Suffering and prosperity are two of the great weapons in Satan’s arsenal. Millions of people refuse to trust God because of suffering they see in the world or experience in their own lives. They ask, “How can I believe God is good when so many terrible things happen?”
On the other hand, millions of people never come to faith in God because their prosperity convinces them they are wise enough and sufficient enough to handle life on their own. God seems an unnecessary intruder. Life goes well without Him. Satan uses the glitter of gold and silver to blind them to real aliveness, aliveness that has nothing to do with the outside of things and everything to do with the heart.
Take up the shield of faith and use it against these fiery darts. Faith in God causes us to walk through suffering with strength and through prosperity with humility.
Retired pastor Bob Adams
The church should be a model, at such a time as this, to reveal to the world what true oneness, equality, and freedom can produce. … Much of what has gone on under the designation of racial reconciliation and oneness in Christianity is nothing more than tolerance. To be certain, we have come a long way from slavery, Jim Crow laws or segregation and other overt expressions of racial hatred. But tolerating each other does not mean we have reconciled. The two are not the same, as demonstrated by the fact that we remain relationally separated most of the time, only coming together for a scheduled event as opposed to living out a desire for ongoing mutual edification and implementation of a shared vision.
Pastor Tony Evans
There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can’t otherwise see; you hear things you can’t otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.
Author Bryan Stevenson
Like Andrae Crouch used to sing, ‘Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him there’s no other. Jesus is the way.’ The answer for the civil unrest is for you and me to share Jesus with one person at a time, and then allow Jesus to transform his or her life. … It is that simple — simple and yet profound.
Simple, in that our responsibility is merely to share the gospel message — unashamedly and unapologetically (Rom. 1:16). Profound, in that the power of the gospel message to transform lives is supernatural, mysterious and inexplicable.
Unless we are convinced in our heart of hearts that Jesus is enough and that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (including complete life transformation), then we will never be the effective seed planters God has called us to be.
Trust me when I say that complicated government reforms and added layers of legislation will not solve the issues that confront our nation. It will not change the condition of a single human heart. Only Jesus can do that.
It is that simple — but only if we are convinced of the life-transforming power of the gospel.
Robert Jackson
Spartanburg, S.C.
So many people are hurting and afraid and looking for something. I’m tired of bad news, and what we have is good news. We have the opportunity to share good news with a world in desperate need of it. That’s something that doesn’t change.
Pastor Kenny Gooden
Union Grove Baptist Church
Yadkinville, N.C.
Forgiveness is a decision of the will. It is not a feeling.
John Perkins
Author and minister
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From the Twitterverse
@timkellernyc
Two seemingly contradictory currents mark our society.
- There is a denunciation of all claims of absolute truth.
- Yet there is also a fanaticism in which one position or group is absolutely right, nothing is ambiguous and divergent views should be destroyed.
@BillyGraham
“Do you want your faith to grow? Then let the Bible begin to saturate your mind and soul.”
@matalexander
Trying this for my joy:
Other pastors/Christians do stuff I wouldn’t do.
I do what I do according to my conscience before God.
He sorts out who’s right/wrong at the judgment. I won’t be consulted.
I don’t have to rage, holler, yell, foment, slander or gripe on social media.
@haines_matt
Snatching God’s word out of context to speak to the glory of any nation is to minimize the glory of the One to whom all Scripture points and the only real hope that will truly save that nation and those who live in it.
@rhyneputman
The James Leo Garrett rule: “Only when you can state your opponent’s position so well that they themselves say, ‘Yes, that’s what I believe,’ can you then begin to debate.” Most of the fearmongers and rabble-rousers charging SBC entities with heresy will fail this basic test.
@DannyAkin
“If God calls you to be a missionary, don’t stoop to be a king.”
— @Spurgeon_
@Jonathan_Howe
“You cannot hate a people and reach a people at the same time.”
— Ed Stetzer
@JimmyScroggins
Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.
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