Showing posts with label Evangelistic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Evangelistic. Show all posts

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Preaching What People Understand

"Ministers generally avoid preaching what the people before them will understand. . . . They studiously avoid being personal, in the sense of making anyone present feel he is the man. I have always pursued a different course. I have often said, 'Do not think I am talking about anybody else; for I mean you, you and you.' "
- Charles Finney

Source: Finney, Charles. Holy Spirit Revivals. Whitaker House, 1999: p. 68.

Monday, December 27, 2010

You Can Impact the World

"It sounds idealistic, I know. Impact the world. But doesn't it also sound biblical? ... The formal definition of impact is "a forcible contact between two things," and God has designed our lives for a collision course with the world."
- David Platt

Source: Platt, David. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. Multnomah Books, 2010. 83. Print.

Monday, November 8, 2010

What Moves You?

"Extreme poverty is demeaning; it reduces human beings to the level of animals. To be sure, Christians should be provoked by the idolatry of a Hindu city, as Paul was by the idols in Athens, and moved to evangelism. But, like Jesus when he saw the hungry crowds, we should be moved with compassion to feed them (compare Acts 17:16f. with, e.g., Mark 8:1-3)."
- John Stott

Source: Stott, John R. W., Roy McCloughry, John Wyatt, and John R. W. Stott. Issues Facing Christians Today. 4th ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006. 298. Print.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Our Evangelistic Mission

"In evangelism we should neither try to force people to believe the gospel, nor remain silent as if we were indifferent to their response, nor rely exclusively on the dogmatic proclamation of biblical texts (vital as authoritative biblical exposition is), but rather, like the apostles, we should reason with people from both nature and Scripture, commending God's gospel to them by rational arguments."
- John Stott

Source: Stott, John R. W., Roy McCloughry, John Wyatt, and John R. W. Stott. Issues Facing Christians Today. 4th ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006. 79. Print.

Monday, October 18, 2010

The Church Reforms the World

"It is astonishing to read Finney's statement in his twenty-third Lecture on Revival that 'the great business of the Church is to reform the world...The Church of Christ was originally organized to be a body of reformers. The very profession of Christianity implies the profession and virtually an oath to do all that can be done for the universal reformation of the world.'"
- John Stott

Source: Stott, John R. W., Roy McCloughry, John Wyatt, and John R. W. Stott. Issues Facing Christians Today. 4th ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006. 28. Print.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Be a Vocal Christian

"Be a Christian - and a visible and audible one. The world needs you so badly."
- John Piper

Source: Piper, John. Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. B&H Books, 2002. 226. Print.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

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.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Preach the Truth!

"No gore, no grace, no glory. All religions that deny the cross nullify the grace of God and lead people to perpetual ruin. Preaching that (nullified) truth ill-fits today's professionalism (among evangelicals). Beware of replacing real truth-based tolerance with spurious professional tolerance."
- John Piper

Source: Brothers, We're NOT Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry. Piper, John. B&H Publishing. Nashville, TN. 2002. xi.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Jesus Is Truth

"In John 17:17 our Lord does not say, 'Thy word is truth', He remarks rather, 'Thy word is truth'. Earlier in the Gospel of John He had indeed identified Himself as the truth [14:6] 'I am...the truth', were His words. In the present passage, however, when He is not speaking of Himself, but the Word of God, He characterizes that Word as true. Christ is Himself the Truth, and when He speaks of Himself, there is need for Him to employ the definite article. In the prayer, however, He merely intends to characterize the Word of God as truth. 'The Word of God', we may paraphrase, is true; it speaks the truth; the message which it offers is a true message. It is dependable; it is truth. The Word of which He speaks is the message of God; it is information which God has communicated to the world; it is that which God has spoken. The word of God, which Jesus Christ Himself has spoken, is truth."
- E.J. Young

Source: Young, E.J. Thy Word Is Truth - Some Thoughts on the Biblical Doctrine of Inspiration. reprinted 2008. Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth, 1957. p. 262.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Love and Truth

"Love and truth must be maintained in perfect balance. Truth is never to be abandoned in the name of love. But love is not to be deposed in the name of truth… Truth without love has no decency; it’s just brutality. On the other hand, love without truth has no character; it’s just hypocrisy."
- John MacArthur

Source: MacArthur, John. Twelve Ordinary Men. Nelson Books, 2006. pp.106-08.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Religion vs the Gospel

"Religion operates on the principle of 'I obey— therefore I am accepted by God.' The basic operating principle of the gospel is 'I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ— therefore I obey.'"
- Tim Keller

Source: Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God. New York: Penguin Group Inc, 2008. 114.