DON'T REPEAT THE LORD'S PRAYER, PRAY THE LORD'S PRAYER.

F - Forsaking
A - all
I - I
T - trust
H - Him

great quotes

Our lives are full of supposes. Suppose this should happen, or suppose that should happen; what could we do; how could we bear it? But, if we are living in the high tower of the dwelling place of God, all these supposes will drop out of our lives. We shall be quiet from the fear of evil, for no threatenings of evil can penetrate into the high tower of God. Even when walking through the valley of the shadow of death, the psalmist could say, will fear no evil; and, if we are dwelling in God, we can say so too.

~ Hannah Whitall Smith

Bridge the gaps! A bridge means something--generally a life laid down. The very simplest bridge, a plank thrown across a stream, was once part of a tree standing erect, sapping life from the earth, and beautifying all the area around it. Now it is dead, but perhaps saves other lives; anyway it helps to make others useful, and is content to push others on, unnoticed, unthanked. 'Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not,' just be a bridge. It is so simple. See that others are placed on the right track with God through the Lord Jesus. When they get there, they will not thank you, will never look back probably at the bridge; but the Great Architect will know and love and care. ~E.W.

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

~ Victor Hugo

Thou who hast given so much to me, give me one more thing - a grateful heart!

~ George Herbert

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

Jesus may not come today. He may not come tomorrow. He may not come when you want Him to, but when He does, you can bet He'll be right on time!

For those who have teens :wink: :

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned."

~Mark Twain

Don’t find fault; find a remedy.

~ Henry Ford

Thou who hast given so much to me, give me one more thing - a grateful heart!

~George Herbert

If it were the will of God, I would plant an oak tree today, even if I knew Christ were coming tomorrow.

~Martin Luther

Faith is dependence upon God. And this God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self helplessness and defeat. And only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith; to find our tiny craft of life rushing onward to a blessed victory of life and power and service undreamt of in the days of our fleshly strength and self-reliance."

~James McConkey

Amy Carmichael, the missionary to India, was criticized for becoming too involved in humanitarian efforts because she sought to rescue little girls from being sold as temple prostitutes.

She retorted, “One cannot save and then pitchfork souls into heaven....Souls are more or less securely fastened to bodies ... and as you cannot get the souls out and deal with them separately, you have to take them both together.”

(cited by Ruth Tucker, Guardians of theGreat Commission [Zondervan], p. 134

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

~Alan Redpath

Our view of God's Kingdom is VERY limited. No matter how much we
desire otherwise, there are simply pieces of the puzzle we are unable
to fit together. While we walk this earth and breathe this air we most
likely will never see the purpose of our struggles. Yet, we must
closely follow the One who leads and give ourselves wholeheartedly to
each task we are given - we must trust in His plan.

A shining light will always penetrate the darkness; and though we may
not see the impact we have on others, one day we will stand with our
Heavenly Father and rejoice as He reveals how we were used for His
glorious purpose. One day we will watch our life unfold and clearly
see the use of every helping hand, every encouraging word, and even
every smile we shared in the midst of our trials. Our life has great
meaning and purpose - true meaning and purpose which we will joyfully
witness when we are allowed to look back from eternity.

-Steve Troxel
God's Daily Word Ministries

The love-slave has no pleasure like that of serving his master. this is his joy, and his very "crown of rejoicing." The love-slave is altogether at his master's service. He is all eyes for his master. He watches. He is all ears for his master. He listens. His mind is willing. His hands are ready. His feet are swift to sit at the master's feet and look into his loved face, to listen to his voice and catch his words; to run on his errands, to do his bidding, to share his privations and sorrows, to watch at his door, to guard his honor, to praise his name, to defend his person, to seek and promote his interests, and, if needs be, to die for his dear sake; this is the joy of the slave of love, and this he counts his perfect freedom.

~Samuel L. Brengle

There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.

~Henry Ward Beecher

I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.

~ G. K. Chesterton
English author & mystery novelist (1874 - 1936)

Quote:
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


LOVE that one! [amenamen] [girlsmiley]

The only things more obscure than the inner workings of someone else's mind are the inner workings of someone else's marriage.

~ Unknown

[amenamen] [amenamen] [amenamen] [amenamen] [amenamen]

A servant of God has but one Master. It ill becomes the servant to seek to be rich, and great, and honored in that world where his Lord was poor, and mean, and despised.

~ George Muller

"Rest in this-it is His business to lead, command, impel, send, call, or whatever you want to call it. It is your business to obey, follow, move, respond, or what have you... The sound of 'gentle stillness' after all the thunder and wind have passed will be the ultimate Word from God."

~ Jim Elliot

We must turn our eyes back to God and praise Him for His continuous
provision and His loving promise to finish the work He has begun in our
life; "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion"
(Philippians 1:6). Let's praise Him for His Guiding Hand, and, as we
run, let's always remember it was God who taught us to walk.

Steve Troxel
God's Daily Word Ministries

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

~Winnie the Pooh

How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven....

~ George Macdonald

The simplest woman who tries not to judge her neighbor, or not to be anxious for the morrow, will better know what is best to know, than the best-read bishop without that one simple outgoing of his highest nature in the effort to do the will of Him who thus spoke.

~ George MacDonald

Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood

How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven....

~ George Macdonald

AMEN, dear sister. Amen to that! How true, how painfully true!

The world has no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to toil, to suffer, to die. And yours is not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battle fields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

~ G.K. Chesterton

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

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base.

~ Dave Barry :D

The world has no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to toil, to suffer, to die. And yours is not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battle fields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Yes! So true. And so helpful if you can realize it in the moment, no?

When Christ entered our world, he didn't come to brighten our Decembers, but to transform our lives.

~ Rich Miller

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present.

~ Babatunde Olatunji

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present.

~ Babatunde Olatunji

LOVE IT!

Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.

~ C.S. Lewis (The Problem of Pain)


The world rings changes, it is never constant but in its disappointments. The world is but a great inn, where we are to stay a night or two, and be gone; what madness is it so to set our heart upon our inn, as to forget our home?

~ Thomas Watson

I will not just exist through this year, but I will journey!

~ Scott Reece

I will not just exist through this year, but I will journey!

~ Scott Reece

Let it be, Lord. Let it be!

You will yet know the dignity of your high calling, and the love of God that passeth knowledge. He is not afraid of your presumptuous approach to Hm. It is you who are afraid to come near Him. He is not watching over His dignity. It is you who fear to be sent away as the disciples would have sent away the little children. It is you who think so much about your souls and are so afraid of losing your life, that you dare not draw near to the Life of life, lest it should consume you.

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

The word which God has written on the brow of every man is hope.

~ Victor Hugo

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.

~ Patrick Overton

Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens. Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others. Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens upon Thee, O Lord.

~ John Baillie (1886-1960)

I liked this one:

"Our greatness rests solely on the fact that God in His incomprehensible goodness
has bestowed His love upon us.
God does not love us because we are so valuable;
we are valuable because God loves us."

- Helmut Thielicke

Me, too! :D

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

~ Abraham Lincoln

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.

~ George Orwell

The happiest people I know are the ones who have learned how to hold everything loosely and have given the worrisome, stress-filled, fearful details of their lives into God's keeping.

~ Charles R. Swindoll

Satan, the Hinderer, may build a barrier about us, but he can never roof us in, so that we cannot look up.

~ J. Hudson Taylor

Satan, the Hinderer, may build a barrier about us, but he can never roof us in, so that we cannot look up.

~ J. Hudson Taylor

Amen! :D

God will either give you what you ask, or something far better.

~ Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1813-1843)

One only needs two tools in life: WD-40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop.

~ G.M. Weilacher :D

Quote:
God will either give you what you ask, or something far better.

~ Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1813-1843)

I needed to hear that today.

Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, 'I can clean that if you want.' And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes our sin.

~ Max Lucado

Our Savior kneels down and gazes upon the darkest acts of our lives. But rather than recoil in horror, he reaches out in kindness and says, 'I can clean that if you want.' And from the basin of his grace, he scoops a palm full of mercy and washes our sin.

~ Max Lucado

Praise the Lord that he loves us SO very much that he can wash us clean of any sin! Stephanie :D

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

Leave the broken, irreversible past in God's hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

~ Oswald Chambers

Leave the broken, irreversible past in God's hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

~ Oswald Chambers

Amen!

Forgiveness to letting go of a bell rope. If you have ever seen a country church with a bell in the steeple, you will remember that to get the bell ringing you have to tug awhile. Once it has begun to ring, you merely maintain the momentum. As long as you keep pulling, the bell keeps ringing. Forgiveness is letting go of the rope. It is just that simple. But when you do so, the bell keeps ringing. Momentum is still at work. However, if you keep your hands off the rope, the bell will begin to slow and eventually stop.

~ Corrie Ten Boom

Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace.

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

There is a great difference between I wish I was and I should like to be.

~ George Mac Donald

Thomas Wingfold, Curate

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.

~ Oswald Chambers

Children can withstand a lot of pressure and trial from the outside if the home inside is held steady by parents whose character is steady.

~Stuart Briscoe

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 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

I realy like this one Madre! Thanks! Amen!

Ooh me too! I think I will make that my siggie on my DH's forum. :wink:

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

~ Mark Twain

Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

~ Psalm 55:22

You some how seem to have such words of encouragement - JUST WHEN I NEED THEM!!

Thanks Madre.. needed those today!

Don't look at earthly difficulties. Saul said, 'Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not. . . therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me' (1 Sam. 13:11,12). It is fatal to look around and at consequences, especially in times of crisis, for it will be impossible to be still, and wait God's time for deliverance. Jesus came to them in the fourth watch of the night (Matthew 14:25). It is always His way. God is never behind time! However dark the path may be, wait; do not go before Him, don't force yourself, like Saul. 'The crisis demands action,' we say! Nay, 'dwell in stillness and wait for clearness'--wait until you are sure of the will of God, and leave the 'Philistines' to Him.

~ T. Austin Sparks

Our Father is faithful and wise as well as a gracious and patient Teacher. He will not permit us to pass cursorily over our lessons. Sometimes, perhaps, we think we have mastered a lesson, and we attempt to move on to another; but our wise Teacher knows better, and He sees the need of deeper ploughing. He will not have us mere theorists or smatterers: He will keep us, if need be, year after year at our scales until we learn to sing.

~ C.H.M.

Don't look at earthly difficulties. Saul said, 'Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not. . . therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me' (1 Sam. 13:11,12). It is fatal to look around and at consequences, especially in times of crisis, for it will be impossible to be still, and wait God's time for deliverance. Jesus came to them in the fourth watch of the night (Matthew 14:25). It is always His way. God is never behind time! However dark the path may be, wait; do not go before Him, don't force yourself, like Saul. 'The crisis demands action,' we say! Nay, 'dwell in stillness and wait for clearness'--wait until you are sure of the will of God, and leave the 'Philistines' to Him.

~ T. Austin Sparks

This one is wonderful!

If you are having difficulty loving or relating to an individual, take him to God. Bother the Lord with this person. Don't you be bothered with him - leave him at the throne.

~ Charles (Chuck) Swindoll

It is a noble and a great thing to cover the blemishes and to excuse the failings of a friend; to draw a curtain before his stains, and to display his perfections; to bury his weaknesses in silence, but to proclaim his virtues upon the house-top.

~ South

It is a noble and a great thing to cover the blemishes and to excuse the failings of a friend; to draw a curtain before his stains, and to display his perfections; to bury his weaknesses in silence, but to proclaim his virtues upon the house-top.

~ South

Oh yes! Isn't that what we would all like from OUR friends? We reap what we sow! Oh that I would be that kind of friend. Thanks Madre! [girlsmiley]

What's the good of news if you haven't a sister to share it?

~ Jenny DeVries [loveflag]

What's the good of news if you haven't a sister to share it?

~ Jenny DeVries [loveflag]

AMEN! Although I don't have any biological sisters living, PTL I have all of my C-moms to share with. I love you all! Stephanie [huddle]

[lovebanner] Love it!! and soo true!

Do not flinch from suffering; bear it silently, patiently, resignedly; and be sure that it is God’s way of infusing iron into your spiritual life. The world wants iron dukes, iron battalions, iron sinews, and thews of steel. God wants iron saints; and since there is no way of imparting iron to the moral nature but by letting people suffer, He lets them suffer.

Are the best years of your life slipping away in enforced monotony? Are you beset by opposition, misunderstanding, and scorn, as the thick undergrowth besets the passage of the woodsman pioneer? Then take heart; the time is not wasted; God is only putting you through the iron regimen. The iron crown of suffering precedes the golden crown of glory. And iron is entering into your soul to make it strong and brave.

~ F. B. Meyer

1 Peter 4

12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

We die daily. Happy those who daily come to life as well.

~ George MacDonald

There are those who in their very first seeking of it are nearer the kingdom of Heaven than many who have for years believed themselves to be of it. In the former there is more of the mind of Jesus, and when He calls them they recognize Him at once and go after Him; while the others examine Him from head to foot and, finding Him not sufficiently like the Jesus of their conception, turn their backs and go to church or chapel or chamber to kneel before a vague form mingled of tradition and fancy.

~ George MacDonald

To every toiling, heavy-laden sinner, Jesus says, 'Come to me and rest'. But there are many toiling, heavy-laden believers, too. For them this same invitation is meant. Note well the words of Jesus, if you are heavy-laden with your service, and do not mistake it. It is not, 'Go, labor on,' as perhaps you imagine. On the contrary, it is stop, turn back, 'Come to me and rest.' Never, never did Christ send a heavy laden one to work; never, never did He send a hungry one, a weary one, a sick or sorrowing one, away on any service. For such the Bible only says, 'Come, come, come.'

~ Hudson Taylor

To every toiling, heavy-laden sinner, Jesus says, 'Come to me and rest'. But there are many toiling, heavy-laden believers, too. For them this same invitation is meant. Note well the words of Jesus, if you are heavy-laden with your service, and do not mistake it. It is not, 'Go, labor on,' as perhaps you imagine. On the contrary, it is stop, turn back, 'Come to me and rest.' Never, never did Christ send a heavy laden one to work; never, never did He send a hungry one, a weary one, a sick or sorrowing one, away on any service. For such the Bible only says, 'Come, come, come.'

~ Hudson Taylor

Needed that reminder. Thanks! :D Humbling from Hudson Taylor! Such a work horse for Christ! :)

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs—jolted by every pebble in the road.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Life is not a laughing matter - but can you imagine having to live without laughing?

~ Leonid Sukhorukov

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.

~ Patrick Overton

Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side.

~ Zig Ziglar

Many marriages would be better if the husband and the wife clearly understood that they are on the same side.

~ Zig Ziglar


[amenamen]
[girlsmiley]

"THY WILL BE DONE"

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into various trials" (James 1:2).

You can be sure that you are in the will of God when He keeps you dependent upon Himself, walking in the Holy Spirit, and abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Often all we think of is, having our need met; but how little a thing is that with God! It would cost Him nothing, we may say, to meet the need of a lifetime in a moment; and a lesser love than His would supply it at once, and get rid of the constant burden.

"But that is not His way. To supply the need is a small thing; but to supply it in such a way as to make us feel in each seasonable supply the Father's heart never withdrawn from us, the Father's heart ever employed about us--that is what He means. 'Give us our daily bread': is it not much more than to ask, 'Give us now, that we may not have to come again?'"

"The God-given experience of the Spirit's working many a time passes away, and leaves the soul apparently dull and dead. This is only until the double lesson has been fully learnt: (1) that a living faith can rejoice in the Living God, even when feeling and experience appear to contradict the promise (Romans 8:28, 29); and (2) that the divine life only predominates as the life of the flesh is held in the place of death, inoperative (Romans 6:11a). The life of the Lord Jesus is revealed as His death works in us (2 Corinthians 4:11, 12), and as in weakness and nothingness we look to him (2 Corinthians 3:18 )." -A.M.

"Knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:3).

None But The Hungry Heart Devotional
Miles Stanford

"THY WILL BE DONE"

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into various trials" (James 1:2).

You can be sure that you are in the will of God when He keeps you dependent upon Himself, walking in the Holy Spirit, and abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Often all we think of is, having our need met; but how little a thing is that with God! It would cost Him nothing, we may say, to meet the need of a lifetime in a moment; and a lesser love than His would supply it at once, and get rid of the constant burden.

"But that is not His way. To supply the need is a small thing; but to supply it in such a way as to make us feel in each seasonable supply the Father's heart never withdrawn from us, the Father's heart ever employed about us--that is what He means. 'Give us our daily bread': is it not much more than to ask, 'Give us now, that we may not have to come again?'"

"The God-given experience of the Spirit's working many a time passes away, and leaves the soul apparently dull and dead. This is only until the double lesson has been fully learnt: (1) that a living faith can rejoice in the Living God, even when feeling and experience appear to contradict the promise (Romans 8:28, 29); and (2) that the divine life only predominates as the life of the flesh is held in the place of death, inoperative (Romans 6:11a). The life of the Lord Jesus is revealed as His death works in us (2 Corinthians 4:11, 12), and as in weakness and nothingness we look to him (2 Corinthians 3:18 )." -A.M.

"Knowing this, that the testing of your faith worketh patience" (James 1:3).

None But The Hungry Heart Devotional
Miles Stanford

A warmth spread over me as I read this one, Madre. Thank you! :D

Our Father lets folks walk all over us until the grime of our carnality comes out. Our suffering is cruel. Our sensibilities are outraged. But this is just the beginning of that deep work of the Cross which is to deal with the carnality of our cherished affections, our spiritual comforts, our dearest friendships, our creeds, and our denominations, our devotion to which prevents the dying of the old man that makes impossible whole-hearted devotion to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

~ J.M.

The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant -- and let the air out of the tires.

~ Dorothy Parker

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Very True...!

Have you ever watched a farmer plowing a field? If you have, you will have noticed that in order to make straight furrows he is obliged to fix his eyes on a tree, or a post in the fence, or some object at the farther end of the field, and to guide his plow unwaveringly toward that object. If he begins to look back at the furrow behind him in order to see whether he has made a straight furrow, his plow begins to jerk from side to side, and the furrow he is making becomes a zigzag. If we would make straight paths for our feet we must do what the apostle says he did. We must forget the things that are behind, and, reaching forth to those which are before, we must press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

~ Hannah Whitall Smith
The God of All Comfort

Be free,... simple, a child. But be a sturdy child, who fears nothing, who speaks out frankly, who lets himself be led, who is carried in the arms; in a word, one who knows nothing, can do nothing, can anticipate and change nothing, but who has a freedom and a strength forbidden to the great. This childhood baffles the wise, and God Himself speaks by the mouth of such children.

~ Francois Fenelon

The problem is you don’t know what your problem is. You think your problem is your main problem, but that’s not the problem at all. The problem is you don’t know what your problem is and that’s your main problem.

~ Bill Gillham

The problem is you don’t know what your problem is. You think your problem is your main problem, but that’s not the problem at all. The problem is you don’t know what your problem is and that’s your main problem.

~ Bill Gillham

Okay. That one made me laugh! [rofl] [girlsmiley]

I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.

~ Abraham Lincoln

Let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this precept to heart: "Do the duty which lies nearest to thee," which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.

~ Carlyle

Let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this precept to heart: "Do the duty which lies nearest to thee," which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.

~ Carlyle

This one is so simple the awesomeness of it almost escapes you. It is SO true. So simple. I like it! :D

The mother eagle teaches her little ones to fly by making their nest so uncomfortable that they are forced to leave it and commit themselves to the unknown world of air outside. And just so does our God to us. He stirs up our comfortable nests, and pushes us over the edge of them, and we are forced to use our wings to save our selves from fatal falling. Read your trials in this light, and see if you cannot begin to get a glimpse of their meaning. Your wings are being developed.

Hannah Whitall Smith
The Life on Wings

The mother eagle teaches her little ones to fly by making their nest so uncomfortable that they are forced to leave it and commit themselves to the unknown world of air outside. And just so does our God to us. He stirs up our comfortable nests, and pushes us over the edge of them, and we are forced to use our wings to save our selves from fatal falling. Read your trials in this light, and see if you cannot begin to get a glimpse of their meaning. Your wings are being developed.

Hannah Whitall Smith
The Life on Wings

So true, so true! Smarts! But oh, so true! :D

One gets a bad habit of being unhappy.

~ George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss

I saw this one today Madre. I liked it. :D

"Failure is the only opportunity to begin again more intelligently." Henry Ford.

Me, too. :D

Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.

~ Glenn Turner
For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe.

~ Author Unknown

Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.

~ Glenn Turner
For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe.

~ Author Unknown

Love them! Should paste them on my fridge! [rotfl]

You are the best at finding great quotes. :D Not trying to take over here...but found this one today as I was reading that poem in my son's literature book. I liked it too! :)

The best portion of a goodman's life is little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love. ~ William Wordsworth

I am glad for anyone else to post quotes here, Leslie. I sure don't have a copyright on this thread. :lol: You know, when I was in college I had a prof whose speciality was William Wordsworth. Of course, he had to teach about other English poets, but when it was time for Wordsworth he said, "Now we are entering the holy land." :D I loved the quote and it's good to know that there is Someone who remembers.

I am glad for anyone else to post quotes here, Leslie. I sure don't have a copyright on this thread. :lol: You know, when I was in college I had a prof whose speciality was William Wordsworth. Of course, he had to teach about other English poets, but when it was time for Wordsworth he said, "Now we are entering the holy land." :D I loved the quote and it's good to know that there is Someone who remembers.

[hug] [heart]

The kindest and the happiest pair
Will find occasion to forbear;
And something every day they live
To pity, and perhaps forgive.

~ William Cowper

One day:
No wearisome days, no sorrowful nights; no hunger or thirst; no anxiety or fears; no envies, no jealousies, no breaches of friendship, no sad separations, no distrusts or forebodings, no self-reproaches, no enmities, no bitter regrets, no tears, no heartaches; "And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."

~ R. S. Foster.

When it's a glorious day
I pray
and
it's a glorious day
when I pray.

~ Star Richés
Every Day

And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events, may, in-fact be the first steps of a journey.

~ Letter from the Baudelaires to their children
from A Series of Unfortunate Events
by Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket)

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.

~ Raymond Hull

What you need to do, is to put your will over completely into the hands of your Lord, surrendering to Him the entire control of it. Say, "Yes, Lord, YES!" to everything, and trust Him to work in you to will, as to bring your whole wishes and affections into conformity with His own sweet, and lovable, and most lovely will. It is wonderful what miracles God works in wills that are utterly surrendered to Him. He turns hard things into easy, and bitter things into sweet. It is not that He puts easy things in the place of the hard, but He actually changes the hard thing into an easy one.

~ Hannah Whitall Smith

When it's a glorious day
I pray
and
it's a glorious day
when I pray.

~ Star Richés
Every Day

I was behind Madre. I liked this one especially. I needed to hear it! Thanks! :D

We must become as little children, and Christ must be born in us; we must learn of him, and the one lesson he has to give is himself he does first all he wants us to do; he is first all he wants us to be. We must not merely do as he did; we must see things as he saw them, regard them as he regarded them; we must take the will of God as the very life of our being; we must neither try to get our own way, nor trouble ourselves as to what may be thought or said of us. The world must be to us as nothing.

~ George Mac Donald
“Self-Denial” - Unspoken Sermons , Second Series

Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.

~ D. L. Moody

Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.

~ D. L. Moody

AMEN! That one is awesome! :D

I liked it, too. Gives a good perspective on those "desert" times. :D

One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement...It is easy to laugh at men's ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.

~ William Barclay

One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement...It is easy to laugh at men's ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.

~ William Barclay

Thanks for that one! [girlsmiley] Amen, dear sweet Jesus! May we see others as you see them and show them the ompassion we have ourselves received from you! :)

Very searching:

Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.

~ C.T. Studd

Very searching:

Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.

~ C.T. Studd

Okay. I really had to think on that one just to understand the point. THEN it hit me and I was so stunned! :shock: Then I was so humbled! :oops: I don't think I am the latter but the former! Guess God still has some work to do! :?

Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of your body over mind, that for you is sin. ~ Susanna Wesley

Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of your body over mind, that for you is sin. ~ Susanna Wesley



Wow, she gets right to the heart, doesn't she! :shock:

Eva, can you give me the author's name?

Madre wrote:
Very searching:

Quote:
Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.

~ C.T. Studd

Love it... Living it is very hard.

I am going to attempt to print all this out and put it on my fridge!!!!! Yeah baby. I am so in need of encouragement!! Im fumbling along the way here lately. Thats it!! Ive had it.

Quote:
Be free,... simple, a child. But be a sturdy child, who fears nothing, who speaks out frankly, who lets himself be led, who is carried in the arms; in a word, one who knows nothing, can do nothing, can anticipate and change nothing, but who has a freedom and a strength forbidden to the great. This childhood baffles the wise, and God Himself speaks by the mouth of such children.

~ Francois Fenelon

Today this is my favourite. This is why we homeschool, why we 'unschool'. This is my favourite quote today [cheerful]

Thank you, Gen; wonderful quote! :D

Thanks, Eva! [hug]

If you read history you will find out that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.

~ C.S. Lewis

Do not worry; eat three square meals a day;exercise;go slow and easy. Maybe there are other things your special case requires to make you happy; but these, I reckon will give you a good lift!

~ Abraham Lincoln

Do not worry; eat three square meals a day;exercise;go slow and easy. Maybe there are other things your special case requires to make you happy; but these, I reckon will give you a good lift!

~ Abraham Lincoln

A wise man!

I have not read through all these to see if this had been posted before but I like them.


these are by C.S. Lewis

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."


"When you are arguing against Him, you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all."

And here is another I like

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. Quote by G. K. Chesterton

and one of my favorite parts of Robert Frosts poem

"I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

These are wonderful, Dainelle. :) I especially like this one:

"When you are arguing against Him, you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all."

Oh, Eva, I had forgotten that little song:

My Lord Knows the Way Through the Wilderness

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness

All I have to do is follow

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness

All I have to do is follow

Strength for today is mine always

And all that I need for tomorrow

My Lord knows the way through the wilderness

All I have to do is follow

Thank you for reminding me; singing it as I cook. :D

No matter what a man's past may have been, his future is spotless. ~ John R. Rice

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it. - Edith Wharton

I thought this was cute:

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.

~ Ogden Nash

I thought this was cute:

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.

~ Ogden Nash

LOVE it! :D

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.

~ Martin Luther
Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
Stronger than the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right...

~ Phillips Brooks, An Easter Carol
The biggest fact about Joseph's tomb was that it wasn't a tomb at all - it was a room for a transient. Jesus just stopped there...on His way back to glory.

~ Herbert Booth Smith
The stone was rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the disciples to go in.

~ Peter Marshall
Now let the heavens be joyful,
Let earth her song begin:
Let the round world keep triumph,
And all that is therein;
Invisible and visible,
Their notes let all things blend,
For Christ the Lord is risen
Our joy that hath no end.

~ John of Damascus

The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he is a baby. :lol:

~ Natalie Wood

I've never been hurt by anything I didn't say. ~ Calvin Coolidge



"A shut mouth gathers no foot." ~ Anonymous old saying.


All reminiscent of the proverb of Solomon:

"Even a fool is perceived wise when he is silent."

The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he is a baby. :lol:

~ Natalie Wood

Once again dear friend, I say Amen! Boy, do I say Amen! LOL! :lol:

"A shut mouth gathers no foot." ~ Anonymous old saying
[rofl] Too true!

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

~ George MacDonald

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

~ George MacDonald

That one took me awhile to process! :lol: I think I finally got it. It reminded me of a proverb I am always quoting to the children.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." I tell them that you have no choice in what you have to do so a good attitude goes a long way to getting through it more easily! You can choose your attitude! George worded it so succintly and and with such grace! :D Thanks for that one! :D

For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

~ Mark Twain

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

~ Mark Twain

:lol:

If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

~ Amy Carmichael

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.

~ Robert H. Schuller

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.

~ Robert H. Schuller

Yes. Thank you for that one! :)

At twenty we don't care what the world thinks of us; at thirty we start to worry about what the world thinks of us; at forty we realize the world isn't thinking of us at all. ~ unknown

A woman is like a teabag... You don't know how strong she is until she's in hot water.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

At twenty we don't care what the world thinks of us; at thirty we start to worry about what the world thinks of us; at forty we realize the world isn't thinking of us at all. ~ unknown

That's SO true. PTL that we mellow as we get older and our priorities change.

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.

~ Abraham Lincoln

A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike. Knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

~ Unknown

Being "contented" ought to mean in English, as it does in French, being pleased. Being content with an attic ought not to mean being unable to move from it and resigned to living in it; it ought to mean appreciating all there is in such a position.

~ G. K. Chesterton

A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike. Knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

~ Unknown

AMEN! And I feel like all your ladies are my friends. THANK-YOU one and all!! [loveyousparkles]

A woman is like a teabag... You don't know how strong she is until she's in hot water.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

HA! that is too true.

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base.

~ Dave Barry

Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door.

~ Emily Dickinson

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

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

Amen! Like that one! We need to remember it. And know that the enemy is the one who makes us think we are not being interceded for!

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

~ John Ortberg

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

~ Chuck Swindoll

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

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

Love it! :D

Understanding is the reward of obedience. Obedience is the key to every door.

~ George MacDonald

Let us give up our work, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into God's hand; and then, when we have given all to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about.

~ Hudson Taylor

Let us give up our work, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into God's hand; and then, when we have given all to Him, there will be nothing left for us to be troubled about.

~ Hudson Taylor


Ooooh. Aaaah. Yes. Comforting! Challenging! [amenamen]

What you are stands over you the while and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

~ G.K. Chesterton

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 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

Quote:
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 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

That is such a powerful statement. Ive been thinking alot about this sort of thing lately. Its like a comment that is asking for a response. Any of us can answer it differently or respond to it. Its almost begging for a response (maybe its just me :wink: )

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.~ William James

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

~ C.S. Lewis

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

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

[amenamen] What a sweet prayer! :D

If you are overwhelmed by God, you will not be overwhelmed by life. ~ Chuck Long ( My pastor)

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

~ Charles Spurgeon

I suppose every child remembers some special virtue their mother has, some piece of wisdom that saved them from disaster or a word that made the path infinitely easier. I love my mother for all the times she said absolutely nothing.

I fell flat on my face, made a lousy judgment, and took a stand that I had to pay dearly for . . . I thank her for all her virtues, but mostly for never once having said, ‘I told you so.’

~ Erma Bombeck

The Bible knows nothing of a heirarchy of labor. No work is degrading. If it is to be done, then it is good work. ~ Ben patterson

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

~ C.S. Lewis

from a letter "To Mrs. L."

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

~ C.S. Lewis

from a letter "To Mrs. L."

Amen! :D

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.

But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.

You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building up a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.

~ C.S. Lewis

Mere Christianity

Thats a nice quote there madre. It made me think of how, if we are not careful (speaking of myself mostly here :wink: ), we can think things like 'Goodness, thats really inconsiderate! I didnt want my house to be built like that! I dont like that wall there. This is absolutely nothing like I wanted it or thought it would be. I do not like this house very much....' In other words, I guess I can get very inconsiderate and ungreatful about it all. It is very hard to let go and surrender completely. Sometimes we even think we can offer 'advice' on how to build the house! To be honest... shamefully I admit that thats exactly what I was thinking when I read that quote. That must be how my heart has been feeling lately. [crwy]

Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.

C.S. Lewis

A Grief Observed

I hesitated to post this because it's not very upbeat, uplifting or even true. However, it's honest. I would imagine that there is not a one of us that hasn't felt this way at least once in their walk with God. When I first read this excerpt I laughed at Lewis' imagery, but there was also a nod in my heart because God has been silent to me at times and, sometimes, for a long time. Does it mean He doesn't hear; doesn't care; isn't working on my behalf? No. It just means that I can't see what He's doing and, therefore, I feel like doors are being bolted and double bolted.

Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.

C.S. Lewis

A Grief Observed

I hesitated to post this because it's not very upbeat, uplifting or even true. However, it's honest. I would imagine that there is not a one of us that hasn't felt this way at least once in their walk with God. When I first read this excerpt I laughed at Lewis' imagery, but there was also a nod in my heart because God has been silent to me at times and, sometimes, for a long time. Does it mean He doesn't hear; doesn't care; isn't working on my behalf? No. It just means that I can't see what He's doing and, therefore, I feel like doors are being bolted and double bolted.

Thank you Madre. It is good to be real.

I think the trouble with me is lack of faith. I have no rational ground for going back on the arguments that convinced me of God's existence: but the irrational deadweight of my old skeptical habits, and the spirit of this age, and the cares of the day, steal away all my lively feeling of the truth, and often when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existant address. Mind you I don't think so--the whole of my reasonable mind is convinced: but I often feel so. However, there is nothing to do but to peg away. One falls so often that it hardly seems worth while picking oneself up and going through the farce of starting over again as if you could ever hope to walk. Still, this seeming absurdity is the only sensible thing I do, so I must continue it.

~ C.S. Lewis

Letter to Arthur Greeves, (24 December 1930)

I loved the bolded part. Sometimes all the good feelings aren't there and it looks pretty dark. However, in those times we still have truth and obedience, so we continue to "peg away". :wink:

Still, this seeming absurdity is the only sensible thing I do, so I must continue it.


And that part stuck out for me too! Me must continue on! It is the only sensible thing to do! Thanks Madre!

Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.

~ Unknown

Try as I might, I can't find the source of this quote. Can anyone help me out? (Even without a source, it's still a gem!)

Here's me so fed up with crying today!! [crwy] And the last few posts are just where Im at. Its not a case of God bolting the door in my face, it does just 'feel' that way. You know what I think it is.... I think its a case of us wanting those spiritual 'highs', where we are on THAT high and we feel good 'spiritually'. Like when the Lord allowed me to feel when I was a baby christian. But there are times when life is so flesh and bone and so... REAL, here and now real that HE HAS COME DOWN TO US, he is walking right beside us in a REAL, HERE AND NOW kind of way. We are so used to Him in the spiritual and we think that is the only way he will 'deal' with us. Perhaps when things get difficult, sometimes, he just deals with us differently. I have refused to believe that God has given up on me. I know I have never given up on Him. I question things, there is nothing wrong with that.

I also wonder if it can sometimes be a case of us not really knowing God and his ways. I think this is part of it for me sometimes.



I think the trouble with me is lack of faith. I have no rational ground for going back on the arguments that convinced me of God's existence: but the irrational deadweight of my old skeptical habits, and the spirit of this age, and the cares of the day, steal away all my lively feeling of the truth, and often when I pray I wonder if I am not posting letters to a non-existant address. Mind you I don't think so--the whole of my reasonable mind is convinced: but I often feel so. However, there is nothing to do but to peg away. One falls so often that it hardly seems worth while picking oneself up and going through the farce of starting over again as if you could ever hope to walk. Still, this seeming absurdity is the only sensible thing I do, so I must continue it.

I think sometimes when God is quiet in my life for a long time, I want to "go quiet", too. But, really, this is just shooting myself in the foot and cutting myself off from my only Help. So, I eventually come around (once again :roll: ), "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life".

"Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life".

precisely.

also...madre, what do you suggest instead of going quiet (Im guessing you mean prayer-wise? because I go quiet but I withdraw from friends, people... maybe that is kind of not a good thing either). Is is a case of praising and praying, fasting, etc when those desert seasons come?

I found another quote, Gen, from C.S. Lewis (sorry, but this man was so able to put his finger on the pulse). In the dry times, I think we just "keep on keeping on". There are no bells and whistles or even indication that we've been heard. There is only truth and obedience and faith (don't forget faith i.e. believing in who God says He is, not in what I feel Him to be in my pain). I think offering the sacrifice of praise is good and also, refusing to murmur against God. I do think it's very important to be honest with Him to Him, though. I think these are some ways to get through the dry times, but, boy, it sure ain't easy sometimes. :?

This quote is Screwtape, the devil, speaking to his nephew. You undoubtedly know this, but the "Enemy" referred to is God:

And that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. 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 really 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 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

Madre, I agree that CS Lewis sometimes hits the nail dead on. He has such a real and gritty way of putting things. Something I have found is missing in some of the christian books Ive read. Im not that well read on these things but some of the stuff I have come across is so saccharine sweet and... just not real to me and doesnt resonate with me one single bit. I read some stuff and think 'my life just isnt like that! Life just doesnt seem to be like that!'

I edited my above post to add faith to truth and obedience. I think Phillip Yancey is another honest writer who looks for real and truthful answers.

http://ctlibrary.com/search.html?query=yancey

Well Madre, you know Yancey is definately one of my favourite modern christian authors. :wink:

Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.

~ Unknown

Try as I might, I can't find the source of this quote. Can anyone help me out? (Even without a source, it's still a gem!)

Madre I have heard my pastor say this and asked him. He said he heard a pastor tell him that 16 years ago. He has no idea who the source is! :?

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

~ C. H. Spurgeon

Today is a "twofer". I found this one and couldn't resist posting it. (I need to heed it myself. :wink: )

Always act like you're wearing an invisible crown.

~ Author Unknown

Loved both of them! :D

The more generous we are, the more joyous we become. The more cooperative we are, the more valuable we become. The more enthusiastic we are, the more productive we become. The more outgoing we are, the more helpful we become. The more curious we are, the more creative we become. The more patient we are, the more understanding we become. The more persistent we are, the more successful we become." ~ William Arthur Ward, (1921-1994) ~

Jesus in the morning prepares us for trouble in the afternoon.

~ Michael Wells

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do that something I can do. ~ Helen Keller

The trouble with some of us is that we have been inoculated with small does of Christianity which keep us from catching the real thing.

~ Leslie Dixon Weatherhead

'Tis better to be alone, than in bad company~ George Washington

'Tis better to be alone, than in bad company~ George Washington

Amen! [hug]

Watch how much of our speech is aimed at justifying our actions. We find it almost impossible to act and allow the act to speak for itself. No, we must explain it, justify it, demonstrate the righteousness of it. Why do we feel this compulsion to set the record straight? Because of pride and fear, because our reputations are at stake.

~ Richard Foster

The Future Belongs To Those Who Believe In The Beauty Of Their Dreams ~Eleanor Roosevelt

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

Perfect... love that one Madre!!

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

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

[amenamen] AMEN

An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered.

G. K. Chesterton
On Running After Ones Hat, All Things Considered, 1908

Man always travels along precipices. His truest obligation is to keep his balance. ~ Pope John Paul II

You must not expect old heads upon young shoulders.

~ English Proverb

You must not expect old heads upon young shoulders.

~ English Proverb

A fact parents need to be keenly aware of. so often our frustrations as parents are because we are expecting too much of our children not taking into account their youth and inabilities. Well, at least for me I have been stunned to realize suddenly that my expectations were all wrong and I was putting undue presssure on little shoulders, much to my regret! :?

I know. Or expecting a 16 year old to think like a 40 year old. :roll:

I know. Or expecting a 16 year old to think like a 40 year old. :roll:

Ouch! That one smarts! Yes! I should post this quote around my house. I am going to need it for the next 10 years! LOL! :lol:

I know. Or expecting a 16 year old to think like a 40 year old. :roll:

Ouch! That one smarts! Yes! I should post this quote around my house. I am going to need it for the next 10 years! LOL! :lol:

For encouragement, don't forget the Mark Twain one [thumbsup] :

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

For encouragement, don't forget the Mark Twain one :

Quote:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.



LOVE that one. Have found it to be true myself with my own parents! LOL! They seem to be getting wiser as I get older! :lol:

SOOOO TRUE!!

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

One of the good things that come of a true marriage is, that there is one face on which changes come without your seeing them; or rather there is one face which you can still see the same, through all the shadows which years have gathered upon it.

~ George MacDonald

Person to person, moment to moment, as we love, we change the world.~Samahria Lyte Kaufman

The natural inclination is to make oneself the center of everything passing, how it pains or cheers oneself, even musing on oneself as if one were the one solitary object for the sunshine or the cloud to rest on. If I am a hero, or a martyr to myself, I look at and regard divine things as they suit my thinking about myself, and not as answering to what He is thinking of me. I am confining the Lord to myself instead of rising up and seeing myself lost in Him, and then following Him in all the greatness and blessedness of His work and ways down here.

~ J. B. Stoney

The natural inclination is to make oneself the center of everything passing, how it pains or cheers oneself, even musing on oneself as if one were the one solitary object for the sunshine or the cloud to rest on...


How true that is!

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

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

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! I can't say it enough! AMEN!

"Doctor, without your wounds, where would your power be? It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and laundering children of this earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In love's service only wounded soldiers can serve."

~ Thornton Wilder
from The Angel That Troubled the Waters

The people with very hard problems are understood by God. He knows what wretched machines they are trying to drive. Some day He will fling them away and and give those people new ones; then they shall astonish everyone, for they learned their driving in a hard school.

C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity

I just found this thread - and boy - good thread! I took a bunch for my myspace page! ;)

"Show me scars and I'll show you a life worth living."

C.S. Lewis' writing is just amazing.

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

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