Humility is the beginning of worship.

—John Calvin

There is a false tenderness in the world — a tenderness cut off from Christ — that poses as compassion and leads to concentration camps.

—John Piper

Prayer turns theology into experience.

—Tim Keller

Most men forget God all day, and ask Him to remember them at night.

—C.H. Spurgeon

Everybody is concerned about the state of the country, but have you heard anybody talking about the state of the soul and eternal destiny?

—Martin Lloyd Jones

Think that in every line you read in noscripture, that God is speaking to you.

—Thomas Watson

I find he is a refuge in every storm, and that he makes poor sinners more than conquerors through his love.

—George Whitefield

The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle —and not lose it.

—G.K. Chesterton

The battle for our Sundays is usually won or lost on the foregoing Saturday night.

—J.I. Packer

If you always enjoy sermons, the minister is not a good steward.
He is not acting wisely who deals out nothing but sweets.

—Charles Spurgeon

John 15:1-10

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

It is not a believing head but a believing heart that makes a Christian.

—John Owen

Hebrews 3:12-15
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; while it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.”

We are warned not to allow ourselves to become hardened, because if we look at the whole concept of hardening in its biblical perspective, we see that something happens to us through repeated sins. Our consciences become seared.

The more we commit a particular sin, the less remorse we feel from it. Our hearts are recalcitrant through repeated disobedience.
When God hardens the heart, all He does is step away and stop striving with us.

For example, when I commit a particular sin, my conscience bothers me. In His grace, God is convicting me of that evil. God is intruding into my life, trying to persuade me to stop this wickedness. If He wants to harden me, all He has to do is to stop rebuking me, stop nudging me, and just give me enough rope to hang myself.

We see in Scripture that when God hardens hearts, He does not force people to sin; rather, He gives them their freedom to exercise the evil of their own desires.

O death, when you seized my Lord, you lost your grip on me.

—Augustine

Romans 8:38-39

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The law says, 'Do this,' and it is never done. Grace says, 'Believe in this,' and everything is already done.

—Martin Luther

Death is a passage to another world. It is the gate of glory and everlasting happiness. It is the beginning of all that is good, that is everlastingly and eternally good. Our death is our birthday. Indeed, death is the death of itself; death is the death of death.

—Thomas Brooks

Colossians 3:12-17

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.