Quotations

Quotables

These sayings were selected from the quotables we post on our home page. Those not attributed to an author were taken from writings and sermons by our Executive Director and should be credited to Bob Burridge when quoted. Most of these sayings are “Twitterable” (no more than 140 characters long).

• The Bible is the sword of the Spirit. Don’t argue about how sharp it is. Stick them with it.
• Being Reformed means reshaping what we believe and do so that it conforms to God’s word
• Realizing the seriousness of inward discontent is God’s wake up call to the drowsy soul.
• Practice thankfulness to God, so that greed and its companion sins will die from lack of attention.
• Complacency is not the same as practicing contentment with God’s blessings.
• We need to have contentment without laziness, and ambition without greed.
• Repentance is not just regretting the consequences of sin. It is recognizing and admitting the depth of inward rebellion against God.
• The remains of sin are not the chains of sin. In Christ, we battle on for daily victories.
• “Truth is at all times sacred, because it is one of the essential attributes of God.” (Dr. Charles Hodge)
• Truth is precious because it is the way things really are in the mind of God.
• There is no lie or dismissal of truth so minor that it does not offend our Heavenly Father.
• One of the great attributes of the God who made and saves us is promoted when we are champions of truth.
• Humbly do good for God’s glory, not for harps, halos, or a home in the clouds.
• Our daily work joyfully engages us in the grand scheme of God’s creation when we do it for his glory and work by his moral principles.
• Much of our confusion comes from observing God’s work while forgetting that all is made and done to reveal his nature and glory.
• When authority from God is abused or refused, our lives and our world will soon be confused.
• Little thunderstorm cells rolling around here today left us without power for about 3 hours. Back up doing catch-up work now.
• We are not just born to be born. We are born to live. Sanctification is our called duty.
• It is as if God had said, “if sin is to enter, let it enter by one man, so that righteousness also may enter by one man” (Loraine Boettner)
• “Christ is not only the object, but the Author and Finisher of faith.” (John Newton)
• When the infinite God creates a finite universe, what he made can have no influence upon his unchangeable knowledge.
• The Creator’s nature is not revealed in sin itself, but in how he handles it in his creatures.
• A sound theological model agrees with all rightly derived data from God’s inspired word, and adds nothing to that data.
• “if ability to sin is necessary to true liberty or responsibility, then God is neither free nor praiseworthy.” (Anselm)
• Since an immutable God created a mutable universe, it’s changes can present no surprises to him, not even in the little things.
• Put no unsupported supposes in your theology.
• “trial may detect a hypocrite as well as manifest a saint” (Dr. Robert Haldane)
• Calvin: “… an interpreter is to let his author say what he does say, instead of attributing to him what we think he ought to say.”
• Joy, hope, and peace come out of graciously implanted faith as a distinguishing characteristic of the Christian.
• God’s Moral Law exposes our deserved condemnation, points out the atonement’s value, our need for grace, and shows us how to live thankfully.
• Biblical hope is not just wishful thinking. It looks with certainty to promises that cannot disappoint us.
• God’s Moral Law exposes our deserved condemnation, points out the atonement’s value, our need for grace & shows us how to live thankfully.
• God’s word provides all the nutrients we need for growing strong spiritually.
• Our imperfect hearts must be fed by God’s perfect word, or be led into greater imperfections by the fallen world around us.
• Why keep studying the Bible over and over again day after day? Answer: Brains leak.
• Some advice is an insidious disguise worn by evil to get us to silence what is good.
• A return to the Bible as our only authority in matters of faith & practice launched the Reformation. Let it be our launch vehicle again.
• Few reject the Bible for logical reasons. Most reject it because they do not want to believe certain things in it
• Reformed Theology is faith restored to the form given in God’s word when it’s allowed to speak for itself.
• “When you are arguing against Him, you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all.” (C.S.Lewis)
• Tests require a standard beyond testing. Only God could be such a standard. Doesn’t testing God’s existence seem irrational?
• God’s care is an amazing orchestration of the most minute incident into the symphony of eternal glory.
• You may convince yourself or others, but truth is the way things are in God’s mind. There’s no arguing with that.
• Anti-Theology? Even selecting Bible verses to support your beliefs involves interpretation and systematizing
• Darkness can only happen when light is not there. When darkness seems to surround you, let your light shine.
• Grace does not set aside justice. By grace Jesus Christ satisfied justice in the place of his people.
• We are not proclaiming the true Gospel if our hearers are thinking of a false Jesus.
• Obedience isn’t how we get God to put his Spirit in us. It’s what God produces in us when his Spirit’s there.
• Thankfully our imperfect understanding does not change God’s perfect plan by our prayers. Our prayers disclose us as part of that plan.
• “One is free not when he can do what he wishes to do, but when he wishes to do and can do what he should do.” (Hendriksen)
• The little things, stones, seeds, children, simple believers, display big truths about their Creator.
• “Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectation.” (Andrew Murray)
• “The enemy will not see you vanish into God’s company without an effort to reclaim you.” (C.S.Lewis)
• Standards of measurement must be use with care to give reliable results – the same is true for the use of God’s word.
• “Love: implanted by grace enables sincere and joyful obedience toward the Creator, and strives to encourage the same in others.”
• “The lost enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded…” (C.S.Lewis)
• When God forgives He doesn’t just ignore our guilt. He paid for it in our place to satisfy his own attribute of justice.
• Spiritual Health Plan: hearty portions of God’s word, sincere worship, cofident prayer, actively encouraging one another
• A perfectionist gets little done, for want of that “perfect plan”
• The perfect universe isn’t one without sin. It’s one where the Creator redeems his people from sin’s grip to reveal his amazing grace.
• We make real choices. In them we discover what God had planned even before we decided.
• Either you trust God to control the circumstances and to guide you through them, or you don’t – be honest.
• God doesn’t merely decree outcomes. He controls every force and element that necessarily produces them.
• Many try to get directions to heaven without first going to the “You Are Here” sign.
• If you believe you don’t deserve God’s grace – you do not understand what grace is.
• No one seems more prejudiced than one who brags about how open minded he is.
• Jesus Christ is not only on the path with you – he made the path, and he made you.
• When the fact of God is questioned, the questioner is confirming all the Creator says is true about him.
• “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.” (C.S.Lewis)
• Our standing with God by grace: If we think we’ve deserved it, we haven’t observed it
• Awareness of our inability puts the “Amazing” in God’s Grace.
• No army, strategy or arsenal can prevail for long without the blessing of God. (see Psalm 7:9-10)
• We can never suffer the loss of anything God intends us to have.
• God’s Grace Assures us: you can’t stop deserving what you never deserved in the first place
• We don’t believe in a salvation by works. We trust in a salvation that works.
• Sin’s consequences are not overlooked by grace. It pays for them by the death of our Savior.
• “One great power of sin is that it blinds men so that they do not recognize its true character.” (Andrew Murray)
• “Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise.” Thomas Watson
• In prayer we dare not think we inform God of a better plan. By it we discover we are part of His plan as His tools.
• Prayer was the first work on the daily schedule of King David. (see Psalm 5:3)
• If we focus on how things effect us, we forget that we live in and are part of God’s world created for His glory.
• “Love: implanted by God’s grace, enabling joyful obedience to God’s revealed desires: toward the Lord and toward others.”
• We fight the enemy the best when we love our Redeemer more than whatever our tempter offers us.
• If you’re where you don’t want to be, consider who wrote your map. God’s directions never fail to lead to right places.
• We are at our strongest when we admit our weakness and rely upon God’s promises and power.
• No one gets away with defiance forever. Evil eventually comes back upon itself. It’s like throwing sand into the wind. (see Psalm 7:14-16)
• “There is only one servant in the house: its master.” (Martin Luther)
• Discipline without love is cruelty, but love without godly discipline is a fraud.
• The mature in Christ are at peace with what God brings into their lives, and they promote that same peace in others.
• In our fallen world, there’s never been a time in all of history when it was hard to sin.
• Courage doesn’t come from the absence of fear. It comes from the presence of something far greater than what threatens us.
• Disrespect isn’t only sinful, it doesn’t even accomplish much for the one showing it.
• We can never run short of the comfort we have to offer to one another
• God didn’t leave us to be led like lemmings foolishly running off into the sea of destruction. He gave us His word. see Proverbs 1:10
• Admitting is our duty, forgiving is His promise (see 1 John 1:9)
• The proud and arrogant see no value in what those humbled before God find to be a great treasure.
• How important is worship to you? Do you long for it? prepare for it? attentively take part in it? talk of it when it’s over?
• God’s work of Sanctification – our continuing adventure in living here daily
• Those the Lord brings into your life today make up your current field of service for his Kingdom.
• Rest from good labor for God’s glory is a blessing of Grace.
• “O how little do I for Jesus, who has done so much for me!” English revivalist George Whitefield
• “O God, when I am wrong, make me easy to change, and when I am right, make me easy to live with!” Peter Marshall
• “Though Christians be not kept altogether from falling, yet they are kept from falling altogether.” William Secker
• “Selfish religion loves Christ for his benefits, but not for himself.” colonial missionary David Brainerd
• “The winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.” Richard Sibbes
• “There is nothing destroyed by sanctification but that which would destroy us.” William Jenkyn
• “God’s wounds cure, sin’s kisses kill.” William Gurnall
• “As the wicked are hurt by the best things, so the godly are bettered by the worst. ” William Jenkyn
• “The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.” Samuel Rutherford
• “Joy is increased by spreading it to others.” Robert Murray McCheyne
• “Take a saint, and put him into any condition, and he knows how to rejoice in the Lord.” Walter Cradock
• “The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.” Prussian General Karl von Clausewitz (1832)

Holidays
• The empty tomb of Jesus confounded the Pharisees and Sadducees, embarrassed Rome, and proved that the cause of death had been conquered.
• Spend the new year wisely, it will be part of what you look back upon for the rest of your life.
• Nightly, tomorrow becomes today, and today becomes yesterday. Our Savior remains the same as we move through time.
• Every minute of life is a gift of God to be used for his glory. Let his word guide you in how to use them all well.
• We learn from the moments past, to guide our present decisions toward the future which is God’s plan unfolding.
• Time is mercilessly irreparable, but our misuses of it are forgivable in Christ.
• The lost hope for a gift fit for a king. The Eternal King came as a gift of hope fit for the lost.
• At Christmas we celebrate the birth that brought the death of death.
• Herod tried to kill him as a baby. He failed. The Pharisees plotted to kill him as a man. They did. Neither succeeded in silencing him.