John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Somebody says, "Well, there is so much to give up if I come out-and-out for Jesus." It is nothing compared with what you will have to give up if you don't!  - John R. Rice

Somebody says, "Well, Brother Rice, it costs something to be a Christian." It costs more to serve the devil and to take the devil's wages! Warming with the crowd around Satan's fire led to Peter's sin. - John R. Rice

New converts often say to me, "I know what my temptation is going to be; it will be giving up the crowd I run with." I will tell you how to face that. Tell them, "I have found Jesus." Go with the light of Heaven on your face and make a beeline to the hardest one and say, "I have been saved, and I want you to take Jesus as your Saviour." Take the Bible with you and tell them of the love of God. The next time you are with them testify for Jesus Christ and say, "I am looking for you next Sunday night. I want you on the front seat to hear my preacher." Take your Bible with you every time you go, and talk about the Lord, and you will not have any trouble with bad company. They will give you up, brother; you will not have any trouble about that. If you get red hot for Jesus Christ, they ill leave you alone, or else they will come with you to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. - John R. Rice

This half-way business is the kind of religion that gets you in trouble. "Well," you say, "I am a Christian, but I am no fanatic." Not being a fanatic is what gets you in trouble. A man who is out-and-out for Jesus Christ has a safeguard. People say about me, "Well, John Rice is sort of a fanatic." But they never say one thing; they never say, "Come on, Brother Rice, I will give you a drink out of my bottle." It is worth being called a fanatic to have that! It is very rare that anybody ever offers me a cigarette, and they never offer it the second time! That is one safeguard you get by being out-and-out, brother. I thank God for that! - John R. Rice

Praying is a safeguard. It helps to keep you from doing wrong. But my salvation does not depend upon my praying. - John R. Rice

It is not often that I go to the Father as intimately and with the childlikeness that a Christian should have. Yet the Lord Jesus said, "When you pray, say, Our Father . . ." With our mouths we say it, but our hearts talk like: "Thou art a strange God a million miles away." But Jesus said, "When ye pray, say, Our Father." But when we are filled with the Spirit of God we get a little of the idea of it. The Scripture says, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage, again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15). And that means "Daddy" or "Papa." That does not mean an austere stranger, but my Father, my beloved, intimate, heavenly Daddy.
We do not always feel that, but God always feels that. I do not always feel like a child of God, but I am a child of God all the time whether I feel like it or not. I have teeth, whether I stop to thank God for them or not. And God always feels like my Father - whether I feel like His son or not. God never varies. Every gift comes with the love of a father. - John R. Rice

You people who have a God only for good times - phooie on you! I don't want that kind - the kind of Christianity that is fine when everybody is well, when you have nice jobs, that is fine when the crowd likes you. But put it down now, the only God who is any good is the kind who is good in the day of trouble and heartbreak. "And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Psa. 50:15). - John R. Rice