December 1, 2002
I saw that the kingdom must be interior before it can be exterior, that it is a kingdom of ideas, and not one of brute force; that His rule is over hearts, not over places; that His victories must be inward before they can be outward; that He seeks to control spirits rather than bodies; that no triumph could satisfy Him but a triumph that gains the heart; that in short, where God really reigns, the surrender must be the interior surrender of the convicted free men, and not merely the outward surrender of the conquered slave.
Hannah Whitall Smith
Online Books
December 2, 2002
Worship is the intentional attitudes and actions of focusing on God. It is the life-discipline we ought repeatedly to exercise and develop. It grows out of the foundational motive of deep and wonder-based gratitude to God for His salvaging and sustaining us.
Byron Spradlin
Artists in Christian Testimony
December 3, 2002
To those whose attitude is just Jesus and me I say, it is wonderful you found Jesus. But you cannot truly have Jesus and simultaneously not do what He says. The outgrowth of love and faith in Christ is love and faith like Christ's, which means we are committed, even as He is, to His people.
Francis Frangipane
Ministries of Francis Frangipane
December 4, 2002
Hundreds of men are hoarse from continual speaking, and are wearied out with running here and running there. If things slow down, we evolve yet another type of meeting. And when this new and added wheel is spinning merrily with all the other wheels, there may be no spiritual outcome whatsoever, but there is a wind blowing in our faces; and we hot and sticky engineers have a comfortable feeling that something is going on.
Arthur John (A. J.) Gossip
Online Article.
December 5, 2002
Our first problem is that our attitude towards sin is more self-centred than God-centred. We are more concerned about our own "Victory" over sin than we are about the fact that our sin grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God.
Jerry Bridges
Navigators
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One-Rehearsal Christmas Plays: The Easiest Christmas Plays Ever! By Kendra Smiley This book is the answer to gaining an extra hour or two, feeling less harried and focusing on Christ while directing the church Christmas program! With One Rehearsal Christmas Plays, your Sunday school department will encourage, entertain, and enlighten the congregation as they follow the "Footsteps to the Manger" or as they present a slightly altered version of "T'was the Night before Christmas." One Rehearsal Christmas Plays features these productions and ten others with a Scriptural message and minimal preparation. Inside you'll find:
Recommended for ages 4 to 13. Please support this ministry site. |
December 6, 2002
Few delights can equal the mere presence of One whom we fully trust.
George Macdonald
The Golden Key Website
December 7, 2002
If you feel like you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on! Because God's a God of miracles, and He's holding the other end.
Pat Hicks
December 8, 2002
The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better and a lot bigger.
Elisabeth Elliot
Gateway to Joy
December 9, 2002
The vinedresser is never nearer the branches then when he is pruning them.
David Jeremiah
Turning Point
December 10, 2002
If you look up into His face and say, "Yes, Lord, whatever it costs," at that moment He'll flood your Life with His presence and power.
Alan Redpath
Brief Biography And Bibliography
December 11, 2002
In the upshot there is only one answer for the preacher who wonders whether he is worthy to preach the sermon he has composed or for the writer who wonders whether he is worthy to write the religious book he is working on. The answer is: Of course not. To ask yourself: Am I worthy to perform this Christian task? is really the peak of pride and presumption. For the very question carries the implication that we spend most of our time doing things we are worthy to do. We simply do not have that kind of worth.
Harry Blamires
Short Biography
December 12, 2002
Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God.
George F. McDougall
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Praise God! Jesus is Born!: Easy Dramas, Recitations, and Speeches for Children By Leedell Stickler & Judy Jolly A diverse and easily produced collection of children’s worship performances for the Advent / Christmas season Easy for Children. Most of the spoken lines in these dramas are very simple. Any child from age 3 to 12 can feel included in worship participation. Any adult without prior experience can easily direct these dramas. Each performance is structured simply enough to require little rehearsal. |
December 13, 2002
I want neither a blood'n'guts religion that would make Clint Eastwood, not Jesus, our hero, nor a speculative religion that would imprison the Gospel in the halls of academia, nor a noisy, feel-good religion that is a naked appeal to emotion. I long for passion, intelligence, and compassion in a Church without ostentation, gently beckoning to the world to come and enjoy the peace and unity we possess because of the Spirit in our midst.
Brennan Manning
Ministry Site
December 14, 2002
If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He could live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart. What about the Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem; not to mention that Friday at Calvary.
Joe Gatuslao
December 15, 2002
With the light of your presence and warmth of your love, Lord, furnish my heart and make it your home.
B.J. Hoff
Website
December 16, 2002
High degrees of true assurance cannot be enjoyed by those who persist in low levels of obedience.
Sinclair Ferguson
Brief Biography and Bibliography
December 17, 2002
It is not the distance of the earth from the sun, nor the sun's withdrawing itself, that makes a dark and gloomy day; but the interposition of clouds and vaporous exhalations. Neither is thy soul beyond the reach of the promise, nor does God withdraw Himself; but the vapours of thy carnal, unbelieving heart do cloud thee.
John Owen
Biography-Website
December 18, 2002
Late on a sleepy, star-spangled night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present. Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a broken dam, they began to shout and sing the message that baby Jesus had been born. The world had a Savior! The angels called it "Good News, " and it was.
Larry Libby
December 19, 2002
We do not very often come across opportunities for exercising strength, magnanimity, or magnificence; but gentleness, temperance, modesty, and humility, are graces which ought to color everything we do. There may be virtues of a more exalted mold, but... these are the most continually called for in daily life.
Francis de Sales
Biography and Works
December 20, 2002
The birth of the Lord means peace on earth, but only for those "on whom his favour rests." Indeed, the Savior's birth is a meaningless gesture by the appraisal of many persons. But for those people who receive Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord, they find the peace that can only come from the favour or grace of God.
The Logos International Bible Commentary
December 21, 2002
Why is it so important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It's important because it's the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you "my beloved daughter," "my beloved son," "my beloved child." To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being.
Henri J. M. Nouwen
Nouwen Centre
December 22, 2002
Jesus, the Light of the World, as we celebrate your birth... may we begin to see the world in the light of understanding you give us. As you chose the lowly, the outcasts, and the poor to receive the greatest news the world had ever known, so may we worship you in meekness of heart. May we also remember our brothers and sisters less fortunate than ourselves in this season of giving. Amen.
Karen L. Oberst
December 23, 2002
The implications of the name "Immanuel" are both comforting and unsettling. Comforting, because He has come to share the danger as well as the drudgery of our everyday lives. He desires to weep with us and to wipe away our tears. And what seems most bizarre, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, longs to share in and to be the source of the laughter and the joy we all too rarely know.
Michael Card
Website
More Michael Card Materials
December 24, 2002
The Nativity
Among the oxen (like an ox I'm slow)
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox's dullness might at length
Give me an ox's strength.
Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Saviour where I looked for hay;
So may my beast like folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.
Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baa-ing nature would win thence
Some woolly innocence!
(Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis
Into The Wardrobe
December 25, 2002
Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.
George Matthew Adams
December 26, 2002
This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours! I suspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious exercises, as private devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading, etc. Hence I am lean and cold and hard. I had better allot two hours or an hour and a half daily. I have been keeping too late hours, and hence have had but a hurried half hour in a morning to myself. Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through prayer -- almighty prayer, I am ready to say -- and why not? For that it is almighty is only through the gracious ordination of the God of love and truth. O then, pray, pray, pray!
William Wilberforce
Biography
December 27, 2002
Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.
Ignatius
Biography
December 28, 2002
I ought to pray before seeing any one. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says: "Early will I seek thee", "thou shalt early hear my voice." Family prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the soul is often out of tune. I feel it is far better to begin with God-to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne
Online Information
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31 Family Devotions for Christmas By MariLee Parrish / Barbour Publishing Create lasting family memories this holiday season. Whether it's shopping, decorating, baking, or celebrating, there are lots of reasons why our schedules are full in December. 31 Family Devotions for Christmas offers daily readings designed to help your family spend special moments together. From fun activities and traditions to recipes and scripture, this book encourages families to make time-even just a few minutes-with each other every day to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas. |
December 29, 2002
Whatsoever one would understand what he hears must hasten to put into practice what he has heard.
Gregory the Great
Biography
December 30, 2002
God never promises to remove us from our struggles. He does promise, however, to change the way we look at them.
Max Lucado
Upwords
December 31, 2002
If this is to be a Happy New Year, a year of usefulness, a year in which we shall live to make this earth better, it is because God will direct our pathway. How important then, to feel our dependence upon Him!
Matthew Simpson
Biography
November 2002 // January 2003 //
