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Archive for September, 2005

five15 Retreat Quotes: Session 4

September 2, 2005 7:42 am

Quotes from Grant Layman’s message:
“A Great God”
Psalm 8

Our lives will never have true meaning, or be given to worthy pursuits until we know God, and see ourselves in light of His astounding greatness and merciful condescension to man.

“People are starving for the greatness of God. But most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives. The majesty of God is an unknown cure. There are far more popular prescriptions on the market, but the benefit of any other remedy is brief and shallow.” John Piper

“You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.”
“O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in… and you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to deep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.” Jonathan Edwards

“The one from whom we need to be saved, is the very one who saves us!” R.C. Sproul

“If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.” John Piper

five15 Retreat Quotes: Session 3

September 1, 2005 9:21 pm

Quotes from Mark Mullery’s message:
“Consider Jesus: Preaching the Gospel to Yourself Everyday”
Hebrews 3:1

“We need to continue to hear the gospel every day of our Christian lives.” Jerry Bridges

“If I have observed anything by experience, it is this: a man may take the measure of his growth and decay in grace according to his thoughts and meditations upon the person of Christ, and the glory of Christ’s Kingdom, and of His love.” John Owen

“We have turned to a God that we can use rather than to a God we must obey; we have turned to a God who will fulfill our needs rather than to a God before whom we must surrender our rights to ourselves. He is a God for us, for our satisfaction—not because we have learned to think of him this way through Christ but because we have learned to think of him this way through the marketplace. In the marketplace, everything is for us, for our pleasure, for our satisfaction, and we have come to assume that it must be so in the church as well. And so we transform the God of mercy into a God who is at our mercy.” David Wells

“We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know of nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness He cannot even imagine.” A.W. Tozer

“Today there is resistance to the tenet that has been most characteristic of Protestant thought since the earliest days of the Reformation—namely, that holiness fundamentally defines the character of God and that love is not an alternative to it but, rather, an expression of it…Holiness is what defines God’s character most fundamentally, and a vision of this holiness should inspire his people and evoke their worship, sustain their character, fuel their passion for truth, and encourage persistence in efforts to do his will and call on his name in petitionary prayer. Modernity’s God is not nearly so morally angular as the God of the Bible. His sharp edges have all been ground down to make him less threatening, more comfortable, more tame. He is rarely perceived as a God of the outside who, in his awesome greatness, summons his people to worship, to hear that Word of truth that they cannot find within themselves or their world, to become agents of righteousness in a world that scorns this righteousness as alien and contrary. Robbed of such a God, worship loses its awe, the truth of his Word loses its ability to compel, obedience loses its virtue, and the church loses its moral authority. Why has this happened? Because it is the easiest route to take…God’s love seems less burdensome than his holiness.” David Wells

“The gospel is a message about sin. It tells us how we have fallen short of God’s standard; how we have become guilty, filthy, and helpless in sin, and now stand under the wrath of God. It tells us that the reason why we sin continually is that we are sinners by nature, and that nothing we do, or try to do, for ourselves can put us right, or bring us back into God’s favor.” J.I. Packer

“Even while asleep, an unbeliever, though not committing sinful actions or actively nurturing sinful attitudes, is still a ‘sinner’ in God’s sight; he or she still has a sinful nature that does not conform to God’s moral law.” Wayne Grudem

five15 Retreat Quotes: Session 2

9:02 am

Quotes from Vince’s Message:
“Be Real”
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Sorry, he didn’t use any quotes. But here are some things he said that I thought were worth noting:

  1. Jesus Warns Against Hypocrisy
  2. Jesus Commends Godliness
  3. Jesus Promises Great Rewards

Hypocrisy is functional unbelief.
Grace doesn’t mean godliness isn’t required.
Godliness means becoming like Jesus.