“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Flee Idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:1-22)
“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. ... Anything can be an idol, and everything has been an idol.”
— Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods
Slaves to Christ (1 Corinthians 9:15-27)
“Rock of Ages, my great hope secure. Your promise holds just like an anchor to my soul. Bind your children with cords of love and grace. Rock of Ages, we give you praise.”
— Sandra McCracken, “Rock of Ages (When the Day Seems Long)”
Are You Teachable? (Matthew 5:1-12)
“You will never find a greater antithesis to the spirit and outlook [of the world] than that which you find in this verse: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.’”
—Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones
Living in Christ's Reality (John 7:37-39)
“Thou will supply my every need, on to the end whate’er befall. Through life, in death, eternally, Thou art my all.”
—Third verse of “Thou Art My Life” (or “Jesus My Savior”) by Charlotte Elliot, who became an invalid around age 30, and remained so the rest of her life. About her physical condition, Elliott wrote: “My Heavenly Father knows, and He alone, what it is, day afer day, and hour afer hour, to fight against bodily feelings of almost overpowering weakness and languor and exhaustion, to resolve, as He enables me to do, not to yield to the slothfulness, the depression, the irritability, such as a body causes me to long to indulge, but to rise every morning determined on taking this for my motto, If any man will come afer me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”