Great Commission Northwest
A Few Encouraging Words
"When we speak of heaven and the joys of this life, let your face light up, your smile shine, your eyes twinkle. When you speak of hell, your ordinary face will do."
- Charles Spurgeon
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." - Emerson
"I love those that thunder out the Word. The Christian world is in a deep sleep. Nothing but a loud voice can awaken them out of it." - George Whitfield
"Our sermons are delivered hot, in 30 minutes or less, or your money back."
- Domino's sermon promise
"I do not expect to live long . . . therefore I speak very plainly."
- Robert Murray McCheyne
""There is one sin which I believe I have never committed. I think that I have never been afraid of any of you." - Charles Spurgeon,
speaking to his church family
"Being a minister is just reminding people over and over, and then reminding them again, of what is most important in life." - Clifford Peale
"No Christian can be a pessimist, for Christianity is a symbol of radical optimism." - G.K. Chesterton
"Each time the preacher states a deep, broad, general truth, the mind of the audience asks, "For instance?"
"That's when you need an illustration." - Haddon Robinson
"There are no boring subjects, only boring speakers."
- Dr. Kirkum, Iowa State University, one of the better
speakers I have ever heard, as he opened up his class
entitled, "Introduction to Soil Science".
"I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men." - Richard Baxter
"Satan is an acute theologian." - John Calvin
A man warned Whitfield of criticism by others. Whitfield replied -"I thank you sir, for watching over my soul. As for what they say, I know worse things of myself than what they say concerning me."
"If you are worried that people are thinking about you - forget it, they're not! Most of them are thinking about themselves." - Bob George
George Whitfield wrote, "We scarce know what it is to have a meeting
without tears."
"The Bible was written in tears and to tears it will yield its best results. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man." - A.W. Tozer
"You can mark it down. If there is a message going out that is powerful, someone has paid a price somewhere in sweat, tears and heartbreak." - Jerry Falwell
"His sermons were chain-lightning, flashing conviction into the hearts of the stoutest skeptics." - on Charles Finney's messages
"You must get enthusiasm for life, or life is not going to have a lot of enthusiasm for you." - J. Harold Smith
"Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in." - Napoleon
"People who are not prepared to do unpopular things and to defy clamour are not fit to be leaders in times of stress." - Winston Churchill
"An impetuous, driving man will make mistakes, but he will never commit the cardinal sin of doing nothing." - Ben Franklin
A newspaperman read the following to Kenny Stabler, the Oakland Raider's famous quarterback,
"I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze, than that it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy impermanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them." - by Jack London
The reporter then asked, "What does this mean to you, Kenny?"
Stabler - "Throw deep."
A man was asked what he thought of Whitfield.
"Think! I never heard such a man in my life."
"We must preach so as to jeopardize our future, our ministry, even our life itself. We must make God responsible for the consequences and speak as one who will not have long to speak before being called to judgment. Then the people will know they are hearing a voice and not a mere echo." - A. W. Tozer
"I go out to preach with two propositions in mind. First - every person ought to give his life to Christ. Second - whether or not anyone else gives Him his life, I will give Him mine." - Jonathan Edwards
"I wish to God that everyone was going on for Jesus Christ, but whether they do or not, I know I will." - Jonathan Edwards
"The world is sick of little buttoned-up clergymen mumbling canned creeds. It wants real men, men who believe enough to sacrifice for it." - John Wesley
"We are often so caught up in our activities that we tend to worship our work, work at our play and play at our worship." - Charles Swindoll
"Once in a Christian passion,
I cried, with desperate grief,
O Lord, my heart is black with guilt,
Of sinners, "I am chief."
Then bent down my guardian angel,
And whispered from behind
"Vanity, my little man,
You're nothing of the kind."
I have said many, many times over the years, that the 3 most important parts of any work for God, are prayer, prayer and prayer." - Billy Graham
"It's easier to act your way into a feeling, than to feel your way into an action."
- Rick Warren
"Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then, my dear brothers : Pray, Pray, Pray." - Edward Payson
I have never been deeply concerned and prayed about anything, but that it did not come. No matter how long the time, somehow, in some shape, it came."
-Adonirum Judson
"We say, "You show me and I'll believe." God says, "You believe and
I'll show you." - Hudson Taylor
"The greatest cause of unanswered prayer is prayerlessness." - E. M. Bounds
"This book outlives, outloves, outlifts, outlasts, outreaches, outruns, and outranks all books. This Book is faith-producing. It is hope-awakening. It is death-destroying. And those who embrace it, find forgiveness of sin." - A.Z.Conrad
"The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands,
it lays hold on me." - Martin Luther
"Defend the Bible? I would just as soon defend a lion. Just turn the Bible loose. It will defend itself." - Charles H. Spurgeon
"The less the Bible is read, the more it's translated." - C.S. Lewis
"If you can not always get the right explanation for some Scripture, be sure you don't miss the application of it." - Vance Havner
"I follow the example of St. Augustine, who was . . . the first and almost the only one who determined to be subject to the Holy Scriptures alone." - Martin Luther
"Lay hold on the Bible until the Bible lays hold on you." - Will H. Houghton
"I did not go through the Book. The Book went through me." - A. W. Tozer
"The Bible is the Book that holds hearts up to the light, as if held against
the sun." - William A. Quayle
"We are Bible-believing Churches who have never read the Bible. We are in soul-saving churches filled with people who have never saved a soul." - Leonard Sweet
"We owe to Scriptures the same reverence we owe to God." - John Calvin
"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good of the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this Book." - Abe Lincoln
"Above all cultivate your own spirit. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear and your heart full of God's Spirit, is worth 10,000 words spoken in unbelief and sin." - Robert Murray McCheyne
"I thoroughly believe in a university education. Yet I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without a knowledge of the Bible." - Dr. William Lyon Phelps
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