Fun Quotes

"I am not bothered by the things in the Bible that I don't understand . . . it's the things of the Bible that I do understand that keep me up at night." Mark Twain

Lady Nancy Astor to Winston Churchill: "Winston, if you were my husband I would poison your tea!"
His response: "Nancy, if I were your husband I would drink it!"

"An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her." Agatha Christie

Spurgeon on Perfectionism

A few weeks ago in Sunday morning service we were looking at Philippians 3:12-16, and we talked some about the issue of perfectionism. Following are a few remarks by Charles Spurgeon on the topic:

"Our Wesleyan brethren have a notion that they are going to be perfect here on earth. I should be very glad to see them when they are perfect; and if any of them happen to be in the position of servants, wanting situations, I would be happy to give them any amount of wages I could spare, for I should feel myself highly honored and greatly blessed in having perfect servants; and what is more, if any of them are masters, and need servants, I would undertake to come and serve them without any wages at all if I could but find a perfect master. I have had one perfect Master ever since I first knew the Lord, and if I could be sure that there is another perfect master, I should be greatly pleased to have him as an under-master, while the great Supreme must ever be chief of all. One man, who said he was perfect, called upon me once, and asked me to go and see him, for I should receive valuable instruction from him if I did. I said, 'I have no doubt it would be so; but I should not like to go to your house, I think I should hardly be able to get into one of your rooms.' 'How is that?' he inquired. 'Well,' I replied, 'I suppose that your house would be so full of angels that there would be no room for me.' He did not like that remark; and when I made one or two other playful observations, he went into a towering rage. 'Well, friend,' I said to him, 'I think, after all, I am as perfect as you are; but do perfect men ever get angry?' He denied that he was angry, although there was a peculiar redness about his cheeks, and a fiery flash in his eyes, that is very common to persons when they are in a passion."

Newton on the Bible

"The Bible is the grand repository ... It is the complete system of divine truth, to which nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be taken, with impunity. Every attempt to disguise or soften any branch of this truth, in order to accommodate it to the prevailing taste around us, either to avoid the displeasure, or to court the favour, of our fellow mortals, must be an affront to the majesty of God, and an act of treachery to men." - John Newton

Newton on Heaven

John Newton on heaven:

"If ever I reach heaven I expect to see three wonders there: first, to meet some I had not thought to see there; second, to miss some I had expected to see there; and, third, the greatest wonder of all, to find myself there."

Hudson Taylor on Evangelism

“Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of ­eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success.” Hudson Taylor

Flavel as Pastor

One of his parishioners wrote of John Flavel as a minister, “I could say much, though not enough of the excellency of his preaching; of his seasonable, suitable, and spiritual matter; of his plain expositions of Scripture; his talking method, his genuine and natural deductions, his convincing arguments, his clear and powerful demonstrations, his heart-searching applications, and his comfortable supports to those that were afflicted in conscience. In short, that person must have a very soft head, or a very hard heart, or both, that could sit under his ministry unaffected” (Erasmus Middleton, Evangelical Biography, 4:50-51).

Bunyan

From Sunday's sermon: conversation between Obstinate and Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress:

Obstinate: "What are the things you seek, since you leave all the world to find them?"

Christian: "I seek an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; and it is laid up in Heaven, and fast there, to be bestowed at the time appointed, on them that diligently seek it. Read it so, if you will, in my book."

The Lord Will Provide

Though troubles assail
And dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail
And foes all unite;
Yet one thing secures us,
Whatever betide,
The scripture assures us,
The Lord will provide

John Newton

C. S. Lewis Quote

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." — C.S. Lewis(Mere Christianity)