Church Awakening

I just finished reading "The Church Awakening" by Chuck Swindoll.   It was good complementary reading for our Early Church study in the Book of Acts; for it echoed some of the main messages coming out of our study - that the primary focus of the Church should be on teaching, that we should seek to be instruments for Christ to build HIS Church, and that the Church has always been under spiritual attach from the Enemy.

Some quotes from the book that stood out were:

• "Grace constantly reminds us that the ground at the foot of the cross is level."
• "In a contagious church, everybody hurts.  But nobody hurts or heals alone."
• "A correct understanding of the essence of worship is integral to a correct expression of worship."
• "I believe that what feeds our corporate worship wars on Sundays is a failure to worship God personally during the weeks.  We can't do corporately what we don't do privately."  ... "Sunday is simply a corporate expression of what we do all week."
• "..There's no reason to abandon reliable information just because it's been around for a long time.  We never outgrow the truth."
• "But in no way are my efforts at relevancy to take away from the impact of the truth.  When we sacrifice truth on the altar of relevance, our words are no longer relevant."
• "The Bible is our spiritual GPS - we could call it "God's Positioning System."  .... God has done a lot of "recalculating" in my life!  But I've found it true that I've never gotten lost when I have followed His Word."
• "The seriousness of the message must never be obscured by the desire to make the medium more atractive"
• "...Dont' just come on Sundays to sit and listen, but  come to do business with God deep within your heart; allow the Word of God to invade your mind and change your life."
• "It says to God's spokesman:  be faithful to your calling...refuse to be discouraged by others' responses...don't be decieved by flattering words."
• The Word of God needs to be accurate, relavant; but, must never be compromised.
• "[The church] is a house of prayer, not a house of business.  It is a place of worship, not a place of entertainment."

 And some notable quotes from other people reference in the book:

• "Most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship.  As a result, their meanings and values are distorted.  Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair, and their lifestyles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot."  -- Gordon Dahl
• "In essentials, unity.  In nonessentials, liberty.  In all things, charity."  - Philipp Melanchthon
• "Much of our spiritual activity is nothing more than a cheap anesthetic to deaden the pain of an empty life."  -- Lewis Sperry Chafer