Sunday Quotes!

I rarely preach a sermon without including at least one quote from a theologian or a pastor (dead or alive) who has already said something much better than I can. So, as a new "blog feature", I'm going to start giving out these quotes on Mondays as a way to encourage us all at the beginning of each week. Enjoy!

"We are shown first, in this passage, what true Christians must expect to meet in this world--hatred and persecution. If the disciples looked for kindness and gratitude from man they would be painfully disappointed... Persecution is the lot of all really godly people at this very day. Ridicule, mockery, slander, misrepresentations still show the feeling of unconverted people against the true Christian... In public and in private, at school and at college, at home and abroad, "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3:12.) Mere churchmanship and outward profession are a cheap religion, of course, and cost a man nothing. But real vital Christianity will always bring with it a cross." -JC Ryle

"Though we say this world is vain and sinful, we are too fond of it; and though we hope for true happiness only in Heaven, we are often well content to stay longer here on earth. But the Lord sends afflictions one after another to quicken our desires, and to convince us that this world cannot be our rest. Sometimes if you drive a bird from one branch of a tree he will hop to another a little higher, and from thence to a third; but if you continue to disturb him, he will at last take wing, and fly quite away. Thus we, when forced from one creature-comfort, perch upon another, and so on. But the Lord mercifully follows us with trials, and will not let us rest upon any; by degrees our desires take a nobler flight, and can be satisfied with nothing short of Himself; and we say, 'To depart and be with Jesus is best of all!'" -John Newton