If it’s only about the people in the church to you, then you are codependent on church and not utterly dependent on God. If the church is the place where the most worship happens in your life, then you are codependent on the church, and you’re not utterly dependent on God. If the church is where you come to get prayer, and all the prayer happens in your life in this house, then the reality is – you are codependent on the church and not utterly dependent on God. If your awareness of God’s presence occurs mostly in the church, then you are codependent on the church, you’re not utterly dependent upon God.
Church Life
Ed Stetzer
We are willing to demonstrate grace and healing to those who look, act, and struggle the same way we do, but condemn and alienate those who look, act, or struggle differently. As a result, when people in our churches, whether out of curiosity or need, seek to discuss uncomfortable topics like racial injustice, they are often met with scorn or simplistic responses meant to quickly dismiss the conversation and silence “the other” because of the discomfort the topic creates. Such responses are profoundly unloving.
Jake Kaill
Scripture is never meant to be used as a means to control or manipulate another person. Consider this: when the Word of God gets separated from the heart of God and the Spirit of God, it is no longer the Word of God, and you are not obligated to obey it. “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). Jesus showed that we don’t have to obey a Scripture when it is quoted to us by the devil. We must learn to discern the spirit behind the words, not just the content of the words. Rejecting spiritual abuse is not disobeying God; it is resisting the devil!
Leonard Ravenhill
Let the fires go out in the boiler room of the church and the place will still look smart and clean, but it will be cold. The Prayer Room is the boiler room for its spiritual life.
H.A. Baker
Joining a church, singing hands, reading or saying prayers, working in or for the church, preaching from the pulpit, or giving all one’s body to be burned has nothing whatever to do with the new birth. The new birth is something that God gives by grace, regardless of works. The finest pulpit orator, the most formal churchman, the most protesting protestant has no more hope of heaven than the most reckless centre unless he be born again.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
A prayerless church member is a hindrance. He is in the body like a rotting bone or a decayed tooth. Before long, since he does not contribute to the benefit of his brethren, he will become a danger and a sorrow to them. Neglect of private prayer is the locust which devours the strength of the church.
Rick Joyner
There are gifts that cannot manifest unless we’re in community.
Ed Stetzer
Our idols are not golden calves or carved statues. Idolatry is not tied to any specific idol; it exists whenever we look to someone or something in the world around us to save and satisfy us. Just as every age has its own problems, each has a fresh cast of new idols it creates to solve them. We reject the refreshing and rest-filled salvation of the Lord and hew for ourselves cisterns that give the illusion of holding water but are really bottomless pits. Try as we might, every new cistern fails, and we are left looking for some new solution to our temptations, fears, anxieties, and self-righteousness. The insidious lie of idols is that they prey on our hope. Every day they demand our work and devotion, offering nothing in return but promising us that “just a little more” will do it.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
April 7, 2020
The main trouble with the Christian Church today is that she is too much like a clinic, too much like a hospital; that is why the great world is going to hell outside!… Look at the great campaign, look at it objectively, look at it from God’s standpoint. Forget yourself and your temporary troubles and ills for the moment; fight in the army. It is not a clinic you need; you must realize that we are in a barracks and that we are involved in a mighty campaign.
Warren and David Wiersbe
April 2, 2020
When ministry becomes performance, then the sanctuary becomes a theatre, the congregation becomes an audience, worship becomes entertainment, and man’s applause and approval become the measure of success. But when ministry is for the glory of God, his presence moves into the sanctuary. Even the unsaved visitor will fall down on his face, worship God, and confess that God is among us.”