John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Many a man says in defense of his worldly-minded attitude, in defense of putting his business first: "Well, a man has to live." No, he does not! A man has to die. And if he puts the living first, he will come down in sorrow to the grave as Lot did. There is not a particle of evidence that any man lives better or cares for his family really better by putting his business or his job first. There are sweet and precious promises for the Christian who does not put his business first. "Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed" (Ps. 37:3). There is sweet assurance for the burdened family man. There is a solid rock he may rest his feet upon. - John R. Rice

Christ ate with publicans and sinners, but He never played with them. He never went into business with them. The only time that Jesus ever had fellowship with poor lost, wicked men was when He was earnestly trying to win and to bless them. Yes, we ought to love sinners, we ought to weep over them, pray for them, visit them, teach them, plead with them! But we ought not to call them our brethren, we ought not to bind ourselves with them in business or pleasure or marriage. - John R. Rice

You never win souls by compromising, by going with the wicked their way into sin. - - John R. Rice

Everywhere, I see Christian parents who put the children's school work before the church and revival. Everywhere, I see Christian parents put the child's popularity with playmates or the young man's or woman's social ambitions before their duty to God. On every hand I see parents compromising with the world, lowering the standards, letting down the bars. If that is your case, then you, like Lot, are living in a fool's paradise. One day you will wake up as he did with your influence over your children gone and with the possibility that some of them may go to Hell, and all of them be failures in this life, ruined by the worldliness to which you surrender them now. O father, mother, do not let Satan have your children! - John R. Rice

Worldliness means powerlessness! And that means that every Christian who sells out is guilty of the murder of poor lost souls that go to Hell because he lost his influence. - John R. Rice

You will be to blame if your loved ones go to Hell because you did not clean up your life, you did not wait in the secret closet, you did not surrender wholly to the power of the Spirit so that you could win your loved ones. Oh, no surrender, no sacrifice, no waiting on God, no loss of friends or money or time is too much, if you keep your children and your loved ones out of Hell! - John R. Rice

The other day a woman said to me, "Brother Rice, my husband won't listen to me. He has no confidence in my Christianity. He will not let me talk to him about his soul. He will not go with me to church. Oh, what shall I do?" I answered, without intending to be too severe, and I think I answered honestly, "Your husband knows you better than I do. If your life does not ring true, he knows why, but I do not. But I know that you can so live and so pray and so wait on God and be filled with His Spirit; you can so live out the fullness of God's presence that your husband will have confidence in you and will listen to you." - John R. Rice