Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the most influential preachers of the century. A few weeks before he died, someone asked him how, after decades of fruitful ministry and extraordinary activity, he was coping now he was suffering such serious weakness it took much of his energy to move from his bed to his armchair and back. He replied in the words of Luke 10:20: ‘Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’ In other words, do not tie your joy, your sense of wellbeing, to power in ministry. Your ministry can be taken from you. Tie your joy to the fact that you are known and loved by God; tie it to your salvation; tie it to the sublime truth that your name is written in heaven. That can never be taken from you. Lloyd-Jones added: ‘I am perfectly content.’ – From A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson
“You will never make yourself feel that you are a sinner, because there is a mechanism in you as a result of sin that will always be defending you against every accusation. We are all on very good terms with ourselves, and we can always put up a good case for ourselves. Even if we try to make ourselves feel that we are sinners, we will never do it. There is only one way to know that we are sinners, and that is to have some dim, glimmering conception of God.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Seeking the Face of God: Nine Reflections on the Psalms (Crossway, 2005), 34
John Owen on the earnestness required of those who intend to kill sin and walk happily with God:
“Get up, watch, pray, fast, meditate, offer violence to your lusts and corruptions; fear not, startle not at their crying or importunities to be spared; press unto the throne of grace by prayers, supplications, importunities, restless requests. This is the way to take the kingdom of heaven. These things are not peace, they are not assurance; but they are part of the means God hath appointed for the attainment of them.” – Works, 6.567-68; quoted in Sinclair Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life (Banner of Truth, 1987), 111
Don Carson (Memoirs of An Ordinary Pastor) reflecting on his father’s life and death (pp.146-147): Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outaouais and beyond testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy and powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday’s grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, “By this all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.” His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.
When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.
But on the other side all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man – he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor – but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.”
Don Carson introduces his account of his father’s life – Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2008) – like this (p.9): Some pastors, mightily endowed by God, are remarkable gifts to the church. They love their people, they handle scriptures well, they see many conversions, their ministries span generations, they understand their culture yet refuse to be domesticated by it, they are theologically robust and personally disciplined… Most of us, however, serve in more modest patches. Most pastors will not regularly preach to thousands, let alone tens of thousands. They will not write influential books, they will not supervise large staffs, and they will never see more than modest growth. They will plug away at their care for the aged, at their visitation, at their counseling, at their Bible studies and preaching… Many of them will attend the conferences sponsored by the revered masters and come away with a slightly discordant combination of, on the one hand, gratitude and encouragement and, on the other, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, and guilt. Most of us – let us be frank – are ordinary pastors. Dad was one of them. This little book is a modest attempt to let the voice and ministry of one ordinary pastor be heard, for such servants have much to teach us.
Carson’s aim in writing (p.11): …to convey enough of [his father’s] ministry, and his own thought that ordinary ministers are encouraged, not least by the thought that the God of Augustine, Calvin, Spurgeon and Piper is no less the God of Tom Carson, and of you and me.
“God is never irritable or edgy. He is never fatigued or depressed or blue or moody or stressed out. His anger never has a short fuse. He is not easily annoyed. He is above any possibility of being touchy or cranky or temperamental. Instead he is infinitely energetic with absolutely unbounded and enending enthusiasm for the fulfillment of his delights. This is hard for us to comprehend, because we have to sleep every day just to cope, not to mention thrive. We go up and down in our enjoyments. We get bored and discouraged one day and feel hopeful and excited another. We are like little geysers that gurgle and sputter and pop erratically. But God is like a great Niagara – you look at it and think: surely this can’t keep going at this force for year after year after year. It seems like it would have to rest. Or it seems like some place up stream it would run dry. But, no, it just keeps surging and crashing and making honeymooners happy century after century. That’s the way God is about doing us good. He never grows weary of it. It never gets boring to him. – John Piper, The Pleasures of God: God’s delight in being God (Fearn, Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 1998), 192:
CS Lewis on the resurrection: “The New Testament writers speak as if Christ’s achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the ‘first fruits’, the ‘pioneer of life’. He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so. This is the beginning of the New Creation: a new chapter in cosmic history has opened…” Miracles (repr.; London: Geoffrey Bles, 1959), 173.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on meekness: “Meekness is essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others… the meek man is not proud of himself, he does not in any sense glory in himself… he does not assert himself… does not demand anything for himself. He does not take all his rights as claims. He does not make demands for his position, his privileges, his possessions, his status in life… …the man who is truly meek is the one who is amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do.” – Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2 vols. (London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1959), 1:68-69.
“[John Wesley and George Whitefield] were ministry contemporaries in the 1700’s. Both of them started in England and eventually made their way to America. Whitefield was known for his incredible stage presence and charisma; John Wesley; not so much. Both of these patriarchs were astonishing figures in the history of evangelical Christianity. But only one of them developed other leaders. John Wesley organized many of his new believers into small groups that grew deeper in faith through rigorous spiritual disciplines and relational accountability. The impact of John Wesley’s disciples making is noticeable today. Whitefield’s influence, on the other hand disappeared with him. At the end of his ministry, Whitefield confessed: “My brother Wesley acted wisely-the souls that were awakened under his ministry, he joined in class, and thus preserved the fruits of his labour. This I neglected, and my people are a rope of sand” – Taken from Ben Arment, Church in the Making, what makes or breaks a new church before it starts (pg116-7)
Caroline Headly, writing about abortion in The Times, May 21 2010, p.57: “Withdrawal was the contraception of choice for most of my friends in their twenties – it was mine. So I got pregnant, of course. Although having an abortion was not a nice procedure, when buoyed up by friends who had “been there before”, and weighed against worries about finances and the relationship, it felt far preferable.
Only one friend was so rattled by the protesters outside the surgery (this was in the United States) that she turned round: Cleo is now a bubbly and much-loved three-year-old. Of the rest of us, no one regrets their decision, including me. That’s not to say it isn’t without its repercussions. The body has a memory, it seems. One September, I found myself on a plane, in floods of tears, suddenly washed with sadness. When I got home my flatmate pointed out that it was nine months after the procedure. The same had happened to her.”
“[Christ] wants his church to be characterized by wholeheartedness. He is very outspoken. He prefers his disciples to be either hot in their devotion to him or icy cold in their hostility rather than tepid in their indifference. He finds tepidity nauseating.” – John Stott, The Incomparable Christ, pp.180-181, on Revelation 3:15-16
“Subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent; God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. None can thwart Him, none can hinder Him.” A.W. Pink
“The woman who makes a dog the centre of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping.
The man who makes alcohol his chief good loses not only his job but his palate and all power of enjoying the earlier (and only pleasurable) levels of intoxication.
It is a glorious thing to feel for a moment or two that the whole meaning of the universe is summed up in one woman—glorious so long as other duties and pleasures keep tearing you away from her. But clear the decks and so arrange your life (it is sometimes feasible) that you will have nothing to do but contemplate her, and what happens?
Of course this law has been discovered before, but it will stand re-discovery. It may be stated as follows: every preference of a small good to a great, or partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice is made.
. . . You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first.” – C.S. Lewis, “First and Second Things,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Eerdmans, 1994), p. 280.
John “All the religions that reject Jesus as God are without God. “The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:16)” – John Piper
“The Bible was the only book Jesus ever quoted, and then never as a basis for discussion but to decide the point at issue.” – Leon Morris
“Being in the Book of Life prevents you from doing what could get you blotted out.” (see Rev. 13:8; 17:8) – John Piper
“If learning about him isn’t your biggest educational goal,
If He isn’t the biggest personality posted on your face book page,
If He isn’t the main aim on your personal development plan,
If He isn’t main purpose of your family life,
If He isn’t the chief thing you long for your children to possess in life,
If He isn’t the big one your life is out to promote,
If He isn’t the place where you find your sense of security,
If you’ve not yet taken refuge in Him,
If He is not in the middle in every conceivable way,
Then to the extent that He is not…
Your life is out of touch with reality for He is right in the middle of God’s plans for the world, the universe and everything…” Andy Gemmill, Preaching Psalm 2
‘The journalist Malcolm Muggeridge once met a woman who, he was told, had slept with the writer H. G. Wells. He asked her how it had happened. She told him that Wells had approached her at a party and said, “Shall we go upstairs and do something funny?” “And was it funny?” asked Muggeridge. “No Sir, it was not funny,” she replied. “That evening has caused me more misery than any other evening of my life.” There is nothing funny about sin; it has serious consequences.’ – Vaughan Roberts, battles christians face, 32.
“[Christ] wants his church to be characterized by wholeheartedness. He is very outspoken. He prefers his disciples to be either hot in their devotion to him or icy cold in their hostility rather than tepid in their indifference. He finds tepidity nauseating.” – John Stott, The Incomparable Christ, pp.180-181, on Revelation 3:15-16
“Subject to none, influenced by none, absolutely independent; God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. None can thwart Him, none can hinder Him.” A.W. Pink
“All the religions that reject Jesus as God are without God. “The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:16)” – John Piper
“God often comforts us, not by changing the circumstances of our lives, but by changing our attitude toward them.” – S.H.B. Masterman