There is no such thing as a great man of God, only weak, pitiful, faithless men of a great and merciful God.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that greatness comes not from individuals but from their faith in a higher power.
Paul Washer's quote highlights the idea that no person can claim true greatness on their own; instead, any perceived greatness is a reflection of their relationship with a compassionate and forgiving God. It suggests that all humans are inherently weak and flawed, and it is through faith and reliance on divine mercy that one can find strength and purpose.
In practice
This quote can be used in a sermon to illustrate the importance of humility before God.
We deal five minutes with a person and their conversion and then we spend the next fifty years trying to disciple a goat into a sheep. I'm not saying this because I'm angry. I'm saying this because countless people are being deceived.
Pray for the field. If God calls, then prepare for the field. When it is time, go to the field. A life lost for Christ is a life well spent.
Those who would send out thousands of questionnaires asking the unconverted what they would desire most in a worship service should realize that ten thousand unanimous opinions of carnal men do not carry the authority of one jot or tittle of God's Word.
The evidence of conversion is not a decision card filled out, it's a life being lived out.
Repentance is simply giving up to stop fighting against God and to stop attempting to gain your own salvation through your own works; to literally give up and fall upon Christ. That is salvation.
When we realize what we were before Christ and what we deserved in that state, it further magnifies the enormity of the gospel for us.
To say that Christ is the term and motive force of evolution, to say that he manifests himself as 'evolver,' is implicitly to recognize that he becomes attainable in and through the whole process of evolution.
But Valentine, why despair, why always paint the future in such sombre hues?" Maximilien asked. "Because, my friend, I judge it by the past.
That I am a monk and you are a layman is of no importance ... rather that we are both in the light of the Holy Spirit ... Acquire peace, and thousands around you will be saved.
Now the relation which, in the sphere of nature, being and semblance or sensation bear to one another in this antithesis, is the same as that which in ethics exists between good and pleasure or feeling.
It is for us to make the effort. The result is always in God's hands.
So, is there an afterlife, and if so, what will it be like? I don't have a clue. But I am confident that the one who has buoyed us up in life will also buoy us up through death. We die into God. What more that means, I do not know. But that is all I need to know.
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