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10 Quotes from “Chapter 1: Of the Holy Scripture” of Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul

When the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was formed in 1788, it adopted (with minor revisions) the Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1647), as its secondary standards (the Bible itself being the only infallible rule of faith and practice). As an officer in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), I took a vow to “sincerely receive and adopt” these confessional documents “as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.”
R.C. Sproul tells us that the Westminster Confession is the most precise and accurate summary of the content of biblical Christianity ever set forth in a creedal form. In the “Foreword” of the book, Sinclair Ferguson writes that the Westminster Confession was the anatomy of everything that Sproul preached and taught. He tells us that this book is not an academic, technical discussion of an ancient document. Rather, it is a book for every Christian home and family and one that will be especially valuable for younger Christians setting out on the way.
Here are 10 quotes from Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith: Of the Holy Scripture

  • The Westminster Confession affirms the central importance and sufficiency of Scripture—a Reformational concept.
  • We not only can but do know that the creation requires a Creator and that the Creator must be sovereign over His creation, both in terms of His authority and His power.
  • The doctrine of inspiration, as mysterious as it is, declares that while humans were writing, God the Holy Spirit ensured that what they wrote was without error and was actually verbum Dei, the Word of God itself.
  • The confession asserts that the Bible’s authority is so strong, so supreme, that it imposes on us a moral obligation to believe it. If we do not believe it, we have sinned. It is not so much an intellectual as a moral issue.
  • The church no more gave the Bible its authority than the individual gives Christ His authority by embracing Him as Lord. He is Lord—we are simply called to recognize it.
  • A person will not be fully persuaded or assured that the Bible is the Word of God unless and until God the Holy Spirit does a work in his heart, which is called the internal testimony of the Spirit.
  • The Spirit works with and through the Word, never apart from or against it.
  • As we read and study Scripture, the Spirit opens our eyes, not to add anything to what is already there, but to clarify what is there and to apply it to our lives.
  • Always interpret the implicit in light of the explicit, the obscure in light of the clear. These underlying principles in the Reformed doctrine of hermeneutics presuppose that the Bible is the Word of God.
  • What the Holy Spirit inspired in one passage helps us understand what He inspired in another. We must interpret Scripture by Scripture.

Next time we will look at Chapter 2: Of God, and of the Holy Trinity.

Be sure to follow along with our Book Club!


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30 More Great Quotes from Alistair Begg’s Truth for Life: 365 Daily Devotions (Volume 1)

Truth for Life: 365 Daily Devotions is the first of two daily devotional books from respected pastor and author Alistair Begg. I used the first volume as a part of my daily devotional readings last year (see my review of the book here), and am using the second volume as a part of my daily devotional readings this year. I recommend the book to you as a part of your devotional reading.

Here are 30 more of my favorite quotes from the book:

  • How do the cross and the empty tomb affect your relationships, your work, your purpose, or your identity? If Jesus reigns over you, His death and resurrection change everything about the way you live and the meaning of your life.
  • Whatever you face in your life, know that Jesus has gone through worse and therefore understands how you feel.
  • Do not settle for what this life has to offer, nor grow despairing over the disappointments of the here and now. Our best days lie ahead of us, in the city of God.
  • In the new heaven and new earth, life’s storms will finally be stilled. In the meantime, we will pass through squalls and even deluges. We will endure with joy to the extent that we trust that our Father is wise.

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40 More Great Quotes from The Leader’s Greatest Return: Attracting, Developing, and Multiplying Leaders by John Maxwell

If you are a leader, I highly recommend that you read this book –The Leader’s Greatest Return: Attracting, Developing, and Multiplying Leaders by John Maxwell. You can read my review of this book and his other books here.

Here are 40 more great quotes from the book.

  • If you want to be an effective leader, you must make learning by listening a top priority every day.
  • You can never get the best out of people if you don’t know who they are, where they want to go, what they care about, how they think, and how they want to contribute. You can learn those things only if you listen.
  • When you know why you’ve been put on this earth and you know what you need to be doing, you don’t need anyone to motivate you. Your purpose inspires you every day.

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20 Great Quotes from An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life by Jeff Haanen

In An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life, Jeff Haanen writes that there is a growing sense of uneasiness among Americans ages 50–70. Baby boomers, and even early Gen Xers, are asking new questions about life, work, calling, and purpose in retirement—questions that our society is largely unprepared to answer. This book helps the reader with those questions.
Haanen writes that the dominant paradigm of retirement today is about vacation—how to afford it, and then how to make the most of it. But Haanen suggests beginning retirement with a stretch of deep Sabbath rest in which to find God’s call for the next season of life.
Haanen tells us that a Christian perspective on retirement needs a restoration of work, rest, and service that matures over a lifetime. He addresses topics such as learning, mentoring, and reconnecting with family in retirement.
Haanen tells us that the church has been nearly silent on the topic of retirement, and then asks, “What would it look like for the Christian church in America to transform our narrative about retirement?”
Haanen includes helpful stories to illustrate his points throughout the book, and contrasts “Common” vs. “Uncommon” ideas about retirement. A “Discussion Guide” is available for free download, making this a good book to read and discuss with others.
This is an excellent resource that pastors can recommend for those who are retired or will soon be retired.
Below are 20 great quotes from the book: Continue reading →


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Maturity: Growing Up and Going On in the Christian Life

20 More Great Quotes from Maturity: Growing Up and Going On in the Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson

We recently looked at Sinclair Ferguson’s excellent new book Maturity; Growing Up and Going on the Christian Life. (Click to read the review). Here are 20 more excellent quotes from the book:

  1. If you become a Christian, you must both expect and be prepared for opposition.
  2. Growth in grace and the conquest of sin come only when we allow ourselves to be exposed before God, hide nothing from him, confess our wanderings, are ashamed of our own failure, and long for a clean heart and a new spirit (Psa. 51:10).
  3. We cannot embrace the cross, or, more accurately, embrace the Christ who died on it and now lives forever, without renouncing sin.
  4. Tests, trials, and temptations abound in the Christian life. If we are to grow to maturity, we must learn how to handle them.
  5. In temptation we seem to be offered a more abundant life but wrapped within its folds lies death.
  6. God works in our lives through temptation. So, for us times of temptation can be means, not of destruction, but of sanctification.
  7. In God’s purposes, when we are tempted, we discover the truth about ourselves; we learn to think less of ourselves and more of our Savior.
  8. The Lord has promised to hear us; he will not turn a deaf ear to our cries for help. The dependence that is thus produced in our hearts, as we later discover, is simply one further way in which he brings us through temptations to maturity. After all, he makes everything work together for our good.
  9. How easily our witness is marred and nullified because we fail to be the son or daughter, parent, husband, wife, colleague or boss that God has called us to be!
  10. What the gospel provides for us then is the armor which Christ himself wore in his battles with the enemy. When engaged in conflict with Satan those who are in Christ wear his armor.
  11. Wearing the breastplate of righteousness means knowing this: I can never be more justified than I was the first moment I trusted Christ. And I can never be any less justified than Jesus. Nor can I be one whit less justified than the greatest believer who has ever lived.
  12. The New Testament teaches us that suffering is part and parcel of the Christian life.
  13. God uses tribulations to separate the spiritual chaff in our lives from the spiritual wheat.
  14. The believer does not interpret events in his life by the wisdom of men but by the word and wisdom of God.
  15. Afflictions focus our attention on the things that really matter, and thus restore us to single-mindedness and recalibrate our love for Christ.
  16. How slow we are to learn that God is willing to go to any lengths to transform us. No matter what it costs he has set his heart on us. The cross proves his determination. He means to make us like his Son, Jesus Christ. For this is the goal of our maturity.
  17. When we go through seasons of suffering, we should not forget that we are living our Christian life on the battlefield on which Satan is at war with the kingdom of God.
  18. True service is always marked by a recognition that we live for and serve others, not ourselves.
  19. Clearly perseverance is a basic feature of Christian living. Persevering is as important as initiation; continuing is as important as beginning.
  20. All sin, every sin, sin in any shape or form must be put off.


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15 More Great Quotes from Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just by Tim Keller

Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just by Tim Keller may be more relevant now than when it was first published in 2010, as our society (both believers and non-believers) is so deeply divided over the very definition of justice. You can read my review of the book here.
Here are 15 more great quotes from the book:

  • The most frequently cited Biblical motivation for doing justice is the grace of God in redemption.
  • If a person has grasped the meaning of God’s grace in his heart, he will do justice.
  • If he (believer) doesn’t care about the poor, it reveals that at best he doesn’t understand the grace he has experienced, and at worst he has not really encountered the saving mercy of God. Grace should make you just.
  • If you look down at the poor and stay aloof from their suffering, you have not really understood or experienced God’s grace.
  • When Christians who understand the gospel see a poor person, they realize they are looking into a mirror. Their hearts must go out to him or her without an ounce of superiority or indifference.

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25 Great Quotes from Halftime: Moving From Success to Significance  by Bob Buford

A few friends and I have continued the Friday morning book club we started the last few years of our career at a Fortune 50 organization. The first book we read was Bob Buford’s Halftime: Moving From Success to Significance, which had been recommended by an executive who also took early retirement.

One of our group members, a former teacher who had spent his final years of his career in the learning function, suggested that we have a final review of the book going over our lessons learned from the book. From that exercise, I pulled 25 of my favorite quotes from the book that I would like to share with you:

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30 More Great Quotes from The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur

Not long ago I read The Gospel According to Jesus: What is Authentic Faith? by John MacArthur. It’s one of the most important books I’ve read, and I highly recommend it to you. See my review of the book here.

In my review, I shared 20 of my favorite quotes from the book. Below, I’d like to share 30 more.

  1. Salvation occurs when a heart is humbled by a sovereign God who reveals His truth. In desperation the soul turns from sin and embraces Christ.
  2. Be on guard against conversions that are all smiles and cheers with no sense of repentance or humility. That is the mark of a superficial heart.
  3. Christians are not supposed to live like unsaved people.
  4. He never held forth the hope of salvation to anyone who refused to submit to His sovereign lordship.
  5. To the unregenerate mind, the thought of yielding everything to Christ is odious. But a believing heart surrenders to the Master with great joy.
  6. No one can rightfully lay claim to Him as Savior while refusing to own Him as Lord.
  7. No one who comes to Christ is either preferred or slighted because of past experience. The same eternal life is offered to all.
  8. Saving faith is an exchange of all that we are for all that Christ is.
  9. Some people serve Christ their whole lives. Others squander their lives, then turn to the Lord on their deathbeds. Either way, eternal life is the same.
  10. Repentance is not a one-time act. The repentance that takes place at conversion begins a progressive, lifelong process of confession.
  11. If repentance is genuine, we can expect it to produce observable results. There must be a sincere change in one’s lifestyle.
  12. No message that eliminates repentance can properly be called the gospel, for sinners cannot come to Jesus Christ apart from a radical change of heart, mind, and will.
  13. God draws the sinner to Christ and gives the ability to believe. Without that divinely generated faith, one cannot understand and approach the Savior.
  14. True faith is manifest only in obedience.
  15. God graciously saved people by reckoning His righteousness to them because of their faith. No one has ever been saved through the merit system — salvation has been available only by grace through faith ever since our first parents fell.
  16. Justification may be defined as an act of God whereby He imputes to a believing sinner the full and perfect righteousness of Christ, forgiving the sinner of all unrighteousness, declaring him or her perfectly righteous in God’s sight, thus delivering the believer from all condemnation.
  17. Justification is an instantaneous change of one’s standing before God, not a gradual transformation that takes place within the one who is justified.
  18. The cornerstone of justification is the reckoning of righteousness to the believer’s account. This is the truth that sets Christian doctrine apart from every form of false religion. We call it “imputed righteousness.” Apart from it, salvation is utterly impossible.
  19. The salvation He promised brings not only justification, but also sanctification, union with Him, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and an eternity of blessing. It is not merely a one-time legal transaction.
  20. What to do with Jesus Christ is a choice each person must make, but it is not just a momentary decision. It is a once-for-all verdict with ongoing implications and eternal consequences — the ultimate decision.
  21. All this world’s religions are based on human achievement. Biblical Christianity alone recognizes divine accomplishment — the work of Christ on humankind’s behalf — as the sole basis of salvation.
  22. The gate admits only one at a time, for salvation is intensely personal. It is not enough to be born in a Christian family or to ride the coattails of a believing spouse. Believing is an individual act.
  23. The kingdom is not for people who want Jesus without any change in their lives. It is only for those who seek it with all their hearts.
  24. Following Christ can cost your very life — it certainly costs your life in a spiritual sense. The fainthearted and compromisers need not apply.
  25. Many who think they are saved but live unholy lives will be shocked to discover in the final judgment that heaven is not their destiny.
  26. It has become quite popular to teach professing Christians that they can enjoy assurance of salvation no matter what their lives are like. That teaching is nothing but practical antinomianism. It encourages people living in hypocrisy, disobedience, and sin by offering them a false assurance. It discourages self-examination. And that clearly violates Scripture.
  27. If your life does not reveal growth in grace and righteousness and holiness, you need to examine the reality of your faith — even if you believe you have done great things in the name of Christ.
  28. The heart of real discipleship is a commitment to be like Jesus Christ. That means both acting as He did and being willing to accept the same treatment.
  29. When confronted with a decision between serving self and serving the Lord, the true disciple is the one who chooses to serve the Lord, even at great personal expense.
  30. When we come to Jesus for salvation, we come to the One who is Lord over all. Any message that omits this truth cannot be called the gospel. Any message that presents a savior who is less than Lord of all cannot claim to be the gospel according to Jesus.


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25 Quotes from “Work: Its Purpose, Dignity, and Transformation” by Dan Doriani

Dr. Doriani is a respected seminary professor (who I enjoyed two classes with at Covenant Seminary), pastor and theologian, and this may be the best book I’ve read on the subject of work from a Christian perspective. It is comprehensive, grounded in scripture, and at times, challenging. It also covers some aspects of work that I have not found in others books in the genre.

Here are 25 good quotes from the book:

  1. The union of love and justice brings out the best in workers.
  2. One may have an occupation without a vocation.
  3. A job pays the bills; a calling fits our gifts and interests.
  4. No honest calling is morally superior to any other.
  5. Work is the chief place where we love our neighbors as ourselves.
  6. At work, we have the greatest capacity to care for the hungry, the thirsty, and the sick.
  7. Scripture speaks most often of faithfulness, not fulfillment, in labor.
  8. God gives everyone a role as well as a place of service.
  9. If, by faith, we consecrate our work to God and aim to love both our coworkers and our customers, we serve the Lord and he remembers it.
  10. Everyone tastes disappointment at work, but work remains meaningful if we accept our God-given roles and support others in theirs, even when we are disappointed.
  11. All labor is equal in some ways but unequal in others.
  12. Every morally good task has dignity, whether the laborer sweeps floors or runs a company.
  13. The goal, the ideal, is to serve God with our highest and rarest gifts.
  14. Whether our lot seems humble or exalted, let us work with all our heart, for the Lord knows and rewards all faithful labor.
  15. We should serve God, restrain evil, and advance love, justice, and mercy at work.
  16. The Lord teaches us to work, then pause to sleep, eat, pray, and rest each week.
  17. If the Lord, the Creator, rested, then so should we. But Western culture presents many obstacles
  18. In the Western mind, we work five days to earn the right to rest and play on the weekend. But God tells believers to start the week with rest before we work. In Scripture, rest is a gift, not a reward.
  19. For employer and employee alike, to rest one day in seven is to live by faith.
  20. Reformations of work are ordinarily the spontaneous result of faith.
  21. The command to love our neighbor as ourselves can steer so much of our behavior at work.
  22. Pastors hear that the church should operate more like a business, but the church is the antithesis of a business. Like Jesus, it gives away its services.
  23. It is possible to “work heartily” for the Lord, in all ethical, life-giving occupations.
  24. All honest work is sacred when devoted to the glory of God.
  25. Work is sacred if it follows God’s law, if the motive is love for neighbor.


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20 More Great Quotes from Crush Your Career: Ace the Interview, Land the Job, and Launch Your Future by Dee Ann Turner

I recently read Crush Your Career: Ace the Interview, Land the Job, and Launch Your Future by Dee Ann Turner. You can read my review here.  This is a very helpful book for anyone looking for a job and growing their career. Reading this book was like sitting down for a personal mentoring session with the author in a favorite coffee shop on how to find a calling that is fulfilling and work that will help you reach your personal and professional dreams.

Here are 20 more great quotes from the book:

  • As leaders, it is sometimes easier for us to see potential for the future in others than it is for them to see it in themselves. It is the role of the leader to help others discover their paths.
  • Understanding our calling is critical to finding a career that gives our work life meaning. Without a calling, a job is just work.
  • One of the most significant roles that leaders in our lives play is helping us find our purpose.
  • Without a compass to guide us, it is easy to lose our way. Core values are the guideposts on the journey to living out our purpose and achieving our mission.
  • Your personal brand is how you represent yourself. It is the unique combination of capabilities, experiences, and personal values that you want others to know about you.
  • Most employers look for people with strong character. They want to select talent whose character matches the organization.

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