QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe.”

“None of us feels the true love of God till we realize how wicked we are. But you can’t teach people that – they have to learn by experience.”

“If men will not understand the meaning of judgement, they will never come to understand the meaning of grace.”

~Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), English writer and poet

“The more affected we are with our misery, the fitter for Christ’s mercy."

~Thomas Manton (1620-1677), English Puritan clergyman

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

~Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), English theologian

“The prize of your faithfulness is your God. He is what you will get, he is preparing himself as the reward of his worshippers… He it is who is the reward of your faith and fidelity.”

~Augustine, North African church leader (Carthage, A.D. 419)

“My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach, or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him, then He came to save me, and I am saved.”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“…he would go to Jerusalem not to wield the spear and bring the judgment, but to receive the spear thrust and bear the judgement.”

~Edmund Clowney (1917-2005), theologian and educator, on Jesus

SERMON PASSAGE

Isaiah 9:1-7 (ESV)

1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
3 You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
4 For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.