Ajith Quotes

When things all around us are bleak, the Word gives us the opposite message: God is sovereign and will work his purposes out through the apparent setbacks. This

Success is like a wild horse. If you do not know how to handle it, it will throw you off and look for another rider who can handle it well.” – Ajith Kumar

Prayer is intimately connected with the Holy Spirit and preaching. The whole process of sermon preparation should be saturated in prayer, or “prayer drenched.”34 Ajith Fernando says, “Sometimes when we are in the middle of preparing for an assignment, such as writing a sermon, God may prompt us to stop the preparation so as to prepare ourselves. When we sense this need, it would be wise to stop immediately and go to prayer.”35

Like all people with nothing to do, he was very disciplined and stuck religiously to the schedule he had imposed on himself. He

When old age knocks, even a mighty lion resort to eating frogs.

Let us not judge other beliefs negatively, none of us has ever seen God.

The interesting part of life is; when you start to be negative about others, it starts negatively with you first.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

The Scottish evangelical preacher Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) has said, “Prayer does not enable us to do a greater work for God. Prayer is a greater work for God.”21

A. W. Tozer once wrote, “Do you know who gives me the most trouble? Do you know who I pray for the most in my pastoral work? Just myself.”28

Damos gracias a Dios por sus milagros, pero también por la suficiencia de su gracia que nos permite perseverar en medio de las tormentas (2Co 12:7–10).

Deuteronomy is an exciting book that is very relevant today. I first realized this about twenty-five years ago when, early in my ministry, I read the book for my devotions. I found that there was so much I can learn about the Christian life and ministry that I began to list it all. I ended up with a huge list that has had a huge impact on my ministry. For example, I made a list of 142 incentives to obedience from Deuteronomy. So when I was asked by my friends at Crossway whether I would be interested in writing the Deuteronomy commentary in the series I responded with an enthusiastic yes. Why am I so excited about Deuteronomy? Primarily because in this book Moses is attempting to do something that is still so important for all Christians. He is close to death, and they are close to entering the promised land without him, the one who led them for forty years. Deuteronomy gives Moses’ farewell addresses to them. His aim is to motivate them to go forward and conquer the land and to help them to be faithful to God amidst all the challenges to such faithfulness that they will face. He warns them of challenges, he encourages them to a life of holiness, and he tells them the consequences of living and of failing to live such a life. All the time Moses was aware of the temptation the people would have to compromise their faith by assimilating aspects of Canaanite religion. Are these not some of our greatest challenges today? How can we remain faithful to God? How can we avoid compromise when the lure of the society around us is so powerful? And how can we help our children and the people we lead to be faithful? Deuteronomy tells us how Moses tackled these challenges. After citing a story that appears in Deuteronomy, Paul writes, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11). Therefore I have approached every passage of Deuteronomy as having significance to Christians today. Because all of Deuteronomy is part of God’s inspired Word, that affirmation should be accepted without question. But it is often not, for many Christians think that in this era of grace many of the teachings of the Old Testament are not significant for us. Indeed we may not use some of the laws and regulations that are given there because they apply only to the Jewish nation. But the religion of this nation had the same basic ingredients that the Christian religion has today. Their life was to be a response of faith and obedience to the God who had graciously acted to redeem them. So even the laws that are specific to Israel have principles behind them that help us in the life of faith today. When I studied Deuteronomy this time around with a view to writing this book, I found another feature that makes it extremely helpful.

The Bible often describes suffering as an essential aspect of the Christian life.