Tozer: the need of Presence

 There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing which their teaching simply does not satisfy. 

The Pursuit of God, p14

Owen: lost in the knowledge of God

“All the rational conceptions of the minds of men are swallowed up, and lost, when they would exercise themselves directly on that which is absolutely immense, eternal, infinite. When we say it is so, we know not what we say, but only that it is not otherwise. What we deny of God, we know in some measure, but what we affirm we know not;”

Excerpt From: Owen, John, 1616-1683. “The works of John Owen.” London : Printed for Richard Baynes, 1826. iBooks.

Owen:closeness to God is conformity to God

To be nigh unto God, and to be like unto Him, are the same. To be always with him, and perfectly like him according to the capacity of our nature, is to be eternally blessed. To live by faith in the contemplation of the glory of God in Christ, is that initiation into both, whereof we are capable in this world.”

Excerpt From: Owen, John, 1616-1683. “The works of John Owen.” London : Printed for Richard Baynes, 1826. iBooks.

Chadwick: prayer

The Divine attention to detail is amazing. Nothing is too trivial for omniscience. Come straight to God. Do not bother other people. Lay all your questions naked before Him, and He will make it plain to you what is His will.  When God speaks, His speech is easily understood.  All questions of the plain should be settled in the mount, and where there is certainty in the mount there will be victory on the levels or in the valleys.

Samuel Chadwick, quoted in Come Boldly, p19

Underwood: one f our greatest challenges

If one of the greatest challenges facing our forefathers was maintaining doctrinal orthodoxy in the face of encroaching liberalism, one of the greatest challenges facing us today is maintaining spiritual authenticity in the face of encroaching secularism -  how to be real in a world that does not share our values or respect our ministry.

Richard Underwood, Independent Church, p215

Robinson: humanity as privilege

People are frightened of themselves. It’s like Freud saying that the best thing is to have no sensation at all, as if we’re supposed to live painlessly and unconsciously in the world. I have a much different view. The ancients are right: the dear old human experience is a singular, difficult, shadowed, brilliant experience that does not resolve into being comfortable in the world. The valley of the shadow is part of that, and you are depriving yourself if you do not experience what humankind has experienced, including doubt and sorrow. We experience pain and difficulty as failure instead of saying, I will pass through this, everyone I have ever admired has passed through this, music has come out of this, literature has come out of it. We should think of our humanity as a privilege.

Marilynne Robinson

Douglas Adams: age-response to tech

"Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, once grouped technology into three categories. First, “everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal.” Then, “anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it.” Finally, “anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.”

― from "From the Garden to the City", Jon Dyer