God can use frail servants

"Human frailty (e.g., youth or difficulty in speech) is no excuse before God’s expressed will to grant a person the words to say and the opportunities to deliver them."

J. Andrew Dearman 

Jeremiah, Lamentations (NIVAC)

The IMMEDIATE PURPOSES of God's revelation are subservient to its OVERARCHING PURPOSE

It seems clear that those who were used by God in the writing of the Old Testament Scriptures did not do so with the primary thought in mind that their words, centuries down the road, would be a source of encouragement for Jews and Gentiles, united in the one body of Christ. But God’s intent in the writing of Scripture is here expressed in plain words: The immediate purposes of the prophetic ministry, while used as means to bring the Scriptures into existence, are subservient to God’s overarching purpose, which is providing the body with its chief means of encouragement and guidance. What was written “before” or in “earlier times” was written not just for those who lived then—a greater purpose was in sight, as it was written “for our instruction."

James R. White (Scripture Alone)

The Heart and Mouth Connection

"... when the heart is filled with good and noble intentions the good man’s speech will prove this to be a fact. The rule according to which whatever a man has set his heart on, so that the very core and center of his being is full of it, will sooner or later be disclosed in his speech..."

William Hendriksen
Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew

Use Your Weapon

"When we fail to quote Scripture in public and private discussions about hundreds of questions, we leave our most powerful weapon at home...
Stewards of the Word of God, unleash it! Release its power to a lost and dying world!"

~ Wayne Grudem
  Presidential Address: Evangelical Theological Society's 51st annual meeting (Nov. 17, 1999)

The Frustrations of a Maturing Christian

"... the more we become like Christ, the more sensitive we are to the remaining corruptions of the flesh. As we mature in godliness our sins become more painful and more obvious to ourselves. The more we put away sin, the more we notice sinful tendencies that still need to be put away. This is the paradox of sanctification: the holier we become, the more frustrated we are by the stubborn remnants of our sin."

~ John Macarthur
   The Vanishing Conscience

God's Presence in Varying Degrees

"But just as persons may be present to one another in varying degrees or ways, God may be present in one way to the unjust and in a richer way to the just. You may be superficially present to a stranger on a bus, revealing little about yourself. However, you may be more significantly present with your godly mother who has prayed daily for you all your life, even though she is miles away. God is graciously present in forgiving love with the converted who by faith have been forgiven, reconciled, and redeemed by Christ’s precious blood. They become God’s people, and he becomes their moral and spiritual Father."

~ Gordon R. Lewis
   Integrative Theology

A Million Little Things

"Holiness is the sum of a million little things—the avoidance of little evils and little foibles, the setting aside of little bits of worldliness and little acts of compromise, the putting to death of little inconsistencies and little indiscretions, the attention to little duties and little dealings, the hard work of little self-denials and little self-restraints, the cultivation of little benevolences and little forbearances. Are you trustworthy? Are you kind? Are you patient? Are you joyful? Do you love? These qualities, worked out in all the little things of life, determine whether you are blight or blessing to everyone around you, whether you are an ugly spiritual eyesore or growing up into a good-looking Christian."

~ Kevin DeYoung
   The Hole in Our Holiness