Quotes from Bryan Chapell

There is no incentive to climb closer to God unless we are sure his love will not let us go. His Word assures us we will not fall, because his affection for us is fixed.

To believe Daniel is writing prophecy, as he claims, and not history, as the level of detail would seem to suggest, would require belief that what is written was supernaturally inspired. And if God has thus spoken, then his Word has far more authority over our lives than we may wish, and his far-reaching knowledge is far more real than we may want on the days that we want to go our own way.

The promise of perseverance substitutes concern for self-preservation with love for God's purposes.

Our efforts before God will never earn us entry into his kingdom, or obligate him to love us.

We are not to mimic witches spicing their caldrons with a little eye of newt and tail of squirrel when we add Jesus' name to our prayers.

It was said of Charles Spurgeon that he "addressed two thousand people as though he were speaking personally to one man.

Garrison explains why concreteness empowers illustrations and furthers understanding: "If I were to talk at length about my having been deeply moved by watching the setting of my son's broken arm, this would constitute a report of my feelings. But when I describe some factors that contributed to my mood, you are brought into the experience and feel with me. To re-create a moving situation is quite different from testifying to having been deeply moved.

Paul preaches without shame in his delivery skills because he trusts that the Spirit of God will use the Word the apostle proclaims to shatter the hardness of the human heart in ways no stage technique or philosophical construct can rival.

Garrison adds, "Words that name colors, shapes, sounds, odors, and other tangibles help create backgrounds that evoke moods. Anything that moves you can move your listeners—provided they are brought into firsthand encounter with stimuli that produced the emotion."74

Jesus does not love any child (young or old) because the child is good. Jesus loves his children because he is good.

God does not intend for us to predict outcomes as much as he intends for us to trust him in all circumstances.

His mercy, not our merits, make[s] us his.

When voices become so shrill in a righteous cause that they are indistinguishable from the sounds of hatred, then the righteousness advocated gets lost in the din of rhetoric.

By praying in Jesus' name, we petition God to make our life shine for Christ's glory and eternity's purposes.

Because I am united to Christ, God's love for me is not as variable as my loyalty to him…. God will not love me more because I do better. He will not love me less because I stumble. His love is based not on my behavior but on my union with his Son – a union built on trust in his grace, not my goodness.

Sin gains power over us not by its indomitable force but by our divided heart.

Grace unfolds on every page [of Scripture]: God's long march through the history of human rebellion and ruin to reach us with the love of his Son; the Savior's humble service, sinless life, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and promised return; the Holy Spirit's indwelling witness, power, and advocacy—all unswerving despite our wayward ways and hard hearts.

The love we show is the love we know.

Whether God chooses the ordinary path of rewarding our goodness with observable blessing, or the extraordinary path of blessing our obedience with trials that will strengthen our character and stretch our faith, his love is never lacking (Heb. 12:6-11).

To do anything in the Lord's name means to do it for his purposes. When we pray in Jesus' name, we are petitioning God to bring glory to Jesus and we are asking for his will to be done in everything so that he will be honored above all.

Bitterness is the acid that eats its own container.

God's care precedes his commands.

Belief in God's sovereignty coupled with his promises to reward those who diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6) provides even more powerful incentive to pray.

God has given his law so that we will experience, not earn, the good he intends for our lives.