Listen v4.42 Quotes

Quote Title	Quotation	Source
How Do You Measure Up?	We may judge our advancement in humility by the delight we have in humiliation and contempt.	Fenelon – Christian Counsel, circa 1690, copyright 2002 Bridge-Logos Publishers
One Track Mind and Will	The Devil goes about as fierce, as resolute, and as strong as a lion, intent only on destroying. He is restrained by no sentiments that soften and move human or divine hearts. He has no pity and no sympathy. He is great, but he is only great in evil. He has a great intellect, but he is driven and inspired by a vicious and cruel heart.	E. M. Bounds – Guide to Spiritual Warfare, circa 1880, copyright 1984 by Whitaker House
Please No. Anything But The Light!	His silence only seemed to add to his sorrows, he decided to open his heart to his loved ones. And this is what he said: Oh, my dear wife, and you, my tender children! I, your poor father, am all lost and undone. And why all lost and undone, do you ask? Tis because of this huge burden strapped tightly to my back. Then said his dubious wife, Christiana, Uh, burden? What burden, my dear? … I have been reading words from this my little book. At this his family exchanged one of those knowing glances that shouted silently, Oh no! We were afraid something like this was going to happen.	John Bunyan – The New Amplified Pilgrims Progress, circa 1660; Adapted by Jim Pappas, Jr. © 1999 Orion s Gate
You Need a Bigger Dose of Jesus	I was once talking on the subject of religion with an intelligent agnostic, whom I very much wished to influence, and after listening to me politely for a little while, he said, “Well, madam, all I have to say is this. If you Christians want to make us agnostics inclined to look into your religion, you must try to be more comfortable in the possession of it yourselves. The Christians I am aware of seem to be the very most uncomfortable people anywhere around. They seem to carry their religion as a man carries a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but at the same time it is very uncomfortable to have it. And I for one do not care to have that sort of religion.” But when the early glow of my conversion had passed, and I had come down to the dullness of everyday duties and responsibilities, I soon found from my own experience, and also from the similar experiences of most other Christians around me, that there was far too much truth in his assertion, and that the religious life of most of us was full of discomfort and unrest. In fact, it seemed, as one of my Christian friends said to me one day when we were comparing our experiences, “as if we had just enough religion to make us miserable.”	Hannah Whitall Smith – The God of All Comfort, circa 1890 – 1956 Edition Moody Publishers
The Secrets of Happiness	Notice how Mr. [George] Muller tells us this, that the two secrets of his great happiness were, his great love for God’s Word, and his ever maintaining a good conscience, not knowingly doing anything against the will of God.	Andrew Murray – The Two Convenants, 1898, copyright 2005
Truth With Arms and Legs	Doctrine and life are really two sides of one Christianity; and they are equally indispensable, because Christianity is living truth. It is not merely truth; it is not simply life. It is living truth.	P. T. Forsyth – The Work of Christ, Wipf & Stock, 1910
The Seed that Must Lead	My unassisted heart is barren clay, That of its native self can nothing feed: Of good and pious works Thou art the seed, That quickens only where Thou sayest it may: Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.	A. W. Tozer – The Pursuit of God
One Good Turn Deserves Another	Christianity can be distilled to this one simple thought, “God loves me and desires that I love Him in the same way” He consciously chose to give up His human life, that soulish life consisting of what He wants, what He thinks, what He feels and desires for, in order that you might live. Will you do that for Him? This is love.	Tom Van Hoogen
The Real McCoy	There is also true humility. True humility never thinks of humility. Those who have it act with patience and live and die in God. They care not for themselves nor anything created. They suffer molestation with joy and desire nothing from it other than to walk in the footsteps of their despised Lord. They do not care to be thought of well by the world and are content with what God gives him. They are convicted of their own faults with calm shame!	Michael Molinos – The Spiritual Guide – circa 1675, copyright 1982 by Seed Sowers
Value is In The Eye of the Beholder	As we lift up our soul in prayer to the living God, we gain the beauty of holiness as surely as a flower becomes beautiful by living in the sunlight. Was not our Lord Himself transfigured when He prayed? And the “very fashion” of our countenance will change, and we shall have our Mount of Transfiguration when prayer has its rightful place in our lives. And men will see in our faces “the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” Our value to God and to man is in exact proportion to the extent in which we reveal the glory of God to others.	Unknown Christian – The Kneeling Christian, circa 1890, © 2007 Bidge-Logos.
Giants are Rare, Not Extinct	We must get hold of the great souls, the men who have been hard hit and have gone to the basis of things, and whose experiences have been preserved for us by God, that we may know where we stand. One of the reasons for the futility of pseudo-evangelism is that it bases its doctrine on the shallow weak things it has saved. Thank God, Christianity does save the shallow weak things, but they are not the ones to diagnose Christianity, they are the expression of the last reach of Christianity. Paul said . . . not many mighty, not many noble, are called he did not say not any mighty, not any noble.	Oswald Chambers – The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers

Listen v4.28 Quotes

Quote Title	Quotation	Source
You Should Know Him By Now	In this union of souls and the conscious delight and rest in one another that is the highest and most exalted relationship possible between two persons it is not right for one person to always tell the other person what to do. And so it is in our union with God, a person both loving and beloved. He does not delight in having to always explain what his will is, he enjoys it when we understand and act upon his will. Our highest calling and opportunity is to love him with all our being.	Dallas Willard – Hearing God ©1984 InterVarsity Press
Instrumental Teachings	Many believe that God has blessed them because of some special relationship they enjoy. Not so. Very often God blesses men with resources — things, cunning, power, charisma, health because they are of use to His sovereign purpose. He accomplishes His purpose through all things — even the jawbone of a donkey. To believe you are someone special or that you have a special relationship with God because He uses you is to expose your own great folly and pride. You may just be the jawbone of a donkey or even some other part. To be used makes you an instrument not a Son. I have no particular relationship to my hoe but only to my children.	Tom Van Hoogen
Pass on the Praise to the Provider	When you do receive praise for something you have done, take it indifferently and return it to God. Reflect it back to God, the giver of the gift, the blesser of the action, the aid of the project. Always give God thanks for making you an instrument of his glory for the benefit of others.	Jeremy Taylor – The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, circa 1650; excerpted from The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism by Bernard McGuinn copyright 2006 by Random House, Inc.
Self-Abandonment	This then is what it means to seek God perfectly: to withdraw from illusion and pleasure, from worldly anxieties and desires, from the works that God does not want, from a glory that is only human display; to keep my mind free form confusion in order that my liberty may be always at the disposal of His will; to entertain silence in my heart and listen for the voice of God; to cultivate an intellectual freedom from the images of created things in order to receive the secret contact of God in obscure love; to love all men as myself; to rest in humility and to find peace in withdrawal from conflict and competition with other men; to turn aside from controversy and put away heavy loads of judgment and censorship and criticism and the whole burden of opinions that I have no obligations to carry; to have a will that is always ready to fold back within itself and draw all the powers of the soul down from its deepest center to rest in silent expectancy for the coming of God, poised in tranquil and effortless concentration upon the point of my dependence on Him; to gather all that I am, and have, all that I can possibly suffer to do or be, and abandon them all to God in the resignation of a perfect love and blind faith and pure trust in God, to do His will.	Thomas Merton – New Seeds of Contemplation, ©1961 by the Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc.
Does He Attend Your Church?	Satan is always at church before the preacher is in the pulpit or a member is in the pew. He comes to hinder the sower, to impoverish the soil, or to corrupt the seed. He uses these tactics only when courage and faith are in the pulpit, and zeal and prayer are in the pew; but if dead ritualism or live liberalism are in the pulpit, he does not attend, because they are no danger to him.	E. M. Bounds – Guide to Spiritual Warfare, circa 1880, copyright 1984 by Whitaker House
Honesty IS the Best Policy	A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Job will not accept anything that contradicts the facts he knows; he is not splenetic, he does not say God is cruel, he simply states the facts It looks as though God is rejecting me without any reason, all the facts go to prove this and I am not going to blink them. Job will not lay a flattering unction to his soul on the line of expediency. No man ever puts a stumbling-block in the way of others by telling the truth; to tell the truth is more honouring to God than to tell a lie.	Oswald Chambers – The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers
A Very Pressing Matter	The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another. That mighty burden is his obligation to God. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably. And when the man s laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things, but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear.	A. W. Tozer – The Knowledge of the Holy, © 1961 Aiden Wilson Tozer
Under New Ownership	Before the Fall there was an earth; after the Fall there was a “world”; at the Lord’s return there will be a kingdom. Just as the world belongs to Satan so The Kingdom belongs to our Lord Jesus. Moreover it is the Kingdom that displaces and that will displace the world.	Watchman Nee – Love Not The World, © 1968 CLC Publications
Shine a Light Along the Way	There is an urgent need for good works in believers. As it is necessary that the sun shines every day, it is even more necessary that every believer lets his light shine before men. We have been created anew in Christ for this — to hold forth the Word of Life as lights in the world. Christ needs you urgently to let His light shine through you. The unsaved around you need your light if they are to find their way to God. God needs you to let His glory be seen through you. Just as a lamp functions to light up a room, every believer should function to light up the world.	Andrew Murray – God’s Plans for You, circa 1890, © 1983 by Whitaker House

Listen v4.21 Quotes

Quote Title	Quotation	Source
Faulty Thinking is Often the Cause of the Crisis	Job persists in stating that the basis of things is not clear or easy to understand. …that God punishes the evil man and looks after the good, there is so much perversity at the basis of things that that explanation won’t do. Job says, “I held the same creed as you do until I came to my great trouble.” Their creed was based on sound principles, but what is needed is a sound relationship at the basis of things. …Job’s contention is that when a man is face to face with things as they are, easy explanations won’t do, for things are not easy; there is a perverseness all through. If Job is not right in his contention, then the Redemption is “much ado about nothing.”	Chambers, Oswald: Baffled to Fight Better: Talks on the Book of Job. c1931
Self-Death is the Key to Spirit-Life	There are only three things which I will explain at some length and which are taken from our Constitution itself. It is essential that we should understand how very important they are to us in helping us to preserve that peace, both inward and outward, which the Lord so earnestly recommended to us. One of these is love for each other; the second, detachment from all created things; the third, true humility, which, although I put it last, is the most important of the three and embraces all the rest.	Teresa of Avila – The Way Of Perfection, circa 1575
Led Astray by My Self	God tempts no one, neither can He be tempted. Temptation is not possible unless there pre-exists an inclination to sin. Man was not preprogrammed to sin but by virtue of his free will and the faculty of reason he chooses sin. Sin is fundamentally a disposition to autonomy, to exert the right to choose over everything and everyone including God. This disposition is revealed and unleashed by Self. Self-realization is bound up in sight. Coveting comes by sight and knowledge. If we had not seen nor known of a thing we could not covet it. The perversion of all time is that we desire to gain pleasure from the gifts of God rather than from God Himself. May God alone be my Portion.	Tom Van Hoogen
What Can I Say?, No More Excuses	So great is the importance of prayer that God has taken care to anticipate all the excuses or objections we may be likely to make. People plead their weakness or infirmity or they declare they do not know how to pray. God foresaw this inability long ages ago. Did he not inspire the apostle Paul to say: likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).	Unknown Christian – The Kneeling Christian, circa 1890, © 2007 Bidge-Logos.
How High Is Your Standard Held?	The average standard of holiness and devotion can be no higher at home or in the church than it is in individual believers.	Andrew Murray – God’s Plans for You, circa 1890, © 1983 by Whitaker House
If You Can t Dazzle Them With Brilliance…	Within the church there are unmistakable signs that she has been blinded and caught by Satan s dazzling glare. The church is being seriously affected by the material progress of the age. We have heard so much about prosperity and gazed on it for so long that spiritual views no longer appeal to us. Everything must take on the rich quality, luxuriant growth, and magnificent appearance of the material, or else it seems beggarly. This is the most perilous condition the church has to face. It happens when the meek and lowly fruits of holiness are discounted by the showy and worldly charms with which material success crowds the church. We must not yield to the flood. We must not for a moment, not with the hundredth part of an inch, give place to the world. Holiness and devotion to God must be stressed in every way and at every point. The church must be made to see this delusion and snare. This transference of strength from God to the world, this rejection of the Holy Spirit s endowment of might and power, must be recognized as yielding to Satan. The church more and more, is inclined not only to disregard, but also to despise, the elements of spiritual strength and to set them aside for more impressive, worldly ideas.	E. M. Bounds – Guide to Spiritual Warfare, circa 1880, copyright 1984 by Whitaker House
Allow Him to Work in Silence	God will eventually test you in all of your life, but He will not let your trials become greater than you can bear. Let God use trials to help you grow. Do not try to measure your progress, your strength, or what God is doing. His work is not less efficient because what He is doing is invisible.	Fenelon – The Seeking Heart, circa 1690, copyright Christian Books Publishing House
I Stand in My Own Way of Progress	When humility delivers a man from attachment to his own works and his own reputation, he discovers that perfect joy is possible only when we have completely forgotten ourselves. And it is only when we pay no more attention to our own deeds and our own reputation and our own excellence that we are at last completely free to serve God in perfection for His own sake alone.	Thomas Merton – New Seeds of Contemplation, ©1961 by the Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc.
All Accomplices Are Charged the Same	Yoke-fellows in sin are yoke-fellows in pain; the soul is punished for informing, the body for performing, and as both the informer and performer, the cause and the instrument, so shall the stirrer up of sin and the executor of it be punished.	Charles H. Spurgeon – The Treasury of David abridged by David Otis Fuller, circa 1880, © 1968 by David Otis Fuller, Published by Kregel Publications