There is no chance of fire in the pews if there is an iceberg in the pulpit; and without personal prayer and communion with God during the preparation stages, the pulpit will be cold.– Alistair Begg in Preaching for God’s Glory
God made us from dust. We’re never too far from our origins. The apostle Paul says we’re only clay pots – dust mixed with water, passed through fire. Hard, yes, but brittle too. Knowing this, God gave us the gift of Sabbath – not just a day, but an orientation, a way of seeing and knowing. Sabbath-keeping is a form of mending. It’s mortar in the joints. Keep Sabbath, or else break too easily, and oversoon. Keep it, otherwise our dustiness consumes us, becomes us, and we end up able to hold exactly nothing.
– Mark Buchanan in The Rest of God
Suffering reminds us that the world and everything in it, including us, are not quite right. Everything will not be right until Jesus returns and his will is done on earth as it is presently done in heaven. So we are people of hope.– Edward Welch in Side by Side
The attitude of heart with which we come– Alistair Begg in Preaching for God’s Glory
We all need to confess, and we need to do it every day…. No one is so bad that he or she is beyond forgiveness…. No one is so good that only one or two confessions a year will do.– Edward Welch in Side by Side
Gladness and gravity should be woven together in the life and preaching of a pastor in such a way as to sober the careless soul and sweeten the burdens of the saints.– John Piper in The Supremacy of God in Preaching
The goal of preaching is the glory of God in the glad submission of his people.– John Piper in The Supremacy of God in Preaching
Sin is the heaviest of weights; forgiveness is the greatest deliverance.– Edward Welch in Side by Side
Our people need to hear God entranced preaching. They need someone, at least once a week, to lift up his voice and magnify the supremacy of God.– John Piper in The Supremacy of God in Preaching
Brian J. Mikul 