If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.

~ Robert Murray McCheyne

That was a comforting quote for me today. Thank you! :)

Someone once asked Dwight L. Moody, "Why do you go on and on about being filled with the Holy Spirit again and again and again?" Moody just looked him in the eye and answered, "Because I leak."

God doesn't shake miracles into nature at random as if from a pepper-shaker. They come on great occasions; they are found at the great ganglions of history--not of political or social history, but of that spiritual history which cannot be fully known by men.

~ C.S. Lewis

Hopefully I'm posting this in the "right" section... just wanted to share.

Everyone is always so busy now a day --- saying needed ASAP, get here ASAP, go now ASAP; I'm sure you get the point. Well in the heat of the moment TRY to remember what ASAP really stands for! (It's hard sometimes --- which is why I wanted to put this out here - so I hope to make myself remember in that moment of ASAP!)


A = Always
S = Say
A = A
P = Prayer

!!!

"It is not what you have done,
It is what you choose to do today"

source unknown

"To Any One"

Go not forth to call Dame Sorrow
From the dim fields of Tomorrow;
Let her roam there all unheeded,
She will come when she is needed;
Then, when she draws near thy door,
She will find God there before.

~ George MacDonald, Poetical Works, Vol. 2

The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who lives in the spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to satan. The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer....No wonder satan tries to keep our minds fussy in active work till we cannot think in prayer.

~ Oswald Chambers

The best place any Christian can ever be in is to be totally destitute and totally dependant upon God, and know it.

~Alan Redpath

because its been a few days...Madre!... since we had a quote, Im posting an old one from the first page. this is a good one.

Quote:
When you and I hurt deeply, what we really need is not an explanation from God but a revelation of God. We need to see how great God is; we need to recover our lost perspective on life. Things get out of proportion when we are suffering, and it takes a vision of something bigger than ourselves to get life's dimensions adjusted again.

~ Warren W. Wiersbe

Another great one from page 3 (or 4)

Norman Vincent Peale - Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.

Robert Louis Stevenson -?Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or
frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private
pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

George Iles -?Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.

Mikhail Baryshnikov -?I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I
only try to dance better than myself.

Aristotle -?We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an
act, but a habit.

Albert Einstein -?Only a life lived for others is worth living.

Blaise Pascal - In faith there is enough light for those who want to
believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.

Richard Bach -?The bond that links your true family is not one of
blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members
of one family grow up under the same roof.

Dr. Suess - Be who you are and say what you feel because those who
mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

Benjamin Disraeli -?The greatest good you can do for another is not
just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.

Pascal -?The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.

Cicero -?The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of
blessing previously secured.

Albert Einstein -?Not everything that can be counted counts, and not
everything that counts can be counted.

Unknown Author -?Today, be aware of how you are spending your 1,440
beautiful moments, and spend them wisely.

German proverb -?To change and to change for the better are two
different things.

William Shakespeare -?To thine own self be true, and it must follow,
as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Edward Vernon Rickenbacker -?I would rather have a million friends
than a million dollars.

Victor Borge -?Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

Mark Twain -?Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel
that you too, can become great.

Samuel Johnson -?Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

Spanish Proverb - Life without a friend is like death without a witness.

Benjamin Disraeli -?Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do
so, you apologize for truth.

William Shakespeare - No legacy is so rich as honesty.

Elbert Hubbard -?Never explain - your friends do not need it and your
enemies will not believe you anyway.

Helen Keller - What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that
we love deeply becomes a part of us.

Jeanette Winterson -?What you risk reveals what you value.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -Talk not of wasted affection; affection
never was wasted.

Walter Percy Chrysler -?The reason so many people never get anywhere
in life is because when opportunity knocks, they are out in the
backyard looking for four-leaf clovers.

John Leonard - It takes a long time to grow an old friend.

Tim McGraw -?We all take different paths in life, but no matter where
we go, we take a little of each other everywhere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson -?I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but
with the roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass
threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know.

Norman Vincent Peale - Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only
empty heads and empty hearts can do that.

Henry Ford - If money is your hope for independence you will never
have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is
a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

Wayne Dyer - When you judge another, you do not define them, you
define yourself.

Charles R. Swindoll - An anniversary says, "Think of the dreams you
have weathered together. They are intimate accomplishments."

H. Jackson Brown - In the confrontation between the stream and the
rock, the stream always wins, not through strength but by
perseverance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson - So much of our time is preparation, so much is
routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius
contracts itself to a very few hours.

"You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all."

~ Gandalf to Bilbo
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

"You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all."

~ Gandalf to Bilbo
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

I most certainly am. That I know! :lol:

"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."

~ John Wayne

"Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."

~ John Wayne

Hmm....I think I've saddled up some in the past! I like that one! Thanks Madre!

"When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful." ~Barbara Bloom


"There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." ~Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, 1820


"The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget!" "You will, though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it. ~Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1872

I am posting this for Madre.

"As she grew up, everybody about her did his best to convince her that she was Somebody, and the girl herself was so easily persuaded of it that she quite forgot that anybody had ever told her so, and took it for a fundamental, innate, primary, firstborn, self-evident, necessary, and incontrovertible idea and principle that she was Somebody. And far be it from me to deny it! I will even go so far as to assert that in this odd country there was a huge number of Somebodies. Indeed, it was one of its oddities that every boy and girl in it was rather too ready to think he or she was Somebody; and the worst of it was that the princess never thought of there being more than one Somebody-and that was herself."

~ George MacDonald
From The Wise Woman

"A minister has to be able to read a clock. At noon, it's time to go home and turn up the pot roast and get the peas out of the freezer."

~ Garrison Keillor

"A minister has to be able to read a clock. At noon, it's time to go home and turn up the pot roast and get the peas out of the freezer."

~ Garrison Keillor
Thanks for the smile!

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework."

~Lily Tomlin as "Edith Ann"

From J.C. Ryle... A Call to Holiness...(chapter 1;SIN)

'I say then that a scriptural view of sin is the best antidote to that vague, dim, misty, hazy, kind of theology which is so painfully current in this present age. It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity now-a-days which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which, nevertheless, is NOT full measure, good weight, and sixteen ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably 'something about Christ, and something about grace, and something about faith, and something about repentance, and something about holiness'; but it is NOT the real thing as it is in the Bible... It neither exercises influence on daily conduct, nor comforts in life, nor gives peace in death; and those who hold it often awake too late to find that they have got nothing solid under their feet.... Now I believe the likliest way to cure and mend this defective kind of religion is to bring forward more prominently the old Scriptural truth about the sinfulness of sin....'

'I am convinced that the first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin.'

'Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day.' (written in the late 1800's)

'Concerning the GUILT, VILENESS, AND OFFENSIVENESS of sin in the sight of God, my words shall be few... I do not think, in the nature of things, that mortal man can at all realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin in the sight of that holy and perfect One with whom we have to do.'

...Holiness by J.C. Ryle...

'On the one hand, God is that eternal being who "chargeth His angels with folly", and in whose sight the very heavens are unclean". He is One who reads thoughts and motives as well as actions, and requires "truth in the inward parts" ... We on the other hand -poor, blind creatures, here today and gone tomorrow, born in sin, surrounded by sinners, living in a constant atmosphere of weakness, infirmity, and imperfection -can form none but the most inadequate conceptions of the hideousness of evil. We have no line to fathom it, and no measure by which to guage it....The very animals whose smell is most offensive to us have no idea that thye are offensive... and are not offensive to one another....'

...Holiness by J.C. Ryle...

Wow. Yes. I am sure that I am totally clueless...there but for the grace of God. Thanks Gen for sharing.

"To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable."

~ Barry M. Goldwater and Jack Casserly, Goldwater

“To be a true hero you must be a true Christian. To sum up then, heroism is largely based on two qualities — truthfulness and unselfishness, a readiness to put one’s own pleasure aside for that of others, to be courteous to all, kind to those younger than yourself, helpful to your parents, even if helpfulness demands some slight sacrifice of your own pleasure... You must remember that these two qualities are the sign of Christian heroism.” —G.A. Henty

"Tell me, what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'

~ Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

It is good to have an end
to journey towards,
but it is the journey
that matters in the end.
- Ursula le Guin

It is good to have an end
to journey towards,
but it is the journey
that matters in the end.
- Ursula le Guin

I like this one! Very inspiring!

"He comes to us in the brokenness of our health, in the shipwreck of our family lives, in the loss of all possible peace of mind, even in the very thick of our sins. He saves us in our disasters, not from them. He emphatically does not promise to meet only the odd winner of the self-improvement lottery. He meets us all in our endless and inescapable losing."

~ Robert Farrar Capon

"He comes to us in the brokenness of our health, in the shipwreck of our family lives, in the loss of all possible peace of mind, even in the very thick of our sins. He saves us in our disasters, not from them. He emphatically does not promise to meet only the odd winner of the self-improvement lottery. He meets us all in our endless and inescapable losing."

~ Robert Farrar Capon

This is like a balm to the hurting soul. Thank you.

Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. ~ George Sala

That is so true!

"One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself — creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like his own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to his. ... He cannot “tempt” to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is there He is pleased even with their stumbles.

Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do the Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

Screwtape to Wormwood
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

I think you put that one up there before or something similar, didnt you. Its such an awesome quote tho and one Im finding so true and so liberating right now.

I may have (the memory ain't what it used to be). Sometimes life is just plain and simple obedience, isn't it? No good feelings, no voices, no apparent results; just obedience.

Thanks for that last one Madre! A hearty AMEN!

I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing around his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world, but each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hand and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. The cross of Christ… is God’s only self justification in such a world as ours.

John Stott
The Cross of Christ

"God likes to see a man leave the misty, fog-covered valleys and climb the sun-lit hills."

~ Billy Sunday

"God likes to see a man leave the misty, fog-covered valleys and climb the sun-lit hills."

~ Billy Sunday

So do I. Glad to know God and I are on the same page on that one! LOL!

"I wish, brothers and sisters, that we could all imitate "the pearl oyster"—A hurtful particle intrudes itself into its shell, and this vexes and grieves it. It cannot reject the evil, but what does it do but "cover" it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by which it turns the intruder into a pearl! Oh, that we could do so with the provocations we receive from our fellow Christians, so that pearls of patience, gentleness, and forgiveness might be bred within us by that which otherwise would have harmed us."
~ Charles Spurgeon

"I wish, brothers and sisters, that we could all imitate "the pearl oyster"—A hurtful particle intrudes itself into its shell, and this vexes and grieves it. It cannot reject the evil, but what does it do but "cover" it with a precious substance extracted out of its own life, by which it turns the intruder into a pearl! Oh, that we could do so with the provocations we receive from our fellow Christians, so that pearls of patience, gentleness, and forgiveness might be bred within us by that which otherwise would have harmed us."
~ Charles Spurgeon


That is so good. I needed that encouragement. Thank you!

Printed and posted on my wall in my office! Needed that one too!

Thanks as always Madre!

That one is so simple and we've heard it before but the way Charles Spurgeon worded it was so perfectly beautiful. Thank you for that one.

"The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right."

~ Hannah Whitall Smith

"The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right."


~ Hannah Whitall Smith


Amen. Good one Madre.

"There was a day when I died; died to self, my opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren or friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God."

~ George Mueller

"There was a day when I died; died to self, my opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren or friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God."

~ George Mueller

Wow. To be able to SAY THAT! I would love it if I could. Not yet, but God isn't finished with me either (LOL). Such an awesome goal to strive for. Thanks once again Madre.

I was thinking the same thing! Lol.

gen

"God doesn't always smooth the path, but sometimes he puts springs in the wagon."

~ Marshall Lucas

I Got the Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night

Taking stock of what I have and what I haven't
What do I find?
The things I got will keep me satisfied
Checking up on what I have and what I haven't
What do I find?
A healthy balance on the credit side

Got no diamond, got no pearl
Still I think I'm a lucky girl
I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night

Got no mansion, got no yacht
Still I'm happy with what I've got
I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night

Sunshine gives me a lovely day
Moonlight gives me the Milky Way

Got no checkbooks, got no banks
Still I'd like to express my thanks
I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night
And with the sun in the morning
And the moon in the evening
I'm all right
Irving Berlin
from Annie Get Your Gun (first refrain)

"God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies grey and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to Your honour and glory."

~ Augustine

"God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies grey and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to Your honour and glory."

~ Augustine

What a lovely prayer!

"I never made a sacrifice. We ought not to
talk of 'sacrifice' when we remember the great
sacrifice which He made who left His Father's
throne on high to give Himself up for us."

~ David Livingstone (1813-1873)
Scottish missionary, doctor and explorer to Africa

"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing yet had been done."

~ C. S. Lewis

I can remember a very pious sort of prayer that went something like...

Lord, Ive been very good today. I havent gossiped, lost my temper and shouted at anyone, I havent said a mean word about anyone or done anything to offend anyone. However, Im about to get out of bed now so Im going to need all the help I can get!

Its like that sometimes. lol.

I can remember a very pious sort of prayer that went something like...

Lord, Ive been very good today. I havent gossiped, lost my temper and shouted at anyone, I havent said a mean word about anyone or done anything to offend anyone. However, Im about to get out of bed now so Im going to need all the help I can get!

Its like that sometimes. lol.

LOL! I have that one posted in our school room!

"I can no longer condemn or hate a brother [or sister] for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed through intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

"A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected, and out last the unbearable."

~ Billy Graham

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bow lines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore! Dream! Discover!"

~ Mark Twain

"The times we find ourselves having to wait on others may be the perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord."

~ Joni Eareckson Tada

"He may delay because it would not be safe to give us at once what we ask: we are not ready for it. To give ere we could truly receive, would be to destroy the very heart and hope of prayer, to cease to be our Father. The delay itself may work to bring us nearer to our help, to increase the desire, perfect the prayer, and ripen the receptive condition."

~ George Macdonald

"The Lord is seldom early, but never late."

~ John K. Hutcheson, Sr.

"We must learn what God is to us, not by our own thoughts, but by what He has revealed Himself to be, and that is, 'The God of all grace.' The moment I understand that I am a sinful man, and yet that it was because the Lord knew the full extent of my sin, and what its hatefulness was, that He came to me,
I understand what grace is. Faith makes me see that God is greater than my sin, and not that my sin is greater than God. The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me, is the same Lord I have to do with everyday of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace. The great secret of growth is, the looking up to the Lord as gracious. How precious, how strengthening it is to know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards me as when He died on the cross for me. This is a truth that should be used by us in the most common everyday circumstances of life."

~ John Nelson Darby

"We must learn what God is to us, not by our own thoughts, but by what He has revealed Himself to be, and that is, 'The God of all grace.' The moment I understand that I am a sinful man, and yet that it was because the Lord knew the full extent of my sin, and what its hatefulness was, that He came to me,
I understand what grace is. Faith makes me see that God is greater than my sin, and not that my sin is greater than God. The Lord that I have known as laying down His life for me, is the same Lord I have to do with everyday of my life, and all His dealings with me are on the same principles of grace. The great secret of growth is, the looking up to the Lord as gracious. How precious, how strengthening it is to know that Jesus is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love towards me as when He died on the cross for me. This is a truth that should be used by us in the most common everyday circumstances of life."

~ John Nelson Darby

How reluctant we are at times to receive His grace. If we truly let it seep into our beings what freedom, what power! Great quote! Thanks!

"As a Christian, my business is not to clean up this world; my business is something infinitely beyond that. I do not believe in reformation: I believe in regeneration by the Holy Spirit; not in changing lives, but in an imparting of a new life which is in Christ."

~ Erling C. Olsen

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

~ Winston Churchill

"Day by day we are given not what we want but what we need. Sometimes it is a feast and sometimes...swept crumbs, but by faith we believe it is enough."

~ Barbara Brown Taylor

"Day by day we are given not what we want but what we need. Sometimes it is a feast and sometimes...swept crumbs, but by faith we believe it is enough."

~ Barbara Brown Taylor

Amen! I am glad God gives me what I need and not what I want...well, most of the time! :D

"God never gave man a thing to do concerning which it were irreverent to ponder how the Son of God would have done it."

~ George MacDonald
from The Marquis of Lossie (vol. II, ch. XVII)

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony."

~ William Henry Channing
clergyman, reformer, 1810-1884

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony."

~ William Henry Channing
clergyman, reformer, 1810-1884

That's beautiful! :mrgreen:

"Don't hatch other people's eggs."

~ Michael Wells

This is a quote from my son's most recent paper on a book they just read. I thought it showed that he has gained some wisdom in his eighteen brief years. I am reflecting on these thruths today.


You can’t truly know love unless you have known hate, you can’t truly enjoy food unless you have experienced hunger, and you can’t truly know joy unless you have experienced pain. It is a sad irony of life, but the fact remains, without the bad you can’t recognize the good. This fact is a wisdom that comes only through living..

Very astute! Must have had a good teacher![lovesign]

"In 'religion' the purpose of repentance is to keep God happy so He will continue to bless you. In the gospel the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God's heart."

~ Tim Keller

This Quote has impacted my life so:

I rather live my life as if there was a God and die and find out there isn't
than live my life as if there isn't a God, and die to find out there is.

Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.

When a man is at his wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality.

We impoverish God in our minds when we say there must be answers to our prayers on the material plane; the biggest answers to our prayers are in the realm of the unseen.

If God sees that my spiritual life will be furthered by giving the things for which I ask, then He will give them, but that is not the end of prayer. The end of prayer is that I come to know God Himself.

~ Oswald Chambers

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt

Quote:
Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.


Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt


Loved these two. Thanks ladies! :mrgreen:

Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead tell your storm how big your GOD is.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt

I like that one alot.

"...God ministers to us so gently, so stolenly, as it were, with such a quiet, tender, loving absence of display, that men often drink of His wine, as those wedding guests drank, without knowing whence it comes--without thinking that the Giver is beside them, yea, in their very hearts."

~ George Mac Donald

"...God ministers to us so gently, so stolenly, as it were, with such a quiet, tender, loving absence of display, that men often drink of His wine, as those wedding guests drank, without knowing whence it comes--without thinking that the Giver is beside them, yea, in their very hearts."

~ George Mac Donald

Amen. And Amen. :-D

The only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future.
- Oscar Wilde, author

Attitude determines altitude.
- Anonymous

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

You can't expect people to look eye to eye with you if you are looking down on them.
- Anonymous

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
- Anonymous

Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.
- Virginia Satir

We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do.
- Brigham Young

Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.
- Kim Rohn

Motherhood qualified me to let the child within come out and play.
- Christy Borgeld

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.
- Richard Bach

Whenever I find myself in the cellar of affliction, I always look about for the wine. ~ Samuel Rutherford


I got that from the latest Jan Karon novel! :-D

That's a great one, Leslie!:-D

"There isn't time--so brief is life--for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. there is only time for loving--& but an instant, so to speak, for that."

~ Mark Twain
Letter to Clara Spaulding, 8/20/1886

"Remember
This December,
That love weighs more than gold!"

~ Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

"Remember
This December,
That love weighs more than gold!"

~ Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

Amen. Hard to remember sometimes.

"I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, 'Ain't that the truth'."

~ Quincy Jones


"Remember, men need laughter sometimes more than food."

~ Anna Fellows Johnston

"Love the sinner, hate the sin? How about: Love the sinner, hate your own sin! I don't have time to hate your sin. There are too many of you! Hating my sin is a full-time job. How about you hate your sin, I'll hate my sin and let's just love each other!"

~ Mark Lowry

Madre, that is so good. I actually hate that quote 'love the sinner, hate the sin'. Its one of those pat answers christians pass around. And we do have too much of our own sin to be worrying about hating someone else's. So so true.

"Love the sinner, hate the sin? How about: Love the sinner, hate your own sin! I don't have time to hate your sin. There are too many of you! Hating my sin is a full-time job. How about you hate your sin, I'll hate my sin and let's just love each other!"

~ Mark Lowry

So LOVE that! That's great! :-D

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement~Helen Keller

I thought this quote went along with Leslie's post "The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved". I like having the "nickname" Beloved.:-D

"But you have to pray. You have to listen to the voice who calls you the beloved, because otherwise you will run around begging for affirmation, for praise, for success. And then you're not free."

~ Henry J. M. Nouwen

"But you have to pray. You have to listen to the voice who calls you the beloved, because otherwise you will run around begging for affirmation, for praise, for success. And then you're not free."

~ Henry J. M. Nouwen


Yes. I like it very much too! I so needed that one today.

"The winter is the childhood of the year. Into this childhood of the year came the child Jesus; and into this childhood of the year must we all descend. It is as if God spoke to each of us according to our need. My son, my daughter, you are growing old and cunning; you must grow a child again, with my son, this blessed birth-time. You are growing old and careful; you must become a child. You are growing old and distrustful; you must become a child. You are growing old and petty, and weak and foolish; you must become a child --- my child, like the baby there, that strong sunrise of faith and hope and love, lying in his mother's arms in the stable."

~ George Mac Donald
Adela Cathcart

"The Giver

To give a thing and take again
Is counted meanness among men;
To take away what once is given
Cannot then be the way of heaven!

But human hearts are crumbly stuff,
And never, never love enough,
Therefore God takes and, with a smile,
Puts our best thing away a while.

Thereon some weep, some rave, some scorn,
Some wish they never had been born;
Some humble grow at last and still,
And then God gives them what they will."

~ George Mac Donald
Poetical Works, Vol. 2

A little on the blunt side, but there's some truth here:


Eleven Maxims Not Taught in School
Charles J. Sykes

1) Life is not fair; get used to it.

2) The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

3) You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school (or college). You won't be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.

4) If you think your teachers are tough, wait till you get a boss. S/he doesn't have tenure.

5) Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

6) If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.

7) Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

8 ) Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This, of course, doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

9) Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

10) Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

11) Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

"The Discipline of Heeding

"What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops." Matthew 10:27


At times God puts us through the discipline of darkness to teach us to heed Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and we are put into the shadow of God's hand until we learn to hear Him. "What I tell you in darkness" - watch where God puts you into darkness, and when you are there keep your mouth shut. Are you in the dark just now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? Then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will talk in the wrong mood: darkness is the time to listen. Don't talk to other people about it; don't read books to find out the reason of the darkness, but listen and heed. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get into the light.

After every time of darkness there comes a mixture of delight and humiliation (if there is delight only, I question whether we have heard God at all), delight in hearing God speak, but chiefly humiliation - What a long time I was in hearing that! How slow I have been in understanding that! And yet God has been saying it all these days and weeks. Now He gives you the gift of humiliation which brings the softness of heart that will always listen to God now."

~ Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest (February 14)

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
- Emerson

Now He gives you the gift of humiliation which brings the softness of heart that will always listen to God now."



Oh, how true, how true! Thanks for that whole post Madre! :-D

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
- Emerson

And this is true, Leslie. It's hard to step out when you are departing from the norm, isn't it?

Madre, that Oswald Chambers' quote really said alot about what I feel Im going thru at the moment. Thanks.

gen

"I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel."

~ Florence Nightingale

"I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel."

~ Florence Nightingale

Love it. I didn't know that Florence had such a vocabulary. I had to look up dreidel. :-D

Let the Stable Still Astonish

Let the stable still astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said: "Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place"?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
of our hearts and says, "Yes,
let the God of Heaven and Earth
be born here--
in this place."

- Leslie Leyland Fields

Let the Stable Still Astonish

Let the stable still astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said: "Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place"?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
of our hearts and says, "Yes,
let the God of Heaven and Earth
be born here--
in this place."

- Leslie Leyland Fields

Love it! How true. When put that way, it makes so much sense for Him to have been born there since His job was to clean up the foul and sinful states of our hearts. Thanks for that one Madre! :-D

Thanks to Jan Karon, too.:-D It's from Patches of Godlight.

A Christmas Carol

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world’s desire.)

The Christ-child stood on Mary’s knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.

~ G.K. Chesterton

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hey Madre, You know how you posted some long quotes from C. S. Lewis' books. There is one Im looking for. I think its in one of the Chronicles of Narnia series. There is a scene where Aslan is at a lake and the little girl comes to the lake for a drink and is frightened to see Aslan there. She cant get to another lake and Aslan at first wont let her pass. She asks him if he will kill her and he replies by saying he's destroyed kingdoms and men and how terrifying he is really. He also says that there is no where else to go and get water to drink. She has to go thru him. He's terrifying but you are meant to feel safe with him. Have you read that... or anything that resembles that. I might have butchered it but its something like that.

Is this the one?


‘Are you not thirsty?’ said the Lion.

‘I’m dying of thirst,’ said Jill.

‘Then drink,’ said the Lion.

‘May I—could I—would you mind going away while I do?’ said Jill.

The Lion answer this only by a look and a very low growl . . .

‘Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?’ said Jill.

‘I make no promise,’ said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

‘Do you eat girls?’ she said.

‘I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,’ said the Lion . . .

‘I daren’t come and drink,’ said Jill.

‘Then you will die of thirst,’ said the Lion.

‘Oh, dear!’ said Jill, coming another step nearer. ‘I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.’

‘There is no other stream,’ said the Lion.


~ C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair

Thats the one. Dont you think its like that with Jesus. He is so terrifying if you are not his but if you are that fearsomeness is a protection. That awesomeness, might, strength... with it he could hurt you, but he doesnt. Awesome, reassuring, my security.


How do you do that Madre!?!?! I knew you woud find it, lol!

gen

Thats the one. Dont you think its like that with Jesus. He is so terrifying if you are not his but if you are that fearsomeness is a protection. That awesomeness, might, strength... with it he could hurt you, but he doesnt. Awesome, reassuring, my security.


How do you do that Madre!?!?! I knew you woud find it, lol!

gen

Yes, and the Lord isn't going to play by our rules (go away so I can drink;)). I think sometimes the choices offered seem so daunting, but we finally realize that we have no other choice, but to trust Him, you know? The fear of not trusting Him overcomes our fear of anything else. In the end, we're always glad we did.

Well, you gave me a few key words to try on Google, but I kept thinking it was Lucy that was speaking to Aslan. I had forgotten about Jill.:-D

Yes, and the Lord isn't going to play by our rules (go away so I can drink). I think sometimes the choices offered seem so daunting, but we finally realize that we have no other choice, but to trust Him, you know? The fear of not trusting Him overcomes our fear of anything else. In the end, we're always glad we did.

So true, Madre. so true.

"Our God, we will trust thee. Shall we not find thee equal to our faith? One day, we shall laugh ourselves to scorn that we looked for so little from thee; for thy giving will not be limited by our hoping."

~ George Mac Donald
"The Higher Faith", Unspoken Sermons, I

"Our God, we will trust thee. Shall we not find thee equal to our faith? One day, we shall laugh ourselves to scorn that we looked for so little from thee; for thy giving will not be limited by our hoping."

~ George Mac Donald
"The Higher Faith", Unspoken Sermons, I

I had to read that one twice. Second time around...wow! So true. Thank you for that one. Our God IS an awesome God. How unfathomable He is!

"Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait."

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
A Psalm of Life

From an old English parsonage down by the sea

There came in the twilight a message to me;

Its quaint Saxon legend, deeply engraven,

Hath, it seems to me, teaching from Heaven.

And on through the doors the quiet words ring

Like a low inspiration: “DOE THE NEXTE THYNGE.”


Many a questioning, many a fear,

Many a doubt, hath its quieting here.

Moment by moment, let down from Heaven,

Time, opportunity, and guidance are given.

Fear not tomorrows, child of the King,

Thrust them with Jesus, doe the nexte thynge.


Do it immediately, do it with prayer;

Do it reliantly, casting all care;

Do it with reverence, tracing His hand

Who placed it before thee with earnest command.

Stayed on Omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,

Leave all results, doe the nexte thynge


Looking for Jesus, ever serener,

Working or suffering, be thy demeanor;

In His dear presence, the rest of His calm,

The light of His countenance be thy psalm,

Strong in His faithfulness, praise and sing.

Then, as He beckons thee, doe the nexte thynge.
--Anonymous

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

~John Wooden, They Call Me Coach

"I say, if your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life. ":-D

~ Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes

"if We Had No Winter, The Spring Would Not Be So Pleasant; If We Did Not Sometimes Taste Adversity, Prosperity Would Not Be So Welcome. ~anne Bradstreet

"You cannot be a mature Christian if your body is out of control."~ Rich Nathan

"Our ancestors believed in two worlds, and understood this one to be the solitary, poor nasty one. We are among the first to believe that we can find our happiness here completely on earth. And our search for it has actually produced unhappiness. The reason is that if you do not believe in another higher world and you think this is your only chance of happiness...Then when you are denied happiness in this world you aren't just disappointed, you are in despair."

~ Peggy Noonan


"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

~ C.S. Lewis

'if We Had No Winter, The Spring Would Not Be So Pleasant; If We Did Not Sometimes Taste Adversity, Prosperity Would Not Be So Welcome. ~anne Bradstreet

I was thinking about that fact just the other day and the fact that we should be just as happy to take the good with the bad and keep in mind that one fine day He will wipe away all our tears.


"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

~ C.S. Lewis

I like that one too and it ties in with what I mentioned above. We were created for eternity, every single one of us. that kinda ROCKS!!

"God doesn't want us to get our ticket stamped for heaven and then live a hellish life on earth. He wants us to get a taste of His kingdom here on earth now." Rich Nathan

"Sorrows, because they are lingering guests, I will entertain but moderately, knowing that the more they are made of the longer they will continue: and for pleasures, because they stay not, and do but call to drink at my door, I will use them as passengers with slight respect. He is his own best friend that makes the least of both of them."

~ Joseph Hall

I love this one!

"Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness."

~ Martin Luther

two quotes I found on another site. Not sure if they are from the same person, but here ya go.


I can easily see why the folks at home want to eliminate Hell from their theology, preaching and thought. Hell is indeed awful unless its preaching is joined to a life laid down by the preacher. How can a man believe in Hell unless he throws away his life to rescue others from its torment? If there is no Hell, the Bible is a lie. If we are not willing to go to Hell on earth for others, we cannot preach it.

.................................................. ..........................................

I am getting desperately afraid of going to heaven for I have had the vision of the shame I shall suffer as I get my first glimpse of the Lord Jesus; His majesty, power and marvellous love for me, who treated Him so meanly and shabbily on earth, and acted as though I did Him a favour in serving Him! No wonder God shall have to wipe away the tears off all faces, for we shall be broken-hearted when we see the depth of His love and the shallowness of ours.
-CT Studd

Gen, that's an interesting perspective on "wiping away tears". There is a tendency to look at that verse as though the Lord will wipe away our tears that are caused by our sorrows on earth. It just may be that we will weep for the "shallowness" of our love.

If we are not willing to go to Hell on earth for others, we cannot preach it.

this bit is not easy to swallow either but I think there is more to it than we suspect.

gen

I read this in Philip Yancey's book Rumors of Another World. It was a quote referring to John Merrick, whose disfiguring illness caused him to be known as "The Elephant Man" and is by the physician who came to his aid.

"His troubles had ennobled him. He showed himself to be a gentle, affectionate and lovable creature...without a grievance and without an unkind word for anyone. I have never heard him complain. I have never heard him deplore his ruined life or resent the treatment he had received at the hands of callous keepers. His journey through life had been indeed along a via dolorosa, the road had been uphill all the way, and now, when the night was blackest and the way most steep, he had found himself, ad it were, in a friendly inn, bright with light and warm with welcome."

~ Dr. Frederick Treves, surgeon at London Hospital

Quote:
"His troubles had ennobled him. He showed himself to be a gentle, affectionate and lovable creature...without a grievance and without an unkind word for anyone. I have never heard him complain. I have never heard him deplore his ruined life or resent the treatment he had received at the hands of callous keepers. His journey through life had been indeed along a via dolorosa, the road had been uphill all the way, and now, when the night was blackest and the way most steep, he had found himself, ad it were, in a friendly inn, bright with light and warm with welcome."

~ Dr. Frederick Treves, surgeon at London Hospital



Simply amazing! [clapping]

"Gain all you gain, save all you can, give all you can." ~ Charles Wesley
Our Pastor this Sunday changed it to:

"Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can." I never saw making money before as godly. BUT if we make all we can through diligent, hard work with the idea of getting money to bring more and more of God's kingdom to bear in this world, to bless others, to accomplish godly goals, then the making of money is a very godly thing. Make it, save some(prudence), give, give, give in the same fashion! It blew me away to think about it that way!

I lik that one leslie.

gen

"It is precisely because of the eternity outside time that everything in time becomes valuable and important and meaningful. Therefore, Christianity...makes it of urgent importance that everything we do here should be rightly related to what we eternally are. "Eternal life" is the sole sanction for the values of this life."

~ Dorothy L. Sayers

This is from Mrs. Miniver, a wartime novel written by Jan Struther. It's from the chapter called "From Needing Danger" and is a letter to a friend. Sometimes difficult and even dangerous times bring out the best in people, but when the trying times are over it's so human to forget.


The thing is, we're all so buoyed up just now with the crusading spirit, and so burningly convinced of the infamy of the Government we're fighting against (this time, thank goodness, one doesn't say "the nation we're fighting against") -- that we're a little inclined to forget about our own past idiocies. The fact that we are now crusaders needn't blind us to the fact that for a very long time we have been, as Badger would say, echidnas. I can think of a hundred ways already in which the war has "brought us to our senses." But it oughtn't to need a war to make a nation paint its kerbstones white, carry rear-lamps on its bicycles, and give all its slum children a holiday in the country. And it oughtn't to need a war to make us talk to each other in buses, and invent our own amusements in the evenings, and live simply, and eat sparingly, and recover the use of our legs, and get up early enough to see the sun rise. However, it has needed one: which is about the severest criticism our civilization could have.

I wonder whether it's too much to hope that afterwards, when all the horrors are over, we shall be able to conjure up again the feelings of these first few weeks, and somehow rebuild our peace-time world so as to preserve everything of war which is worth preserving? What we need is a kind of non-material war museum, where, instead of gaping at an obsolete uniform in a glass case, we can press a magic button and see a vision of ourselves as we were while this revealing mood was freshly upon us. I know that this sounds silly and that there are no such magic buttons. The nearest approach to them, I think, are the poems and articles -- and even the letters and chance phrases -- which are struck out of people like sparks at such moments as this. So write all the letters you can, Susan, please (to me, if you feel like it, but at any rate to somebody), and keep all the ones you get, and put down somewhere, too, everything you see or hear which will help later on to recapture the spirit of this tragic, marvellous, and eye-opening time: so that, having recaptured it, we can use it for better ends. We may not, of course, ever get the chance: but if we do, and once more fail to act upon it, I feel pretty sure we shan't be given another one.

"Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell God your troubles, that God may comfort you; tell God your joys, that God may sober them; tell God your longings, that God may purify them; tell God your dislikes, that God may help you conquer them; talk to God of your temptations, that God may shield you from them: show God the wounds of your heart, that God may heal them. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. Talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration say just what you think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God."

~ Francois Fenelon

"Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell God your troubles, that God may comfort you; tell God your joys, that God may sober them; tell God your longings, that God may purify them; tell God your dislikes, that God may help you conquer them; talk to God of your temptations, that God may shield you from them: show God the wounds of your heart, that God may heal them. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. Talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration say just what you think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God."

~ Francois Fenelon

I SO liked this! [claploud]

"If your baby's 'beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time', you're the grandma."[angelpink]

~ Theresa Bloomingdale

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time."

~ Creighton Abrams

"We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once."

~ Calvin Coolidge

Love at first sight is easy to understand;
it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime
that it becomes a miracle.
~Amy Bloom

"It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to."

~ W.C. Fields


The true calling for the confident answer:

Ephesians 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

John 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

1 Corinthians 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

For all of our coffee drinking Moms (in WA state, esp.:-D):


In Seattle you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running.

~ Jeff Bezos

For all of our coffee drinking Moms (in WA state, esp.:-D):


TOO FUNNY! :mrgreen:

Love unlocks doors and opens windows that weren't even there before.
~Mignon McLaughlin

Amen, Leslie!:-D

For all of our coffee drinking Moms (in WA state, esp.:-D):

Oh, Madre, I laughed so hard at this! I had to share it with Justin so he could tell people at work. I've mentioned before that the company he works for hands out Starbucks cards like candy. He always has a stack of them to give away to his employees. He didn't even drink coffee until he started working for them. He actually came home one day and asked me to teach him how to drink coffee. I told him to order a carmel mocha frappe', just to ease him in slowly. It worked. LOL!!

TFS!

XOXOXO

[lovewuvu], mucho!!

Joy [welcomewave]

"The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!"

~ Henry Ward Beecher


"Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, - a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise."

~ George Herbert

"The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of."

~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670

"I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, 'Ain't that the truth.'"

~ Quincy Jones

"Out of a very intimate acquaintance with D. L. Moody, I wish to testify that he was a far greater pray-er than he was preacher. Time and time again, he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable, but he always knew the way to overcome all difficulties. He knew the way to bring to pass anything that needed to be brought to pass. He knew and believed in the deepest depths of his soul that nothing was too hard for the Lord, and that prayer could do anything that God could do."

~ R.A. Torrey

Awesome, M!

[lovewuvu]

Joy [welcomewave]

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."

~ Abraham Lincoln

"If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point. "

~ Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

"Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason-a life of knowing Him who calls us to go." Oswald Chambers

God's greatest blessings come costumed as disaters. Any doubters need to do nothing more than ascend the hill of Calvary.~Max Lucado


Read this today....

Not sure if this one is on here somewhere, but I love it:

Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly shouting, "Wow! What a ride! Thank You Lord!!!".


Also:

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

~ Jim Elliot (martyred missionary in 20th C)

In anticipation of spring. [sheepjumpingrope]


First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus -
Crocus.

~ Lilja Rogers

A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have. ~ Barry Goldwater

"Don't let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries."

~ Astrid Alauda

A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming,
understand the unconventional,
tolerate the unpleasant,
overcome the unexpected,
and outlast the unbearable.
~Billy Graham

We find comfort among those who agree with us -
growth among those who don't.
~Frank A. Clark

"Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hands on the strings to stop their vibration as in twanging them to bring out their music."

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday.
You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
~Barbara De Angelis

"Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?”

~ Augustine

"All the world is full of suffering. It also is full of overcoming."

~ Helen Keller

"Keep your mind on the things you want and off the things you don't want."

~ Hannah Whitall Smith

Remember:


Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.


Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply, Speak kindly.......


Leave the rest to God


Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain. ~?

Thanks for that quote, L. I especially liked this:


Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

and I like this line:

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain. ~

"Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal- a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body."

~ D.L. Moody

"It is not the purpose of Christianity to change society as a whole outwardly; it is the purpose of Christianity to change men as individuals inwardly."

~ Laurence M. Vance

"It is not the purpose of Christianity to change society as a whole outwardly; it is the purpose of Christianity to change men as individuals inwardly."

~ Laurence M. Vance


Amen...then as each is changed society will be changed!

"Hope is patience with the lamp lit."

~ Tertullian

Patience is trusting in God's timing.

"During eighteen years as a bishop, I have interviewed many young women and men for Christian ministry, usually for ordination. Such candidates would normally come from a local church and so inevitably I would request a reference from their clergy. One thing I often see in a reference is a comment like this - "He or she always waits behind afterwards to help clear up". My reaction to this sort of comment is positive. I was reminded of it however as I looked up a Greek dictionary for the root of the word "patience" in the New Testament - one aspect of it was described as "Remaining behind when others have departed". It did not seem too distant from that Gospel challenge to go "the extra mile". It is a sign of maturity in faith - an unselfishness and a spirit of service."

~ Dr. John Neill, Archbishop of Dublin

"As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not conciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God."

~ C.S. Lewis

"Whatever may have been Mr. Marsden's earlier ideas with regard to the importance of civilization in its relation to Christianity, his experience, at the end of thirty years of toil, found expression in these words: 'Civilization is not necessary before Christianity; do both together if you will, but you will find civilization follow Christianity more easily than Christianity follow civilization.'"

~ Samuel Marsden

"Samuel Marsden (1764-1838 ) was an English missionary to New South Wales, Australia, where he began serving as chaplain to convicts in a penal colony in 1794; and to New Zealand where he was the first to present the gospel to the Maoris in 1814. He returned to England once in 1807-1808."

"I sense we are coming dangerously close to designing a new Christian culture that is not biblical. Instead of helping men find 'spiritual' solutions, we may end up only miring them down in 'man-made' rules and regulations. That would be tragic. We must do more than just ask men to conform or perform, we must reach their souls with the healing balm of the gospel."

~ Patrick Morley

"To try too hard to make people good is one way to make them worse. The only way to make them good is to be good, remembering well the beam and the mote."

~ George Mac Donald

"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."

~ Christopher Columbus

The shortest distance between a problem and a solution
is the distance between your knees and the floor.
The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to anything.
~Author Unknown

Lord, make this our heart's desire.

"I would far rather look but through the hole of Christ's door, to see but the one half of his fairest and most comely face (for He looketh like heaven), suppose I should never get in to see His excellency and glory to the full, than to enjoy the flower, the bloom and chief excellency of the glory and riches of ten worlds."

~ Samuel Rutherford, Letters of Samuel Rutherford

"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass.' 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.' "

~ Harmon Killebrew

"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass.' 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.' "

~ Harmon Killebrew

AMEN! May I remember that! :-D

The best things in life are nearest:
Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet,duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain,common work as it comes, certain that daily duties anddaily bread are the sweetest things in life.
~Robert Louis Stevenson

http://www.silk.net/RelEd/graphics/quote43.gif

"For daily need there is daily grace; for sudden need, sudden grace, and for overwhelming need, overwhelming grace."

~ John Blanchard

Keep on beginning and failing.
Each time you fail, start all over gain, and you will grow stronger until have accomplished a purpose--
not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad to remember.
~Anne Sullivan

"Every man is my neighbor and is to be treated in a proper human, man-to-man relationship. Every time we act in a machine-like way toward another man we deny the central teaching of the Word of God — that there is a personal God who has created man in his own image."

~ Francis Schaeffer

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life,…and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,…to rout all that was not life,…to reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it….; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and to be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden

"'Look at us', said the violets blooming at her feet, 'All last winter we slept in the seeming death but at the right time God awakened us, and here we are to comfort you.'"

~ Edward Payson Rod

"It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is, when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to Him, and mind the present."

~ George Mac Donald

"It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is, when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to Him, and mind the present."

~ George Mac Donald

THAT is so amazingly WISE! Often we are doing just that and not realizing we are fretting about future outcomes, not the moment at hand! Well, at least I have caught myself doing that. Sometimes when I am all worked up about my sons in a moment where they are displaying their learning disabilities, it isn't so much that moment and the particular problem they are struggling with but more my fear that they will never be able to function on their own that weighs on me and causes me to get frustrated and anxious and not be as patient as I should be.

"Never wait for fitter time or place to talk to Him. To wait till thou go to church or to thy closet is to make Him wait. He will listen as you walk."

~ George Mac Donald,
"Righteousness" - Unspoken Sermons, Third Series

"Visible success has never been the proof of Jesus or His followers."

~ Vance Havner

"For the Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work."

~ C.S. Lewis

"For the Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work."

~ C.S. Lewis

That is comforting. AND sometimes it gives you great pause if you don't stop and remember that God is always good, always holy, and has good purposes in mind for you no matter what you go through.

"We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude."

~ Charles R. Swindoll

After having his wallet stolen, Bible scholar Matthew Henry recorded in his diary:"Let me be thankful, first, because he never robbed me before; second, because although he took my purse, he did not take my life; third, because although he took all I possessed, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed."


~ Matthew Henry

"Oh, the liberty that is released in our hearts when we let go of the opinions of others! The less we are mesmerized by human voices, the more we are able to hear the Divine voice. The less we are manipulated by the expectations of others, the more we are open to the expectations of God."

~ Richard Foster

"Our Father never does a thing suddenly: He has always prepared long, long before. So there is nothing to murmur about, nothing to be proud of, in the calling of God. There is also no one of whom to be jealous, for other people's advantages have nothing to do with us. 'It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy' (Romans 9:16). Our heritage, our birth, our natural equipment: these are things already determined by God. We may pick up other things in the way, for we are always learning; but the way is His way. When we look back over our life, we bow and acknowledge that all was prepared of God. To have such an attitude of heart, that is true rest."

~ Watchman Nee

"Our Father never does a thing suddenly: He has always prepared long, long before. So there is nothing to murmur about, nothing to be proud of, in the calling of God. There is also no one of whom to be jealous, for other people's advantages have nothing to do with us. 'It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy' (Romans 9:16). Our heritage, our birth, our natural equipment: these are things already determined by God. We may pick up other things in the way, for we are always learning; but the way is His way. When we look back over our life, we bow and acknowledge that all was prepared of God. To have such an attitude of heart, that is true rest."

~ Watchman Nee

Wow. There is a lot in that quote. It is a lesson often learned only through maturing and passage of time and firery trials.

"When I get to heaven, I shall see three wonders there. The first wonder will be to see many there whom I did not expect to see; the second wonder will be to miss many people who I did expect to see; and the third and greatest of all will be to find myself there."

~ John Newton

"Oh, the liberty that is released in our hearts when we let go of the opinions of others! The less we are mesmerized by human voices, the more we are able to hear the Divine voice. The less we are manipulated by the expectations of others, the more we are open to the expectations of God."

~ Richard Foster

I like this one :mrgreen:

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved."~ Helen Keller

And she should know!

"The reality is that all day long we get chances to turn frictions and temptations into acts of infinite value. Nothing is too trivial to be transformed into heaven’s gold — an insult you overlook, a sin you forgive, a right you sacrifice, a fear you bring to the Lord."

~ Andree Seu, World Magazine

"Law tells me how crooked I am; grace comes along and straightens me out."

~ Dwight L. Moody

"Law tells me how crooked I am; grace comes along and straightens me out."

~ Dwight L. Moody


Oooo, good one! :mrgreen:

"I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up by asking Him to do his work through me."

~ Hudson Taylor

"I have oftentimes looked gratefully back to my sick chamber. I am certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain."

~ Charles Spurgeon

"I have oftentimes looked gratefully back to my sick chamber. I am certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain."

~ Charles Spurgeon

Oh my yes!

Light Shining Out of Darkness

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the LORD by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding ev'ry hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow'r.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
GOD is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

~ William Cowper

"Two heaps of human happiness and misery; now if I can take but the smallest bit from one heap and add to the other, I carry a point. If, as I go home, a child has dropped a halfpenny, and if, by giving it another, I can wipe away its tears, I feel I have done something. I should be glad to do greater things, but I will not neglect this. When I hear a knock on my study door, I hear a message from God; it may be a lesson of instruction perhaps a lesson of penitence; but, since it is his message, it must be interesting."

~ John Newton

"The reality is that all day long we get chances to turn frictions and temptations into acts of infinite value. Nothing is too trivial to be transformed into heaven’s gold — an insult you overlook, a sin you forgive, a right you sacrifice, a fear you bring to the Lord."

~ Andree Seu, World Magazine

I really liked that. Ive found it to be very true and liberating actually. Bringing me closer to God. As if He says 'Thank you for bringing it to me. You sit back now and watch what I can do with it'. and what He does in bringing others near to Him and how he does it is nothing short of awesome.

"Fourth, in the very research and writing of this lecture I experienced something that may be a crucial lesson for those of us given to too much self-absorption and analysis. I devoted about three days from waking till sleeping to William Cowper, besides leisurely reading of his poetry up till that time.

Those three days I was almost entirely outside myself as it were. Now and then I "came to" and became aware that I had been absorbed wholly in the life of another. But most of the time I was not self-conscious. I was not thinking about me at all. I was the one thinking, not the one thought about. This experience, when I "came to" and thought about it, seemed to me extremely healthy. That is the way I experienced it. In other words, I felt best when I was not aware of being a feeling one at all. I was feeling and thinking the life of William Cowper.

I think this is the way most of our life should be. Periodic self-examination is needed and wise and Biblical. But for the most part mental health is the use of the mind to focus on worthy reality outside ourselves."

~ John Piper, Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint, Reflections on the Life of William Cowper

Judge not the LORD by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding ev'ry hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow'r.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
GOD is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.



I especially liked these last three verses!

"I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward."

~ David Livingstone

"A consciousness of our powerlessness should cast us upon Him who has all power. Here then is where a vision and view of God's sovereignty helps, for it reveals His sufficiency and shows us our insufficiency."

~ Arthur W. Pink

"A consciousness of our powerlessness should cast us upon Him who has all power. Here then is where a vision and view of God's sovereignty helps, for it reveals His sufficiency and shows us our insufficiency."

~ Arthur W. Pink
I love AW Pink. I read his book the Sovereignty of God. Good stuff! :-D

"As God did not at first choose you because you were so high, so He will not forsake you because you are so low." ~ John Flavel

"As God did not at first choose you because you were so high, so He will not forsake you because you are so low." ~ John Flavel


Praise the Lord!!! :-D

Love those last few quotes!:mrgreen:

"If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance."

~ Andrea Boydston


"It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

"Be not deceived, Wormwood, our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe in which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

~ C.S. Lewis, Screwtape to Wormwood, The Screwtape Letters

"Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing yet had been done."

~ C.S. Lewis

"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."

~ Clarence Budington Kelland

"The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes."

~ Leo Tolstoy

Im going to add that last one to my siggie, I think. I like that one.

gen

"Blessings we enjoy daily, and for the most of them, because they be so common, men forget to pay their praises."

~ Izaak Walton

"The means to gain happiness is to throw out from oneself like a spider in all directions an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes."

~ Leo Tolstoy

I like it too Tara. :-D I think I will put it on my blog page. Thanks dear Madre. A blessing as always. [loveyou]

Eternity to the godly is a day that has no sunset; eternity to the wicked is a night that has no sunrise.~ Thomas Watson

"Neither go back in fear and misgiving to the past, nor in anxiety and forecasting to the future; but lie quiet under His hand, having no will but His."

~ H.E. Manning

When you have no helpers, see your helpers in God. When you have many helpers, see God in all your helpers. When you have nothing but God, see all in God. When you have everything, see God in everything. Under all conditions, stay thy heart only on the Lord.

~ Charles Spurgeon

"Faith makes the uplook good, the outlook bright, the inlook favorable, and the future glorious."

~ V. Raymond Edman

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

~ Plato

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

~ Plato


Very true!

I needed to hear that today. im annyoyed with someone. I need to remember to just be kind. sigh.[halo]

"There are times - and this will be borne out by many servants of God - when you cannot preach, you cannot do anything but hold on where you are, being there, standing there, keeping in close touch with heaven there."

~ T. Austin-Sparks

"There are times - and this will be borne out by many servants of God - when you cannot preach, you cannot do anything but hold on where you are, being there, standing there, keeping in close touch with heaven there."

~ T. Austin-Sparks


Amen. Amen! I so can understand this...I like this one! :-D

"Missions, after all, is simply this: Every heart with Christ is a missionary, every heart without Christ is a mission field."

~ Count Zinzendorf

"My mother's menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it."

~ Buddy Hackett

"The Lord may see it needful, for the trial (development) of faith, to seem for a season not to regard our supplications; yet, if we patiently and believingly continue to wait upon Him, it will be manifest in His own time, and way, that we did not call upon Him in vain."

~ G. Marshall

"Every father ... who loved his children, ought to make them independent of himself, that neither clog, nor net, nor hindrance of any kind might hamper the true working of their consciences; then would the service they rendered their parent be precious indeed! then indeed would love be lord, and neither self, nor the fear of man, nor the fear of fate be a law in their life."

~ George MacDonald, There and Back

"An 'impersonal God' - well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads - better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap - best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband - that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion ('Man's search for God!') suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?"

~ C. S. Lewis, Miracles

Another gem from cs lewis.