I remember a man who had been saved from a life of drunkenness, whose broken home had been restored, who had gone back again to a respected life and a good job, after sin had pulled him down to ruin. Trying to express how happy and comforted he was, all of his days he said, "Why, I am happier now when I am sad than I used to be when I was glad!" - John R. Rice
I was having a book published by Moody Press some years ago, The Soul-Winner's Fire. Good Dr. Norman said, "Brother Rice, we don't put a capital H in Heaven." I said, "Do you spell Chicago with a capital C?"
"Yes."
"Do you spell New York with capitals N.Y.?"
"Yes."
"Do you spell Dallas with a capital D?"
"Yes."
"Well, let's spell Heaven with a capital H. It is a real place." And so it was done! - John R. Rice
In a restaurant I saw these words on the menu, "No Substitutions, please." ...If one ordered a certain entrée, he took what came with it, with no substitutions. And about this matter of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, God says, "No substitutions, please!" You say that you want to be filled with the Spirit. All right, God says that the fullness of the Spirit brings an enduement of power from on high so that you will be a witness, a soul-winning witness. Do not ask for substitutions! Do not ask God for the fullness of the Spirit and expect sanctification, or tongues, or a selfish enjoyment of an "experience." - John R. Rice
I read the other day a story, a very interesting one. The man didn't know he was giving me an illustration of the folly of evolution.
American military personnel flew in a great flying boxcar into Pakistan. Out of it rolled a jeep. One native would-be scientific man explained to his boy that that little thing would grow and sprout wings and be like the big machine. Here is the plane. It has wheels. And out of it came the jeep. So the jeep will grow up to be an airplane too! But it won't. That boy will be disappointed. The local 'scientist' was mistaken. Don't jump to conclusions by a little bit of superficial likeness. That isn't very sensible. No, the truth is, man made both the plane and the jeep. Both had rubber tires. Both had engines. Both of them go. People ride in both of them. But the one did not come automatically and naturally out of the other. They didn't develop themselves. Men created them. They did not naturally make themselves. The argument for likeness is not a sensible argument. Similarity is simply an argument that the Creator used certain great principles in making man and animals. - John R. Rice
Do you think all this is accidental about the earth? Here is a watch. I say, "There must be a watchmaker then." But you say, "Oh, no! That is just evolution. It came through natural processes from inherent forces, and it developed of itself"! Well, but there is a dial on it. Someone must have know that there were so many hours in a day and in a night. And the hands go from one hour to another. The small hand goes from twelve to one. In one hour it goes the full circle--sixty minutes to the hour. Somebody must have planned it. "No," you say, "I think that is accidental. It was first a chip of wood, then a checker, then after awhile a compass, then a steamgauge, then it was a watch--hocus pocus, presto chango, it just invented itself." That is crazy. But it is no crazier than the fellow who says, "Here is a man. God did not make him. He is just an accident. Nobody planned him." I say that is credulous, ignorant, profane resistance to facts. - John R. Rice
God in His goodness seeks to win and woo the love of sinners by His mercy. The goodness of God is simply calling you to repentance. Every meal that you eat is the call of God to love Him. Every night's rest that leaves you fresh and vigorous is God's plea that you turn your face toward him and serve Him. If you have a job, if you have good health, if you have a good name, if you have a home--whatever the mercy your heart is grateful for today, then remember that God gave it, gave it as a love gift to turn your heart toward Him! - John R. Rice
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