Jerry Bridges Quotes

       Jerry Bridges
       1929-
      
       Jerry Bridges is an evangelical Christian author, speaker and staff member of The Navigators. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold more than one million copies. His devotional Holiness Day By Day garnered the 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award for the inspiration and gift category, and The Discipline Of Grace received a similar award in 1995 for the Christian living category.
      
       Bridges earned his undergraduate degree in engineering at the University of Oklahoma before serving as an officer in the United States Navy during the Korean War.
      
       He joined Christian discipleship organization The Navigators in 1955, where he served as administrative assistant to the Europe Director, office manager for the headquarters office, Secretary-Treasurer of the organization, and as Vice President for Corporate Affairs before moving to a staff development position with the Collegiate Mission.

Adversity is hard to endure, and can even be harder to understand. If God were really in control, why would He allow the tragic auto accident or crucial job loss? How could He permit cancer in a loved one or the death of a child? Grappling with His concern for us we ask, "Why is God allowing this?" or "What have I done wrong?     Topics: Adversity, Suffering I realize anew that, just as we must learn to obey God one choice at a time, we must also learn to trust God one circumstance at a time. Trusting God is not a matter of my feelings but of my will. I never feel like trusting God when adversity strikes, but I can choose to do so even when I don't feel like it. That act of the will, though, must be based on belief, and belief must be based on truth.     Topics: Adversity, Trust, Believing Our entire confidence in our acceptance before God is based solely upon the fact that Jesus was our legal representative in His sinless life and obedient death.     Topics: Atonement In both its precepts and penalty, the law of God in its most exacting requirements was fulfilled by Jesus. And He did this in our place as our representative and our substitute.     Topics: Atonement Our first problem is that our attitude towards sin is more self-centred than God-centred. We are more concerned about our own "Victory" over sin than we are about the fact that our sin grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God.     Topics: Attitude, Sin, Struggles Many Christians have what we might call a "cultural holiness". They adapt to the character and behavior pattern of Christians around them. As the Christian culture around them is more or less holy, so these Christians are more or less holy. But God has not called us to be like those around us. He has called us to be like himself. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.     Topics: Christians, Holiness Faith in Christ and a reliance on ourselves, even to the smallest degree, are mutually exclusive.     Topics: Faith The assurance of His total forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ means we don't have to play defensive games anymore. We don't have to rationalize and excuse our sins. We can call sin exactly what it is, regardless of how ugly and shameful it may be, because we know that Jesus bore that sin in His body on the cross.     Topics: Forgiveness, Assurance, The Cross God is completely sovereign. God is infinite in wisdom. God is perfect in love. God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.     Topics: God, Wisdom Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.     Topics: Grace We are brought into God's Kingdom by grace; we are sanctified by grace; we receive both temporal and spiritual blessings by grace; we are motivated to obedience by grace; we are called to serve and, finally, we are glorified by grace. The entire Christian life is lived under the reign of God's grace.     Topics: Grace, Sanctification The pursuit of holiness is a joint venture between God and the Christian. No one can attain any degree of holiness without God working in his life, but just as surely no one will attain it without effort on his own part. God has made it possible for us to walk in holiness. But He has given to us the responsibility of doing the walking; He does not do that for us.     Topics: Holiness