A.W. Tozer on Our Thoughts on God

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at 7:00 AM

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God."
A.W. Tozer


George Downame on Affliction

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, December 30, 2013 at 6:30 AM

“The Lord does not measure out our afflictions according to our faults, but according to our strength, and looks not what we have deserved, but what we are able to bear; for, as the prophet says, in wrath He remembers mercy (Hab. iii.2), which makes Him in all our chastisements to intend our profit, and not our punishment."
George Downame


Fisher Ames on Government and Freedom

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Friday, December 27, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"A military government may make a nation great, but it cannot make them free."

Fisher Ames


Daniel Dyke on Rejoicing for Others

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, December 26, 2013 at 6:30 AM

“Many will rejoice in that love which is profitable to themselves. But where is he that will as well rejoice in that love which is profitable only to others?”
Daniel Dyke 
(1617-1688)

Archibald Alexander on Evangelism

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, December 25, 2013 at 6:30 AM

“In vain do we seek to awaken our churches to zeal in evangelism as a separate thing. To be genuine it must flow from love to Christ. It is when a sense of personal communion with the Son of God is highest that we shall be most fit for missionary work, either ourselves or to stir up others.”
Archibald Alexander


Abraham Wright on Means

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, December 24, 2013 at 6:30 AM

“It is a great cause oftentimes why God blesseth not means, because we are so apt to trust in them, and rob God of his glory, not waiting for a blessing at his hands.  This causeth the Lord to cross us, and to curse his own benefits because we seek not him, but sacrifice to our own nets, putting confidence in outward means.  Therefore when we hope for help from them, God bloweth upon them, and turneth them to our hurt and destruction."
Abraham Wright


J.C. Ryle on Doctrine and Life

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , , , | Posted On Monday, December 23, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"Sound Protestant and Evangelical doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless: it does positive harm. It is despised by keen-sighted and shrewd men of the world, as an unreal and hollow thing, and brings religion into contempt."
J.C. Ryle

Richard Sibbes on Pleasure

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Friday, December 20, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"When we come to be religious, we lose not our pleasure, but translate it.  Before we fed on common notions, but now we live on holy truths."
Richard Sibbes


Thomas Jefferson on Liberty

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, December 19, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
Thomas Jefferson
(From letter to Archibald Stuart - 12,23,1791)












(Word "inconveniences" was originally "dangers" but it was crossed out and TJ used the current word)

Charles Spurgeon on War

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at 6:30 AM

“I wish that Christian men would insist more and more on the unrighteousness of war, believing that Christianity means no sword, no cannon, no bloodshed, and that, if a nation is driven to fight in its own defence, Christianity stands by to weep and to intervene as soon as possible, and not to join in the cruel shouts which celebrate an enemy’s slaughter.” 
Charles Spurgeon
(An All-Round Ministry)


Dwight D. Eisenhower on Farming

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at 6:30 AM

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower


William Pitt the Elder on Agriculture

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, December 16, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"Trade increases the wealth and glory of a country; but its real strength and stamina are to be looked for among the cultivators of the land." 
William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham 
(1708 – 1778)


John Chrysostom on Envy

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Friday, December 13, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a man."

John Chrysostom


John Newton on Affliction

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, December 12, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"The Lord afflicts us at times; but it is always a thousand times less than we deserve, and much less than many of our fellow creatures are suffering around us. Let us therefore pray for grace to be humble, thankful, and patient."
John Newton


John Foxe on Persecution

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"But, though persecuting malice raged, yet the Gospel shone with resplendent brightness; and, firm as an impregnable rock, withstood the attacks of its boisterous enemies with success.  Tertullian, who lived in this age, informs us the if the Christians had collectively withdrawn themselves from the Roman territories, the empire would have been greatly depopulated. "
John Foxe


Herman Bavinck on Atheism

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"It therefore requires a certain effort not to believe in a personal God: “No one disbelieves the existence of God except the person to whom God’s existence is not convenient.” There are no atheists so thoroughly sure of their unbelief as to be willing to die a martyr’s death for it. Since atheism is abnormal and unnatural, based not on intuitions but on inferential proofs and fallible reasoning, it is never sure of its causes. The arguments for the existence of God may be weak, but in any case they are stronger than those advanced for its denial. It is even impossible to prove that there is no God. To accomplish that feat a person would have to be omniscient and omnipresent, that is, to be God!"

Herman Bavinck


Abraham Kuyper on Giving and Charity

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Monday, December 9, 2013 at 6:30 AM

" If then you ask me whether still more ought to be given. I answer without hesitation, most certainly. But I hasten to add that a charity which knows only how to give money is not yet Christian love. You will be free of guilt only when you also give your time, your energy, and your resourcefulness to help end such abuses for good, and when you allow nothing that lies hidden in the storehouse of your Christian religion to remain unused against the cancer that is destroying the vitality of our society in such alarming ways."
Abraham Kuyper


Herman Bavinck on The Scriptures

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Friday, December 6, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"Scripture was written by the Holy Spirit that it might serve him in guiding the church, in the perfecting of the saints, in building up the body of Christ.  In it God daily comes to his people, not from afar but nearby. In it he reveals himself, from day to day, to believers in the fullness of his truth and grace. Through it he works his miracles of compassion and faithfulness. Scripture is the ongoing rapport between heaven and earth, between Christ and his church, between God and his children. It does not just tie us to the past; it binds us to the living Lord in the heavens. It is the living voice of God, the letter of the omnipotent God to his creature."
Herman Bavinck


J. Gresham Machen on Mankind and Amusement

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Thursday, December 5, 2013 at 7:33 AM

"I think the man who above all others should be pitied is the man who has never learned how to amuse himself without mechanical assistance when he is alone."
J. Gresham Machen


A.W. Tozer on God, Faith and His Word

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , , | Posted On Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"If God gives you a watch, are you honoring Him more by asking Him what time it is or by simply consulting the watch?"

A.W. Tozer


Charles Spurgeon on The Church as God's Farm

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Tuesday, December 3, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"We begin by considering that THE CHURCH IS GOD'S FARM. The Lord has made the church his own by his sovereign choice. He has also secured it unto himself by purchase, having paid for it a price immense. "The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." Every acre of God's farm cost the Saviour a bloody sweat, yea, the blood of his heart. He loved us, and gave himself for us: that is the price he paid. Henceforth the church is God's freehold, and he holds the title deeds of it. It is our joy to feel that we are not our own, we are bought with a price. The church is God's farm by choice and purchase."
Charles Spurgeon


Origen on Idolatry

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, December 2, 2013 at 6:30 AM

"What each one honors before all else, what before all things he admires and loves, this for him is God."
Origen (c. 185-254)