Boldness enables Christians to forsake all rather than Christ, and to prefer to offend all rather than to offend Him…
“True boldness for Christ transcends all, it is indifference to the displeasure of either friends or foes. Boldness enables Christians to forsake all rather than Christ, and to prefer to offend all rather than to offend Him”
– Jonathan Edwards
“Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them”
“Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them”
François de La Rochefoucauld
“Humility is the beginning of true understanding”
For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness-God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.
If this is a fairly accurate view of things, what can we say then when Christian men vie with one another for place and position? What can we answer when we see them hungrily seeking for praise and honor? How can we excuse that passion for publicity which is so glaringly evident among Christian leaders? What about political ambition in Church circles? What about the fevered palm that is stretched out for more and bigger “love offerings”? What about the shameless egotism among Christians? How can we explain the gross man-worship that habitually blows up one and another popular leader to the size of a colossus? What about the obsequious hand kissing of moneyed men by those purporting to be sound preachers of the gospel?
There is only one answer to these questions; it is simply that in these manifestations we see the world and nothing but the world. No passionate profession of love for ‘souls’ can change evil into good. These are the very sins that crucified Jesus. The Pursuit of Man, 126.
“Deliver me, O God, from this insidious trap. Give me a humble spirit, willing to serve You faithfully, however obscure might be my service. Amen.”
“A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependence on Him; of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom; and that it is by God’s power that he is upheld and provided for, and that he needs God’s wisdom to lead and guide him, and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.”
– Jonathan Edwards
Wisdom of the Ages 