Too Good To Be True

"To think anything too good to be true is to deny God..."

- George MacDonald

Source: MacDonald, George. Knowing the Heart of God. Compiled by Michael R. Phillips. Bethany House Publishers, 1990: p. 147.

Worship In Spirit and In Truth

"To worship God in spirit requires that we be alive on the inside, experiencing the life He gives by spiritual birth. Without His life, you can never truly worship. And to worship in truth means to worship God as He really is, bringing more than our words, but bringing words amplified by an authentic life that flows from being spiritually remade within."

- Louie Giglio

Source: Giglio, Louie. The Air I Breathe. Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, Inc. 2003. p. 43.

False Explanations About God

"I hardly know which error is worse--the untruth of Christians who have erected a false system of doctrines to explain a God whose heart they have not sought to know, or the untruth of non-Christians who foolishly do not look beyond such flimsy fabrications. Neither side, it seems, is hungry to find the real truth, but only to build up or tear down something that is not even there!"

- George MacDonald

Source: MacDonald, George. Knowing The Heart Of God. Compiled, arranged, and edited by Michael R. Phillips. Bethany House Publishers, 1990: p. 19.

War

"Let's check back in with Paul. Remember his message to the men of Athens? Remember his audience? The council Paul addressed that day was called the Aeropagus, named after Ares, the Greek god of war. Isn't it interesting that this is the setting God chose for Paul to give this address on the real meaning of life? On this day God's words of truth landed in the very arena where opinions battled. Where war was waged daily to shape the philosophical foundation of man's existence."

- Louie Giglio

Source: Giglio, Louie. The Air I Breathe. Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, Inc. 2003. p. 34.

The Passion of Christ - Infinite In Power

"His suffering in His own blood for us was infinite. Infinite means without bound and without limit, shoreless, bottomless, topless forever and ever, without any possible measure or limitation. And so the suffering of Jesus and the atonement He made on that cross under that darkening sky was infinite in its power."

- A.W. Tozer
Source: Tozer, A.W. The Radical Cross: Living the Passion of Christ. WingSpread. Camp Hill, PA. 2009. 6.

The Biblical Truth in Postmodern Culture

"While competence requires that we understand how the biblical writers established validity, it also demands that we wrestle with listeners' questions such as, 'Is that true?'  (referring to the Bible). Today we can count on an attitude of questioning and doubt. Our educational system and mass media contribute to this pervasive skepticism. Advertisers have created an audience of doubters who shrug off dogmatic claims and enthusiastic endorsements, no matter who makes them, as nothing more than a pitch from the sponsor. Instead, the Bible states reality as it exists in the universe, as God has made it and as He governs it. We would expect, therefore, the affirmations of Scripture to be demonstrated in the world around us. That is NOT to say that we establish biblical truth by studying sociology, astronomy, or archaeology, but the valid data from these sciences second the truth Scripture. Therefore, to adopt the attitude that a statement is not true because it is in the the Bible is illogical; it is in the Bible because it is true."

- Haddon W. Robinson

 Source: Robinson, Haddon W. Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages. Baker. Grand Rapids, MI. 2001. 82.

Teach the Truth of Scripture!

"Yet when they [pastors and ministers] fail to preach the Scriptures, they abandon their authority. No longer do they confront their hearers with a word from God. That is why most modern preaching evokes little more than a wide yawn. God is not in it."

- Haddon W. Robinson
 Source: Robinson, Haddon W. Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages. Baker. Grand Rapids, MI. 2001. 82.

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.

Teach the Truth of Hell

"I must feel the truth of hell - that it exists and is terrible and horrible beyond imagining forever and ever. I must feel the truth that once I was as close to hell as I am to the chair I am sitting on - even closer. I must feel the truth that God's wrath was my head. I must feel in my heart that all the righteousness in the universe was on the side of God and against me. I say to you, on the authority of Scripture, remember, remember, remember the horrid condition of being separated from Christ, without hope and without God, on the brink of hell. When the heart no longer feels the truth of hell, the gospel passes from good news to simply news. The intensity of joy is blunted and the heart-spring of love is dried up."

- John Piper

Source: Brothers, We're NOT Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry. Piper, John. B&H Publishing. Nashville, TN. 2002. 114-116.

More Than Apologetics

"Apologetics had to be about much more than answering questions - it had to focus on questioning the questions and clarifying truth claims."

- Ravi Zacharias

Source: Zacharias, Ravi, and Scott Sawyer. Walking from East to West. Zondervan Publishing Company, 2006. Print. P198

The Need for Truth

"The world of personal ministry is rooted in three principles: First, we were created with the need for truth outside ourselves to live life properly. Secondly, many interpretive voices compete with God's Word for our hearts' attention. Third, the power of sin has been broken, but the blinding presence of sin remains. Therefore, we need to live in humble, honest community with one another, where personal ministry is part of the daily culture."

- Paul David Tripp

Source: Tripp, Paul David.  Instruments the Redeemer's Hands: People In Need of Change Helping People In Need of Change. P&R Publishing. Phillipsburg, NJ. 2002. 54-55.

Truth Leads to Comfort

"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair."

-C.S. Lewis

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

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.

Feelings Should Lead to Truth

"Feelings follow belief; belief, then, should follow truth."

- Ravi Zacharias

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

Defense of Truth

"If I speak what is false, I must answer for it; if truth, it will answer for me."

- Thomas Fuller

Source: A Puritan Golden Treasury, I.D.E. Thomas. Banner of Truth. Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 300.

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.

Defend the Truth

"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."

- John Calvin

Source: A New Reformation, pamphlet, pg. 9