Saint Augustine

"I have not hope at all but in thy great mercy. Grant what thou commandest and command what thou wilt."

- St. Augustine

The Gospel According to Spurgeon

"I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else."

- C.H. Spurgeon

No man can come to me , except...

"We pursue God because, and only because , He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me, " said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him, " and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time that we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand."

- A.W. Tozer

George Whitefield on Election

"We should not have so much disputing against the doctrine of election, or hear it condemned (even by good men) as a doctrine of devils. For my own part, I cannot see how true humbleness of mind can be attained without a knowledge of it; and though I will not say, that every one who denies election is a bad man, yet I will say, it is a very bad sign: such a one, whoever he be, I think cannot truly know himself; for, if we deny election, we must, partly at least glory in ourselves; but our redemption is so ordered, that no flesh should glory in the Divine presence; and hence it is, that the pride of man opposes this doctrine, because, according to this doctrine, and no other, "he that glories, must glory only in the Lord."

- George Whitefield

Christ My Righteousness

Learn to know Christ and him crucified. Learn to sing to him, and say, "Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not."

- Martin Luther

Words of Wisdom from Augustine

Breath in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.

Augustine

Spurgeon on the Sovereignty of God

"There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of the Master of all Creation--the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands--the throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne. We proclaim an entrhroned God and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks best, without consulting them. It is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne whom we trust."

-Charles Spurgeon

The Potter's Wheel

Your life is not spinning out of control,
you’re just on the Potter’s wheel.

Thomas Watson Quote from "All Things Good"

"Water in the glass looks clear, but set it on the fire, and the scum boils up. In prosperity, a man seems to be humble and thankful, the water looks clear; but set this man a little on the fire of affliction, and the scum boils up ñ much impatience and unbelief appear."

- Thomas Watson - All Things for Good

B.B. Warfield Quote

"A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly troubles"
- BB Warfield

Salvation through Spiritual Warfare - A Divine Miracle

By John MacArthur

Not Ashamed of the Gospel Conference - September 21, 1999

2 Cor 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. {We are} destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and {we are} taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (NAS)

Spiritual Warfare has nothing to do with human strategy. Let me unpack a little passage of scripture for you. It is found in 2 Cor 10:3-5. Paul says that we are engaged in a spiritual war. We talk about spiritual warfare a lot, but the weapons of our warfare (he says) are not fleshly, what he means by that is that they are not human. We are fighting a war and we can't use human weapons. We can't use them. This war is not a time space war, this is not a material war, it isn't fought on an intellectual level. This is a spiritual battle. This is on another dimension, we can't use human ingenuity, human gimmicks, humans tricks, etc, etc. (I love this passage) He says, "but our weapons are (the Greek says) mighty unto God". We got to fight this spiritual war with divine weapons (ok, I understand that you say but what does that mean? What is this divine weapon?) Well then he goes on to say, "For we are destroying fortresses" "Fortresses" is a word (in the Greek) that means "massive fortification". If you have been in the Middle East or you have traveled in Europe and you have seen those great granite, and stone fortresses. It is the same word for "prison" and it is the same word for "tomb".

So here we have this picture, we are engaged in war and the enemy that we are assaulting is a massive granite fortification, it is not something that falls easily, it is not a paper house, it is not a card board box. What are we going to use against this? Well, what is this fortress? The next verse he says, "We are destroying speculations". In verse 4, he says, "we are destroying fortresses". In verse 5, "we are destroying speculations". Therefore fortresses equal speculations. Speculations is the Greek word " logismos" - ideas (ideologies, concepts, philosophies, psychology's, theories, religions), further defined as, "every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God". Spiritual warfare is not chasing demons around and pronouncing formulas on them. Spiritual warfare is fought against ideologies. Any theory, and idea, any viewpoint, any religion, any belief raise up against the knowledge of God. That is to say any anti-biblical idea, any anti-biblical idea.

So the simple question is, What is the one weapon we have against lies? What is the one weapon we have against error? Truth! So we go out to make battle (and I love what it says) with a view to smashing the fortresses of lying viewpoints and ideologies and then it says, and leading everyone in there and bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." That is what we do in this world. We smash the fortresses. It is not a matter of chasing demons, it is a matter of smashing ideological fortresses with the power of Biblical Truth, made clear to the mind that is captive and Then you watch the fortress fall and you lead the person out and bring every thought they have captive to Christ. That is having the mind of Christ. That is not mystical, I have the mind of Christ and you have the mind of Christ revealed right here (pointing to the Bible). As you know this, you have His mind. That is what we do. That is the great struggle and the great strategy. If you want to get in the war, you learn how to wield the Sword. That is the only weapon that we really have.