Max Anders
What we do in public determines our reputation; what we do in private determines our character.Collection: Character
Believers are inclined to attribute their spiritual successes to their godliness when it would be more accurate to connect them with God's faithfulness.Collection: Spiritual
When believers neglect the revealed Word of God, they are likely to turn to silly and unprofitable methods of insight.Collection: Silly
The worship of false gods is always an outgrowth of spiritual deception.Collection: Spiritual
Exposure to false doctrine places a person at risk not just for theological errors but for moral failure.Collection: Errors
A life that is lived without regard to God cannot be called living.Collection: Regard
Chastening is a mark of affection, not a sign of rejection.Collection: Rejection
Prosperity is often the enemy of spiritual development.Collection: Spiritual
Conversion is essential, but it is a beginning, not an end. The believer in Jesus Christ is not simply rescued from the penalty of his sin; he is redeemed to love God and his neighbor so that others might come to know him.Collection: Jesus
God is enough like us to understand our problems and enough above us to be able to solve them.Collection: Able
Only people of proven character should be placed in positions of spiritual leadership.Collection: Spiritual
No amount of temporal success can compensate for the loss of God's approval.Collection: Loss
God never forgets a promise.Collection: Promise
Our identity as the people of God is marked primarily by our faithfulness in obedience to Him.Collection: People
There is no substitute for a firsthand encounter with the Word of God.Collection: Encounters
Discouragement is contagious and is easily transmitted to others.Collection: Discouragement
God's love does not depend on the current spiritual condition of those He loves.Collection: Spiritual
The wise Christian will learn from the spiritual blunders of others.Collection: Christian
The spiritual heritage of the godly lives on after they are gone.Collection: Spiritual
To know God and to find one's full satisfaction in that knowledge is the ultimate goal of Christian experience. The Lord's greatest delight comes when His people discover the ultimate value lies in the knowledge of God. Nothing in the material world can complete with the delights that are present in His Person.Collection: Christian
Spiritual strength is connected to faithful obedience to God's commands.Collection: Spiritual
There is a kind of misguided pity that deals gently with false teachers at the expense of their victims.Collection: Teacher
God demonstrates generosity, then asks it from His people.Collection: People
A healthy relationship with God is built on the internal changes He brings about through Christ.Collection: Healthy
Every demonstration of God's faithfulness to us is an opportunity for us to testify of Him to others.Collection: Opportunity
Kindness that allows barriers to one's relationship with God to spring up is self-destructive.Collection: Kindness
God chooses people not for what He can do for them, but for the good they can do for others.Collection: People
People sometimes punish to exact judgment for past actions. God disciplines in order to teach and always in the interest of those whom he disciplines.Collection: Past
Israel's [as well as our] enjoyment of the land is contingent on their behavior. Blessings or cruses lie before them; the choice is theirs.Collection: Lying
In Deuteronomy 11, God offers Israel a choice; either a life of productivity and enjoyment made possible by obedience to Him, or a life of difficulty and opposition made necessary by disobedience. The happiness Israel desires can only be theirs by being properly related to Him.Collection: Israel
Fear of the right type can be beneficial to the people of God (see Prov. 1:7), but the fear of man's hostile intentions seldom fits that category.Collection: Men
Believers should be more concerned for God's opinion of them than for what human opponents might do to their bodies.Collection: Body
The thoughtful believer recalls God's faithfulness in the past when confronted by any new threat. Part of spiritual maturity is strong sense of one's own history.Collection: Spiritual
God's Word calls His people to adore Him exclusively and completely and to love people as themselves.Collection: People
The concept of freedom in Scripture differs from modern notions. Freedom is not a life lived free of restraints but a life that recognizes healthy limits, those that are concern to produce prosperity and order for the person who observes them.Collection: Order
Moses warned them [Israelites] that the leading spiritual danger they would face on entering the [promise] land would be forgetting the Lord. What adversity would not do, prosperity and satisfaction could. They were to be on their guard against spiritual lethargy.Collection: Spiritual
Moses simplifies the whole duty of Israel (and of humanity) by crystalizing the moral law into a single command to love God supremely.Collection: Israel
Even the wisest people learn little from their successes; God warns His people against allowing their victories (which He will grant) to lead them into pride and spiritual indifference. Instead, they should pay close attention to God's Word.Collection: Spiritual
Although their parents died in the wilderness for their stubbornness, Israel could profit from the older generation's failure by remembering that God had used adversity to train them.Collection: Adversity
Although God's people find many successes in the world, they must not fall prey to a spirit of pride. We succeed not because of our moral superiority but because of the faithfulness of our divine intercessor and because of the great mercy of God.Collection: Fall
God leads His people whether they are obedient or rebellious, but His leading is far more pleasant when they obey.Collection: People
God is not naïve in the giving of His laws; He anticipates our disobedience even as He commands our obedience.Collection: Law
God is glorified when His people find satisfaction in Him and in His provisions for them.Collection: People
Compassion is easily forsaken in the midst of prosperity, even when this prosperity is God given.Collection: Compassion
Distance is no barrier to the love of God.Collection: Distance
In God's pattern of justice, He takes the risk of the guilty going free but not the innocent being punished.Collection: Justice
Theological error is the most pernicious of errors; it strikes at man's center and separates him from his Creator and Redeemer. God insisted not only that Israelites should judge their own hearts and cast aside falsehood about Him but that they should also confront it wherever it emerged.Collection: Heart
We dare not trim stones to make God an altar, for if we do we ruin everything. We would spend time bringing people to the altar and saying, "Look at those beautiful stones we trimmed!" We merely need to accept the work that God has done for us in Christ. The object of His restrictions is to help us see how wonderful He is and to spend the rest of our lives rendering true worship to Him.Collection: Beautiful
By definition, if man contributes anything toward acceptance by God, he loses everything. God expects man to be the recipient, not the originator. Jesus paid it all, not 99% of it. Paul wrote, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast"Collection: Jesus
Nothing should be considered outside the scope of God's authority.Collection: Authority