QUOTES OF THE WEEK

First the people would "read" the Word. Notice how they would read from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. The teacher, Ezra, would stand behind a pulpit, Nehemiah 8:4, and the people would stand as Ezra would read the "holy scriptures", Nehemiah 8:5.

 When someone tells me, based upon Nehemiah 8:4 that I must stand behind a pulpit to preach, I remind them that they must then stand while I preach based on the next verse. - Jimmy DeYoung


It is not education that brings infidelity and unbelief, but sin. - John R. Rice

all the following quotes are taken from the book "ALWAYS REJOICING" by Evangelist John R. Rice







Of course we understand that if our salvation depended on our own righteousness, depended on holding out faithful, we would have no assurance of the future. Many, many people do not have the joy of salvation because they think that getting to Heaven depends largely on their own faithfulness. No one can have perfect assurance of salvation until he casts the entire burden on the Lord Jesus and depends on the price already paid, on the blood poured out, that Christ by His death on the cross has satisfied the proper divine judgment on sin, and now that we are held guiltless as far as the duty of our souls is concerned, when we put our trust in the atoning sacrifice Christ offered on Calvary. - John Rice







It is better to be sick in the will of God than well without God's direct and blessed will! - John R. Rice







Do I believe in divine healing? Certainly I do! I believe that all true healing is from God. God heals through doctors and without doctors. God uses means, but sometimes He heals through imperceptible means. Sometimes God people through medicine and treatment of doctors, but He sometimes heals them in spite of medicine and doctors. Sometimes God heals people by simple faith, inspired by true teaching of the Word of God. And sometimes God heals people through faith, though faith may be inspired by the preaching of some crank or quack. Yes, I believe in divine healing.
But while I believe in divine healing, I do not always believe in divine healers. I do not believe in the methods usually employed by so-called healing evangelists.
I do not believe the doctrines that are often taught by quacks and charlatans or by some sincere but misguided souls in divine healing meetings. I am sure it is not always God's will to heal the sick. Sometimes God wants people to stay sick for His glory, or for their good. Sometimes God wants a saint to die and go to Heaven. The Bible do4es not teach that one should always ask for healing of the body unconditionally, whether it be God's will or not. The Bible does not teach the use of medicine or doctors is wrong. - John R. Rice







Notice, too, that it is "the prayer of faith" that shall save the sick, not the oil. Oil may be a fitting symbol of the blessed Holy Spirit who raised up Christ from the dead and who dwells in the body of the Christian and can heal the body. But oil does not heal. It is the prayer of faith that saves. If God gives faith, one may expect healing. If God does not give faith, as sometimes He certainly does not, then one need not so confidently expect healing.
It is not always God's will to heal, and so God does not always give faith. - John R. Rice







The best thing that God could ever do for sinful men is to give them a Saviour. Do you want a job or education or income or security or happy marriage or success or public office or fame? Beside the glad and precious boon of a Saviour for sinners, these are nothing! Paul rightly said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners..." (1st Timothy 1:15). - John R. Rice







There is a moral wickedness in unbelief. It is not that men cannot believe-- but that they will not believe. Men who choose to come to Christ find that they can trust Him. Men who will not come do not believe, but it is the result of their own wicked choice. Men who love their sins do not come to Christ because they do not want their sin rebuked. - John R. Rice






Not long ago I heard a preacher say, "God promises to supply our needs, but not our wants." How wrong he was! God promises to supply both our needs and our wants. In the passage we are now studying, Mark 11:24, Jesus plainly says that we should pray for "what things soever ye desire." We are to ask for anything we want! ...
But suppose one's desires are wrong? Suppose one wants that which he has no right to have? Is it wrong to pray about it? Well, if one knows his desires are wrong, he should confess them as a sin to God and get forgiveness and cleansing. But if a person has a right to work and plan to obtain things by any means, he has a right to pray for them. And if one is not sure whether his heart's desires will please God, it is still right to bring the request to the Lord with the earnest desire that either God will give you the heart's petition or change the desire. - John R. Rice


Sometimes men rebuke us for asking, asking, asking from God. Modernist Harry Emerson Fosdick, in his book, The Meaning of Prayer, says God is not a Santa Claus, that prayer is not supposed to get things from God. But he is wrong in supposing that God cannot do more wonderful things than little children suppose Santa Claus can do. Men would discourage us from calling on our omnipotent Heavenly Father, but the Bible never does. Again and again the Bible encourages us to ask great things of God. - John R. Rice