Quote Vault

These are quotes that I've collected since the late 80's. Sorry for the formatting issues when posted.  Each quote is given a summary title, and those titles are in alphabetical order. Hope it will be a blessing to someone...


Activism
“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” Unknown

Adversity
“Adversity introduces a man to himself.” Unknown

Affluence
“A society that pursues pleasure runs the risk of raising expectations even higher, so that true contentment always lies tantalizingly out of reach.”


“Affluence and overindulgence have made the modern industrialized West a difficult place to experience pleasure.” Paul Brand with Philip Yancey in an article on suffering

Ambition
“Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people- which is what I think it does mean- then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good. It isn’t wrong for an actor to want to act his part as well as it can possibly be acted, but the wish to have his name in bigger type than the other actors is a bad one.” C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock (1944)

American Mentality
“Make all you can, can all you get, and sit on top of the can.” Rick Warren  “and let it spoil.”J Scott Gunn


Angels
“Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”

Anxiety
“Anxiety is nothing… but repeatedly re-experiencing failure in advance. What a waste.” Seth Godin

Apologetics
“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians- when they are somber and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy

Application
A man pacing outside a church says, “Is the sermon done yet?” Answer- “It has been preached, but it hasn’t been done yet.”

Aspirations
“When I was a young man I believed I could reach the moon, but when I became a man I wouldn’t want to even if I could.”

Attitude
“Our attitudes determine our altitudes.” Rev. Jim Hord

“If your house is on fire, warm yourself by it.” Spanish proverb


“Two men looked out from prison bars; one saw mud, the other stars.”

“Some people are more talented than others. Some are more educationally privileged than others. But we all have the capacity to be great. Greatness comes with recognizing that your potential is limited only by how you choose, how you use your freedom, how resolute you are- in short, by your attitude. And we are all free to choose our attitude.” Peter Koestenbaum, interviewed by Polly Labarre in Fast Company

Avoidance
‎"The tendency to avoid pain and suffering is the primary basis of all human mental illness." -Dr. Scott Peck

Balance
"Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you’re keeping all of them in the air. But one day, you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls — family, health, ...friends, integrity — are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have beginnings of balance in your life."
— James Patterson, Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas

“A balanced person is a healthy person and a healthy person is a growing person.”

Beauty
“Beauty is as beauty does.” Old saying

Being
“What you do emerges from who you are. Being precedes doing.” Chuck Colson

Beliefs
"Believe His promises, obey His commands, do whatever He says. (You only really believe that which motivates to action. Until it changes our behavior we're just trafficking the truth.)" Dan Page

“The great Christian revolutions come not by discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there.” H. Richard Niebuhr

“Seek not to understand to believe but believe to understand.” St. Augustine

“Belief is something you will argue about. Conviction is something you will die for.”

Benediction
“And the God of grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To Him be the power for ever and ever, Amen.” 1 Peter 5: 10-11

“May the Lord disturb you and trouble you, May the Lord set an impossible task before you, And have you meet it. May the Lord give you strength to last, And then- but only then- may the Lord grant you peace.” (heard in India) presented by David Seamands at the 1992 Minister’s Conference at Asbury Theological Seminary

Ephesians 3: 14-21- a prayer for the Ephesians emphasizing God’s power and love of Christ

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” Number 6: 24-26

Blessing
“Do you find that your life, full of God’s blessing, keeps you from being full of God?” Ron Gifford when pastoring First Alliance Church, Lexington, KY

Brokenness
"Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is the glue." Eugene O'Neill

Budget
“A budget is a theological document. It indicates who or what we worship.”

Busyness
“The Desert Fathers (a protest against worldliness in the early church) spoke of busyness as “moral laziness.” Busyness can also be an addictive drug, which is why its victims are increasingly referred to as “workaholics.” Busyness can also be an addictive drug, which is why its victims are increasingly referred to as “workaholics.” Busyness acts to repress our inner fears and personal anxieties, as we scramble to achieve an enviable image to display to others. We become “outward” people, obsessed with how we appear, rather than “inward” people, reflecting on the meaning of our lives. James Houston in the Transforming Power of Prayer
Calling
"The place God calls you to, is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." Frederick Buechner

Capital Punishment
“We may kill if necessary, but we must not hate and enjoy hating. We may punish if necessary, but we must not enjoy it… Even while we kill and punish we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves- to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him; wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Carnal
In speaking of spiritual maturity… “A baby is a digestive apparatus with a loud noise on one end and no responsibility on the other.” C. Moses

Cause
“I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose!” Woodrow Wilson

Change
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.” Abraham Lincoln
"I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change." -- Jim Rohn

Challenge
"The purpose of Goliath was to draw out in public what God gave David in private." Rusty Bissell

Character
‎"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Kahlil Gibran

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

“The test of a man’s religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional times of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on. The worth of a man is revealed in his attitude when he is not before the footlights.” Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest , Oct. 12th

“If you tell me how you get your feelings of importance, I’ll tell you what you are.  That determines your character. That is the most significant thing about you.” Dale Carnegie

“The man is more than the message. The message is credible because the man is.” Dr. Ed Cole

“What you believe is the basis for conduct, character, and destiny.” Dr. Ed Cole

“It may be tough to live morally and tougher to stand up to immorality, but toughest of all is to live with the consequences of immorality.” Dr. Ed Cole

“Character is defined by a man’s sense of direction, the quality of a man’s choices, how a man handles his failures, how he responds to adversity and disappointment, responds to his enemies and critics, relates to the weak and the helpless, performs when on one is looking. “Bottom line: you know the depth of your character when you’re alone and your mother isn’t around.” “Character is defined by what a man dies for and how he does his dying.” When Men Think Private Thoughts by Gordon MacDonald

“Character is like a tree and reputation is like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” Abraham Lincoln


“Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of men; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another man, for as you are, you are.” Thomas Kempis The Imitation of Christ

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.” Thomas Paine

Choice
“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you into something a little different than it was before.” C. S. Lewis

Christian

“A mature Christian need not act from a sense of duty but a sense of desire, for the very action that pleases God pleases self as well.” Phillip Yancey

“A Christian is one who lives beyond his abilities and understanding.” Friend Raising by Betty Barnett

Christianity
Someone has said, “Christianity was a relationship for the early church fathers, then the movement reached Greece and became a philosophy, then to Rome where it became a religion, the on to Europe where it became a culture, then on to the U.S., where it became an enterprise.”

Christianity and Social Good
“[One looking at Christian activities would find that they had,] as a mere matter of historical fact, been the agent which preserved such secular civilization as survived the fall of the Roman Empire… he would find that this same religion has always been healing the sick and caring for the poor; that it has, more than any other, blessed marriage; and that arts and philosophy tend to flourish in its neighborhood.” C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock, “Some Thoughts”, p. 91

Church
“Beware when you take on the Church of God. Others have tried and have bitten the dust.” Desmond Tutu in a speech (April 1987)

“The church is the only cooperative society that exists for the benefits of non-members.” William Temple


“[Our call] is this: that in spite of all worldly opposition, God’s holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the state for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which the Bible and creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God.” Abraham Keyper

“The task of the people of God is, as far as possible in a sinful society, to reclaim the cosmos for God’s created purpose.” Carl F. Henry

“A great Commitment to the great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a Great Church.” Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Church

“I am my own church.” – respondent to Gallup poll on the church

“He cannot have God for his father who does not have the church for his mother.” Augustine


“The church is like Noah’s ark: The stench inside would be unbearable if it weren’t for the storm outside.” Chuck Colson, The Body, p. 73

“The church is against the world for the world.” Harford Declaration, 1975

“The holiest moment of the church service is the moment when God’s people- strengthened by preaching and the sacrament- go out of the church door into the world to be the Church. We don’t go to church; we are the church.” Ernest Southcott


Church Growth
“There is no single key to church health and church growth, there are many keys. The church is not called to do one thing; it is called to do many things. That’s why balance is important. I tell my staff that the ninth Beatitude is, “Blessed are the balanced; for they shall outlast everyone else.” Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life





Commissioned
“Invested with power, and the right to act.” Dr. David Stevens


Commitment
“You no more need a holiday from spiritual concentration than your heart needs a holiday from a beating.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, April 15th


"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life." - Anne Morriss (on a Starbucks cup)
Committee
“A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.” Sir Barnett Scott


Community
‎"You can't have community without trust, and you can't have trust without truth... But when truth is whatever each individual wants it to be, there's no common ground on which trust can be established. So trust disappears. And where trust disappears, genuine, healthy community will disappear." Tullian Tchividjian

“True community is the place where the person you least want to be with always lives.” Henri Nouwen

“Comparison leads to competition. Competition kills community.” Jim Dethmer

Complacency
“If I’ve got one fear, it’s not of falling into Hell, but falling into nothing.” John Wesley to his brother, Charles

Connecting
“There is power within the life of every Christian waiting to be released- a power that can lead to further and deeper change, a power that can help someone else join more intimately to the heart of Christ, the power to heal soul wounds. That power is released by connecting with the hearts and souls of other people and allowing God’s grace to flow freely through us to them.” Larry Crabb

Constructive Criticism
“I thank you for the criticism of my life. It set me to self-examination and heart-searching and prayer, which always leads me into a deeper sense of my utter dependence upon Jesus for holiness of heart and righteousness in conduct, and into sweeter fellowship with Him through faith in His name.” S. L. Brengle

“Now I am impressed by the fact that virtually all I have learned has come from the mouths of my critics: both those who care for me and those who feel animosity toward me. When we look for the kernel of truth , we find growth, effectiveness, and room for spiritual passion.” Restoring Your Spiritual Passion, Gordon MacDonald


Contentment
“Being happy with [God] now means: Loving as he loves, Helping as he helps, Giving as he gives, Serving as he serves, Rescuing as he rescues, Being with him twenty-four hours, Touching him in his distressing disguise.” Mother Teresa in Teachings of the Christian Mystics

Courage
“God grant me the courage to change the things I can change; the serenity to accept those I cannot change; the wisdom to know the difference- but God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it hopeless.” Adm. Chester W. Nimitz

"One of the lessons of 9/11 is that evil is real and so is courage." George W. Bush


Coveting
The essence of covetousness
“It is the attitude that says I need something I do not have in order to be happy.” Have no idea who said it.


Cross
“A cross is not pleasant. They nailed you up alive, and took you down dead.” Rev. Max Morgan

“Love and holiness met at the cross in harmony. There was no tension between the two.” Ron Gifford

“The only man-made thin in heaven are the scars of Jesus.” James Hord

“He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity. Heaven prepares good men with crosses.” Ben Johnson

“I am not afraid of my cross. I would not choose a polished, small one. How I carry my cross will depend upon the quality of my relationship with Christ. An extraordinary one is my desire. Why compromise for mediocrity when all of heaven and earth were brought together to make God personal to us? I cannot achieve this is a day or ten years. Or a lifetime. But it is a pursuit that must be continually active. No matter how many times I fail in my humanity.” Ann Kiemel , I Love the Word Impossible

Credibility
Credibility is a funny thing... you can't spend it anywhere other than where you earned it.

Criticism
"To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing." Aristotle


"Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots." Frank Howard Clark

Cynicism
“A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” Oscar Wilde

Dating
“Dating is a basketball game with no rules; everyone gets hurt.” Don Olson

Death
“I still live.” Irish tombstone epitaph

“God never lets us get so comfortable here that we forget where our home is.” C.S. Lewis

“[Some say] that death ought not to be final, that there ought to be a second chance. I believe that if a million chances were likely to do good, they would be given. But a master often knows, when boys and parents do not, that it is really useless to send a boy in for a certain examination again. Finality must come sometime, and it does not require a very robust faith to believe that omniscience knows when.” C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

"Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker
will be sorry.”
— Mark Twain


Defeat
“I am grateful for defeat. It is life. Life is where people live.” Ann Kiemel Anderson

Democracy
“The real reason for democracy is… Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.” C. S. Lewis, Present Concerns: Essays by C. S. Lewis, “Equality”


Desire
“We are disgusted by the things that we desire, and we desire what disgusts us.” New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in a speech (Newseek, Oct. 24, 1994)

“The place for which He designs them (human beings) in His scheme of things is the place they are made for. When they reach it their nature is fulfilled and their happiness attained: a broken bone in the universe has been set, the anguish is over. When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be want what, in fact, will not make us happy.” C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Destiny
“Watch your thoughts they become words. Watch your words they become actions. Watch your actions they become habits. Watch your habits they become character. Watch your character it becomes your destiny.” -Patrick Overton


Development
“Development is something we do WITH the champion, not TO the champion.” Eric Foley

"You might properly say in your own case, 'To beg I am ashamed;' but never be ashamed to beg for the poor; yea, in this case, be an importunate beggar; do not easily take a denial." John Wesley
Direction
“Your Direction, not Your Intention, Determines Your Destination. There is often a tension between where we want to end up in life and the path we choose to get there. We fail to see that having good intentions is never good enough.” How to Get From Where You are to Where You Want to Be Andy Stanley

“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, we do not see the ones which open for us.” Alexander Graham Bell

Discipline
"In life you will either have the pain of discipline, or the pain of regret." Kevin Myers







 
"Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do something you don’t
necessarily want to do, to get a result you would really like to have.”- Andy Andrews

Doing
“Start by doing what is necessary. Do then what is possible. And suddenly you are doing the impossible.” - Francis of Assisi

“What you do emerges from who you are. Being precedes doing.” Chuck Colson


Doubt
 “The worst danger we face is the danger of being paralyzed by doubts and fears. This danger is brought on by those who abandon faith and sneer at hope. It is brought on by those who spread cynicism and distrust and try to blind us to our great chance to do good for all mankind.” Harry S. Truman

Dreams
"A good life isn't something you wait for, or chase after, try to possess; it's something you must create, moment by moment, on the foundation of your dreams. But first, you need to understand your dreams and embrace them." Bill Strickland

"A dream is about building something- relationships, identity, quality of experience. Because dreams rise out of genuine human needs, they feed the spirit in a profoundly satisfying way. A genuine dream brings direction, conviction, substance, and satisfaction to your life the moment you commit yourself to it." Bill Strickland

“A dream grasped too tightly may become an idol.” Not sure who said thisL

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” George Eliot

“I never knew how much it can hurt to see BIG dreams happen. When one scrapes the entrancing veneer front of dreams, the reality of odds and guts and demands and costs becomes awesome. Only a strong Christ in me can give me what it takes to become and do all He had in mind for me to swing with poise and steadiness with the pendulum of life.” Ann Kiemel Anderson

Easter
“Lord, I believe, but help thou my unbelief, because I still do not want to die. I believe Jesus has power to raise the dead, only I do not want him practicing on me. I want a God who will cut my losses and cushion my failures, a God who will grant me a life free from pain. I want a God who will rescue me from death, who will delete it from the human experience and find another way to operate.

What I, what all of us, have instead is a God who resurrects us from the dead, putting an end to it by working through it instead of around it- creating life in the midst of grief, creating love in the midst of loss, creating faith in the midst of despair- resurrecting us from our big and little deaths, showing us by his own example that the only road to Easter morning runs smack through Good Friday.” Barbara Brown Taylor in Christian Century (Mar 13, 1996)

Effectiveness
“There are only a few things worth doing in the first place! The secret of effectiveness is to know what really counts, then do what really counts, and not worry about all the rest.” Rick Warren The Purpose Driven Church


“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” Not sure who said this

Emmanuel
“Emmanuel. God with us. He who resided in Heaven, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, willingly descended into our world. He breathed our air, felt our pain, knew our sorrows, and died for our sins. He didn’t come to frighten us, but to show us the way to warmth and safety.” Charles Swindoll The Finishing Touch


Entertainment
“People who want to be amused have lost the art of living.” Holbrook Jackson in Platitudes in the Making


Eternal vs. Temporary
“If we work upon marble it will perish, If we work upon brass time will efface it, If we rear temples they will crumble into dust, But if we work upon mortal souls, If we imbue them with principles, With the just fear of God and the love of fellow man, We engrave on those tablets something which will brighten all eternity.” Daniel Webster


“A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.” D. Elton Trueblood

Ethics
“Ours is an age where ethics has become obsolete. It is superceded by science, deleted by philosophy and dismissed as emotive by psychology. It is drowned in compassion, evaporates into aesthetics and retreats before relativism. The usual moral distinctions between good and bad are simply drowned in a maudlin emotion in which we feel more sympathy for the murderer than for the murdered, and for the adulterer than for the betrayed, and in which we have actually begun to believe that the real guilty party, the one who somehow caused it all, is the victim, and not the perpetrator of the crime.” Robert Fitch, In Ravi Zach’s book, A Shattered Visage


Evangelism
“A person’s coming to Christ is like a chain with many links. There is the first link, middle link, and a last link. There are many influences and conversations that precede a person’s decision to convert to Christ. I know the joy of being the first link at times, a middle link usually, and occasionally the last link. God has not called me to only be the last link. He has called me to be faithful and to love all people.” Cliff Knechtle, Give Me an Answer


“You can’t talk to men about God, until you talk to God about men.”

Example
“The best way to show a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.” Ugandan Archbishop Janini Luwum when challenged about his “friendship” with tyrant Idi Amin; shortly afterward he was abducted and executed


“We are challenged on every hand to work untiringly to achieve excellence in our lifework. Not all men are called to specialized or professional jobs; even fewer rise to the heights of genius in the arts and sciences; many are called to be laborers in factories, fields, and streets. But no work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” Martin Luther King


Excellence
"No, those who turn good into great are motivated by a deep creative urge and inner compulsion for sheer unadulterated excellence for its own sake. Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity, in contrast, are motivated more by fear of being left behind." Jim Collins

Excess
“All excess is rooted in emptiness.” Beth Moore

Expectation
“Look at a man the way that he is, he only becomes worse. But look at him as if he were what he could be, and then he becomes what he should be.” Goethe

Experience
"The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there." (87, quoting Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer)

“What I like about experience is that it is such an honest thing. You may take any number of wrong turnings; but keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before the warning signs appear. You may have deceived yourself, but experience is not trying to deceive you. The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it.” C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

Failure
“Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”


“There is no failure except in no longer trying.” Elbert Hubbard


Faith
“The longer I live, the more I’m convinced that we are fashioned for faith, not fear and worry. To live in fear is to live against the reality of our creation.” Pete Wilson

"Faith does not grow in the house of certainty." ~Wm. Paul Young

“Faith can move any mountain, no doubt, but don’t be surprised if God hands you a shovel.”

“Sometimes faith seems like a denial of reality, but that’s because we’re holding on to a reality that is more real than the reality we can perceive with our five senses.” Mark Batterson, p. 36, The Circle Maker

“Faith is confidence in the integrity of the one who said jump.”

“She hath done what she couldn’t.” a laymen quoted this inscription on a tombstone

“When we are completely surrendered to God we can do what we can’t- we find ourselves miracles to ourselves.” E. Stanley Jones Abundant Living, p. 107

“Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict.” Oswald Chambers, Aug. 29

“Christ doesn’t expect us to produce more than we can, but He does expect us to produce all that we can by His power within us. That is a lot more than most of us think is possible. We expect too little from God, and we attempt too little for Him. If you are not taking any risks in your ministry, then it is not requiring that you have faith. And if your ministry doesn’t require any faith, then you are being unfaithful.” Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church


“Remember it is the very time for faith to work when sight ceases. The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith; as long as there remain certain natural prospects, faith does not get on even as easily as where natural prospects fail.” George Mueller, quoted in Streams in the Desert

“Faith in God will not get for you everything you may want, but it will get for you what God wants you to have. The unbeliever does not need what he wants: the Christian should only want what he needs. Vance Havner in By the Still Waters

“God’s people have found that the most precious fruit often grows in the midst of overwhelming difficultie. Faith grows best on cloudy days.” Jim Cymbala, Fresh Faith

“Faith is not the way around pain, it is the way through pain. Faith doesn’t get rid of the opposition, it invites it over for dinner. Faith doesn’t get rid of the opposition, it invites it over for dinner. Faith doesn’t give you the winning point at the last second, it ties the game and sends you into overtime. Faith doesn’t give you the solution, it forces you to find it. Faith doesn’t teach you at the moment, it teaches in retrospect. Faith doesn’t provide a net to fall into when your fingers are about to give way as you hang suspended over the cliff, faith gives your fingers the strength to hang on just a little longer. In other words, faith doesn’t do anything when it’s doing something.” Mike Yaconelli in “The Door”

"God has put enough into this world to make faith in Him a most reasonable thing. He has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason alone...a combination of faith and reason are the components to every act of commitment we ultimately make in life." - Ravi Zacharias

Family
"Reprioritizing your world around your family is not just a good idea.  It is a God idea."  Gary Thomas

"Nowhere in Scripture are you commanded to lay down your life for your stock options.  Or to love your career like Christ loved the church.  We are instructed to do our jobs and love our families (see Colossians 3:23).  When you love your job and do your family, you've not only stepped outside the bounds of family life, you have stepped outside the will of God." (86) Gary Thomas

"On the marketplace side of the equation, you are expendable.  Even if you own your own company, you are expendable.  You know that.  At home, you play a unique role." (67) Andy Stanley Choosing to Cheat

Fear
"It is never safe to look into the future with eyes of fear." E.H. Harriman

“The worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but its fears.” Arthur Christopher Benson

“Half of our fears are baseless; the other half discreditable.” Christian Bovee

“If man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him a landlord to a ghost.” Lloyd C. Douglas

“He who is afraid of a thing gives it power over him.” Moorish Proverb

“Fear fades when facts are faced.” Frank Tyger

“There are four impelling motives that move men to action: Fear, Hope, Faith, and Love- these four, but the greatest of these is fear. Fear is first in order, first in force, first in fruit. Indeed, ‘fear is the beginning of wisdom.’ Scripture summarizes the chief cause of sin and crime: ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’” Quote from Prairie Overcomer

“The act of cowardice is all that matters; the emotion of fear is, in itself, no sin.” C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“He who loves God with all his heart dreads neither death, torment, judgment, nor hell, for perfect love opens a sure passage to God.” Thomas ‘a Kempis The Imitation of Christ


“Our fears establish the limits of our life.” Erwin McManus


“The longer I live, the more I’m convinced that we are fashioned for faith, not fear and worry. To live in fear is to live against the reality of our creation.” Pete Wilson

 “The worst danger we face is the danger of being paralyzed by doubts and fears. This danger is brought on by those who abandon faith and sneer at hope. It is brought on by those who spread cynicism and distrust and try to blind us to our great chance to do good for all mankind.” Harry S. Truman

Feelings

“Feelings make excellent servants, but terrible masters.” Dallas Willard



Fear of God
“He who admits no fear of God is really a post-Christian man, for at the heart of Judaism and Christianity lies a holy dread.” Russell Kirk


“The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; he will not be visited with evil.” Proverbs 19: 23

“The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.” Oswald Chambers in The Highest Good

Fellowship
“Fellowship is more than unconditional love that wraps its arms around someone who is hurting. It is also tough love that holds one fast to the truth and the pursuit of righteousness.” Chuck Colson, The Body

“True Fellowship out of love for one another demands accountability.” Chuck Colson, The Body

Finances
“If your income is less than your outgo, your upkeep will be your downfall.” – Unknown

“One day living beyond your means means two days living beneath your means in order to get out of debt.”- Unknown

“He who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” Proverbs 13:11


Fire of God
“Destitute of the fire of God, nothing else counts, possessing the fire, nothing else matters.” Samuel Chadwick

Flexiblilty
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape.

Forgiveness
“God has promised us forgiveness, but He has not promised us a tomorrow to forgive us.” David Seamonds (pretty sure this was shared in one of his sermons)

Freedom/Determism
“What we do determines God’s foreknowledge, not vice versa.” Jerry Walls (Causal Connection)


“Most, I fancy, have discovered that to be born is to be exposed to delights and miseries greater than imagination could have anticipated; that the choice of ways at any cross-road may be more important than we think; and that short cuts may lead to very nasty places.” C. S. Lewis, Essay- “The Vision of John Bunyan”


“God has made it a rule for Himself that He won’t alter people’s character by force. He can and will alter them- but only if the people will let Him…. He would rather have a world of free beings, with all its risks, than a world of people who did right like machines because they couldn’t do anything else. The more we succeed in imagining what a world of perfect automatic beings would be like, the more, I think, we shall see His wisdom.”  C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock


Friendship
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.
George Washington

“A man never gets so rich he can afford to lose a friend.” – Unkown

“It is not distance that separates us, it is silence.”- Unknown

“The simplicity of friendship is this: that I know you are there that somewhere on this crowded planet you and I stand together, if only in a moment of thought. And for those moments and what they bring to me, the world is less empty.” From Betty Barnett, Friendraising

“Friendship is a place where we go to grow- where it is safe to sprout wings, and shed old skins, and try our voices in new, uncertain notes.” Betty Barnett

“You can always tell a real friend: when you’ve made a fool of yourself, he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.” Laurence J. Potter


“A valuable friend is one who’ll tell you what you should be told, even if it offends you.” Frank A. Clark

“Friendship is a place to hide in-not to escape the world, but to face it well.” Betty Barnett, Friendraising

Fundraising
“Blessed are the money raisers, for in heaven they shall stand at the right hand of the martyrs.” J. R. Mott

“Our task is to challenge people with the opportunity to have significance in their lives by giving their resources to God.” Russ Reid

“God is at work in the hearts of givers, convincing them that they should invest in the most important cause in all the world. You will never make enemies or alienate anyone by asking them to give.” Steve Rentz

“Since fund-raising (development) for the Christian organization is the program through which people are challenged and helped to become good stewards and through which funds are raised for the support of the Lord’s work, it is biblical and spiritual ministry.” Bob Fraley


“Fundraising is not simply asking for money; rather, fund raising is matching together ministries and people with similar goals and interests.” Dr. Roger Parrot


Future
“The future is never where the world thinks it is. After the resurrection, Jesus didn’t make any house visits to Herod, Caiaphas, or Pilot.” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw


“You’ve got a future, but the future isn’t in you, it is in Him.” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw

“You must learn, you must let God teach you, that the only way to get rid of your past is to make a future out of it. God will waste nothing.” Phillips Brooks, quoted in Heirlooms

Futility
“A cheerful old bear at the zoo, He never lacked nothing to do. When it bored him, you know, to walk to and fro, He reversed it and walked fro and to.”

Giving
"The miracle is this: the more we share, the more we have." -- Leonard Nimoy

"Nothing you have not given away will ever really be yours." C.S.Lewis


“Giving is not God’s way of raising money; it is God’s way of raising people into the likeness of His Son.” Author unknown


“Delinquency in the stewardship of giving has become the overlooked or neglected delinquency- the sin we are afraid to mention.” Bob Fraley (See 2 Cor. 8:7)


“Not equal giving, but equal sacrifice.” – from a church’s building program


“The proper aim of giving to to put the recipient in a state where he no longer needs our gift.” C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves


“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill


“What is you give is yours. What you do not give is lost forever.” T-shirt
God


“By nature God is a self-revealer; he must make himself known. Yet God is a self-concealer as well.


‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God,’ Moses told the Israelites. We live dangling between the secret things, withheld perhaps for our own protection, and the revealed things. The God who satisfies our thirst is also the great Unknown, the one no one can look upon and live. Perhaps it takes God’s absence and presence both for us to remain ourselves, or even to survive.”


God-Image
"What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us." AW Tozer

God is Good
"God never undoes anything but evil, never does good to undo it again." - C.S. Lewis

God is your source. Everything else is just a resource. Never treat the resource like the source. Tony Evans

God’s Grace
“God’s hardness is softer than the kindness of man, and His compulsion is our liberation.” C. S. Lewis

God’s Love
“God loves us; not because we are loveable but because He is love, not because he needs to receive but because He delights to give.” C. S. Lewis

God’s Omnipresence
“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.” C. S. Lewis

God’s Will
“My history is written thru the choices I make.” Charlie Peacock
“You must violently resist the tides of the world. Violently give up all that holds you back from God. Violently turn your will over to God to do His will alone.” Francois Fenelon in The Seeking Heart

Good/Evil
“The world turns and changes, But one thing does not change. In all of my years, one thing does not, However you disguise it, this thing does not change: The perpetual struggle of good and evil.” T. S. Eliot

Gossip
“One who gossips with you will gossip of you” –unknown

Grace
“Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out the unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people…. We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that’s not the way we live. The good news of the Gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions.” David Seamands

“The slendor of a soul in grace is so seductive that it surpasses the beauty of all created things.” Thomas Acquinas

“I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else.” P. Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace

“I would far rather convey grace than explain it.” P. Yancey

“A gift that costs everything for the giver and nothing for the recipient.” P. Yancey

“Grace is unfair which is one of the hardest things about it. It is unreasonable to expect a woman to forgive the terrible things her father did to her just because he apologizes many years later, and totally unfair to ask that a mother overlook the many offenses her teenage son committed. Grace, however, is not about fairness.” P. Yancey

“God gives His gifts where He finds the vessel empty enough to receive them.” C. S. Lewis

“The moment of grace comes to us in the dynamics of any situation we walk into. It is an opportunity that God sews into the fabric of a routine situation. It is a chance to do something creative, something helpful, something healing, something that makes one unmarked spot in the world better off for our having been there. We catch it if we are people of discernment.” Lewis Smedes, A Pretty Good Person

Gratitude
“The river of gratitude often runs more deeply in less than ideal situations.” John Lee


‎"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." M. Beattie

Greatness
"The greatness of a person is not found in how they handle their responsibilities, but in how they handle their privileges." - Crawford Loritts

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice." Jim Collins

"Good is the enemy of great." Jim Collins


Guidance
"God guides us, despite our uncertainties and our vagueness, even through our failings and mistakes...He leads us step by step, from event to event. Only afterwards...do we experience the feeling of having been led without knowing it, the feeling that God has mysteriously guided us." ~ Paul Tournier

Happiness
"Happiness is a lousy goal and a wonderful fruit." Dr. John Townsend

"Some pursue happiness, others create it." – Unknown


“Those who seek happiness too intensely will have little of it.” Calvin Miller The Taste of Joy

Hurt
“Hurt nourished becomes bitterness; bitterness nourished becomes hatred; hatred nourished is the most debilitating aspect of a man’s ministry.” Sam Kamaleson, Minister’s Conference (2-4-92)

Healing
“The soul is healed by being with children.” Fyodor Dostoyevski

Heart
“We know the widest thing in the universe is not space; it is the potential capacity of the human heart. Being made in the image of God, it is capable of almost unlimited extension in all directions. And one of the world’s greatest tragedies is that we allow our hearts to shrink until there is room in them for little beside ourselves.” A. W. Tozer

“The only devils in the world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles ought to be fought.” Ghandi (from the movie)

Heaven
"The things of earth must be known to be loved, but the things of Heaven must be loved to be known."

“We are afraid that heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so. Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.” C. S. Lewis, Problem of Pain

Hell
“It’s not a question of God ‘sending’ us to Hell. In each of us there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud. The matter is serious: let us put ourselves in His hands at once- this very day, this hour.” C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock


Holiness
It is time for Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness.  Too often we say we are “defeated” by this or that sin.  No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient.  It might be well if we stopped using the terms “victory” and “defeat” to describe our progress in holiness.  Rather we should use the terms “obedience” and “disobedience.” Jerry Bridges


Holy Spirit
“If you hate dead end streets, you ought to love the Holy Spirit. Because He saves from dead end streets and meaninglessness.” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw

“Every time a Christian receives the Holy Spirit, God has another channel through which He can convert the world of sin.” Miss D. Willia Caffray

“If a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, his witness will not be optional or mandatory- it will be inevitable. Richard Halverson in Pentecostal Evangel

Humility
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but not thinking of yourself at all.” Unknown

“May the mind of Christ my Saviour, Live in me from day to day, By His love and power controlling All I do and say.


May His beauty rest upon me as I seek the lost to win, And may I forget the channel seeing only Him.” Katie Barclay Wilkinson, (1869-1928)


“Humility is facing the truth. It is useful to remind myself that the word itself comes from humus, earth, and in the end simply means that I allow myself to be earthed in the truth that lets God be God, and myself his creature. If I hold on to this it helps prevent me from putting myself at the centre, and instead allows me to put God and other people at the centre.” Esther de Waal in Living with Contradiction: Reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict

“The recognition of one’s own insignificance apart from the presence of Christ.” J. B. Philips


“Although truth is not always humility is always truth: the blunt acknowledgment that I owe my life, being, and salvation to Another. This fundamental act lies at the core of our response to grace.” B. Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

Honors
It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.
Mark Twain

Human Need
"If human beings need something vital bad enough, they may even destroy themselves trying to get it." (Dallas Willard)

Humanity
“To be a person is to have a story to tell.” Isak Dinesen

Humility
A Christmas candle is a lovely thing; It makes no noise at all, But softly gives itself away; While quite unselfish, it grows small.

Idealism
“The trouble with our ideals is that if we live up to all of them, we become impossible to live with.” Brennan Manning

Identity
“Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of men; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another man, for as you are, you are.” Thomas a’ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

“I become my own only when I gave myself to Another.” C. S. Lewis


“If you compare yourself with others, you may be bitter or vain, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” Max Ehrman

“If you try to find intimacy with another person before achieving a sense of identity on your own, all your relationships become an attempt to complete yourself.” Dr. Les Parrott

Idolatry

“Sin is not just bad things, but good things we make ultimate over God.” Timothy Keller


Imagination
“All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be.” C. S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

Impact
“You can gauge the size of a ship that has passed out of sight by the huge wake it leaves behind.” Unknown

“It’s what we do for Christ in the here and now that will make a difference in the then and there.” Max Lucado

Incarnation
We shouldn’t say, “Look what this world is coming to, but rather, “look Who has come to the world.” Unknown

“We are an expansion of the incarnation of God.” E. S. Jones


Information
“Information is not knowledge.” Albert Einstein


“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Herbert Simon

Initiative
“You’ll never see the other side of the ocean unless you lose sight of the seashore.” Unknown

Instinct
"When God wants to make sure we don't miss the point, He plants it in our instincts." (heard at the memorial service for David L. Mays, in a presentation by Rev. Eric Simpson)

Integrity
“Integrity is like the weather: everybody talks about it but nobody knows what to do about it.” Stephen L. Carter, Integrity


Interpretation
“Interpretation is equally as important as inspiration.” Rev. Max Morgan


Intention
“Your Direction, not Your Intention, Determines Your Destination. There is often a tension between where we want to end up in life and the path we choose to get there. We fail to see that having good intentions is never good enough.” How to Get From Where You are to Where You Want to Be Andy Stanley

Jesus
“As a baby, He rested in a different kind of cradle… as the Lord, He had a different way of ruling… as a King, He wore a different kind of crown.” On a Christmas card from Dave Nelson

Joy
"Happiness is untested delight. Joy is delight tested." Jack Hyles
"If you have no joy, there is a leak in your Christianity." Billy Sunday
"Joy, not grit, is the hallmark of holy obedience. We need to be lighthearted in what we do to avoid taking ourselves too seriously. It is cheerful revolt against self and pride." Richard Foster
"The very nature of joy makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting." C.S. Lewis

Judging
“When we put ourselves in the other person’s place, we’re less likely to want to put him in his place.” Farmer’s Digest

Kindness/Gentleness
“Seek out the gentleness within you that encourages people to feel comfortable around you.”


Knowledge
“There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge- that is curiosity. These are those who seek knowledge to be known by others- that is vanity. There are those who seek knowledge in order to serve- that is love.” Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

Leadership
"The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there." (87, quoting Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer)

“Truly great men leave you with a feeling you matter.” Dr. Merne Harris

“The three distinguishing characteristics of popular leaders who command a following are: uninhibited in life-style, fervent in spirit, and zealous of good works.” Ed Cole, On Becoming a Real Man

“Boys build castles, but by the time they are men they are building woodsheds.” David Thoreau

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Albert Einstein

Learning
"When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Never let lack of knowledge keep you from an endeavor… if so… then you will never learn. – Chris Bush

Legacy
"If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision is for ten years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people." - Chinese proverb

Life
“1. Reflect More 2. Risk More 3. Invest more in things that will live on” (Top responses offered by people over 90 years of age who were asked, “If you could do it all over again, would you do anything differently?)

Love
‎"When we ask SELF questions: Am I appreciated, getting all I deserve, content, fulfilled, understood, cared for, known? We are in no position to hear the God answers. And when we are in that territory long enough, it wars against our relationships, marriages, family, church, etc...it wars against love.


"For God so loved....He GAVE." Living your life asking the SELF questions...in essence makes your life unstable....

 ‎"Love always gives; self always takes." Tracy Fortenbery

"When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now." C.S. Lewis


Life
"Every short cut to security from life and responsibility will let you down, will leave you frustrated and unhappy. Life must be faced and conquered, not escaped." E. Stanley Jones


"Life isn't fair. And in the thick, swarming midst of life's unfairness, our options often narrow down to something so simple it seems cliche': Do the right thing. Have the right attitude." Mark Buchanan

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -Martin Luther King

"The virtue lies in the struggle not the prize." Lord Houghton

“Earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only we who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Life is about ‘defining moments’.” Louie Giglio

“Actually it seems to be that one can hardly say anything either bad enough or good enough about life.” C. S. Lewis

“Life is what happens to you when you’re making plans to do something else.”

“It’s a shallow life that doesn’t give a person a few scars.” Garrison Keilor

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny little matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Life is 10% how you make it, 90% how you take it.” Erving Berlin


“Life is 100% how you give it and 1000% of how God gives it back.” Howard P. Gifford


“Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced…. Even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.” John Keats (English Poet)

Limitations
“Handicaps can only disable us if we let them. This is true not only of physical challenges, but of emotional and intellectual ones as well. . . . I believe that real and lasting limitations are created in our minds, not our bodies.”  Roger Crawford

Listening
“Listen to me for a day- an hour!- a moment. Lest I expire in my terrible wilderness, my lonely silence! O God is there no one to listen? – Seneca (4 B.C.)

“We need to pay less attention to what people are trying to tell us, and more to what they tell us without trying.” Miguel de Unamuno

Living
“I was regretting the past and fearing  the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking. “My name is I am.” He paused. I waited. He continued, “When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I was. When you live in the future, with all its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I will be. When you live in the moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is I am.” Helen Mallicot’

"One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today." Anonymous


Love
"One's loves are always deeper than his reason; and reason is always in the employment of some love." P. Ramsey

“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” Amy Carmichael

“By loving the unloveable, you made me loveable.” St. Augustine

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

"Most men pray for power, the strength to do things. Few people pray for love, the quality to be someone." Robert Foster

“Love Himself dreamed you up.” Taylor Leonhardt


Materialism
“It’s not so much what you have that makes you materialistic, but how important it is to you.” Ron Gifford

“Material affluence in no respect lessens my need to rely on God. Actually, it increases it. I am in greater spiritual danger when I have plenty than when I have nothing. Hence the almost greater need of the wealthy to cry to God for mercy that they may not fail to trust him.” C. Stacey Woods in Some Ways of God


Mediocrity
"We're hoping to succeed; we're okay with failure. We just don't want to land in between."--David Chang


Ministry
“The Christian ministry is the worst of all trades, but the best of all professions.” John Newton


“Our office… subjects us to great burdens and labors, dangers and temptations, with little reward or gratitude from the world. But Christ himself will be our reward if we labor faithfully.” Martin Luther

“Every honest minister preaches from a reservoir of guilt and grace.” Gary Gulbranson

“Handling people need not be so difficult – all you need is inexhaustible patience, unfailing insight, unshakeable will, decisive judgment, infrangible physique, irrepressible spirits, plus unfeigned affection for all people- and an awful lot of experience.” Eric Webster

“The minister’s shortcomings simply cannot be concealed. Even the most trivial soon get known… However trifling their offenses, these little things seem so great to others, since everyone measures sin, not by the size of the offense, but by the standing of the sinner.” John Chrysostom
“Prayer, meditation, and temptation make the minister.” Martin Luther

Miracles
“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger people. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle.” Phillips Brooks in Quotes and Idea Starters

“The miracles in fact are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock

Mission
"To find your mission in life is to discover the intersection between your hearts deep gladness and the world's deep hunger." Friedrick Buechner

“Our mission is to share Christ and build believers.  Believers display four marks:
Worship – they worship God both corporately and privately.
Word – they live by God’s Word, understanding that it is the authority for all of life.
Work – they contribute to God’s work by using their gifts to serve the body, to give financially, and to relate experientially.
World – they impact the world by reaching out to their unchurched, lost friends, and becoming personally involved in world missions.”  (82-3) Aubrey Malphurs Strategic Disciple Making
Missions


“Jesus never said, ‘go for me,’ He says, ‘Follow me’.” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw


“The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen.” Oswald Chambers


“Certain it is that the reason there is so much shallow living, much talk, but little obedience, is that so few are prepared to be, like the pine on the hilltop, alone in the wind for God.” Amy Carmichael, God’s Missionary


“Someone has so fittingly characterized a missionary volunteers as: A Mind- through which Christ thinks. A Heart- through which Christ loves. A Voice- through which Christ speaks. A Hand- through which Christ helps.” George W. Peters, A Biblical Theology of Missions

“Our call is this: that in spite of all worldly opposition, God’s holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school, and in the state for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God.” Abraham Kuyper (scholarly Dutch pastor)

Missions Conference
"A mission's conference is a church in a Business Meeting deciding the fate of the heathen."
- Anonymous

Modeling
‎"If you are going to build me up you better be on higher ground" – Emerson

Modern Man
“Modern man has both feet firmly planted in mid-air.” Francis Schaffer

Money
“A man’s treatment of money- how he makes it and how he spends it – is the most decisive test of character.” Unknown

“One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
               
“If a person get his attitude about money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life.” Billy Graham


“One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can give and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Motivation
"When I rediscovered my why, I found my way." Michael Hyatt

Naturalism
“A man said to the Universe, ‘Sir, I exist!’ ‘Nevertheless’, replied the Universe, ‘that fact has not created in me the slightest feeling of obligation.’” Stephen Crane (a self-caused universe does not communicate morality, a silence underscored by Stephen Crane)

Obedience
"Obedience is the opener of eyes. We don't see in order to obey; we obey in order to see.". George MacDonald

What you decide to do will define who you are. -Chris Powell


“Everybody’s salvation begins in somebody else’s obedience.” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw, Avon Park Camp Meeting 1989

Occupation
“We are challenged on every hand to work untiringly to achieve excellence in our lifework. Not all men are called to specialized or professional jobs; even fewer rise to the heights of genius in the arts and sciences; many are called to be laborers in factories, fields, and streets. But no work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Oneliners
Saul: “Come on out, David, and see if you can fight like a man.” David: “Wait until I get a little boulder.”

Upset boy to scolding mother: “Why don’t you ever talk about the dirt I track out?”

“Nobody ought to have any trouble meeting expenses- they are all around us.”

Opportunity
‎"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems." -Charles Swindoll

Originality
“Originality is simply a pair of fresh eyes.” T. H. Higginson

Pace
“Though I’m always in haste, I am never in a hurry because I never undertake more work than I can go through with calmness of spirit.” Gordon MacDonald, Restoring Your Spiritual Passion

“It is refreshing and salutary, to study the poise and quietness of Christ. His task and responsibility might well have driven a man out of his mind. But He was never in a hurry, never impressed by members, never a slave of the clock. He was acting, He said, as He observed God to act- never in a hurry.” Phillips, Your God is Too Small

Paradox
“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.”― Parker J. Palmer (consider other paradoxes- compassion/indignation,)


Parenting
"None of us can become such good parents that God feels obligated to save our children's souls. On the more encouraging end, non of us can mess up so badly that our children somehow extend beyond the reach of God's mercy." Gary Thomas in the book, Sacred Parenting

Passion
"Look for the things that inspire you, trouble you, make you feel most alive, and trust those things to shape your future. They will give you all your heart could ever wish for." Bill Strickland

“When I run I feel his pleasure.” Eric Liddell’s famous line from “Chariots of Fire”

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Gil Bailie

“We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.” A. W. Tozer

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart… pursue those.”  Unknown

Patience
“- giving the opportunity for God to work according to His timetable.” Unknown

Perspective
“To every disadvantage there is a corresponding advantage.” W. Clement Stone

“Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.” C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock

“Suffering for good is better than suffering for evil.” Ron Gifford

People
"Some people are like Slinkies...Not really good for anything, But they still bring a smile to your face.........When you push them down a flight of stairs....."

Persevering
Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting.
-- Christopher Morley


I am not concerned that you have fallen; I am concerned that you arise. -Abraham Lincoln

"If you're going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill


Perspective
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
Henry David Thoreau


"It's not the severity of an event that alters who you are, I think it is how you interpret it, that changes who you are." Tony Dematato, a probationary fireman on 9/11 at the scene

Persuasion
“1. Trust yourself 2. Trust your message 3. Trust your audience” Aristotle

Pilgrimage
It's a good thing we don't know where we are going on the way to where we are going --
Alyse Ogle

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part: just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is… to have fought well.” (the words were spelled out in lights at the 18th Olympics at Tokyo in 1964)


“It isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out—it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.” Unknown


Planning
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Unknown

“If you aim at nothing, you will usually hit it.”


Poems
A FATHER'S GIFT You get it from your Father, It is all he had to give. So it's yours to use and cherish as long as you shall live. If you lose the watch he gave you, It can always be replaced. But a black mark on your Name, Son, Can never be erased. It was clean the day you took it, A worthy Name to bear. When he got it from his Father, There was no dishonor there. So make sure you guard it wisely and When all is said and done. You'll be glad your Name is spotless when You give it to your Son.

It Couldn’t Be Done
“There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done. There are thousands to prophesy failure; there are thousands to point out to you one by one, the dangers that wait to assail you. But just buckle in with a bit of a grin, just take off your coat and go to it, just start to sing as you tack the thing that ‘cannot be done’ and you’ll do it.” Edgar A. Guest


My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me
I cannot see the colors He worketh steadily.
Oft times He weaveth sorrow and I in foolish pride
Not till the looms are silent and the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the Weaver's skillful hands
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

Power
"God doesn’t give us the power to anything or everything we want. Power comes from doing the thing HE wants." - Rick Warren

“So I say to you, seek God and discover Him and make Him a power in your life. Without Him all of our efforts turn to ashes and our sunrises into darkest nights. Without Him life is a meaningless drama with the decisive scenes missing. But with Him we are able to rise from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope. With Him we are able to rise from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy. St. Augustine was right- we were made for God and we will be restless until we find rest in Him.” Martin Luther King, The Words of Martin Luther King

“What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people that to love people, easier to own life than to love life. Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” We ask,
“Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your Kingdom?” (Matthew 20:21) … We have been tempted to replace love with power.” Henri Nouwen, Mornings with Henri J. M. Nouwen

“One moment of God’s action is worth an eternity of yours and mine.” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw

"Most men pray for power, the strength to do things. Few people pray for love, the quality to be someone." Robert Foster

Praise

“Praise is all right, as long as you don’t inhale.” Dr. Donald English- after he was introduced by David McKenna

Prayer
“A creeping death sweeps over the mission of many churches in our time because, quite simply, prayer meetings have ceased. And beneath the death of prayer, at a deeper level, lies the death of real belief…” Dale Bruner

"Prayer is the real work of the ministry. Service is just gathering in the results of prayer." (17, quoting S.D. Gordon)

“Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers.” Mark Batterson, p. 13, The Circle Maker


“Prayers are prophecies. They are the best predictors of your spiritual future. Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life.” Mark Batterson, p. 14 TCM

"... And until His sovereign will becomes your sanctified wish, your prayer life will be unplugged from its power supply." Mark Batterson , p. 14, The Circle Maker

“…raw dependence is the raw material out of which God performs His greatest miracles.” Mark Batterson, p. 15, TCM

“God does not answer vague prayers.” Korean pastor

“In the grand scheme of God’s story, there is a footnote behind every headline. The footnote is prayer. And if you focus on the footnotes, God will write the headlines. It’s your prayers that change the eternal plotline.” Mark Batterson, p. 32,33, TCM

“The hardest thing about praying hard is enduring unanswered prayers. If you don’t guard your heart, unresolved anger toward God can undermine faith. Sometimes your only option is to trust because it is the last card in your hand, but it’s the wild card. If you can trust God when the answer is no, you’re likely to give Him praise when the answer is yes.”

"You can't pray for open doors if your aren't willing to accept closed doors, because one leads to the other." Mark Batterson, p. 130, TCM

“Prayer is the inheritance we receive and the legacy we leave.” Mark Batterson, p. 134, TCM


“Prayer doesn’t just change circumstances; more important, it changes us. It doesn’t just alter external realities; it alters internal realities so that we see with spiritual eyes. It gives us peripheral vision. It corrects our nearsightedness. It enables us to see beyond our circumstances, beyond ourselves, beyond time.” Mark Batterson, p. 135, TCM

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.” Matthew 9: 38

“The key to the missionary problem is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer not work, that is not work as the word is popularly understood today because that may mean the evasion of concentration on God. The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilization or education or even evangelization. The key is prayer.” Oswald Chamber, My Utmost For His Highest Oct. 16th

“No man can do a great and enduring work for God who is not a man of prayer and no man can be a man of prayer who does not give much time to praying.” E. M. Bounds


“Satan dreads nothing but prayers. The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.” Samuel Chadwick

“Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the track. The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer.” Oswald Chambers

“We are not told that Jesus ever taught His disciples how to preach, but He taught them how to pray. He wanted them to have power with God; then He knew they would have power with man.” Dwight L. Moody, D. L. Moody’s Little Instruction Book

“On one occasion, when the field officer, harried by a multitude of duties, that left him but little time for sermon-making, asked Brengle this question, ‘If you had but ten minutes to prepare for a meeting, how would you spend it?’ he received a reply in two words: “In prayer!” – book about Samuel Logan Brengle


“Prayer… really is a silent surrender of everything to God because it is not quite clear to me how I should pray.” Soren Kierkegaard

“We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves; the Bible’s idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

“When a man is at his wits’ end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with Reality.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

“It is not so true that “prayer changes things” as that prayer changes me and I change things. “ Oswald Chamber, My Utmost For His Highest

“Your prayers move God to change the world. You may not understand the mystery of prayer. You don’t need to. But this much is clear: Actions begin when someone prays on earth. What an amazing thought.” Max Lucado

“We must be concerned with the person and character of God, not the promises. Through promises we learn what God has willed to us, we learn what we may claim as our heritage, we learn how we should pray. But faith itself must rest on the character of God.” A. W. Tozer


“This is the best I can do with unanswered prayer. The possible answers seem to be ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or ‘you have no idea what’s going on behind the curtain of your sensate reality, so you best make up your mind once and for all- I do love you. Will you trust me?” Andree Seu’s column in World Magazine

“The absence of prayer is testimony to your ability; the presence of prayer is testimony to God’s ability.” Dr. Ed Cole


“Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” Garth Brooks

“Trouble will drive you to prayer but prayer will drive away trouble.” Unknown


“God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” John Wesley

“The Cross stands for one thing only for us- a complete and entire and absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is nothing in which this identification is realized more than in prayer.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest


Prayers
“ A Prayer for Joy”
Help me, O God,
To listen to what it is that makes my heart glad
And to follow where it leads.
May joy, not guilt,
Your voice, not the voices of others,
Your will, not my willfulness,
Be the guides that lead me to my vocation.
Help me to unearth the passions of my heart
That lay buried in my youth.
And help me to go over that ground again and again
Until I can hold in my hands,
Hold and treasure, Your calling on my life.
-Ken Gire, Windows of the Soul

Preaching
“Preach the gospel all the time; if necessary use words.”

“Preaching must be the present voice of God to a particular people.” A. W. Tozer

“Every preacher who trims himself to suit everybody will soon whittle himself away.” J. Harold Smith

“Preaching is not the art of making a sermon and delivering it. Preaching is the art of making a preacher and delivering him.” Bishop Quayle

“If preaching should aim to magnify God, and if God is magnified when His people prefer Him over all the riches and pleasures of life (Luke 8: 14), then preaching must aim to expose the suicidal pleasures of sin and waken fullness of joy in God.” John Piper, God’s Passion For His Glory

Presence of God
"Is it possible for a leader to have encountered God so richly that no matter what we are working toward here on this earth, we know we already have what we most deeply want--the presence of God, that which can never be taken from us?" (215) Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership

Pride
“There is perhaps no one of natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it. Struggle with it. Stifle it. Mortify it as much as one pleases. It is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself… Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.” Unknown

“Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” Muhammed Ali “Superman don’t need no airplane either.” Stewardess

“O God of earth and altar, Bow down and hear our cry, Our earthly rulers falter, Our people drift and die, The walls of gold entomb us, The swords of scorn divide, Take not thy thunder from us, But take away our pride. G. K. Chesterton, from the poem “A Hymn,” in Prophet of Orthodoxy

Problems
The problem is not the people in your life. The problem is your response to the people in your life. Scott Luck

Productivity/Results
“The world really doesn’t want to hear about the labor pains, it just wants to see the baby.” From a letter by Bob Hudson

Profound
"Beware of posing as a profound person - God became a baby." Oswald Chambers

Progress
“If you always do what you always did, then you’ll always get what you always got.” Grandpa Killian


Promise
“to provide a basis of expectation.” Unknown


Prosperity
“Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on Earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old.” C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Provision
“God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supplies.” Hudson Taylor- early missionary to China

Purity
“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less.” C. S. Lewis

“God, I ask you to cleanse and purify our hearts and lives. Melt the dross; remove the impurities- all of it, whether in deed, word, or thought. Save us from ourselves, and establish us in righteousness by your strong hand. We ask humbly, depending on you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.” Jim Cymbala, prayer from Fresh Faith

Purpose
"A man who won't die for something, is not fit to live." Martin Luther King Jr.

Reality
“Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, not obvious, not what you expect… Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Reflection
“Reflection turns experience into insight.” AnonymousForget He sees the upper and I the underside.

Relationships
"If you are with another person, remind yourself that this is a moment that you'll never see again." Bill Strickland

“Relationships are like a book -- only a few seconds of carelessness to burn, but years to write.” - Author Unknown


Religion
“I didn’t got to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” C. S. Lewis

“If people are looking at religion as a product, then the church reckons it has to furnish a competitive product.” Chuck Colson, The Body

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

Resistance/ Routine
An easy, routine way of life which many associate with stability and security only gives man stagnation. Entrenched routine only spoils man and makes him simple and weak. On the other hand progressive strength, and to make man progressively wiser… Resistance makes a man think new thoughts he never thought before. It makes a man ask questions he never asked before. It makes a man seek answers he never sought before. It makes a man beg God for help that he never before realized he needed. These quests, quests of the heart and soul, eventually make a man deeper, wider, taller.” Unknown

Responsibility
“Trust in God; keep your powder dry.” Oliver Cromwell, during the Civil War

Rest
“Thou O God, hast made us for Thyself, and we are restless till we rest in Thee!” St. Augustine

Righteousness
“My great concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” Abraham Lincoln in reply to a deputation of Southerners

Risk
“It is only by risking our persons from one hour to the next that we live at all.” William James


Sacrifice
“We won’t ask them to do in symbol, what We can’t in reality.” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw on the Godhead talking  about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac

“We have plenty of people who have plenty of medals and no scars.” Warren Wiersbe

“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.” Elizabeth Elliott, on behalf of the five widows of slain missionaries to Ecuador one year after their deaths

“Self-preservation is the first law of nature; self-sacrifice the highest rule of grace.” Anonymous

“Very few people in our world are offering anything worth dying for. Most of the messages we receive are about how to make life easier. The call of Jesus goes the other direction  It’s about making our lives more difficult. It is going out of our way to be more generous and disciplined and loving and free. It is refusing to escape and become numb to and check out of this broken, fractured world. “ We want our friends to know up front that the costs are high.” Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

Sanctification
"Even sanctified people sin...but the difference is that in the life of a sanctified person sin becomes your permanent enemy and no longer your secret lover." Dr. Timothy Tennent

Secrecy
"Secrecy is one of the most profound theological statements we can make. It is acting on the belief that the reward of God matters more than the reward of man. It is trusting in the trustworthiness of God. If I don't believe that God sees the good I do when no one else notices-or if I resent that when others do notice it, God, not me, gets the glory-then I'll forever be fishing for compliments, finding subtle and not-so-subtle ways of getting applause, flaunting my so called wisdom, boasting about my self-styled heroism." Mark Buchanan

“The main audience, those who had most at stake in the outcome of Job’s life, were not Job’s friends, not Job’s family, not even Job. It was God and the devil. In the end, it matters not at all what others think about you and say about you. Your life is cosmic drama. The practice of secrecy is simply taking that seriously.” Mark Buchanan


Seeking
“There is no pursuit that is satisfying, except a pursuit of God.” Tom Kinnan

Self Actualization
“Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered- either by themselves or by others.” Mark Twain

Self-awareness
“It is equally dangerous to man to know God without knowing His own wretchedness, and to know his own wretchedness without knowing God.” Blaise Pascal in Pense’es

Self-control
“A man cannot govern a nation if he cannot govern a city; he cannot govern a city if he cannot govern a family; he cannot govern a family if he cannot govern himself; and he firmly cannot govern himself unless his passions are subject to reason.” Hugo Grotius, 17th century philosopher

Self-realization
“Whoever can weep over himself for one hour is greater than the one who is able to teach the whole world; whoever recognizes the depth of his own frailty is greater than the one who sees visions of angels of angels.” Isaac Ninevah

“Now with God’s help, I shall become myself.” Soren Kierkegaard


Service
“If you don’t like your lot in life, build a service station on it.” Unknown

“The measure of a man is not how many servants he has, but how many men he serves.” D. L. Moody

“Ministry and service is what He does Himself through you.” Stephen Manley

“Servant- is one who does anything they can do to make someone a success in God’s eyes.” Unknown

“Christian service isn’t measured by results we see from it or even by the example we communicate by it, but by what we become through it.” James Montgomery Boice

Sin
“No sin is small. No grain of sand is small in the mechanism of a watch.” Jeremy Taylor

“All sinful behavior is a wrong attempt at meeting basic needs. The essence of sin is man living independent of God who has said that He will meet all our needs as we live out life ‘in Christ’.” Neil T. Anderson

“The real issue here is are you going to get your needs met by the world the flesh and the devil, or are you going to allow God to meet all your needs ‘according His riches in Christ Jesus.” Neil T. Anderson, Victory Over Darkness

“You can’t love Christ and fail to grieve over sin.” Tom Kinnan

“Stalactites and stalagmites are formed by drops of water over a long period of time. The accumulation of them is what makes the structure. Sin can pile up in the same way.” Unknown


"Sin, whatever weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes away your relish for spiritual things; in short, if anything increases the authority and power of the flesh over the Spirit, then that to you becomes sin, however good it is in itself."  Susanna Wesley gave birth to nineteen children, including John and Charles Wesley. One day John asked her to define sin. The following is her definition of sin.

Single
“Unless and until we can live with ourselves, we cannot live with other people. But equally, unless and until we have learnt to live fully and creatively with others we cannot hope to live with ourselves.” Esther de Waal, Living with Contradiction: Reflections on the Rule of St. Benedict


Socialism
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; it's inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill


Sovereignty
"God guides us, despite our uncertainties and our vagueness, even through our failings and mistakes...He leads us step by step, from event to event. Only afterwards...do we experience the feeling of having been led without knowing it, the feeling that God has mysteriously guided us." ~ Paul Tournier


Spirit
..."Authority exercised with humility, and obedience accepted with delight are the very lines along which our spirits live." - C.S. Lewis

Spiritual Discipline
"A spiritual discipline is any real-life activity that leaves me more sensitive and receptive to the presence & power of God thru Christ." John Ortberg
Spiritual Gifts


“Spiritual gifts are not enjoyable toys for tots, but tools for the nature.” Fred Layman


“Just as important as knowing what gift God has given you is knowing which gifts He hasn’t given you. Many Christians try for years to function with gifts they never had in the first place, and this trying to hear something with your knee or throw a ball with your nose. Knees and noses are better off doing other things.” –C. Peter Wagner in Stop the World, I Want to Get On

Stability
“After a great storm you can see more clearly where there is solid ground.” Chinese Proverb

Strength
“The strength of a man is in his moral fiber. Strength is always proved by resistance.” Ed Cole, Strong Men in Tough Times

“God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.” C. S. Lewis

“If you’re in a struggle, struggles are proof that you’re not defeated yet.” Dr. Tom Hermiz

Success
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” - Bruce Lee


“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” Francis Chan

“Finding the will of God early in life, and living in it all of your life.” Dr. Jerry Fallwell

“You can always tell if you are on the road to success, it’s uphill all the way.” Paul Harvey

“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.” Joe Paterno

“The toughest thing about being a success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.”

“One important ingredient of success is a good, wide-awake, persistent, tireless enemy.” Frank B. Shutts

“When those who know you , love and respect you the most.” Unknown


“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill

Suffering
‎"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Kahlil Gibran

 “One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak. G. K. Chesterton in The Hammer of God

“We cannot be established except by suffering. It is of no use our hoping that we shall be well-rooted if no March winds have passed over us. The young oak cannot be expected to strike its roots so deep as the old one. Those old gnarlings on the roots, and those strange twistings of the branches, all tell of may storms that have swept over the aged tree. But they are also indicators of the depths into which the roots have dived.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “A New Benediction”

“Suffering is meant to add the grace notes to life.” Ron Gifford

“May you have strength to suffer and willingness to serve.” – written by David Livingstone to his son-in-law, John Moffat

“’Strength to suffer-‘  Is that not the thing the distressed world is waiting for us Christians to demonstrate? But isn’t that the thing our smug complacency refuses to face? Willis R. Hotchkiss, pioneer missionary to Kenya in 1895

“No matter the degree of our faith in God, or the extent of His love for us. We are still vulnerable to the hurts, pains, and suffering and disease that are part of the realities of life.” Dr. David Seamonds


There is no strictly philosophical answer in scripture to the mystery of unjust suffering. We live in an evil, fallen, broken, unjust world. The fact that God loves us and we love Him does not give us immunity from tragedies, sickness, hurts or pains. Dr. David Seamonds

God whispers to us in our pleasures… but shouts to us in our pains. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Christians are much like tea bags- they are no good until they go through hot water and have been squeezed.”

“Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.” C. H. Spurgeon, quoted in Streams in the Desert

“I’m celebrating- it’s 20 years today since I was in prison for proclaiming the Gospel.” A Chinese man who counted it a privilege to suffer

Surrender
“I am no longer my own, but Thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for Thee, exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee; let me be full, let  me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.” John Wesley

“Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it… I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“There are two kinds of people those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ andthose to whom God says,’All right, then, have it your way.” C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Talent
The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those who sang the best --
John James Audobon

The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent. We can make ourselves what we will. Strangely, that idea is not popular. People hate abandoning the notion that they would coast to fame and riches if they found their talent. But that view is tragically constraining, because when they hit life's inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren't gifted and give up.

Teach
“I touch the future. I teach.” Christa McAuliffe

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”


“Acquire new knowledge whilst thinking over the old, and you may become a teach of others.” Confucius

“A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.” Thomas Carruthers

“Bitterly disappointed teachers can be either very effective or very dangerous.” “Finding Forrester”

Team
I can do what you can't do, & you can do what I can't do; together we can do great things. -Mother Teresa

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Thoughts
Count your blessings instead of your crosses;
Count your gains instead of your losses,
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears;
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full years instead of your lean;
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth;
Count on God instead of yourself.”


Theism
“The greatest question of our time is not communism versus individualism; not Europe versus America, not even the East versus West. It is whether men can live without God.” Will Durant

Transformation
“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” Ezra Taft Benson

Time
“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust
‎"You can't have community without trust, and you can't have trust without truth... But when truth is whatever each individual wants it to be, there's no common ground on which trust can be established. So trust disappears. And where trust disappears, genuine, healthy community will disappear." Tullian Tchividjian


“God can achieve His purpose either through the absence of human power and resources or the abandonment of reliance on them. All through history God has chosen and used nobodies, because their unusual dependence on him made possible the unique display of His power and grace. He chose and used the somebodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources.” Oswald Chambers

“’Having to depend solely on God’ is what we all dread most. And of course that just shows how very much, how almost exclusively, we have been depending on things. But trouble goes so far back in our lives and is now so deeply ingrained, we will not turn to him as long as He leaves us anything else to turn to…. Perhaps when those moments come, they will feel happiest who have been forced (however unwittingly) to begin practicing it here on earth.” C. S. Lewis


Truth
“No truth can be fully known without being fully lived.” Dr. Mathias Zahniser

Truth allows us to cooperate with reality…” J. P. Moreland

“If anyone proved to me that Christ was outside truth… then I would prefer to remain with Christ than with the truth.” Dostoevsky
“Here’s the great evangelical disaster- the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth. There is only one word for this- namely accommodation.” Francis Schaeffer

“If truth-telling springs from love, it will not only pain those who hear it, it will pain those who speak it. If telling the truth is fun, it probably doesn’t come from love. Jeremiah told the truth and was called the ‘weeping prophet’. Philip Gulley on the Fruit of the Spirit


Tradition
“Tradition can be dangerous. It can not only modify the truth, it can replace it altogether.” Richard C. Halverson, The Living Body

Treasure
“He is better than any of His gifts, so keep Him as the treasure of your heart.” Dr. Dennis Kinlaw

“The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or it he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or it she must see them go, one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all thing 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        


“Any treasure worth having, you’ve got to dig for.” John Maxwell

Trials
“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.” Phillips Brooks

"Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors." African proverb

Truth
George Orwell: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

"Men occasionally stumble upon the truth, but they usually walk away as though nothing happened." Winston Churchill


Uniqueness
“You were born an original. Don’t die as a copy.”


United States of America
"HOLD ON, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world." Daniel Webster

 Unity
“The world isn’t looking at our tracts and rallies and telecasts and study manuals. It looks at us and how we believe. When it fails to see the unity of Jesus’ followers’- the church- it fails to see the validation that Christ is indeed the Son of the living God.” Chuck Colson, The Body 



Waiting
"Waiting on God is a problem only if you're in a relationship with God for utilitarian purposes - to get the prize from the vending machine. But if you're in the relationship for God Himself, waiting means you still have what you want - God - even while you wait." J. Johnson
 Warrior
The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus. - Bruce Lee

Weakness
“The very things that make us feel inadequate, the very things that plunder hope, these are what God uses to accomplish His work. For proof, look at the cross.” P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

“God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with him.” Jurgen Moltmann 

Willingness
“It’s dangerous to smile at Jesus, there is something of consent in a smile.” Mother Teresa

Winner
A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals. - Larry Bird

Wisdom
“We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the Divine guidance of God through childlike people who were foolish enough to trust God’s wisdom and the supernatural equipment of God.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

"The sign of a good society is the level and number of things acknowledged to be beyond market values - and thus appreciated for their own sake and not for extrinsic, especially financial, rewards." Os Guinness
Work
"Your goal should be to plan your work around your life, rather than planning your life around your work." Dan Miller

Worry
"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."
— Corrie ten Boom

"Worry causes me to forget about God's presence in my yesterday and therefore, I assume He will be absent in my tomorrow." Pastor of a friend

 “Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.” Tim Keller
Worship
"When we are normal we talk, when we are dying we whisper, but when there's more in us than we contain, we sing." Eugene Peterson
“I believe that if we are to be and to do for others what God means us to be and to do, we must not let Adoration and Worship slip into second place. ‘For it is the central service asked by God of human souls; and its neglect is responsible for much lack of spiritual depth and power.’ Perhaps we may find here the reason why we so often run dry. We do not give time enough to what makes for depth, and so we are shallow; a wind, quite a little wind, can ruffle our surface; a little hot sun, and all the moisture in us evaporates. It should not be so.” Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways

“The reform that the church needs most is for each worshiper to approach the service (of whatever style) with the proper mindset: worship. No one should enter with the attitude, ‘Amuse me, since if you’re not up to snuff, I’m not coming back.” … When we design a service to worship the Lord, the most important, and the most difficult, thing to accomplish is to be sure that we are, in fact, worshipping the Creator and not ourselves.” Jean Harmon, quoted in Context (Feb. 1, 1999)

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship does not.” John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad
  

Writing

“Amateurs write when they are inspired. Professionals are inspired when they write. This is a subtle but important distinction.” Michael Hyatt

Valuing
There are two types of people - those who come into a room and say, Well, here I am! and those who come in and say, Ah, there you are. - Frederick L. Collins

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

"The greatest good you can do for another is not to share your riches but to reveal to him his own" Benjamin Disraeli

“People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Be good anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People need help but may attack you if you try to help them. Help them anyway. If the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” Mother Teresa (From a sign on the wall of Shisho Bhaven, a children's home in Calcutta.)

I went out to find a friend but could not find one there.
 I went out to be a friend, and friends were everywhere!
 ~Author Unknown

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