Christian quotes to Ponder

"You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary."
"How can you expect to dwell with God forever if you so neglect and forsake Him here?"
"Godliness is more easily feigned in words than in action."

Jonathan Edwards

"My talent is to speak my mind.  God won't object if you bury that talent."
"The Church recruited people who had been starched and ironed before they were washed."
"Any 'Christian' who takes for themselves any more than the plain necessities of life; live in an open habitual denial of the Lord.  They have gained riches and hell-fire."

John Wesley

"Churches don't need new members half as much as they need the old bunch made over."
"One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake."
"The only way you can keep a broken vessel filled is by keeping it under the tap." 
Billy Sunday

"You can always tell the power of a church by the number of people who attend the prayer meetings."
"My crusade is the wake up the Church from its spiritual lethargy, rousing it to the fact that it is being brainwashed and propagandized."
"Before there can be fullness there must be emptiness.  Before God can fill us with Himself, we must first be emptied of ourselves."
A. W. Tozer

"Jesus Christ went more willing to the Cross than we do to the throne of God."
"Are there not more millions of us who would rather go sleeping to hell than sweating to Heaven?"
"Christ is never loved until sin is loathed."
Thomas Watson

"The beginning of the way to heaven is to feel we were on the way to hell."
"A sin...consists of doing, saying, thinking or imagining anything that is not in perfect conformity with the mind or law of God."
"Obedience is the only reality... It is the real test of real discipleship among the Lord's people."
J. C. Ryle

"The early church was married to poverty, prisons, and persecutions.  Today, the Church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity."
"If Jesus preached the same message that ministers do today, He would never have been crucified."
"It is much easier to wear a cross than bear a cross."
Leonard Ravenhill

Blessings,

Michael
Jeremiah 9:23-24 
 
 

What We Truly Worship

In the region where I reside at this time, I am surprised how much the Green Bay Packers get praised.  Even churchgoers complain about going to church in a couple inches of snow but make every effort to get to the stadium two hours before game time.  These same people will sing quietly during worship yet, yell out loud when Aaron Rodgers throws a touchdown pass.We are guilty of what I am about to write.  I read this in a pamphlet from Duncan Campbell.  It was about spending more time getting our little things and assume our salvation as many go through the motions.   Americans hold more value in the worship of materialism than we do in our so-called "walk with the Lord." 
Many of us are addicted by social media.  It is amazing how we post when some arrive at church that "I am here to worship the LORD."  This may be harmless in itself but somehow we have related going to church as our sole means of worship.  Also, I see today that many Christians cannot worship without music to enhance the atmosphere.
It is sad we are willing to spend more effort on a football game that we are in preparing to be with God.  Worship is a constant act with us.  Yes, there are times we cannot be paying homage to the Almighty.  What we are willing to put our worth into can become an idol before our worship with God.
I am not here to write there are no real believers who are diligently seeking after the King of kings.  I question who do the saints of old seek God in prayer.  The office bearers who were praying for God to come happened to spend five hours on Tuesday and Friday night in a barn on their knees.  From my perspective, we should be ashamed.  Our prayer meetings hardly last two hours.
Even Leonard Ravenhill was shocked when he heard a Christian from Africa say to him that Americans don't know what worship truly is.  We last maybe a half hour and he said his church spends three hours in worship!  How's that for preparing to be in His presence?
Let me add one note.  There is a lost art in Christianity today that A. W. Tozer practiced many times.  Jesus, at times, became overwhelmed by the people many times.  His answer was to retreat and spend silence with His Father.  
You can worship in his presence without words or music.  Giving Him homage by your full honoring God.  Sitting or walking in holy silence, even waiting on Him, is a worthy form of worship.  Psalm 46:10a speaks volumes in ceasing from everything we do and paying all respect to the Most High, allowing Him to present Himself as our King, God and Father.
I am at a loss at words why this is no long sought after in our prayer time.  Do we have the patience or the time to sit in a quiet place and wait on Him?

Jeremiah 9:23-24

Michael