Real tests God is always testing us, and his testing does not come when we are warned and ready. Anyone can pass a test then . …
God’s tests catch us unprepared, off-guard. It is when we are confronted with some simple situation no one will know about that the tests of life really come. When you are relaxing at home and the phone rings and suddenly you are confronted with a call for help, or a demand for a response-and you had planned to relax and enjoy yourself all afternoon-what happens then? That’s the test.
-Ray C. Stedman in Man of Faith
Don’t misplace tolerance Tolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons. Tolerance applies to the erring; intolerance to the error.
-Fulton J. Sheen in Old Errors and New Labels
No God of the gaps When we cannot explain certain phenomena, to satisfy ourselves we refer to God, making him the explanation or cause or reason that we cannot find elsewhere. God is thus an easy temporary replacement until we find the real explanation, which will, of course, be scientific . … The tendency here is to make of God no more than a vague spiritual essence, or in any case something different from what science might eventually come across. In other words, God is totally detached from the reality of the world and reduced to an insubstantial vapor. To save him they repress him. For me God is certainly not the God of the gaps.
-Jacques Ellul in What I Believe
Self-induced poverty We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank, and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor? Whose fault is it that Christian people generally have such scanty portions of the free riches of God?
-Alexander MacLaren, quoted in Streams in the Desert
No ordinary life If we can live one day with Jesus, we can live every day with Him, each one as it comes. Immanuel, a name for Christ, means “God with us.” Human life was meant to be dramatic. We are meant to be God-inhabited. Our religion is not organized around keeping God at a distance. It allows us to go see him when we want. If I really want God to be with me, then my life will be extremely different from ordinary human life. The outcome will be far greater than the efforts.
-Ingrid Trobisch in The Confident Woman
No purposeless activity Even the most mindless pastimes can be offerings to God when you are expected, by family duty, to engage in them. How free you are when you do all things simply to the glory of God. … There is nothing simpler or more faithful than learning to accept the will of God apart from your personal taste—your likes and dislikes and impulses.
-Francois Fénelon in The Seeking Heart
All talk, no action Integrity is like the weather: everybody talks about it but nobody knows what to do about it.
-Stephen L. Carter in Integrity
Life without fear 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 à Kempis in The Imitation of Christ
Commandments for today Douglas Taylor-Weiss, rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Dayton, Ohio, has proposed a new set of Ten Commandments based on his observations of our culture:
“1. Have a good day. 2. Shop. 3. Eliminate pain. 4. Be up-to-date. 5. Relax. 6. Express yourself. 7. Have a happy family. 8. Be entertaining. 9. Be entertained. 10. Buy entertainment.”
He forgot 11. Get in touch with your feelings.
-Martin Marty in Context (Feb. 1, 1992)
All is for God God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission . …
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain.
-John Henry Newman in Prayers, Verses and Devotions
Life’s real 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 & Idea Starters
Wrongheaded repair It is much easier to fix blame than to fix problems.
-Kathleen Parker in the Orlando Sentinel
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