Isaac Smith

“When one combines the Bible’s basic, overriding redemptive-historical orientation toward the Word and the words of God with the New Testament’s consistent assumption that a Christian pastor’s first priority is to “present [himself] to God as one approved, a worker . . . rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), one can clearly see how the Reformers’ positive agenda began with the need to prioritize the word of God for the people of God.”
― Matthew C. Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation

“We had been a “youth church,” even a “teen girls club,” for so long it sent a thrill up my spine to note there was no particular subset of society dominating our gatherings anymore. There were old men and women (some ancient), children and babies, and everything in between. We had guys and girls, sportsmen and handicapped people, country folk wearing dehls and city dwellers in suits, rich mine workers and poor shepherds, Russians from our Russian church, even a deaf congregation with sign language interpreters. Jesus had infiltrated every part of Erdenet society. This was a real and visible answer to many prayers and pleadings.”
― Brian Hogan, There’s a Sheep in my Bathtub: Birth of a Mongolian Church Planting Movement

“medieval Catholicism consistently subordinated Scripture in ways that the Reformers found offensive and unbiblical. Regarding the sacraments, it is certainly not that the Reformers rejected them or had little interest in them—far from it. Rather, they believed that medieval Catholicism had become unduly tilted toward an overemphasis on the sacraments and their role in shaping the Christian community, and the Reformers sought to redress the balance.”
― Matthew C. Bingham, A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation

“A humble countryman who serves God is more pleasing to Him than a conceited intellectual who knows the course of the stars, but neglects his own soul.”
― Thomas à Kempis, The Inner Life