Steve

“Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit.”
― Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

“As high as the heavens are above the earth, so far beyond our comprehension are the thoughts and ways of God. A deep appreciation of this is of the utmost importance in the spiritual life.”
― Andrew Murray, Daily in His Presence: A Classic Devotional from One of the Most Powerful Voices of the Nineteenth Century

“As has been said, the gospel commands us to give up ourselves to Christ, to be accepted through Him, and to be ruled by Him; for He is the "author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" (Heb. 5:9). Unspeakably solemn it is to know that He will yet come "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel" (2 Thess. 1:8). Only that faith is of any value that produces sincere and loving obedience, and only that obedience is acceptable to God which issues from faith in His incarnate Son. The design of the gospel is to bring us to both. Faith is the vital principle, obedience the necessary product. Faith is the root; obedience the fruit.”
― Various Puritans, Puritan Prayers & Devotions

“We seek to know truth and we teach others: There is a God. This is his world, and we with it. This God is totally good and totally competent. He comes to us in Jesus Christ, whom we can totally trust. He gives us a book and a history, through which his Spirit will lead us to all we need to know about him and about us. Respecting the priority of the mind in spiritual formation means that we seek to understand these things and to help others understand them. We work in depth. We can choose to turn our minds toward these truths. Belief will come as God’s gift within the hidden depths of our lives and will grow under the nurturing of the Word and the Spirit. That is what is going on in a local congregation that is following God’s plan for spiritual formation.”
― Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ