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
