Quotes from preachers of the gospel

[Lou Newton]

GREAT QUOTES on THE HOLY SPIRIT

"I remind you that there are churches so completely out of the
hands of God that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they
wouldn't find it out for many months"
-A.W. Tozer

"I was crying all the time that God would fill me with His Spirit.
Well, one day, in the city of New York -- oh, what a day! -- I
cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred
an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he
never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say that God revealed
Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I
had to ask Him to stay His hand. I went to preaching again. The
sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and
yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back
where I was before that blessed experience if you should give
me all the world -- it would be as the small dust of the balance."
-D. L. Moody

"When you strip it of everything else, Pentecost stands for power
and life. That's what came into the church when the Holy Spirit
came down on the day of Pentecost."
-David Wilkerson

"My friends, I do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified,
to give people a batch of philosophy every Sunday morning and
evening, and neglect the truths of this Holy Book... nor does that
man preach Christ and him crucified, who leaves out the Holy
Spirit's work, who never says a word about the Holy Ghost, so
that indeed the hearers might say, "We do not so much as know
whether there be a Holy Ghost."
-Charles Spurgeon

"Will God ever ask you to do something you are not able to do?
The answer is yes--all the time! It must be that way, for God's
glory and kingdom. If we function according to our ability alone,
we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the
Spirit within us, God gets the glory. He wants to reveal Himself
to a watching world."
-Henry Blackaby

[Blane]

Awesome...thanks for sharing this. Leonard Ravenhill is another dear brother,famous for sharing truth that cuts to the heart and makes you think.

[Baruch]

This blessed me. Thank you, Lou.

[Lou Newton]

Thanks for the replies Blane and Barry.

[Lou Newton]

I do not post these quotes as truth, BUT I post them for you to ponder and consider if they are true, or not.

"More corrupt than the dark days before Luther; more impotently
intellectual than during the heyday of Calvinism; more financially
perverted than the days that caused John the Baptist to explode;
more intoxicated with the drive for spiritual power than any age,
yet exercising that outward power with less internal transformation
than anyone since King Saul; enamored with the gifts, yet hardly
knowing the Giver, our age has produced the most commercial,
materialistic, fad-oriented people ever to claim His name."
-Gene Edwards.

"For I am verily persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an
unknown and unfelt Christ; and the reason why congregations
have been so dead is, because they have had dead men
preaching to them."
-Gilbert Tennent

"If Christians were not such cowards, and absolutely disobedient
to this plain command of God... one thing would certainly come
of it -- either they would be murdered in the streets as martyrs,
because men could not bear the intolerable presence of truth, or
they would be speedily converted to God."
-Charles Finney

"It is my studied judgement that some future generation will
deem this to be the darkest century, in spiritual depth and
spiritual experience, in church history - that is, unless something
very radical happens along... soon."
-Gene Edwards

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THESE QUOTES ?

[Baruch]

Placing these in the timeline...

I do not post these quotes as truth, BUT I post them for you to ponder and consider if they are true, or not.

"More corrupt than the dark days before Luther; more impotently
intellectual than during the heyday of Calvinism; more financially
perverted than the days that caused John the Baptist to explode;
more intoxicated with the drive for spiritual power than any age,
yet exercising that outward power with less internal transformation
than anyone since King Saul; enamored with the gifts, yet hardly
knowing the Giver, our age has produced the most commercial,
materialistic, fad-oriented people ever to claim His name."
-Gene Edwards.

Gene Edwards: 1932 to present

"For I am verily persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an
unknown and unfelt Christ; and the reason why congregations
have been so dead is, because they have had dead men
preaching to them."
-Gilbert Tennent

Gilbert Tennent: 1703-1764

"If Christians were not such cowards, and absolutely disobedient
to this plain command of God... one thing would certainly come
of it -- either they would be murdered in the streets as martyrs,
because men could not bear the intolerable presence of truth, or
they would be speedily converted to God."
-Charles Finney

Charles Finney: 1792-1875

"It is my studied judgement that some future generation will
deem this to be the darkest century, in spiritual depth and
spiritual experience, in church history - that is, unless something
very radical happens along... soon."
-Gene Edwards

Gene Edwards: 1932 to present

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THESE QUOTES ?

The first Gene Edwards quote...I think I've seen very few that stark, powerful, and convicting. He is speaking of our time.

Reading what the men of earlier times thought of the period in which they lived does not make me feel better about our own. I see the same sentiments, same battles magnifying. Man has not changed, except to wax worse and worse. God upholds His people in adversity as He promises, and the church continues to give birth to newborns.

Recently I've been listening to some Christian philosophy on "the problem of evil", i.e. why does God allow evil? Some of the apologetic reasons seem readily apparent: 1) free will must have the choice to truly be free and accountable; 2) it causes men to thirst for the good things of God; 3) the church will struggle against it towards maturity; 4) the more dire our circumstance, the more we must rely on God; 5) although He gives grace in long-suffering God will not abide evil forever; in the end God will make His wrath known, and scripture conveys we've only seen a smidgeon yet.

I have not yet seen this discussion tackle the theme: natural is a shadow of the spiritual. If man's wickedness is so manifestly terrible in the natural, what of the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places? I gather it is not a "valuable" debate point in apologetics.

"If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these State of the Union speeches, there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven." ~Will Rogers

Isa 26:10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

If man could achieve heaven on earth he would grow fat as God said of Israel in Deuteronomy 32:15, and he would never seek God's face. It's a sobering contrast that man has achieved a model of hell on earth and has grown fat, and doesn't seek God's face; this includes dead pastors (obvious hirelings) and dead congregations.

Here's a final thought to end on a positive note. If God's goodness is so manifestly awesome in the natural, try to imagine what it must be like in the heavenly places.

[Lou Newton]

Placing these in the timeline...



Gene Edwards: 1932 to present



Gilbert Tennent: 1703-1764



Charles Finney: 1792-1875



Gene Edwards: 1932 to present



The first Gene Edwards quote...I think I've seen very few that stark, powerful, and convicting. He is speaking of our time.

Reading what the men of earlier times thought of the period in which they lived does not make me feel better about our own. I see the same sentiments, same battles magnifying. Man has not changed, except to wax worse and worse. God upholds His people in adversity as He promises, and the church continues to give birth to newborns.

Recently I've been listening to some Christian philosophy on "the problem of evil", i.e. why does God allow evil? Some of the apologetic reasons seem readily apparent: 1) free will must have the choice to truly be free and accountable; 2) it causes men to thirst for the good things of God; 3) the church will struggle against it towards maturity; 4) the more dire our circumstance, the more we must rely on God; 5) although He gives grace in long-suffering God will not abide evil forever; in the end God will make His wrath known, and scripture conveys we've only seen a smidgeon yet.

I have not yet seen this discussion tackle the theme: natural is a shadow of the spiritual. If man's wickedness is so manifestly terrible in the natural, what of the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places? I gather it is not a "valuable" debate point in apologetics.

"If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these State of the Union speeches, there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven." ~Will Rogers

Isa 26:10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

If man could achieve heaven on earth he would grow fat as God said of Israel in Deuteronomy 32:15, and he would never seek God's face. It's a sobering contrast that man has achieved a model of hell on earth and has grown fat, and doesn't seek God's face; this includes dead pastors (obvious hirelings) and dead congregations.

Here's a final thought to end on a positive note. If God's goodness is so manifestly awesome in the natural, try to imagine what it must be like in the heavenly places.

Thanks Barry for the wonderful comment. Many good things to ponder in it.

Our military ( made up of only foolish mere men) did not take long to learn that if basic training was not really difficult, the soldiers they trained would be killed in the first few minutes of battle.

They learned that they need to take new recruits through "hell" ( or what seems like hell to them at the time) for them to be able to survive the first battle. The same was true of pilots in WW2. Most were killed in their first dogfight. If they could survive that, the chances of survival became better and better.

God knows that for us to survive all of the deceptions of the Devil, we must go through situations so difficult that we think there is no way we will survive.

Recently I've been listening to some Christian philosophy on "the problem of evil", i.e. why does God allow evil? Some of the apologetic reasons seem readily apparent: 1) free will must have the choice to truly be free and accountable; 2) it causes men to thirst for the good things of God; 3) the church will struggle against it towards maturity; 4) the more dire our circumstance, the more we must rely on God; 5) although He gives grace in long-suffering God will not abide evil forever; in the end God will make His wrath known, and scripture conveys we've only seen a smidgeon yet.

Paul was made aware of this and wrote about it:

2 Cor 1
⁸ We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. ⁹ Indeed, in our hearts, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

[The Knight]

These are really good, Thanks, everyone.

[Lou Newton]

These are really good, Thanks, everyone.

Hi Karl,

It is so good to hear from you. Thanks.

[Lou Newton]

Here are some more quotes from preachers to ponder:


"Resolved: that all men should live for the glory of God. Resolved
second: That whether others do or not, I will."
- Jonathan Edwards

"A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge,
even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry
for God." - Leonard Ravenhill

"Despite the atrociousness of it, Satan really does have "little
cause to fear most preaching." Most preaching in the modern
church is completely devoid of unction. Pastors are too busy
playing golf or racquetball to bother spending time on their knees.
No wonder some pastors I've heard can more readily quote Dr.
Laura then bible passages pertaining to prayer. It's disastrous.
Satan need not fear under those conditions."
-A. Reavis

"How do we worship our God Wholeheartedly? To answer the
question we must respond to the command...
"If you love me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15.
True Love is complete obedience ... half obedience is no
obedience. If you love Jesus, you will obey what He commands.
This is true love and true worship."
-Unknown