Quotables by Notables to Live By
We have all been moved in one way or another by famous quotes like:
“Give me liberty or give me death.”
(Patrick Henry during a speech to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia)“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
(President John F. Kennedy at his inaugural address as the 35th president of the United States on Friday, January 20, 1961, at the East Portico of the United States Capital in Washington D.C.)
Both of these quotes have been monumental in the life and development of our country, but when it comes to words that have monumentally transformed lives for eternity, here are some profound words:
“Depend on it. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterwards, and He much prefers doing so.”
(William Carey, 1761–1834, was called the Father of modern missions, spread the gospel as a minister, translator, social reformer, cultural anthropologist, and founder of a college and university.)
“Only one life, ’twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last.”
(C.T. Studd, 1860–1930, was an Englishman and cricket star, served the Lord Jesus Christ as a pastor and missionary in China, India, and Africa, who also gave away his father’s vast inheritance to the ministry of the gospel.)
“If I die here in Glasgow, I shall be eaten by worms; if I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; for in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.”
(John G. Paton, 1824–1907, was an educator and pioneer missionary to cannibals in New Hebrides islands in the South Pacific. He started small businesses for the people and advocated against slavery.)
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
(Jim Elliot, 1927–1956, was an American Christian missionary and one of five people martyred on January 8, 1956, during Operation Auca, an attempt to evangelize the Huaorani people of Ecuador. His death led to his wife Elizabeth, another widow Rachel and two Auca Indian women bringing the gospel to the savage tribe resulting in most of the Auca Indians coming to Christ.)
“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
(John R.W. Stott, 1921–2011, was an Anglican evangelical pastor and theologian who was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974, which called for the church to take the gospel to the world.)
“Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."
(Charles Spurgeon, 1834–1892, was an English Baptist pastor, called the Prince of Preachers, whose gospel sermons are transcribed and disseminated around the world to this day.)
“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Jesus Christ, Luke 19:10)
We as God’s people have the greatest message (the gospel) about the greatest Savior (Jesus Christ) with the greatest application (to all people) which produces the greatest outcome (salvation).
As Oswald J. Smith (1889–1986, Canadian author, pastor, and preacher of over 12,000 sermons in 80 countries, who traveled the world to recruit missionaries) said this: “The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.” For the sake of the gospel and God’s glory, let’s not allow that to happen to us.
Pastor Jeff