"Personal Influence" (MJS Growth Nugget)

"All Christians are fit for heaven, but all too few are fit for earth. One of the true tests of one’s spiritual growth is in one’s influence: affecting others that they not only begin the Christian life but 'grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'" (2 Pet 3:18). –MJS

“We may be separated and yet not Christ-like; we may be orthodox and yet not spiritual; we may be ‘dead unto sin’ and yet not ‘alive unto God.’ We may have cut ourselves loose from every form of worldliness but in so doing we have become critical and self-righteous. We may be loyal defenders of the faith, yea, ready even to lay down our lives for it and in so doing become bitter and unloving.” –MJS

“We may often have a measure of the power of the Spirit, but if there is not a large measure of the Spirit as the Spirit of grace and love, the defect will be manifest in our work.” –AM

(None But The Hungry Heart, pg. 108, Miles J Stanford--mjsbooks.com)