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QUOTATIONS ON TRUTH
Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is the truth itself (Augustine).
Genuine spiritual knowledge lies not in wonderful and mysterious thoughts but in actual spiritual experience through union of the believer's life with truth. When a truth is unfolded by God it most naturally becomes a power in man, who then finds himself able to believe (Watchman Nee).
Saints not only desire to love and speak truth with their lips, but they seek to be true within; they will not lie even in the closet of their hearts, for God is there to listen; they scorn double meanings, evasions, equivocations, white lies, flatteries, and deceptions(Charles Spurgeon).
SPURGEON ON EXPERIENCING FULLNESS IN HEAVEN
The renowned 19th-century English preacher C. H. Spurgeon told this story about King Cyrus, the man who conquered Babylon and freed the Jews from captivity:
A visitor who was admiring Cyrus' gardens said it gave him much pleasure. "Ah," said Cyrus, "but you have not so much pleasure in this garden as I have, for I have planted every tree in it myself." Spurgeon then commented, "One reason some saints will have a greater fullness of heaven than others will be that they did more for heaven than others. By God's grace they were enabled to bring more souls there." Those words should cause all of us who know the Lord to do some serious thinking. How many people will be in heaven because of us? Our desire should be that when we reach our eternal home, some will say to us, "I'm so thankful for you. It was your testimony, your life, your invitation to accept Christ that accounts for my being here today." The apostle Paul anticipated the joy in heaven of seeing people who were there as a result of his ministry (1 Thess. 2:19-20). Yes, heaven's joys will be the fullest for those who have helped lead others to Christ. So do all you can to bring to Jesus those who are lost in sin. That's how you can lay up pleasures in heaven!
(-- RWD, Our Daily Bread, Sept.-Nov. 1997. From a sermon by Gerald Flury, Why Are You Standing Around? 8/16/2012)
That great saint and missionary pioneer, Hudson Taylor said, "The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will." Halfhearted obedience satisfies neither us, nor God.
A little boy was asked, "What is a saint?" He replied, "A saint is a person who lets the light shine through." Evidently he got this idea by watching the sun shine through the prophets and other great people of God in the stained-glass windows of his church. But he was certainly not far off base. A saint, or a person who is pure in heart, will let the light...
The other day I received an email from John Schwartz, a member of a group that mobilises people to help the needy. He writes, “there are many lepers in the world who have never experienced a hug or known what a human touch is!” That we are not able to touch them or embrace them is a sign of the fears and anxieties that dwell within us. St. Francis embraced a leper and he became a saint. That is the spirit of incarnation in human life. When we embrace what is normally considered as less human, we redeem the divinity of ourselves as well as of others. Otherwise we remain slaves of our own darkness.
The Devil always fights the church when the church is on the move. Charles Spurgeon used to say that Satan never kicks a dead horse. Satan knew that the church was on the move, so he attacked it. In Acts 2 we read that 3000 people were converted. Then what happened? According to Acts 4, Satan came like a lion and had the apostles threatened. In chapter 5, Satan came like a serpent, influencing Ananias and Sapphira to infect the church with their lying and hypocrisy. If Satan can?t win by persecution from the outside, he will try pollution on the inside. Then Satan came as the accuser in Acts 6. One group of widows accused the other group of widows of taking over. ?We are being neglected,? they said. Satan likes to get the saints to accuse one another. Then according to Acts 12, Satan came as a murderer. James was killed, and Peter was put into prison to be kept for execution.
Something Happens When Churches Pray, W. Wiersbe, p. 81
Oswald Chambers writes, "A saint’s life is in the hands of God as a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see; He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says, "I cannot stand any more." But God does not heed; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly." -- Oswald Chambers in The Love of God. Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 12.
The mark of a saint is not perfection, but consecration. A saint is not a man without faults, but a man who has given himself without reserv...
The consummate storyteller Charles Swindoll says “ If the same thing happened to sleepers today, every church would have to build a morgue in the basement. There isn’t an experienced preacher who hasn’t faced the most incredible (sometimes hilarious ) slumbering saints in the pew. I’ve seen them bump their heads on the back of the pew in front of them…snore out loud…stay seated when everyone else stood…drool on their Bible… and even drop their hymn book, then jump when it hits the floor.
I’ve watched couples nod in magnificent rhythm, perfect timing…. And then there was the lady who had the strangest wheeze while snoring – a shrill, stutter-like sound that reminded you of a chattering chimpanzee. She kinda looked like one when she slept, come to think of it.” [Charles Swindoll. Come Before Winter And Share My Hope. (Portland: Multnomah Press, 1985) p. 185.]
For more from Chuck, visit http://www.insight.org
C.S. Lewis recounts that when he first started going to church he disliked the hymns, which he considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as he continued, he said,
"I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in plastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out or your solitary conceit.”
