MORE THAN SEASONING
As every Scot knows, salt must be put into the oatmeal from the start, before cooking, not afterward. In a similar way, Christ can never be added as an afterthought to an already full and committed life. It’s possible to attempt to use the Master and His power to fulfill our desires and plans for the people we love and still give Him the one position He will not accept: second place.
-Lloyd John Ogilvie in
“The Heart of God”
LESS IS MORE
The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather, he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is, in the sight of God, more important than angels. … He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring.
-A. W. Tozer in
“The Pursuit of God”
AMBITION THAT IS FOOLHARDY
The kind of successor I may get may depend a great deal on the kind of predecessor I’ve been and how I’ve related to my own predecessor. To reject the past and ignore the future while thinking only of my ministry in my era, is both selfish and foolish.
-Warren W. Wiersbe in
his autobiography, “Be Myself”
RIGHT VALUES
Something is wrong in
the man to whom the sunrise is not a divine glory,
for therein is embodied
the truth, the simplicity, and the might of the Maker. …
Alongside the gentle meeting of earth and
sky, … the great burst of
a new morning, the sordid affairs of mammon sink to the bottom of things and have little more interest.
-George MacDonald
in “Discovering the Character of God”
BALANCE NEEDED
Look outward. You have been rightly taught Socrates’ dictum that the unexamined life is not worth living. I would add: The too examined life is not worth living either.
-Charles Krauthammer
in Time (June 28, 1993)
MISTAKEN GOAL
In our age, as in every age, people are longing for happiness, not realizing that what they are looking for is holiness.
-Jerry L. Walls in
Good News (May/June 1995)
TRUE ORIGINS
If Man is not a divinity, then Man is a disease. Either he is the image of God, or else he is the one animal which has gone mad.
-G. K. Chesterton in
“More Quotable Chesterton”
ALWAYS ADVENT
The best way to prepare for the coming of Christ is never to forget the presence of Christ.
-William Barclay in
“You Can Say That Again”
SEEING WITH GOD’S EYES
If you’re going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can’t pick and choose who’s going to be the sparrow.
-Madeleine L’Engle in
“The Arm of the Starfish”
BEYOND FEELINGS
Feeling better has become more important to us than finding God.
-Larry Crabb in
“Finding God”
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