Inspirational Quotes by R. C. Sproul

“When I have things in perspective, I know that if I never experienced another blessing in my entire life other than the blessings I already have received from the hand of God, I would have no possible reason to be anything but overflowing with joy until the day I die. God has already given me so much to be thankful for, so much to provoke my soul to delight, gladness, and joy, that I should be able to live on the basis of that surplus of blessedness and remain joyful all of my days.”

“El concepto básico aquí es que lo que Dios crea, él lo sustenta. Por lo tanto, una de las subdivisiones importantes de la doctrina de la providencia es el concepto de sustento divino. En palabras simples, esta es la clásica idea cristiana de que Dios no es el gran Relojero que fabrica el reloj, le da cuerda, y luego sale de escena. En lugar de eso, él preserva y sostiene aquello que crea.”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Hini nothing was made that was made. In Hini was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

“It taught that the letters that make up the word joy stand for “Jesus,” “others,” and “yourself,” and the lesson was that the secret to joy is to put Jesus first, others second, and yourself third.”

“Todo tiene una causa, y la causa última, como hemos visto, es Dios.”

“But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”

“None of us saw the birth of Christ. We missed His dazzling display of miracles during His earthly ministry. Likewise, nobody alive today beheld Christ's agony on the cross. None of us was an eyewitness of His glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven. But no Christian will sleep through the second coming of Christ. Though we did not see His first coming, we all will be eyewitnesses of His return. The climax of the exaltation of Jesus will be viewed by every believer.”

“Jesus suffered for us. Yet we are called to participate in His suffering. Though He was uniquely the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, there is still an application of this vocation for us. We are given both the duty and the privilege to participate in the suffering of Christ.”

“We have already seen that our suffering is part of the total plan of God and that God can work through evil to accomplish His plan. The fact that God has a plan is indicative that He has a purpose. The fact that He is sovereign is indicative that He is fulfilling that purpose even when He allows suffering to come upon us. As in the case of Job, He may not reveal what His purpose is, but we have good reason to trust Him.”

“The way of suffering was the Father's plan. It was the Father's will. The cross was not Satan's idea. The passion of Christ was not the result of human contingency. It was not the accidental contrivance of Caiaphas, Herod, or Pilate. The cup was prepared, delivered, and administered by almighty God.”

“The prayer of faith is a prayer of trust. The very essence of faith is trust.”

“Forgetting the benefits of God is also the mark of the immature Christian, one who lives by his feelings. He is prone to a roller-coaster spiritual life, moving quickly from ecstatic highs to depressing lows. In the high moments, he feels an exhilarating sense of God's presence, but he plunges to despair the moment he senses an acute absence of such feelings.”

“We need Christ-the real Christ. A Christ born of empty speculation or created to squeeze into the philosopher's pattern simply won't do. A recycled Christ, a Christ of compromise, can redeem no one. A Christ watered down, stripped of power, debased of glory, reduced to a symbol, or made impotent”

“La Biblia dice que hay ciertas cosas que Dios ha decretado desde la eternidad. Tales cosas sucederán inevitablemente. Si tú oraras individualmente o si tú y yo uniéramos fuerzas en oración, o si todos los cristianos del mundo orásemos colectivamente, eso no cambiaría lo que Dios, en su consejo oculto, ha determinado hacer. Si decidiéramos orar para que Jesús no regrese, aun así él regresaría. Aunque quizá tú preguntarás: “¿No dice la Biblia que si dos o tres se ponen de acuerdo en algo, lo conseguirán?” Sí, eso dice, pero ese pasaje habla de la disciplina de la iglesia, no de las peticiones de oración. Así que debemos tener en consideración toda la enseñanza bíblica sobre la oración y no aislar un pasaje del resto. Debemos abordar el asunto a la luz de toda la Escritura, evitando una lectura fragmentaria.”

“In the Old Testament, worship centered on the altar with the presentations of sacrifices offered to God. For the most part, these sacrifices of animals and various grains were made as sin offerings. In themselves the animal sacrifices had no power to atone for sins. They were symbols that pointed forward to the one great sa.crifice that would be made on the cross. After the perfect Lamb was slain, the altar sacrifices ceased. The Christian church has no provision for animal sacrifices anymore because it has no need for such sacrifices. To offer them now would be to insult the perfection of Christ's sacrifice.”

“People have an appreciation for moral excellence, as long as it is removed a safe distance from them. The Jews honored the prophets, from a distance. The world honors Christ, from a distance.”

“The Bible says, "In the beginning God." The God we worship is the God who has always been. He alone can create beings, because He alone has the power of being. He is not nothing. He is not chance. He is pure Being, the One who has the power to be all by Himself. He alone is eternal. He alone has power over death. He alone can call worlds into being by fiat, by the power of His command. Such power is staggering, awesome. It is deserving of respect, of humble adoration.”

“When Luther boldly declared the biblical doctrine of jus.ifrcation by faith alone, he said, "Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.”

“The Sacred and the Profane. Eliade insists that we have never been able to create an existence of pure and utter profanity. He says, "To whatever degree he may have desacralized the world, the man who has made his choice in favor of a profane life never succeeds in completely doing away with religious behavior.”

“Have you ever considered the deeper implications of the slightest sin, of the most minute peccadillo? What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey Him at the slightest point? We are saying no :o the righteousness of God. We are saying, "God, Your law is not good. My judgment is better than Yours. Your authority does not apply to me. I am above and beyond Your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do, not what You command me to do." The slightest sin is an act of defiance against cosmic It is a revolutionary act, a rebellious act in which we are setting ourselves in opposition to the One to whom we owe everything. is an insult to His holiness. We become false witnesses to God.”