(A Periodic List of My Favorite Phrases That "Sing")
Some people have a great memory for sports statistics – or names – or faces – or historical events. It seems I have a different aptitude: a penchant to remember quotations (that are meaningful or pithy). Perhaps you'd expect that of me, since I'm a "word guy." So, without further ado, here is the fifth installment of ten delightful, insightful quotations, with attribution where known:
41. "God seldom uses a man greatly, until He hurts him deeply." – A. W. Tozer
42. "It is not how much of the Holy Spirit you have, but how much of you the Holy Spirit has."
43. "We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a praying mood, for it would be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition." – C.H. Spurgeon
44. "You can kill us, but you can't hurt us." – Justin Martyr to Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor, on the hope of Christians.
45. "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ." – attributed to Pascal, but no clear documentation of it.
46. "If Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him." – C.T. Studd
47. "There is a vast difference between the Christianity of the 1st and 20th centuries. To us, Christianity is all too often a code of ethics, a philosophy of life, a standard of performance, but to those 1st century Christians, it was a new quality of life altogether, and they did not hesitate to describe this as Christ living in them. Perhaps if we believed what they believed, we would achieve what they achieved. – J.B. Phillips, Intro to NT Epistles
48. [C.T. Studd quoting an atheist]: If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, then religion would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Religion would be my first waking thought and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I should labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the morrow of Eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequences would never stay in my head or seal my lips. Earth, its joy and its griefs, would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon Eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season. And my text would be, what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" – C.T. Studd quoting an atheist
49. [Selecting a few disciples to invest in]: "Here is how we must begin just like Jesus (with the 12). It will be slow, tedious, painful and probably unnoticed by men at first, but the end result will be glorious, even if we don't live to see it. Seen this way, though, it becomes a big decision in the ministry. One must decide where he wants his ministry to count – in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of his life in a few chosen men who will carry on his work after he has gone. Really it is a question of which generation we are living for." – Robert Coleman, The Masterplan of Evangelism
50. "I like the way I share the gospel better than the way you don't." – Charles Finney