William Booth

While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while little children go hungry, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!

Leslie Newbigin

Mission is not a burden laid upon the church; it is a gift and a promise to the church that is faithful. The command arises from the gift. Jesus reigns and all authority has been given to him in earth and heaven. When we understand that, we shall not need to be told to let it be known. Rather, we shall not be able to keep silent.

Martin Luther

Not only are we the freest of kings, we are also priests forever—which is far more excellent than being kings, for as priests we are worthy to appear before God to pray for others and to teach one another divine things.

Timothy Keller

We're all trying to cleanse ourselves, or to cover up our uncleanness by compensatory good deeds. But it will not work. The prophet Jeremiah puts this very vividly: "'Although you wash yourself with soda and use and abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,' declares the sovereign Lord" (Jeremiah 2:22). Outside-in cleansing cannot deal with the problem of the human heart.

Warren Wiersbe

Submission is not subjugation. Subjugation turns a person into a thing, destroys individuality, and removes all liberty. Submission makes a person become more of what God wants him to be; it brings out individuality; it gives him the freedom to accomplish all that God has for his life and ministry.

Thomas Kelly

[The} practice of inward orientation, of inward worship and listening, is no mere counsel for special religious groups, for small religious orders, for special "interior souls," for monks retired in cloisters. This practice is the heart of religion. It is the secret, I am persuaded, of the inner life of the Master in Galilee. He expects this secret to be freshly discovered in everyone who would be his follower. It creates an amazing fellowship, the church catholic and invisible, and institutes group living at a new level, a society grounded in reverence, history rooted in eternity, colonies of heaven.

The Inner Light, the Inward Christ, is no mere doctrine, belonging particularly to a small religious fellowship, to be accepted or rejected as a mere belief. It is the living Center of Reference for all Christian souls and Christian groups.

Thomas A Kempis

Sometimes it is good for us to have troubles and hardships, for they often call us back to our own hearts. Once there, we know ourselves to be strangers in this world, and we know that we may not believe in anything that it has to offer. Sometimes it is good that we put up with people speaking against us, and sometimes it is good that we be thought bad and flawed, even when we do good things and have good intentions. Such troubles are often aids to humility, and they protect us from pride. Indeed, we are sometimes better at seeking God when people have nothing but bad things to say about us and when they refuse to give us credit for the things we have done! That being the case, we should so root ourselves in God that we do not need to look for comfort anywhere else.