My goal is GOD HIMSELF. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing but HIMSELF...my GOD.
Leonard RavenhillRead
Some women will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally (putting on special clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church—with prayer and meditation?
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance of inner preparation over outer appearances when attending church.
Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes that while many dedicate significant time to their external presentation before attending church, it would be far more beneficial if equal or greater effort were invested in preparing one's spirit and mindset through prayer and meditation. This reflection urges individuals to prioritize inner growth and spiritual readiness over superficial appearances, thereby fostering a more meaningful religious experience.
In practice
During a sermon about spiritual growth, one could quote this to encourage attendees to focus on their inner life.
My goal is GOD HIMSELF. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing but HIMSELF...my GOD.
Prayer is not a preparation for the battle; it is the battle!
Everyone recognizes that Stephen was Spirit-filled when he was performing wonders. Yet, he was just as Spirit-filled when he was being stoned to death.
I find it most intriguing to contemplate the fact that while men are considering what place to give Jesus Christ in history, He has already decided what place to give them in eternity.
The tragedy in our colleges and seminaries right now is that we turn men out who know the word of God. That is never going to turn the world._x000D_ The question is not whether they know the Word of God...._x000D_ The question is......Do they know the God of the Word?
The church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is college-trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles.
The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses.
It is impossible to read the daily press without being diverted from reality. You are full of enthusiasm for the eternal verities - life is worth living, and then out of sinful curiosity you open a newspaper. You are disillusioned and wrecked.
Our works in stone, in paint, in print, are spared, some of them, for a few decades or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash - the triumphs, the frauds, the treasures and the fakes. A fact of life: we're going to die. "Be of good heart," cry the dead artists out of the living past. "Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing." Maybe a man's name doesn't matter all that much.
The moral justification of capitalism does not lie in the altruist claim that it represents the best way to achieve 'the common good.' It is true that capitalism does -- if that catch-phrase has any meaning -- but this is merely a secondary consequence. The moral justification for capitalism lies in the fact that it is the only system consonant with man's rational nature, that it protects man's survival qua man, and that its ruling principle is: justice
Every religion is good—every religion is true to him who in his good caution and conscience believes it.
Of course the world of work begins to become - threatens to become - our only world, to the exclusion of all else. The demands of the working world grow ever more total, grasping ever more completely the whole of human existence.
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