I thought you would like this one, Gen. I like it, too! :-D

"There is a way to distinguish between the Father's leading and Satan's 'angel of light' leadings. The Father's promptings never nag, or worry, or harass. Satan's do just that. If one has a seeming 'leading' to do something that in itself is good, yet with the impulse there is a sense of nagging disquiet, and being driven in a certain direction, that is the Enemy's trademark; and his false leading is to be immediately recognized and rejected. The Holy Spirit's leadings come with a sense of peace and quiet, even if they point in a really difficult direction which only the grace of the Father can enable one to follow."

~ Charles G. Trumbull

This is really good, Madre! Thank you for sharing it with us!! [hug]

[lovewuvu]

Joy [welcomewave]

"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

"The basis for the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount is not what works but rather the way God is. Cheek-turning is not advocated as what works (it usually does not), but advocated because this is the way God is--God is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. This is not a stratagem for getting what we want but the only manner of life available, now that, in Jesus, we have seen what God wants. We seek reconciliation with the neighbor, not because we feel so much better afterward, but because reconciliation is what God is doing in the world through Christ."

~ Stanley Hauerwas, William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony

"When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself."

~ Oswald Chambers

"Every day do something you don’t want to do. Pick up someone else’s trash. Surrender your parking place. Call the long-winded relative. Carry the cooler. Doesn’t have to be a big thing. Helen Keller once told the Tennessee legislature that when she was young, she had longed to do great things and could not, so she decided to do small things in a great way. Don’t be too big to do something small. “Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort” (1 Cor. 15:58 MSG)."~ Max Lucado

"When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now."

~ C.S. Lewis

"A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails."

~ Donna Roberts

"When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself."

~ Oswald Chambers

Thats a good one for me today.[loveyou]. thnx

Entrust your ways
And all that grieves your heart
To the totally faithful care
Of Him that directs the heavens.
He who gives the clouds air and winds,
Their ways, course, and path,
Will also find roads
Where your foot can go.
~ Johann Sebastian Bach, 44th Chorale, St. Matthew Passion

~ Johann Sebastian Bach, 44th Chorale, St. Matthew Passion

Thank you Madre. I needed that one today. [loveyou]

"Look upon your chastening as God's chariots sent to carry your soul into the high places of spiritual achievement."

~ Hannah Whitall Smith

"We say, sorrow, disaster, calamity. God says, chastening and it sounds sweet to him though it is a discord to our ears. Don't faint when you are rebuked, and don't despise the chastening of the Lord. In your patience possess your souls."

~ Oswald Chambers

"Accustom yourself in everything that happens, to recognize the hand of the Father. Before you fix your thoughts on the person who did it, first be still, and remember, God allows me to come into this trouble to see if I shall glorify Him in it. This trial, be it the greatest or least, is allowed of God, and is His will concerning me. Let me first recognize and submit to God's will in it. Then in the rest of soul which this gives, I shall receive wisdom to know how to behave in it. With my eye turned from man to God, suffering wrong is not as hard as it seems.

The Lord Jesus knew that His Father would care for His rights and honor. But he who lives in the visible, wants his honor to be vindicated at once here below. He who lives in the eternal, and as seeing the Invisible, is satisfied to leave the vindication of his rights and honor in God's hands; he knows that they are safe with Him. Giving one's all into God's keeping brings rest and peace."

~ Andrew Murray

"Make your Father's side of things your interest and concern, and your side will be fully ensured; but turn your eye to your own side, and, with much apparent effort and work, you will look for much and bring in little. This explains the small progress in many souls in this day, notwithstanding the amount of truth and light they have received. May the Lord Jesus in His Word be more simply the Object of our hearts in this evil day."

~ J. B. Stoney

"Judge not the workings of his brain,
And of his heart thou cannot see.
What looks to thy dim eyes a stain,
In God's pure light may only be
A scar brought from some well-won field
Where thou wouldst only faint and yield."

~ Unknown Author

"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

"God always gives you what you would have asked for if you knew everything He knows."

~ Tim Keller

"You take it for granted that you know your own heart because you call it yours, but I say that your heart is a far deeper thing than you know or are capable of knowing. It very nature is hid from you. I use but a poor figure when I say that the roots of your heart go down beyond your knowledge, ”whole eternities beyond it” into the heart of God. If you have never yet made one discovery in your heart, your testimony concerning it is not worth a tuft of flue; and if you have made discoveries in it, does not the fact reveal that it is but little known to you, and that there must be discoveries innumerable yet to be made in it?"

~ George MacDonald, excerpt from "Weighed and Wanting"

“Sight is not faith, and hearing is not faith, neither is feeling faith; but believing when we neither see, hear, nor feel is faith; and everywhere the Bible tells us our salvation is to be by faith. Therefore we must believe before we feel, and often against our feelings, if we would honor faith.”

~ Hannah Whitall Smith

“Sight is not faith, and hearing is not faith, neither is feeling faith; but believing when we neither see, hear, nor feel is faith; and everywhere the Bible tells us our salvation is to be by faith. Therefore we must believe before we feel, and often against our feelings, if we would honor faith.”

~ Hannah Whitall Smith

Amen. :-D As always thank you Madre.

"It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit because there is no winter there."

~ John Bunyan

"The things of the world so crowd our hearts that there is no room in them for the things of God's heart, which would raise ours above all fear and make us merry children in our Father's house. How many whispers of the watching Spirit do we let slip by, while we brood over a need not yet come to us! Tomorrow makes today's whole head sick, its whole heart faint. When we should be still, sleeping or dreaming, we are fretting about an hour that lies half a sun's journey away!"

~ George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, Second Series

"It is just a matter of taking a position that is already yours. The enemy has filled the minds of many believers with the delusion that they are poor, and in their poverty they must work and grind and toil in order to buy the blessings which are already theirs in Christ. It is time to see that all you need you have in Christ. There is no need of yours which is not fully met in Him. And you are in Him. You only need to take the position which is already yours. Abide!"

~ David Tryon

"When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this world is over."

~ George MacDonald

"It is just a matter of taking a position that is already yours. The enemy has filled the minds of many believers with the delusion that they are poor, and in their poverty they must work and grind and toil in order to buy the blessings which are already theirs in Christ. It is time to see that all you need you have in Christ. There is no need of yours which is not fully met in Him. And you are in Him. You only need to take the position which is already yours. Abide!"

~ David Tryon

Thank you. I needed this reminder. Bless you my dear Madre!

"Once we are free from image, we will free everyone else from image. We will neither pander to the rich nor show compassion to the poor. We will minister to the individual! We will see beyond image to the exact need that Jesus saw in man."

~ Michael Wells

"There are certain things we must not pray about - moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition, never submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won't. The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual pluck."

~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

"Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace."

~ John Greenleaf Whittier, from Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

Those last two spoke to me. Thank you sweet sister for your faithfulness! [loveyou]

"Come to God, then, my brother, my sister, with all your desires and instincts, all your lofty ideals, all your longing for purity and unselfishness, all your yearning to love and be true, all your aspirations after self-forgetfulness and child-life in the breath of the Father. Come to him with all your weaknesses, all your shames, all your futilities; with all your helplessness over your own thoughts; with all your failures, yes, the sick sense of having missed the tide of true affairs. Come to him with all your doubts, fears, dishonesties, meanness, paltriness, misjudgments, weariness, disappointments, and staleness. Be sure he will take you with all your miserable brood into the care of his limitless heart!"

~ George MacDonald, Discovering the Character of God, Unspoken Sermons, Third Series

I love it Madre.

"Many Christians keep themselves in a perpetual foment through hoping they will get into a situation where they can enjoy a better (and easier) Christian life. They feel enclosed in a net of circumstances from which they cannot escape. They are so wearied and baffled and beaten by the continuous pressure about them that they wish and itch for things to be different, quite sure that if they were only different Christ would be more real. It has not dawned upon them that at the heart of these very circumstances they are to find the Lord Jesus, find His grace sufficient, find the life more abundant."

~ L.E. Maxwell

"He is not escaped who drags his chain."

~ French Proverb

Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

~ Horace, Odes Book I

"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."

~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

"God delights to disappoint man's fears."

~ Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't."

~ Richard Bach

Didnt Richard Bach write Jonathan Livingston Seagull? I read that when I was a teen and thought I could try and teletransport because of it, that and some of his other books too. Good quote tho.

You're right, Gen! :-D When I found that quote, I never even associated it with the author of JLS.

It is a good quote tho. Saying that Richard Bach did play an interesting role in my adolescence and young adulthood. That brought back some memories of what I was like before I knew Christ. And made me thankful that I do know him now. I adored JLS and Richard Bach, now I detest that sort of thing, obviously. I hope you dont think Im picking on you, I just thought I hadnt heard anything about RB for a LOOOOOng time.

It is a good quote tho. Saying that Richard Bach did play an interesting role in my adolescence and young adulthood. That brought back some memories of what I was like before I knew Christ. And made me thankful that I do know him now. I adored JLS and Richard Bach, now I detest that sort of thing, obviously. I hope you dont think Im picking on you, I just thought I hadnt heard anything about RB for a LOOOOOng time.

Oh, no, Gen! I didn't think you were picking on me. In fact I'm sure I read JLS back in the day myself. :-D

In light of the upcoming presidential elections this year...

you can always trust the devil or a politician
to be the devil or a politician...

Lyrics to A Saviour on Capitol Hill by Derek Webb

Interesting quote, Gen! Here's another:

"A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected."

~ Carl Sandburg

"Never confuse thoughtlessness with malice."

~ Robert Charles Whitehead

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in."

~ Leonard Cohen

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in."

~ Leonard Cohen


There certainly are cracks in everything of this earth anyway...LOL! [lovewuvu]

"God is good, but never dance in a small boat." :-D

~ Irish Saying

"For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You see," said Aslan. "They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out."


~ C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

"The will can do all--except one thing: undo that which it has done. The power of undoing is of another order: of the order of grace, if you will. It is a miracle."

~ Vladimir Jankelevitch, Forgiveness

Not sure who the author is, I saw this on a friend's face book and thought, WOW!

"Don't make those a priority who make you an option."

"A friend whose contact and whose memory does not make us ever do our best is one in name only."

~ Oswald Chambers, Christian Discipline, Vol. 2

"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“The sermon and the Spirit always work in combination to produce liberation. Sometimes the Spirit and sermon do supply direct answers to human need, but most often they answer indirectly…. The sermon, no matter how sincere, cannot solve these unsolvable problems. So if the sermon is not a problem solver, where shall we go for the solutions? Together with the Spirit, the sermon exists to point out that having answers is not essential to living. What is essential is the sense of God’s presence during dark seasons of questioning…. Our need for specific answers is dissolved in the greater issue of the lordship of Christ over all questions—those that have answers and those that don’t.”

~ Calvin Miller, Spirit, Word, and Story

When Jesus has our attention, we feel that we can live like sparrows, that as flowers are clothed so will He clothe us, that each day has enough worry, that we can cast our anxiety on Him, and that we can freely give.

~ Michael Wells

Hebrews 1:8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdRyNea19PE

“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, as it seems to me,
Teaching from Heaven;
And through the hours
The quiet words ring
Like a low inspiration:
‘Doe ye nexte thynge.’

“Many a questioning,
Many a fear,
Many a doubt,
Hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment,
Let down from heaven,
Time, opportunity,
Guidance, are given.
Fear not tomorrows,
Child of the King;
Trust them with Jesus:
‘Doe ye nexte thynge.’

“Do it immediately,
Do it with prayer,
Do it reliantly,
Casting off care;
Do it with reverence,
Tracing His hand
Who hath placed it before thee
With earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence,
Safe ‘neath his wing,
Leave all resulting:
‘Doe ye nexte thynge.’”

~ Unknown

In a seminary one time I displayed two pairs of eyeglasses; one represented my "create" glasses and the other stood for my "rest and recognize" glasses. I would read through the Epistles with the "create" glasses and then read the same text with the "rest and recognize" glasses. By the end of the day, the men had gotten the message. One causes a look at Scripture from the point of view of detecting necessary labor for man, and the other provides a view of the accomplishments of God. Remember, what made Israel great was not all of the combined achievements; what made them great was their God.

~ Michael Wells, Did God Give You an Instruction or an Assembly Manual?

"What seem our worst prayers may really be, in God's eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling. For these may come from a deeper level than feeling. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when he catches us, as it were, off our guard."

~ C.S. Lewis

“When I consider how completely and nobly you have foregone all quiet civilised influences that other women have and have been living a literal hand-to-mouth existence all transfigured by your great love for me and Him, I must bow my head in dedication and say God bless thee!”

~ Note from Oswald Chambers to his wife Biddy, 1916

"For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe." ;)

~ Author Unknown

"Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbors."

~ Rudyard Kipling

--------------------------

"God never built a Christian strong enough to carry today's duties and tomorrow's anxieties piled on the top of them."

~ Theodore L. Cuyler

"From nursery school onward we are taught how to succeed in the world of ungrace. Work hard for what you earn. The early bird gets the worm. No pain, no gain. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Demand your rights. Get what you pay for. I know these rules well because I live by them. I work for what I earn; I like to win; I insist on my rights. I want fairness. I want people to get what they deserve--nothing more, nothing less. Yet if I care to listen, I hear a loud whisper from the gospel that I did not get what I deserved. I deserved punishment and got forgiveness. I deserved wrath and got love."

~ Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?

"In all the old castles of England there used to be a place called the keep. It was always the strongest and best protected place in the castle, and in it were hidden all who were weak and helpless and unable to defend themselves in times of danger. Had you been a timid, helpless woman in such a castle during a time of siege, would it have seemed to you a leap in the dark to have hidden yourself there? Would you have been afraid to do it? And shall we be afraid to hide ourselves in the keeping power of our Divine Keeper, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and who has promised to preserve our going out and our coming in, from this time forth and even forever more?"

~ Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

"What is salvation? To be delivered from everything mean, low, despicable, selfish, cringing, fearing in my whole nature, that I may stand humble yet bold and free before the Universe of God, because God knows me and I know God. That is salvation, and nothing else will do for man or woman."

~ From "The Story of Zacchaeus", George MacDonald in the Pulpit

"God is more eager to ANSWER than we are to ASK." [loveflag]

~ Smith Wigglesworth

"Where there is no choice, we do well to make no difficulty."

~ George MacDonald

(http://www.quotesea.com/Quote.aspx?q=Wherethereisnochoicewedowelltomakeno)

I like that one Madre.

"One kind word can warm three winter months."

~ Japanese Proverb

"Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."

~ C. H. Spurgeon

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem."

~ Theodore Rubin

"She had eyes in the back of her heart."

~ Richard Peck, A Year Down Under, (Mary Alice speaking about her grandma)

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem."

~ Theodore Rubin

Very wise indeed.:mrgreen:

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."

~ Henry David Thoreau

"There will come one day a personal and direct touch from God when every tear and perplexity, evey oppression and distress, every suffering and pain, and wrong and injustice will have a complete and ample and overwhelming explanation."

~ Oswald Chambers, Shade of His Hand

In the Hollow of God's Palm

No soul can be forever banned
Eternally bereft
Whoever falls from God’s right hand
Is caught into his left.

At the heart of the cyclone tearing the sky
And flinging the clouds and the towers by
Is a place of central calm

So here in the roar of mortal things
I have a place where my spirit sings
In the hollow of God’s Palm

~ Edwin Markham

"If you have learned how to disagree without being disagreeable, then you have discovered the secret of getting along -- whether it be business, family relations, or life itself."

~ Bernard Meltzer

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

~ Dr. Seuss, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

"God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man."

~ C.S. Lewis

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had roll'd along th' unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bow'd my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

'Til ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first published in 1863

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

~ from Hark the Herald Angels Sing

"Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you ... to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old ... Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world ... stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death... Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone."

~ Henry van Dyke ("Keeping Christmas" in The Spirit of Christmas)

"Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change things...outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory."

~ Warren W. Wiersbe

“All The Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
Layin’ In The Sun,
Talkin’ ‘Bout The Things
They Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda Done…
But All Those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
All Ran Away And Hid
From One Little Did.”

~ Shel Silverstein

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."

~ Bill Vaughan in Kansas City Star

"A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease."

~ Elizabeth Gaskell

"Jesus has no tenderness toward anything that is ultimately going to ruin a man in service to Him. If God brings to your mind a verse which hurts you, you may be sure there is something He wants to hurt."

~ Andrew Murray

Madre, so faithful in bringing these quotes. I appreciate them so much.

Thanks, Gen; that's encouraging. [heart]

"Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more--no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes. And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less....Grace means that God already loves us as much an infinite God can possibly love."

~ Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?

"Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you in the language you know best, not through your ears, but throughout your circumstances."

~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, January 29

I've heard God speak many, many, many times throughout my circumstances.

"Don't see your child as a blank slate awaiting your pen, but as a written book awaiting your study."

"Don't see yourself as a product of your parents' DNA, but rather as a brand-new idea from heaven."

~ Max Lucado, Cure for the Common Life

"... the strange thing about sheep is that because of their makeup, it is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met. First, due to their timidity, they must be free from all fear. Next, because of their sociability, they must be free from friction with others of their kind. Third, they must be free from flies or parasites if they are to relax. Lastly, they will not lie down unless free from hunger. It is only the shepherd who can provide release from all these anxieties. As our Good Shepherd, the Lord meets all these needs for us, so that we can 'lie down in green pastures,' with our souls restored by His care.” [sheepjumpingrope]

~ W. Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon." [girlsmiley]

~ Author Unknown

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon." [girlsmiley]

~ Author Unknown

Hehe...I like!

"If something is ministering death to you, don't do it any longer. When certain lines of thought fill you full of death, you know immediately that it is not the mind of the Spirit."

~ Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind

"Great feuds often need very few words to resolve them. Disputes, even between nations, between peoples, can be set to rest by simple acts of contrition and corresponding forgiveness, can so often be shown to be based on nothing much other than pride and misunderstanding and the forgetting of the humanity of the other---and land of course."

~ Alexander McCall Smith, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (from the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series of books)

"My cuts short or long, don't go wrong."

~ J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring (Strider speaking)

"Faith, obviously, is not a mere matter of feeling. It cannot be, because one’s feelings in this kind of condition can be very changeable. A Christian is not meant to be dejected when everything goes wrong. He is told to 'rejoice'. Feelings belong to happiness alone, rejoicing takes in something much bigger than feelings; and if faith were a matter of feelings only, then when things go wrong and feelings change, faith will go. But faith is not a matter of feelings only, faith takes up the whole man including his mind, his intellect and his understanding. It is response to truth."

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression – Its Causes and its Cures

"Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal."

~ Thomas Moore, from the hymn Come, Ye Disconsolate


"Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows..."

~ Isaiah 53:4

"It is not good at all..to do everything for those you love and not give them a share in the doing. It's not kind. It's making too much of yourself my child."

~ George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind

Madre, thats good, do you think it inculdes tough love situations??? hmmm. Ive had many many of those in my relationships with those I love...

I guess I kind of can see it as trying to be God in people's lives, maybe trying to protect them too much or make everything "all nice" for them. I think it also can apply to situations where you take care of everything for a child and not let them take part in the doing. I also think of people who raise a wild animal and try to make it a tame animal. Later, when it has to be released in the wild, it has developed none of those survival skills because it has had everything provided for it. Anyway, Gen, just some random thoughts...

For our Ohio Moms :-D :

"You can't see Canada across lake Erie, but you know it's there. It's the same with spring. You have to have faith, especially in Cleveland."

~ Paul Fleischman

"What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle."

~ John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress


"Always act like you're wearing an invisible crown."

~ Author Unknown

"No matter how grouchy you're feeling,
You'll find the smile more or less healing.
It grows in a wreath
All around the front teeth -
Thus preserving the face from congealing."

~ Anthony Euwer

"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

"I am like a little pencil in His hand. That is all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used."

~ Mother Teresa

"What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle."

~ John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress

Love the story of pilgrims progress. truth be told Ive only read children's versions of it, but it was still good! *I* learned so much reading that to my kids!! lol... But I love that quote! How many times I stumbled in doubting castle! And how many times I did use the promises God made to me personally to get myself out of doubt. It was those promises, as well as biblical promises that made me remember, gave me a glimmer of hope that I did start off on the right path and if somehow I could just get my foot back on that path, I would be alright... Once back on the right path, the path of repentnace, the light at the end of the tunnel is so tiny but its something to aim for, as long as Im heading in the direction of that tiny light, I KNOW Im ok!

"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."

~ Oswald Chambers

Love the story of pilgrims progress. truth be told Ive only read children's versions of it, but it was still good! *I* learned so much reading that to my kids!! lol... But I love that quote! How many times I stumbled in doubting castle! And how many times I did use the promises God made to me personally to get myself out of doubt. It was those promises, as well as biblical promises that made me remember, gave me a glimmer of hope that I did start off on the right path and if somehow I could just get my foot back on that path, I would be alright... Once back on the right path, the path of repentnace, the light at the end of the tunnel is so tiny but its something to aim for, as long as Im heading in the direction of that tiny light, I KNOW Im ok!

You are just a dear, Gen! [loveyou]

"Be courteous with all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appelation."

~ George Washington

[thumbsup] I agree and I like!!!

"There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart."

~ Alan Redpath

"If you're not sure when or how to enforce your limits, then someone can cross freely into objectionable territory without much protest from you."

~ Carolyn Hax

"God has defined us as people to know where we end and someone else begins, so that we know who is responsible for what. Your soul has very clear property lines, and just as you are to take responsibility for your physical yard, the Bible teaches that you are to take responsibility for your soul and its contents, just as your neighbor takes care of his. If either one of you steps over the line and ignores your responsibilities, then it is the responsibility of the other one to let him know. This is what boundaries are about: the lines of ownership and responsibility, and how to manage them."

~ Dr. Henry Cloud

"Earth's crammed with heaven
And every common bush alive with God
Only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries."

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down. For the needs of today we have corresponding strength given. For the morrow we are told to trust. It is not ours yet."

~ George Mac Donald

A Prayer for Right Living

I asked for strength that I might achieve; I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I had asked for, but everything that I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered; I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

~ By an Unknown Confederate Soldier (composed ca. 1861-1865)

"The only hope of Christianity is in the rehabilitating of the Pauline theology. It is back, back, back, to an incarnate Christ and the atoning blood, or it is on, on, on, to atheism and despair."

~ Francis L. Patton (1843-1932), twelfth president of Princeton University

"There is no situation so chaotic that God cannot, from that situation, create something that is surpassingly good. He did it at the creation. He did it at the cross. He is doing it today."

~ Bishop H. C. G. Moule

"There is no situation so chaotic that God cannot, from that situation, create something that is surpassingly good. He did it at the creation. He did it at the cross. He is doing it today."

~ Bishop H. C. G. Moule


Well, Madre - you have outdone yourself this time. I do believe that is the perfect quote to encourage me through my current situation. Wonderful!

God bless you! Always having just the "word" we need. You are such a blessing!

"The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year."

~ Samuel Johnson

"Optimist: A man who gets treed by a lion but enjoys the scenery." :mrgreen:

~ Walter Winchell

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."

~Mother Teresa"

Madre, that one is very good.

[loveyou]

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You, too? I thought I was the only one'."

~ C.S. Lewis

"Tomorrow makes today's whole head sick, its whole heart faint. When we should be still, or sleeping, or dreaming, we are fretting about an hour that lies a half sun's journey away! Not so doest thou, Lord; thou doest the work of thy Father!"

~ George MacDonald, "Cause of Spiritual Stupidity" - Unspoken Sermons II

"I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."

~ John Newton

"If the people do not like the doctrine of grace, give them all the more of it."

~ C.H. Spurgeon

Never say, "oops." Always say, "Ah, interesting." :mrgreen:

~ Author Unknown

Yea, "new every morning," though we may awake,
Our hearts with old sorrow beginning to ache;
With old work unfinished when night stayed our hand,
When new duties waiting, unknown and unplanned;
With old care still pressing, to fret and to vex,
With new problems rising our minds to perplex;
In ways long familiar, in paths yet untrod,
Oh, new every morning the mercies of God!

His faithfulness fails not; it meets each new day
With guidance for every new step of the way,
New grace for new trials, new trust for old fears,
New patience for bearing the wrongs of the years,
New strength for new burdens, new courage for old,
New faith for whatever the day may unfold;
As fresh for each need as the dew on the sod;
Oh, new every morning the mercies of God!

~ Annie Johnson Flint

It was first taught me by a grey-haired clergyman in the study of the Deanery at Southampton. Once when tempted to feel great irritation, he told us that he looked up and claimed the patience and gentleness of Christ and since then it had become the practice of his life to claim from Him the virtue of which he felt deficiency in himself. In hours of unrest, "Thy Peace, Lord." In hours of irritation, "Thy Patience, Lord." In hours of temptation, "Thy Purity, Lord." In hours of weakness, "Thy Strength, Lord." It was to me a message straight from the Lord. Till then I had been content to ridding myself of burdens; now I began to reach forth to positive blessings.

~ F.B. Meyer, Light on Life's Duties

If you are not willing that God should have his way with you, then, in the name of God, be miserable--until your misery drives you to the arms of the Father.

~ George MacDonald

"I hope it is not necessary to agree with a man in everything before we can have a high opinion of him."

~ George MacDonald, Robert Falconer

"Let me, if I may, be ever welcomed to my room in winter by a glowing hearth, in summer by a vase of flowers; if I may not, let me think how nice they would be, and bury myself in my work. I do not think that the road to contentment lies in despising what we have not got. Let us acknowledge all good, all delight that the world holds, and be content without it."

~ George MacDonald, Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood, chapter 11

On Motherhood:

"To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labours, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, boots, cakes and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can imagine how this can exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone? No, a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute."

~ G. K. Chesterton

"If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"We sometimes fear to bring our troubles to God, because they must seem small to Him who sitteth on the circle of the earth. But if they are large enough to vex and endanger our welfare, they are large enough to touch His heart of love. For love does not measure by a merchant's scales, not with a surveyor's chain. It hath a delicacy... unknown in any handling of material substance."

~ R. A. Torrey

"A familiar captivity is frequently more desirable than an unfamiliar freedom." :???:

~ C. S. Lewis

"There is a place where thou canst touch the eyes of blinded men to instant, perfect sight;

There is a place where thou canst say, "Arise" To dying captives, bound in chains of night;

There is a place where thou canst reach the store Of hoarded gold and free it for the Lord;

There is a place--upon some distant shore-- Where thou canst send the worker and the Word.

Where is that secret place--dost thou ask, "Where?" O soul, it is the secret place of prayer!"

~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

"As sure as ever God puts his children in the furnace, he will be in the furnace with them."

~ Charles Spurgeon


"We bring God to the bar of our judgment and say hard things about him: 'Why does God bring thunderclouds and disasters when we want green pastures and still waters?' Bit by bit we find, behind the clouds, the Father's feet; behind the lightning, an abiding day that has no night; behind the thunder a still, small voice that comforts with a comfort that is unspeakable."

~ Oswald Chambers

"Experience has taught me that the Shepherd is far more willing to show His sheep the path than the sheep are to follow. He is endlessly merciful, patient, tender, and loving. If we, His stupid and wayward sheep, really want to be led, we will without fail be led. Of that I am sure." [sheepjumpingrope]

~ Elisabeth Elliot

“Where one man reads the Bible, a hundred read you and me.”

~ Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist

"Let us then as Christians rejoice that we see around us on every hand the decay of the institutions and instruments of power, see intimations of empires falling to pieces, money in total disarray, dictators and parliamentarians alike nonplused by the confusion and conflicts which encompass them. For it is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting, when every possibility of help from earthly sources has been sought and is not forthcoming, when evey recourse this world offers, moral as well as material, has been explored to no effect, when in the shivering cold the last {log} has been thrown on the fire and in the gathering darkness every glimmer of light has finally flickered out, it's then that Christ's hand reaches out sure and firm."

~ Malcolm Muggeridge

Oh Madre, for me personally, this is why I am, in a way, glad to see things going as they are in the world. I see people not wanting to celebrate Christ's birth at Christmas and Im glad! Im glad people want to not show a form of religion while others begin to stand firm. And on other forums and irl I meet people who want to be christians, or call themselves christians, but dont really believe he died on the cross, dont really believe he rose from the dead, literally. I see people who are hardened atheists but at the same time are anarchists and wouldnt worship ANY one let alone God. For people like that I have hope! I have hope because there is coming a time when the whole world will HAVE to make a choice! THEN we will KNOW who are the Christians and who are the pretenders! This is why when the elections came and went and Obama won, I didnt get angry, I didnt fret bc I knew! This is going to divide people, people who are for Him and who are doggedly against Him... Him being Christ!

Is your place a small place?
Tend it with care!--He set you there.
Is your place a large place?
Guard it with care!--He set you there.
What'er your place, it is
Not yours alone, but His
Who set you there.

~ John Oxenham (1861-1941)

"The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or--if they think there is not--at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us."

~ C. S. Lewis

"To love righteousness is to make it grow, not to avenge it. Throughout his life on earth, Jesus resisted every impulse to work more rapidly for a lower good."

~ George Mac Donald

"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 Mac Donald

"We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises." [heart]

~ Oswald Chambers

"A ship in harbor is safe - but that is not what ships are for."

~ John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic

Carpe Diem - Seize the Day! :-D

Carpe Lunae - Seize this Monday! [armourofgod]

"The Lord get his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction."

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."

~ Nelson Henderson

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm." [heart]

~ Abraham Lincoln

“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"No doubt all history in the last resort must be held by Christians to be a story with a divine plot."

~ C.S. Lewis

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

~ E.L. Doctorow

"One step I see before me.
'Tis all I need to see,
The light of heaven more brightly shines,
When earth's illusions flee;
And sweetly thro' the silence comes
His loving 'Follow me.'"

~ Philip P. Bliss, hymn "I Know Not What Awaits Me"

"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

"The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

"The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee." (Ps 145:8-10)

"A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five."

~ Groucho Marx

"Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment “as to the Lord.” It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received."

~ C.S. Lewis, from address titled Learning in War-Time

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

~ C.S. Lewis

I may have used this one before, but it's good to be reminded of His grace. [heart]

“Lord I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known you better I'd have come running with a bucket.”

~ Nancy Spiegelberg

"God knows when to withhold or grant visible signs of encouragement. It's good when He sends confirmation, but we grow faster when we've trusted Him without it."

~ Charles Trumbull

So true....thanks Madre! I love this one!:mrgreen:

You're welcome, Katie. [heart]


"Dr. Bonar once said that he could tell when a Christian was growing. In proportion to his growth in grace he would elevate his Master, talk less of what he himself was doing, and become smaller and smaller in his own esteem, until, like the morning star, he faded away before the rising sun."

~ D. L. Moody

"He must increase, but I [must] decrease." (Joh 3:30)

I was thinking about that just this week... the bit about He must increase, I must increase.

always funny that.

"And satan trembles when he sees, The weakest saint upon his knees."

~ William Cowper

"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayer-less religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray."

~ Samuel Chadwick

"Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our 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."

~ C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, screwtape to wormwood referring to God

"So many saints are disturbed, so many are restless, because they are not living in the knowledge that they are under the care of the Lord; and then there is no power to walk. Why have you so little power in walk or service? It is because you are not yet clear that the Lord is caring for you, that He is in all watchfulness over you, that He has let down the strong pinions of His protecting care till they sweep the ground around you, and, if you are wise, you will creep up close under His wings, into the very down."

~ J.B. Stoney

"Think of the fast embrace with which I find myself held, right to the heart of my Father, when I discern my position in His Beloved Son. Grace, absolute sovereign grace, has set me there–to show its exceeding riches throughout time and eternity. What could effort of mine have done in this matter? What can failure of mine undo?"

~ Fredrick William Grant

"We must refuse to ask Him to quiet the storm before the storm has perfected us."

~ Michael Wells

"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

"Fiery trials make golden Christians."

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

"Father in Heaven! When the thought of Thee wakes in our hearts let it not awaken like a frightened bird that flies about in dismay, but like a child waking from its sleep with a heavenly smile."

~ Soren Kierkegaard

"Accustom yourself in everything that happens, to recognize the hand of the Father. Before you fix your thoughts on the person who did it, first be still, and remember, God allows me to come into this trouble to see if I shall glorify Him in it. This trial, be it the greatest or least, is allowed of God, and is His will concerning me. Let me first recognize and submit to God's will in it. Then in the rest of soul which this gives, I shall receive wisdom to know how to behave in it. With my eye turned from man to God, suffering wrong is not as hard as it seems."

~ Andrew Murray

"Jesus feels for thee; Jesus consoles thee; Jesus will help thee. No monarch in his impregnable fortress is more secure than the cony in his rocky burrow. The Master of ten thousand chariots is not one whit better protected than the little dweller in the mountain's cleft. In Jesus the weak are strong, and the defenceless safe; they could not be more strong if they were giants, or more safe if they were in heaven. Faith gives to men on earth the protection of the God of heaven. More they cannot need, and need not wish. The conies cannot build a castle, but they avail themselves of what is there already: I cannot make myself a refuge, but Jesus has provided it, His Father has given it, His Spirit has revealed it, and lo, again tonight I enter it, and am safe from every foe."

~ 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

"Moses spent forty years in the king's palace thinking that he was somebody; then he lived forty years in the wilderness finding out that without God he was a nobody; finally he spent forty more years discovering how a nobody with God can be a somebody."

~ Dwight L Moody

"We can do nothing, we say sometimes, 'we can only pray'. That, we feel, is a terribly precarious second-best. So long as we can fuss and work and rush about, so long as we can lend a hand, we have some hope; but if we have to fall back upon God... ah, then things must be critical indeed!"

~ Arthur John (A. J.) Gossip

"Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. ('How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up and married! I can hardly believe it!') In heavens name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal."

~ C.S. Lewis

"Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life."

~ Alexander MacLaren

"This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people."

~ C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity

But.....

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. (Ps 103:8 ) :-D

"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

"God wants us to choose to love him freely, even when that choice involves pain, because we are committed to Him, not to our own good feelings and rewards. He wants us to cleave to Him, as Job did, even when we have every reason to deny Him hotly. That, I believe, is the central message of Job. Satan had taunted God with the accusation that humans are not truly free. Was Job being faithful simply because God had allowed him a prosperous life? Job's fiery trials proved the answer beyond doubt. Job clung to God's justice when he was the best example in history of God's apparent injustice. He did not seek the Giver because of His gifts; when all gifts were removed he still sought the Giver."

~ Philip Yancey, Where is God When It Hurts?

"For there is no friend like a sister, in calm or stormy weather, to cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.”

~ Christina Rossetti [heart]

"Why should we limit either the goodness or the power of God by our own knowledge of what we call the laws of nature?'

~ George Muller

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

“The education of our faith is incomplete [till] we learn that God’s providence works through loss…that there’s a ministry to us through the failure and fading of things. The dwindling brook where Elijah sat is a picture of our lives. ‘Some time later the brook dried up’ (1 Kings 17:7) is the history of our yesterdays and a prophecy of our tomorrows…learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may last for a season but the Giver is eternal. If the Lord had led Elijah directly to the widow at Zarephath, he’d have missed something that helped make him a better man – living by faith. Whenever our earthly resources dry up it’s so we may learn that our hope and help are in God.”

~ F.B. Meyer

"Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness. Always remember this: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart."

~ A.W. Tozer

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

~ Mark Twain

I read this this afternoon and I wanted to share it:

"We never realize at the time what God is putting us through; we go through it more or less misunderstandingly; then we come to a luminous place, and say - 'Why, God has girded me, though I did not know it!'"

~ Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 5

"When we discern that people are not going on spiritually and allow the discernment to turn to criticism, we block our way to God. God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede."

~ Oswald Chambers

Very good, Madre!! An ouch and makes ya think. :)

Very good, Madre!! An ouch and makes ya think. :)

It sure does, Becca. OC has a way of bonking you on the side of the head, doesn't he? :-D

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."

~ C.S. Lewis

"When you give a gospel tract to a hungry man, wrap it in a sandwich."

~ General William Booth (Salvation Army)

"If you begin with serving (as many do nowadays), you will never truly sit at His feet; whereas if you begin with looking unto Him you will soon serve well, wisely and acceptably. When the serving quiets the conscience, and the sitting is overlooked and neglected, the enemy gains an advantage, for it is at the sitting that the conscience is enlightened, and the pleasure and mind of the Lord become better known. I never met with anyone making his service prominent who knew what it was to sit at the Master's feet; but, thank God, I know indefatigable workers who enjoy sitting at His feet above any service. It is clear that those who abide in Him must be most competent to serve, and most in His confidence, which, after all, is the clue to all effective service."

~ J.B. Stoney

"Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."

~ Alexander Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, 1738

"Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something."

~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

"Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again."

~ Bill Morgan, Jr.

Somehow, Not Only For Christmas

Somehow, not only for Christmas,
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others,
Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing,
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing,
Returns to you glad.

~ John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)

"We'd like to be humble...but what if no one notices?"

~ John Ortberg

"The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life: In himself, nothing; In God, everything. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring."

~ A.W. Tozer

"Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past."

~ Henry Ward Beecher

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Php 3:13-14)

"There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning."

~ Louis L'Amour, Lonely on the Mountain

"Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself."

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

Always when judging
Who people are,
Remember to footnote
The words "So far."

~ Robert Brault

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2Co 3:18 )


Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1Jo 3:2)

"I don't care about seeing you a very great or very wise and good woman. I want everything on a small scale. Be a good little child."

~ Francois de Salignac de la Moth Fenelon, from Spiritual Letters to Women

"Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own."

~ Harold Coffin

"A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor."

~ Victor Hugo

"Then I prayed, because when all else fails, you follow instructions, and I began to pray the way my mentors had taught me: I prayed, 'Help me, help me.' I prayed, 'Please. Please." I let go of an angstrom of blame. That was the hardest part. This batch of blame had more claw marks than most of the things I try to let go of. Blame is always my first response: figure out whose fault things are, and then try to manipulate that person into correcting his or her behavior so that you can be more comfortable. I put a note to God in a box, asking for direction. I told God I was taking my sticky fingers off the steering wheel, that God could be the driver and I would be just another bozo on the bus."

~ Anne Lamott

"No one was ever scolded out of their sins."

~ William Cowper

"There's a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, 'Why on our hearts, not in them?' The rabbi answered, 'Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.'"

~ Anne Lamott

"Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes...Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable...unless you teach your moods "where they an get off," you can never be a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion."

~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

"Some have asked whether we shall know one another in heaven? Surely, our knowledge will not be diminished, but increased. The judgement of Luther and Anselm, and many other divines is, that we shall know one another; yea, the saints of all ages, whose faces we never saw; and, when we shall see the saints in glory without their infirmities of pride end passion, it will be a glorious sight."

~ Thomas Watson

"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 awesome, and Im stealing it for my fb status update...:mrgreen:

I liked the Anne Lamott one too..

"Then I prayed, because when all else fails, you follow instructions, and I began to pray the way my mentors had taught me: I prayed, 'Help me, help me.' I prayed, 'Please. Please." I let go of an angstrom of blame. That was the hardest part. This batch of blame had more claw marks than most of the things I try to let go of. Blame is always my first response: figure out whose fault things are, and then try to manipulate that person into correcting his or her behavior so that you can be more comfortable. I put a note to God in a box, asking for direction. I told God I was taking my sticky fingers off the steering wheel, that God could be the driver and I would be just another bozo on the bus."

~ Anne Lamott

That is awesome, and Im stealing it for my fb status update...:mrgreen:

I don't think Mr. Spurgeon will mind, Gen, but I'll be sure to let him know. [cheerful] [thumbsupgrin]

"A man seeks employment on a farm. He hands his letter of recommendation to his new employer. It reads simply, 'He sleeps in a storm.'

The owner is desperate for help, so he hires the man. Several weeks pass, and suddenly, in the middle of the night, a powerful storm rips through the valley.

Awakened by the swirling rain and howling wind, the owner leaps out of bed. He calls for his new hired hand, but the man is sleeping soundly.

So he dashes off to the barn. He sees, to his amazement, that the animals are secure with plenty of feed.

He runs out to the field. He sees the bales of wheat have been bound and are wrapped in tarpaulins.

He races to the silo. The doors are latched, and the grain is dry.

And then he understands. 'He sleeps in a storm.'

My friends, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we are right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. Our words will always be sincere, our embraces will be tight. We will never wallow in the agony of 'I could have, I should have.' We can sleep in a storm.

And when it's time, our good-byes will be complete."

~ Mitch Album, Keeping the Faith, from one of the Rabbi's sermons

that is good. At first I thought it read 'He helps in a storm'... which would have been appropriate too, I thought. the farmer went to get his hired help to find him sleeping and in a panic went out to secure everything safely for the storm only to find that his hired help had 'helped' already,lol. But the original rendering is better...

I like that. Very thought provoking. Thanks for sharing it.

"All God's plans have the mark of the cross on them, and all His plans have death to self in them."

~ E.M. Bounds



"In every Christian's heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross, he remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved, but we insist that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We remain king within the little kingdom of Mansoul and wear our tinsel crown with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness and spiritual sterility."

~ A.W. Tozer

I don't think Mr. Spurgeon will mind, Gen, but I'll be sure to let him know. [cheerful] [thumbsupgrin]

You crack me up. Love you Madre!

Love that E.M. Bounds quote!

Love you, too, Eva. [heart]

My dad had a great sense of humor. He used to say that a day without a laugh was a day wasted. I never realized that he was quoting Charlie Chaplin. :mrgreen:


"A day without laughter is a day wasted."

~ Charles Chaplin


"Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it."

~ Bill Cosby


"Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place."

~ Mark Twain

I was thinking of the bolded verse this morning, but all the lyrica are so "glorious", I posted the entire song. :-D

Like a River Glorious

1. Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth, deeper all the way.

Refrain
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

2. Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

Refrain

3. Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do.
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.

Refrain

~ Frances Havergal

"Every Christian must be an optimist. You never know when God is going to appear, you never know when the Holy Spirit is going to descend, you never know when Christ is going to deal with you and remove your burden and give your soul release. Just when you are about to convince yourself that the night is going to be endless--the dawn breaks; just when you feel sure the struggle is all in vain and that your fighting is useless--just then, and when least expected, you are rewarded with victory." [armourofgod]

~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Evangelistic Sermons, 17

"How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?"

~ François Duc de La Rochefoucauld


"Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film." :mrgreen:

~ Unknown

"If I might have any choice between having abundant wealth, or being brought to absolute dependence upon daily supplies, if, in the latter case, I could have greater power to exhibit and to exert faith in Christ, I must confess that I should prefer the mode of living which would give me most room to enjoy the luxury of depending upon my God. I believe it is more happy and more divine a life to live from hand to mouth, dependant upon the provinces of God, and having the confidence to trust Him, than it is to have all the abundance of this world, but to have nothing about which faith may exercise itself."

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

"If I might have any choice between having abundant wealth, or being brought to absolute dependence upon daily supplies, if, in the latter case, I could have greater power to exhibit and to exert faith in Christ, I must confess that I should prefer the mode of living which would give me most room to enjoy the luxury of depending upon my God. I believe it is more happy and more divine a life to live from hand to mouth, dependant upon the provinces of God, and having the confidence to trust Him, than it is to have all the abundance of this world, but to have nothing about which faith may exercise itself."

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

Love it! Can you let Mr. Spurgeon know he rocks!

Love it! Can you let Mr. Spurgeon know he rocks!

Definitely, Eva. [rofl]

"Grace tried is better than grace, and it is more than grace, it is glory in its infancy."

~ Samuel Rutherford

You do not have a soul.
You are a soul.
You have a body.

~ C. S. Lewis

A bit blunt, but very searching:

"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."

~ Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

Well, I can attest to the fact that that statement isnt very far from the truth, probably more often then not...

Then there are those who also proclaim to be christian but never even get as far as opening the bible at all!!

From Mr. Spurgeon again. :mrgreen:

"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble."

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

"Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal."

~ Jerome Fleishman

"I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny, old attics. Even if they dress in rags. even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. All of us. Didn't you father ever tell you that? Didn't he?" [girlprincess]

~ Frances Hodson Burnett, A Little Princess, Sara Crewe to Miss Minchin

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

"Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal."

~ Jerome Fleishman

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

~ Harriet Beecher Stowe


Great quotes!

I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me."

~ C.S. Lewis

ooo, like that one, Madre. Thanks!

“What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.”

~ John Bunyan

Reeeeeally pertinant today Madre. Cheers.[crossheld]

"Don't worry about being effective. Just concentrate on being faithful to the truth."

~ Dorothy Day

"If you can't fight and you can't flee, flow."

~ Robert Eliot

"Though troubles assail and dangers affright,
Though friends should all fail and foes all unite;
Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide,
The Scripture assures us, the Lord will provide."

~ John Newton

You're on a roll lately Madre, them's some good ones...

[loveyou]

Why thanks, Gen! Love you, too. [heart]

Great one Madre!! I need that reminder every day, that the Lord does provide!