Quotable Quotes

Words to Parents of College Students Ligon Duncan posts these comments by William Still, late pastor Gilcomston South Church, Aberdeen, Scotland: "Every autumn I have a spate of letters from fond parents, teachers, guardians, and monitors, appealing to me to follow up on such and such a youngster who is away from home at college for the first time, and who has to be hunted, followed, shadowed, intercepted and driven to Christian meetings. I have scarcely ever known this desperate technique to work. I understand the panic of parents and guardians, but it is too late then to try high pressure tactics. Prayer, example and precept, in that order, are the means of bringing up children and young folk in the faith. Nor will high pressure tactics and brainwashing techniques avail when young folk have gone off on their own. Some young folk, alas, will have their fling and sow their wild oats, and come at last to heel, sadly, like the prodigal son. It is where Christians pathetically put their trust in external techniques and artificial stratagems that young folk go astray. Nothing takes the place of the realism of holy living and secret wrestling before God in prayer for our youngsters. We must commit them to God so utterly that we dare not interfere or tamper with their precious souls." ht: Pastor Wingard Machen on the Word of God "The Christian man...finds in the Bible the very Word of God. Let it not be said that dependence on a book is a dead or an artificial thing. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was founded upon the authority of the Bible, yet it set the world aflame. Dependence upon a word of man would be slavish, but dependence upon God's word is life. Dark and gloomy would be the world, if we were left to our own devices, and had no blessed Word of God. The Bible, to the Christian, is not a burdensome law, but the very Magna Charta of Christian liberty. It is no wonder, then, that liberalism is totally different from Christianity, for the foundation is different. Christianity is founded upon the Bible. It bases upon the Bible both its thinking and it's life. Liberalism on the other hand is founded upon the shifting emotions of sinful men." —J.Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism ht: Josh Harris Dr. Paul Tripp and the Book of Jonah Paul Tripp has begun his tenure as the regular evening preacher at Tenth Presbyterian, following such worthies as Rick Phillips and Aaron Messner. He opened on Sunday with an overview sermon on the Book of Jonah, which he presented as a complete biblical worldview in 48 verses. Here were his points: A God of awesome glory is at the center of everything. This world is terribly broken by sin, both corporately and individually. Human beings were created for transcendency -- a purpose higher than ourselves. For all our brokennes, God is a God of unrelenting, transforming grace. ht: Reformation21 Grace, mercy and peace be with you!