<blockquote>The gospel is not that God saves all good people. The gospel is the scandalous news that God saves sinners. There are no good people. There are bad people who reject Jesus and bad people who accept his rescue by faith.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/four-ways-christians-believe-false-gospel/">J.D. Greear, Which of These False Gospels Do You Believe?, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>The gospel teaches that God’s acceptance of us is not based on anything except what Jesus Christ did in our place. It means that we don’t measure our closeness to God by how well we live but in what Christ accomplished for us. Christ’s righteousness in enough!
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/four-ways-christians-believe-false-gospel/">J.D. Greear, Which of These False Gospels Do You Believe?, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Later in his letter to the Galatians, Paul says that any growth in the Christian life is the fruit of the Spirit in you. The power of the Spirit is released by faith in Christ, not by resolution or self-discipline. Sanctification is God’s work just as much as justification.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/four-ways-christians-believe-false-gospel/">J.D. Greear, Which of These False Gospels Do You Believe?, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Often, we commit the error of the Galatians not by believing bad things but by taking a good thing and making it the central, life-giving thing. Some of the churches I went to growing up emphasized conformity to a set of rules as the mark of a real Christian: Real Christians do this; they don’t do that. They don’t go to movies. They don’t drink, they don’t chew, and they don’t go with girls who do. There is nothing inherently wrong with rules. The problem is when we think more about what we need to do to make ourselves more acceptable to God rather than trusting in what God has done for us and promised to do in us. Rules serve our relationship with God; the moment we reserve that order, trouble begins.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/four-ways-christians-believe-false-gospel/">J.D. Greear, Which of These False Gospels Do You Believe?, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>To fear God is to know how valuable he is in your life, how much you depend on him, and how foolish it would be to put yourself out of alignment with him. Show me a person who is attentive to his relationship with God and has a robust prayer life, and I’ll show you a person who has learned to fear God.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/three-features-solomonic-wisdom/">J.D. Greear, Don’t Be a Fool, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be.
<cite><a href="https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/3-ways-to-respond-when-slandered">Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1888</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>In Christ I’m not just more sinful than I ever dared fear, but more loved than I ever dared hope.
<cite><a href="https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/3-ways-to-respond-when-slandered">Timothy Keller</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Nothing but what he ordains for your good befalls you.
<cite><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/my-name-is-god-almighty">John Piper, 1984</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>The world is ours. Life is ours. Death is ours. God reigns so supremely on behalf of his elect that everything which faces us in a lifetime of obedience and ministry will be subdued by the mighty hand of God and made the servant of our holiness and our everlasting joy in God.
<cite><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/as-sure-as-his-son">John Piper, 1995</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him, has come through suffering.
<cite><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-great-kings-wine">John Piper, 1995</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>We often spend our time looking back with regret, or looking forward with plans, and miss the present. We become consumed with mourning the past or changing the future, and unfortunately miss the present.
<cite><a href="https://markdriscoll.org/sermons/flip-flops-in-the-snow-ecclesiastes-31-15/">Mark Driscoll, 2015</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Our problem is that we often spend so much time trying to figure out life (through wisdom), straighten out life (through work), or avoid life (through folly) that we die before actually getting around to enjoying life (through grace).
<cite><a href="https://markdriscoll.org/sermons/running-to-your-funeral-ecclesiastes-212-26/">Mark Driscoll, 2015</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>It is precisely when it is personally costly to speak, and we still speak, that people listen to what we have to say. When it’s costly to deliver a message, the message must be costly. For people only pay dearly for what is valuable. Paying dearly glorifies the valuable thing. And no message is more valuable than the gospel of Jesus.
<cite><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/keep-speaking">Jon Bloom, 2015</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>The mindset is not, “I guess I’ll pray since nothing else is working.” Rather, it is a mind that is fully persuaded that prayer should be first and foremost.
<cite><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/three-ways-to-love-your-imperfect-husband">Kim Cash Tate, 2015</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>If you could lose your salvation, you would.
<cite><a href="https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/65-15/the-saints-guarantee">John F. MacArthur, 2004</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Salvation is not a prayer you pray in a one-time ceremony and then move on from. Rather, salvation is a posture of repentance and faith that you begin in a moment and maintain for the rest of your life.
<cite><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Stop-Asking-Jesus-Into-Heart/dp/1433679213/">J.D. Greear, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved, 2013</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>And this is where talking about burnout, or depression, with people becomes frustrating for everyone. We want a singular reason, a primary cause. Most people want to help you find the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_in_the_flesh" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">thorn in your side</a> and take it out, and when you express there is no singular thorn, the script they know is useless. Instead of a bad day or a major rejection I simply feel a slow grinding away of something important has taken place. Something big and heavy that I need has moved and there’s no quick way to move it back.
<cite><a href="http://scottberkun.com/2015/my-creative-burnout/">Scott Berkun, 2015</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father's arms, and is blessedly clasped therein!
<cite><a href="https://bit.ly/2rO2Qxz">Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1866</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.
<cite><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652926/">C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1943</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>You cannot love a fellow creature fully till you love God
<cite><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Great-Divorce-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652950/">C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 1945</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Your rebellious child's real problem is not drugs or sex or cigarettes or pornography or laziness or crime or cussing or slovenliness or homosexuality or being in a punk rock band. The real problem is that they don't see Jesus clearly. The best thing you can do for them is to show them Christ.
<cite><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/12-ways-to-love-your-wayward-child">Desiring God Staff, 2007</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Solomon’s first problem was not out-of-control sexual lust. His problem was that he didn’t trust God enough to fully rely on him. His core problem was unbelief. That’s almost always the case with our sin. Peel back the layers of any sin, and you will find the seed of unbelief. Whatever area of your life in which you are not fully obeying God is an area in which you are afraid of being let down and do not really trust him.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/five-ways-bring-good-man/">J.D. Greear, Five Ways to Bring a Good Man Down, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>The danger of sin is not in how wicked or immoral the act is. The danger is in losing the presence of the God you drive out through your sin. When you reject God’s commands, no matter how small, you put yourself outside of his protection, and that one area becomes the area through which Satan injects poison into your life.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/five-ways-bring-good-man/">J.D. Greear, Five Ways to Bring a Good Man Down, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Probably the most important factor in determining whether you will make it all the way with Jesus is the people with whom you surround yourself.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/five-ways-bring-good-man/">J.D. Greear, Five Ways to Bring a Good Man Down, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Nothing is more dangerous in the Christian life than sleeper cells of sin that we haven’t dealt with. We may think they are fine, but if we tolerate them, it’s just a matter of time before they gain the power to bring us down.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/five-ways-bring-good-man/">J.D. Greear, Five Ways to Bring a Good Man Down, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>John Newton said, “Growth in grace primarily means growth in the realization of your need for grace and in your dependence on it.” You show me a Christian whose dependence on grace is not greater than when he started, and I’ll show you a Christian whose growth is artificial and fragile.
<cite><a href="https://jdgreear.com/blog/five-ways-bring-good-man/">J.D. Greear, Five Ways to Bring a Good Man Down, 2017</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Whenever you allow your relationship to the truth to become purely theoretical and academic, you’re falling into the grip of Satan... The moment in your study you cease to come under the power of the truth, you have become a victim of the Devil. If you can study the Bible without being searched and examined and humbled, without being lifted up and made to praise God, or moved with sorrow over what God has endured in you, or amazed that the beauty and wisdom of what Christ has done for you, if you do not feel as much of a desire to sing when you’re alone in your study as when you’re standing in the pulpit, you are in bad shape. And you should always feel something in this power.
<cite><a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Christian-Warfare-Exposition-Ephesians-10-13/dp/0801058007/">D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13, 1998</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>The Lord Jesus Christ can never say to me at the last, 'I never knew you: depart from Me,' for He has known me as I know a poor man in the street who has begged of me every day." I am always begging of my Lord, clamoring at Him for one thing or another. He knows me well enough. Why, when I was but a youth, I trusted Him for my eternal salvation! He called me to Himself and blessed me. I know that He will never be able to say to me, 'I never knew you.'
<cite><a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons37.xlii.html">Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.
<cite><a href="https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-wailing-of-risca">Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Wailing of Risca, 1860</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart. When you are so weak that you cannot do much more than cry, you coin diamonds with both your eyes. The sweetest prayers God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but his love.
<cite><a href="https://www.azquotes.com/quote/858195">Charles Haddon Spurgeon</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.
<cite><a href="https://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/faq/20.htm">Jim Elliot, October 28, 1949 entry on page 174 (Chapter 4) of the 1978 hardback edition of the Journal</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>There is no genuine unity apart from unity in God’s revealed truth...
So, how are we to know if a controversy is right or wrong? The only way to answer this question is to go to Scripture and evaluate the importance of the issues of debate. All questions of truth are important, but not all are equally important.
<cite><a href="https://www.ligonier.org/blog/why-controversy-sometimes-necessary/">Albert Mohler, Why Controversy Is Sometimes Necessary, 2018</a></cite></blockquote>
<blockquote>Children of God last forever, their difficulties will not.
<cite><a href="https://www.austinstonecounseling.org/staff/andrew-dealy/">Andrew Dealy, 2019</a></cite></blockquote>
