THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH O that I might the power receive The simple life of faith to live, A stranger by the world unknown, To live, shut up with Christ alone! Jesus, my real Life Thou art, Inspire Thyself into my heart, And fill'd with purity divine I live, thro' endless ages thine.
—Charles Wesley in The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, Vol. II
WHEN GOD GIVES EXAMS The wonderful thing about God's schoolroom … is that we get to grade our own papers. You see, He doesn't test us so He can learn how well we're doing. He tests us so we can discover how well we're doing.
—Charles Swindoll in God's Provision in Time of Need
GIFT EXCHANGE For one who has made thanksgiving the habit of his life, the morning prayer will be, "Lord, what will you give me today to offer back to you?"
—Elisabeth Elliot in Love Has a Price Tag
A PRAYER Lord, like the star, the Christian is the light that belongs to the Master, leading others to him, glad to be at his bidding. May this be true of me throughout the coming year.
—Alan Redpath in The Life of Victory
WHEN GOODNESS ISN'T We must never be self-righteous in goodness. How harmful is the so-called Christian who harps on about his goodness. How little does he realise that the man who is furthest from God is the man who thanks God he is not like others.
—William Barclay in Daily Celebration
PRIDE IS ITS OWN REWARD A worldly spirit loves to talk a lot but do nothing, striving for the exterior signs of holiness that people can see, with no desire for true piety and interior holiness of spirit. It was about people like this that our Lord said, Amen I say to you, they have received their reward (Matthew 6:2).
—Saint Francis of Assisi in The Wisdom of Saint Francis
THE POWER OF WORDS Poets are caretakers of language, the shepherds of words, keeping them from harm, exploitation, misuse. Words not only mean something; they are something, each with a sound and rhythm all its own . …
I also am in the word business. I preach, I teach, I counsel using words. People often pay particular attention on the chance that God may be using my words to speak to them. I have a responsibility to use words accurately and well. But it isn't easy. I live in a world where words are used carelessly by some, cunningly by others.
—Eugene H. Peterson in Living the Message
THE HARDER PATH Criticism is easy; achievement is more difficult.
—Winston Churchill in Churchill on Courage
THE SECRET OF GOD'S LOVE Why did God create a world? God created the world for something like the same reason that we find it hard to keep a secret! Good things are hard to keep. The rose is good, and tells its secret in perfume. The sun is good, and tells its secret in light and heat. … But God is in-finitely good, and therefore infinitely loving. Why therefore could not He by a free impulsion of His love let love overflow and bring new worlds into being? God could not keep, as it were, the secret of His love, and the telling of it was creation.
—Fulton J. Sheen in From the Best of the Angel's Blackboard
GOD'S THOUGHTS Holy Spirit, think through me till your ideas are my ideas.
—Amy Carmichael in The Doubleday Prayer Collection
WHICH CHOICE? There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."
—C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce
HOLY HANDKERCHIEFS In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.
—Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking
THE POWER OF CHRIST "I can't get Jesus Christ out of my mind," he said. "If I dismiss him as a person he haunts me as an idea."
—Earl Palmer in The 24-Hour Christian
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