinching courage in preaching the truth of God, but when you deal with sinners, remember who you are.”

“God must make His prophets vitally one with His voice—holy man and holy message, one.”

“Fanaticism comes in when we say, ‘I won’t appropriate the words of God, I don’t want to be limited to what Jesus Christ says, I must get other messages.’”

“Ezekiel had to receive what he heard before he repeated it; this is imperative in all spiritual development. Reception of God’s Word implies personal devotion to the One who speaks it. … Ezekiel, in common with all the Old Testament prophets, had not to generate his message out of his own individuality, he had simply to obey God.”

“Whenever in the prophets or in the New Testament we come to statements of the justice of God at work it is always the same—inescapably terrible and full of doom. Viewed apart from the interpretation of the Spirit of God, God’s dealings with men and with nations are perplexing. … The terrible side of God’s character is only realized by us when the truth dawns on us individually that God is no respecter of persons. Beware of tying God up in His own laws and saying He can’t do what He says He is going to do. The greatest ingredient in the sovereignty of God is the measure of free will He has given man; but be careful you don’t make the sovereignty of God the binding of Almighty God by human logic.”

Links & Quotes

link quote

Some good reading and watching from today…

“I set you down as nearer akin to a devil than to a saint, if you can go your way and look into the face of your friend or child, and know him to be on the downward road, and yet never pray for him nor use any means for his conversion.” —Charles Spurgeon

Truth: 5 reasons why church is good for your marriage.

“Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” —C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters

When doctors given expectant parents about a health issue for their baby, that information may be misleading.

…but there is no mistaking this abortionist’s vile confession: “we let babies born alive ‘expire.’

“A person morally incapable of doing evil would be, by the same token, morally incapable of doing good. A free human will is necessary to the concept of morality.” —A.W. Tozer

Yet again climatologists’ “models” of so-called global warming are destroyed.

I love Pastor Chilly’s list: 66 Expressions Of Love.

[VIDEO] John Piper on what it means to be Gospel-centered…

David Wilkerson (book review)

David WilkersonGary Wilkerson gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the life of his father in this very readable and heartwarming biography of David Wilkerson.

When I read the story of David Wilkerson taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the gangs of New York in the book The Cross And The Switchblade, I was absolutely mesmerized! Here was this country preacher from Pennsylvania confronting some of the toughest gang members all alone on the streets of New York City … wow!

I had visions of a man with a commanding physical presence, a man who was so confident in what God had called him to do, and a man who had an unshakable faith in God. So when I picked up this biography, I was prepared to meet this giant of a man. Instead I found someone who was, in a word, real. He wasn’t physically imposing, he struggled with God’s calling on his life at times, he worked himself almost to exhaustion, he made mistakes, and he sometimes doubted if what he was doing was making a lasting difference.

But in one facet my youthful impression was correct: David Wilkerson was a man of unshakable faith in God. Even in moments where he battled depression and his own shortcomings, he never wavered in his clinging to God.

Gary Wilkerson tells this life story of his Dad lovingly and honestly. He shows us so clearly how God can use a real man, with all of his faults and shortcomings, if that man will simply remain surrendered to God’s will.

This is a highly encouraging biography! I would especially recommend this to anyone who was as thrilled with The Cross And The Switchblade as I was, because I believe it will give you a whole new level of appreciation for the amazing work God did through David Wilkerson’s life.

I am a BookLook book reviewer.

Unbiblical Church Growth

Jim CymbalaThis message from Jim Cymbala is a hard word, but right on target.

The apostles never tried to finesse people when they were presenting the gospel. Their communication was not supposed to be “cool” or soothing. They aimed for a piercing of the heart, for conviction of sin. They had not the faintest intention of asking, “What do people want to hear? How can we draw more people to church on Sunday?” That was the last thing on their minds. Such an approach would have been foreign to them.

Instead of trying to bring men and women to Christ in the biblical way, we are consumed with the unbiblical concept of “church growth.” The Bible does not say we should aim at numbers but rather urges us to proclaim God’s message in the boldness of the Holy Spirit. This will build God’s church God’s way.

Unfortunately, some churches now continually monitor how pleased people are with the services and ask what else they would like. We have no permission whatsoever to adjust the message of the gospel! Whether it seems popular or not, whether it is “hip” to the times, we must faithfully and boldly proclaim that sin is real but Jesus forgives those who confess.

Nowhere does God ask anyone to have a large church. He only calls us to do His work, proclaiming His Word to people He loves under the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit to produce results that only He can bring about. The glory then goes to Him alone—not any denomination, local church, local pastor, or church growth consultant. This is God’s only plan, and anything else is a deviation from the teaching of the New Testament.

Today we have an anti-authority spirit in America that says, “Nobody can tell me I need to change. Don’t you dare.”

Both in the pulpit and in pastoral counseling we have too often given in to this mentality and are afraid to speak the truth about sin. We keep appealing to Paul’s line about becoming “all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22), not noticing that in the very next paragraph he says, “Run in such a way as to get the prize” (verse 24). Adapting our style to get a hearing is one thing, but the message can never change without leaving us empty-handed before the Lord.

UPDATE: This challenging word from Pastor Cymbala is one of the thoughts that helped form my thinking about what is considered “successful” in God’s eyes. I share these thoughts in my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter

Links & Quotes

link quote

Some good reading & watching from today…

[VIDEO] John Maxwell has a good reminder about envy.

Watch human nature; we are so built that if we do not get thrilled in the right way, we will get thrilled in the wrong. If we are without the thrill of communion with God, we will try to get thrilled by the devil, or by some concoction of human ingenuity.” —Oswald Chambers

The study ‘provides the best evidence to date that fMRI can be used to identify consciousness in vegetative patients,’ says Russell Poldrack, a cognitive neuroscientist at Stanford University.” An amazing study that proves that vegetative patients are fully aware of their surroundings.

I am a big fan of The Overview Bible Project’s work. This is a great case study on Melchizedek.

Monergism has lots of free ebooks for you… go get ’em!

“The Gospel can be summed up by saying that it is the tremendous, tender, compassionate, gentle, extraordinary, explosive, revolutionary revelation of Christ’s love.” —Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Links & Quotes

link quote

Some good reading from this weekend…

“I do not agree with a big way of doing things. What matters is the individual. If we wait till we get numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers and we will never be able to show that love and respect for the person.” —Mother Teresa

For anyone struggling with an addiction to pornography, this sounds like a helpful book: 10 Lies Men Believe About Pornography.

According to Cosmopolitan magazine, if you are pro-life political candidate you are automatically disqualified from getting support from any “enlightened” woman.

Obama & ISIS[INFOGRAPHIC] This is scary … do you know how much money ISIS makes every day from selling the oil they have captured?

“It is right to pour out our whole soul before Him that careth for us. But it is good, likewise, to unbosom ourselves to a friend, in whom we can confide.” —John Wesley

“That is always the way with a truly healthy Christian; God’s grace is externally manifested. There is the inner life within, it is active, and by and by when it is in a right state, it saturates everything. You talk with the gracious man, he cannot help talking about Christ; you go into his house, you will soon see that a Christian lives there; you notice his actions and you will soon see he has been with Jesus. He is so full of sap [Psalm 104:16] that the sap must come out. He has so much of the divine life within, that the holy oil and divine balsam must flow from him.” —Charles Spurgeon

“O God, of Thy goodness give me Thyself, for Thou art enough for me, and I may ask nothing that is less and find any full honors to Thee. God give me Thyself!” —Lady Julian

“Yes—at first one is sort of concussed and ‘life has no taste and no direction.’ One soon discovers, however, that grief is not a state but a process—like a walk in a winding valley with a new prospect at every bend.” —C.S. Lewis

A great post from Dave Barringer for married couples: Faking Your Death.

“Christianity is the only world religion whose primary source documents are in a language other than the founder of the religion. In other words, the New Testament texts are not in Aramaic, but in Koine Greek. … This makes a vitally important theological statement which so dramatically contrasts, for example, with Muslims who maintain that the Qur’an is untranslatable and that the Word of Allah can be conveyed truly and fully only in Arabic. For, at the very outset of the Christian message, the translatability of the gospel is enshrined in our primary source documents.” —Dr. Timothy C. Tennent, President of Asbury Theological Seminary, The Translatability Of The Gospel

Faithful, Christian & Talkative From “Pilgrim’s Progress”

Pilgrim's ProgressThe dialogue in Pilgrim’s Progress is all so rich and meaningful, that it’s hard to pull out “favorite” passages from this book. You can read my full book review by clicking here. Over the next few days I would like to share some of the passages which especially stood out to me this time reading through this classic.

This is part of a dialogue between Faithful, Christian and Talkative—

Faithful: “Well, I see that saying and doing are two things, and hereafter I shall better observe this distinction.”

Christian: “They are two things indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul and the body; for as the body without the soul is but a dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also. The soul of religion is the practical part. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. This Talkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian; and thus he deceiveth his own soul.” …

Talkative: “Why, what difference is there between crying out against, and abhorring of sin?”

Faithful: “Oh! a great deal. A man may cry out against sin, of policy; but he cannot abhor it but by virtue of a godly antipathy against it. I have heard many cry out against sin in the pulpit, who can yet abide it well enough in the heart, house, and conversation.” …

Talkative: “You lie at the catch, I perceive.”

Faithful: “No, not I; am only for setting things right. But what is the second thing whereby you would prove a discovery of a work of grace in the heart?”

Talkative: “Great knowledge of gospel mysteries.”

Faithful: “This sign should have been first; but first or last, it is also false; for knowledge, great knowledge, may be obtained in the mysteries of the gospel, and yet no work of grace in the soul. Yea, if a man have all knowledge, he may yet be nothing, and so, consequently, be no child of God. When Christ said, Do you know all these things? and the disciples had answered, Yes, He added, Blessed are ye if ye do them.” …

Christian: “You did well to talk so plainly to him [Talkative] as you did. There is but little of this faithful dealing with men now-a-days, and that makes religion to stink so in the nostrils of many as it doth: for they are these talkative fools, whose religion is only in word, and are debauched and vain in their conversation, that (being so much admitted into the fellowship of the godly) do puzzle the world, blemish Christianity, and grieve the sincere. I wish that all men would deal with such as you have done; then should they either be made more conformable to religion, or the company of saints would be too hot for them.”

The Law & The Gospel

Hannah Whitall Smith, in her book The Christian’s Secret Of A Happy Life, contrasts living under the law and living under the gospel. She says, “It is a fact beyond question that there are two kinds of Christian experience, one of which is an experience of bondage, and the other an experience of liberty. In the first case the soul is controlled by a stern sense of duty, and obeys the law of God, either from fear of punishment or from expectation of wages. In the other case the controlling power is an inward life-principle that works out, by the force of its own motions or instincts, the will of the Divine Life-giver, without fear of punishment or hope of reward. In the first the Christian is a servant, and works for hire; in the second he is a son, and works for love. … The following contrasts may help some to understand the difference between these two kinds of religion, and may also enable them to discover where the secret of their own experience of legal bondage lies:” 

The Law & The GospelTo download a PDF version of this chart click here → The Law & The Gospel ←

To read my book review of The Christian’s Secret, click here.

To read some quotes from this book, click here.

 

11 Quotes From “Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study”

Pleasure & ProfitD.L. Moody’s book Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study is a Bible study rejuvenator for both the novice and experienced reader of the Bible. You can read my full book review by clicking here. Below are some of the quotes I especially appreciated in this book.

“The more you love the Scriptures, the firmer will be your faith. There is little backsliding when people love the Scriptures.” 

“I believe we should know better how to pray if we knew our Bibles better. … And if we feed on the Word, it will be so easy then to speak to others; and not only that, but we shall be growing in grace all the while, and others will take notice of our walk and conversation.”

“It is a very interesting fact that of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, it is recorded that our Lord made quotations from no less than twenty-two. … About 850 passages in the Old Testament are quoted or alluded to in the New…. In the Gospel by Matthew there are over a hundred quotations from twenty of the books in the Old Testament. In the Gospel of Mark there are fifteen quotations taken from thirteen of the books. In the Gospel of Luke there are thirty-four quotations from thirteen books. In the Gospel of John there are eleven quotations from six books. In the four Gospels alone there are more than 160 quotations from the Old Testament. … In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians there are fifty-three quotations from the Old Testament; sometimes he takes whole paragraphs from it. In Hebrews there are eighty-five quotations, in that one book of thirteen chapters. In Galatians, sixteen quotations. In the book of Revelation alone, there are 245 quotations and allusions.”

“It is very important that every Christian should not only know what the Old Testament teaches, but he should accept its truths, because it is upon this that truth is based. Peter said the Scriptures are not given for any private interpretation, and in speaking of the Scriptures, referred to the Old Testament and not to the New. … If the Old Testament Scriptures are not true, do you think Christ would have so often referred to them, and said the Scriptures must be fulfilled? When told by the tempter that He might call down the angels from heaven to interpose in His behalf, he said: ‘Thus it is written.’ Christ gave Himself up as a sacrifice that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Was it not said that He was numbered with the transgressors? And when He talked with two of His disciples by the way journeying to Emmaus, after His resurrection, did He not say: ‘Ought not these things to be? am I not to suffer?’ And beginning at Moses He explained unto them in all the Scriptures concerning Himself, for the one theme of the Old Testament is the Messiah. … Christ referred to the Scriptures and their fulfillment in Him, not only after He arose from the dead, but in the book of Revelation He used them in Heaven. He spoke to John of them on the Isle of Patmos, and used the very things in them that men are trying to cast out. He never found fault with or rejected them.”

“Prophecy is history unfulfilled, and history is prophecy fulfilled. … Between 500 and 600 hundred Old Testament prophecies have been remarkably and literally fulfilled, and 200 in regard to Jesus Christ alone. Not a thing happened to Jesus Christ that was not prophesied from 1700 to 400 years before He was born.”

“Someone has said that there are four things necessary in studying the Bible: Admit, submit, commit and transmit. First, admit its truth; second, submit to its teachings; third, commit it to memory; and fourth, transmit it. If the Christian life is a good thing for you, pass it on to some one else.”

“Application to the Word will tend to its growth within and its multiplication without.”

“We learn that Christ prayed when he was baptized, and nearly every great event in His ministry was preceded by prayer. If you want to hear from Heaven you must seek it on your knees.”

“If you want to reach people that do not agree with you, do not take a club to knock them down and then try to pick them up. When Jesus Christ dealt with the erring and the sinners, He was as tender with them as a mother is with her sick child.” 

“Let us go to the Bible and see what that old Book teaches. Let us believe it, and go and act as if we believed it, too.”

“But we can not be ready if we do not study the Bible. So whenever you hear a good thing, just put it down, because if it is good for you it will be good for somebody else; and we should pass the coin of heaven around just as we do the coin of the realm.”

Better Sex

The Gospel invitationOur culture has a sexualized agenda. Just look at how Hollywood portrays us today:

  • Few happy marriages.
  • Lots of sex-crazed, inept husbands with strong wives who use or withhold sex as a reward or punishment.
  • Flawlessly beautiful actors (not a zit to be seen).
  • No consequences for sex—no pregnancy, STDs or AIDS.
  • No depression for broken relationships; no anxiety or eating disorders because of the psychological pain.
  • Sex outside of marriage is normal, and those who abstain are the weird ones.

We cannot stand on our soapboxes and rail against culture.

We cannot just tell them what we’re against, but we’ve got to tell them what we’re for.

We’ve got to give them the compelling truth for the beauty, joy, and fulfillment of sex God’s way.

The Gospel—the Good News—is an invitation, not an ultimatum. We’ve got to share with others what’s good about God’s counter culture way concerning sex! 

“I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer ‘No,’ he might regard absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their carnal raptures don’t bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows chocolate: he does not know the positive thing that excludes it.” —C.S. Lewis

All Hollywood knows is the “chocolate” of people acting on their immediate feelings, with no understanding of long-term consequences.

Better sex comes from doing things God’s way = one man and one women married for life.

Proverbs 5 presents the advantages of being married and being intimate with just one person. I especially love this passage—

Drink water from your own well—share your love only with your wife. Why spill the water of your springs in the streets, having sex with just anyone? You should reserve it for yourselves. Never share it with strangers. Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman, or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman? (verses 15-20)

This is better sex because it’s pure:

  • No sharing sexually transmitted diseases from previous partners.
  • No comparison to how you are in bed compared to previous partners.
  • No psychological fall-out.
  • Intimacy without reservation.
  • A release of dopamine (the feel-good hormone) unlike you’ll ever get with “casual” sex.
  • And most importantly: A relationship God can—and does!—bless.

Hollywood knows nothing about real love and a truly satisfying, fulfilling sex life. But God does! That’s why the Apostle Paul tells us, “Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20), because God created your body and knows how it can get the highest, purest pleasure.

Better sex comes when you have sex God’s way!