"We have proved beyond any doubt that He means what He says - His grace is sufficient, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We pray that if any, anywhere, are fearing that the cost of discipleship is too great, that they may be given to glimpse that treasure in heaven promised to all who forsake. - Elisabeth Elliot, on behalf of the five widows of slain missionaries to Ecuador one year after their deaths"

"Jesus promised his disciples three things: that they would be entirely fearless, absurdly happy, and that they would get into trouble." - W. Russell Maltby

"Mieczyslaw Malinski writes: 'It's easiest to see the cross on Jesus' shoulders. It's a bit harder with our neighbor's cross. Most difficult of all is seeing our own cross.' And sometimes even more difficult is to see it on the shoulders of a congregation, especially our own congregation. Yet crossbearing is for the body of Christ, as well as the individual." - Katie Funk Wiebe in the Christian Leader (Feb. 1995)

"It is not up to you to complete the work, nor are you at liberty to give it up." - from the Pirke Avoth (2:18)

"The dogs of doubt never sleep long. Our peace is forever stalked by two predators. The first is our culture of convenience. We are the well-fed, the secure. We are lovers of the large plate and the broad sofa. Material abundance keeps us from seeking any other kind…Our love of convenience trains us to believe that we can have as much as we want, of whatever we want, whenever we want it…No matter what life gives us, we always want more…We are walking wanton. The second predator that stalks our peace is narcissism. Narcissists worship themselves. This self-love produces only those inner values that we ourselves can create…When our self-contrived image begins to crumble, we always crave a more solid foundation; for 'the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: 'The Lord knows those who are His'" (2 Tim. 2:19). - Calvin Miller in The Unchained Soul

Discipleship

"Life is this simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time. That is not just fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows Himself everywhere, in everything-in people and in things and in nature and in events. It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. It's impossible. The only thing is is that we don't see it." - Thomas Merton in a 1965 audiotape.

"To look up out at this kind creation and not believe in God is to me impossible. It just strengthens my faith." - Astronaut John Glenn

"Data collected by the Hubble telescope indicates that there is another galaxy racing toward our own Milky Way at 300,000 miles per hour. The devastating collision could occur a mere five billion years from now." - Newsweek Dec. 29, 1997, pg. 132.

"Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch it to be sure." - Jarger

"Darwinism demolished the literal interpretation of the biblical creation story. The theory of evolution is a well-established theory, not speculative and on the fringe of science. The consensus of science today is that the theory of evolution is a powerful theory indeed, extremely well-supported by evidence." - Kitty Ferguson (in The Fire in the Equations: Science, Religion, and the Search for God, Eerdmans, 1996, pg. 2)

"What if the rain be falling, and the wind blowing? What if we stand alone, or, more painful still, have some dear one beside us, sharing our outness? What even if the window be not shining, because of the curtains of good inscrutable drawn across it? Let us think to ourselves, or say to our friend, "God is; Jesus is not dead. Nothing can be going wrong, however it may look so to hearts unfinished in childness." - George MacDonald in Creation in Christ

"According to most philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it. According to Christianity, in making it, He set it free. God had written not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stagemanagers, who had since made a great mess of it." - G. K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy

"I think it says something that the only form of life that we have created so far is purely destructive. Talk about creating life in our own image." - Stephen W. Hawking telling a computer convention that computer viruses represent the only life form wholly created by humans.

"If God had done all he could have done he would still be doing it. But he set it aside, sanctified it and rested." - Anonymous

"The sun and its nine known planets constitute one small dot in 1 trillion such universes that make up what we call the Milky Way galaxy. That is not all. The Milky Way, measuring 100,000 light-years from edge to edge, is one of an estimated 1 billion such galaxies known to be in space. The 200-inch Mt. Palomar telescope, penetrating 2 billion light years into space, cannot find the outer limit of the galaxies. If the psalmist could look with the human eye into the heavens and understand their witness to the glory of God. All creation is an outstretched finger pointing toward God." - Robert Cowles in The Alliance Witness

"Criticism is easy; achievement is more difficult" - Winton Churchill in Churchill on Courage

"If one man calls you a donkey, pay him no mind. If two men call you a donkey, look for hoofprints. If three call you a donkey, get a saddle." - Unknown

"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." - John Wooden

"The secret of success is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the five guys who haven't made up their minds." - Casey Stengel, legendary baseball manager (1891-1975)

"It's not what they say about you; it's what they whisper." - Errol Flynn

"We will do nothing at all if we wait to be sure that no one will be able to find fault with what we do." - Cardinal Newman (quoted in Pulpit Digest, Mar/Apr 1997, pg. 50)

"A certain amount of discontent is inevitable. Not every infection calls for a massive dose of penicillin. At least two types of situations call for criticism to be confronted and refuted. One is if the criticism affects the health of the body. The other time I probably need to respond directly to criticism is - unfortunately - when I don't want to. Recent studies on self-esteem suggest that most issues involving our sense of worth revolve around approach/avoidance tendencies. That is, when we sense ourselves avoiding something out of fear, we interpret ourselves as wimping out, and our self-esteem drops proportionately." - John Ortbert

"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. "- Abraham Lincoln (quoted in Ministries Today, Nov/Dec 1995)

"Attackers within the church always lack historical perspective, thus repeating history's mistakes: The death of spiritual awakenings always takes place when leaders shoot at each other." - Anonymous

"If you want to avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing!" - Anonymous

"It is only at trees bearing good fruit that stones are thrown." - Anonymous

"The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism." - Anonymous

"He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help." - Abraham Lincoln

Creation