by James Houston

This generation is possibly the first one in which action has been emphasized and valued more than contemplation.  Today we think contemplation wastes time, produces nothing, and bumps awkwardly into our schedules. A devotional life is a questionable priority for most successful people today. But are we "successful" Christians if we are so busy organizing and propagating the Christian faith that we really do not know God personally and intimately?"

by K.P. Yohannan
 
Each and every day, our walk with the Lord and our commitment to him must be fresh and new.

It is of utmost importance that the people who are called to fulfill God’s plan and purpose remain close to him and do not blindly rely on the past.

 How is it possible for us to regain or maintain this fresh walk with the Lord…? I believe the answer starts with a conscious decision to daily “humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord (James 4:10) and begin or continue to “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). And this is possible only if we are willing to repent or forsake all that causes our heart to wander away from the Lord…

by John Stott

Jesus of Nazareth is the heaven-sent Savior we sinners need. We need to be forgiven and restored to fellowship with the all-holy God, from whom our sins have separated us. We need to be set free from our selfishness and given strength to live up to our ideals. We need to learn to love one another, friend and foe alike. This is the meaning of “salvation.” This is what Christ came to win for us by his death and resurrection.

C.S. Lewis

 Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an  extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.

from Oswald Chambers

The answer to the question “How can a man be born when he is old?” is – When he is old enough to die – die right out of his “rag rights,” to his virtues, to his religion, to everything, and to receive into himself the life which never was there before. The new life manifests itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness.

Is my knowledge of Jesus born of internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned by listening to others?

by John Calvin

Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. …In the first place, no one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he “lives and moves.”

Each of us must, then, be so stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness as to attain at least some knowledge of God. Thus, from the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and – what is more – depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of  righteousness, rest in the Lord alone.

To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves.

Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also as it were, leads us by the hand to find him.