We’ve just finished a week of prayer at Nene Family Church. On Thursday last week I came across this quote…
‘You see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’ I dream the things that never were and ask ‘Why not?’” George Bernard Shaw
This is very provoking when you apply it to the church! I want to always live as a ‘George Bernard Shaw-type’ dreamer who is looking beyond the established status quo to the glorious possibilities that God has for His church!
I’ve just started reading the classic book by Francis Schaeffer ‘The God Who Is There’. Schaeffer was the founder of L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland, is the author of many books, including The Mark of the Christian and Escape from Reason. He was, until his death in 1984, a noted apologist for the Christian faith. I love the reasoned arguments that Schaeffer outlines for the orthodox belief in God! As a result I’ve decided to post 7 great quotes by Schaeffer
Quote 1:
“Christianity provides a unified answer for the whole of life.”
(Francis Schaeffer)
Yesterday a good guy from our church led us in communion. He opened up the communion by applying John Piper’s worship quote to communion. He said… “our times spent round the communion table should be times of gravity and gladness”. Gravity and the magnitude of what Christ both gave up and accomplished for us. Gladness at the wonderful inheritance that is now our due to his sacrificial death for us. What a fitting description!
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, wlike men sentenced to death, because we xhave become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 yWe are fools for Christ’s sake, but zyou are wise in Christ. aWe are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour bwe hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and cbuffeted and dhomeless, 12 and we elabor, working with our own hands. fWhen reviled, we bless; gwhen persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. hWe have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, ithe refuse of all things.(1 Cor 4:8-13, ESV)
“… part of the reason why Paul’s stance (see above) seems alien to many of us is that we have unwittingly become more like Corinthian Christians than like like Pauline (that is, biblical!) Christians. Many of us are well-to-do and comfortable, with little incentive to live in vibrant anticipation of Christ’s return. Our desire for the approval of the world often outstrips our desire for Jesus’ “Well done!” on the last day. The proper place to begin to change this deep betrayal of the gospel is at the cross–in repentance, contrition, and renewed passion not only to make the gospel of the crucified Messiah central in all our preaching and teaching, but in our lives and the lives of our leaders as well.” (D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, p. 108)
The following is a great quote:
“If I had a hundred top notch trainable leaders today, I could be in a hundred cities tomorrow, because leaders find money, they find resources, they find God and they’re going”
(John Lamferman, USA)
Dallimore the author of the great two volume biography of George Whitefield expressed a deep longing for a fresh generation of whitefild-like preachers:
“Yea… that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more… raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to doe to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be “fools for Christ’s sake”, who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labor and suffer, and and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgement seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness “signs and wonders following” in the transformation of multitudes of human lives”
Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1970), 1:16.
John Piper…
“The gospel is a message in words. Paradoxically, words are heard and glory is seen. Therefore, Paul is saying (see 2 Cor 4:3-4) that we see the glory of Christ not mainly with our eyes but through our ears.” (p. 112)
John Piper …
“God did not ordain the cross (Luke 22:22) of Christ or create the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41) in order to communicate the insignificance of belittling his glory. The death of the Son of God and the damnation of unrepentant human beings are the loudest shouts under heaven that God is infinitely holy, and sin is infinitely offensive, and wrath is infinitely just, and grace is infinitely precious, and our brief life–and the life of every person in your church and in your community–leads to everlasting joy or everlasting suffering. If our preaching does not carry the weight of these things to our people, what will? Veggie Tales? Radio? Television? Discussion groups? Emergent conversations?”
Over the next couple of days I’m going to be posting some excellent quotes from Chapter 5 of Preaching the Cross. The Chapter is written by John Piper and is called Preaching as Expository Exultation.
“Preaching is not conversation. Preaching is not discussion. Preaching is not casual talk about religious things. Preaching is not simply teaching. Preaching is the heralding of a message permeated by the sense of God’s greatness and majesty and holiness. The topic may be anything under the sun, but it is always brought into the blazing light of God’s greatness and majesty in his word.” (p. 104-105)
I’m currently writing a 5-week discipleship course for folk within our children work. Here are the titles for each session:
DELIGHT. Finding true delight in a world of cheap imitations
GLORY. Finger painting for the glory of God
CROSS. The cross-shaped life
IDENTITY. Who am I?
SERVANTHOOD. The upside down kingdom
As part of my research I’ve just reread Bill Hybels book ‘The Volunteer Revolution’. What a suburb book! It is short and easly accessible, but filled with some great truths about team, servanthood all firmly rooted in the mission of the local church. Here are just a few of quotes:
“I have never done a single thing of value without the assistance of others.” (p. 9)
“We love, serve, and care for others because that us normal behavior for people who are filled with God’s Spirit. We are Christians. Christ was the ultimate servant. We can’t help but serve because the Spirit of the Servant has filled our hearts. When we serve we are just being who we naturally are.” – Steve Sjogren (p. 35)
“Jesus, our Lord and Teacher, took the very nature of a servant. Here Paul challenges us to a new perspective. He calls us not just to momentary emotional hype, but to a crisp, intellectual understanding of what Jesus models for us. He asks us to allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds so that our reflex reaction at home, work, at church, and in our community is humble service to God and people.” (p. 42)
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