Spirit of Holiness

"My Father in heaven, may all my conduct be hallowed by Thy Spirit. Save me from everything that is vain and mean. May even the trifles in my life be pervaded by the spirit of holiness." ~ J. H. Jowett

What is an Apology?

So what does a good apology look like? Four things I think:

1. It demonstrates a true awareness of the pain you’ve caused the other.
2. It includes a real remorse for the wrong done.
3. It takes full responsibility for one’s actions.
4. It seeks to make amends while committing to change.

For more on apologies...check out Adam Hamilton's blog.

Express Your Gratitude

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. --John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Character in a Saint

"Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested." ~ Oswald Chambers

Be a Blessing

“We don’t have to be perfect to be a blessing. We are asked only to be real, trusting in Christ’s perfection to cover our imperfection.” ~ Gigi Graham Tchividjian

Healing Through Tough Times

"Sometimes God allows tough things in our lives so we can be healed of a hard heart.

With the pressures you’re facing today, will you respond in humility? Let God shape your life through the pressure."

~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Are You Crooked?

"The curvature of the moral spine is an affliction which only the Great Physician can cure." ~ Anonymous

Don't Lose Control

"When you resort to shouting in conflict, you are reacting in the flesh. You have lost control of the only person you can control: yourself." ~ Neil T. Anderson

How Do You Live?

“Has your relationship with God changed the way you live your life?” ~ Francis Chan

Love, Faith, Hope, & Passion

"Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire."

~ Amy Carmichael

No Regrets or Unfinished Business

"I want to live in such a way that, if it is only twenty-nine more days or twenty-nine more weeks, or if it is twenty-nine more years or more, I want to faithful with each one of those—that I could go and meet the Lord without regrets, without unfinished business." ~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss

God IS Able

"God is so able to take our sinful bents and restore us, through a process of confession and repentance and renewing of our minds, so that those actually become strong points in our lives." ~ Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Pray!

"I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working." ~ Hudson Taylor

Creature Comforts or Committment

"You have to be absolutely committed to your assignment if you're going to become all that God wants you to be. Those who are more concerned about their creature comforts than achieving victory will eventually fall by the wayside and fail. But if you're willing to pay the price, you'll be standing tall when all of those pushovers are gone, and you'll win the prize! Your endurance and refusal to quit will prove that you're a mighty champion of faith." ~ Rick Renner

Teach Me

"Teach me, O God, so to use all the circumstances of my life today that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin.
Let me use disappointment as material for patience:
Let me use success as material for thankfulness:
Let me use suspense as material for perseverance:
Let me use danger as material for courage:
Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering:
Let me use praise as material for humility:
Let me use pleasures as material for temperance:
Let me use pains as material for endurance."

~ John Baillie

Nowhere and Nothing

"Outside of Jesus I am nowhere and nothing." ~ Hannah Whitall Smith

Abide

"May the love of the Lord Jesus draw us to himself; may the power of the Lord Jesus fill our souls, and may the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with us and abide with us always." ~ William Temple

Know Christ

"Here is the goal of all Christian endeavor, of all Christian experience. The first thing, the all-important thing, is to know Christ." ~ George Duncan

Impossible!

"We have a God who delights in impossibilities." ~ Billy Sunday

Long-Suffering Hearts

"Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts." ~ Felicia Hemans

Walk in the Light of His Face

"The out-and-out Christian is a joyful Christian. The half-and-half Christian is the kind of Christian that a great many of you are~~~little acquainted with the Lord. Why should we live halfway up the hill and swathed in the mists, when we might have an unclouded sky and a radiant sun over our heads if we would climb higher and walk in the light of His face?" ~ Alexander Maclaren

From Fear to Trust

"Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust."

~ Christopher Herbert

Above All

"Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all." ~ Augustine

It Isn't About Your Happiness

"What is the ultimate object of this Christian message, this Christian faith? It is to make us HOLY -- not to make us happy!" Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Ephesians - Darkness And Light)

Strengthen Your Marriage for the Children

"As parents, it's so important to work on strengthening your marriage through spiritual commitment and outside Christian counsel." ~ Toler

If You Lose Everything, But Jesus...

"If you lose everything, and everyone, but have Jesus, you have everything. One day it will break through. The days that you feel His love and presence so strong..hold onto that. One day it will be forever. The only things that matter here are eternal things..we waste so much time and energy, fretting and worrying over things that will pass away.. God IS in control. All this WILL pass away. Jesus is coming. Nothing else matters except living our lives for His glory and the life to come. Loving Him, loving others..revival is coming. God is gathering His people. Look up, for your redemption draweth nigh." ~ Gerry Thommes

There Is Hope

"Charles Ramsey proves the same thing as Jocelyn: the victim can be rescued, the poverty can be beaten, the abuse can be overcome. Circumstances do not dictate what kind of life a person will lead. A black dish-washer from Cleveland with a Big Mac in one hand can be a hero, and a child born of rape can be anything she wants to be.

As long as there is life, there is hope."

~ Kristen Hatten

Scandalizingly Extravagant

"The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I become aware of the unfathomable depth of his grace and mercy in our lives. God’s grace really is amazing. His love is scandalizingly extravagant." ~ Tennent

What Matters?

“‎"Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people he has made?” ~ Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)

Alarming...Terrifying...

“It is not a true Gospel that gives us the impression that the Christian life is easy, and that there are no problems to be faced. …The New Testament is most alarming at first, indeed terrifying, as it shows us the problems by which we are confronted. … though that is the truth concerning the battle, we can be enabled to wage it…It shows us that we are meant to be ‘more than conquerors.’” ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Go & Make Dsiciples

"We're told to go and make disciples, but we often just sit and make excuses." ~ Francis Chan

FEAR

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

F. E. A. R.

~ Author Unknown

Motherhood Is...

“Motherhood is about raising and celebrating the child you have, not the child you thought you would have. It's about understanding that he is exactly the person he is supposed to be. And that, if you're lucky, he just might be the teacher who turns you into the person you are supposed to be.” ~ Joan Ryan

Worship Is...

"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of the imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose-and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy of that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin." ~ Archbishop William Temple

Mom, Dad... You ARE the Model...

"Children are affected by the model they see in their own homes, and often imitate what they see their parents do." ~ Toler

In Your Head Not Your Heart

"A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart." ~ Jonathan Swift

Be Correctable

"Give me the listening ear. I seek this day the ear that will not shrink from the word that corrects and admonishes—the word that holds up before me the image of myself that causes me to pause and reconsider—the word that challenges me to deeper consecration and higher resolve." ~ Howard Thurman

Childlike Not Childish

"May we be mature in our faith, childlike but never childish, humble but never cringing, understanding but never conceited. So help us, O God." ~ Peter Marshall

Are You Real?

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." ~ Margery Williams (The Velveteen Rabbit)

Prayer Is...

"Prayer is as natural as breathing, as necessary as oxygen." ~ Edith Schaeffer