"Yet we should approach this new century with humility. Remember that the 20th century opened with brimming optimism, too. A New York Times editorial on Dec. 31, 1899, hailed the 19th century for its economic and scientific advances and predicted that the 20th would be even better. The next day, Jan. 1, 1900, a Times headline proclaimed 'The United States the Envy of the World.' But some rude surprises were just ahead. Historian John Keegan has said that the 20th century can be written through the biographies of six men: Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt. The first four were tyrants who dimmed the lamps of freedom and plunged the world into the bloodiest conflicts in all of human history. Those two wars, along with a crushing depression, darkened man's outlook for years thereafter. As Americans we owe an extraordinary debt to those generations who have brought us to the edge of a new promised land. Their sacrifices not only brought us a good life, but through war and hard times, kept those values alive. Our Judeo-Christian values are now the greatest gift we can pass on to the 21st century."

Heritage

"Someone asked the American historian Charles A. Beard if he could summarize the lessons of history in a brief book. He said he could do it in four sentences: '(1) Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with power; (2) The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small; (3) the bee fertilizes the flower it robs; (4) When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.'" - Warren W. Wiersbe in On Being a Servant

History

"If you are seeking gradual sanctification, you may know you are wrong because you are seeking it by works. If you have to wait, it is not for God, but for yourself to work. You get all blessings from God, not by work, but by faith alone. Hence you don't have to wait. For God wants to give it to you now." - John Wesley, quoted in Wesleyan Advocate, Feb 1996, page 21

Holiness

"There's a lot of spiritual smog in the churches. Nothing will blow that out except the same wind that blew at Pentecost." - Vance Havner, quoted in SBC Life, Nov. 1996, pg. 3.

The following quotes on the Holy spirit are taken from Christianity Today: May 24, 1999

"There is no need for us to wait, as the one hundred and twenty had to wait, for the Spirit to come. For the Holy Spirit did come on the day of Pentecost, and has never left his church. Our responsibility is to humble ourselves before his sovereign authority to determine not to quench him, but to allow him his freedom. For then our churches will again manifest those marks of the Spirit's presence, which many young people are specially looking for, namely biblical teaching, loving fellowship, living worship, and an ongoing, outgoing evangelism." - John Stott

"When we know we have most of Christ, when we love Him most, live for Him most, we know that the Holy Spirit is within us in power." - F. B. Meyer in A Castaway and Other Addresses

"Spell this out in capital letters: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON. He is not enthusiasm. He is not courage. He is not energy. He is not the personification of all good qualities, like Jack Frost is the personification of cold weather. Actually, the Holy Spirit is not the personification of anything. He is a Person, the same as you are a person, but not material substance. He has individuality. He is one being and not another. He has will and intelligence. He has hearing. He has knowledge and sympathy and ability to love and see and think. He can hear, speak, desire, grieve and rejoice. He is a Person." - A. W. Tozer in The Counselor

"Waste of power is a tragedy. God does not waste the great power of his Spirit on those who want it simply for their own sake, to be more holy, or good, or gifted. His great task is to carry on the work for which Jesus sacrificed his throne and his life - the redemption of fallen humanity." - Alan Redpath in The Life of Victory

"When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, it wasn't dynamite, it was a dynamo! Dynamite makes a loud noise, kicks up a lot of dust, and is over. A dynamo is a continual source of power. It builds and builds and builds, and the power never stops flowing." - Ken Hutcherson in The Church: What We Are Meant to Be

"The Spirit will teach us to love the Word, to meditate on it and to keep it. He will reveal the love of Christ to us, that we may love him fervently and with a pure heart. Then we shall begin to see that a life in the love of Christ in the midst of our daily life and distractions is a glorious possibility and a blessed reality." - Andrew Murray in Every Day with Andrew Murray

"Every time we say, 'I believe in the Holy Spirit,' we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it." - J. B. Phillips in Plain Christianity

"Immediately the Holy Spirit comes in as life and as light, He will chase through every avenue of our minds; His light will penetrate every recess of our hearts; He will chase His light through every affection of our souls, and make us know what sin is. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, man does not." - Oswald Chambers in Biblical Psychology

"Do not pray for more of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity and is not in pieces. Every child of God has all of Him, but does He have all of us?" - Julia Kellersberger in Presbyterian Journal (May 11, 1983)

"If a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, his witness will not be optional or mandatory - it will be inevitable." - Richard Halverson in Pentecostal Evangel (Aug. 12, 1979)

Holy Spirit