These
are days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to know God.
God has designed that the just shall live by faith. Any man can be changed by
faith, no matter how he may be fettered. I know that God's word is sufficient.
One word from Him can change a nation. His word is from everlasting to
everlasting. It is through the entrance of this everlasting Word, this
incorruptible seed, that we are born again, and come into this wonderful
salvation. Man cannot live by bread alone, but must live by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is the food of faith. "Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. - Smith Wigglesworth
Life
is not long enough for a religion of inferences; we shall never have done
beginning, if we determine to begin with proof. We shall ever be laying our
foundations; we shall turn theology into evidences, and divines into textuaries.
Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for everything, we shall never come
to action: to act you must assume, and that assumption is faith. - John Henry
Newman
With
a weak faith and a fearful heart, many a sinner stands before the Lord. It is
not the strength of our faith, but the perfection of Christ's sacrifice that
saves! No feebleness of faith, nor dimness of eye, no trembling of hand can
change the efficacy of Christ's blood. The strength of our faith can add nothing
to it, nor can the weakness of our faith take anything from Him. Faith (weak or
strong) still reads the promise, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
from all sin." If at times my eye is so dim that I cannot read these words,
through blinding tears or bewildering trials, faith rests itself on the certain
knowledge of the fact that THE PROMISE IS THERE, and the blood of Christ remains
in all its power and suitableness upon the altar, unchanged and unaffected. -
Horatius Bonar
Conversion,
then, is repentance (turning from sin and unbelief) and faith (trusting in
Christ alone for salvation). They are two sides of the same coin. One side is
tails -- turn tail on the fruits of unbelief. The other side is heads -- head
straight for Jesus and trust his promises. You can't have the one without the
other any more than you can face two ways at once, or serve two masters. -
John Piper
Night
and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the
statement that 'the just shall live by his faith.' Then I grasped that the
justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God
justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have
gone through open doors into paradise. - Martin Luther
Christianity
is not just a mental assent that certain doctrines are true -- not even that the
right doctrines are true. This is only the beginning. This would be rather like
a starving man sitting in front of great heaps of food and saying, "I believe
the food exists; I believe it is real," and yet never eating it. It is not
enough merely to say, "I am a Christian," and then in practice to live as if
present contact with the supernatural were something far off and strange. Many
Christians I know seem to act as though they come in contact with the
supernatural just twice -- once when they are justified and become a Christian
and once when they die. The rest of the time they act as though they were
sitting in the materialist's chair. - Francis Schaeffer
Our
twentieth century, far from being notable for scientific skepticism, is one of
the most credulous eras in all history. It is not that people believe in nothing
- which would be bad enough - but that they believe in anything - which is
really terrible. - Malcolm Muggeridge
The
more we allow ourselves to personally experience sanctification by faith, the
more we also experience healing by faith. These two doctrines walk together. The
more the Spirit of God lives and acts in the soul of believers, the more
miracles He will work in the body. By this, the world will recognize what
redemption means. - Andrew Murray
Faith
is not belief in spite of evidence, but life in scorn of consequences -- a
courageous trust in the great purpose of all things, and pressing forward to
finish the work which is in sight, whatever the price may be. - Kirsopp
Lake
Who
have been the men who have lifted the standard, and grasping it with firm
hand, have upheld it in the midst of stormy strife and battle? Why, men of
faith. Who have done great things? Not men of fear and trembling, men who
are afraid; but men of faith, who had bold fronts, and foreheads made of
brass-men who never shook, and never trembled, but believing in God, lifted
their eyes to the hills, whence cometh their strength. - Charles Spurgeon
These
are days when we need to have our faith strengthened, when we need to know God.
God has designed that the just shall live by faith. Any man can be changed by
faith, no matter how he may be fettered. I know that God's word is sufficient.
One word from Him can change a nation. His word is from everlasting to
everlasting. It is through the entrance of this everlasting Word, this
incorruptible seed, that we are born again, and come into this wonderful
salvation. Man cannot live by bread alone, but must live by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is the food of faith. "Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. - Smith Wigglesworth
Life
is not long enough for a religion of inferences; we shall never have done
beginning, if we determine to begin with proof. We shall ever be laying our
foundations; we shall turn theology into evidences, and divines into textuaries.
Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for everything, we shall never come
to action: to act you must assume, and that assumption is faith. - John Henry
Newman
Conversion,
then, is repentance (turning from sin and unbelief) and faith (trusting in
Christ alone for salvation). They are two sides of the same coin. One side is
tails -- turn tail on the fruits of unbelief. The other side is heads -- head
straight for Jesus and trust his promises. You can't have the one without the
other any more than you can face two ways at once, or serve two masters. -
John Piper
Night
and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the
statement that 'the just shall live by his faith.' Then I grasped that the
justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God
justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have
gone through open doors into paradise. - Martin Luther
Christianity
is not just a mental assent that certain doctrines are true -- not even that the
right doctrines are true. This is only the beginning. This would be rather like
a starving man sitting in front of great heaps of food and saying, "I believe
the food exists; I believe it is real," and yet never eating it. It is not
enough merely to say, "I am a Christian," and then in practice to live as if
present contact with the supernatural were something far off and strange. Many
Christians I know seem to act as though they come in contact with the
supernatural just twice -- once when they are justified and become a Christian
and once when they die. The rest of the time they act as though they were
sitting in the materialist's chair. - Francis Schaeffer
The
more we allow ourselves to personally experience sanctification by faith, the
more we also experience healing by faith. These two doctrines walk together. The
more the Spirit of God lives and acts in the soul of believers, the more
miracles He will work in the body. By this, the world will recognize what
redemption means. - Andrew Murray
Faith
is not belief in spite of evidence, but life in scorn of consequences -- a
courageous trust in the great purpose of all things, and pressing forward to
finish the work which is in sight, whatever the price may be. - Kirsopp
Lake
Who
have been the men who have lifted the standard, and grasping it with firm
hand, have upheld it in the midst of stormy strife and battle? Why, men of
faith. Who have done great things? Not men of fear and trembling, men who
are afraid; but men of faith, who had bold fronts, and foreheads made of
brass-men who never shook, and never trembled, but believing in God, lifted
their eyes to the hills, whence cometh their strength. - Charles Spurgeon