Classic and contemporary excerpts.
The cost of being a Christian
One who trusts in Christ alone [will] completely give up his idols, horoscopes and other such practices of his old life that go against Christ’s Lordship. When a true believer is made aware of any area of his life that is not yielded to Christ, he will yield it. When he is made aware of a Christian principle to be followed, he will follow it whatever the cost.
So when a new believer finds out that a follower of Christ should love his enemies, he will do so, even though that seems sheer folly in today’s society.
When he finds out that a follower of Christ cannot pay a bribe, he will stop paying bribes and pay dearly for it as far as his success in society is concerned. When he finds out that a follower of Christ treats both high and low caste people, both rich and poor people as equals, he will do so, however hard that may be for him.
—Ajith Fernando in The Christian’s
Attitude Toward World Religions
Our lives as books
There are people in the world around us who never open, who never read this Book. But they are reading us. Are they able to see God in our lives? Are they able to say of us to others, “That man”—or that woman—reminds me of Christ? Do we let our light so shine that men may see, not us, but our Father, our Savior in us; and glorify, not us, but our Father in heaven? This is the real test.
—W. H. Griffith-Thomas in a sermon, “Knowing and Showing,” from Keswick’s
Authentic Voice
Doing instead of being
Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing. It is filling our time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God’s actions. It is taking charge.
—Eugene Peterson in The Door (Nov./Dec. 1991)
Widening circle
One child lost to the faith usually becomes a family lost to the faith, and not many generations later a whole community of unbelief is set in motion because of some earlier neglect of parental duties.
—Carl F. H. Henry in Carl Henry at His Best
Inseparable
If there are two words that should be said in the same breath and said regularly to ventilate our hope, that should be flamed together, branded as a signature of our faith, they are the words faith and courage. It takes courage to believe, and in order to have that courage, we must believe.
—Fay Angus in Running Around in Spiritual Circles
Power in narrow channels
Great messages can be sent along slender wires. The peace-giving witness of the Holy Spirit can reach the heart by means of a threadlike faith which seems almost unable to sustain its own weight. Think more of Him to whom you look than of the look itself. You must look away even from your own looking and see nothing but Jesus and the grace of God revealed in Him.
—C. H. Spurgeon in All of Grace
The love of God
For family devotions, Martin Luther once read the account of Abraham offering Isaac on the altar in Genesis 22. His wife, Katie, said, “I do not believe it. God would not have treated his son like that!”
“But Katie,” Luther replied. “He did.”
—Roland Bainton in Here I Stand
