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Prayer
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"True prayer doesn't start with us; it
starts with God. The only prayer that reaches the throne, started there."
--Armin Gesswein,
(quoted by Fred Hartley in Everything
by Prayer 55) |
"The devil fights prayer because he knows
it's the only thing that fights him."
--Armin Gesswein-- (82, Everything
by Prayer) |
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"We're called to do the work of God, but
only God can do it. That's why we pray. We're called to do the impossible,
but only God can do it. He's got us again."
--Armin Gesswein-- (Everything by Prayer
139)
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| "You are the key to the prayer ministry
of your people....Don't expect your people to hunger for what they fail
to see in you. They must sense your joy in the Lord, your intimacy
with God, your love for Jesus and for themselves. They must sense
your vibrant faith as you pray -- that you really expect and get answers
to your prayers. They must sense these things in your normal public
praying; then they will begin to hunger to go deeper in prayer themselves."
-- Wesley Duewel, Ablaze for God,
183.
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"The best praying man is the man who
is most believingly familiar with the promises of God. After all,
prayer is nothing but taking God's promises to Him and saying, "Do as You
have said." Prayer is the promise utilized. Prayer not based
on a promise has no true foundation."
-- C.H. Spurgeon, The Power of
Prayer in the Believer's Life, 41 --
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"Prayer is elemental, not advanced
language. It is the means by which our language becomes honest, true,
and personal in response to God. It is the means by which we get
everything out in the open before God."
-- Eugene Peterson, Living the Message,
41.
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"Prayer ought to enter into the spiritual
habits, but it ceases to be prayer when it is carried on by habit only....Desire
gives fervor to prayer. The soul cannot be listless when some great
desire fixes and inflames it....Strong desires make strong prayers....The
neglect of prayer is the fearful token of dead spiritual desires.
The soul has turned away from God when desire after him no longer presses
it into the closet. There can be no true praying without desire."
-- E.M. Bounds, Man of Prayer, 103 --
source: Fresh WInd, Fresh Fire, Jim Cymbala,
85-86
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"Make your life -- especially the
life of your study -- a life of constant communion with God in prayer.
The aroma of God will not linger on a person who does not linger in the
presence of God.... We are called to the ministry of the word and prayer,
because without prayer the God of our studies will be the unfrightening
and uninspiring God of insipid academic gamesmanship.
-- John Piper, The Supremacy of God
in Preaching, 60--.
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One way to recollect the mind easily
in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquillity, is not to
let it wander too far at other times. You should keep it strictly
in the presence of God; and bieng accustomed to think of Him often, you
will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least
to recall it from its wanderings."
--Brother Lawrence, The Practice of
the Presence of God --
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"God does nothing but in answer to
prayer." --John Wesley--
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"The less I pray, the harder it gets;
the more I pray, the better it goes."
--Martin Luther--
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"There are four ways God answers prayer:
(1) No, not yet; (2) No, I love you too much; (3) Yes, I thought you'd
never ask; (4) Yes, and here's more."
--Anne Lewis--
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"When god intends to bless His people,
the first thing he does is to set them apraying."
--Matthew Henry--
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"You can do more than pray--but only
after you have prayed."
--S.D. Gordon--
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"When I pray, coincidences happen,
and when I don't they don't."
--William Temple--
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"In prayer it is better to have a
heart without words than words without a heart." --John Bunyan--
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"Probably the number one reason why
prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a
wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. Until you know that life
is war you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment
of a wartime mission....But what have millions of Christians done? We have
stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching,
no vigilance. No strategic planning. Just easy peace and prosperity.
And what did we do with the walkie talkie? We tried to rig it up as an
intercom in our houses and cabins and boats and car--not to call in fire
power for conflict with a moral enemy, but to ask for more comforts in
the den."
--John Piper-- Let the Nations be Glad,
46.
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"This is the place of prayer -- on
the battlefield of the world. It is a wartime walkie talkie for spiritual
warfare, not a domestic intercom to increase the comforts of the saints.
And one of the reasons it malfunctions in the hands of so many Christian
soldiers is that they have gone AWOL."
-- John Piper, The Pleasures of God,
232 --
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"The men who have done the most for
God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters
away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits
than seeking God will make poor headway seeking him the rest of the day.
If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, he will
be in the last place the remainder of the day."
-- E.M. Bounds, Complete Works 464.--
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"If God had granted all the silly
prayers I've made in my life,
where should I be now?"
C. S Lewis, Letters to Malcolm.
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"There is a general kind of praying
which fails for lack of precision. It is as if a regiment of soldiers
should all fire off their guns anywhere. Possibly somebody would
be killed, but the majority of the enemy would be missed."
-- C.H. Spurgeon --
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PRAYER: (Waiting for
the answer)
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"Waiting on God prepares for greater
blessing. God has greater plans than you have realized. Give
Him time to do great things. The greater the work He plans, the greater
the prayer preparation that may be necessary, including prayer for guidance.
God often waits so that He can be even more gracious (Isa. 30:18).
-- Wesley Duewel, Let God Guide You
Daily, 77 --
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"As we rest upon God's character,
depending on the truth of who He is, we can wait in hope for His grace
to be revealed. Whatever the circumstances, whatever God does or
does not do, we can be certain of His grace extended to us. We can
change our focus, looking not at what is visible, but at the eternal truth
of the invisible. We can transfer our gaze from God's hand to His
face."
-- Penelope Stokes, Grace Under Pressure,
20.
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"Not a whisper of prayer is ever lost,
the longer it waits, the larger it becomes."
-- A. B. Simpson, Days of Heaven on
Earth, Feb. 13 --
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Preaching
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"There is all the difference in the
world between preaching merely from human understanding and energy, and
preaching in the conscious smile of God..."
-- D. Martyn Lloyd Jones --
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"To me there is nothing more terrible
for a preacher, than to be in the pulpit alone, without the conscious smile
of God."
-- D. Marytn Lloyd-Jones --
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"Preaching is the art not of browbeating,
but of persuading, in a way that shows both respect for the human mind
and reverence for the God who made it. Christian persuasion requires
wisdom, love, patience, and holy humanness. It is a fine art as well as
a useful one, and it becomes for preachers a lifetime study, concern, and
challenge
-- J.I. Packer Why Preach, 27. --
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"He charged nothing for his preaching
and he was worth it, too." --Mark Twain-- (not a member of my congregation,
I hope)
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"Somebody once told John Bunyan that
he had preached a delightful sermon. 'You are too late,' said John,
'the devil told me that before I left the pulpit.' Satan is adept
in teaching us how to steal our Master's glory."
--Charles Spurgeon--
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"Preaching is theology coming through
a man who is on fire....I say again that a man who can speak about these
things dispassionately has no right whatsoever to be in a pulpit; and should
never be allowed to enter one. What is the chief end of preaching?
I like to think it is this. It is to give men and women a sense of
God and His presence."
-- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones --
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"When I hear a man preach, I like
to see him act as if he were fighting bees." -- Abraham Lincoln --
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"I preached as never sure to preach
again, and as a dying man to dying men."
-- Richard Baxter --
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"The purpose of preaching is not to
inform the congregation of the minister's homiletical gifts; it is to bring
the congregation face to face with the living God."
-- Warren Wiersbe, Real Worship,
125 --
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"When the minister's study turns into
a sanctuary, a holy of holies, then something transforming will happen
as the Word of God is proclaimed."
-- Warren Wiersbe, Real Worship,
128 --
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Predictions
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"What Sir? Would you make a ship sail
against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray
you excuse me. I have no time to listen to such nonsense."
Napoleon to Robert Fulton (regarding the
Steamboat)
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Pride
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"There is one vice of which no man
in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees
it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians ever
imagine that they are guilty themselves....The essential vice, the utmost
evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that,
are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became
the devil; Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete
anti-God state of mind...As long as you are proud you cannot know God.
A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course,
as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above
you..."
-- C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity--
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Pride or Humility
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"A man is never so proud as when striking
an attitude of humility."
-- C. S. Lewis, Christian Reflections,
14. --
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Problems
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"There's no problem so big ...I can't
run from it." Charlie Brown
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"Every problem is an opportunity to
know God better."
--Larry Crabb, Connecting, 152.--
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Progress
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"Progress might have been all right
once but it has gone on too long."
--Ogden Nash--
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"Progress's biggest failure has been
its inability to nurture and protect right relationships....progress builds
by using the tools of economics, education, and technology. But what
are the tools of the relational life? Are they not the social (my
relationship to others), the emotional (my relationship to myself), and
the spiritual (my relationship to God)? None of the tools of progress
has helped build the relational foundation our society requires."
-- Richard Swenson, Margin, 35.
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Prophecy
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"A man says to me, 'Can you explain
the seven trumpets of the Revelation?' No, but I can blow one in your ear,
and warn you to escape from the wrath to come." --Charles Spurgeon--
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Public Speaking
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"It usually takes more than three
weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech." --Mark Twain--
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Purity
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"It is safe to tell the pure in heart
they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to."
-- C.S. Lewis --
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