"We need people that just know God these days. God can gift people, but its something else when a man is in favour with God. When God can say for this man's sake I will not judge this city or will show favour to this church."

~Greg Gordon

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Mike Balog

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect . . .
—Philippians 3:12

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It is a trap to presume that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do—God’s purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements tends to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you accept this concept of personal holiness, your life’s determined purpose will not be for God, but for what you call the evidence of God in your life. How can we say, "It could never be God’s will for me to be sick"? If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son ( Isaiah 53:10 ), why shouldn’t He bruise you? What shines forth and reveals God in your life is not your relative consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your genuine, living relationship with Jesus Christ, and your unrestrained devotion to Him whether you are well or sick.

Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that hits you is the pointlessness of the things you have to do. The next thought that strikes you is that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives may leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary—that through your own human effort and devotion you can attain God’s standard for your life. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in such a perfect relationship with God that my life produces a yearning for God in the lives of others, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants.

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Ron Bailey

"In every generation the number of the righteous is small. Be sure you are among them."
~A. W. Tozer~

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Jeremy Hulsey

This may be the mother of all great quotes on prayer contained in one setting.

[url=http://www.liftupusa.com/pquotes.htm]http://www.liftupusa.com/pquotes.htm[/url]

If you are up to the challenge, you will find one of SermonIndex's 'own', if I may coin the term, listed amongst the many there.

Enjoy.

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Mike Balog

this was brought to mind recently...

Here is a different kind of 'gem from the pulpit'. For many years the most conservative of Anglican theological colleges in the UK was (and is?) Oakhill Theological College. Young men fulfilled their courses of study as preparation for ordination into the Anglican ministry. The chapel had a simple pulpit where the young students preached their apprentice sermons to each other. As a young would-be ordinand I was once permitted to enter the pulpit and discovered an irregular brass plate set into the pulpit and visible only to someone as they stood to preach. On the brass plate were engraved the words

Sir, we would see Jesus [John 12:21]

I never heard or read of better advice given for preachers of any age.

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Ron Bailey