Faithfulness to Your Spouse is a Testimony to the World

Merely being faithful to your spouse is quite a testimony in this society. But as you go beyond that to communicate love for your spouse in a consistent, creative, and uninhibited way, the world can’t help but notice. God will be honored.

~ Gary and Betsy Ricucci (taken from Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas)

Give What You Have to Jesus

The point Jesus got across to His disciples was that it didn’t matter if they only had a little bit – a little bit… of time, of money, of education, of ability, of knowledge, of strength, of resources…what mattered was that they gave all that they had to Jesus. Then He would make it enough.

~ Anne Graham Lotz (Life is Just Better with Jesus)

What is Abiding in Jesus?

To abide in Christ means to remain connected to Him so completely that the “sap” of His Spirit flows through every part of your being, including your mind, will, and emotions as well as your words and deeds. The “fruit” that you then bear is actually produced by His Spirit in you through no conscious effort of your own. If you and I want to be fruitful, we do not concentrate on fruit-bearing’ we concentrate on our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

~ Anne Graham Lotz (Life is Just Better with Jesus)

Its about the Worthiness of Jesus - Nothing Else

Our entrance into God’s presence is not based on our own worthiness but on the worthiness of Jesus Christ! When we enter God’s presence in Jesus’ name, we are accepted by God as Jesus is, because God counts us as His own dear children!

~ Anne Graham Lotz (Life is Just Better with Jesus)

Do we play games with sin?

You and I often play games with the names we call sin to make it seem less like sin. For example,

We call the sin of unbelief, worry.
We call the sin of lying, exaggeration.
We call the sin of fornication, safe sex.
We call the sin of homosexuality, gay.
We call the sin of murder, the right to choose.

As long as we switch the labels on sin to make it seem less serious, we’re being dishonest with ourselves and with God, and we remain unforgiven. But, if we say the same thing about our sin that God says – if we say, “God, it’s lying. It’s jealous. It’s lust. It’s revenge. It’s hate. It’s adultery. It’s unforgiveness” – God will forgive us!

~ Anne Graham Lotz (Life is Just Better with Jesus)

The Way Out

But for those of us who know we have been lost, our overwhelming gratitude for the Guide is enough to compel us to tell others about Him – about the truth of their lost condition and the truth about the Way out.

~ Anne Graham Lotz (Life is Just Better with Jesus)

My Life has Value

How can I feel depressed by the smallness of my life when the most important Man in the universe died for me, rules over me now, and will one day return for me? In the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am important. My life has value.

~ Anne Graham Lotz (Life is Just Better with Jesus)

Temptation and Sin are Our Greatest Enemies

Our explosion of joy will coincide with the flowering of our righteousness. In that day, we will be amazed that people once imagined temptation and sin were the allies of excitement and fulfillment, when in fact they were their greatest enemies.

~ Randy Alcorn (In Light of Eternity)

What Brings Fulfillment?

But sin is not what brings us fulfillment – it’s what robs us of fulfillment. Sin isn’t what makes life interesting; it’s what makes life empty. This emptiness inevitably leads to boredom. When there’s fulfillment, when there’s beauty, when we see God as he truly is, boredom becomes an impossibility. In heaven we will be filled as Psalm 16:11 describes, “with joy” and “with eternal pleasures.” Why? Because God is infinitely rich and pleasure-giving.

~ Randy Alcorn (In Light of Eternity)

Life's Greatest Certainty

Death is life’s greatest certainty. Death will come whether or not you’re prepared. But death is not an end; it’s a transition that will bring us face to face with our Creator.

~ Randy Alcorn (In Light of Eternity)

Ambassador for Christ

How are you doing as an ambassador for Christ? How are you doing representing your true country, heaven, as you live in this world that’s not yours? Have you adopted values and customs of this culture that are contrary to those of the culture of heaven? Have you compromised your allegiance to your true country and your true King?

~ Randy Alcorn (In Light of Eternity)

Success

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."

~ Booker T. Washington

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

What did you do with Jesus?

God did not invent denominations, man did. When we go to His home, He will invite us in, but will not ask us for our church or Sunday school credentials. Only one question will be asked: "What did you do on earth with My Son, Jesus?" It will make no difference whether we were Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile. What matters is whether we believe in Him or reject Him. Attending a particular church does not guarantee anyone admission to heaven.

~ Billy Graham (Death and the Life After)

Sectarian Worship?

"In heaven there will be no sectarian worship, no denominational differences, no church creeds. There will be no temple worship, for God and His Son, Jesus Christ, will be the centers of worship (Revelation 21:22)

~ Billy Graham (Death and the Life After)

Lean on Jesus

"The reason most of us don't feel the everlasting arms is because we never lean back."

~ Dotson Nelson

Learning to Lean

What is Courage?

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

"Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared."

~ Eddie Rickenbacker

I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. (NIV)

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (KJV)

~ Philippians 4:13

Forgiveness

But forgiveness is not an emotion... Forgiveness is an act of will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

~ Corrie Ten Boom

When life is hard...What are your options?

"As long as God keeps you on earth, it’s where he wants you. Don’t ever believe the devil’s lie that you should take your own life. Jesus says Satan’s a liar and a murderer (John 8:44). He lies to justify and rationalize his attempts to kill you by your own hand. Don’t listen to the liar. Listen to the truth (John 8:32; 14:6). Don’t make a terrible ending to your life’s story – finish your God-given course on earth. When he’s done – not before he’ll take you home in his own time and way."

~ Randy Alcorn (In Light of Eternity)

We are too easily pleased

If we consider the unblushing promises of rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. ~ C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

~ taken from Randy Alcorn's book In Light of Eternity

Life is a Training Course

"Our lives on earth are a training course to get us ready for heaven. It's not just that God is preparing a place for us. It's that he's preparing us for that place."

~ Randy Alcorn (In Light of Eternity)

Life Goal

"I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same.

~ C.S. Lewis (from In Light of Eternity by Randy Alcorn pages 163-164)

Conservative or Liberal or Both?

"Why should we have to choose between conservatism's emphasis on truth and liberalism's emphasis on grace? Why can't we oppose injustice to minorities and to the unborn? Why can't we oppose greedy ruination of the environment and anti-industry New Age environmentalism? Why can't we affirm the biblical right to the ownership of property and emphasize God's call to voluntarily share wealth with the needy? Why can’t we uphold God’s condemnation of sexual immorality, including homosexual practices, and reach out in love and compassion to those trapped in destructive lifestyles and dying from AIDS?"

~ Randy Alcorn (The Grace and Truth Paradox) for more info see blog entry.

Family

I yearn for a country where a woman who would rather be home with her children is no longer subjected to the disdain of the common culture and where the best compliment you can pay someone is that "He's a good family man."

~ Gary Bauer (Our Hopes, Our Dreams)

Fail to Pray - Fail to Grow

"The Christian who fails to pray will fail to grow as she should and will be trapped in a perpetual spiritual adolescence."

~ J. C. Ryle (taken from Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas)

Magnificent Marriage begins...

"A magnificent marriage begins not with knowing one another, but with knowing God."

~ Gary and Betsy Ricucci (taken from Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas)

Who did Jesus love? How should we love?

"Consider the type of people Jesus loved in the days he walked on earth – Judas (the betrayer); the woman at the well (a sexual libertine); Zacchaeus (the conniving financial cheat); and many others like them. In spite of the fact that Jesus was without sin and these people were very much steeped in sin, Jesus still honored them. He washed Judas’s feet; he spent time talking respectfully to the woman at the well. he went to Zacchaeus’s house for dinner. Jesus, the only perfect human being to live on this earth, moved toward sinful people; he asks us to do the same, beginning with the one closest to us – our spouse. Build contempt for contempt. Give honor to those who deserve it – beginning with your spouse."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Marriage)

Do an Inventory

"Take time to do an inventory of your spouse’s difficulties rather than of your spouse’s shortcomings."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Marriage)

Behavior of Others...

"You never have less reason to be pleased with yourself than when you find yourself most angry and offended at the behavior of others. All sin is certainly to be hated and abhorred where it is, but then we must set ourselves against sin as we do against sickness and diseases, by showing ourselves tender and compassionate to the sick and diseased."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Marriage)

Learning to Love

"The beauty of Christianity is in learning to love, and few life situations test that so radically as does a marriage."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Marriage)

Think of Marriage as a Gym

"Marriage can be the gym in which our capacity to experience and express God’s love is strengthened and further developed. To get there, we have to realize that human love and divine love aren’t two separate oceans but rather one body of water with many tributaries. We show our love for God in part by loving our spouses well."

~ Gary Thomas (Sacred Marriage)

Live Now

"Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do."

~ Jean de la Bruyere