Nobdow's Blog

[nobdow-blog]

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

G. K. Chesterton

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Light looked down and beheld Darkness. ‘Thither will I go,’ said Light. Life looked down and beheld death. ‘Thither will I go,’ said Life. Love looked down and beheld despair. ‘Thither will I go,’ said Love. So came Light and shone truth. So came Life and conquered death. So came Love and gave hope. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Author Unknown

[nobdow-blog]

The church can’t be missional and comfortable at the same time.

Frank Powell

[nobdow-blog]

We can be very learned in our theology or very upright in our morality and yet fail to display the gracious qualities of Christian character that Paul called the fruit of the Spirit.

Jerry Bridges (Respectable Sins)

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Public worship will not excuse us from secret [private] worship.

Matthew Henry

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the quality of your private devotional life doesn't exempt you from worshipping with other believers.

Donald Whitney (Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life)

[nobdow-blog]

If you're too busy to spend some time in the word and prayer everyday, you're busier than God intended you to be.

Max Barnett

[nobdow-blog]

What does [you were made] “for Him” [Colossians 1:16] mean? It means for His display, for His glory, for His being magnified as what He is, in your telescopic life.  That’s what telescopes are for… little dot out there, that’s a super nova, it looks like a dot. That’s the way God is to most people. He’s a super nova and He looks like a dot. And you exist to put the telescope to people’s eyes… and make it go POW, whoa, that’s not a dot!

John Piper

[nobdow-blog]

What does [you were made] “for Him” [Colossians 1:16] mean? It means for His display, for His glory, for His being magnified as what He is, in your telescopic life.  That’s what telescopes are for… little dot out there, that’s a super nova, it looks like a dot. That’s the way God is to most people. He’s a super nova and He looks like a dot. And you exist to put the telescope to people’s eyes… and make it go POW, whoa, that’s not a dot!

John Piper

[nobdow-blog]

If I go days without seeking His face its starts showing; A week outside His presence and the world starts knowing

Sho Baraka (Catch Me at the Brook)

[nobdow-blog]

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Cost of Discipleship)

[nobdow-blog]

The point is this: Jesus answered the temptation of Satan three times, and every time He quoted directly out of the Old Testament. As Christians, it is the capturing of biblical truth in our consciousness that enables us to defeat Satan. We can't do it on our own. Jesus triumphed over the devil through the Word of God-it is the source of victory. But it's just incredible that people still imagine they can argue Satan out of temptation through their own logic. It can't be done. Only God's Word gives us victory.

John Piper (How to Study the Bible)

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My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.

John Newton

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in the New Testament our enemies are those who harbor hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility, for Jesus refuses to reckon with such a possibility.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship)

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Too often in their church life people adopt an attitude of the theater, imagining the preacher is an actor and they his critics, praising and blaming the performances. Actually, the people are the actors on the stage of life. The preacher is merely the prompter, reminding the people of their lost lines.

Soren Kierkegaard

[nobdow-blog]

One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.

C. S. Lewis

[nobdow-blog]

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. The glory of God is the ultimate goal of the church because it is the ultimate goal of God. The final goal of all things is that God might be worshiped with white hot affection by a redeemed company of countless persons from every tribe and tongue and nation. Missions exists because worship does not. When the kingdom finally comes in glory, missions will cease. Missions is penultimate (the next most important thing); worship is ultimate. If we forget this and reverse their roles, the passion and the power for both diminish.

John Piper