‘We are involved in spiritual warfare but we are not fighting for victory, we are fighting from victory because this battle has already been won, and we are on the winning side, but Satan is still a powerful enemy. Satan lost his authority but he didn’t lose his power. The truth we need to realise, and the truth that will set us free, is that Satan no longer has authority. That is the key. Authority is the right to use the power you possess. In order for Satan to use his power in your life, he has to keep you from functioning underneath your authority because his power is only effective when he has the right to use it – that is, when we relinquish our authority and allow him to have power over us.’
Tony Evans, Victory In Spiritual Warfare, 2011, Oregon: Harvest House Publishing, p.42
Do you know people who are not (yet) Christians – they’ve not accepted Christ – but they think they’re good people and they’ll go to heaven when they die? They think God will let them in. If they’ve done anything wrong, they think God will forgive them because of their good deeds or because they have always tried to live a good life.
I used to think like this: I used to think that to get in to heaven God will weigh up your good deeds and your bad, like on a pair of scales, and if the good outweighs the bad, well then you’re in! And I’ve met loads of ‘self-righteous’ people in my time; people who think that God is actually rather pleased with them; they think they are worthy and God will certainly accept them… why wouldn’t he? I’ve had people say things to me like, ‘Ok, I might not be perfect but I’ve never murdered anyone; you know I’m a law abiding citizen; I’m honest – I don’t cheat, don’t steal; I’m a nice person (well, most of the time) and I always try to do what’s right – might not always succeed, but on the whole I’m a decent good person: I’m kind, I’m generous… I give to charity, go to church occasionally… and, I give blood! For heaven’s sake. Of course, God will accept me!’
Now, these are all very worthwhile things, certainly… but there’s a major problem with that kind of philosophy: It’s self-reliant; it depends on us earning favour with God, or doing a deal and trying to work things out so the balance is in our favour. But the Bible nowhere teaches that God judges us like on a pair of scales. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite! God’s standard is 100% perfection and so none of us can ever be good enough; none of us can be perfect or completely righteous… and yet that’s God’s requirement; the qualification to get into heaven – we have to be perfect, without sin, completely righteous just like Jesus… Or… we have to be made righteous; we have to covered with the blood of Christ. How are we made righteous? Only in accepting – by faith – what Jesus has done for us.
It is by God’s grace that we are saved. Salvation is a gift that comes through faith, not a recompense for our good works! Ephesians 2v8-9 (NIV1984) says: It is by God’s grace that we have been saved, through faith, and not by works so no one can boast… (thinking that they’re good enough).
R. Ian Seymour
“My duty towards God, is to believe in him, to fear him, and to love him… to worship him, to give him thanks, to put my whole trust in him, to call upon him, to honour his holy Name and his Word, and to serve him truly all the days of my life.”
From the Catechism in Cranmer’s first prayer book (1549).
Cited by J. I. Packer in God’s Plans For You, p.79
Rick Warren writes: ‘If you’ve ever spent time in church, you’ve likely heard the word “salvation” many times. But do you know what that Bible means by salvation? The word is like a diamond; you can look at it from several different angles. Here’s what salvation means:
- Jesus came to rescue us. We can’t solve all of our problems on our own. Without Jesus we’re trapped in the expectations of others. We’re trapped in living for the approval of our peers. We’re trapped in addictions [or bad habits]. We’ve tried to change over and over again, but we don’t have the necessary power to escape. Jesus came to give us that power.
- Jesus came to recover us. We all long to recover parts of our lives that have been lost. Without Christ, we long to recover our strength, our confidence, our reputations, our innocence, and our relationship with God. Only Jesus can do that.
- Jesus came to reconnect us. Many people think that God will scold them if they come back to him… But God isn’t mad at you. He’s mad about you. Jesus came to Earth on the first Christmas to reconcile us to God, to give us harmony with him again.
- Jesus came to Earth to give us the gift of himself. Too many of us celebrate his birthday without accepting this free gift of salvation. It goes unwrapped year after year after year. That’s not smart. You were made by God and for God. Until you understand that, life will never make sense.’
Rick Warren, Daily Hope, 01/12/2017
What would you change in your life, right now, if you knew for certain that Jesus was coming back in, say, six months? How would your life change; what would you do differently? Who would you seek to be reconciled with? Who would you start praying for? Who would you seek to share the gospel with? Who would you invite to come to an event or invite to join an enquirer’s course? What would you do differently; what would change if you knew for certain that Jesus’ return was just six months away? Friends, what makes you so certain that it’s not? Why are we so complacent?
“Nothing in life just happens. You have to have the stamina to meet the obstacles and overcome them.”
Golda Meir (1898-1978), Prime Minister of Israel
John Stott noted that: “Depression is a fairly common condition among Christian people. I am referring not to clinical depression, which may need expert psychotherapy, but to spiritual depression which we should be able to handle ourselves.” – “For people who truly struggle with daily depression and live most of their lives in the depths of despair, it is important to understand the relationship between joy and thanksgiving. If you are a thankful person, joy cannot be so very far away. If you are a joyful person, I can guarantee that you count your blessings loudly and daily. Thanksgiving is the password that opens the door of His presence to His people. And, when you enter into His presence, you know that you will find there: JOY! So today if you are struggling with sadness or disappointment in life, make a list of things for which you are thankful. Don’t stop at 5 or 10, be lavish in your thanksgiving and make a list of 20 or 50 or 100 things for which you are grateful. Thanksgiving should be a genuine daily lifestyle. A grateful heart is the fertile growing place for the seeds of joy to spring up and blossom in abundance.”
[Note: Source: A Jolt of Joy, devotional on YouVersion, day 30 of 31]
John Stott, 2006, Through The Bible Through The Year, Abingdon Oxon: Candle Books, p.97
Joyce Meyer writes: “If you want to have joy, you must stop trying to figure everything out. You must stop rolling your problems around in your mind. You have to quit anxiously searching for an answer to your situation, trying to find out what you should do about it.
We reason and try to figure things out, asking “Why, God, why?” and ”When, God, when?” We want to know the answer to our situations so we won’t have to trust God. We don’t want surprises; we want to be in control because we are afraid that things won’t turn out the way we want them to.
“Why, God, why?” and ”When, God, when?” are two questions that can keep us from enjoying the lives Jesus died to give us. Many times we don’t understand what God is doing, but that’s where trust comes in. Nobody says we have to know everything; no one ever told us we have to understand everything. We need to be satisfied in knowing the One who does know everything: God. We need to learn to trust Him, not ourselves. Stop overthinking things. Trust means not needing to know the whys and when’s in order to be at peace.
Joyce Meyer, Trusting God Day By Day, devotional reading for September 26
Why does God allow evil to happen? ‘God is capable of preventing evil, and God desires to rid the world of evil. So why does God allow evil? Perhaps another way to look at that question is to consider the alternative ways that people might have God run the world. For example:
- God could change everyone’s personality so that they are not able to sin. But that would mean we’d no longer have freewill and so there’d be no meaningful relationship between us and God.
- Another option is that God could compensate for people’s evil actions through supernatural intervention 100 percent of the time. God would then intervene and stop a drunk driver from causing an accident or stop terrorists from flying airplanes into buildings. But while this solution sounds attractive, it would very quickly lose its attractiveness as soon as God’s intervention infringed on something we wanted to do. We want God to prevent horrible evil actions, but are we willing to let “lesser-evil” actions slide? Again we don’t really want to be controlled, do we? We want to retain control over our own lives. We value our freewill.
- Another alternative would be for God to judge and remove those who choose to commit evil acts. But the problem with this is that there would be no one left, because God would have to remove us all.
-
Instead of these alternatives, God has chosen to create a “real” world in which real choices have real consequences.’
Source: http://www.gotquestions.org/God-allow-evil.html
“No horse gets anywhere until it is harnessed. No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunnelled. And no life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), US clergyman and educator
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”
William James (1842-1910), American philosopher and psychologist
The Church has always been infiltrated by false teaching – often mingled with truth so it’s not that obvious to the untrained eye. Like when Satan tempted Eve with the forbidden fruit: there was falsehood mingled with truth. First the serpent caused doubt: “Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” Then the falsehood: ‘You won’t surely die’, he said, ‘God knows that if you eat it you will be just like God knowing good and evil.’ – It was a part-truth to disguise the lie: True, they did become like God in knowing good and evil, but a lie in saying they wouldn’t die.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Martin Luther King (1929-1968), US Baptist minister and civil-rights leader.
“If my life is fruitless it doesn’t matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful it doesn’t matter who criticizes me.”
John Bunyan
“Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered it. Nobody was there!”
Harold Sherman
Our God-given spiritual gifts are not to be used for selfish advantage or to draw attention or credit to ourselves but to serve the church. Our spiritual gifts are given to us for the good of the whole church. They are not for individual enjoyment, but for corporate employment.
Source: Adapted from Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets p.142-143
“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey.”
Stephen R. Covey
Don’t ever make the error of thinking you will never make a mistake.
If we waited until all the traffic lights were on green before we set off on a journey then we’d never leave home.
“Security is knowing what tomorrow will bring. Boredom is knowing what the day after tomorrow will bring.”
Ziggy, cartoon philosopher
Romans 8:28 makes the promise that, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” – ‘in all things’… REALLY? Yes, really. Even in painful situations God works things out for our good – ‘for the good of those who love him’. The prison of pain will one day become a prism of praise.
You may recall that at the cross, just before he died, Jesus cried out, “Tetelestai!” (which means It is done; it is paid, it is finished!) What’s finished; what is done; what’s been paid? The price for our salvation: the payment of our sin… – it is a gift of God, offered freely to all who will accept and receive it. That’s what the Christmas message is about, the gift of God to mankind. But, as with any gift, it only becomes ours if we accept and receive it. Forgiveness and eternal life are not forced or bestowed on us automatically, but they are offered freely to all who will receive. Friends, it’s our call!
R. Ian Seymour
William Arthur Ward said of the church and his own Christian faith:
“I will do more than belong; I will participate.
I will do more than care; I will help.
I will do more than believe; I will practice.
I will do more than be fair; I will be kind.
I will do more than forgive; I will forget.
I will do more than dream; I will work.
I will do more than teach; I will inspire.
I will do more than learn; I will enrich.
I will do more than give; I will serve.
I will do more than live; I will grow.
I will do more than suffer; I will triumph.”
Source: The UCB Word For Today, 28/4/2013
“The happiest people I know are those who are busy working toward specific objectives. The most bored and miserable people I know are those who are drifting along with no worthwhile objectives in mind.”
Zig Ziglar
One Bible student has counted 162 references in the New Testament which warn people of hell – 70 of these were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is because God loves us so much that He warns us about hell so much. Whether we heed God’s warning or not is down to us.
D. L. Moody, a famous American preacher of the nineteenth century, was once asked if he had been filled with the Spirit. ‘Yes’, he replied, ‘but I leak!’ He’s not the only one – we all do! We need to keep asking God to fill us with himself.
Source: Stephen Gaukroger, First Steps: The handbook to following Christ, p.54
Fear questions and retreats. Faith takes the things God has promised and moves forward. Fear says, “How?” Faith says, “God!”
Roy Lessin
Is prayer your steering wheel or is it your spare tyre?
Corrie Ten Boom
A successful bank president, about to retire, was being interviewed by a reported: “Sir, to what do you attribute your success?”
“That’s easy to answer: good decisions.”
“And to what do you attribute your good decisions?”
“That’s easier still: the wisdom gained from experience.”
“And where did you get that experience?”
“Easy again: learning from bad decisions.”
Source: David McNally, Even Eagles Need A Push, 1990, New York: Dell Publishing, p.4
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher that the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55v8-9 NIV). Astronomers have spied galaxies 12.3 billion light-years from earth. To put that distance into perspective, consider the fact that light traveling 186,000 miles per second takes only eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles between the sun and planet earth. Sunlight is only eight minutes old. But the light from the furthest galaxy takes 12.3 billion years to get here. That distance is virtually incomprehensible! And God says that is about the distance between His thoughts and our thoughts. Your best thoughts about God on your best day falls 12.3 billion light-years short of how good God really is. We underestimate God’s goodness by at least 12.3 billion light-years. (…) Maybe it’s time to stop putting God in a box the size of your cerebral cortex. Maybe it’s time to stop creating God in your image and let Him create you in His.
Mark Batterson
Mark Batterson, 2006, In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day, Colorado: Multnomah Books, p.28-29
I loved Pete Grieg’s recent tweet: “Jesus had three years to save the planet and still found time for parties, picnics and fishing trips. #relax.”
“When God brings the blank space, see that you do not [try to] fill it, but wait… Never run before God’s guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt – don’t… Wait for God’s time to bring it round and He will do it without any heartbreak or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move.”
Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, (2000 edition), Worcester: Oswald Chambers Publications, p.10
“The only way to have a friend is to be a friend.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), American poet and essayist
Motivate but don’t manipulate: Motivation creates inspired energy but manipulation creates only stress.
The Bible tells us that God created mankind is his own image; male and female he created them. In all of creation, we are special because we are made in the image and likeness of God, who created mankind to have dominion and to take care of the earth, with God but under God’s direction. And because we are made in God’s image we have been endowed with a personality and character and freewill, the ability to choose for ourselves. But we chose wrong; we chose to ignore God and to do things our own way, and we messed up… that’s the problem (what the Bible calls sin) that separates us from God!
If we were simply the product of evolution, a chance coming together of raw inorganic matter, how can we ever explain our personality? Can a river run higher than its original source? No (not unless it is manipulated by human engineering). Then how do we account for human personality? It is impossible for a river to run higher than its source, and it is also impossible for inorganic matter to evolve into rational, thinking, calculating, emotional human beings with individual character and personality. The fact is our personality points to God, who made us in His image.
Why do we feel generous, and grateful, when things go well; why do we feel the need to share and thank someone? On the other hand, why, in a crisis or when things go wrong, do we feel the need to pray or cry out for help? Why do we claim ‘it’s not fair’? Where does our concept of right and wrong come from, or our concept of fairness? If we are simply a product of chance, evolution, survival of the fittest, why do we even care about fairness? Where does our sense of justice come from?
Our moral understanding, our values and sense of right and wrong all point to the existence of God, as does our conscience – which is a pointer to God if ever there was one! Our conscience acts like a code or law inside of us: instinctively it makes judgments, sometimes acquitting (we have a clear conscience) sometimes condemning (and we feel guilty). And this presence of an inner-law suggests a Lawgiver. Our conscience is a clear pointer to a God who is so concerned with right and wrong that He put a moral indicator inside each one of us.
R. Ian Seymour
R. Ian Seymour, Empowered Personal Evangelism, Weybridge: New Wine Press (2014), p.36
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in you.”
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955), writer and lecturer
God’s desire is for the believer to overflow with Himself; that we might… ‘Be filled with all the fullness of God (cf. Ephesians 3v19). A glass is only full when it overflows. Fullness can only be measured by overflow. God wants us to be so filled with Himself by the Holy Spirit that we overflow to others.
Why does God want me to be generous? Because he wants me to be like him.
The difference between being a church attender and a church member is commitment. Attenders are consumers, members are contributors. Attenders want the benefits of a church without sharing the responsibility.
Rick Warren
Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan Publishing, p.136
“O Jesus, if You don’t come today for Your waiting church, come in Spirit to my sighing heart and make it sing for joy.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
“Marriage is like a good retirement plan. As long as you keep the deposits flowing, the account grows. The marriage develops like compound interest over time. Small investments of love and nurture reap great dividends in relational happiness.”
Tom L. Eisenman
“What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; and this the Christian has, in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?”
J. I .Packer, author and theologian
Don’t be caught dead without Jesus!
“Even the right decision is the wrong decision if it is made too late.”
Lee Iacocca, former chairman of Chrysler Motors
The greatest opponent of excellence is the phrase, ‘That’ll-do!’
It doesn’t matter what a person’s past may have been like; their future is spotless.
Jesus loved you so much that He would sooner die than have you perish.
Charles H. Spurgeon
Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning By Morning, Sep 12.)
By the mile it’s a trial, by the yard it’s hard but by the inch it’s a cinch!
Paul wrote: ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us’ (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross Jesus, in a sense, became the most sinful man the world has ever seen, as the sins of millions and millions of believers in every age, were poured into His body. That’s why, as He was dying, Jesus cried out, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:26). The only time in the whole of eternity when God the Father was separated from His Son! – Like oil and water, sin and holiness just don’t mix: God had to turn away and be separated from Jesus as Jesus took our sin upon himself.
The church is not meant to be just a pleasure boat or cruise ship, it’s also meant to be a lifeboat, and we’re the crew, the rescue party. Evangelism is a body ministry – and it should be all hands on deck! But evangelism is process, not an event. Evangelism does not necessarily mean we have to preach the whole of the gospel to everyone we meet. Let me ask you this: If you pray for someone to know Christ, or you invite someone to Alpha, is that not evangelism; is that not part of the process? Of course, it is. Some of us are evangelists who teach and preach the gospel but ALL of us should be involved in evangelism.
R. Ian Seymour
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), German poet
“A true friend is one who hears and understands when you share your deepest feelings. He supports you when you are struggling; corrects you gently and with love when you err; forgives you when you fail; prods you to personal growth and stretches you to your full potential. And most amazing of all, he celebrates your successes as if they were his own.”
Richard Exley, pastor and author
The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart
What causes people to do bad things? Is it their upbringing, their education, their relationships? All those things factor into who we are and what we do. But the Bible locates the source of our trouble inside of us, not outside of us! Jeremiah 17v9 says: ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?’ Our deepest problem is located inside of us, in our heart. – Woody Allen once tried to justify a scandalous relationship with a young woman by saying: “The heart wants what it wants.” Those words are full of biblical truth! – Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, every aspect of our lives is marred by sin. Our hearts, which are the centre of our emotions, intellect and will, are deceitful and self-protective… What might heart deception look like in your life? Think about:
- Have you even justified yourself when you knew you were wrong?
- Have you ever been sure that you were right, only to find out that you were totally wrong?
- Have you ever found yourself doing something that’s wrong without knowing why you were doing it?
Explore Bible notes, 30/8/2012
In his book, Knowing God, J. I. Packer writes: ‘There is tremendous relief in knowing that God’s love for me is based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst in me. No discovery can disillusion Him in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself or quench His determination to bless me. There is great cause for humility in the thought that He sees all the twisted things about me that others don’t see. Indeed He sees more corruption in me than I see in myself. Yet he wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order for me to realise this purpose.’
God will always work in you before He works through you.
Author Rick Richardson asks: Did you ever think that the greatest gift you could give to your seeking and sceptical friends is the story of your spiritual struggles and doubts? As you reveal some of the vulnerability and even the darkness of your soul, along with your choice to be true to who you are despite the cost, your friends will listen. Your authority in part comes from your authenticity. Your greatest asset is your humanity. It’s your weaknesses, doubts and questions. Most people today are not at first interested in your answers. But they will be immediately relate to and identify with your questions and struggles.
Source: Rick Richardson, 2006, Re-imagining Evangelism, Scripture Union, p.23, 69
“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act on must inevitably come to pass.”
Mary Kay Ash, entrepreneur
Confession is not primarily something that God has us do because He needs it. We need to confess in order to heal and be forgiven and changed. When we confess properly two things happen. The first is that we are liberated from guilt. The second is that we will be at least a little less likely to sin in the same way in the future, than if we had not confessed. Sin will look less attractive to us.
John Ortberg
John Ortberg, 2002, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishers, p.129-130
“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards or sideways.”
H. Jackson Brown Jr. (author)
Helen Keller, the American author and lecturer who was blind and deaf from infancy, said: “Can there be anything worse than blindness? Yes. The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but no vision.”
Soren Kierkegaard wrote: ‘A man prayed, and at first he thought prayer was talking. But then he became more and more quiet until in the end he realised that prayer is listening.’ – Interesting that the same letters that make the word ‘silent’ also make the word ‘listen’.
We have to face up our sins before God can put them behind us. When we are ready to uncover our sins in confession, God is ready to cover them in forgiveness.
“‘Wait on the Lord’ is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come.”
J. I. Packer
J.I. Packer, Knowing God, (1993 edition), London: Hodder and Stoughton, p.271
C. S. Lewis once saw this epitaph on a tombstone: “Here lies an atheist, all dressed up but with nowhere to go.” Lewis added his own comment, “I bet he wishes that were so.”
Source: Simon Guillbaud, For What It’s Worth, 2006, Oxford: Monarch Books, p.127
A young violinist was giving a concert one day in front of a large crowd. He ended his concert with a flourish, and all the people stood up and applauded, shouting, “Bravo! Bravo! What a performance!” But the young man put his head down. As the people continued to clap, his eyes began to fill with tears. There was no smile on his face.
All of a sudden as the applause began to die, an old man sitting up in the balcony stood up and began to clap. As soon as the violinist saw that, a smile came across his face. He wiped the tears from his eyes. He smiled and held up his violin and walked off stage.
A man up in the wings said, “How come you were sad when the people stood up, but when that old man stood up, you became glad again?”
“Because the old man was my violin teacher,” the young musician explained, “and unless he stood up, my concert would have been a failure, because he is the only one who knows all the nuances of the music I played. He knows exactly how each piece is supposed to be played. It does not matter whether the people stand and applaud. I want to know if my teacher is going to stand and applaud.”
My friend, unless God is standing and applauding, we really haven’t done anything. Don’t be fooled by people’s applause. Make sure that Jesus Christ says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Tony Evans
Tony Evans, Time To Get Serious, 1995, Illinois: Crossway Books, p.193
“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the mood in which it was made has left you.”
Cavett Robert (motivational speaker, writer)
“There are 24 hours or 1440 minutes in a day. Invest just 1% of your time each day to learning new material or skills (that’s just 15 minutes a day, rounding it up) and over the course of a year you will have invested an extra 91 hours in additional study time. That’s like going back to college for three whole weeks every year!
R. Ian Seymour
R. Ian Seymour, excerpt taken from Maximise Your Potential
‘Lucky’ coincidences are just God’s way of staying anonymous.
“Say much of what the Lord has done for you, but say little of what you have done for the Lord. Do not utter a self-glorifying sentence!”
Charles Spurgeon.
“Success makes success, as money makes money.”
Chamfort (1741-1794)
“If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know.”
– Thomas Wolfe
“Leadership is the talent for enabling others to use their talent… Leaders, like orchestral conductors, are there to enable all the voices or instruments to be heard to their best effect in harmony. Their role as leaders within their specific fields is to identify, develop and use all the talents of their people in a creative symphony of service to the common good.” – John Adair
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Luther called John 3:16 “the heart of the Bible—the Gospel in miniature.” It’s so simple a child can understand it; yet it condenses the deep and marvellous truths of redemption into these few pungent words:
- “God”…The greatest Lover
- “So loved”…The greatest degree
- “The world”…The greatest number
- “That He gave”…The greatest act
- “His only begotten Son”…The greatest gift
- “That whosoever”…The greatest invitation
- “Believeth”…The greatest simplicity
- “In Him”…The greatest Person
- “Should not perish”…The greatest deliverance
- “But”…The greatest difference
- “Have”…The greatest certainty
- “Everlasting Life”…The greatest possession
There is nothing we can do to add to the finished work of the cross. Jesus has done everything that is necessary for our sins to be forgiven and for us to become sons and daughters of God. Trying to earn God’s forgiveness or favour, or trying to add something to what Jesus has accomplished… is like trying to improve a Monet painting by adding some brushstrokes of your own. However much care we take, WE WON’T ONLY not be able to add to the masterpiece: we’ll actually deface it and destroy it.
Explore Bible notes, 18/7/2011
“Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you do what you are expected to do.” – Brian Tracy
One reason the Lord permits us to go through trials, is so we might not get too content or comfortable in our faith and stop growing.
“You do not have to go to church to be a Christian. You do not have to go home to be married either. But in both cases if you do not, you will have a very poor relationship.”
R. Kent Hughes
The only reason that Christ has not yet returned can only be that there are still more people who are yet to be saved. – I can’t think of any other reason from the scriptures to explain why Jesus has not yet come back. Can you?
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, former minister of Westminster Chapel in London, wrote a book called Spiritual Depression. In it he says: “The devil’s one object is so to depress God’s people that he can go to the man of the world and say: There are God’s people. Do you want to be like that?” Lloyd-Jones goes on to say: In a sense a depressed Christian is a contradiction in terms, and he is a very poor recommendation of the gospel. We are living in a pragmatic age. People today are not primarily interested in truth, what they are interested in is results. The one question they ask is: Does it work? They are frantically seeking and searching for something that can help them. (…) Nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from a condition which gives other people, looking at us, the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who scorns delights and lives laborious days. (…) Satan can’t rob us of our salvation, but he can definitely rob us of our joy. His great concern is to prevent anyone becoming a Christian, but when that fails, his one object then is to make them miserable Christians so that he can point men who are under conviction of sin to them and say: ‘That is Christianity; look at him or her. There is a picture of Christianity! Look at that miserable creature. Do you want to be like that?’
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 1965, Spiritual Depression, Michigan: Eerdmans, p.19-20, p.69)
Remember the parable of the fig tree that had plenty of leaves but no fruit. Jesus said to it: ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again’ (Mark 11v14). I love the way Joyce Meyer applies this parable: ‘If our lives revolve around the church but we have no fruit, we are not living out our faith. We can have Christian bumper stickers on our cars, wear Jesus pins, carry our Bibles around, spend the lunch-break sitting alone reading our Bibles, have plaques listing the fruits of the Spirit hanging on our walls, and listen to teaching tapes and say “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah” but if we do not have time to help anyone else or even show kindness, we are like the fig tree with leaves but no fruit… if we have leaves, we need to also have fruit.’
Cited by Nick Gumbel in Bible in One Year (accessed 2/3/2015)
Don’t doubt or be discouraged; it’s usually the last key in the bunch that fits the lock.
We have all been there, haven’t we? Unfortunately, many people today – Christians included – don’t take temptation seriously enough. Many think of ‘temptation’ as wanting to indulge in something that’s naughty but nice: like being tempted to have another chocolate or piece of cake; or being tempted to stay up and watch the late film; or have another half hour in bed… naughty, but pretty nice really! That’s not the biblical view of temptation. Temptation, if left unchecked, leads to sin, and sin is serious; deadly serious. Sin offends God and it affects our relationship with Him. Sin always has consequences and it separates us from God… until it has been dealt with.
Life can be tough sometimes and we are often afflicted by the PLOM syndrome – poor little old me! We feel like God has abandoned us; our prayers go unanswered; we are left wandering around in no-mans-land, in the desert, and we think God has forgotten us. But God has not forgotten: God sees, God hears, God knows. God has not forgotten you. Your trials and troubles serve to refine your faith and trust in Him; they develop character, strength and perseverance. God says: “I, the LORD, made you, and I will not forget you” (Isaiah 44v21)… “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? [Maybe] Though she may forget, I will not forget you, says the Lord (Isaiah 49v15).” ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Hebrew 13v5). – God is working behind the scenes. Trust in his promises. He will provide for you. He will protect you. He will give you peace and rest in Him.
Joel Osteen writes: ‘A war is raging all around you, yet, amazingly, you may not even be aware of it. The battle is for your mind. Your enemy’s number one target is the arena of your thoughts. (The Hebrew word for ‘adversary’ is satan, which means ‘a person who opposes or fights against another’. In the Bible, the word is often used as a proper name for a powerful angel-like being who is the avowed enemy of God and humans. Although Satan has great powers, he is no match for God.) The enemy knows if he can control and manipulate the way you think, he’ll be able to control and manipulate your entire life. Indeed thoughts determine actions, attitude and self-image. Really, thoughts determine destiny. That’s why the Bible warns us to guard our minds. We must be extremely careful not only about what we ingest through our eyes and ears, but what we think about. If you dwell on depressing thoughts, you will live a depressing life. If you continually gravitate towards negative thoughts, you will gravitate towards negative people, activities, philosophies and lifestyles. Your life will always follow your thoughts.
Almost like a magnet, we draw in what we constantly think about. If you are always thinking positive, happy, joyful thoughts, you’re going to be a positive, happy, joyful person.
Our thoughts also affect our emotions. We will feel exactly the way we think. You will never be happy unless you first think happy thoughts. Conversely, it’s impossible to remain discouraged unless you first think discouraging thoughts. So much of success or failure in life begins in our minds and is influenced by what we allow ourselves to dwell on.
Some people say, ‘Well, my circumstances have got me down. You just don’t know what I’m going through.’ Actually, your circumstances haven’t got you down. Your thoughts about your circumstances have got you down. On the other hand, you can be in one of the biggest battles of your life and still be filled with joy and peace and victory – if you simply learn how to choose the right thoughts.’
Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now, 2008, London: Hodder and Stoughton, p.133-136
Courage isn’t the absence of fear it’s the mastery of it.
Remorse is not the same as repentance. – To be remorseful is to be sorry, but to repent is more than just being sorry: to repent is to confess and seek God’s forgiveness.
We have to understand that death was not part of God’s original creation plan. Death was an effect of sin. So, if death defeated Jesus, then sin has not been dealt with, and we are still lost. [A dead Saviour cannot save anybody!] Here’s the deal: If Jesus died and that was it, well there’s nothing remarkable about that. But if it’s true Jesus rose from the dead, then that changes everything. If Jesus rose from the dead that means he conquered the final enemy: death. That means that everything he claimed about himself is true. He isn’t just human. He is God. He is the answer to mankind’s problems. He is Saviour. Jesus didn’t just die. He rose from the dead. That’s what God would do, because an eternal, infinite God can’t be killed off – at least not permanently, by his creation. The resurrection proves that everything Jesus said was true. The resurrection gives Christians power to live in victory in this life, and it proves that life continues after our time on earth is over. The gospel is good news because of the resurrection.
Judah Smith
Judah Smith, 2013, Jesus Is, Nashville Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, p.180-182
People say, ‘I want to be used; I want to serve the church’… but then you ask them to stack the chairs or wash up or serve tea and coffee and they say, ‘now I’m just being used!’ – There’s no pleasing some folk!
John Dickson writes: ‘The message of Christianity gives us hope for this life and beyond. According to Jesus, death in not the scary mystery that many of us think it is. It can be the entrance into something incredible. Jesus was always on about ‘eternal life’. He never described it as fairies and angels floating through the air playing harps and listening to choir music. He likened it to a huge party, full of good food and drink, surrounded by great company – God especially. For the Christian, there is great reason for being hopeful about the future.’
John Dickson, A Sneaking Suspicion, p.120
Often peace is the only ‘sign’ that God will give you to let you know his will. And the first thing you lose when you step outside of God’s will is your peace (the peace which transcends all understanding – Philippians 4:7). If you don’t have peace about it, don’t do it! Wait for God.
Followers of Jesus are not supposed to be miserable. Jesus prayed for all believers (in John 17:13) asking, ‘that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.’ Earlier he said to the disciples, ‘Remain in my love… that my joy may be in you’ (John 15:9, 11).
Taking the above analogy one step further: How can you change your attitude from negative to positive when you don’t particularly feel like being positive? How can you remain upbeat and optimistic when things go wrong? Of course, it’s not easy, but let me explain it like this: It’s as though we have two dogs inside our head – a good dog and a bad dog – and both of them are constantly fighting for the same piece of meat. What we must do, in order to remain upbeat and positive, is to feed the good dog and starve the bad dog. In other words, when your (negative) inner-voice creates anxiety, doubts and fears by rabbiting on and on about why this won’t work or why you shouldn’t attempt to do this or what would happen if you did that etc., this is like the bad dog. You must starve the bad dog (get rid of the negative self-talk) by taking away its food. And exactly how do you do this? Simply by doing the opposite and feeding the good dog with positive self-talk. In other words, use positive affirmations to starve the negative thoughts to death.
R. Ian Seymour
A great many Christians are just too relaxed about not reading their Bible and so they don’t always know what God’s word says. They might say to themselves: “Oh, I’m happy enough in my faith and coming to church without reading the Bible!” Hey, an ostrich with its head in the sand may be happy. But is it safe? The Bible you don’t read can’t help you!
“For most of us, the unknown is so terrifying that we will remain with what we have long after it is apparent that it is punishing to do so.”
Daryl Conner
A Sunday school teacher asked the children: “Why is it necessary to be quiet when you go into the church?” A little girl called replied, “Because the people are sleeping.”
It has to be said, many people think of church services as boring, sometimes dead-boring, and to be fair a lot of church services are… BUT they absolutely should not be!
“One of the most powerful forces in the world is the will of men and women who believe in themselves, who dare to hope and aim high, who go confidently after the things they want from life.”
Rich DeVos, co-founder of Amway Corporation
“The only difference between a rut and a grave is its length, depth and how long you’re in it for!”
Art Holst (professional speaker)
“Be so busy giving recognition to others that you don’t need it yourself.”
Jim Rohn
“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves.”
Dale Carnegie
My wife is a light eater… as soon as it gets light she starts eating!
“When you change from wishing and whinging to setting powerful value-driven goals, you move to a more positive and productive life. Negative emotions like frustration, fear, anxiety, stress, anger and depression plague people with no direction and therefore no focus or hope. Setting goals moves us from dreams with a remote possibility and reliance on blind luck to the results and relationships we are looking for. Living life with the attitude, ‘let’s wait and see how it turns out’ is a waste of your potential and your power.”
Jinny Ditzler
Source: Jinny Ditzler, 1994, Your Best Year Yet, London: Thorsons, p.139
