God's Love Is...

"The cross of Christ shows us that God's love is of deepest descent...universal distribution ...and of eternal duration."

~ Dr. Fred Barlow

Scene in Sacred History

"No scene in sacred history ever gladdens the soul like the scene on Calvary. Nowhere does the soul find such consolation as on that very spot where misery reigned, where woe triumphed, where agony reached its climax."

~ Spurgeon

Earth's saddest day...

Earth's saddest day and gladdest day were just three days apart!

~ Susan Coolidge

He Departed...

"And he departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here."

~ St. Augustine

God's Math

1 Cross + 3 Nails = 4 Given

~ Author Unknown

Jesus Can't Forget Us

"Jesus cannot forget us; we have been graven on the palms of his hands."

~ Lois Picillo

Easter says...

"Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there."

~ Clarence W. Hall

My Place

"Jesus took my place on the cross to give me a place in heaven."

~ Unknown

Benefits of the Resurrection

"The benefits [of the resurrection] are innumerable. To list a few: Our illnesses don't seem nearly so final; Our fears fade and lose their grip; Our grief over those who have gone on is diminished; Our desires to press on in spite of the obstacles is rejuvenated...Our identity as Christians is strengthened as we stand in the lengthening shadows of saints down through the centuries, who have always answered back in antiphonal voice: 'He is risen, indeed!'"

~ Charles Swindoll

Meaning in Life

"The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances."

~ Robert Flatt

Live and Die - Die and Live

"We live and die: Christ died and lived!"

~ John Stott

Christ has spoken...

"Christ has not only spoken to us by his life but has also spoken for us by his death."

~ Soren Kierkegaard

Cross of Christ

"All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning."

~ Oswald Chambers

The Truth

Once you look at the cross, you can't look at anything else, no matter how horrid it appears, and infer that God's intention is to do us harm. The truth is that God is good.

~ William Backcus

The Cross of Christ Brings...

How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior,was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby our wounds. A tree had destroyed us; a tree now brought us life.

~ Theodore of Studios

I Believe

Christ is the Son of God. He died to atone for men's sin, and after three days rose again. This is the most important fact in the universe. I die believing in Christ.

~ Watchman Nee - Note found under his pillow, in prison, at his death.

Our History Ends and Begins

Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.

~ Watchman Nee

The Cross

When Jesus died on the cross, He was giving "all He had" to pay the price for all the wrong things you've ever done. In your heart, for just a moment, would you walk up that hill the Bible calls Skull Hill and stand quietly at the foot of that cross where the Son of God is pouring out His life for you. Look at Him dying for you! You are not worthless! But you'll never know how valuable you are until you give yourself to the One who died to buy you back. Which you could do right now, right where you are.

~ Ron Hutchcraft

With Christ in Gethsemane

When a man really gives up trying to make something out of himself - a saint, or a converted sinner, or a churchman, a righteous or unrighteous man,...when in the fullness of tasks, questions, success or ill-hap, experiences and perplexities, a man throws himself into the arms of God...then he wakes with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith, and it is thus that he becomes a man and Christian.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God

"If you comprehend God He is not God."

~ Saint Thomas Aquinas

Do You Have a Hunger for God?

Do you have a hunger for God? If we don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. If we are full of what the world offers, then perhaps a fast might express, or even increase, our soul's appetite for God. Between the dangers of self-denial and self-indulgence is the path of pleasant pain called fasting.

~ John Piper

Fasting can be...

Fasting can be a painful admission that I am not free, that my life is enslaved, obsessed or addicted to external things such as food, drink, codependent relationships, sex, television, privacy and the like.

~ Albert Haase

Fasting is Important...

Fasting is important, more important perhaps, than many of us have supposed,... when exercised with a pure heart and a right motive, fasting may provide us with a key to unlock doors where other keys have failed; a window opening up new horizons in the unseen world; a spiritual weapon of God's provision, mighty, to the pulling down of strongholds. (God's Chosen Fast)

~ Arthur Wallis

Prayer is... Fasting is...

Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God.

~ Andrew Murray

Fasting and Prayer?

Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees. Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.

~ John Wesley

Fasting from...

A spiritually awake person would see everything as gift, even suffering. We deserve nothing and yet we so often act as though we deserve everything. Nothing should be taken for granted. We should say thank you every day to God and to each other for all that is provided for us. This is one reason why fasting is such an important spiritual discipline. Not just fasting from food, but also fasting from cars, shopping centres, the news - whatever we have an inordinate attachment to. Fasting can help re-kindle our gratitude for all that we have been given.

~ Glen Argan

Fasting is...

Fasting, if we conceive of it truly, must not... be confined to the question of food and drink; fasting should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of itself for the sake of some special spiritual purpose. There are many bodily functions which are right and normal and perfectly legitimate, but which for special peculiar reasons in certain circumstances should be controlled. That is fasting.

~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Come, see the place where the Lord lay

Ready-to-halt, poor Fearing, and thou, Mrs. Despondency, and Much-afraid, go often there [the empty tomb]; let it be your favourite haunt, there build a tabernacle, there abide. And often say to your heart, when you are in distress and sorrow, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The Cross is...

"Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers, or lined with velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders; but it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with iron colours, it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble."

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I Gave It

"A chaplain was speaking to a soldier on a cot in a hospital. "You have lost an arm in the great cause," he said. "No," said the soldier with a smile. "I didn't lose it - I gave it." In that same way, Jesus did not lose His life. He gave it purposefully."

~ Anonymous

Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, 'My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.

One is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'Its breeds contentment and happiness.

The other is Evil. It is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, fear, lying, pride and ego. Its breeds rage and regret.

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
'Which wolf wins?'

The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'

~ author unknown received in email