A Christian should resemble a fruit tree with real fruit, not a Christmas tree with decorations tied on.
HT: @cslchsnmore
Category Archives: John R. W. Stott
The Bible Confronts Us
We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, undermine our complacency and overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.
HT: @sermonindex
Salvation Is Substitution
The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man.
John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 159.
Preacher, Do You Tremble before the Word You Preach?
The more the preacher has ‘trembled’ at God’s Word himself (eg. Ezra 9.4; 10.3; Isa. 66.2, 5), and felts its authority upon his conscience and in his life, the more he will be able to preach it with authority to others.
Worship: The Greatest Activity of Mankind
Christians believe that true worship is the highest and noblest activity of which man, by the grace of God, is capable.
HT: @mmattinglyjr
Truth and Love Need Each Other
Our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth, and our truth grows hard if it is not softened by love.
HT: @bruceashford
Preaching Is…
Preaching is making known the name of the Lord, and worship is praising the name of the Lord made known.
HT: @TGC
We Have No Claim on Christ at All
Christian exultation in God begins with the shamefaced recognition that we have no claim on him at all, continues with wondering worship that while we were still sinners and enemies Christ died for us, and ends with the humble confidence that he will complete the work he has begun. So to exult in God is to rejoice not in our privileges but in his mercies, not in our possession of him but in his of us.
John Stott, The Message of Romans (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1994), 147-48.
The Reasonableness of Faith
If it was reasonable for Job to trust the God whose wisdom and power have been revealed in creation, how much more reasonable is it for us to trust the God whose love and justice have been revealed in the cross? The reasonableness of trust lies in the known trustworthiness of its object. And no one is more trustworthy than the God of the Cross. The Cross assures us that there is no possibility of a miscarriage of justice or of the defeat of love either now or on the last day. “He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8.32).
John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 320.
The Cross Does Not Solve the Problem of Suffering
We have to learn to climb the hill called Calvary, and from that vantage point survey all life’s tragedy. The cross does not solve the problem of suffering, but it applies the essential perspective from which to look at it. Since God has demonstrated His holy love and loving justice in a historical event (the cross), no other historical event (whether personal or global) can override or disprove it. This must really be why the scroll (the book of history and destiny) is now in the hands of the slain Lamb, and why only He is worthy to break it seals, reveal its contents and control the flow of nature.
John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 320.
Life Is Worship 