Brian Pate > Recent Status Updates

"Our afflictions prepare us to do the one thing most needful for our people--to point them away from ourselves to the all-sufficient God" (p. 167).

"God's first love is rooted in the value of his holy name, not the value of a sinful people. And because it is, there is hope for the sinful people--since they are not the ground of their salvation, God's name is" (p. 105).

Great description of the battle of Marathon!

The Ionian revolt

I must confess that I'd never heard of Pisistratus before. What a story!

People are motivated to repent "by an awakened taste for pleasure in God" and so we must preach in a way that "portrays God as supremely and everlastingly satisfying" (p. 139).

The Spartans were bad guys too.

"Sin pulls us with the promise of pleasure; it leaves us parched, pursuing a mirage of water" (p. 53)

"O discípulo que perdeu a essência do discipulado não consegue mais fazer discípulos autênticos de Jesus" (p. 51).

"Para ajudar alguém a seguir Jesus, é necessário, antes, pagar o preço de imitar Jesus" (p. 53).

"We foresee, by faith, that happy day! We see, by faith, the New Jerusalem! The innumerable angels! The perfected spirits of the just! By faith and patience, they have overcome! And in faith and patience we desire to follow our Lord and them!" (Richard Baxter, p. 213)

"A verdadeira igreja não é uma multidão que simplesmente segue Jesus, mas a reunião de todos aqueles que seguem Jesus nos termos de Jesus" (p. 35).

"When we are least mindful of God, we are most susceptible to temptation" (p. 37).

"Come quickly and reign on your throne, for now often something rises up within me and the whole train of vices join with me in warring against myself, and try to reign over me. I resist them; I cry out against them, and say, 'I have no other king than Christ.' O King of peace, come and reign in me, for I have no king but you! Amen" (Bernard of Clairvaux, p. 125).

"The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord" (Goerge Mueller, p. 109).

Excellent biblical theology in the chapter on membership. "Your job as a church member is Adam's original job, only it's a new covenant version of it given to you by Christ. We're to push back the borders of the garden like kings while simultaneously watching over the garden like priests" (p. 82).

Excellent chapters on the need for gathering (ch. 3) and preaching (ch. 4)!

"We must kill the sin that tempts us to look away from him--and we kill it BY looking at him" (p. 28)