John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

Nobody can understand the Bible if you have a thousand detours, if you don't put first things first. Millions have varying theories and tomfool ideas about Pentecost. Some talk about it being the "birthday of the church." Others talk about a new dispensation; others, about social reforms. The only reform God talks about is just keeping people out of Hell. Three thousand saved in one day is a good example! If you get concerned about what God is talking about, you won't go wrong in doctrine. You won't be led astray by every shifting wind. - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 141]

"Brother Rice, I don't believe there are any more miracles performed." You don't? What do you think conversions is? What do you think regeneration is? We are talking about things that are supernatural, things only God can do; not ordinary but extraordinary; not human but Divine' not explainable but inexplicable. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth" (John 3:8). That is the way people are born again. . - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 145]

You say, "Brother Rice, the day of physical miracles is over." Who told you so? You may have read it in some geography book. Or Darby said it, didn't he? I use a Scofield Bible-the best reference Bible in the world-but on the matter of dispensationalism, it is wrong for anyone to teach that miracles are not for us, that they were just for the Jews. Now God has a plan for the Jews all right, but when it comes to the nature of God, answered prayer, the Holy Ghost, the supernatural intervention in the lives of men, God is talking as much to John R. Rice as he is to Elijah, and anybody else. He sure is! - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 145-146]

Preachers and Christian workers, if you don't have miracles, then it is worthless. Some say it is getting hard to have revivals. It is not getting hard; it has always been hard, in fact, impossible unless God steps in. You say that sinners' hearts are so hard, that sinners are deaf. They are not deaf; they are DEAD. And if you don't have a God who raises the dead, then shut up and go plow corn, or be a plumber, or a schoolteacher. You have to have miracles to win souls. If you don't have a God who can make a drunkard sober when Alcoholics Anonymous can't, if you don't have a God who can make a harlot pure when there is no other power that can, if you don't have a God who can make an infidel into a happy believer when all the arguments can't, if you don't have a God who can make a sinner bound for Hell into a child of God, then shut your mouth; you are not called to preach. You haven't got anything to say. - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 146-147]

Later they [the disciples] said, "There is a storm at sea." They said, "Jesus, wake up! We are about to sink! Don't you care if we perish?" He said, "But where is your faith?" Do you think that boat can go down with the Creator of Heaven and earth in it? Do you THINK any storm can get Jesus? If you do, you have another THINK coming. Where is your faith? The one thing that would decide whether you are scared or not more than everything else put together would be your faith. Oh, how we must grieve Him with no faith! "Have faith in God." - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 153]

A woman wrote me: "I have read your book on Prayer. I have read others of your books and I know you are a man of faith. I am asking you to pray about. . . ." and she named what she wanted me to pray about. I write a book on Prayer and so somebody says, "Oh, I see that you have a pull with God." I didn't write a book to say what a great pray-er I am; I wrote a book to show what a great answer-er to prayer God is. You may not believe it, but God would as willingly answer your prayers as those of George Muller, Elijah, D. L. Moody, or anybody else. "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come," says Psalm 65:2. All right, then "whosoever"--all flesh-- is to come in prayer. - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 153-154]

Remember the demon-possessed boy? Jesus came down form the Mount of Transfiguration and with Him were Peter, James and John. And as the mobs and commotion grew, Jesus said, "What is going on?" A man said, "It's my boy! My poor boy! The old Devil throws him in the water and the fire and tries to kill him. He can't talk. He is devil-possessed. I brought him to the disciples and they couldn't do anything. Maybe you can't either."
Jesus said, "You've got the 'if' in the wrong place. If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). He said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me" (Matt. 17:17), He healed the boy and gave him to his father. - John R. Rice [Ten Messages That Changed Ten Thousand Lives, pg. 176]