Life-Changing Sentences

John Piper famously observed, “Books don't change people; paragraphs do — sometimes even sentences.”

We’re always on the hunt for books filled with life-changing paragraphs and sentences. On Sunday, Pastor Eric shared sections from a couple such books. Take a look at the quotes below and consider getting your hands on these.

The Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson:

“Perseverance and faith, therefore, or perseverance and the Christian’s duty to battle on in the fight of faith are never separated and polarized in the Bible. It is never a case of ‘either/or’ always one of ‘both/and.’ In fact we persevere through faith and never apart from it. The picture is one of a dynamic, living trust in a God who actively holds on to us so that we may persevere. There is no blanket guarantee of perseverance. There is no mere doctrine of ‘the security’ of the believer, as though God’s keeping of us took place irrespective of the lives we live. Indeed there is not such thing in the New Testament as a believer whose perseverance is so guaranteed that he can afford to ignore the warning notes which are sounded so frequently.”

Rejoice and Tremble by Michael Reeves:

“Perhaps the most famous sermon ever delivered in the historic pulpit of the Tron Church in Glasgow was Thomas Chalmers’s ‘The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.’ In it he argued that nobody can ‘dispossess the heart of an old affection, but by the expulsive power of a new one.’ His point was that we cannot simply will ourselves to love God more; the love of sin can only be expelled by the love of God. Chalmers could have been speaking of fear, for the filial fear of God is the soul of godliness and the essence of the new life implanted by the Spirit. It is the ultimate affection and the very aroma of heaven. It is the affection that expels our fears and our anxieties. It is the affection that expels spiritual lethargy. To grow in this sweet and quaking wonder at God is to taste heaven now.”