Quote of the Week

This week's quote comes from the great hymnwriter John Newton, most famous for his hymn "Amazing Grace". However, he wrote many other hymns, stood against slavery in his day (having been a slavetrader himself) and preached. He wrote:

Everything is necessary that he sends. Nothing can be necessary that he withholds.”
- John Newton

Quote of the Week

This week's quote come from the last words of Jaroslav Pelikan:

If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen— nothing else matters.”

Quote of the Week

I know I haven't done this in a while, but here's the quote for this week. It's from Augustine of Hippo (who the Catholic church canonized soon after his death), an early church father who stood firmly for the Christian faith against the heresy of Pelagianism. His most famous works were his City of God and his Confessions. Recognizing the tendency that we as human beings have to ignore what is spoken by those we disagree with, Augustine simply said:

All truth is God's truth.

(John Piper discusses the abuses of this quote here)

Quote of the Week

This week's quote is from Jerome, an early Christian who was responsible for translating the Bible into Latin. His translation, the Vulgate, is still the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it.
-Jerome

Quote of the Week

This quote of the week again comes from Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.

“We do not have to make ourselves suffer in order to merit forgiveness. We simply receive the forgiveness earned by Christ. 1 John 1:8 says that God forgives us because He is ‘just.’ That is a remarkable statement. It would be unjust of God to ever deny us forgiveness, because Jesus earned our acceptance! In religion we earn our forgiveness with our repentance, but in the gospel we just receive it.”
- Timothy Keller

Quote of the Week

This week's quote is by A.W. Tozer, author of such books as The Pursuit of God. This quote was found in the foreword of Preaching the Cross, a compilation of the sermons from Together for the Gospel 2006.

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
-A.W. Tozer

Quote of the Week

This week's quote on Resurrection Sunday, comes from the liner notes of Andrew Peterson's album, Resurrection Letters, Volume II.

He came back.

After that brutal Friday, and that long, quiet Saturday, he came back.

And that one intake of breath in the tomb changes everything. It changes the very reason I drew breath today and the way I move about in this world because I believe he’s coming back again. The world has gone on for more than two millennia since Jesus’ feet tread the earth he made. What would they have said back then if someone had told them that some two thousand years later we’d still be waiting? They would’ve thought back to that long Saturday and said, ‘Two thousand years will seem like a breath to you when you finally lay your crown at his feet. We don’t even remember what we were doing on that Saturday, but let me tell you about Sunday morning. Now that was something.’

These many years of waiting will only be a sentence in the story. This long day will come to an end, and I believe it will end in glory, when we will shine like suns and stride the green hills with those we love and the One who loves. We will look with our new eyes and speak with our new tongues and turn to each other and say, ‘Do you remember the waiting? The long years, the bitter pain, the gnawing doubt, the relentless ache?’ And like Mary at the tomb, we will say: ‘I remember only the light, and the voice calling my name, and the overwhelming joy that the waiting was finally over.’

The stone will be rolled away for each of us. May we wait with faithful hearts.”

Quote of the Week

The quote for this week comes from William Temple, archbishop of Canterbuy from 1942-44. His definition of worship is one that is both intriguing and worth long consideration. He writes:

“Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to his purpose. And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.”

Quote of the Week

This week's quote is from John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church and author of many books including Don't Waste Your Life and Desiring God. This is probaby his most famous quote and one that has impacted many lives including my own.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

-John Piper

Quote of the Week

I have decided to start a new weekly post: "The Quote of the Week". Each Sunday (Lord willing and assuming I am able), I will post a thoughtful quote from wise and mature Christians both past and present that will hopefully encourage thought within the minds of other Christians seeking to grow in their knowledge of God.

The quote that I would like to begin this with is one from David Brainerd, a missionary to Native Americans in the 1700's who died early within his life:

'tis good to begin and end with God."

-David Brainerd