FAITH
"A pessimist expects nothing on a silver platter except tarnish."
---Anonymous
"For what is faith unless it is to believe what you do not see?"---Augustine
"I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining; I believe in love even when I feel it not; I believe in God, even when He is silent."---Anonymous
“Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and Hope with things that are not in hand.”---Thomas Aquinas
"It has been said that separating faith and works is like separating the heat and light from a candle. You know both are produced by the candle. You know they are not the same thing. You also know you cannot separate them." ---From A Speaker's Sourcebook of Illustrations
“I prayed for faith and thought that some day faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the 10th chapter of Romans, ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ I had up to this time closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.”--- D.L.Moody
"To hear with my heart
To see with my soul
To be guided by a Hand I cannot hold
To trust in a way that I cannot see
That's what faith must be." ---Michael Card
"Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God."--- John R. W. Stott
“For each of us the time is surely coming when we shall have nothing but God. Health and wealth and friends and hiding places will all be swept away, and we shall have only God. To the man of real faith, it is one of the most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.”-- A. W. Tozer
"Sincerely believing something doesn’t make it true…Faith is no more valid than the object in which is placed. It doesn’t matter how sincere or intense the faith. A nurse put carbolic acid in the eyes of a newborn baby, sincerely thinking she was applying silver nitrate. Her sincerity did not save the baby from blindness…Believing something doesn’t make it true any more than failing to believe truth makes it false.”---Paul Little
"The soul prospers when we have clear knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Knowledge and faith make a soul rich.” ---Matthew Henry
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
--- Jim Elliot
"The life of faith is a continually renewed victory over doubt, a continually renewed grasp of meaning in the midst of meaninglessness."---Leslie Newbigin
"The question, 'what is Faith?' Is a very comprehensive one. In one view it is a metaphysical question. What is the psychological nature of the act or state of the mind which we designate faith, or belief? In this aspect the discussion concerns the philosopher as much as the theologian. Secondly, faith may be viewed as to its exercise in the whole sphere of religion and morality. Thirdly, it may be considered as a Christian grace, the fruit of the Spirit; that is, those exercises of faith which are peculiar to the regenerated people of God. This is what is meant by saving faith. Fourthly, it may be viewed in its relation to justification, sanctification, and holy living, or, as to those special exercises of faith which are required as the necessary conditions of the sinner’s acceptance with God, or as essential to holiness of life."---Charles Hodge
"Faith is looking to Christ at all times, and we never stop coming, looking, resting, trusting, believing, depending nor leaning on the Lord Jesus Christ."
----Miles McKee
""Saving faith is not just believing that Jesus lived and died. Faith that saves is the confident, continuous confession of total dependence on, and trust in Jesus Christ to meet the requirements on your behalf to give you entrance into God's Eternal Kingdom. It's the surrender of your life in complete trust to Him to do what you cannot do." ---John MacArthur
"My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior Divine;
Now hear me when I pray, Take all my sin away, O let me from this day
Be wholly Thine!" ---Ray Palmer
"Christian faith is a grand cathedral, with divinely pictured windows. Standing without, you see no glory, nor can imagine any. But standing within, every ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeakable splendors."--- Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The creeds are not objects of faith; they are expressions of a faith of which Christ is the object."---William Temple
"A man will be justified by faith when, excluded from righteousness of works, he by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, and clothed in it, appears in the sight of God not as a sinner, but as righteous…"---John Calvin
"Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disappointment; trust in your friends, and they will die and leave you; trust in money, and you may have it taken from you; trust in reputation, and some slanderous tongue may blast it; but trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in eternity."---D.L. Moody
"Did Jesus Christ interpose betwixt us and the wrath of God, as a Mediator of reconciliation? did he rather chose to receive the stroke upon himself, than to see us ruined by it? How well then does it become the people of God, in a thankful sense of this grace, to interpose themselves betwixt Jesus Christ and the evils they see like to fall upon his name and interest in the world? O that there were but such a heart in the people of God! I remember it is a saving of Jerome, when he heard the revilings and blaspheming of many against Christ, and his precious truths, 'O that they would turn their weapons from Christ to me, and be satisfied with my blood!' And much to the same sense is that sweet one of Bernard, 'Happy were I, if God would condescend to use me as a shield.'
And David could say, 'The reproaches of them that reproached thee, fell on Me', Psalm 69:9. Ten thousand of our names are nothing to Christ's name: his name is a worthy name; and no man that gives up his name as a shield to Christ, but shall thereby secure and increase the true honor of it."
----John Flavel, from "The Fountain of Life"
THE GOSPEL OF GOD’S GRACE AND MERCY
"We say that Jesus preached the gospel, but he did more. He came that there might be a gospel to preach."--- Oswald Chambers
"There are two things to do about the gospel—believe it and behave it."--- Susanna Wesley
"It takes two to gospel: one to speak and one to turn around and pay attention."---William Willimon
“When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I’m lost In wonder, love, and praise.”
---Joseph Addison
"Son, pulling someone from a house fire doesn't make you right with God."
---From 'Fireproof' movie
"Our sin is worse than we ever dared to imagine. God's grace is greater than we ever dared to hope."---Jack Miller
“I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.”--- John Newton
"God is seeking the lost. Those who acknowledge their sin and turn from it will find Him running to them with open arms." ---John MacArthur
"God makes the soul willing to come out of Satan's crutches, then brings them out of spiritual Egypt by His converting grace. When the saint is upon his march and the whole country rises up against him, how will he get safely passed all his enemies' borders? God Himself will hold him in the arms of His everlasting strength." -- William Gurnall
“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in his justice, Which is more than liberty.”
---Frederick William Faber
"As a diamond laid against a black cloth sparkles in all its brilliance, so against the blackness of man's failure the greatness of God's rescue stands out in startling contrast."---Leighton Ford
"The rock of the divine Love is deeper down than the human buildings that have been reared upon it."---Alexander MacLaren
"Depth of mercy! Can there be Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear? Me, the chief of sinners, spare?
I have long withstood His grace, Long provoked Him to His face;
Would not hearken to His calls, Grieved Him by a thousand falls.
Still for me the Savior stands, Shows His wounds and spreads His hands,
God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus weeps, and loves me still."
----Charles Wesley
“It is not your hold of Christ that saves you, but his hold of you!”--- Charles Spurgeon
"When I say... "I am a Christian" ,I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin'' "
I'm whispering "I was lost", Now I'm found and forgiven.
When I say..."I am a Christian" , I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble and need CHRIST to be my guide.
When I say... "I am a Christian" , I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak and need HIS strength to carry on.
When I say... "I am a Christian" , I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.
When I say... "I am a Christian" , I still feel the sting of pain,
I have my share of heartaches, So I call upon His name.
When I say... "I am a Christian" , I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner who received God's good grace, somehow."
---Anonymous
"The affections in parents are but marble and stone in comparison to God's love to his children; he gives them the cream of his love -- electing love, saving love. If you are his child you cannot love your own soul so entirely as he loves you... God is the best Father, because he never dies." ---Thomas Watson
"Grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected."
---Jonathan Edwards
"The growth of grace is like the polishing of metals. There is first an opaque surface; by and by you see a spark darting out, then a strong light; till at length it sends back a perfect image of the sun that shines upon it."--- Edward Payson
"How can we love a holy God? The simplest answer I can give to this vital question is that we can't. Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him. He is the One who takes the initiative to restore our souls. Without Him we can do nothing of righteousness. Without Him we would be doomed to everlasting alienation from His holiness. We can love Him only because He first loved us. To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribund souls.
If we are in Christ, we have been awakened already. We have been raised from spiritual death unto spiritual life. But we still have sleepers in our eyes, and at times we walk about like zombies. We retain a certain fear of drawing near to God. We still tremble at the foot of His holy mountain.
Yet as we grow in our knowledge of Him, we gain a deeper love for His purity and sense a deeper dependence on His grace. We learn that He is altogether worthy of our adoration. The fruit of our growing love for Him is the increase of reverence for His name. We love Him now because we see His loveliness. We adore Him now because we see His majesty. We obey Him now because His Holy Spirit dwells within us. He is holy, holy, holy..."
----R.C. Sproul, from "The Holiness of God"
"Sometimes the Lord calms the storm; sometimes He lets the storm rage and calms His child." ---Anonymous
"He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father's full giving is only begun.
Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again."
---Annie J. Flint
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