Favorite Pastor Quotes 8

Favorite Pastor Quotes 8

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Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them… Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. (Romans 12:9,10 NLT)

"He loved them unto the uttermost." And I think in that statement, there is the most wonderful thing that ever came into this world. Jesus had had a lot of trouble with those men. They had often misunderstood Him. They had often disappointed Him. They were really a very poor lot of men.... He knew what a poor lot of men they were, but He loved them unto the uttermost. That is the first thing about this love. It is not offended by our failures. He does not withdraw His love because we make mistakes. We may often disappoint Him, we may often fail Him, we may often grieve His heart, but He goes on loving us. He loves us unto the uttermost, right to the end. He is not offended by our failures. That is a very different kind of love from our love. This is God's love in Christ....

You know, it is so easy to talk about love, to pretend to love, to use the language of love, to sing hymns about love, and it can all be sentimental; perhaps we all know people who have told us that they love us, but very often they are the very people who have hurt us most. Now, the love of Jesus was not sentimental, it was practical. He did not go in with His disciples and say, 'Brothers, I do love you very much.' He showed that He loved them by what He did for them. It was not sentimental love, it was practical love. And this is the love with which He loved them unto the uttermost.... These things which characterize the love of Christ for His own ought to characterize us in love for others. That is why the Holy Spirit has come. So that as He loved us to the uttermost, so ought we to love one another.

~T. Austin-Sparks~
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The providences of God are often dark and mysterious!

(James Smith, "The Evening Sacrifice; Or, A Help to Devotion")

"Your way is in the sea--and Your path is in the great waters. Your footsteps may not be known." Psalm 77:19

The providences of God are often dark and mysterious. It is not easy to ascertain why the Lord acts as He does--or to find out the precise object which He has in view. He carries on His work according to His eternal and pre-ordained plan--and He accomplishes His purposes often by the most unlikely means. He works all things after the counsel of His own will--and He works leisurely, having no cause to hurry. We are naturally hasty, and want to know what God means at once. But He says, "Be still. Wait. Watch. Let patience have her perfect work." 

We may not be able to account for our trials, troubles, losses, and crosses--but all will be made plain by-and-by. "Jesus said to him: You do not understand now what I am doing--but you will understand later on." John 13:7 

We now know in part--but we shall soon know even as also we are known. And until then, we may well be patient--assured that God is acting wisely, lovingly, and is consulting our good in all that He does. 

O wonder-working God, Your dealings with us are often dark, and difficult to be understood! Give us faith to believe Your promises--when we cannot understand Your providences. Let us be assured of Your love to us--when we cannot ascertain the design of Your dealings with us. Preserve us from a repining, complaining, and unbelieving spirit--and grant us grace that we may rest satisfied that You are acting rightly. May we learn, in whatever state we are--therewith to be content. With patience may we do and suffer Your will at present--being fully assured that all will be explained and opened up to us at length. O to be enabled . . .
  to rest on Your covenant love,
  to trust Your faithful promises, and
  to commit all of our ways unto You!

"All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth--to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies!" Psalm 25:10 
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J.C. Ryle Gems #2

Look to the cross, think of the cross, meditate on the cross--and then go and set your affections on the world if you can!

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A crucified Savior will never be content to have a self-pleasing, self-indulging, worldly-minded people!

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The Gospel was not meant merely to reside in our intellect, memories, and tongues--but to be seen in our lives.

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Happiness does not depend on outward circumstances--but on the state of the heart.

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Health is a good thing. But sickness is far better--if it leads us to God.

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The beginning of the way to Heaven--is to feel that we are on the way to Hell.

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There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have enough. It is a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice--which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.

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J.C. Ryle Gems #1


It costs something to be a true Christian. It will cost us our sins, our self-righteousness, our ease and our worldliness!

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A Christian is a walking sermon. Christians preach far more than a minister does--for they preach all week long!

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According to the men of the world--few are going to Hell.
According to the Bible--few are going to Heaven.

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Nothing is so offensive to Christ, as lukewarmness in religion!

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Beware of manufacturing a God of your own . . .
  a God who is all mercy--but not just;
  a God who is all love--but not holy;
  a God who has a Heaven for everybody--but a Hell for none;
  a God who will make no distinction between godly and ungodly in eternity.
Such a God is an idol of your own--as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple! The hands of your own imagination and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible--and beside the God of the Bible, there is no God at all.

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Pride is the oldest and most common of sins.
Humility is the rarest and most beautiful of graces.