Steph and I will be leading worship @ NOW at Farmington Old School. Saturday 3/17/12 7p.m. All are welcome. -david

All will stand before Judge of the Earth to give account of their deeds to Him. Fear of man & self-love will seem so empty on that day. - David Sliker

Luke 2:41-51 (Jesus in the temple)- of all the events from age 2-30, why did the Spirit give this scene as the one & only window to gaze thru? - Stephen Venable

Why do the Gospels include names of the people Jesus healed? They were eyewitnesses & continually told their story until they died. - Josh Hawkins

Young man, young woman - you'll have kids someday. Your life in prayer, seeking to burn before God, is your gift to them and their kids. - Sliker

I tremble before His divinie majesty, yet the knowledge of Jesus' humanity invites me beyond fear into the joy of abiding love. - Allen Hood

Jesus is intimately familiar with you, not from writing a manual on human design but from joining Himself to you forever. - Allen Hood.

A fetter on his ankle, a flame in his heart, the old apostle preached the fullness of Christ to the end. Acts 28:30-31 - Piper

The childhood of Jesus assails the haughtiness of our minds with merciless blows and then conquers our souls with tenderness. Find Him there. - Stephen Venable

"If man is not made in the image of God, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity." - Francis Schaeffer

The overriding necessity of our life is to gaze on the beauty and majesty of the Lord. If we truly behold HIM, we will live for His Glory. - Pablo Perez

For over 90% of His life, Jesus was unrecognized, serving His family and living in the mundane. How then shall we live? - Joshua Hawkins

John Piper: "The greatest gift you give your wife is loving God above her life."

In choosing a council to preside at Peter and John’s trial, Acts 4:5-6, all the heavy hitters were called in. Present were all the big boys who had demonstrated their political clout already by getting Jesus of Nazareth crucified. These leaders—who still had the power to get a guy crucified—were strategically chosen in order to terrify and intimidate the apostles. How did Peter respond to the intimidation? He delivered a message that was as blatantly offensive and deliberately confrontive as possible. “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) This continues to be the most politically incorrect Scripture of all time. It must be proclaimed with the same fearless boldness. If God gives you a message, say it with extra boldness when in the presence of your detractors and opposers. Refuse intimidation. - Bob Sorge

Conformity to Jesus' words only comes naturally to Jesus Himself. To us they're always jarring & disruptive. We must not neglect His words. - Stephen Venable

After we have listened to the Word of God, we are either harder against it or softer towards it. But we can't remain natural. - David Pawson

Extravagant giving and a simple lifestyle help believers declare war on covetousness and lust for "more". The heart that finds true satisfaction and rest in God with joy is a free heart not entangled with the love of money, root of all evil. - David Sliker

Jesus is not an object to acquire information about. He is a Person to be known. - josh hawkins

The Sermon on the Mount is such a powerful tool to blow up everything fruitless in my life and plumb line me again to what really matters. - Dave Sliker

"They were greatly amazed beyond measure and marveled" (Mk. 6:51) Why is this not also our reaction to the words and life of Jesus? - Josh Hawkins

Steph and I will be leading worship at the Garage this Friday (2/24) for all those interested who love to spend their friday nights worshiping to Jesus.

Rejection causes me to close my heart. Jesus, rejected by men never closes His. He wants us to have this same security before the Father. John 15:9 Misty Edwards

"In the gospels, anyone who encounters Christ is impelled either to worship him or to pick up stones with which to stone him." Von Balthasar

"We go to God to receive love, and we go to others to give it." - Greaves

Conformity to Jesus' words only comes naturally to Jesus Himself. To us they're always jarring & disruptive. We must not neglect His words. - Stephen Venable

I will be speaking at the Garage in East Peoria. Friday night (17th) 7pm. I'm going to teach on Jesus and Gal 5. All are invited. Even you. -david.

"A prayer-less church is a love-less church. We need love to function. We have to connect with God in prayer." - David Sliker

To not give to the poor because of a fear they will misuse the money is a misuse of the money. - Bill Johnson

Your authority to preach a message is directly related to how much that message moves your own heart - Sliker

In unique ways, each gospel begins by establishing the divinity of Jesus & the perfection of His humanity as the doorway into His story - Venable

John Piper: When all your favorite preachers are gone, and all their books forgotten, you will have your Bible. Master it. Master it.

David Sliker: Contemplating Jesus - what He did for us, and the wonder of who He is - will be our eternal privilege and ceaseless preoccupation.

David Sliker: Is there anything as satisfying and powerful as singing about the details of Jesus, and declaring to Him that He is beautiful?

David Sliker: Believers will talk about Jesus to everyone they meet, not because evangelism is their occupation, but because He is their preoccupation.

Sarah Sun Kim: If we truly believe this life is a preparation for the next, then we will live today in radical pursuit of what the Lord deems everlasting.

Corey Russell: If your grace isn’t teaching you how to deny ungodliness and lust (Titus. 2:12), get a new grace.

"Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still." E.M. Bounds

"If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day." E.M. Bounds

Stephen Venable: The "key" to answered prayer isn't a formula in a book. It's God. Know Him, be His friend, and orient your life around the glory of His Son.

Stuart Greaves: In Jn12:3 Mary at Jesus' feet prepares Him for His death (Matt 26:12). In Jn13:5 Jesus is at our feet preparing us for ours.

Stephen Venable: The equation "God's favor = ease, success, & popularity" breaks down in the first two chapters of the NT. It only gets worse from there. Mary was "highly favored" & "blessed" (Lk 1:28). For her that included being known as an adulteress and having people try to kill her baby.

"To love at all is to be vulnerable..." C.S. Lewis

Josh Hawkins: Early church evangelism proclaimed Jesus as the anointed king who would reign in Jerusalem. Nowadays He's just "the way to heaven"

Brian Kim: When will the Gospel become again to us what it once was to the early church - foolish, but dangerous (1 Cor 1:18)

Matt Candler: None saw the coming of the Seed (Gn3) as a seed to die in the ground that it's Life would bear fruit in the soil of sinful humanity (Jn12).

David Pawson: True believers not only wait for Jesus. They long for his appearing. They not only have thoughts about it. They have feelings about it.

Stuart Greaves: God stooped down so low to touch dust with His own hands & breathe with His own mouth in man's nostrils to form humanity.

Sarah Sun Kim: Heard a report of a house of 10 college girls each tithing a tenth of their day to Jesus to pray 24/7 for a week. Glory! Is.56:7

Tozer “You can be straight as a gun barrel theologically and just as empty as one spiritually"

Stuart Greaves: We love a Man we have not seen and yet He's so beautiful to us 1 Peter 1:8