At the beginning of each chapter of my 1993 book It's Time to Rock the Boat, there is a selection of powerful quotes. Here's a selection from those quotes that will stir your heart as we begin this new year. Come back to them often! Let's do this!
Our religious
neutrality is threatened whenever someone we know well takes spiritual
commitment seriously and refuses any longer to play hide-and-seek and
touch-and-go with the living God. (Carl F. H. Henry)
Give me one
hundred men who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I will
shake the world. (John Wesley)
Oh, for an
utter abandonment to the Spirit! . . . Whenever, in any period of the Church’s
history, a little company has sprung up plastic and pliable in the hands of the
divine Spirit, then a new Pentecost has
dawned. (James Alexander Stewart)
If God were
not my friend, Satan would not be so much my enemy. (Thomas Brooks)
When I really
enjoy God I feel my desires of Him the more insatiable and my thirstings after
holiness the more unquenchable. O’ this pleasing pain. It makes my soul press
after God. (David Brainerd)
The greatness
of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender. (William Booth)
If there is
anything of power in my ministry today, it is because God has all the adoration
of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life. (William
Booth)
I long for
love without any coldness, light without any dimness, and purity without spot
or wrinkle. (Robert Murray M’Cheyne)
A man who
wants to work for God can find work, and nobody can stop him. (D. L. Moody)
I believe that
for one man killed by overwork in the cause of Christ ten thousand die from
laziness. (D. L. Moody)
Man’s
extremity is God’s opportunity. Jesus will come to deliver just when His needy
ones shall sigh, as if all hope had gone forever. (Charles H. Spurgeon)
There is
nothing that you can possibly need but you will find it in Him. (Robert Murray
M’Cheyne)
We do not have
a book of the “Resolutions of the Apostles,” but because of spiritual power and
Gospel triumphs, we have the “Acts of the Apostles.” (The Marechale, William
Booth’s eldest daughter)
The true
follower of Christ will not ask, “If I embrace this truth, what will it cost
me?” Rather he will say, “This is truth. God help me to walk in it, let come
what may!” (A. W. Tozer)
What a
difference in the men who go into battle intending to conquer if they can, and those who go into
battle intending to conquer. (D. L. Moody)
We are a
supernatural people; born again by a supernatural birth; we wage a supernatural
fight and are taught by a supernatural teacher; led by a supernatural captain
to assured victory. (J. Hudson Taylor)
On the
following words I staked everything, and they never failed, “Lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world.” (David Livingstone)
EXCELLENT ! wonderful quotables ! ... and a few gems from the pen of our dear brother Leonard Ravenhill . . .
ReplyDeleteThe only time you can really say that ‘Christ is all I need’ is when Christ is all you have. If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.
A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience.
The last words of Jesus to the churches (in Revelation) were ‘Repent!’
A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way.
Your doctrine can be as straight as a gun barrel…and just as empty!
John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet, he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets.
I doubt that more than two percent of professing Christians in the United States are truly born again.
Our God is a consuming fire. He consumes pride, lust, materialism, and other sin.
There are only two kinds of persons: those dead in sin and those dead to sin.
[Concerning the darkness that has enveloped most of Christendom:] When you’re sitting in a dark room, you can either sit and curse the darkness, or you can light a candle.
Children can tell you what Channel 7 says, but not what Matthew 7 says.
Some women will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally (putting on special clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church, with prayer and meditation?
Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age.
What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if you have been using your tongue during the week to curse and gossip?
The Bible is either absolute, or it’s obsolete.
Why do we expect to be better treated in this world than Jesus was?
Today’s church wants to be raptured from responsibility.
Testimonies are wonderful. But, so often our lives don’t fit our testimonies.
[Concerning one of the new movements in the church that was causing a stir among Christians:] There’s also a stir when the circus comes to town.
My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil’s most wanted list.
You can’t develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict.
When there’s something in the Bible that churches don’t like, they call it ‘legalism.’
We can’t serve God by proxy.
We must do what we can do for God before He will give us the power to do what we can’t do.
There’s a difference between changing your opinion and changing your lifestyle.
Our seminaries today are turning out dead men.
How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don’t even have the strength to turn off your TV?
Everyone recognizes that Stephen was Spirit-filled when he was performing wonders. Yet, he was just as Spirit-filled when he was being stoned to death.
If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there’s something wrong!
[Concerning the fixation that today's church has with numbers, with growth at any price:] The church has paid a terrible price for statistics!
Any method of evangelism will work if God is in it.
Church unity comes from corporate humility.
You can have all of your doctrines right, yet still not have the presence of God.
Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day Christ will chastise me, saying, ‘Leonard, you took Me too seriously’?
You can know a lot about the atonement, and yet receive no benefit from it.
If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way excuse us for not following Christ.
You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there’s a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it.
Len, thanks for posting these wonderful quotes from our late, saintly Bro. Len!
ReplyDeleteI know you loved & appreciated his ministry also as much as anyone. How many times did you meet with him and with his close friend, David Wilkerson ? Just curious. ... btw, brother, you will LOVE this special tribute site:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.womenofchristianity.com/?cat=124
“Leonard was the perfect husband and father to us.”
“Leonard lived all his life with eternity’s values in view.”
Sometime in 1937, while pastoring at Oldham Leonard met a young lady who was attending mettings where he was preaching. Martha Wilson, a state-certified midwife, was working as the director of the nursing staff at Hope Hospital in Salford, on of the largest hospitals in England at the time.
When Martha was seventeen, she left Ireland by ship for Australia to be trained as a nurse. The journey took three months. After finishing the training she went to England and secured work at the hospital in Oldham. Four years younger than Leonard, Martha was from a family of seven children–five boys and two girls–from County Monaghan, Southern Ireland, where her father was a farmer and blacksmith, and also owned a mill.
Martha attended some of the meetings where Len was preaching near Manchester. The details of the development of their friendship and courtship are not known, but what is known is that God led them together to be partners for life. Leonard spoke only briefly of how they came together: ”I met my precious Irish wife in a little town called Eccles ten miles out of Manchester. She was the night of supervisor at one of the largest hospitals in England. God wonderfully led us together.”
Their relationship developed with Christian fellowship and friendship and grew into love. Leonard and Martha were serious-minded believers and viewed marriage as having one primary purpose–to advance Christ’s kingdom and serve Him together.
The wedding was in Leeds in September of 1939 while Leonard was pastoring in Oldham. Their lives were linked together for the next fifty-five years. ...
Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?
ReplyDeletePolitics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have found salvation in Christ, but struggle with sin, remember...you may not be what you could be, you may not be what you should be, but you're also not what you were.
ReplyDelete