Prayer Begins...

The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, will always end in thankfulness, triumph, and praise. ~ Alexander MacLaren

Revival

"Revival - the inrush of the Spirit into the body that threatens to become a corpse." ~ D.M. Panton

Thankful for Affliction

The Lord afflicts us at times; but it is always a thousand times less than we deserve, and much less than many of our fellow-creatures are suffering around us. Let us therefore pray for grace to be humble, thankful, and patient. 

~ John Newton 

The Best Helps to Growth

The best helps to growth in grace are the ill usage, the affronts, and the losses which befall us. We should receive them with all thankfulness, as preferable to all others, were it only on this account, that our will has no part therein. ~ John Wesley

Thanksgiving Draws Our Hearts

Let us thank God heartily as often as we pray that we have His Spirit in us to teach us to pray. Thanksgiving will draw our hearts out to God and keep us engaged with Him; it will take our attention from ourselves and give the Spirit room in our hearts. 

~ Andrew Murray

Give Thanks for Everything...

We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good, if bad, because it works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country. ~ C.S. Lewis

Thank You for My Thorn

My God, I have never thanked Thee for my 'thorn!' I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my 'thorn;' I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross as itself a present glory. Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my 'thorn.' Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow. 

~ George Matheson

Source of Our Mercies

If He be the Source of our mercies they can never fail us. No heat, no drought can parch that river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God. 

~ Mrs. Lettie B. Cowman

The Final Word

Jesus always has the final word because He is the Word made flesh that was bodily resurrected. That last word is never a Facebook post, a doctor's diagnosis, a government election, a family's disposition toward you, the state of your bank account, the opinion of others, or anything else you can imagine. The final Word says loudly that nothing can separate you from His love and the evidence is the cross. The hope that this can be possible is the empty tomb. ~ John Comstock

Nail It to the Cross

Can we take our deepest, unfulfilled desire and nail it to the cross? ~ Sarah Hagerty

Longing for Pentecost

"We long for Pentecost in our lives and in our churches, but there is no Pentecost without Gethsemane and a cross." ~ Henry Blackaby

The Real Enemy

"Identifying the real enemy is halfway to winning the battle." 

~ Charles Ringma

The Enemy of Discontent

We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.  ~ Harry Ironside

Social Justice...Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Humanistic and/or atheistic groups can do works of social justice and can even move toward the margins with compassion. Government agencies can implement programs and systems to aid those on the margins.Their motivation will not be a transcendent reality but it is noble work. We applaud any work that alleviates suffering but let's be clear. Without a solid proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, any work in the areas of social justice and ministry in the margins is NOT fulfilling the call of the Church.

We hurt for the things Jesus hurts for and it is clear from Scripture that Jesus touched the untouchable, was present with the despised, and entered the hell of people's lives to bring resurrection. Our encounter with Jesus will move us with compassion to the broken people in our world. It will move us toward a righteousness that desires to seek justice. Yet, it is the outcome of the primary encounter of Jesus Christ, the salvation of our souls.

~ John Comstock