Prayer and the Sovereignty of God

"Pray as though everything depends on God, and work as though everything depends on you."

- Augustine

Source: Wiersbe, Warren. The Bible Exposition Commentary. New Testament Vol 1. Colorado Springs: Victor, 2001. 419.

Help-Available

"The gospel is not a help-wanted ad. It is a help-available ad."

- John Piper

Source: Piper, John. Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. B&H Books, 2002. 40. Print.

The Reality and Importance of the Incarnation of Christ

"Jesus was like us in every respect but one: he was without sin. Jesus had to be fully human to serve as our perfectly obedience representative. Just as Jesus had to be human to live in our place, he also had to be human to die in our place."

- Wayne A. Grudem

 Source: Grudem, Wayne A. Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, MI. 2005. 68.

God's Greatest Gift

"For the real good of every gift is essential first, that the giver be in the gift—as God always is, for He is love—and next, that the receiver know and receive the giver in the gift. Every gift of God is but a harbinger of His greatest and only sufficing gift—that of Himself."

- George MacDonald

Source: Lewis, C. S. George MacDonald: An Anthology. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. New York: 1946. Pg 48.

God is the Author

"There is no greater discovery than seeing God as the author of your destiny."

- Ravi Zacharias

Source: Zacharias, Ravi, and Scott Sawyer. Walking from East to West. Zondervan Publishing Company, 2006. Print. P240

The Meaning of Life

"Through all of the visitations of life - successes or failures - it is not how well you are known or not known. It is not how big your organization is or isn't. It is not even how many sermons one has preached or books one has written or millions of dollars one has accumulated. It is how well do you know Jesus? That is it."

- Ravi Zacharias

Source: Zacharias, Ravi, and Scott Sawyer. Walking from East to West. Zondervan Publishing Company, 2006. Print. P223

The Attack of The Shack on Scripture

"Try as he might, Mack could not escape the desperate possibility that the note just might be from God after all, even if the thought of God’s passing notes did not fit well with his theological training. In seminary he had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted of course. God’s voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners’ access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was the guilt edges."

- William Paul Young

Source: Young, William Paul. The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity. Newbury Park, Ca: Windblown Media, 2007. Print.

Leadership Vehicle

"The church is the vehicle God has chosen to use to raise up leaders for his work in the world. Over the past centuries, we have allowed the church to move to the sidelines, and we are now lamenting the results. Churches all over the world suffer from a serious leadership vacuum. Participating in the process of building churches that build leaders is potentially the most fruitful and fulfilling work you will ever do."

- Jeff Jones

Source: Forman, R. Jones, J. Miller, B.The Leadership Baton: An Intentional Strategy for Developing Leaders in Your Church. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, MI. 2004. 40.

Prayer and Desire

"Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon: the thought of Him to whom that prayer goes will purify and correct the desire."

- George MacDonald

Source: Lewis, C. S. George MacDonald: An Anthology. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. New York: 1946. Pg 50.

Remember Who is Boss

"There are no accidents in life - just incidents that remind us who is boss."

- D. D. Davis

Source: Zacharias, Ravi, and Scott Sawyer. Walking from East to West. Zondervan Publishing Company, 2006. Print. P217

Confidence in God is Success

"Confidence in God's power and will to help every believer in Christ, and in the truth of every word that God has spoken, is the grand secret of success and prosperity in our religion."

- J.C. Ryle

Source: Ryle, J.C. Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. 1. Grand Rapids : Baker Publishing Group, 2007. 238. Print.

The Point of Life

"The point of your life is to point to Him."

- Francis Chan

Source: Chan, Francis. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2008. 42. Print.

Visionary Truth

"Our most important vision system is not our physical eyes. We can be physically blind and live quite well. But when we are spiritually blind, we cannot live as God intended. That is why so many Old Testament prophecies say that the Messiah would come to open blind eyes. That is why he is called the Light. Physically blind people are always aware of their deficit and spend much of their lives learning to live with its limitations. But the Bible says that we can be spiritually blind and yet think that we see quite well. The reality of spiritual blindness has important implications for the Christian. If I am going to see myself clearly, I need to hold up the mirror of God's Word in front of me to open my eyes."

- Paul David Tripp

Source: Tripp, Paul David. Instruments In the Redeemer's Hands: People In Need of Change Helping People In Need of Change. P&R Publishing. Phillipsburg, PA. 2002. 54.

God At The Door

"Nor will God force any door to enter in. He may send a tempest about the house; the wind of His admonishment may burst doors and windows, yea, shake the house to its foundations; but not then, not so, will He enter. The door must be opened b the willing hand, ere the foot of Love will cross the threshold. He watches to see the door move from within. Every tempest is but an assault in the siege of Love."

- George MacDonald

Source: Lewis, C. S. George MacDonald: An Anthology. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. New York: 1946. P 44.

Apologetics & Questioning

"Apologetics is not just giving answers to questions - it is questioning people's answers, and even questioning their questions."

- Ravi Zacharias

Source: Zacharias, Ravi, and Scott Sawyer. Walking from East to West. Zondervan Publishing Company, 2006. Print. P204

Christianity in Culture

"When it [Christianity] tells you to feed the hungry it does not give lessons in cookery. When it tells you to read the Scriptures it does not give you lessons in Hebrew or Greek, or even in English grammar. It was never intended to replace or supersede the ordinary human arts and sciences: it is rather a director which will set them all to the right jobs, and a source of energy which will give them all new life, if only they will put themselves at it's disposal."

- C.S. Lewis

Source: Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: HarperOne, 1980. 82. Print.

The Importance of Theology

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."

- A.W. Tozer

Source: Tozer, A.W. The Knowledge of the Holy. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1961. 1. Print.

Don't Be Emergent, Be Evangelical.

"Almost everyone within the [Emergent Church] movement has an emphasis on feelings and affections over against linear thought and rationality; on experience over against truth; on inclusion over against exclusion; on participation over against individualism and the heroic loner. New forms of worship or alterations in our vocabulary or other changes involved suggest there is an unorthodoxy in winning postmoderns to Christ. What is crucial is the gospel, expressed clearly in the preaching of the world and the lives of those in the church, communicated lovingly and patiently in worship and witness, and reflected in the lives of disciples who are growing in Christ-likeness. Churches should be aware of what is happening in the culture, how those around them are thinking, and how best to communicate to them. They should consider if they are making the gospel clear and intelligible, and if their worship and life together honor Christ."

- John Hammett

Source: Hammett, John S. Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology. Kregel Publishing. Grand Rapids, MI. 2005. 330-331.

Apathy

"One of the reasons our world is in the mess it's in today is because Christians have been apathetic about the darkness moving toward them. We've tolerated evil."

- Kay Smith

Source: Smith, Kay. Reflecting God. Costa Mesa: The Word for Today, 2009. Pg. 21.

A Hurting Audience

"If you speak to a hurting world, you will never lack for an audience."

- Ravi Zacharias

Source: Zacharias, Ravi, and Scott Sawyer. Walking from East to West. Zondervan Publishing Company, 2006. Print. P199

Eternal Perspective

"Again, Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever."

- C.S. Lewis

Source: Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: HarperOne, 1980. 32. Print.

An Altered Call

"Only after we are thoroughly convinced that God's Word is powerful enough to save (without added methods or techniques) will we be able to do away with the man-made altar call system. But when we do, we are able to see God work in people's lives without our manipulative interference. As a result, all of the glory goes to the Lord--and we can concentrate on being faithful in urgently inviting people to Christ rather than being numerically successful."

- Carey Hardy

Source: Hardy, Carey. "Just as I Am: A Closer Look at Invitations and Altar Calls." Fool's Gold?: Discerning Truth in an Age of Error. Ed. John MacArthur. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2005. 143. Print.