"Jesus was crucified, not in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves." - George F. MacLeod
"The cross cannot be defeated, for it is defeat." - Gilbert K. Chesterton
"There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers here below." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
"We need men of the cross, with the message of the cross, bearing the marks of the cross." - Vance Havner
"Christ's cross is such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird." -Samuel Rutherford
"He came to pay a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay." - Anonymous
"The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it." - A. W. Tozer
"All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning." - Oswald Chambers
"The cross: God's way of uniting suffering with love." - Georgia Harkness
"The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"The cross of Christ will always be an offense to the natural man." - Anonymous
"The cross is the cost of my forgiveness." - Anonymous
"The Cross of Christ is the Self-revelation of God, the exhibition of the essential nature of the Godhead." - Oswald Chambers
"The righteous One upon the cross is the sinner's only point of contact with the saving power of God." - Lewis Sperry Chafer
"The cross is the center of the world's history. The incarnation of Christ and the crucifixion of our Lord are the pivot round which all the events of the ages revolve." - Alexander MacLaren
"Christianity is a religion about a cross." - Leon Morris
"The Cross of Christ pronounced final and irrevocable judgement against the prince of this world." - Oswald Chambers
"The battle Jesus fought on the cross against the powers of hell wasn't a minor skirmish; it was a major assault that ended in a complete victory for the Savior." - Warren W. Wiersbe
"Nothing provokes the devil like the cross." - C. H. Spurgeon
"Christianity is no different than any other religion without the cross." - Michael Catt
"Leave out the cross, and you have killed the religion of Jesus. Atonement by the blood of Jesus is not an arm of Christian truth; it is the heart of it." - C. H. Spurgeon
"The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men." - A. W. Tozer
"Calvary shows how far men will go in sin, and how far God will go for man's salvation." - H. C. Trumbull
"The cross was a divine assignment, not a human accident; it was a God-given obligation, not human option." - Warren W. Wiersbe
"The cross can not be defeated for it is defeat." - G. K. Chesterton
"When I see the cross embossed on Bibles, wrought out in jewelry or fashioned gold, I cannot but think how contradictory it all seems. The cross, a thing of shame, the instrument of our Lord's execution by those who abhorred him, and yet worn as an ornament! Surely men might as well wear at their belts the dagger with which their friend was stabbed! Why do not ladies wear a gibbet from their necks? For what more or less is a cross? Such was not the cross which Paul gloried in; he would have despised such idolatry. He gloried in the gospel, which is a spiritual cross." - C. H. Spurgeon
"The cross is the proof that there is no length to which the love of God will refuse to go, in order to win men's hearts. The cross is the medium of reconciliation because the cross is the final proof of the love of God; and a love like that demands an answering love. If the cross will not waken love and wonder in men's hearts, nothing will." - William Barclay
"Take another look at the Cross and see the revelation; it is a sword that cuts our conscience; it is a key that unlocks our prisons; it is a royal scepter under which we will live eternally with Him in His kingdom." - Edith Brock
"The cross is not a weight that bears you down, but it is a supernatural symbol that gives you strength and speeds your way." - Anonymous
The Cross
"The thing that makes a missionary is the sight of what Jesus did on the cross and to have heard Him say 'Go.' "- Oswald Chambers
"Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food." - Daniel T. Niles
"Let us come to the churches having as our theme the highwayman's motto, 'Your money or your life,' saying the needs are so great, the command so urgent, we have given our lives-will you not give your money?" - Robert Wiler, a missionary volunteer connected with the Student Volunteer Movement, from a speech he gave at a conference in 1891.
"I had known about Jesus dying for me, but I had never understood that, if He had died for me, then I didn't belong to myself. Redemption means buying back, so that if I belong to Him, either I had to be a thief, and keep what wasn't mine, or else I had to give up everything to God. When I came to see that Jesus had died for me, it didn't seem hard to give up all for Him. If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him." - C. T. Studd wrote from Cambridge in 1883.
"My Jesus, my King, my Life, My All. I again dedicate my whole self to Thee." - David Livingstone wrote in his diary on his 59th birthday, March 19th, 1872. A year later he was found dead on his knees by his bedside, a candle burning, his Bible open, himself in the presence of his King.
"By the grace of God and for His glory, I commit my entire life to obeying His commission of Matt. 28:18-20, wherever and however He leads me, giving priority to the peoples currently beyond the reach of the Gospel (Rom. 15:20-21). I will also endeavor to impart this vision to others." - Student commitment made at a Frontiers Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1980.
"It is the Holy Spirit who puts jet engines on the word bombs of the Bible so they fly into the needy places in people's hearts and explode at the right time." - Words spoken by Rev. Festo Kivengere in a communications convention.
"There is enough jewelry, gold, and silver plate buried in Christian homes to build a fleet of 50,000 vessels, ballast them with Bibles, crowd them with missionaries, and supply every living soul with the gospel in a score of years. Only let God take possession and the gospel will wing its way like the beams of the morning." - A. T. Pierson
"In a world in which nine out of every ten people is lost, three or four have never heard the way out, and one of every two cannot hear, the church sleeps on. How come? Could it be we think there must be some other way? Or perhaps we don't really care that much?" - Robertson McQuilken in his book The Great Omission.
George Murray, director of the Bible Christian Union, tells us that for years he was "willing to go, but planning to stay." Not until he became "willing to stay, but planning to go" did God move him to Italy.
"Press on our heart the woe, and put in our feet the go." - Dr. A.B. Simpson
"When considering the needs of missions, don't fail to do something just because YOU can't do everything." - Dr. Bob Pierce
"Others have done so much with so little, while we have done so little with so much." - Dr. Bob Pierce
"We've outgrown that sort of thing," the soldier said. The native smiled back. "It's a good thing we haven't. If it wasn't for the Book, you'd have been a meal by now." - A South Sea Islander proudly displayed his Bible to a World War II G.I.
"I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up asking Him to do His work through me." - Hudson Taylor
"For the gospel to 'go where it isn't,' someone has to go from where it is among his own people and go where he/she will no longer be 'native.' Natives become foreigners when they become true missionaries. It is one thing to be concerned that the church grow where it is. It is something else to make sure the church goes where it isn't." - Dr. Ralph Winter
"The question is not, 'Can I afford to take on the needs of the world when I'm so troubled by other things? The question is, 'Can I afford not to?'" - Mr. Bernie May (U.S. Division Director of Wycliffe)
"Herein lies the Christian motive: it is simple. We cannot live without Christ and we cannot bear to think of men living without Him. We believe in a Christ-like world. We know nothing better; we can be content with nothing less." - International Missionary Council, Jerusalem, 1928.
"Your Majesty, some men's passion is for gold. Some men's passion is for art. Some men's passion is for fame. My passion is for souls." - spoken by William Booth to King Edward VII of England after His Majesty had highly commended the Salvationist for his unflagging zeal and wonderful work among the poor.
"We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss." - Theodore Williams of India.
"We shall need three times more me, four times more money, and seven times more prayer." - Andrew Murray said at World Missionary Conference in 1910.
"Thou, O Christ, art all I want, and Thou, O Christ, art all they want. What Christ can do for any man, He can do for every man." - Dr. Samuel Zwemer, in a convention of the Student Volunteer Movement, hung a great map of Islam before the delegates, and with a sweep of his hand across all those darkened areas said.
"I feel that my heart is wholly for heaven, and the world mainly behind my back. I do not know that anything would be a heaven to me, but the service of Christ and the enjoyment of His presence. Oh how sweet is life when spent in His service." - Henry Martyn, at 23 years of age, on his way to India.
"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt; send me where Thou wilt; work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever." - Betty Stam's covenant made as a high school student.
"If God would grant us the vision, the word 'sacrifice' would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short; we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. May God help us to judge ourselves by the eternities that separate the Aucas from a comprehension of Christmas, and Him, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor so that we might, through His poverty, be made rich. Lord God, speak to my own heart and give me to know Thy holy will and the joy of walking in it. Amen." - Nate Saint - in a Christmas meditation letter written just a short while before he and four other young men gave their lives in seeking to reach the Auca Indians in Ecuador, South America, December, 1955.
World Evangelism (Missions)
"Theology means 'the science of God,' and I think any man who wants to think about God at all would like to have the clearest and most accurate ideas about Him that are available." - C. S. Lewis
"The truth is, no preacher ever had any strong power that was not the preaching of doctrine." - Phillips Brooks
"The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." - 2 Timothy 4:3
"Great saints have always been dogmatic." - A. W. Tozer
"There can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge." - J. I. Packer
"When we have room enough for any and every brand of doctrine, that's too much room. Can the same fountain send forth both bitter water and sweet? Can two walk together unless they agree? One scholar says that the early Christians condemned false doctrine in a way that sounds almost unchristian today." - Vance Havner
"It would be impossible to overemphasize the importance of sound doctrine in the life of a Christian. Right thinking about all spiritual matters is imperative if we would have right living." - A. W. Tozer
"The chief need of the present age is great theology." - Dr. Loraine Boettner
"Doctrine is the necessary foundation of duty; if the theory is not correct, the practice cannot be right. Tell me what a man believes, and I will tell you what he will do." - Tryon Edwards
"Doctrine is the framework of life - the skeleton of truth." - Adoniram J. Gordon
"The question is not whether a doctrine is beautiful but whether it is true." - Augustus William and Julius Charles Hare
"Start with the Scriptures. Then go to those books that will help you. And above all, read both - or all - sides of the matter, for there are many sides. Do not be content with reading one side only. I find it tragic that people should read one side only. Often they have never heard of another side, or if they have, they are not prepared to even consider it." - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
"It is an undoubted truth that every doctrine that comes from God, leads to God; and that which does not tend to promote holiness is not of God." - George Whitfield
"We should no more tolerate false doctrine than we would tolerate sin." - J. C. Ryle
"Purity of doctrine is the soul of the church." - John Calvin
"The New Testament always ties up prophetic doctrine with practical duty." - Vance Havner
"Doctrines are not God; they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who were really in touch with God." - C. S. Lewis
"I always find that those who are driven with every wind of doctrine are those who are too lazy to study doctrine." - D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
"The creed is the road or street. It is very good as far as it goes, but if it doesn't take us to Christ it is worthless." - D. L. Moody
"When a person does not know the doctrines of the Christian faith, he can easily be captured by false religions. - Warren W. Wiersbe
"Doctrine is never meant merely to make us knowledgeable, but to make us godly." - James Philip
"To separate doctrine from life or life from doctrine is to sue for a groundless divorce. God has joined them together, and what he has joined together we must never put asunder." - R. C. Sproul
"Biblical truth has been given to change lives, not simply to stimulate discussion." - Dick Dowsett
"Nothing is to be introduced as doctrine which is not according to revelation." - Henry T. Mahan
"In Christianity, creed has always to do with Christ." - G. Campbell Morgan
"A dead creed is of no use; we must have our creed baptized with the Holy Ghost." - C. H. Spurgeon
"It is one thing for us to defend a doctrine in a church meeting, and quite something else to put it into practice in everyday life." - Warren W. Wiersbe
Doctrine
"Almighty God is nothing but a mental abstraction unless He becomes concrete and actual, because an ideal has no power unless it can be realized. The doctrine of the Incarnation is that God did become actual, He manifested Himself on the plane of human flesh, and Jesus Christ is name not only for God and Man in one, but the name of the personal Savior who makes the way back for every man to get into a personal relationship with God." - Oswald Chambers
"Jesus neither laid aside his deity when he came to earth nor his humanity when he returned to heaven." - Anonymous
"The incarnation of the Son of God was not a diminishing of his deity, but an acquiring of manhood." - Verna Wright
"As to his deity he had no mother, and as to his humanity he had no father." - Robert Clarke
"If the creation story, the virgin birth, the resurrection are only myths, then I'm myth-taken and myth-ified, and myth-erable!" - Vance Havner
"Jesus Christ is God in the form of man; as completely God as if he were not man; as completely man as if he were not God." - A. J. F. Behrends
"Christ was not a deified man, neither was he a humanized God. He was perfectly God and at the same time perfectly man." - C. H. Spurgeon
"Those who deny that Jesus was without a human father must explain how he was without human failure." - Anonymous
"The God who took a motherless woman out of the side of a man took a fatherless man out of the body of a woman." - Matthew Henry
"Christ is God shining through the personality of a man, and shining unhindered. His sacred humanity does not veil His divine beauty in any degree." - A. W. Tozer
"The Incarnation was not for the Self-realization of God, but for the purpose of removing sin and reinstating humanity into communion with God." - Oswald Chambers
"Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I founded empires; but upon what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"The greatest man in history was the poorest." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Jesus is God spelling himself out in language that man can understand." - S. D. Gordon
"It was to a virgin woman that the birth of the Son of God was announced. It was to a fallen woman that his resurrection was announced." - Bishop Fulton Sheen
"Bethlehem and Golgotha, the Manger and the Cross, the birth and the death, must always be seen together." - J. Sidlow Baxter
"It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself." - Charles Dickens
"The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity - hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory - because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross." - J. I. Packer
"The birth of Jesus is the sunrise in the Bible." - Henry Van Dyke
"To travel the road to Bethlehem is to keep a rendezvous with wonder, to answer the call of wisdom, and to bow the knee in worship." - John A. Knight
"The Son of God became man to enable men to become the sons of God." - C. S. Lewis
"Christmas is when God came down the stairs of heaven with a baby in His arms." - R. Eugene Sterner
"A Christian should observe Christmas in wonder, worship and witness." - John Vander Ploeg
"If we were going to try to take the focus off Christ at Christmas...If I were determined to conceal the true meaning of Christmas... I would make sure society put an emphasis on lights instead of THE light, on stars on trees instead of THE star, on Santa instead of a lowly stable. I would leave the baby in the manger, I wouldn't take the rest of the trip to the Cross. I would make sure that getting gifts was more important than the greatest gift given to man. I would encourage buying instead of reminding people that one came to buy them back and redeem them from sin. That's what I would do, if I wanted to subvert the true message of the season." Michael Catt
Jesus Christ and His Incarnation
"To give thanks sincerely, one must give more than thanks." - Anonymous
"Thankfulness grows best in the seed-bed of conviction, just as some plants must be placed in the soil in the winter if they are to flower in the summer." - Sinclair Ferguson
"Don't complain because you don't get what you want; be grateful that you don't get what you truly deserve." -Michael Catt
"There is nothing quite so stirring in the matter of moving us to pray as being thankful to God for what he has done for us and with us." - E. F. Hallock
"So much has been given to me, I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied." -Helen Keller
"The Essence of Christian ethics is gratitude" - R. C. Sproul
"The devil moves in when a Christian starts to complain, but thanksgiving in the Spirit defeats the devil and glorifies the Lord." - Warren Wiersbe
"Thank and think also come from the same root. If we would think more, we would thank more." - Warren Wiersbe
"Most people are about as thankful as they make up their minds to be." - Michael Catt
"If you can't be thankful for what you receive, be thankful for what you escape." - Anonymous
"Look up on high, and thank the God of all." - Geoffrey Chaucer
"Thank God when he oppresses you, and again when he releases you." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Greek word used for 'thanks' is eucharistia. It is reflected in our word 'eucharist.' The word focuses on giving thanks for the death of Christ. Actually, the root word in the Greek is chair or char, which means 'joy.' Therefore 'thanks' is expressing joy because of a person, event or thing. Originally the word meant a thankful attitude. Later it came to mean the expression of thanks. It was commonly found in ancient inscriptions to pagan deities.
In the Septuagint Greek Old Testament the word had two basic references. First, it was used as an expression of thanks to God. Second, it spoke of someone giving thanks to someone else. The words, eucharistia (thanks) and eucharisto (to give thanks) appear 36 times in the epistles of Paul and 13 times in the Gospels. In the Gospels thanks is usually directed to God. A profound truth is hidden in this word 'thanksgiving.' In the Scriptures thanks is seldom given from one person to another person. Usually one person gives thanks to God for another person. Thus the glory and the thanks are due mainly to God, not the other people.
Edited from 'New Testament Words in Today's Language' Wayne A. Detzler, Victor Books, 1986.
Thanksgiving
We do not question that holy men moved by the Holy Spirit have foretold things that were to come to pass, which could not have been foreseen by the natural wisdom of men. But too much of importance has been attached to the purely predictive element of prophecy. Looking for fulfillment of prophecy in particular historical events, we do not see revelations of the character of our holy God, and his relation to a race of lost men. We do not read the lesson that we are the creatures of his all-wise and gracious purpose, the objects of his redeeming love and providential care. – Wilbur O. Allen in The Book of Revelation: A Christian Philosophy
Anybody can tell it like it is. What is vastly more difficult is to tell it like it should be. – anonymous
Our calling is to be biblically discerning and historically specific without being historically captive. – Wes Michaelson, Sojourners, October 1979
It’s hard to be prophetic when nobody’s listening. – Harold Dean Trulear, Missing Connections
Paul is like a musician who does not need the approval of the audience if he can catch the look of approval from his Master. – Oswald Chambers, Utmost For His Highest
In biblical days prophets were astir while the world was asleep; today the world is astir while church and synagogue are busy with trivialities. – Abraham Joshua Heschel, theologian, poet, mystic, social reformer, author, in The Insecurity of Freedom
Prophecy
Our priority as a church has been established by the Lord in the Word of God. I suppose there is no more difficult assignment that we have than keeping ourselves and the church on the main priority and not getting sidetracked. We do not get sidetracked by vicious or evil things but get sidetracked by good things that are secondary things. The devil is so insidious and cunning. He is forever throwing the switch and seeking to get the train off the main line. You can measure yourself. Just ask yourself these questions: Am I involved in the business of telling lost people about Jesus and seeking to reach lost people and getting them to attend church? How about my Sunday School Class? Is this the main job of my Sunday School Class or have we gotten sidetracked? We can get so concerned about people’s physical problems that we totally lose sight of the priority that God has given us to perform. May I encourage you to do an analysis study on yourself and your class this week? If you or your class has gotten off track, let’s get back on the main line! – Dr. Michael T. Hailey, Pastor
Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing. It is filling our time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God’s actions. It is taking charge. – Eugene H. Peterson, interviewed in The Door (Nov./Dec. 1991)
Three of the most difficult things to do in life are to keep a secret, forget an injury, and make good use of leisure time. – anonymous
Whole-life stewardship means putting the purposes of God at the very center of our lives and families…instead of giving preeminence to the American dream and then trying to work in the religious stuff around the edges. – Tom Sine, author of The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, quoted in the Everett Herald, December 30, 1989
Sin arises when things that are a minor good are pursued as though they were the most important goals in life. If money or affection or power are sought in disproportionate, obsessive ways, then sin occurs. And that sin is magnified when, for these lesser goals, we fail to pursue the highest good and the finest goals. So when we ask ourselves why, in a given situation, we committed a sin, the answer is usually one of two things. Either we wanted to obtain something we didn’t have, ore we feared losing something we had. – Augustine in The Confessions of St. Augustine (Christine Classics in Modern English)
Life is a one way street. No matter how many detours you take, none of them lead back. And once you know and accept that, life becomes much simpler. Because you know you must do the best you can with what you have and what you are and what you have become. – Isabel Moore
If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening the ax. – Abraham Lincoln
Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things. – C.S. Lewis, quoted in Student Leadership Journal, Fall 1996, pg. 34
Priorities
Pride is a vice that ill suits those that would lead others in a humble way to heaven. Let us take heed, lest when we have brought others so far, the gates should prove too narrow for ourselves. For God, who thrusts out a proud angel, will not tolerate a proud preacher, either. For it is pride that is at the root of all other sins: envy, contention, discontent, and all hindrances that would prevent renewal. Where there is pride, all want to lead and none want to follow or to agree. – Richard Baxter in The Reformed Pastor
Pride cannot coexist with ministry. They are contradictory, so one must die. – Apologist Ravi Zacharias
Arrogant people never see the truth or hear the truth. – Rick Hughes
Pride prompts us to forget God’s victories. – anonymous
Today I readjusted my halo. It’s not strangling me any more. – Barb Kuzmyak
How to dislocate your shoulder: Pat yourself on the back. – anonymous
There is the pride of being “radical” or the pride of being “realistic.”
There is the pride of being able to “spot a sinner” or the pride of being able to “notice the hurting.”
There is the pride of doing “only what I want to do” or the pride of ding “whatever needs doing.”
There is the pride at being “unbiased” or the pride at being “loyal.”
There is the pride of being “perfectly honest” or the pride of being able to “get along with people.”
There is the pride at being “on top of an issue” or the pride of having an “open mind.”
There is the pride at all one has “acquired” or the pride over all one has “sacrificed.”
There is the pride over “how great our church is” or the pride of “knowing exactly what’s going wrong.”
There is the pride of being a “victorious Christian” or the pride of being one who “struggles with God.”
There is the pride that says “I can stand tall” or the pride that says “I’m willing to get on my knees.”
There is the pride that says “our church is growing” or the pride that says “we’re staying faithful.”
Pride comes in many forms but has only one end: destruction. – Dick RasanenGod made us, and God is able to empower us to do whatever He calls us to do. Denying that we can accomplish God’s work is not humility; it is the worst kind of pride! – Warren Wiersbe
A worldly spirit loves to talk a lot but do nothing, striving for the exterior signs of holiness that people can see, with no desire for true piety and interior holiness of spirit. It was about people like this that our Lord said, “Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.” (Matthew 6:2) – Saint Francis of Assisi in The Wisdom of Saint Francis
Pride
(the following quotes from Christianity Today, February 2004, pg. 73)
"In the daily round of life, dust and cobwebs accumulate in our souls. The hidden corners of our hearts become encrusted with grime or filled with forgotten debris. During the weeks of Lent, God's Spirit is given opportunity to clear away the clutter, sweep away the dust and wash us clean. We are invited to prepare ourselves heart, soul, mind and body for the new life of Easter." - Marlene Kropf in The Mennonite
"Within the church at least, Lent's like Christmas: it's been overcommercialized. The 'giving up' part is so dominant that what other meaning was there is eclipsed, hidden." - Nora Gallagher, Things Seen and Unseen
"I gave up coffee creamer for Lent one year. By the end of the tenth day, I began to love black coffee. That's the year I learned that it isn't giving up things that counts. Me? I became aware that only internal change really counts." - Joan Chittister, Listen with the Heart
"I am convinced that 99 percent of us are addicted to something, whether it is eating, shopping, blaming, or taking care of other people. The simplest definition of an addiction is anything we use to fill the empty place inside of us that belongs to God alone." - Barbara Brown Taylor, Home by Another Way
"Maybe Lent is a good time to stop doing and try being…Relinquishment lies at the heart of the Christian gospel and is a countercultural choice that hones our discipleship. If I let go of the assumption that my hard work will bring me all that I desire, I begin to look at the present moment, receive it with gratitude, and know what it asks of me. I learn when it is time to rest, time to plan, time to play, time to wait, time to act boldly." - Elizabeth J. Canham in Weavings
"They who are conscious of their own sins have no eyes for the sins of their neighbors." - Abbot Moses in The Wisdom of the Desert
"If you therefore go to the desert to be rid of all the dreadful people and all the awful problems in your life, you will be wasting your time. You should go to the desert for a total confrontation with yourself." - Alessandro Pronzato, Meditations on the Sand
"The season of Lent involves the telling of the same old story that invites us to become participants in the drama. If we choose to act in this great Passion Play we shall find ourselves called to be experiments in vulnerability. We will have set in motion a course of events totally beyond our control." - Alan Jones, Passion for Pilgrimage
Lent
"Obedience is the fruit of faith; patience, the bloom on the fruit." - Christina Rosetti, quoted in Streams in the Desert
"[Thomas More] was a friend of the king… but why did a man so utterly absorbed in his society, at one particular point disastrously part company with it? How indeed was it possible - unless there was some sudden aberration? But that explanation won't do, because he continued to the end to make familiar and confident use of society's weapons, tact, favor, and, above all, the letter of the law. For More.. the answer to this question would be perfectly simple (though again not easy); the English Kingdom, his immediate society, was subservient to the larger society of the Church of Christ, founded by Christ, extending over Past and Future, ruled from Heaven. There are still some for whom that is perfectly simple." - Robert Bolt in his preface to A Man for All Seasons
"It is our business to see that we do right; God will see that we come out right." - Donald Gray Barnhouse
"What I have found is that many of us know the Word of God, but we lack obedience to it. We go to church, hear sermon after sermon, but are educated way above the level of our obedience. We are not only to read God's Word, but we are to hide it in our hearts and become obedient to it." - John Maxwell
"Faith, if we are honest, sometimes seems like a candle in the rain, hissing for air…Right in the middle of our prayers; the baby cries, the thunder claps, the fury breaks…[But] the power of God comes to those who obey." - Bill Hybels in Descending into Greatness
"He did not call Abraham or any of us that we might be His pets, but that we might be His pattern." - Nelson Price, Pastor, Roswell Street Baptist Church, Marietta, Georgia
"When we have the feeling that on some occasion we have disobeyed God, it simply means that for a time we have ceased to desire obedience." - Simone Weil in Waiting for God
"He that hopes to find peace by trusting God must obey him." - Samuel Johnson in Sermons
"A truth not practiced is a truth not believed." - Source Unknown
"True knowledge of God is born out of obedience." - John Calvin
"It is difficult to follow God's guidance, if we are on rigid paths of our own." - Source Unknown
"When the heart's wrong, there can't be peace. Selfishness is a gangrene, eating at the very vitals. Sin is a cancer, poisoning the blood. Peace is the rhythm of our wills with Jesus' love - will. Disobedience breaks the music. Failure to keep in touch makes discord. The notes jar and grate. We have broken off. The peace can't get in. Jesus made peace by his blood. We get it only by keeping in full touch with him." - S. D. Gordon in The Bent-Knee Time
Obedience
"I suspect that the church's greatest contribution to marital stability and growth will come from living a conviction that flies in the face of American individualism. Understood properly, marriage is a creational good that is part of a wider cosmic drama of human fallenness and redemption. By living out hope in a community that breaks down barriers of age, class, sex, and ethnicity, the church can model a love ethic from which families can draw strength. The American idolatry of romantic love has disconnected couples from living communities of discipline and love - communities that marriages need." - Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen (quoted in Context, Nov. 1, 1997, page 6)
"What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you are, but how you deal with incompatibility." - George Levinger
"Bo Lozoff is the author of the book on marriage called 'This Is Not a Book on Relationships.' He explains his title: 'Marriage is a union, a single entity, while a relationship exists between two separate individuals. The great problem in our culture is that the idea of getting married and maintaining separate identities is considered a healthy view. Yet the only way marriage can really work is if we realize that the act of getting married fundamentally and forever changes us. We are one part of a committed couple. That's the reason we wear a ring, so that everywhere we go people can recognize at a glance that we are not representing only ourselves.'" - Utne Reader, November/December 1996
"Marriage is a union between male and female. If the state of Hawaii wishes to establish some kind of protected and socially favored status for members of the same sex who wish to covenant with one another in life-long unions, it may do so, but it cannot make such a union marriage, any more than it can declare all dogs to be cats or men to be women. Defining homosexual unions as marriage is not 'tolerance,' but delirium. One might plausibly argue that for the sake of social peace in an increasingly degenerate nation, provision can and should be made for those homosexuals who wish to create lifelong union with marriage-like rights and duties do so. What cannot plausibly be argued is that such a union is a marriage, whatever the state legislatures, the Supreme Courts, or anyone else says." - Harold O.J. Brown, in Religion and Society Report, April 1996, page 7
"Black's Law Dictionary (1968) states: 'In marriage a man and a woman mutually engage with each other to live their whole lives together in the state of union which ought to exist between a husband and wife.' - National Review, May 29, 1995
"Marriage is an act of will, divorce an act of won't." - Screenwriter Josh Greenfield (quoted in U.S. News & World Report, Jan. 13, 1997, page 16)
"Today, most people value marriage primarily for what they personally can gain from it…Americans value marriage primarily as a means to individual happiness. Their tendency to value it for any other reason has seen a substantial decline in recent years." - American Demographics, June 1992
"Marriage, as defined by Webster's Dictionary, has taken some interesting shifts over the years: Webster's, 1828: A civil and religious contract, instituted by God, binding a man and woman in marital fidelity until death. It is honorable and the bed undefiled (Hebrews 13). Webster's, 1975: The state of being married; wedlock; the institution whereby men and women are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence; the wedding ceremony and attendant ceremonies. Webster's, 1991: The following is added: 'An intimate living arrangement without legal sanction; a trial marriage. Any intimate association or union.'" - Eternal Perspectives Newsletter, February/March 1993
The Ten Commandments For Marriage by Dr. D. James Kennedy:
- Thou shalt have no other human being before your husband or wife.
- Thou shalt put nothing before your husband or wife.
- Thou shalt not belittle, criticize, or fault find, but rather encourage your spouse in all ways.
- Thou shalt remember His or Her Day to keep it special.
- Thou shalt give honor not only to your father and mother, but to those who become your father-in-law and mother-in-law.
- Thou shalt not destroy the spirit within your spouse.
- Thou shalt give your passions only to each other, not to another.
- Steal not from your husband or wife that which is their privilege to give and receive what is given with gratitude.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness to each other.
- Thou shalt not seek greener pastures, whether they be those things physical or material.
"A successful marriage is one that can go from crisis to crisis with a growth in commitment." - Phil Passon
"Love is an agreement on the part of two people to overestimate each other." - E. M. Cioran
"The real test of my loving is not that I feel loving, but the other person feels loved by me." - Morton T. Kelsey in Companions on the Inner Way
"Marriage is a lot like mowing the lawn. All too often we work on the easy stretches, avoiding those areas that take more time and require closer attention. The result? Overgrown patches that cause our marriages to lose their beauty." - Dan Seaborn (quoted in Wesleyan Advocate, Nov. 1996, page 17)
"Time magazine reported (1/22/95) that the earthquake in Kobe, Japan, occurred when two plates on a fault line fifteen miles offshore suddenly shifted against each other, violently lurching six to ten feet in opposite directions. The result was the worst Japanese earthquake since 1923. Thousands died. More than 46,000 buildings lay in ruins. One-fifth of the city's population was left instantly homeless. The destruction unleashed by those two tectonic plates depicts what happen when a Christian bonds unequally with a non-Christian. Two people committed to each other but going in different directions can only lead to trouble." - David Farnum, Rochester, N.Y.
"Marriage is no big thing - it is a bunch of little ones." - Anonymous
Marriage
"Advertising has altered humankind. We've gone from caveman and cavewoman to craveman and cravewoman. - Frank Tyger
"Imagine the globe's population reduced to a single village of 1,000. If that village was to accurately reflect the world's nationalities, then only 60 villagers would be American. The Americans would own 15 times more material possessions than any of their neighbors, and would enjoy an average life expectancy of 70 years as opposed to less than 40 years for the other villagers. And those same Americans would have 28 of the village's 53 telephones. "- Zondervan Press Syndicate, July 1995
"Prosperity has not been kind to the American family. It breeds short, shallow roots. Fragile anchors. It's not that prosperity and wealth are inherently evil. They aren't. But their presence constantly tempts us to believe we are secure without God and that money can be an adequate substitute for real family values. Dad's money can make up for Dad's absence. Things can replace time spent together. Cash can replace conviction. Wealth can pay for irresponsibility and buy mistakes. A big house can substitute for a sense of home." - Robert Lewis, Pastor, Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock, AR
"Any problem that can be solved with money isn't a problem. It's an expense." - Anonymous
"The essence of life today is not having - it is having to have." - David Hansen
"Most of us would be willing to pay as we go if we could just finish paying for where we've been." - Ann Landers
"The main emotion of the adult American who has had all the advantages of wealth, education, and culture is disappointment." - John Cheever
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." - Matthew 6:21
Materialism