- John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

 Once people said to me, "Dr. Rice, you can't tell how your children will turn out." And I said, Well, we will just see about that. Mrs. Rice and I will turn them out ourselves, then we will know how they turn out." We did, and so they did, praise God! - John R. Rice [Success-prone Christians, pg. 28]

The Bible itself is the revelation of God. It perfectly makes known the will of God for men. In the Bible men learn not only how to be saved, but how to live after they are saved, how to please God, how to have the power of the Holy Spirit, how to get prayers answered, how to raise families, how to deal in business, how to preach the Gospel. And every Christian is to live "not by bread alone," but as Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3, "By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). - John R. Rice [Success-prone Christians, pg. 40]

Arguments may affect the head, but company affects the heart, the emotions, the preferences, and so gives a bias that largely controls the decisions of the mind. So in Galatians 5:24 the Scripture says, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Unless we crucify the affections of the flesh we are not truly at one with Christ when we open the Bible. So Christians are commanded, " Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:2). The wrong kind of love or friendship can lead one wrong. Men are led into sin or false doctrine or into complacent acceptance of evil by love for a sinful friend or for love for an Alma Mater or denomination whose influence is away from the Bible. - John R. Rice [Success-prone Christians, pg. 47]

It was Solomon's ruin when he "loved many strange women" (I Kings 11:1). And God's prophet Jehu challenged Jehoshaphat, "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord?" (II Chron. 19:2). The wrong companionships, and hence the wrong affections, are Satan's best weapon in leading the Christians astray. Thus avoidance of bad company and delight in the Word of God are complementary conditions. Each requires the other and fits with the other for one to be God's blessed man. - John R. Rice [Success-prone Christians, pg. 47]

True fundamentalism must emphasize both separation and Bible authority. No man is to be trusted as a friend of the Bible who does not avoid bad company.

And Bible believers had just as well accept God's plan on this. Contending for the faith involves the reproach of coming out and being separate from the ungodly and from enemies of Christ and the Bible. One who avoids the reproach of scriptural separation also misses the promised blessing that "whatsoever he doeth shall prosper," promised in Psalm 1. - John R. Rice [Success-prone Christians, pg. 53]

I sat with Mrs. Rice on the rails of the Texas-Pacific railroad, away out in West Texas, and Dr. Sam Morris and his wife sat nearby. We had bought a nice watermelon in Weatherford. Everywhere else was muddy, so from the highway we stepped over the railroad track and cut the watermelon and ate it. But there was some whisper in my heart, no doubt the whisper of an angel, and I looked up and bearing down upon us at ninety miles an hour, I suppose, was a passenger train. On the long prairie miles there was not a crossing - why should the engineer be looking for trouble? There was no whistle, but I knew and I jumped from the track and pulled my wife and the train passed by within inches. I am certain it was an angel who some way warned me and we slipped away. Ah, the angel of the Lord protects his own. Why should anybody fear? - John R. Rice [Success-prone Christians, pg. 58]

Oh, don't fear to put God first in everything. "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine" (Prov. 3:9, 10). You can prove that it pays to serve the Lord. He takes care of His own who trust Him. The way of full supply is just simply the way of trusting day by day.

Not wild spending and calling that faith. No, not buying on credit, with monthly payments stacked upon you and then calling that faith! No, trust the Lord and live with what God gives you and be happy and content. How wonderfully sweet it is! - John R. Rice [Success-prone Christians, pg. 59-60]