Monday, February 28, 2011

022811

(Thomas Carlyle) Adversity is hard on a man, but for every man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity

(Swindoll)  When prosperity occurs, invariably our integrity is put to the test

(Swindoll) There is about one in a hundred who can dance to the tune of success without paying the piper of compromise

(Swindoll) A mist in the pulpit will invariably cause a  fog in the pew

A. Rogers tells the story of a woman who said she had never seen her pastor's eyes; when  he prayed he closed his eyes and when he spoke he closed her eyes

Swindoll describes  many sermons as "longhorn sermons"- a point here and a point there with a lot of bull in between

(Swindoll) In the final analysis ignorance is a personal choice-our  choice

(Swindoll) Beware- even good and wholesome things can become idols

(Swindoll) Can you truly say that Christ reigns in your life without a rival?

(Swindoll) Selfishness is the most common disease known to mankind

(The Message paraphrase of James 2:17) God- talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense

(Swindoll) The longer I live the more I realize the scarcity of people who can fully be trusted with confidential information. The principal  and practice should be: shared in confidence, kept in confidence; Whatever you're told in confidence, do not repeat;whenever you're tempted to talk, do not yield;whenever you're discussing people, do not gossip; however you're prone to disagree, do not slander

Facts on suicide: a suicide is attempted in America every minute
                            more deaths by suicide than by murder
                            women attempt more suicides, men "succeed " more
                             suicide is the ultimate rejection of one's self
                     (These facts were discussed in a Focus on the Family program )

(Swindoll) Wanted: your time and help
                                a friend
                                a listening ear
                                a support to lean on
                                a shelter in time of storm

(Various authors descriptions of envy) the green sickness,has no holidays,the most corroding of vices; no other passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy; a coal that  comes hissing hot from hell; one of the blindest of sins; the twin of jealousy

(Swindoll) Envy wants to have what someone else  has ; jealousy wants to possess what it already has. Envy sold Joseph into slavery,drove David into exile,threw Daniel in the lion's den, and put Christ on trial and on the Cross

(Swindoll) Contentment is feeling comfortable and secure with where you are and who you are

(John Wesley) Do what you can where you are with what you have for as many people as you can in as many ways as you can for as long as you can

(Swindoll) A lot of the things you got hot and bothered about during your lifetime won't even show up in eternity

(Wiersbe) Appetites determine actions
                 Delights determine direction
                 The root determines the fruit
                  The most important part of our life is that which only God sees


     

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

22211 quotes

(Yancey) Light travels almost six trillion miles a year

(Yancey) God, outside both time and space, can view what happens on earth in a way we can only guess at, and never fully comprehend

(Yancey) God lives outside of time as we perceive it, and yet sometimes steps into time

(Yancey) Before creating time, God made provision to redeem a fallen planet that did not even exist except in the mind of God

(Yancey) We remain ignorant of many details, not because God enjoys keeping us in the dark, but because we have not the faculties to absorb so much light

(Yancey) Not until history has run its course will we understand how "all things work together for good". Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.

(Yancey) God deserves trust even when, from our perspective, it looks like the world is caving in

(Paul Tournier)  Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt there is no longer any opportunity for faith either

(Yancey) When God seems  most absent, He may be closest of all

(Yancey)  God's miracle of transforming  a dark, silent Friday into Easter Sunday will someday be enlarged to cosmic scale

(Anon)  These hath God married and no man shall part;
              Dust on the Bible and drought in the heart

(Rogers) The Bible is the  timeless,truthful, treasured, and transcendent book

(Rogers) Pray over, ponder,preserve, practice and proclaim the Word ofGod

(Joe Stowell) God doesn't usually show us where He's taking us;He just asks us to trust Him

(Joe Stowell, commenting on James 1:2-4) Our trials are there to make us better, not bitter

(Yancey) Through faith, the unseen world increasingly takes shape as the real world and sets the course for how we live in the seen world

(Yancey) The alternative to disappointment with God seems to be disappointment without God

(Rogers) God loves us just the way we are, but, He loves us to much to leave us that way

(Yancey )  Power can do  anything but the most important thing: it cannot control love 

( Yancey)   God's  " apparent " slowness to act is a sign of mercy, not weakness

(Yancey)  Does any human emotion run as deep as hope?

(Yancey)  With remarkable consistency, the Bible accounts show that miracles simply do not foster deep faith

(Yancey) Jesus life ended in the greatest unfairness of history: the best man who ever lived suffering the worst of punishments

(Yancey) Of all species, human beings alone have the freedom to rebel against God

(Swindoll ) The favorite past time in many churches is brother bashing and sister smashing

(Yancey) The more I study the Bible, the less I long for the " good old days "

(Yancey) In the Christian view, all of history takes place between the first part of Genesis and the last part of Revelation

(Yancey) In any discussion of disappointment with God, Heaven is the last  and the most important word of all

( C S Lewis ) All the beauty and joy we meet on earth represents  only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard and news from a country we have not yet visited

(Yancey) The Bible nevers belittles human disappointment, but it does add one key word:temporary. What we feel now, we will not always feel

(Yancey) Faith is , in the end, a kind of homesickness - for a home we have never visited but never once stopped longing for

(Yancey) At conversion, we receive eyes of faith that open up belief in the unseen world

(Swindoll) Our Christian lives could be divided into three stages- preparation,perseverance, and promise

(The Message paraphrase of 1 Cor  10:29)  " I'm not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say."

1 Cor 10:13: The Living Bible- no temptation is irrestible
                      J B Phillips- it will never be impossible for you to bear it

 J B Phillips translation of 1 Cor 10:12: " Let the man who feels sure of his standing today be careful that he does not fall tomorrow "

( Ray Stedman on responsible use of Christian liberty )  " The law of love says,I may be free to do it, but if I am putting a stumbling block in somebody else's path, I won't do it. I set aside my rights in order to avoid offending the person whose conscience is more legalistic or fragile "

(Charles Stanley)  God wants us to  move from merely debating whether something is wrong or  right, and instead choose actions that build up the faith of others

(Oswald Chambers)  Unguarded strength is double weakness

(Swindoll) Lust is no respector of persons

(Swindoll) Don't let your testimony become a  braggamony

(Swindoll) Self-deceit is the greatest deception of all. A self-deceived person is their own worst enemy


(Swindoll) If you're looking for infallibility, look no further than God's Word

(Anon) The Father planned and prepared our salvation
            The Son purchased and provided our salvation
            The Holy Spirit preserves and protects our salvation

(The  Living Bible paraphrase of Eph 3:20) God is able to do far more that we would ever dare to ask or dream of-infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes

(Stanley) The might of God that created the universe and raised Jesus from the dead is available to us at every moment

(Stanley) God's power is as close as the Spirit within us

(Rogers)  God has  an unfolding purpose for us, has provided us with an unfading  provision,  His unrivaled presence,  and unlimited opportunites.
We should respond with  our unceasing praise

More quotes 22211

(Wiersbe) If we seek glory, nothing much will happen, and what does happen won't last

(Wiersbe) Prayer must never be a substitute for action

(Wiersbe) Someone has said that responsibility is our response to God's ability

(Wiersbe) God's calling  always includes God's enabling

(Philip Brooks) Do not pray for tasks equal to your power. Pray for power equal to your tasks

(Wiersbe)  Never underestimate the power of words spoken from a heart of love backed by a life of service

(Wiersbe) Never  forget that behind many a smiling face is a broken heart

(Wiersbe) God's peace is not the absence of conflict but  the presence of the Lord in the midst of our battles

(Wiersbe) In today's world it is either  go to pieces or go in peace

(Daily Bread) Usually when  we give someone a piece of our mind we lose our peace of mind

(Swindoll) The cure for the infection of error is the antibiotic of truth

(Wiersbe) What begins with grace always leads to glory

(Wiersbe) The variety of God's grace matches the variety of our trials

(Adrian Rogers) Satan pays high wages but he pays in counterfeit

(Philip Yancey)  Christ never forced anyone to believe in Him

(A. Rogers) Friend, it takes just as much wisdom to know what not to say

(David Branon)  To be under Christ's control is to have true freedom

(P. Yancey ) The next time you're feeling too important, remember that a human being is a tiny dot on  a tiny  planet .

(Yancey) Christians are God's exhibit A, His demonstration piece to the powers of the unseen world

(Yancy) We human beings inhabit a mere speck of a planet in the outer suburbs of a spiral galaxy that is only one of about a million, million such galaxies in the observable universe

(Yancey) At the moment when faith  is hardest and least likely, then faith is needed most

(Yancey) Have you  learned to see beyond the physical reality in this world to the spiritual reality?

(Yancey) Is your relationship with God one that will transcend any hardship?

(Yancey) The cross demolished for all time the basic assumption that life will be fair

(Yancey) The cross revealed what kind of world we have and what kind of God we have: a world of gross unfairness, a God of sacrificial love

(Yancey) Perhaps God keeps us ignorant at times because  enlightenment might not help us

(Yancey) God lives on a  " higher level", in another dimension. The universe does not contain Him; He created the universe . In a way we cannot fathom, He is not bound by space and time. Before time there is only eternity, and eternity is a never-ending present.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Installment #1

(Ray Stedman) Someone has wisely said that choices are the hinge of destiny

(Ray Stedman)  Reading a  proverb takes seconds, memorizing a proverb takes minutes, applying a proverb takes a lifetime.

( Anonymous poem from the Daily Bread)
The tongue  can a blessing
and the tongue can be a curse
Say, how you using yours:
for better or for worse?

(Chuck Swindoll) When we don't forgive, bitterness takes root in our hearts and chokes the vitality out of us

(Ray Stedman)  Forgiveness is a deliberate decision to forget wrongs suffered.Christlike forgiving grace is the strongest force in the universe

(Charles Stanley)  The mighty power of God that created the universe and that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us at every moment through believing prayer

(Warren Wiersbe) Our greatest bondage is to have our own way; our greatest freedom is to let God have his way. He always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him

(Wiersbe) Everybody you meet is  either fighting a battle or carrying a burden

(Ray Stedman) The rich and famous tend to die miserably, clutching at a life they can no longer grasp, regretting that they have invested their lives in things that don't last.

(Charles Stanley) Prayer is life's greatest time saver

(Wiersbe) There  are truths known only in the heart that cannot be easily defined in the mind or expressed by the lips. Theology often ends in silence and worship

(Wiersbe) Unity is not uniformity.Unity is diversity held together by love and truth

(Wiersbe) The heart of the problem is almost always the problem of the heart

(Wiersbe) True hope enables us to look at earth from Heaven's point of view and to see the present in light of the future

(Wiersbe) If we seek our glory, nothing much will happen, and what does happen won't last.

(Wiersbe) What a tragic thing it is to live without hope

(Phillip Brooks) Do not pray for tasks equal to your power. Pray for power equal to your tasks

(Wiersbe) Never underestimate the power of words spoken from a heart of love backed by a life of serving

Introduction

We all lead busy times and are often victims of  "the tyranny of the urgent". I have always enjoyed reading. Unfortunately, during my working years, I  repeatedly made the poor choice of not regularly setting aside  time for reading as the high prioity it should have been. Now that I have more time to resume this pleasurable habit, I have discovered many thoughtful statements well worth pondering. From time to time I will provide the quotation and source and invite you to review and meditate on it. . If you feel led to comment, feel free to do so.  I would be delighted to see you reciprocate with quotes that have been meaningful to you. Humorous ones will be most welcome. The quotations I will post  have greatly blessed me and I hope they will bless you. Happy reading.