Nomads on the Jericho Road
God does not want Christians to be nomads, hermits, or recluses.… In the light of this truth it might be good if we gave up singing one of the old spirituals:
On the Jericho Road,
There’s room for just two,
No more and no less,
Just Jesus and you.
Think about it. If that song is right, we had better get off the Jericho Road. That is not the highway to glory because, as the New Testament repeatedly discloses, the glory highway is broad enough to allow all of God’s people to march along together. Side by side.
—Vernon C. Grounds in Radical Commitment
The humility of thankfulness
The modern American seldom pauses to give thanks for the simple blessings of life. One reason is that we are used to having so much. We simply assume that we will have all the good things of life. Another reason is that it hurts our pride to be grateful. We do not want to admit that God is the Provider of all good things. We are simply His stewards. Being thankful requires humility and faith in God. When we have these, we can be grateful.
—Richard B. Douglass in Quotable Quotations
Some through the fire
Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace.
—Oswald Chambers in Run Today’s Race
Escapism—or truth?
We are very shy nowadays of even mentioning Heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about “pie in the sky,” and of being told that we are trying to “escape from the duty of making a happy world here and now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere.” But either there is “pie in the sky” or there is not. If there is not, then Christianity is false, for this doctrine is woven into its whole fabric. If there is, then this truth, like any other, must be faced, whether it is useful at political meetings or no.
—C. S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain
Teamwork
Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves—on God’s grace and our will to be holy. We must have a real living determination to reach holiness.
—Mother Teresa in A Gift for God
Thanklessness
Our biggest problem in the church today is this vast majority of Sunday morning Christians who claim to have known the Master’s cure and who return not [at other times] to thank Him by presence, prayer, testimony and support of His church. In fact, the whole Christian life is one big “Thank You,” the living expression of our gratitude to God for His goodness. But we take Him for granted and what we take for granted we never take seriously.
—Vance Havner in The Vance Havner Quote Book
No loose strings
We must face the fact that many today are notoriously careless in their living. This attitude finds its way into the church. We have liberty, we have money, we live in comparative luxury. As a result, discipline practically has disappeared.
What would a violin solo sound like if the strings on the musician’s instrument were all hanging loose, not stretched tight, not “disciplined”?
—A. W. Tozer in Men Who Met God
Only one talent needed
Whatever our unique gifts are and whatever skill we have in using them, they are not God’s key concern with us. Maturing in our walk as Christians is not helped or hindered by our “special” talents (or lack thereof), save one—obedience. This is one gift everyone has a crack at.
—Michael K. Blanchard in
A Common Thread (July 1987)
Thanksgiving casts out pride
To thank with all your heart is an art—an art which the Holy Spirit teaches. And you need not worry that the man who can really say Deo gratias (to God be thanks) with all his heart will be proud, stubborn, rough, and tough, or will work against God with His gifts.
—Martin Luther in What Luther Says
