"If ye seek a way to heaven, the way is in Him, or He is it... It is not a smooth and easy way, neither will your weather be fair and pleasant; but whosoever saw the invisible God makes no reckoning of losses or crosses." ~Samuel Rutherford
"There are no 'ifs' in God's world." ~Betsie ten Boom
"If the going is really easy, beware. You may be headed downhill."
"Hold everything in your fingers lightly... otherwise it hurts when God has to pry your fingers open, to make you let it go." ~ Corrie Ten Boom
"If you would understand Christ's words fully and taste them truly, you must strive to form your WHOLE LIFE after His example." ~ Thomas a Kempis
"There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." ~ Betsie ten Boom
"I have made two important discoveries: the first, I am a very great sinner. The second, Jesus Christ is an even greater Savior." ~ Isaac Newton
"Doing God's will is like dancing. When two people lead, nothing feels right. Once one notices that and lets the other lead, it's as if the two become one." ~Anonymous
"God can heal a broken heart, but He has to have all the pieces." ~Anonymous
"The remarkable thing about fearing God is that if you fear God, you fear nothing else; whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else." ~Oswald Chambers
"The call to follow Jesus is by definition a costly call—we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. Whereas we often seek comfort, security, wealth, greatness, and power, Jesus calls us to forsake all this and trust in Him as the only path to life and joy." ~Brad Konemann
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain
"All that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."
C.S. Lewis
"We're not wondering if God is going to do what's best for us-- we're wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." ~ C.S. Lewis
"You can never know that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have." ~Corrie ten Boom
"What grieves me is that I am constantly forgetting to recognize God's Hand in the little everyday trials of life, and instead of receiving them as from Him, find fault with the instruments by which He sends them." Elizabeth Prentiss
"There is no life so empty as a self centered life.
And... there is no life so centered as a self emptied life." ~Unknown
“If [the gospel] is dull, then what, in Heaven's name, is worthy to be called exciting? The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being a bore-- on the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe.” ~ Dorothy Sayers
"For He is worthy to have all that there is to be had in the heart that He has died to win." ~Lilias Trotter
"God may allow His servant to succeed when He has disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success and is cast down by failure is still a carnal man.”
A.W. Tozer
“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’”
Erma Bombeck
"If you don't read the newspaper, you are not informed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed." ~Mark Twain
"I've heard that Miss Eliza Bennet described as quite the beauty. What have you to say to that, Mr. Darcy?"
"I would as soon call her mother a wit."
~ Miss Bingley and Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
"Jesus' harshest words were for the moral guardians of His day-- the Pharisees. They wanted to dictate morality, too, but Jesus called them hypocrites and whitewashed tombs. It isn't our calling as Christians to write laws that force people to live moral lives. As much as our communities might need it, and as bad as things are, imposing our morality on others isn't the answer. It doesn't work. People may be forced to give up alcohol, but they are still going to hell. That's our calling-- to bring people to Christ-- not to force them to behave the way we want them to or to solve all their external problems." ~ Grandma Bebe, Though Waters Roar, by Lynn Austin
"I have lived a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall without His notice, is it probable that this empire will rise without His aid?" ~Benjamin Franklin
"Howsoever that may be, you are grievously to be pitied; in which opinion I am not only joined by Mrs. Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter, to whom I have related the affair. They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family? And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect, with augmented satisfaction, on a certain event of last November; for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace." Mr. Collins, referring to Lydia's elopement and his satisfaction in not marrying Elizabeth after all, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
"She's-- tolerable, I suppose. But she's not handsome enough to tempt ME. Bingley, I'm in no humor to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men." ~Mr. Darcy, to Mr. Bingley, about Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
"'Ladies,' she began, 'I'm well aware that the majority of you are, at this very moment, trapped in the confines of a whalebone corset. But you might be shocked to learn that, according to my research, your tightly laced corsets are responsible for more than fifty female ailments.' She proceeded to enumerate them, one by one, but my mind began to wander after 'heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, and lightheadedness.' The symptoms sounded suspiciously like a romance novel's description of love. Could it be that thousands of women had married their husbands in the mistaken belief that they were in love, when all along their corsets had been too tight? How disappointing to watch their love mysteriously vanish once their corsets were unlaced. I made up my mind that if I ever felt love's symptoms, I would loosen my corset immediately before accepting a proposal of marriage." ~Violet Hayes, A Proper Pursuit, by Lynn Austen (this makes me laugh so hard)
"The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. Whatever he may lose he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in One, and he has it purely, legitimately and forever." A.W. Tozer
"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." ~Mark Twain
"No one else holds or has held the place in the heart of the world which Jesus holds. Other gods have been as devoutly worshipped; no other man has been so devoutly loved."
--John Knox
“Where are the marks of the cross in your life? Are there any points that identify you with your Lord? Alas, too many Christians wear metals but bear no scars.” ~ Vance Havner
“Jesus now has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His cross.”
--Thomas a Kempis
"A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well." ~Unknown
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.--C.S. Lewis
I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him. –Napoleon
"If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. -Martin Luther King Jr
"Survival: when you're in deep trouble, say nothing, and try to look like you know what you're doing." ~Unknown
"You are LORD of creation and LORD of my life... we bow down, and we worship you LORD... You are King of creation and King of my life..." ~Twila Paris in her song "We Bow Down"
"Majesty! Majesty! Your grace has found me just as I am, empty-handed, but alive in your hands!" ~ Michael W. Smith in "Majesty"
"Sometimes He calms the storm, with a whispered, "Peace, be still," He can settle any sea, but it doesn't mean He will. Sometimes He holds us close-- and lets the winds and waves go wild. Sometimes He calms the storm-- and other times He calms His child." ~Song "Sometimes He Calms the Storm"
"Here is LOVE, vast as the ocean; lovingkindness as a flood-- where the Prince of Life, our Ransom, shed for us His precious blood. Who this love will not remember? Who can cease to sing His praise? He will never be forgotten, throughout Heaven's eternal days." ~Hymn "Here Is Love"
"I have a Maker; He formed my heart. Before even time began, my life was in His hands. He knows my name; He knows my every thought. He sees each tear that falls, and He hears me when I call." ~ Song "He Knows My Name"
"On the hillside you will be delivered; at the foot of the cross justified. And your spirit restored by the river that pours from our blessed Savior's side!" ~ Song "Beautiful, Scandalous Night"
He is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." ~Jim Elliot
"...And our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in You." ~St. Augustine, speaking to God
"I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it in a land filled with darkness then in a land flooded with light." ~John Keith Falconer
"If you please Him, it does not matter whom you displease, but if you displease Him, it does not matter whom you please." - Steve Lawson
"When I regarded God as a tyrant, I thought my sin a trifle, but when I knew Him to be my Father, then I mourned that I could ever have kicked against Him." ~C.H. Spurgeon
"Following Jesus is, first and foremost, not heroic!" ~John Piper
"These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own." ~G.K. Chesterton
"Christians do not love death. They love Christ. If He bids them come and die, they count it an honor to suffer and die for the sake of the name." ~John Piper
"All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and His Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world."
— John Piper
"We have money to use it in such a way that we show that money is not our god, but God is our God. That's why we have money. Money is given to us to use it in a way to show the world that money is not our treasure, but Christ is our treasure.” ~John Piper
"You may never have to face the decision of whether or not to die for your faith, but every day you face the decision of whether or not you will live for it" DC Talk
"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him, than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word darkness on the walls of his cell." -C.S. Lewis
