Part 1
"A man who is under the control of the Word gets quickly over
little disturbances; they are quite transient and accidental, and soon go off;
but if the mind is not under control of the Word, it is the other way. The
serenity is accidental; the malignity and unhappiness of the fleshly mind is
chronic. True liberty and happiness that will not grow old are only to be found
in connection with the things that are of God. They are a wellspring of
everlasting life, from which we are invited now to drink deeply" (RR).
*****
"Sometimes it's good to walk around and look at lots of
verse-bushes in the Scripture-garden" (Steven Cox).
*****
"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but
to turn it into glory" (William Barclay).
*****
"Rest is for the weak;
Ease for the self-lover;
Labor for the wise,
Who recognize the conditional nature of life in all its
ramifications"
(The Christadelphian, 1894).
*****
"It is a false theory that we have 'light within'; it is a
false theory that we have intrinsic memory of Divine things; it is a false
theory that knowledge once introduced into the mind is a permanent fixture
there; and any line of action based upon these assumptions is certain to lead
away from the path of life. Most men are more or less influenced by a false
theory of this sort, and the effect is seen in the neglect of Bible reading, the
neglect of meetings, the neglect of "the ordinances" as delivered by Paul at the
command of Christ; and the effects of this neglect is spiritual death"
(SC).
*****
"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do
not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those
because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then,
is not an act but a habit" (Aristotle).
*****
"True discipleship involves the whole man and its influence
should be
conspicuous in every department of daily living. The objective
is
conformity of the disciple's mind and will to the image of
Christ, so that finally, when the Lord comes again, the whole man, body, soul
and spirit may be changed and fashioned like unto him, immortal and
incorruptible. But now, while he tarries, the purpose is to create and develop
faithful and consecrated souls, upon whom he can depend, through whom he may
witness and by whom his cause is advanced in this world. The making of such
through all the varied ways of life is the genius of discipleship"
(DG).
*****
"First they laugh at you; then they fight you; and then you
win" (Mahatma Gandhi).
*****
"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud"
(Sophocles).
*****
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth. It is stupidity rather than courage to
refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you" (Arthur Conan
Doyle).
*****
"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you
will help them become what they are capable of becoming" (Johann Wolfgang Von
Goethe).
*****
"Humility is as scarce as an albino robin" (AWT).
*****
"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to
himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to
which may be true" (Nathaniel Hawthorne).
*****
Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He
constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on
farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the
land, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.
As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received
a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age,
approached the farmer.
"Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can
sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.
Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for
help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to
dusk and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.
Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore.
Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the
hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A
storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!"
The little old man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "Now,
sir, I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."
Enraged by the old man's response, the farmer was tempted to
fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To
his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with
tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the
doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.
Nothing could blow away.
The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, and he
returned to bed to also sleep while the wind blew.
Moral of the story: when you're prepared, you have nothing to
fear.
Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired
hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the
storm.
We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding
ourselves firmly in the Word of God. May you be well prepared.
*****
"A very thin veil of decency divides beautiful life from
detestable animalism. Bravely resolve in all things to be always on the right
side of the veil. In such a course, there is grace and honor and joy. In the
other, destruction and ruin yawn -- not a long way off."
*****
"I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above
the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we could
reach them. I now find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other. It
is not a question of growing taller, but of stooping down to get His best gifts"
(FB Meyer).
*****
"The embarrassments of the truth are very great in this age of
divine silence and human contradictions.
"It is a work of difficulty to encourage the good while
withstanding the encroachments of the evil. I suppose it is a training for the
work that waits the accepted friends of Christ in the day of his
appearing.
"I feel great pity for men who are doing the best they are
capable of in the midst of the reigning confusion, even if the line they pursue
may not be geometrically straight. We shall all stand in need of the divine
patience and magnanimity at the last" (RR).
*****
"Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the
light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth aside
the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place; that removeth the cover
of the well, that we may come by the water" (Myles Smith, Preface to KJV,
1611).
*****
What is the shortest chapter in the Bible? Psa 117.
What is the longest chapter in the Bible? Psa 119.
Which chapter is in the center of the Bible? Psa
118.
There are 594 chapters before Psa 118.
There are 594 chapters after Psa 118.
Add these numbers together and the total is 1188.
What is the center verse in the Bible? Psa 118:8.
Does this verse say something significant about God's perfect
will for
our lives? The next time someone says they would like to find
God's
perfect will for their lives, or that they want to be in the
center of His
will, just send them to the center of His Word!
"It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man"
(Psa 118:8).
*****
"The Bible is the daily bread for life and not a cake for a
special occasion."
*****
Some words to live by:
- The best way to get even is to forget.
- Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to
death.
- God wants spiritual fruit, not religious
nuts.
- Some folks wear their halos much too
tight.
- Some marriages are made in heaven, but
they ALL have to be maintained on earth.
- Unless
you can create the WHOLE universe in FIVE days, then perhaps giving "advice" to
God, isn't such a good idea!
- Sorrow looks back,
worry looks around, and faith looks up.
- Standing
in the middle of the road is dangerous. You will get knocked down by the traffic
from both ways.
- Words are windows to the heart.
- A skeptic is a person who, when he sees the
handwriting on the wall, claims it's a
forgery.
- It isn't difficult to make a mountain
out of a molehill -- just add a little dirt.
- A
successful marriage isn't finding the right person -- it is being the right
person.
- The mighty oak tree was once a little nut
that held its ground.
- The tongue must be heavy
indeed, because so few people can hold it.
- To
forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then discover the prisoner was
you.
- You have to wonder about humans -- they
think God is dead and Elvis is alive!
- You'll
notice that a turtle only makes progress when it sticks out its
neck.
- If the grass is greener on the other side
of the fence, you can bet the water bill is
higher.
*****
"Soundness of faith is good; it is indispensable; it is the
good foundation on which you may bring forth fruit that shall be unto eternal
life: but if, while possessing the stores of divine knowledge, you are destitute
of lively-working love of Christ -- if you are in bondage to the world -- if you
are ensnared by its vitiating pleasures -- held down and held back by its
business exigencies, deterred by its faithless anxieties from your duty to God,
as represented in His truth and His people -- if your substance is bestowed upon
temporal interests merely -- if you have so stewarded your affairs that you
cannot spare time for the assemblies convened in His honor, nor money for the
objects proposed in His service -- if fearfulness that your worldly affairs will
suffer damage keeps you from an open profession and advocacy of His truth, you
are in a perilous way however exact your knowledge may be, and had better begin
to consider whether you will be able to stand the exacting scrutiny of Him who,
in some sense, even in the present, requires that we forsake all and follow Him"
(RR).
*****
"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your
parrot to the town gossip" (Will Rogers).
*****
"Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his
neck out" (James Bryant Conant).
*****
"The circumstances amid which you live determine your
reputation. The truth you believe determines your character. Reputation is what
you are supposed to be; character is what you are. Reputation is the photograph;
character is the face. Reputation comes over one from without; character grows
up from within. Reputation is what you have when you come to a new community;
character is what you have when you go away. Your reputation is learned in an
hour; your character may not come to light for a year. Reputation is made in a
moment; character is built in a lifetime. Reputation grows like a mushroom;
character grows like the oak. A single newspaper report gives you your
reputation; a life of toil gives you your character. Reputation makes you rich
or makes you poor; character makes you happy or makes your miserable. Reputation
is what others say about you after you're gone; character is what the angels say
about you before the throne of God" (William H Davis).
*****
"In this one book are the two most interesting personalities
in the whole world -- God and yourself. The Bible is the story of God and man, a
love story in which you and I must write our own ending, our unfinished
autobiography of the creature and the Creator" (Fulton Oursler).
*****
"May the truth animate us. May communion with Christ cause the
fountains of compassion for those around us to gush forth. May men be gathered
to his arms of mercy. May his people be stirred up to pray, and watch, and
labor. May we humble ourselves, and stir up and exhort one another, and so much
the more as we see the day approaching" (John Thomas).
*****
"Behind 10,000 events stands God, the builder of history, the
maker of the ages. Eternity bounds the one side, eternity bounds the other side,
and time is in between -- Genesis-origins, Revelation-endings, and all the way
between God is working things out. You can go down into the minutest detail
everywhere and see that there is one great purpose moving through the ages, the
eternal design of the almighty God to redeem a wrecked and ruined world. The
Bible is one book, one history, one story, His story" (Author
unknown).
*****
"There are many fine things which you mean to do some day,
under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time
that is yours is the present" (Grenville Kleiser).
*****
"One never knows the meaning of what he may be doing for the
time. It may be a lane into a larger road that may lead you to a harbor that may
take you out into the ocean; or it may be a lane ending in a waste heap, though
lanes don't generally end there, if a man has eyes. Whether waste heap or the
ocean, you must take the steps before you. If God be your guide, you may go
ahead without fear: but He will not guide you if you don't go. Do not lie down,
for that is death. Do not go ahead with recklessness, for that is tempting God.
In modesty commit your way to Him, exercising your best judgement in the steps
you pick in the labyrinth; and if you don't get to the ocean, you will at all
events get to some wholesome highway where life will be tolerable during the
present evil" (RR, "My Days and My Ways" 79).
*****
A young and successful executive was traveling down a
neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for
kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw
something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed
into the Jag's side door!
He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot
where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car,
grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What
was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a
new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do
it?"
The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister... please, I'm
sorry but I didn't know what else to do," he pleaded. "I threw the brick because
no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin,
the youth pointed to a spot just around the parked car. "It's my brother," he
said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift
him up." Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please
help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for
me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly
swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into
the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh
scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be
okay..
"Thank you, and God bless you," the grateful child told the
stranger.
Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push
his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home
It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was
very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door.
He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:
"Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a
brick at you to get your attention!"
God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts.
Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a
brick at us.
It's our choice to listen or not.
*****
"Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we
should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over
grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No,
let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts,
real affections and enduring undertakings" (Andre Maurois).
*****
"Nodding the head does not row the boat" (Irish proverb).
*****
10 ideas for a great day...
- Today I will not strike back: If someone is rude, if someone is impatient,
if someone is unkind, I will not respond in a like manner.
- Today I will ask
God to bless my "enemy"... If I come across someone who treats me harshly or
unfairly, I will quietly ask God to bless that individual. I understand "enemy"
could be a family member, neighbor, co-worker or stranger.
- Today I will be
careful about what I say... I will carefully choose and guard my words being
certain that I do not spread gossip.
- Today I will go the extra mile... I
will find ways to help share the burden of another person.
- Today I will
forgive... I will forgive any hurts or injuries that come my way.
- Today I
will do something nice for someone, but I will do it in secret... I will reach
out anonymously and bless the life of another.
- Today I will treat others
the way I wish to be treated... I will practice the golden rule: "Do unto others
as I would have them do unto me" -- with EVERYONE I encounter.
- Today I will
raise the spirits of someone who is discouraged... My smile, my words, my
expression of support, can make the difference to someone who is wrestling with
life.
- Today I will nurture my body... I will eat only healthy foods. I will
thank God for my body.
- Today I will grow spiritually... I will spend more
time in prayer today. I will begin reading something spiritual or inspirational;
I will find a quiet place (at some point during this day) and listen to God's
voice.
*****
"If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the
credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the
Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will
go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its
instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may
overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity" (Daniel
Webster).
*****
"Where would you be if God took away all your Christian work?
Too often it is our Christian work that is worshiped and not God" (Oswald
Chambers).
*****
Success in marriage is more than finding the right person. it
is becoming the right person.
*****
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a
chance to get its pants on" (Winston Churchill).
*****
"Often the difference between a successful marriage and a
mediocre one consists of leaving about three of four things a day unsaid" (Ogden
Nash).
*****
"Do you want to enter what people call 'the higher life'? Then
go a step lower down" (Andrew Murray).
*****
"The ears of barley that bear the richest grain always hang
the lowest" (Anonymous).
*****
"They that know God will be humble, and they that know
themselves, cannot be proud" (John Flavel).
*****
"The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of
his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as
strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted
God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God
declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in
the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God,
everything. That is his motto" (AWT).
*****
"Shame is a great restraint upon sinners at first; but that
soon falls off: and when men have once lost their innocence, their modesty is
not likely to be long troublesome to them. For impudence comes on with vice, and
grows up with it. Lesser vices do not banish all shame and modesty; but great
and abominable crimes harden men's foreheads, and make them shameless. When men
have the heart to do a very bad thing, they seldom lack the face to carry it
out" (Tillotson).
*****
"God, teach me to be patient,
Teach me to go slow,
Teach me how to wait on You
When my way I do not know.
"Teach me sweet forbearance
When things do not go right,
So I remain unruffled
When others grow uptight.
"Teach me how to quiet
My racing, rising heart --
So I might hear the answer
You are trying to impart.
"Teach me to let go, dear God,
And pray undisturbed until
My heart is filled with inner peace
And I learn to know your will"
(Helen Steiner Rice).
*****
"And then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his
head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked
him. 'Hail, king of the Jews!' they said" (Mat 27:29).
"In making fun of the king of the Jews, they were
[unknowingly] mocking, not Christ, but their own Caesar, and every Caesar, king
or ruler than ever had been, or will be. They were making human power itself a
subject of scorn. Thenceforth, for all to see, thorns sprouted under every
golden crown, and underneath every royal robe there was stricken and smitten
flesh" (M Muggeridge).
"The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which
takes [worldly] success for its standard" (D Bonhoeffer).
From that time forward, every power and every pretension of
foolish mankind would be ludicrous alongside the one true crown, the crown of
thorns worn by Jesus. From that time forward, the only meaningful power would be
that which originated in his suffering.
*****
Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach
of God's grace.
Your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need
for God's grace.
So live, that when it comes time to die, all you have to do is
die.
(Maritta Terrell)
*****
You are what you repeatedly do.
First you make your habits, and then your habits make you. You
become a slave to your constantly repeated acts. What at first you choose, at
last compels. Your thoughts lead you to a purpose. Your purpose moves you to
take action. Your actions form your habits. Your habits determine your
character, and your character fixes your destiny. Your habits are either the
best of servants or the worst of masters. Once in motion, a pattern tends to
stay in motion.
*****
"Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never
mended well" (Benjamin Franklin).
*****
One man awake awakens another,
The second awakens his next door neighbor,
And three awake can rouse the town,
And turn the whole place upside down.
And many awake can raise such a fuss,
That it finally awakens the rest of us.
One man awake with dawn in his eyes...
Multiplies.
(Author unknown)
*****
I shall pass through this world but once.
Any good, therefore, that I can do,
Or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now.
Let me not defer it or neglect it,
For I shall not pass this way again.
*****
"A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We
may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but
it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will
determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behoves us to be careful
what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming" (Ralph Waldo
Emerson).
*****
"After several decades of working with people, listening to
them, teaching them and counseling them, I have made the
following observations:
- The joyful people are those who are generous and
kind; the miserable people are those who are selfish and
unforgiving.
- The problem solvers are those who
are powered by faith and optimism; the problem people are those whose lives are
drained by doubts and pessimism.
- The winners are
those who have learned to take full responsibility for their actions; the losers
are those who have a handy excuse for their
failures.
- Troubles come to pass; they do not come
to stay.
- Most of us are greater than we dare to
believe.
- The simplest person can see God's hand
in nature; the wisest person can see God's face in his fellow man" (William
Arthur Ward).
*****
"One small cloud can hide the sun. One small stone can wreck a
train. One small word may sometimes break the heart" (RR).
*****
"Anger, even when it punishes the faults of delinquents, ought
not to precede reason as its mistress, but attend as a handmaid at the back of
reason, to come to the front when bidden. For once it begins to take control of
the mind, it calls just [justice] what it does cruelly" (George William
Curtis).
*****
"A person will worship something, have no doubt about
that.
"We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark
recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations
and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character.
"Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for
what we are worshipping we are becoming" (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
*****
"Religious truth is captive in a small number of little
manuscripts which guard the common treasures, instead of expanding them. Let us
break the seal which binds these holy things; let us give wings to truth that it
may fly with the Word, no longer prepared at vast expense, but multiplied
everlastingly by a machine which never wearies, to every soul which enters life"
(Johann Gutenberg).
*****
"All the lessons of history in four sentences:
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad with
power.
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly
small.
The bee fertilizes the flower it robs.
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars" (Charles
Beard).
