The Practice of the Presence of God

Greetings!

This past weekend the men at my church got away on a "Men's Recon"  to a couple cabins in the Pocono Mountains to spend time in quiet contemplation with God.  In doing so we read Brother Lawrence's classic work, "The Practice of the Presence of God."  It was revitalizing time.   I had my own copy of the book which I bought many years ago, so I brought it with me - fragile as it is from being loaned out and read so many times. Over the years I have copied quotes into the many blank pages and spaces in it.  So today I wanted to share some of those quotes with you.  And if you have just a moment, let me know which one(s) hit home the most. Enjoy.

"Whatever we are doing, even if we are reading the Word or praying, we should stop for a few minutes -- as often as possible -- to praise God from the depths of our hearts, to enjoy Him there in secret. Since you believe that God is always with you no matter what you may be doing, why shouldn't you stop for a while to adore Him, to praise Him, to petition Him, to offer Him your heart, and to thank Him?"

Brother Lawrence

"There is nothing but God's grace. We walk upon it. We breathe it. We live by it and we die in it."

Robert Louis Stevenson

"You have no strength but what God gives you, and you can have all the strength that God can give." 

Andrew Murray

"Wonder is the basis of worship."

Thomas Carlyle

"Faith is not an effort, a striving, a ceaseless seeking, as so many earnest souls suppose, but rather, a letting go, an abandonment, an abiding rest in God that nothing, not even the soul's shortcomings can disturb." 

Unknown

"God never asks us to give up anything unless He intends to replace it with something better."

George Mueller

"He who would not die for Jesus will never truly live for Jesus; for to earnestly live for Him requires dying daily to the self-will that we may do His will."

"God insists that we ask, not because He needs to know our situation, but because we need the spiritual discipline of asking."

Catherine Marshall

"When God wants to do His great works, He trains somebody to be quiet enough and little enough, then uses that person."

Hudson Taylor

"Enter into the inner chamber of your mind, shut out all things except God and whatever might aid you in seeking God, and having barred the door of your inner chamber, seek Him." 

St. Anselm of Canterbury

"God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him." 

Martin Luther

"Joy is not happiness as much as it is gladness; it is the ecstasy of eternity in a soul that has made peace with God and is ready to do His will."

Unknown

"Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation."

Elton Trueblood

"Be patient with each other, there are no shortcuts to spirituality. The growing of fruit takes time."

Unknown

"The greatness of a man is not measured by his power or ability, but by the measure of his surrender to God."

Unknown

"The person who insists on seeing with perfect clarity before he follows Christ in the way, will never obey God's call to walk by faith. To Abraham God said, 'Leave your country and your people and your father's household, and go to the place I will (that is, in the future, far down the road) show you." 

"When, as a husband or wife, you are confronted with a very difficult choice, do what is best for your spouse and your children and God will honor it." 

"If you'd ever really gotten inside the mind of Jesus, ever had a single taste of His burning love, considerations of your own loss or gain would mean nothing."

Thomas A'Kempis

"It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving."

Richard Braumstein

"Though we do not have our Lord Jesus with us in bodily presence, we have our neighbor, who, for the ends of love and loving service, is as good as our Lord Himself."

Teresa of Avila

"To do so no more is the best repentance."

Martin Luther

"No one gives himself freely and willingly to God's service unless, having tasted His Fatherly love, he is drawn to love and worship Him in return." 

John Calvin

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

10 Authors from "101 Quotable Christians"

Greetings All,

     Unlike the more lengthy "thoughts" of the last two weeks, I chose to offer you a few smaller thoughts that I came across while reading a book entitled, "101 Quotable Christians," published by Barbour Publishing and listing no author.  I trust you might find some of them to be insightful and encouraging as I myself did when I first read them. They cover a variety of topics, and come to you from ten of the 101 different authors. Enjoy!

"The goodness of God breaking forth into a desire to communicate good, was the cause and beginning of the creation."  William Law (1686 - 1761)

"Catch a man at the moment when he is really poor in spirit, and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, "By love! I'm being humble," and almost immediately pride -- pride at his own humility -- will appear."   C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)

"I need Christ, not something that resembles Him."   C. S. Lewis

"If our lives are easy, and if all we ever attempt for God is what we know we can handle, how will we ever experience His omnipotence in our lives?" Anne Graham Lotz (1948 -     )

"Satan cannot create anything new, cannot create anything at all. He must steal what God has created. Thus he twists love and God's wonderful gift of sex into lust and sadism and myriad perversions.  He disfigures the heart's deep desire to worship God and persuades us to bow before lesser gods of lust, power or money."     Catherine Marshall  (1914 - 1983)

"Truth is objective because God exists outside ourselves; it is universal because God is above all; it is constant because God is eternal.  Absolute truth is absolute because it originates from the Original."   Josh McDowell  (1939 -      )

"Because God is holy, He cannot look on sin with indifference."   Josh McDowell

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D. L. Moody (1837 - 1899)

"The moral man is as guilty as the rest. His morality cannot save him... It is a favorite thing with infidels to set their own (moral) standard and to measure themselves by other people. But that will not do in the Day of Judgment. That aside, now let us use God's law as a balance weight..." 

"Satan is willing to have us worship anything, however sacred -- the Bible, a crucifix, the church -- if only we do not worship God Himself." 

"I believe the memory is "the worm that never dies"... the memory is never cleansed (entirely) of obscene stories and unclean acts.  Even if a man repents and reforms, he often has to fight the past."

"Just like the moon's light, our light is borrowed light."

"The world can get on very well without you and me, but the world cannot get on without Christ, and therefore we must testify of Him... It seems to me that if we get one look at Christ in His love and beauty, then the world and its pleasures will look very small to us."

"Some people tell us that it does not make any difference what a man believes if he is only sincere.  One church is just as good as another if you are only sincere.  I do not believe that any greater delusion ever came out of the pit of hell than that."

"Pentecost isn't over yet."

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"Christ counted it no humiliation to be able to do nothing of Himself, but to be always and absolutely dependent on the Father."   Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)

"You are in danger of substituting prayer and Bible study for living fellowship with God, the living interchange of giving Him your love, your heart, your life, and receiving from Him His love, His life, His Spirit.  Your needs and their expression, your desire to pray humbly and earnestly and believingly may so occupy you, that the light of His countenance and the joy of His love cannot enter you."  Andrew Murray

"If our hearts are full of our own wretched, "I am________...," we will have no ears to hear His glorious, soul-satisfying, "I AM."   Hannah Whitall Smith (1832 -1911)

"Put together all the tenderest love you know of, multiply it by infinity, and you will begin to see glimpses of the love and grace of God."  Hannah Whitall Smith

"The only thing of my very own that I contribute to my redemption, is the sin from which I need to be redeemed."   William Temple (1881 - 1944)

"Before the first star was kindled, before the first living creature began to sing the praise of its Creator, he loved His Church with an everlasting love."  Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892)

I trust that that a few were helpful or encouraging!     In His Service, Pastor Jeff