Christianity is not about ideas but about deeds inspired by love.
Frederic Ozanam
Brief Biography
October 2, 2008
Oh, thrice fools are we, who like new-born princes weeping in the cradle, know not that there is a kingdom before them; then, let our Lord's sweet hand square us, and hammer us, and strike off the knots of pride, self-love, and world-worship, and infidelity, that He may make us stones and pillars in His Father's house.
Samuel Rutherford
Selected Letters
October 3, 2008
If you're on the rocks, don't despair; be a lighthouse.
Anonymous
October 4, 2008
While the Lord calls me to be wise and discerning, he reminds me often that his discernment cannot dwell in a cynical distrustful heart. With Him, there is no hidden agenda and no ulterior motive. His gifts are free for the taking but I cannot take these gifts if my hands are already full of my own weapons of self- protection. Therefore, He asks me to lay down the shields that I have forged for protection and to pick up the shield of faith in their place. He asks me to take Him at His Word.
Katherine Walden
I Lift My Eyes Ministries
October 5, 2008
He that is down needs fear no fall. He that is low, no pride; He that is humble, ever shall have God to be his Guide.
John Bunyan
Online Library
October 6, 2008
For most of our lives, we are so filled with good things that we don't have room for the best. While the sun gleams brightly over the sea of our prosperity, making its gentle waters glisten like diamonds, we find comfort in many things. But when the storm comes, turning the waves into dark, frightening cliffs which threaten to take us under, we find the most precious treasure of all, "Immanuel, God with us."
Greg Wright
October 7, 2008
One day as he was walking by the sea, he saw a small boy who, with the help of a shell, was emptying water from the ocean into a hole he had dug in the sand. "What are you doing, son?" asked Augustine. He was impressed by the naive answer, "I'm going to empty all the sea into this hole." Augustine smiled. An inner voice, however, was saying to him, "You are trying to do the same thing by thinking you can understand the depths of God with your limited mind.
Augustine
Works And Biography
October 8, 2008
The habit of judging is so nearly incurable, and its cure is such an almost interminable process, that we must concentrate ourselves for a long while on keeping it in check, and this check is to be found in kind interpretations. We must come to esteem very lightly our sharp eye for evil, on which perhaps we once prided ourselves as cleverness. We must look at our talent for analysis of character as a dreadful possibility of huge uncharitableness. We are sure to continue to say clever things, so long as we continue to indulge in this analysis; and clever things are equally sure to be sharp and acid. We must grow to something higher, and something truer, than a quickness in detecting evil.
Frederick W. Faber
Biography
 |
Got The Time?: A Search for Hope amidst Homelessness By Lori Gonzalez Lori Gonzalez-author, homemaker and mother of three-took time out of her hectic schedule one evening to "dish up the gravy" at a Los Angeles area homeless shelter. What began as a simple act serving food to the homeless became a passion as Lori Gonzalez began to get involved in the lives of those who live on the edge of society, In the book the reader gets to meet many of the homeless people, hear their stories, and walk with them as they attempt to get on with their lives-either within the conventions of society or seemingly divorced from it entirely. As the reader will find, Got the Time? has a double meaning. It is a question that homeless people often ask, which seems ironic since all they have is time on their hands. For those who might feel a tugging at their hearts whenever they encounter the homeless, it is a simple plea. Will you take some time out of your busy schedule to help? For churches, it is fulfilling one of God's greatest commands-to do for "the least of our brethren." Got the Time? is a book filled with inspirational, real life stories of those who are homeless and of those who help. |
October 9, 2008
We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and cancelling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps - reading the Bible..... it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer Home Page
October 10, 2008
In a way I wish I could take to heaven my old, tattered Everest and Jennings wheelchair. I would point to the empty seat and say, "Lord, for decades I was paralyzed in this chair. But it showed me how paralyzed You must have felt to be nailed to Your Cross. My limitations taught me something about the limitations You endured when You laid aside your robes of state and put on the indignity of human flesh." At that point, with my strong and glorified body, I might sit in it, rub the armrests with my hands, look up at Jesus, and add, "The weaker I felt in this chair, the harder I leaned on You. And the harder I leaned, the more I discovered how strong You are. Thank you, Jesus for learning obedience in your suffering...You gave me grace to learn obedience in mine."
Joni Eareckson Tada
Joni and Friends
October 11, 2008
Our society is filled with runaways, dropouts, and quitters. The epidemic of walking away has hit our land with effects as devastating as the bubonic plague, and it has destroyed millions of effective lives and relationships. We are so self-centred that we have ceased to lay down our lives for others. We have seen others faint or walk away and we have followed in their weakness. We have fainted when we could have persevered by exchanging our strength for His! With His strength, not only could we have kept on walking, we could have run!
Kay Arthur
Precept Ministries International
October 12, 2008
If a house should be taken for us by a friend, and we were told it was ready, and that the lease and all the necessary papers were duly attested and signed, we should not ask how we could get into it. We should just pack up and move in .... God says that He is our dwelling place, and the Bible contains all the necessary papers, duly attested and signed. And our Lord invites us, nay more, commands us to enter in and abide there. In effect He says, God is your dwelling place, and you must see to it that you take up your abode there. You must move in.
Hannah Whitall Smith
Online Books
October 13, 2008
It costs to be faithful. It cost Abraham the yielding up of his only son. It cost Esther to risk her own life. It cost Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being put into a fiery furnace. It cost Stephen death by stoning. It cost Paul his life. Does it cost you anything to be faithful to your Lord and King?
Anonymous
October 14, 2008
Oh restless heart, that beat against your prison bars of circumstances, yearning for a wider sphere of usefulness, leave God to order all your days. Patience and trust, in the dullness of the routine of life, will be the best preparation for a courageous bearing of the tug and strain of the larger opportunity which God may some time send you.
Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Streams in the Desert
October 15, 2008
In response to "I have difficulty praying."
Why then, do you not try this? As you go to your inner chamber, however cold and dark your heart may be, do not try in your own might to force yourself into the right attitude. Bow before Him, and tell Him that He sees in what a sad state you are, and that your only hope is in Him. Trust Him, with a childlike trust, to have mercy upon you, and wait upon Him. In such a trust you are in a right relationship to Him. You have nothing - He has everything.
Andrew Murray
Biography And Works
 |
Streams In The Desert: Daily Devotional Journal (Bonded Leather) By Lettie B. (Mrs Charles) Cowman For nearly 75 years, Christians have been encouraged and inspired by Streams in the Desert. Now you can go deeper, day by day, with this elegant journal edition. Each beautifully designed page features one day's reading from the classic devotional, plus plenty of room to record your thoughts and prayers. Bound in lustrous navy blue bonded leather. 384 pages, from Barbour. |
October 16, 2008
No matter how dark the sky, how discouraging the circumstances, how desperate the situation, God is there--a God who is too good to forget and too great to fail. God is there, his mighty arm ruling this universe for him, redeeming all who will let him, and reinforcing any who respond to him in faith and obedience!
Leo Green
October 17, 2008
Saints and martyrs are famous for testifying to the truth about Jesus Christ while their enemies set them on fire, but each day ordinary Christians experience small martyrdoms when they blow the whistle on a dangerous product, or lose a friend they had to confront, or stand up in a small group and, for the first time in their lives, say to a group of strangers,"My name is Maxine, and I am an alcoholic."
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
Calvin Seminary
October 18, 2008
The more a true saint loves God with a truly gracious love, the more he desires to love Him, and the more miserable he is at his lack of love to Him. The more he hates sin, the more he desires to hate it. The more he mourns for sin, the more he longs to mourn for it. The more his heart is broken for sin, the more he prays that it may be far more broken. The more he hungers and thirsts after God, the more he faints and fails in seeking after God. Forgetting those things that are behind, he reaches forth to those things that are before. He ever presses toward the far-off mark.
Jonathan Edwards
The Works of Jonathan Edwards
October 19, 2008
God has work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God has a work to do; and not to help Him is to oppose Him.
John Owen
Biography-Website
October 20, 2008
For each of us the time is surely coming when we shall have nothing but God. Health and wealth and friends and hiding places will all be swept away, and we shall have only God. To the man of pseudo faith that is a terrifying thought, but to real faith it is one of the most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.
A. W. Tozer
The Works Of A. W. Tozer
October 21, 2008
Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the "rests." They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote. If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear. If we sadly say to ourselves, "There is no music in a 'rest,'" let us not forget "there is the making of music in it." The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!
Ruskin
October 22, 2008
God is looking for men and women whose hearts are firmly fixed on Him and who will continually trust Him for all he desires to do with their lives. God is ready and eager to work more powerfully than ever through His people, and the clock of the centuries is striking the eleventh hour.
Anonymous
October 23, 2008
God is not satisfied by the sound of our lips, nor the position of our bodies, nor external ceremonies. What he asks is a will which will no longer be divided between him and any creature, a will pliant in his hands, which neither desires anything nor refuses anything, which wants without reservation everything he wants, and which never, under any pretext, wants anything which he does not want.
Francois Fenelon
October 24, 2008
The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer, because smaller things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of suffering.
Thomas Merton
October 25, 2008
Where two or three are met together, the prayer of one strikes fire from the soul of another; and the latter in his turn leads the way to nobler heights of devotion. And lo! as their joy increases, there is One in their midst whom they all recognize and cling to. He was there before, but it is only when their hearts begin to burn that they recognize Him; and in a true sense they may be said to bring Him there-"Where two or three are met together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."
James Stalker
Writings
|
The Power of Covenant Prayer By Francis Frangipane What is the difference between prayer and covenant prayer? A covenant with God takes you further into your goal of Christlikeness. When you make this commitment to consistently communicate with the Father above in prayer, you will begin to see the power of God's grace actively at work in your life and in the lives of those around you. Through this awesome power of covenant prayer, God creates within you a life that He can use extraordinarily in the process of divine redemption. |
October 26, 2008
What is necessary is to continue to love. How does a lamp burn, if it is not by the continuous feeding of little drops of oil? When there is no oil, there is no light and the bridegroom will say: "I do not know you". Dear friends, what are our drops of oil in our lamps? They are the small things from every day life: the joy, the generosity, the little good things, the humility and the patience. A simple thought for someone else. Our way to be silent, to listen, to forgive, to speak and to act. That are the real drops of oil that make our lamps burn vividly our whole life.
Mother Teresa
October 27, 2008
Recognize to whom you owe the fact that you exist, that you breathe, that you understand, that you are wise, and, above all, that you know God and hope for the kingdom of heaven. You have been made a son of God, co-heir with Christ. Where did you get all this, and from whom?.... What benefactor has enabled you to look out upon the beauty of the sky, the sun in its course, the circle of the moon, the countless number of stars, with the harmony and order that are theirs, like the music of a harp? Who has blessed you with rain, with the art of husbandry, with different kinds of food, with the arts, with houses, with laws, with states, with a life of humanity and culture, with friendship and the easy familiarity of kinship? ... Is it not God who asks you now in your turn to show yourself generous ... Because we have received from him so many wonderful gifts, will we not be ashamed to refuse him this one thing only, our generosity?
Gregory Nazianzen
October 28, 2008
Forgiveness is the only way to break the cycle of blame--and pain--in a relationship...It does not settle all questions of blame and justice and fairness...But it does allow relationships to start over. In that way, said Solzhenitsyn, we differ from all animals. It is not our capacity to think that makes us different, but our capacity to repent, and to forgive.
Philip Yancey
Biography
October 29, 2008
The Great God Science. It has failed us, because it was never meant to be a god, but only a few true scientists understand that.
Madeleine L'Engle
Official Website
October 30, 2008
I swell with pride when I can face the whole world and say, "I belong to Him. The mighty God of this universe is my heavenly Father. I'm His by adoption. I'm a joint-heir with His wonderful Son' In that moment when you're prone to be depressed, when you find yourself in the spirit of bondage, look up. just pause and remember to whom you belong.
Kathryn Kuhlman
Foundation
October 31, 2008
Just because the current giant you are facing looks like one you defeated in the past, don't buy the lie that you never really won the first battle! By the strength of God's grace, you trusted the Almighty and conquered your Goliath. The first giant is dead. Satan is masquerading as your former enemy so he can slip past your faith and regain entrance into your life. Resist him.
Francis Frangipane
September 2008 / November 2008 /
