May 1, 2017
God never signs over the title of anything to us, but merely gives us things to keep in trust….Sometimes God lavishes us with things, not so we can hang on to them, but so we will have something to let go of to show our love for Him.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from the Christian in Complete Armor, 5/1]
April 25, 2017
Does your soul cry out from its depths for inward peace? Then check to see what vessel you are drawing your comfort from. If it is the vessel of your own sufficiency, the supply is finite and will soon run dry.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from the Christian in Complete Armor, 4/25]
April 24, 2017
He who forgets the humming of the bees among the heather, the cooing of the wood-pigeons in the forest, the song of birds in the woods, the rippling of rills among the rushes, and the sighing of the wind among the pines, needs not wonder if his heart forgets to sing and his soul grows heavy. A day’s breathing of fresh air upon the hills, or a few hours’ ramble in the beach woods’ umbrageous calm, would sweep the cobwebs out of the brain of scores of our toiling ministers who are now but half alive. A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind’s face, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is the next best thing. . . .
[C.H. Spurgeon]
April 21, 2017
Tell not only of the burden that has oppressed. Tell also of the grace that has sustained; not only of the sorrow that has wounded, but also of the divine sympathy, tenderness, and gentleness that have soothed and comforted, bound up, and healed that wound. Oh, to hear more frequently the shout of victory and the song of praise breaking in sweet music from the lips of the redeemed!
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, pp. 122-23]
April 20, 2017
Malice does not care how true the charge is, but how cutting.
Malice runs in the blood and, as we say of [curdled milk], the older it is, the stronger.
Anger and malice differ in age.
[John Trapp, quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 104]
April 17, 2017
Oftentimes in His providential dealings with His children, there is more of the heart of God unfolded in a dark, overhanging cloud than is ever unveiled and revealed in a bright and glowing sunbeam.
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, pp. 113-114]
April 14, 2017
…the scandalous part about grace is, we don’t work for God….He brings us into the family, not into the company….There is no security in being an employee….There is no earning when it comes to being a child. You simply are…. You don’t have to try to be God’s daughter or son. You just are. He has become both our eternal Father and our eternal Husband. He uses the most permanent relationships we can comprehend on earth to describe his relationship to us.
[Jefferson Bethke, Jesus>Religion, pp. 148-149]
April 13, 2017
A wrinkled and deformed soul may dwell at the sign of a fair face. — Thomas Adams
Sometimes a coward may dwell at the sign of a roaring voice and of a stern countenance.— Simeon Ash
[Quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 97]
April 12, 2017
The man who lives with God in little matters, who walks with God in the details of his life, is the man who becomes the best acquainted with God—with His character, His faithfulness, His love.
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, p. 101]
April 7, 2017
If you say you want to know God’s truth, but neglect to go where the Word is preached, you are as insincere as the man who says he wants to watch the sun set but will not bother to turn his chair toward the west.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armor, 4/5]
April 6, 2017
The joy of a journey depends so much on who’s riding with us.
[David Murray, ReSet, p. 157]
April 5, 2017
God’s Word is called a light unto our feet—not to our tongues, merely to talk about—but to our feet, to walk by.
[William Gurnall, Readings from The Christian in Complete Armor, 4/4]
April 4, 2017
The future of human destiny derives all of its complexion and its form from present human character. The spring does not more certainly deepen into summer, the summer fade into autumn, the autumn pale into winter, nor the winter bloom again into spring than does our present probation merge into our future destiny, carrying with it its fixed principles, its unchanged habits, and its tremendous account.
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, pp. 96-97]
April 3, 2017
We must love God not only for the good that flows from Him, but for the good which is in Him. True love is not mercenary; he who is deeply in love with God does not need to be hired with reward, but can love God for the beauty of His holiness. Though it is not unlawful to look for benefits, we must not love God for His benefits only. This is not love of God, but self-love.
[Thomas Watson, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol 2, p. 91]
March 31, 2017
God is a God of order, not confusion (1 Cor. 14:33), and as His created image-bearers, we glorify Him—and feel much better—when we live regular, orderly lives. He made the world and us in such a way that we flourish when our lives are characterized by a basic rhythm and regularity.
[David Murray, ReSET, p. 133]
March 30, 2017
Oh! that when a man says, “How can I forbear the bait?” he would ask himself, “How can I endure the hook?”
[William Jenkins, quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 89]
March 29, 2017
The main emotion of the adult American who has all the advantages of wealth, education, and culture is disappointment.
[John Cheever, quoted in Yancey, Vanishing Grace, p. 208]
March 28, 2017
The interconnectivity of the physical and the spiritual means that the health of the body affects the health of the soul, and vice versa, and it’s not always easy to figure out the contribution of each to our problems! But we cannot neglect one realm and expect not to suffer the consequences (Proverbs 17:22; Psalm 32:3-4).
[David Murray, ReSet, p. 41]
March 27, 2017
Why do we delight to tell (the Lord] all of our circumstances and sorrows? Because He is our best friend, and it soothes the soul to unburden our cares in the bosom of a friend. This is the noblest and highest friendship. Amazing grace of God to man! Rejoice in this, and delight in all opportunity to employ and improve it.
[Isaac Watts, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 84]
March 24, 2017
Nothing Satan offers is free of his curse. His rewards are as contaminated as he is. They are poison to the souls of men.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from the Christian in Complete Armor, 3/24]
March 23, 2017
If sanctification is not my priority, then it should not surprise me if I find my Christian life dogged with frustration. For in this case I am seeking, consciously or not, to withstand the eternal purposes of God. I am missing out on the central privileges of the Christian life, namely glorifying and enjoying him…. If God has committed himself to changing our lives, to sanctifying us, then wisdom—not to mention amazed gratitude—dictates that we should be committed to that, too.
[Sinclair Ferguson, Devoted to God: Blueprints for Sanctification, pp. 16-17]
March 22, 2017
People walk not in the best, but in the beaten way. — John Boys
Custom is not only a grave to bury a soul in, but a stone rolled to the mouth of it to keep it down. — Thomas Adams
[Quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 31]
March 21, 2017
We are called to worship because in this encounter God (re)makes and molds us top-down. Worship is the arena in which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.
[James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love, p. 77]
March 20, 2017
The Cross is the standard that we must hold up to the world. But today, in our society, most of us who profess to know Christ would never dream of offering the Cross to the world. This is because we are not attracted to it ourselves. Thus there is a constant attempt in the church to attract the world with the world. We offer entertainment, facilities, personalities—but not the Cross. Yet Jesus said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32).
[Clyde Cranford, Because We Love Him, p. 191]
March 18, 2017
People who focus on instant gratification – things that are safe, easy and comfortable – rarely reach their long-term goals.
[Martin Meadows, How to Build Self-Discipline:
Resist Temptations and Reach Your Long-Term Goals]
March 17, 2017
Fulfillment comes from doing what God created you to do. That’s based on your spiritual gifts, your heart, your abilities, your personality and experiences. So your interpreting a lack of fulfillment isn’t your job’s fault. Or your marriage’s. Or your local church’s. Or your home’s. It’s a by-product of a heart that’s searching for fulfillment in the wrong places.
[Ben Reed, Are You Running on Empty?, www.benreed.net]
March 16, 2017
Human life is fleeting…. We have a short time with which to make the most of our lives, and in this day and age many people have trouble finding the joy as well as the positives in their life. In our flurry of activities, schedules, trials, and tribulations, we sometimes forget to stop and smell the roses. We forget to acknowledge the moments and events that have positive or neutral impacts on our lives, maybe even taking them for granted. We often overlook our blessings in disguise and fail to see them for what they are or could be. Learn to slow down and recognize more of these seemingly insignificant instances that are buried throughout the chaos of our lives, and you might find that extra bit of peace and happiness we are all searching for….
[Kyle Rohrig, Lost on the Appalachian Trail, p. 344]
March 7, 2017
The object of our love transforms us into a thing more noble or more vile…. Whatsoever we love, we give it a kind of dominion over us.
[Samuel Annesley, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 28]
March 6, 2017
Sanctity is no enemy to courtesy. — John Trapp
March 4, 2017
What do you really want? Here is the unveiling of our hearts. Oh, we want so many things! We are always chasing after something we think will finally satisfy us, only to find that the more we have, the more we want. The truth is that nothing really satisfies but Jesus. Whether we realize it or not, He is all we really want, or ever could want.
[Clyde Cranford, Because We Love Him, pp. 106-107]
March 3, 2017
Our hearts cry out, “Why do I find such struggling in me, provoking me to sin, pulling me back from that which is good?” God has a ready answer if we will stop whining long enough to hear it. “Because,” He says, “you are a wrestler, not a conqueror.” It is as simple as that. Too often we mistake the state of a Christian in this life. He is not immediately called to triumph over his [internal] enemies, but is carried into battle to fight them. The state of grace is the commencement of your war against sin, not the culmination of it.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armor, 3/2]
March 2, 2017
God is wise, just, and sovereign of the world. The earth is His, and all its fullness. May He not do what He will with His own? If we question His providence, we question His wisdom. Is it fit for us who know nothing to say to infinite wisdom, “what are you doing?”
[Stephen Charnock, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 47]
March 1, 2017
He that brags of his humility loses it. — John Boys
Many are humbled, but not humble; low, but not lowly. — John Trapp
[Quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 30]
February 28, 2017
When [God’s] children lie in Satan’s prison, bleeding from the wounds of their consciences, He hurries to reveal His tender heart in pitying, His faithfulness in praying, His mindfulness in sending help to them, and His dear love in visiting them by His comforting Spirit.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armor, Feb. 23]
February 27, 2017
The key to a productive and contented life is “planned neglect”—knowing what not to do and being content with saying no to truly good, sometimes fantastic, opportunities. This happens only when you realize how truly limited you are, that you must steward your little life, and that of all the best things to do on the planet, God wants you to do only a minuscule number.
[Randy Alcorn, “A Lesson Hard Learned: Being Content with Saying No to Truly Good Opportunities,”
(November 10, 2014), Eternal Perspective Ministries]
February 25, 2017
God’s everlasting arms are undergirding you in your deepest extremities. His arms are strong and long, and can reach to the bottom beyond all misery and distress that Christians are subject to in this life. Indeed, mercy seems to be asleep when we are sinking, but it will awake in time for our help! God will arise at the fittest season to help and deliver his sinking people. This is worthy of consideration for all sinking souls who feel themselves descending into the pit….In this deep in which you are descending lies a delivering mercy crouching to catch you and save you from sinking forever (Psalm 40:2-3).
[John Bunyan, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 53]
February 24, 2017
First [your adversary the devil] will point out that you are not perfect but are expected to be; then, he will tell you that since you are not perfect, God will have nothing to do with your pitiful efforts…. Comfort yourself in this: If you find a voice within your heart pleading for God and entering its protest against evil, you and your efforts are acceptable in His sight. God sees your failures as symptoms of your sickly state here below and pities you as He would a lame child.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from the Christian in Complete Armor, 2/12]
February 23, 2017
Do not think that what your thoughts dwell upon is of no matter. Your thoughts are making you. We are two men…what is seen, and what is not seen. But the unseen is the maker of the other.
[Francis Paget, quoted in Clyde Cranford, Because We Love Him, p. 159]
February 22, 2017
Oh, there is a fathomless depth of wisdom in the divine arrangement that keeps us so long out of heaven! The world needs us, and we need the world. It needs us to illumine and sanctify it. We need it as the field of our conflict and as the school of our graces. We want the world, not as the hermit’s cell, but as a vast theater, where before angels and men our Christianity is developed in the achievements of prayer, in the triumphs of faith, in the labors of love, and in the endurance of suffering.
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, p. 46]
February 21, 2017
On whom the Father fixes His love, He loves unto the end. His love is immutable; it does not grow in eternity, and is not diminished at any time. It is an eternal love; it had no beginning, and shall have no end…. Does God love His people in their sinning? Yes, His people—not their sinning. He does not alter His love towards them, or the purpose of His will, but the dispensations of His grace. He rebukes, chastens, and hides His face from them, but woe, woe would it be to us should He change His love or take away His kindness from us!
[John Owen, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 43]
February 20, 2017
The Spirit, through the Word, teaches you to read the shorthand of [God’s] dispensations: Every son whom He loves, He corrects. Behind the travail of every affliction is a blessing waiting to be born.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armor, 2/15]
February 18, 2017
Arrogance is a weed that ever groweth in dung-hills.
[George Swinnock, quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 47]
February 17, 2017
Without faith we are not fit to desire mercy; without humility we are not fit to receive it; without affection we are not fit to value it; without sincerity we are not fit to improve it.
[Stephen Charnock, quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 46]
February 16, 2017
Here is a timely warning when you find your soul adrift in the heavy fog of tribulation: Neither accuse God foolishly of your enemy’s mischief, nor charge yourself with belonging to the enemy. God can chart a straight course in the worst storm. He can be righteous when He uses wicked instruments, and gracious when He uses harsh providences. Do not overreact to changes in your temporal estate. Christ told us to expect some rough sailing before we reach heaven’s shore.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armor, 2/15]
February 15, 2017
There is no such thing as chance. Every circumstance of life, whether good or bad, has been purposefully allowed by God. When adverse circumstances come we must remember that our God is bigger than those circumstances, and they are completely under His control. We sometimes say things like, “I’m doing fine, under the circumstances.” The question is, why are we under the circumstances? God is above them, and they are subject to Him. Therefore, we must be above them as well, no matter how difficult they might be.
[Clyde Cranford, Because We Love Him, p. 42]
February 14, 2017
Reflecting on 1 John 4:10 — “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”: Oh, depth of love unfathomable! Oh, height of love unsearchable! Oh, length and breadth of love unmeasurable! Oh, love of God, which passes knowledge!
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, p. 41]
February 13, 2017
Precious gospel that opens to the eye of faith so sweet a prospect as this! When you cannot think of [Christ Jesus], afflicted soul, He is thinking of you. When you cannot pray to Him, He is praying for you, for “He ever liveth to make intercession.”
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, p. 37]
February 11, 2017
[Jesus] was so willing to undertake the work of our redemption. Hence, he became an endless, bottomless fountain of grace to all them that believe…. All our reliefs thus are in our Beloved. Here is the life of our souls, the joy of our hearts, our relief against sin, and deliverance from the wrath to come!
[John Owen, Works, 11:62-69, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 39]
February 10, 2017
Our love is tested and proven by our hunger to know God. If we love Him, we want to know Him more, no matter what the cost. When we see that God longs for us with a burning love and that though we may grieve Him, we can never cause Him to turn away from us the gaze of that love, then we are filled with longing, with shame and with hope that we might grow to know Him better and love Him more.
[Clyde Clanford, Because We Love Him, pp. 63-64]
February 9, 2017
My counsel in this case is to do with such feelings [i.e. that because you yielded to temptation you’re no longer a child of God] as you would with outlaw gangs who travel around the country harassing good citizens. While you may not be able to keep them from passing through your town, you can certainly see to it that they do not settle there.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armor, Feb. 8]
February 8, 2017
When it comes to the management of our time, we need to go beyond being principle-centered to being God-centered.
The center of your life is your source of guidance, security, and meaning. To be God-centered, then, is to make God the source of your guidance, security, and meaning. It is to put Him first in your life, to regard Him as more important than anything else, to make His glory the chief aim of your life, to do everything you do to please and honor Him, and to live your life in relationship with Him.
[Matt Perman, What’s Best Next, p. 34]
February 7, 2017
A Christian, indeed, in some measure is enabled to make God his trust and confidence, but there remains an abundance of atheism even in the best of us. Why do we not trust him and depend upon him for all things? Why do we not trust him for protection and deliverance from all ill, especially spiritual ills: from sin, Satan, hell, and wrath?… We also may know that we make God our God by our obedience, especially by the obedience of the inward man.…
Whatsoever we give the supremacy of the inward man to; whatsoever we love most, whatsoever we trust most, whatsoever we fear most, delight in most, and obey most—that is our god!
[Richard Sibbes, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 35]
February 6, 2017
If God is our God, he has set his love upon us, and we cannot but love him back….If God is [the Christians’] love, how can they bear to hear him disgraced and his name abused without being greatly moved and set on fire? Where there is no zeal, there is no love….If we make God our God, we joy in him above all things in the world. He is our boast all day long. We count it our chief glory that we are his, and that he is ours….
Many who should joy in God above all things act as if there were no God in heaven when their outward comforts are taken from them. They act as if there were no providence to rule the world and as if they had no Father in covenant with them…. Whatever we trust in most, that is our god!
[Richard Sibbes, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 34]
February 4, 2017
Everything in our present course reminds us that we are nearing home….
Are you bereaved? Weep not! Earth has one tie the less, and heaven one tie the more. Are you impoverished of earthy substance? Grieve not! Your imperishable treasure is in heaven. Are you sailing over dark and stormy waters? Fear not! The rising flood but lifts your ark higher and nearer the mount of perfect safety and endless rest. Are you battling with disease, conscious that life is ebbing and eternity is nearing? Tremble not! There is light and music in your lone and shaded chamber, the dawn and chiming of your heavenly home.
“I am going home!” Transporting thought!
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, p. 30]
February 3, 2017
Essentially, your vocation is to be found in the place you occupy in the present. A person stuck in a dead-end job may have higher ambitions, but for the moment, that job, however humble, is his vocation. Flipping hamburgers, cleaning hotel rooms, emptying bedpans all have dignity as vocations, spheres of expressing love of neighbor through selfless service, in which God is masked.
[Gene Edward Veith, The Spirituality of the Cross (Concordia Publishing: St. Louis, MO, 1999), 80.]
February 2, 2017
No selfish pleasure ever brought to the heart the peace, the joy, and the happiness as one solitary act of kindness to another…. The religion of many of the Lord’s people is sickly and feeble, cold and gloomy, just because it is so selfish.
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, p. 29]
February 1, 2017
If we do not wish to yield to sin, we must take care not to walk by it or sit at the door of the occasion. Do not look on temptation with a wandering eye if you do not wish to be taken by it, nor allow your mind to dwell on that which you do not want lodged in your heart.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armor, Jan. 31]
January 31, 2017
He that brags of his humility loseth it. — John Boys
Many are humbled, but not humble; low, but not lowly. — John Trapp
[Quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 30]
January 30, 2017
What is casual to us is ordained by God. Things that appear random or loose acts of the creature are directed by God to a higher end than we can presently imagine…. Providence is the great clock keeping time and order, not only hourly, but instantly, to His own honor…. God’s providence and ways are mysterious. Dark providences are often the groundwork for some excellent work He is about to discover to the world…. All of God’s providences are but His touch of the strings of this great instrument of the world. And all His works are excellent because they are the fruit of His wonderful counsel and unsearchable wisdom!
[Stephen Charnock, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 27]
January 27, 2017
The end of all God’s working is to perfect His saints in their virtues and comforts. He is the wise caretaker of our souls. When He uses afflictions to lop and prune our spirits, it is only to purge so we can bring forth more and better fruit (John 15:2). The same tribulation which yields bitter results in the arid soul of the wicked is used to produce the sweet fruit of the Spirit in the fertile soil of the saint.
[William Gurnall, Daily Readings from the Christian in Complete Armor, 1/25]
January 26, 2017
Learn to be content with your present lot, with God’s dealings with you, and His disposal of you. You are just where His providence has, in its inscrutable but all-wise and righteous decision, placed you….Wherever you are placed, God has a work for you to do, a purpose through you to be accomplished in which He blends your happiness with His glory.
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, p. 25]
January 25, 2017
“If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it,” said Charles Haddon Spurgeon in an 1855 sermon, “but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly; it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old Proverb, ‘A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.’”
[Quoted by Joe Carter]
January 24, 2017
…the sin which does so easily and so perpetually beset [the Christian] is the sin of unbelief, the fruitful cause of all other sin. For as faith is the parent of all holiness, so unbelief the parent of all unholiness.
[Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts, p. 22]
January 23, 2017
At the core of every project of self-salvation is the staunch unwillingness to believe that God’s love and forgiveness can be unmerited.
[From Jen Pollock Michel, Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition and the Life of Faith, Kindle edition]
January 21, 2017
Affliction is God’s flail to thresh off our husks. — Thomas Watson
Troubles are free schoolmasters. — John Trapp
[Both quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p. 20]
January 20, 2017
Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God, and of ourselves….and we cannot seriously aspire to Him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves…. Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to find Him.
[John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, pp. 35-37]
January 19, 2017
Without the doctrine of sin, we are led toward being unusually optimistic about our humanity. We will refuse to face the viciousness of our capabilities and will trust our desires too much and fear ourselves too little.
[From Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition and the Life of Faith by Jen Pollock Michel]
January 18, 2017
Failure to know what God is really like and what his law requires destroys the soul, ruins society, and leaves people to eternal ruin: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos 4:6), and “A people without understanding comes to ruin” (4:14). This is the tragic condition of Western culture today, which has put away the information about God that God himself has made available.
[Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p.103.]
January 17, 2017
More gratitude will not come from acquiring more things or experiences, but from an awareness of God’s presence and goodness. It’s a way of looking at life, always perceiving the good. Gratitude is a byproduct of a way of seeing things….
[John Ortberg, Soul Keeping, p. 170]
January 15, 2017
Better to present truth in her native plainness than to hang her ears with counterfeit pearls.
— Thomas Brooks
There is but one truth, yet errors about truth [abound].
— Thomas Goodwin
[Both quotes from The Puritans Day by Day, p. 13]
January 14, 2017
The difference between a critic and a servant is how they approach a problem. A critic stands back and points out the problem; a servant rolls up his or her sleeves and helps solve the problem.
[From Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion, p. 191]
January 13, 2017
I pray for you…that wherever you live or whatever stage of life you are in you will see life as a pilgrimage. That starting today, you will begin the quest to rediscover your roots, understand that life is a journey, and passionately embrace your destination. That as you embark on this pilgrimage, you will learn to trust God more than you ever have done and to take some risks, to step out in faith, leave your comfort zone and open yourself…to meeting God in new and exciting ways…. That you will have the courage to begin today. It may be scary, but not as scary as doing nothing. It may be risky, but not as risky as a lifetime of regrets.
[Jim Belcher, In Search of Deep Faith]
January 12, 2017
Today’s greatest fear is not over death or public speaking. I think it’s the fear of silence. We refuse to turn off our computers, turn off our phones, log off Facebook, and just sit in silence, because in those moments we might actually have to face up to who we really are.
[From Jefferson Bethke, Jesus > Religion, p. 5]
January 11, 2017
Time is a resource that is nonrenewable and nontransferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up, or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day—when it’s lost it is unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection. — A.W. Tozer
January 10, 2017
Good intentions do no more make a good action than a fair mark makes a good shot.
What the foot is to the body the will is to the soul
[William Gurnall, quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p.9]
January 9, 2017
Either keep silence, or speak that which is better than silence.
[John Trapp, quoted in The Puritans Day by Day, p.2]
January 8, 2017
A Christian must cry out, “Lord, I have two mites, a soul and a body, and I give them all to you!” There is no better present than to present yourself to God. There is no present more honorable or acceptable to God than this giving up ourselves to God.
[Thomas Brooks, quoted in Voices from the Past, vol. 2, p. 9]