Conversion Story of Saint Augustine

Greetings All!

     Last week we considered the conversion story of Charles H. Spurgeon.  This week I'll be sharing the conversion story of Saint Augustine. In the weeks to come I will share some others, because I find the stories of God's unique and saving work in the lives of many different people extremely fascinating!

     For those who are unaware, Augustine lived from 354-430 A.D. in North Africa.  He was born in Numidia (or what is today the country of Algeria) to Berber parents, a group of people indigenous to northern Africa. His father was well-to-do, and his mother Monica was a devout Christian woman.  From a young age it was obvious that Augustine was extremely gifted and intelligent, and so he was sent away to school at 11 years old. There he studied Latin literature and philosophy, as well as pagan beliefs and practices. By 15 years old he admits he preferred hedonism to studying, and by 16 he started to enjoy stealing and began satisfying his sexual cravings.

     At the age of 17 he went away to school in Carthage (present day Tunisia) to study rhetoric. It was here that he would break his mother's heart in two ways:  First, he would fully embrace a hedonistic lifestyle and embark on an affair with a girl that would last 15 years (followed by another affair with another young woman). Lust was the sin that consumed him, and led him at one point to pray his now famous prayer, "Grant me chastity and continence; but not yet."   The second was his rejection of Christianity and his "conversion" to Manichaeanism, a highly elaborate form of Gnosticism which taught that "light" (goodness) was gradually being removed from this world of matter and returning to the world of light (the immaterial spirit world) from which it came, making the world progressively more dark and evil as a result.

     Augustine developed great rhetorical skills and became very knowledgeable of the philosophies behind many faiths. In fact, word of his comprehensive knowledge of many subjects and philosophies, combined with his superior rhetorical skills, led him to be asked (at the age of 30) to be the instructor of rhetoric to the imperial court in Milan, winning him, "the most visible academic position in the Latin world at that time."   After arriving at Milan, Augustine heard of a great Christian preacher named Ambrose. He went to listen to him to see if he was (as some suggested) one of the greatest speakers and rhetoricians in the world.  More interested in his speaking skills than the topic of his messages Augustine went and listened, quickly discovering that Ambrose was indeed one of the best speakers he had ever heard.  He would later confess that Ambrose was one of the primary human instruments God used to break down one of the two major intellectual roadblocks he had in regard to Christianity.

     The following is an account, taken from his classic work, "The Confessions," speaks of the actual moment when he considers himself to have been converted. Enjoy.

     "I fled into the garden with my friend Alypius following step by step, for I had no secret in which he did not share...  We sat down as far as possible from the house. I was greatly disturbed in spirit, and angry at myself with a turbulent indignation, because I had not entered God's will and covenant, while all my bones cried out for me to enter...  Now, when deep reflection had drawn up out of the secret depths of my soul all my misery, and had heaped it up before the sight of my heart, there arose a mighty storm [within me], accompanied by a mighty rain of tears. So that I might give way fully to my tears and lamentations, I stole away from Alypius, for it seemed to me that solitude was more appropriate for the business of weeping. I went far enough away that I could feel that his presence was no restraint upon me....

     [Under great conviction and sorrow for my sins] I flung myself down under a fig tree and gave free course to my tears... And, not indeed in these words, but in this way, I cried to [God]: "And Thou, O Lord, how long? How long, O Lord?  Will you be angry with me forever?  O remember not against us our former iniquities."  For I felt I was still enthralled by them...  I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart when suddenly I heard the voice of a young boy or girl -- I know not which -- coming from the neighboring house. It was chanting over and over again in song: "Tolle Lege. Tolle Lege" ("Pick it up, read it. Pick it up, read it").  Immediately I ceased weeping and began most earnestly to wonder whether it was usual for children in some kind of game to sing such a song, but I could not remember ever having heard anything like it.  So, stopping the torrent of my tears, I got to my feet, for I could not help but think this was a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage I should see.  I had heard about how Anthony had accidentally come into church when the Gospel was being read and received the admonition as if what had been read was addressed specifically to him: "Go sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come follow me." By such an oracle he was converted...

     So I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle's book (Romans) when I had left there.  I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the first paragraph my eyes fell upon: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality or wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof" [Romans 13:13].  I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all gloom and doubt vanished away.  Closing the book, and putting my finger or something else to mark the spot, I began -- now with a tranquil countenance -- to tell it all to Alypius. He then disclosed to me what had been going on in himself, of which I knew nothing. He asked to see what I had read. I showed him and he read on even further than I had read. I had no known what came next, but it was this: "Him that is weak in the faith, receive." This he applied to himself and told me so. By these words he was strengthened and joined me in full commitment [to Christ] without any restless hesitation.

     Then we went in to my mother and told her what had happened, to her great joy.  We explained to her how it had occurred and she leaped for joy triumphant; and she blessed You who are "able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think." For she saw that You had granted her far more than she had ever asked for in all her pitiful and sad-hearted lamentations."

     Years earlier (when Augustine was in his late teens) Monica had a dream. In it she was standing on "a rule of wood" (a plank or platform she took to be the "rule of faith"). In the dream, she met a young man to whom she despaired of her son's "living death" [in sin] and expressed her desire that he should come to know God. The young man told her to have no fear and to look around to see who was with her on the rule... and there stood her son Augustine!  She considered the dream prophetic in nature and told Augustine. He threw it back in her face and told that far from the dream meaning that he would become a Christian, it meant that she would join him and embrace Manichaeanism!

     After asking Ambrose and others to do something numerous time to intervene on Augustine's behalf, Ambrose told her: "Leave him alone and just pray,"  and added, "Go, I beg you. The son of so many tears cannot perish."   What a wonderful account of how the God of grace rescues and redeems His chosen ones through the conviction of sin, the preaching of the Gospel, the simple reading of the Word, and the love of a mother who would not give up praying for her wayward son.

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Look to Jesus

Greetings All,

     I hope you like stories!  Because that's what this week's "thought" is -- the conversion story of Charles H. Spurgeon.  As a Spurgeon fan I was familiar with it, but I went online to find it again since I wanted to share it in a class I am presently teaching on Sunday mornings called, "Controversial Topics."  Due to Spurgeon's prominence as England’s (some would say the world's) most famous, most gifted, most quoted, and most popular preacher, his life has been the topic of much study.  In fact, his conversion story, along with those of St. Augustine and Martin Luther, are said to be the three most famous in all Church history.  And since it's been an inspiration to so many, I thought I would share it with you!

     Spurgeon's conversion to Christ took place on January 6, 1850, in Colchester, England. He was 15 years old, and for a couple of years leading up to this occasion he had come to be under great conviction for his sin as a result of reading,‘God’s 10 words’(the Ten Commandments).  Knowing he was not right with God, and being unable to find any relief for the guilt of his sin, he had become miserable, depressed, and despondent, convinced he would be in hell (and even having dreams about it) if he was unable to find the way of salvation.  It is an amazing story.  Enjoy.

Look to Jesus

     Of the message he heard on that cold January day he writes:  “The good news that I was, as a sinner, to look away from myself and to Christ instead... came as fresh to me as any news I had ever heard in my life.  Had I never read my Bible? Yes, and I read it earnestly. Had I never been taught by Christian people? Yes, I had, by mother, and father [who was a minister], and others. Had I not heard the gospel? Yes, I think I had. And yet, somehow, it was like a new revelation to me that I was to ''believe and live.''  I confess that I was tutored in piety, put into my cradle by prayerful hands, and lulled to sleep by songs concerning Jesus; having heard the gospel continually, with line upon line and precept upon precept, here much and there much. Yet, when the Word of the Lord came to me with power, it was as new as if I had lived among the unvisited tribes of Central Africa, and had never heard the tidings of the cleansing fountain filed with blood, drawn from the Savior's veins..."

     The following is his own personal account of the events of that day:

     "I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning while I was going to a certain place of worship. Unable to go any further, I turned down a side street and came to a little Primitive Methodist Church.  In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved...

     The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now it is well that preachers be instructed, but this man was extremely uneducated. He was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was—"LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL YE ENDS OF THE EARTH" (Isaiah 45:22).  He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope for me in that text.

     The preacher began this way: "This is a very simple text indeed. It says ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pain. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it’s just ‘Look.’ A man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look.  But the text says, ‘Look unto ME.’ Ay!" he said in broad Essex, "many of ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some say look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some o’ ye say, ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin.’  You have no business with that just now.  Look to Christ. The text says, ‘Look unto Me!’ "  Then the good man followed up his text in this way: "Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look unto Me, I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven. Look unto Me; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! Look unto Me!"

     When he had managed to spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his rope. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I dare say that with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger.  Fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, "Young man, you look very miserable." Well, I did, but I was not accustomed to have remarks on my personal appearance made from the pulpit. However, it was a good blow, struck right home.  He continued, "And you will always be miserable—miserable in life and miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text.  But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved." Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but look and live!"

     I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought.  I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away! There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun...  I can testify that the joy of that day was utterly indescribable. I could have leaped. I could have danced! There was no expression, however fanatical, which would have been out of keeping with the joy of that hour. Many days of Christian experience have passed since then, but there has never been one which has had the full exhilaration, or the sparkling delight, which that first day had.  I thought I could have sprung from the seat in which I sat, and have called out with the wildest of those Methodist brethren, "I am forgiven! I am forgiven! A monument of grace! A sinner saved by the blood!"

     My spirit saw its chains broken to pieces, I felt that I was an emancipated soul, an heir of heaven, a forgiven one, accepted in Jesus Christ, plucked out of the miry clay and out of the horrible pit, with my feet set upon a rock and my future established...  Between half-past ten o’clock, when I entered that chapel, and half-past twelve o’clock, when I was back again at home, what a change had taken place in me! Simply by looking to Jesus I had been delivered from despair, and I was brought into such a joyous state of mind, it was immediately noticed by my family.

     Spurgeon described his walk home from church like this: I was perfectly at rest in Christ, satisfied with him, and my heart was glad… I thought I could dance all the way home. I could understand what John Bunyan meant when he declared he wanted to tell the crows on the ploughed land all about his conversion. He was too full to hold; he felt he must tell somebody.”

     Later that day he says: ‘I remember standing before the fire, leaning on the mantelshelf, after I got home, and my mother had spoken to me.  I heard her say outside the door, “There is a change come over Charles.”  She had not had half-a-dozen words with me; but she saw that I was not what I had been.  I had been dull, melancholic, sorrowful, depressed; and when I had looked to Christ, the appearance of my face changed. I had a smile, a cheerful, happy, contented look at once, and she could see it.” 

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     That night Spurgeon waited for the other children to go to bed before he told his father what had happened, and by the middle of February (six weeks later) he was going door to door, once a week, with Gospel tracts to 33 different homes!  By 19 years old he was the lead pastor at the New Park Street Church in London, where he was preaching to crowds in the thousands. He ministered to a grand total of 10 million people during his lifetime, and by the end of end of the 19th century, more than 100 million sermons of Spurgeon’s sermons had been sold in 23 languages, an unmatched figure before and since. Today, this number has surpassed 300 million copies. He is history’s most widely read preacher, with over 3,800 messages and about 135 of his books still in print.

In the Service of the Gospel,  Pastor Jeff

Not A Fan Testimony

Greetings All,







Today's 'thought' comes to you once again from Kyle Idleman's book, "Not a Fan."  Interspersed throughout the book are testimonies of people who were "fans" of Jesus at one point or another in their lives, but are no longer.  They had attended church, said their prayers, put some money in the offering plate, claimed a vague belief in Jesus, and generally went through the religious motions. But then at some point in their lives realized that it had all been superficial and not real.
     In most cases -- usually as a result of going through sickness, or trauma, or addiction, or coming close to death -- that which had been superficial in their lives became real. They stopped being a "fan" of Jesus, and became a true disciple and follower of Jesus.  This is Gary Polsgrove's testimony.  He's a man Jesus brought to his knees before He put him back on his feet. Enjoy.

Not A Fan Testimony

     "Sitting in front of the judge's stand, I started to cry. I heard the judge say something about jail time, and I sobbed even harder. An officer handcuffed me and took me to jail. I spent a few days there, trying to figure out what had happened to my life. How did it come to this? I had reached the pinnacle of my career as a pilot for UPS. I had everything going for me. Having left my wife in 1993, I didn't have anyone weighing me down. I had money, girls, friends, a great job — everything a guy could want. My life was all about saying yes to myself.

     But then I got caught at work stealing airline tickets. I didn't know how much my job had meant to me until the night I was fired. When I went in that night, they didn't just take my badge - they took away my entire identity. All these years, I had let my job define me. Losing that job felt like I was dying. But just because I had lost my job didn't mean I was giving up my lifestyle. Hard-headed guys like me don't go down easily. Without a job, I started missing child support payments. They gave some warnings that I better pay up, but before being sentenced, I still thought I was untouchable. That day in court was a major wake-up call.

     After my jail time, I stayed in a halfway home. I lived out of a duffel bag. I was allowed to work, but I wasn't allowed to drive. I rode the bus all around. I ended up working at a bagel shop. Some days, I'd run into co-workers from UPS. I can't describe the shame I felt. I know what I'm about to say doesn't make any sense, but it was during this time when everything I had worked for was dead, and my old life had died, that I started to finally discover true life. With nowhere else to turn, I returned to the faith of my youth. I began praying honestly and searching for comfort in the Bible. For the first time Jesus became real to me. I started saying no to me and started saying yes to Jesus.

     Soon after leaving the halfway home, I got a great job and started climbing the corporate ladder. My success was back. But I was afraid the old me would come back, too. I wanted to make sure that the old me stayed dead. I got on my knees and asked God to guide me and I committed to living completely for him.

     These days that continues to be my prayer. Now I mentor young men at church who are looking for spiritual guidance. God managed to take my mistakes and turn them into a priceless tool for keeping the young men I mentor from making the mistakes I made. I am also working with incarcerated men. It has become my passion to bring God's hope and healing into the broken lives of these men. Only God could take that kind of mess and turn it into a message about grace and redemption. My name is Gary Polsgrove, and I am not a fan." 

     St. Augustine once said in his well-known classic "The Confessions": "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."  I've often turned that into a prayer I pray for others who are walking aimlessly in sin, seemingly oblivious of their need for the Lord.  I've prayed for others (maybe even some of you!):  "Lord, give them no rest until they rest in you."

     To some it may at first sound "mean" to pray such a thing.  Yet if difficulty, hardships, trials and failure are what God uses to show us our desperate need for Him, and if we will never come to Him so long as we are comfortable where we are, it really is the most loving thing I could pray for any unbeliever or straying believer.  In fact, in love, I pray that for any to whom that may apply right now.

In the Bonds of Christian Affection,  Pastor Jeff 

101 Quotable Christians

Greetings All,

     It has been a while since I sent out a "thought" since I was vacationing ("on holiday" for my British friends!) in my homeland -- New England. During that time I picked up a book (actually a few books). One was entitled "101 Quotable Christians," published by Barbour Publishing Co. and listing no author/editor.
     I went through the book (as always) with a yellow marker in hand and highlighted some that I thought were very good.  I now offer them to you with the hope that they may encourage you or give you some helpful insights. As is printed on the back cover of the book: "A great quotation can provide thought, brighten a day, even change a life..." I pray it is so!  Enjoy.

"Grace is not given because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them." 

St. Augustine  (400 A.D.)

"Men would sooner believe that the Gospel is from heaven if they saw more such effects of it upon the hearts and lives of those who profess it."

Richard Baxter  (1650 A.D.)

"You want me to tell you why God is to be loved and how much? I answer that the reason for loving God is God Himself; and the measure of love due Him is immeasurable love... We are to love God for Himself because of a twofold reason: Nothing is more reasonable, and nothing is more profitable. When one asks:  Why should I love God? he may mean, What is lovely in God? or  What shall I gain by loving God?   In either case, the same cause of love exists, namely, God Himself... Ought He not be loved in return, when we think who loved, whom He loved, and how much He loved."

Bernard of Clairvaux (1125 A.D. - author of the hymn "Be Thou My Vision.")

"Will God ever ask you to do something you are not able to do?  The answer is yes -- all the time!  It must be that way, for God's glory and kingdom. If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory. If we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory. He wants to reveal Himself to a watching world."

Henry Blackaby (2009 A.D.)

"The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men... The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods but through men."

E. M. Bounds (1880 A.D.)

"Let all our employment be to know God; the more one knows Him, the more one desires to know Him... Do not always scrupulously confine yourself to certain rules, or particular forms of devotion, but act with a general confidence in God, with love and humility... There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God." 

Nicolas Herman or "Brother Lawrence" (1670 A.D.)

"The end to which we ought to purpose ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshipers of God we can possibly be, as we hope to be through all eternity."

Nicolas Herman or "Brother Lawrence"

"Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it's like to live inside somebody else's skin... The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt."

Frederick Buechner  (2004 A.D.)

     "That there exists in the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God Himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of His Godhead, the memory of which He constantly renews and occasionally enlarges, that all to a man, being aware that there is a God, and that He is their Maker, may be condemned by their own conscience when they neither worship Him nor consecrate their lives to His service... 

     Until men feel that they owe everything to God, that they are cherished by His paternal care, and that He is the author of all their blessings, so that nothing is to be looked for apart from Him, they will never submit to Him in voluntary obedience.  No, unless they place their entire happiness in Him, they will never yield up their whole selves to Him in truth and sincerity." 

John Calvin (1646 A.D.)

"The word "comfort" is from two Latin words meaning "with" and "strong" -- He is with us to make us strong. Comfort is not soft, weakening commiseration, it is true, strengthening love... All along, let us remember we are not asked to understand, but simply obey." 

Amy Carmichael  (1920 A.D.)

"Remember -- a cup brimful of sweetness cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, no matter how hard or suddenly it is jarred."

Amy Carmichael

"Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become popular." 

G. K. Chesterton  (1900 A.D.)

"Love not the world.  Nothing that it contains is worth the life and consecration of an immortal soul... He who seeks God in tangible form misses the very thing he is seeking, for God is a Spirit." 

Henry Drummond (1880 A. D.) 

Many Christians look with regret to mistakes from their past, thereby feeding an ongoing sense of shame and deadening their joy in the present.  Yet, as Francois Fenelon (1690 A.D.) wisely points out,"The wise and diligent traveler watches all his steps, and keeps his eyes always directed to that part of the path which is immediately before him. He does not incessantly look backwards to count his steps and examine his footprints."

"As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting place of all the waters in the world, so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet."

John Flavel   (1650 A.D.)

Blessings on your day.  In Christ's Service, Pastor Jeff

Words of Wisdom

Greetings All,

     This week's "thought" is comprised of many short but wise quotes. I have been preaching on the topic of wisdom from the book of Proverbs, and the following quotes follow that same format of short, wise, insightful proverbs. I offer you many in the hope that a few will hit home and give you food for further thought. Enjoy!

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” St. Augustine

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot

“The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.”  Billy Graham

“Employ whatever God has entrusted you with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree… Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”   John Wesley

"Faith is a living and unshakable confidence -- a belief in God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.”  Martin Luther

“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”  Martin Luther King Jr.

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”  John Piper

“Faith does not eliminate questions, but faith knows where to take them.”  Elisabeth Elliot

“We may speak about heaven as a place where there are no tears, no death, no fear, no night; but those are just the benefits of heaven. The beauty of heaven is seeing God.”  Max Lucado

“A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”   Max Lucado

“Jesus said, “Love…as I have loved you.”  We can never love too much.”   Amy Carmichael

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”   Martin Luther King Jr.

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.”  Corrie Ten Boom

“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’”  Billy Graham

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”  C. S. Lewis

"Live your life as if you were someone else's only role model. Live your life so that all you want your children to be they see in you."   Anonymous

"Strength and struggle go together, The supreme reward of struggle is strength. Life is a battle and the greatest joy is to overcome. The pursuit of easy things make men weak. It is following the paths of least resistance that make both rivers and men crooked."   Paul Parlette

I trust at least one of them was helpful. Have a blessed week. In His Service, Pastor Jeff 

A Collection of 'thoughts'

Greetings All,

Instead of my usual 'thought' from only one particular author, I have decided to send out a collection of 'thoughts' from many different authors. Every one will not apply directly to your situation, but each one will offer you food for thought, and supply you with a helpful insight.  I trust they might speak a word to your soul.  Enjoy.

"Worrying is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."   Unknown

"Unforgiveness is like drinking a glass of poison and expecting the other person to die."  Unknown

"He who counts the stars and calls each one by name is in no danger of forgetting His own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved."    Charles Spurgeon

"Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace, and your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace."     Jerry Bridges 

"It is pleasing to God whenever you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart."   Martin Luther

"The thought of You [Lord] stirs us so deeply that we cannot be content unless we praise You.  Because You have made us for Yourself, our hearts find no rest until they rest in You."      St. Augustine

"When I think upon my God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap from my pen."    Composer Joseph Haydn

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of it for another."   Charles Dickens

"I began learning long ago that those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others."       Booker T. Washington

"The day you find anything more beautiful than Jesus is the day you can know you never knew Jesus."     John Hannah

"God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing."   C. S. Lewis

"Happy is the one who has learned to hold the things of this world with a loose grip. Of all classes and descriptions of persons on this earth, they are the happiest of whom it may be said that the things most hoped for by them are the things that cannot be seen."         Early Mennonite Writings

"The most spectacular answers to prayer have come when I was so helpless, and so out of control, as to be able to do nothing at all for myself."  Catherine Marshall

"Keep praying, but be thankful that God's answers are wiser than your prayers."    William Culbertson

"If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself."   Augustine of Hippo

"The greatest honor we can give to God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of His love."         Lady Julian of Norwich

Blessings upon your day,  Pastor Jeff