​Dec 22, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: Todd Bentley’s new wife is pregnant
It should be noted for the record that Jessa Bentley, the second wife of Todd Bentley, is well along with being pregnant. It was confirmed by an e-mail to his supporters a few weeks ago, complete with photo of a very pregnant Jessa.
Oct 11, 2014: Elijah List: Todd Bentley: "Goshen: A Place of Increase, Deliverance From Troubles, and Double Fruitfulness"
This is an excellent teaching and prophetic article for this hour from Todd Bentley.
July 11, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: Two of the most scary video soundbites that I have recently heard
It takes some doing for Todd Bentley or a friend/supporter of his to leave me a bit gobsmacked by something they say.
July 4, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: Todd Bentley on History Channel Canada
Todd Bentley, the noted faith-healing Canadian evangelist, was featured in a History TV Canada program in early June.
June 25, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: Todd Bentley’s first try to get a reality show, and the angel that missed the plane
Did you know that the “Reno Outpouring featured on the recent episode of Miracles Decoded with Todd Bentley could have had its own TV reality show featuring Todd Bentley…back in 2010.
June 24, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: So much for sneaking into B.C….
If Todd Bentley had been hoping to sneak into Langley B.C., that might not be happening now.

   witnesses who have passed before us

St Augustine

“Ye have not chosen me,” He says, “but I have chosen you.” Grace such as that is ineffable. For what were we so long as Christ had not yet chosen us, and we were therefore still destitute of love? For he who hath chosen Him, how can he love Him? Were we, think you, in that condition which is sung of in the psalm: “I had rather be an abject in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of wickedness”? Certainly not. What were we then, but sinful and lost? We had not yet come to believe on Him, in order to lead to His choosing us; for if it were those who already believed that He chose, then was He chosen Himself, prior to His choosing. But how could He say, “Ye have not chosen me,” save only because His mercy anticipated us? Here surely is at fault the vain reasoning of those who defend the foreknowledge of God in opposition to His grace, and with this view declare that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, because God foreknew that we should be good, but not that He Himself would make us good. So says not He, who declares, “Ye have not chosen me.” For had He chosen us on the ground that He foreknew that we should be good, then would He also have foreknown that we would not be the first to make choice of Him. For in no other way could we possibly be good: unless, forsooth, one could be called good who has never made good his choice. What was it then that He chose in those who were not good? For they were not chosen because of their goodness, inasmuch as they could not be good without being chosen. Otherwise grace is no more grace, if we maintain the priority of merit. Such, certainly, is the election of grace, whereof the apostle says: “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace.” To which he adds: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.” Listen, thou ungrateful one, listen: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” Not that thou mayest say, I am chosen because I already believed. For if thou wert believing in Him, then hadst thou already chosen Him. But listen: “Ye have not chosen me.” Not that thou mayest say, Before I believed I was already doing good works, and therefore was I chosen. For what good work can be prior to faith, when the apostle says, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin”? What, then, are we to say on hearing such words, “Ye have not chosen me,” but that we were evil, and were chosen in order that we might be good through the grace of Him who chose us? For it is not by grace, if merit preceded: but it is of grace: and therefore that grace did not find, but effected the merit. --St Augustine

​​In the summer of A.D. 386 a man named Augustine, a native of North Africa, who had for two years been the Professor of Rhetoric at Milan, sat weeping in the garden of his friend, Alypius. He was almost persuaded to begin a new life, and yet he found it impossible to break with his old life. As he sat, historians tell us that he heard a child singing in a neighboring yard, "Tolle Lege, Tolli Lege"--a little melody that means: "Take up and read...take up and read." Picking up a scroll which lay at his friend's side, his eyes fell upon the words:
Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Romans 13:13-14 NASB"

No further would I read," he said, "Nor had I any need, instantly at the end of this sentence a clear light flooded my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away." And in that very moment from one sentence in the book of Romans, the Church received the great Augustine, who has probably exerted more influence on the Church worldwide than any theologian in the history of the Church.
It was Augustine who refuted and finally demolished the teaching of Pelagius simply by expounding the Epistle to the Romans. Pelaguis taught that there was no inherit inclination to evil in human nature, no original sin. He taught moralism--that man apart from God could save himself. --Berean Bible Church

​ “He that is jealous is not in love” --– Saint Augustine

​​In the summer of A.D. 386 a man named Augustine, a native of North Africa, who had for two years been the Professor of Rhetoric at Milan, sat weeping in the garden of his friend, Alypius. He was almost persuaded to begin a new life, and yet he found it impossible to break with his old life. As he sat, historians tell us that he heard a child singing in a neighboring yard, "Tolle Lege, Tolli Lege"--a little melody that means: "Take up and read...take up and read." Picking up a scroll which lay at his friend's side, his eyes fell upon the words: Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Romans 13:13-14 NASB" No further would I read," he said, "Nor had I any need, instantly at the end of this sentence a clear light flooded my heart and all the darkness of doubt vanished away." And in that very moment from one sentence in the book of Romans, the Church received the great Augustine, who has probably exerted more influence on the Church worldwide than any theologian in the history of the Church. It was Augustine who refuted and finally demolished the teaching of Pelagius simply by expounding the Epistle to the Romans. Pelaguis taught that there was no inherit inclination to evil in human nature, no original sin. He taught moralism--that man apart from God could save himself. --Berean Bible Churcxh

William Barclay

karl barth

​Nothing has happened to change the fact that Christians – even in the middle of their supposedly and perhaps even very consciously Christian environment – will always be strange and threatened creatures. In any case, they will not be going with the flow. For them the great truths of conventional wisdom will never have absolute validity. Nor, certainly, will their absolute negation, and thus they will also hardly be able to count on the applause of current revolutionaries. And they will cultivate their freedom not only in free thoughts in private, but also in free and open deeds and modes of behaviour that will never find public approval. ---------------------- Having a sense of humor means not being stiff but flexible. Humor arises when we have insight into the contradiction between our existence as children of God and as children of this age, and we become conscious of our actions in a lively way. Humor means a great bucketing of the serious side of the present. --Karl Barth

todd bentley

​Dec 22, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: Todd Bentley’s new wife is pregnant
It should be noted for the record that Jessa Bentley, the second wife of Todd Bentley, is well along with being pregnant. It was confirmed by an e-mail to his supporters a few weeks ago, complete with photo of a very pregnant Jessa.
Oct 11, 2014: Elijah List: Todd Bentley: "Goshen: A Place of Increase, Deliverance From Troubles, and Double Fruitfulness"
This is an excellent teaching and prophetic article for this hour from Todd Bentley.

​Todd Bentley (born 10 January 1976) is a Canadian Christian evangelist. He was the key figure of the Lakeland Revival. After a brief period of retirement connected with the breakdown of his marriage and subsequent re-marriage, he has returned to ministry.

​July 11, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: Two of the most scary video soundbites that I have recently heard
It takes some doing for Todd Bentley or a friend/supporter of his to leave me a bit gobsmacked by something they say.
July 4, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: Todd Bentley on History Channel Canada
Todd Bentley, the noted faith-healing Canadian evangelist, was featured in a History TV Canada program in early June.
June 25, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: Todd Bentley’s first try to get a reality show, and the angel that missed the plane
Did you know that the “Reno Outpouring featured on the recent episode of Miracles Decoded with Todd Bentley could have had its own TV reality show featuring Todd Bentley…back in 2010.
June 24, 2014: Bene Diction Blogs On: So much for sneaking into B.C….
If Todd Bentley had been hoping to sneak into Langley B.C., that might not be happening now.

​Horatius Bonar

MUCH OF THE present controversy is concerning the will of God. On this point many questions have arisen. The chief one is that which touches on the connection between the will of God and the will of man. What is the relation between these? What is the order in which they stand to each other? Which is the first? There is no dispute as to the existence of these two separate wills. There is a will in God, and there is also a will in man. Both of these are in continual exercise: God willeth, and man willeth. Nothing in the universe takes place without the will of God. This is admitted. But it is asked: Is this will first in everything?

I answer, yes. Nothing that is good can exist which God did not will to be, and nothing that is evil can exist which God did not will to allow. The will of God goes before all other wills. It does not depend on them, but they depend on it. Its movements regulate them. The “I will” of Jehovah, is the spring and origin of all that is done throughout the universe, great and small, among things animate and inanimate. It was this “I will” that brought angels into being, and still sustains them. It was this “I will” that was the origin of salvation to a lost world. It was this “I will” that provided a Redeemer, and accomplished redemption. It was this “I will” that begins, and carries on, and ends salvation in each soul that is redeemed. It is this “I will” that opens the blind eye, and unstops the deaf ear. It was this “I will” that awakens the slumberer, and raises the dead. I do not mean that, merely generally speaking. God has declared His will concerning these things: but each individual conversion, nay, and each movement that forms part of it, originates in this supreme “I will”. When Jesus healed the leper, He said, “I will, be thou clean;” so when a soul is converted, there is the same distinct and special forthputting of the Divine will. “I will, be thou converted.” Everything that can be called good in man, or in the universe, originates in the “I will” of Jehovah.

I do not deny that in conversion man himself wills. In everything that he does, thinks, feels, he of necessity wills. In believing he wills; in repenting he wills; in turning from his evil ways he wills. All this is true. The opposite is both untrue and absurd. But while fully admitting this, there is another question behind it of great interest and moment. Are these movements of man’s will towards good the effects of the forthputting of God’s will? Is man willing, because he has made himself so, or because God has made him so? Does he become willing entirely by an act of his own will, or by chance, or by moral suasion, or because acted on by created causes and influences from without?

I answer unhesitatingly, he becomes willing, because another and a superior will, even that of God, has come into contact with his, altering its nature and its bent. This new bent is the result of a change produced upon it by Him who alone, of all beings, has the right, without control, to say, in regard to all events and changes, “I will.” The man’s will has followed the movement of the Divine will. God has made him willing. God’s will is first in the movement, not second. Even a holy and perfect will depends for guidance upon the will of God. Even when renewed it still follows , it does not lead . Much more an unholy will, for its bent must be first changed; and how can this be, if God is not to interpose His hand and power? --Horatius Bonar 1851

The history of six thousand years of evil has heen lost on man. He refuses to read its awful lesson regarding sin and God's displeasure against the sinner, which that history records. The flood of evil that has issued forth from one single sin he has forgotten. The death, the darkness, the sorrow, the sickness, the tears, the weariness, the madness, the confusion, the bloodshed, the furious hatred between man and man, making Earth a suburb of Hell -- all this is overlooked or misread. Man repels the thought that sin is crime which God hates with an infinite hate and which he, in his righteousness, must condemn and avenge. If sin is such a surface thing, such a trifle as men deem it, what is the significance of this long sad story? Do earth's ten thousand graveyards, where human love lies buried, tell no darker tale? Do the millions upon millions of broken hearts and heavy eyes say that sin is but a trifle? Do the moaning of the hospital or the carnage of the battlefield, the blood-stained sword, and the death-dealing artillery proclaim that sin is a mere casualty and the human heart the seat of goodness after all? Do the earthquake, the volcano, the hurricane, the tempest speak nothing of sin's desperate evil? Do not man's aching head, and empty heart, and burdened spirit, and shaded brow, and weary brain, and tottering limbs utter -- in a voice articulate beyond mistake -- that sin is guilt? And do they not utter that guilt must be punished -- punished by the iudge of all -- not as a mere "violation of natural laws," but as a breach of the eternal law, which admits of no reversal: "The soul that sins, it shall die?" For without law, sin is nothing. "The strength of sin is the law" (1 Corinthians 15:56), and he who makes light of sin must defend moral confusion and injustice. He who refuses to recognize sin as guilt must dissolve the law of the universe or ascrihe imbecility and injustice to the Judge of all. The world has grown old in sin. It has now more than ever hegun to trifle with it, either as a necessity which cannot he cured, or a partial aberration from good order which will rectify itself ere long. It is this tampering with evil, this refusal to see sin as God sees it, as the law declares it, and as the story of our race has revealed it, that has in all ages been the root of error and of wide departure from the faith once delivered to the saints. Admit the evil of sin with all its eternal consequences, and you are shut up to a divine way of dealing with it. Deny the evil of sin and the future results of that evil, and you may deny the whole revelation of God, set aside the cross, and abrogate the law. Horatius Bonar (The Everlasting Righteousness)

dietrich bonhoeffer

​There’s a trap that I’d call the Bonhoeffer assumption. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was studying at Union Seminary in New York. He was about to go to India to study nonviolence with Gandhi when he decided he had to go back to Germany. And when he got back, he discovered there weren’t any people who had committed to nonviolence except for the Bruderhof and a few others; there were no troops, in other words. The churches had failed their job in evangelizing people about nonviolence. So Bonhoeffer decided to join the death squad against Hitler because he could see no other alternatives that would be effective.
American thinkers who have used Bonhoeffer as a way of justifying the just war theory overlook his clear statement that he does not regard this as a justifiable action—that it’s a sin—and that he throws himself on the mercy of God. He does not use his act as a legitimization of war. I don’t want to take the position that if you use nonviolence and it doesn’t work, you use violence. - Walter Wink; 2002

thomas brooks

1) The weakest Christians have as much as interest and propriety in Christ as the strongest saints in the world. Weak saints are as much united to Christ, as much justified by Christ, as much reconciled by Christ, and as much pardoned by Christ as the strongest saints. A soul weak in grace has as much interest in the Lord as the strongest saint has, even though the weak saint might not have the skill to improve upon that interest. 2) The Lord will not cast away weak saints because of the weakness that clings to their persons or services. Christ looks more upon Peter’s sorrow than his sin, more upon his tears than upon his oaths. The Lord will not cast away weak saints for their great unbelief, for there is a little faith in them. He will not throw them away for that hypocrisy that is in them because of that little sincerity that is in them. He will not cast away weak saints for that pride that is in them, because of those rays of humility that shine in them. We would not throw a little gold away because there is a great deal of dross in it, neither will God throw his people away though there is a great deal of weakness in them. The Lord Jesus has as great and as large and interest in the weakest saints as he has in the strongest. 3) The Lord will graciously preserve and strengthen those weak graces that are in his weak saints. Though your graces be as a spark of fire in the midst of an ocean of corruption, yet the Lord will preserve and blow up that spark of fire into a flame. It was the priest’s office in the time of the law to keep the fire in the sanctuary from going out; it is the office of our Lord Jesus – as he is our high priest, head, husband, and mediator – to blow up that heavenly fire that he has kindled in our souls. A bruised reed he will not break, nor quench the smoking flax (Mt. 12:27). 4) Weak Christians do not stand before God in their own righteousness, but in the perfect, spotless, and matchless righteousness of Christ. Weak hearts are prone to be troubled and discouraged when they consider the sin that is in them and when they consider the imperfections clinging to their good deeds. Then they are ready to say, ‘We will one day perish because of the strength of our lusts or the defects of our good deeds!’ Remember this, however, that weak Christians stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ, so God owns them and looks upon them as his people wrapped up in his royal robe (Jer. 23.6, 1 Cor. 1.30). Though weak saints have nothing of their own, yet in Christ they have all, for in him is all fullness (Col. 1.19). 5) Weak Christians have a share in Christ; they are firmly united to him. Christ shares with them in their human nature. Christ shares with them in their afflictions. Christ shares with them in their suffering and persecution. Christ shares with them in all their temptations. Weak saints share with Christ in his image, in his Spirit, his grace, his victory, his honor, and his glory (Eph. 2.6, John 14.2, 3, Rev. 3.21). Excerpt from The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, by Thomas Brooks

Jeremiah Burroughs

“A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by way of addition, as by way of subtraction” --Jeremiah Burroughs (1599–1646); The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

- John Calvin - 

Oswald Chambers

​ "A man's disposition on the inside, i.e., what he possesses in his personality, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the nature of the one tempted, and reveals the possibilities of that nature. Every man has the setting of this own temptation, and the temptation will come along the line of the ruling disposition. Temptation yielded to... is a proof that it was timidity that prevented the sin before." --Oswald Chambers

​"Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion. 'Take no thought for your life...' Our Lord points out the utter unreasonableness from His standpoint of being so anxious over the means of living. Jesus is not saying that the man who takes thought for nothing is blessed--that man is a fool. Jesus taught that a disciple has to make his relationship to God the dominating concentration of his life, and to be carefully careless about everything else in comparison to that. Jesus is saying--'Don't make the ruling factor of your life what you shall eat and what you shall drink, but be concentrated absolutely on God.' Some people are careless over what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it... they are careless about their earthly affairs, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the great care of this life is to put the relationship to God first, and everything else second. It is one of the severest disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses." -Oswald Chambers

GK Chesterton

""We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong. We do not want, as the newspapers say, a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world." " - G.K. Chesterton

​The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year's resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven. " --G. K. Chesterton

Charles Colson

Jonathan Edwards

​Jonathan Edwards wrote in his infamous "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God": "that they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding.......It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning...............they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down." In short, God has little reason to go out and throw people "down"....they will fall of their own accord...for not allowing God to "light their pathway."

​"Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. 1:25,26,etc. " - Jonathan Edwards(Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God)

"Men’s desires are naturally very large. ‘Tis no small matter will satisfy the desires of the soul of man: ’tis not all the enjoyments of a fininte world will do it. A man must have something of a larger extent than heaven or earth in order to it. And godly men’s desires of happiness are no less large than others. Godliness regulates men’s desires of happiness, and directs them to right objects; but it don’t diminish and confine them, or reduce them to straiter limits. God’s people’s desires of happiness are exceeding extensive; but as extensive as they are, there is great encouragement in this doctrine to go to God with them. They may expose as large desires as they will, God is ready to hear them. God stands ready to give ‘em their hearts’ desire. . . . Let ‘em open their mouth in their desires and prayers as wide as they will, God stands ready to fill them; yea, he would have them open their mouths wide." --Jonathan Edwards

Billy Graham

​A January 2013 post on the Billy Graham Library website noted that the evangelist identified John 3:16 as his favorite Bible verse back in 1995, which reads: "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Billy Graham said at the time that it's the one verse he always preaches on his evangelistic crusades. "It has only 25 words in the English translation of it, but it is the Gospel in a nutshell. Someone has called it a miniature Bible," he said. -Stoyan Zaimov; Christianity Today

​Some think that by working to be good and treating others well will put them over the top. Many join the church thinking that will be the key to fulfillment. What is the answer to the great dilemma of striking the balance in life? Jesus answered this question and said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). When we trust God with our life and put our faith and trust in Him, He brings the balance. He enables us to look to Him, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). The ancient king of the Babylonian empire appeared to have everything life could offer but was weighed in the balance and found lacking by God (Daniel 5:27). Why? Because he did not acknowledge God. He thought he was all-powerful, egotistical, and prideful. Jesus said, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled [brought down]” (Matthew 23:12). --Billy Graham

​Ole Kristian Hallesby

​Ole Kristian Hallesby (1879-1961) was a Norwegian theologian who stood for biblical truth in an age of doctrinal erosion. He also resisted the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II and suffered for it in a concentration camp. He understood the depth of prayer. In his book on the subject he wrote this:
I have witnessed the death-struggle of some of my Christian friends. Pain has coursed through their bodies and souls. But this was not their worst experience. I have seen them gaze at me anxiously and ask, "What will become of me when I am no longer able to think a sustained thought, nor pray to God?"
If they only realized what they were doing, the people who postpone conversion until they become ill! My friend, in the death-struggle your physical and mental energies will all be taxed to their utmost by your suffering and pain. Remember that and repent now, the acceptable time.
When I stand at the bedside of friends who are struggling with death, it is blessed to be able to say to them, "Do not worry about the prayers that you cannot pray. You yourself are a prayer to God at this moment. All that is within you cries out to Him. And He hears all the pleas that your suffering soul and body are making to Him with groanings which cannot be uttered. But if you should have an occasional restful moment, thank God that you already have been reconciled to Him, and that you are now resting in the everlasting arms."

Vance Havner    (1901-1986)

"The Smyrna believers could have compromised with the Jews and pagans and saved their property and lives, but some things are more precious than life itself. Such Christians need no revival. They have the very essence of revival, loyalty to Christ at any cost." - Vance Havner

​H.C. Leupold (1892-1972)

"In a way it may seem as though the unsuspicious Eve, who has never been tempted, is at a grievous disadvantage because of the very subtle nature of the suspicion that the serpent seeks to engender in her heart. But her advantages are sufficient amply to offset the cleverness of the attack. There is, first of all, the discern their very nature. At this point Eve could easily have probed farther and divined the actual truth. Our first parents certainly had been adequately prepared for an emergency such as this. Empirical knowledge of God’s goodness and mercy toward man. The whole of creation formed a strong symphony of protest against any suspicions of God’s good will. Then, Eve had a very clear word from God, simple and unencumbered by many details as to what her moral duty was. Whether this word was heard immediately from God or mediately from her husband matters little and cannot impair the power of that word upon her heart. And then, too, there was one feature about the temptation that could well have aroused instantaneous suspicion of the tempter: a mere irrational creature spoke. The insight into the limitations of the being of the animal was sufficiently clear to a creature like man, who had but recently been entirely qualified to give names to all these beings. At this point already we must begin to take issue with the claim that in the temptation as such the penalty resulting is quite out of proportion to the trifling nature of the misdeed. For those who raise such a claim liken the sin of our first parents to the taking of forbidden fruit by children and then claim: the mere taking of an apple certainly does not merit such dreadful consequences as are here pictured as resulting. Over against such misconceptions we strongly maintain that the taking of the fruit was not the fall into sin; that fall had occurred before this act; the taking of the fruit was an incidental bit of evidence of the fact that man had fallen. However, the Fall as such was nothing less in character than an entirely inexcusable piece of rebellion against a very gracious Father who not only had withheld nothing good from man but had even bestowed such an overwhelming wealth of good things that revolt against such a one must in the very nature of the case be a sin of the deepest hue, yes, even the one great sin in the history of the human race. " - --H.C. Leupold (1892-1972)

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The whole purpose of evangelism is primarily to tell men what sin has done to them, ​ to tell them why they are what they are, namely, separated from God. It is to tell them that what they need above everything else is not to be made to feel happy, but to be brought back into a right relationship with the God who is 'light and in him is no darkness at all'. But that means preaching holiness. To separate these two things, it seems to me, is to deny essential biblical teaching."— Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Exposition to Ephesians

​The preacher must never be dull, and he must never be boring; he should never be what is called ‘heavy’… This is to me a very serious matter; there is something radically wrong with dull and boring preachers.
 
How can a man be dull when he is handling such themes? I would say that a “dull preacher” is a contradiction in terms; if he is dull he is not a preacher. He may stand in a pulpit and talk, but he is certainly not a preacher.
 
With the grand theme and message of the Bible dullness is impossible. This is the most interesting, the most thrilling, the most absorbing subject in the universe; and the idea that this can be presented in a dull manner makes me seriously doubt whether the men who are guilty of this dullness have ever really understood the doctrine they claim to believe, and which they advocate.
We often betray ourselves by our manner.

– D Martyn Lloyd-Jones; from Preachers and Preaching, 100-101.

- CS Lewis - Martin Luther - 

Sinclair Lewis

Aug 20, 2015: Youtube: Sinclair Ferguson: God So Loved the World
God's work of redemption involves more than the salvation of a handful of souls. In this session, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson will explore the breadth of the promises of the gospel. He will explain how Scripture moves from the glorious truth of the redemption of our souls to the promise that all the elect from every tongue and tribe will be saved. This message will also look to the redemption of the groaning creation, reminding us that the end of the world is not destruction but re-creation.

​Sinclair Buchanan Ferguson (born 1948) is a Scottish theologian known in Reformed Christian circles for his teaching, writing, and editorial work. He is a professor at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, commuting from Scotland. He is an Elder at St. Peter's Free Church of Scotland, Dundee, where he preaches regularly.

J Gresham Machen

"We value God solely for the things that He can do; we make of Him a mere means to an ulterior end. And God refuses to be treated so; such a religion always fails in the hour of need. If we have regarded religion merely as a means of getting things — even lofty and unselfish things — then when the things that have been gotten are destroyed, our faith will fail. When loved ones are taken away, when disappointment comes and failure, when noble ambitions are set at naught, then we turn away from God. We have tried religion, we say, we have tried prayer, and it has failed. Of course it has failed! God is not content to be an instrument in our hand or a servant at our beck and call. He is not content to minister to the worldly needs of those who care not a bit for Him. ... Has it never dawned upon us that God is valuable for His own sake, that just as personal communion is the highest thing that we know on earth, so personal communion with God is the sublimest height of all? If we value God for His own sake, then the loss of other things will draw us all the closer to Him; we shall then have recourse to Him in time of trouble as to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."
— J. Gresham Machen
[J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith? (Originally published 1925; Carlisle, PA, USA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991, 2008), p. 74]

Dwight L Moody ​(1837-1899)

“God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves." - —Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)

A. J. Muste