You can trust the LORD to help you. Amid trials and afflictions, quickly cry out to the LORD for help. His help will come as you wait on Him. As you wait for the help He is bringing, reflect on all He has brought you through in the past. He did it before; He will do it again. As others see you place your trust in the LORD, they also will learn to place their trust in the LORD. Read more from Pastor Greg...

Bless us Lord, this Christmas, with quietness of mind; Teach us to be patient and always to be kind.

— Helen Steiner Rice #MakeItYourPrayer

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you — they are full of the Spirit and life.

— Jesus, John 6:63 TNIV

From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner, we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls. 

— Sadhu Sundar Singh

"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." — Jesus, John 15:15

"Christ-followers depend on the one they follow, finding in him all that they need, staying connected with him, realizing that it is Jesus at work within and through them, doing good." — Pastor Gregory A. Johnson, founder of LovingGodFellowship.org

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Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. — James 1:27

"We are to live and love as Christ did. Following Jesus, walking in holiness, helping those at their point of need, touching those who are often forgotten and overlooked, we are to live for Jesus. That is what being a Christ-follower is all about." — Pastor Gregory A. Johnson, founder of LovingGodFellowship.org

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For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 

"God's love for you was completed at the cross of Christ. Nothing can take his love from you. There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more or any less. It is finished. Live in his Love, allowing it to flow through you." — Pastor Gregory A. Johnson, founder of LovingGodFellowship.org

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in God's word I hope. Psalm 130:5

"Because I believe God’s word, I wait. Because I long for Jesus to come, I wait. Instead of wishing for, I fully expect God to keep his promises. It keeps me going when I no longer want to go, during the times I think I can wait no longer. I wait." — Pastor Gregory A. Johnson, Founder of LovingGodFellowship.org

Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 1 Peter 3:8 NRSV

"As Christ’s followers, we are to see others as he does. His compassion and mercy for ALL people are to be reflected through us. There is no tolerance for hate; it is evil. We love as Jesus loves. Love defeats hate." — Pastor Gregory A. Johnson, founder of LovingGodFellowship.org

It is not after we were reconciled by the blood of his Son that God began to love us, but before the foundation of the world. — John Calvin

The soul that walks in love neither tires others nor grows tired. — John of the Cross

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. — C. S. Lewis

An undivided heart, which worships God alone and trusts him as it should, is raised above all anxiety for earthly wants. — J. C. Geikie

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others (ESV).

In all your deeds and words you should look upon this Jesus as your model. Do so whether you are walking or keeping silence or speaking, whether you are alone or with others. — Saint Bonaventure

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness. — Corrie Ten Boom

The church is an organism, not an organization; a movement, not a monument. — Chuck Colson

The physical voice we use in prayer need not be great nor startling; even should we not lift up any great cry or shout, God will yet hear us. — Origen

The one true way of dying to self is the way of patience, meekness, humility, and resignation to God. — Andrew Murray

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jesus promised his disciples three things — that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble. — G.K. Chesterton

When led by the Spirit, the child of God must be as ready to wait as to go, as prepared to be silent as to speak. — Lewis Sperry Chafer

Love is not merely the Christian duty; it is the Christian destiny. - N.T. Wright

Keep yourself as a pilgrim and a stranger here in this world, as one to whom the world's business counts but little. Keep your heart free, and always lift it up to God. — Thomas à Kempis

We are Christians and strangers on this earth. Let none of us be frightened; our native land is not this world. — St. Augustine of Hippo

Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

If we really think that home is elsewhere, and that this life is a "wandering to find home," why should I not look forward to the arrival? — C. S. Lewis

When Jesus Christ asked little children to come to him, he didn't say only rich children, or White children, or children with two-parent families, or children who didn't have a mental or physical handicap. He said, "Let all children come unto me." — Marian Wright Edelman

When you carry out acts of kindness, you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, "Yes, this is how I ought to feel." — Rabbi Harold Kushner

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. — Albert Schweitzer

If in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be "devout" and to perform my "religious duties," then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely "proper," but loveless. — Pope Benedict XVI

Have you thought about His (God) handling of the gospel? God needs to get a message out to the human race, without which they will perish...forever. What's the plan? First, He starts with the most unlikely group ever: a couple of prostitutes, a few fishermen with no better than a second-grade education, a tax collector. Then, he passes the ball to us. Unbelievable. — John Eldredge

What Jesus was offering, in other words, was not a different religious system. It was a new world order, the end of Israel's long desolation, the true and final "forgiveness of sins," the inauguration of the kingdom of god. — N.T. Wright

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope. — Thomas Merton

God is in the business of restoration, and he's been doing it for a long, long time. We're merely his partners, his apprentices. We're working with a pro! Today open your heart and let God's touch bring restoration to those areas of your life that need repair. Then go and touch others with his restoring love. — Amy Nappa

Many Bible passages (such as Luke 13:3 or Acts 2:38) issue a call for repentance. Repentance? The very thought stops our hearts with chilling honesty, for it insists that we come clean before we set out to execute life's important choices. Repentance demands that we choose a path of holy living. — Calvin Miller

It is not the uniqueness of "Christianity" as a system that we defend, but the uniqueness of Christ. ... So, because in no other person but Jesus of Nazareth did God first become human (in his birth), then bear our sins (in his death), then conquer death (in his resurrection) and then enter his people (by his Spirit), he is uniquely able to save sinners. Nobody else has his qualifications. — John R. W. Stott

The New Testament looks beyond retribution to a vision of justice that is finally satisfied only by the defeat of evil and the healing of its victims, by the restoration of peace and the renewal of hope — a justice that manifests God's redemptive work of making all things new. — Christopher D. Marshall

I'm not suggesting that we have the power to heal physical conditions with our human fingers. But I do believe there's a healing of the spirit that takes place when we touch others. There's a comfort that can't be found anywhere else but in a touch or a hug. Somehow, God's love and power is shared with others through the simplicity of our physical touch. — Amy Nappa

Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

The blessed and inviting truth is that God is the most winsome of all beings and in our worship of Him we should find unspeakable pleasure. — A. W. Tozer

To take up the cross of Christ is no great action done once for all; it consists in the continual practice of small duties which are distasteful to us. — John Henry Newman

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. — C. S. Lewis

We admit no faith to be justifying, which is not itself and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of obedience and good works. — John Owen

Let us leave a little room for reflection in our lives, room too for silence. Let us look within ourselves and see whether there is some delightful hidden place inside where we can be free of noise and argument. Let us hear the Word of God in stillness and perhaps we will then come to understand it. — Augustine

Christianity does not consist in any partial amendment of our lives, any particular moral virtues, but in an entire change of our natural temper, a life wholly devoted to God. — William Law

A blind, anemic, weak-kneed flea on crutches would have a greater chance of defeating a herd of a thousand wild stampeding elephants, than the enemy has of defeating God. — Ray Comfort

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. — Mother Teresa

Christians are like the flowers in a garden, that have each of them the dew of Heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall at each other's roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other. — John Bunyan

You don't think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than they love the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Knowledge of God can be fully given to man only in a Person, never in a doctrine. Faith is not the holding of correct doctrine, but personal fellowship with the living God. — William Temple

Not only do we not know God except through Jesus Christ; We do not even know ourselves except through Jesus Christ. — Blaise Pascal

God will be the covenant God of his people world without end. There is no other God, we wish for no other, we would have no other even if other there were. Throughout life, and to our dying couch, he will lead us to the living fountains of waters. — Charles H. Spurgeon

We should dedicate ourselves to becoming in this life the most perfect worshippers of God we can possibly be, as we hope to be through all eternity. — Brother Lawrence

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much (NRSV). — Jesus

God will either give you what you ask, or something far better. — Robert Murray M'Cheyne

I shall not value his prayers at all, be he never so earnest and frequent in them, who gives not alms according to his ability. — John Owen

This is the rule of most perfect Christianity, its most exact definition, its highest point, namely, the seeking of the common good. For nothing can so make a person an imitator of Christ as caring for [their] neighbors. — John Chrysostom

At his ascension our Lord entered heaven, and he keeps the door open for humanity to enter. — Oswald Chambers

The only saving faith is that which casts itself on God for life or death. — Martin Luther

There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely difficult to find, of living every day as though it were our last, and yet living in faith and responsibility as though there were to be a great future. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God has reserved to Himself the right to determine the end of life, because He alone knows the goal to which it is His will to lead it. It is for Him alone to justify a life or to cast it away. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Spirituality without a prayer life is no spirituality at all, and it will not last beyond the first defeats. Prayer is an opening of the self so that the Word of God can break in and make us new. Prayer unmasks. Prayer converts. Prayer impels. Prayer sustains us on the way. Pray for the grace it will take to continue what you would like to quit. — Joan Chittister

If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. — St. Augustine of Hippo

Just as at sea those who are carried away from the direction of the harbor bring themselves back on course by a clear sign, so Scripture may guide those adrift on the sea of life back into the harbor of the divine will. — St. Gregory of Nyssa

We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. — Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved. — John of the Cross

Some Christians haven't even attempted to think about whether or not they would die for Jesus because they haven't really been living for Him. — DC Talk

"The question we must ask our heart is, 'Am I comfortable under the eye of God? Or is God getting too close?' We are strange and lovely creatures. We can ache for God tremendously yet find ourselves getting nervous if God gets too close. After all, the closer God gets, the more we hear the call to be divinized. It is both exciting and frightening to hear that call." — MacRina Wiederkehr

The really important thing in life is not the avoidance of mistakes, but the obedience of faith. By obedience, the man is led step by step to correct his errors, whereas nothing will ever happen to him if he doesn't get going. — Paul Tournier

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chain of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness. — Corrie Ten Boom

The way to Christ is first through humility, second through humility, and third through humility. If humility does not precede and accompany and follow every good work we do, if it is not before us to focus on, it it is not beside us to lean upon, if it is not behind us to fence us in, pride will wrench from our hand any good deed we do at the very moment we do it. — Augustine

"Wherever there is any element of pride or of conceit, Jesus cannot expound a thing. He will take us through the disappointment of a wounded pride of intellect, through disappointment of heart. He will reveal inordinate affections-things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone." — Oswald Chambers

"What is my new desert? The name of it is compassion. There is no wilderness so terrible, so beautiful, so arid and so fruitful as the wilderness of compassion. It is the only desert that shall truly flourish like the lily. It shall become a pool, it shall bud forth and blossom and rejoice with joy. It is in the desert of compassion that the thirsty land turns into springs of water, that the poor possess all things." — Thomas Merton, from The Sign of Jonas

"We have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have, the more free you are." — Mother Teresa

"I will place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of Christ."

— David Livingstone

"Let us therefore become imitators of His endurance; and if we should suffer for His name's sake, let us glorify Him. For He gave this example to us in His own person, and we believed this." — Polycarp

"Although Thanksgiving is a time to reflect and be thankful for everything that God has so graciously provided, enjoying it has no relation to the abundance of what we have, or what we lack." ​Continue Reading >>

-- Gregory A. Johnson

"Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves."

-- Henry Ward Beecher

"If the devil were wise enough and would stand by in silence and let the gospel be preached, he would suffer less harm. For when there is no battle for the gospel it rusts and it finds no cause and no occasion to show its vigor and power. Therefore, nothing better can befall the gospel than that the world should fight it with force and cunning."

— Martin Luther

"There is nothing that we can see on earth which does not either show the wretchedness of man or the mercy of God. One either sees the powerlessness of man without God, or the strength of man with God." — Blaise Pascal

"When we let freedom ring ... when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children: black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last."  -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. Amen.

-- Adapted from a prayer by St. Augustine

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness. -- Corrie Ten Boom

Do not be discouraged at your faults; bear with yourself in correcting them, as you would with your neighbor. Lay aside this ardor of mind, which exhausts your body, and leads you to commit errors. Accustom yourself gradually to carry prayer into all your daily occupations. Speak, move, work, in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be. -- François Fénelon

A true love of God must begin with a delight in his holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute; for no other attribute is truly lovely without this.

-- Jonathan Edwards

If our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot because our charitable expenditure excludes them. — C. S. Lewis

Charity is, indeed, a great thing, and a gift of God, and when it is rightly ordered likens us unto God himself, as far as that is possible; for it is charity which makes the man.

-- John Chrysostom

"Holiness consists in doing God’s will joyfully. Faithfulness makes saints. The spiritual life is a union with Jesus: the divine and the human giving themselves to each other. The only thing Jesus asks of us is to give ourselves to him, in total poverty and total self-forgetfulness."

-- Mother Teresa

"My personal trials have also taught me the value of unmerited suffering. As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways that I could respond to my situation: either to react with bitterness or to transform the suffering into a creative force."

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

"Only when enough adults practice and teach children love and respect at home, in schools, religious congregations, and in our political and civic life will racial, gender, and religious intolerance and hate crimes subside in America and the world."

-- Marian Wright Edelman, from Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors

"Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand."

-- Henri J.M. Nouwen

Nobody worries about Christ as long as he can be kept shut up in churches. He is quite safe inside. But there is always trouble if you try and let him out.

-- G. A. Studdert Kennedy

We are certain there is forgiveness, because there is a gospel, and the very essence of the gospel lies in the proclamation of the pardon of sin.

-- Charles H. Spurgeon

​

by Gregory A. Johnson 

Under dark skies with the wind blowing wildly, causing the waves to be hurricane-like in size and strength, they were all together in the boat. Their pulses raced with anxiety. Fear was on the verge of overpowering and overwhelming them as they frantically tried steering the vessel through the madness and the fierceness of the raging sea. They would row in one direction only to have to row in the other direction as the unrelenting, powerful winds were swirling all about them. The spray was stinging their eyes, and the waves were lapping up over the sides of the boat. The boat was taking on water, and the question of survival was racing through their minds. It was the storm of a lifetime, and they could not rely on any past experiences or self-ability to get them through it. 

Continue reading »

“Those with whom Jesus identifies himself are regarded by society as misfits. And yet Jesus is that person who is hungry; Jesus is that woman who is confused and naked. Wouldn’t it be extraordinary if we all discovered that? The face of the world would be changed.”

-- Jean Vanier from, From Brokenness to Community

It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.

-- Dorothy Sayers

"That you need God more than anything, you know at all times in your heart. But don’t you know also that God needs you — in the fullness of [God's] eternity, you?"

-- Martin Buber

"Dependence on God may be what is lacking in a society where consumerism and accumulation have become the root diseases of a world in which everything is not enough and nothing satisfies."

-- Joan Chittister, from The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century (Spiritual Legacy Series)

"For me it is essential to have the inward peace and serenity of prayer in order to listen to the silence of God, which speaks to us, in our personal lives and in the history of our times, about the power of love."

-- Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

If I can't believe that the spacecraft I fly assembled itself, how can I believe that the universe assembled itself? I'm convinced only an intelligent God could have built a universe like this.

-- Jack Lousma

“Diamonds do not dazzle with beauty unless they are cut. Then cut, the rays of the sun fall on them and make them shine with wonderful colors. So when we are cut by the cross, we shall shine as jewels in the [reign of God].”

-- Sadhu Sundar Singh

"At some thoughts one stands perplexed, above all at the sight of human sin, and wonders whether to combat it by force or by humble love. Always decide ‘I will combat it by humble love.’ If you resolve on that once and for all, you can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is a terrible force: it is the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.”

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, from The Brothers Karamazov

I am thankful that we are one day closer to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Media has utilized the date-setting false prophets of our day to desensitize society to the reality of the return of Christ, but that does not negate its truth. I feel the Holy Spirit compelling me, more and more, to remind people that Christ is returning as he promised, and we are to always be ready.

So many in our day, both inside and outside the walls of the church building, base what is right from wrong on what feels good, what is socially acceptable, what media and Hollywood suggests, instead of on Scripture. They are not hearing much different coming from behind the pulpits, and they are not reading the Bible on their own. Many go to church and only hear about receiving God's blessings. This bless-me-and-all-that-I-do message mimics many of the books written today by popular television preachers. Continue Reading >>

-- Jesus Christ Will Return, by Gregory A. Johnson

We must offer ourselves to God like a clean, smooth canvas and not worry ourselves about what God may choose to paint on it, but at each moment, feel only the stroke of His brush.

-- Jean Pierre de Caussade

“Sabbath observance invites us to stop. It invites us to rest. It asks us to notice that while we rest, the world continues without our help. It invites us to delight in the world’s beauty and abundance.”

-- Wendell Berry

We are Christians and strangers on this earth. Let none of us be frightened; our native land is not this world.

-- St. Augustine of Hippo

"The good news of the resurrection of Jesus is not that we shall die and go home to be with him, but that he has risen and comes home with us, bringing all his hungry, naked, thirsty, sick prisoner [brothers and sisters] with him."

-- Clarence Jordan

When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want? .. Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn't they matter most now?

-- Max Lucado

"Christianity doesn't deny the reality of suffering and evil... Our hope... is not based on the idea that we are going to be free of pain and suffering. Rather, it is based on the conviction that we will triumph over suffering."

-- Brennan Manning

If you knew that only a few would care that you came, would you still come? If you knew that those you loved would laugh in your face, would you still care? If you knew that the tongues you made would mock you, the mouths you made would spit at you, the hands you made would crucify you, would you still make them? Christ did.

-- Max Lucado

Every time you trust God's wisdom and do whatever he says, even when you don't understand it, you deepen your friendship with God.

-- Rick Warren

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a little bit more!" And what happened then ... in Who-ville they say [is] that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!

-- Dr. Suess

There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ.

-- Blaise Pascal

If we really think that home is elsewhere, and that this life is a 'wandering to find home,' why should I not look forward to the arrival?

-- C. S. Lewis

"Anybody can observe the Sabbath but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week."

-- Alice Walker, from In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

You were planned for God's pleasure. ... God did not NEED to create you, but he CHOSE to create you for ... his benefit, his glory, his purpose, and his delight.

-- Rick Warren

Believing in the future takes faith. ... We cannot function effectively without a belief in that which does not exist. ... You believe in tomorrow; you believe in progress.

-- Erwin Raphael McManus

"My life is not simply a meaningless conglomeration of serendipitous events and unremarkable happenstance. Rather, it is a series of divine appointments with the goal of shaping my character."

-- Kelly James Clark

The real danger of legalism is that it produces a sense of attainment that short-circuits our call to live the life of Yes through Christ. Self-achievement brings a false sense of assurance that somehow we can live a pure life in our own ability. This attitude ultimately leads us to cut ourselves off from the heart of God and, in turn, to deny our true identity in Christ.

-- David Edwards

"The work of God is the calling of a people, whether in the Old Covenant or the New… That men and women are called together to a new wholeness is itself the work of God, which gives meaning to history.”

-- John Howard Yoder

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

-- John 1:14, NIV

The next time you find yourself alone in a dark alley facing the undeniables of life, don't cover them with a blanket, or ignore them with a nervous grin. Don't turn up the TV and pretend they aren't there. Instead, stand still, whisper his name, and listen. He is nearer than you think.

-- Max Lucado

The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.

-- G. K. Chesterton

When you carry out acts of kindness, you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, "Yes, this is how I ought to feel."

-- Rabbi Harold Kushner

All effective fathers learn the importance of a wise and flexible response to their children's calls for attention. No busy signals here. No "hold" button.

-- Gordon McDonald

"What is the 'impossible'? It is liberation. To liberate people from the demons of fear, of loneliness, of hatred and of egoism that shackle them. To liberate people so that they also can love, heal, and liberate others. But in order to do that, you must go in poverty and experience the life of God flowing within your own flesh."

-- Jean Vanier

“The nature of water is yielding, and that of a stone is hard. Yet if you hang up a bottle filled with water above the stone so that the water drips drop by drop, it will wear a hole in the stone. In the same way the word of God is tender, and our heart is hard. So when people hear the word of God frequently, their hearts are opened to the fear of God."

-- Abba Poeman

What we do is very little. But it is like the little boy with a few loaves and fishes. Christ took that little and increased it. [Christ] will do the rest. What we do is so little that we may seem to be constantly failing. But so did [Christ] fail. [Christ] met with apparent failure on the Cross. But unless the seeds fall into the earth and die, there is no harvest. 

-- Dorothy Day

God's touch in our lives is kind ... Romans 2:4 says that it's God's KINDNESS -- not his power or justice -- that leads us to repentance. ... And because of this kindness, we want to be closer to him.

-- Amy Nappa

You know how it is -- you say the same words, yet they mean different things to those hearing them. you offer the same touch, yet it yields different results in different lives. Some people soak up your touch; others wipe it off. You might look at these situations and get discouraged: "Fine! I just won't do anything nice for anyone!" Yet look back at the example of Jesus.

-- Amy Nappa

"We do not strive for spectacular actions. What counts is the gift of yourself, the degree of love you put into each of your deeds."

-- Mother Teresa

Real encouragement occurs when words are spoken from a heart of love to another's recognized fear.

-- Larry Crabb

The ultimate proof of total forgiveness takes place when we sincerely petition the Father to let those who have hurt us off the hook -- even if they have hurt not only us, but also those close to us.

-- R. T. Kendall

[King] David certainly was aware that his lust for power had become a barrier to inwardness. Careers, even religious careers, may become little more than forums for our own advancement. But how are we to deal with such ambition? Our longing after Christ must exceed our need for status in the world.

"The Word became flesh," John said ... He was touchable, approachable, reachable. And, what's more, he was ordinary. If he were here today you probably wouldn't notice him as he walked through a shopping mall. He wouldn't turn heads by the clothes he wore or the jewelry he flashed. "Just call me Jesus," you can almost hear him say.

-- Max Lucado

Does God indeed need to rest? Of course not! But did God choose to rest? Yes. Why? Because God subjected creation to a rhythm of rest and work that He revealed by observing the rhythm Himself, as a precedent for everyone else. In this way, He showed us a key to order in our private worlds.

-- Gordon McDonald

For the Christian, nothing less than the presence of the Spirit is enough to explain the marvelous changes worked in human lives. Call it grace; call it providence; call it the result of Bible study ... just so we understand that in and behind any or all the instruments is the presence and work of the Spirit who seeks and finds and transforms.

-- Jim McGuiggan

Why do so many people have struggles when it comes to prayer? .. Men and women were originally created to desire communion with God. But the effects of sin have dulled most of that original human desire. Sin turned a natural activity into an unnatural function.

-- Gordon McDonald

"Beg our Lord to grant you perfect love for your neighbor… If someone else is well spoken of, be more pleased than if it were yourself… Force your will, as far as possible, to comply in all things with others’ wishes although sometimes you may lose your own rights by doing so. Forget your self-interests for theirs, however much nature may rebel."

-- Teresa of Avila

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

-- St. Augustine of Hippo

Some people think that faith is believing that God will do what you want him to do—if you pray and believe, God will act in the way you want him to act on behalf of your situation or circumstance. They have been taught that if you mix some fasting with praying and believing, you can really get God’s attention, and he will do more of what you want him to do. With this type of thinking, glory is given to the individual who can supposedly move God into action. A true move of God will be in such a way that only God receives the glory.

Faith is believing that God will keep his word, doing what is right because he is in control and loves his children. It is in prayer where we receive more of his grace and mercy in our time of need as we release all of our worries and anxieties to him. Our human nature tries to hold on to them, but his nature is to bear them all if we just release them to him.

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"The Bible speaks with remarkable frequency of 'bearing.' It is capable of expressing the whole work of Jesus Christ in this one word… Therefore, the Bible can also characterize the whole life of the Christian as bearing the cross. It is the fellowship of the cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship [one] belongs to is not Christian."

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God might want you to extend his love by offering to baby-sit for the single parent down the street. He might want you to prepare a hearty meal for that lonely old man who lost his wife -- and to sit and visit with him while he eats. Who knows, he might even want you to reach out and touch the life of a total stranger in some way you can't imagine right now. Are you willing to set aside your own comfort to touch someone else with God's love?

-- Amy Nappa

“Love is the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth... Love is as love does. Love is an act of will -- namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.”

-- M. Scott Peck

No vital Christianity is possible unless at least three aspects of it are developed. These are the inner life of devotion, the outer life of service, and the intellectual life of rationality.

-- Elton Trueblood

"Living without speaking is better than speaking without living. For a person who lives rightly helps us by silence, while one who talks too much annoys us. If, however, words and life go hand in hand, it is the perfection of all philosophy."

-- Isidore of Pelusium

"Holiness consists in doing God’s will joyfully. Faithfulness makes saints. The spiritual life is a union with Jesus: the divine and the human giving themselves to each other. The only thing Jesus asks of us is to give ourselves to [God], in total poverty and total self-forgetfulness."

-- Mother Teresa, from The Love of Christ

"One cannot be aware both of the history of Christian war and of the contents of the gospels without feeling that something is amiss."

- Wendell Berry, from his introduction to Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings About Love, Compassion and Forgiveness

There is a big difference between mishearing and hearing only what we want to hear, right? We, the people of God, seem to have chronic 'itching ears,' and we can usually find somebody to scratch till we say 'Aaahh' (2 Tim. 4:3). Given the option, we will usually choose bigger barns to serve ourselves over bigger hearts to serve others (Luke 12:13-21).

-- Scotty Smith

We fear the search for who we are. Perhaps because we're afraid that having located our true souls, we might not like ourselves that much. So, we shrink to step across the threshold to our inner selves and invite God in.... But no matter how we love the busy world of our relationships, the fast-action theater of our noisy and hurried lives at last empties out. Then we find ourselves in lonely cells of bulky silence that compels us to turn from the outer things and face our inner selves -- and our mighty God. (A Hunger for the Holy: Nuturing Intimacy with Christ )

-- Calvin Miller

I cannot persuade myself that without love to others, and without, as far as rests with me, peaceableness toward all, I can be called a worthy servant of Jesus Christ. 

-- Saint Basil

"In the last days, the Bible tells us of a horrible series of events that will take place in the lands of Israel and Syria. One of these events is the disappearance of Damascus as one of the premiere cities in the world." Read more at RaptureReady.com...

In the Kingdom, all people will live out the life God planned for them whe He first created the human race. In the Kingdom, family life, economic life, and political life will be lived out in accord with the plan of God.

-- Tony Campolo

"But the Christianity that called to me, through the stories I read in the Bible, scattered the proud and rebuked the powerful. It was a religion in which divinity was revealed by scars on flesh. It was an upside-down world in which treasure, as the prophet said, was found in darkness; in which the hungry were filled with good things, and the rich sent out empty; in which new life was manifested through a humiliated, hungry woman and an empty, tortured man."

-- Sara Miles

God's wounds cure, sin's kisses kill.

-- William Gurnall