John R. Rice Quotes of the Week!

I would read the King James Version. You say it is hard to understand. No, it is not. You have heard somebody talk like that. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want - is that too hard to understand? "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" -is that hard to understand? "Blessed are the peacemakers" -is that hard to understand? "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" -is that hard to understand? No. The truth is, if you mean business you can understand the Bible. Read the King James Version. - John R. Rice

What about the Amplified Version, the Expanded Version? All those words are not in the Bible. Those are men's commentaries on the Bible. What about the Living Bible? It is what some man writes down, what he thinks the Bible may have meant. It is not a translation; it is a paraphrase and not reliable. Any paraphrase is only reliable as man's wisdom, and man's wisdom is never as good as the Word of God itself. And that, of course, is part of the trouble with the Revised Standard Version, and the New English translation, Moffatt's translation and many others. Use the King James Version. I have seventeen or eighteen translations, but I use the King James Version all the time. That is by all means the best. - John R. Rice 

A Christian, then, ought to learn to pray all the time, ought to learn to pray about everything. That comes up often in the Bible. Luke 18:1 says about Jesus, "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." He said, "To this end, that men ought always to pray." You mean pray all the time? Yes. That would evidently mean a Christian ought to get where he prays again and again consciously a hundred times or more a day, get to where there is something going on in his prayer life in his heart all the time, crying to God. "He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." - John R. Rice

I Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray without ceasing." Oh, we ought to have God so close to us! You don't have to get down on your knees, you don't have to go through a nice, formal preliminary when you talk to your Heavenly Father. You ought to be able to just say, "Lord Jesus, help me." You ought to be able to say, "Thank You, Lord Jesus." You ought to say, "Lord Jesus, give me wisdom now," and, "Lord Jesus, help me." Like Peter, walking on the water. When he began to sink, he said, "Lord, save me!" That is not much of a prayer, but it was to the point and he got himself saved from drowning. Why not set out to pray all the time? - John R. Rice 

You know, asking is prayer. In Matthew 7:7, 8 the Lord said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Prayer is asking. You are not praying if you don't ask. So be sure to make your requests known to God. - John R. Rice

I turn to a New Testament text in II Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" is not quite adequate. What that Scripture in the Greek new Testament says is a great deal stronger than that. We talk about poets being "inspired," etc., but actually that word in the Greek is literally "God-breathed." The Bible is breathed out from God. God breathed out the Bible. All Scripture is God-breathed. That means it is the inspired Word of God, all of it is the very Word of God. - John R. Rice

Somebody may say, "Maybe Luke went along with Paul and Paul told Luke what to write." But the Scripture says, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. . . ." A man didn't say, "Well, I was with Paul," or, "I was with Peter." No, if God didn't give it, it wouldn't be the Scripture. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." God revealed it by the Holy Spirit "in the words. . .which the Holy Ghost teacheth," the Scripture says. That is inspiration. - John R. Rice