I Am

"I was regretting the past
and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking:
My name is I AM.
When you live in the past,
with its mistakes and regrets,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I Was.
When you live in the future,
with its problems and fears,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I Will Be.
When you live in this moment,
it is not hard. I am here.
My name is I AM."

~ Helen Mallicoat

Follow Jesus to...

"I am not a follower of Jesus Christ if I live with Him only in Bethlehem and Nazareth, and not in Gethsemane and on Calvary, too." ~ Brennan Manning

For Christ Alone

"For our lives are not real, not complete . . . until they become that which they are meant to be—tools and channels of the Will of God—and are included in the Kingdom of Spirits which live in, to and for Him alone." ~ Evelyn Underhill

Honest & Courageous

"Honest and courageous people have very little to say about either their courage or their honesty." ~ Hosea Ballou

No Shortcuts

"There are no shortcuts to holiness. Growth takes time. It also takes the discipline of prayer, of study, of heart searching, of sensitivity to the Holy Ghost's pleading, and of consistent obedience. It must always begin with a renewed thankfulness for the never-ending grace of God, and a sense of being set free repeatedly to a life of holiness." ~ John White

What Matters?

"We are urgent about the body; He is about the soul. We call for present comforts; He considers our everlasting rest. And therefore when He sends not the very things we ask, He hears us by sending greater than we can ask or think." ~ Richard Cecil

Make a Difference

Giving is not just about making a donation. It is about making a difference. ~ Kathy Calvin

Are You Ready?

"It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day." ~ Matthew Henry

Lost & Found

"As soon as a man has found Christ, he begins to find others." ~ Charles Spurgeon

Who, Whose and What are You?

"The world desperately needs established, stable Christians who know who they are, Whose they are, and what they are to be and do." ~ Lloyd John Ogilvie

Clear Vision Needed

Dearest Lord, though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognize you, and say, "Jesus, my patient, how sweet it is to serve you." ~ Mother Teresa

Spiritual Character

"In Christ's teaching, it is not simply works of charity and deeds of mercy upon which He insists, but inward spiritual character. This much is demanded, and nothing short of it, will suffice." ~ E. M. Bounds

What Matters?

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.” ~ Francis Chan (Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God)

What Rules Your Life?

"Let a commitment rule your life, not a situation." ~ Author Unknown

Change...

“Any change, even a change for better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” ~ Arnold Bennett

Being Generous...

“Being generous should become part of our natural response to the grace of God… It draws us to look to God, and we are reminded that because we serve a God who creates out of nothing, the realm of possibility for our future is greater than we can ever imagine.” ~ Chris Willard and Jim Sheppard (Contagious Generosity, 2012, p. 75)

Never Defeated with Jesus

"Hold my hand tightly, Lord. Although afflictions may torment me, they can never defeat me." ~ Corrie ten Boom

Be Thankful for What God has Given You

"So much has been given to me, I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied." ~ Helen Keller

Prayer is the Window...

“Prayer is the window that God has placed in the walls of our world.
Leave it shut and the world is a cold, dark house.
But throw back the curtains and see His light.
Open the window and hear His voice.
Open the window of prayer and invoke the presence of God in your world.”

~ Max Lucado

Two Freedoms

"There are two freedoms: the false where a man is free to do what he likes; and the true where a man is free to do as he ought." ~ Charles Kingsley

The Most Important Workout!

"Endurance strengthens both your character and your trust in God. As you persevere through hardship, your faith gets a workout, building up your ability to withstand whatever challenges life throws at you." ~ Marcia Ford (Essentials for Life for Women)

He Laid Down His Life

"If He laid down His life for us, is it not the least we can do to lay down ours for Him? If He bore the cross and died on it for me, ought I not to be willing to take it up for Him?" ~ Dwight Moody

This Job Is a Gift

"This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness." ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Don't Be Discouraged

"Sometimes we find ourselves in a new reality based on others’ decisions and actions that leave us discouraged and dismayed. Don’t become bitter. Let God lead you though your disappointment to find his best for you." ~ C. Alma

For Invaluable Knowledge...

‎"It is my custom to read four or five chapters of the Bible every morning immediately after rising ... It seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day. ... It is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue." ~ John Quincy Adams

Message to Congress 1825 by John Quincy Adams

‎"May I never cease to be grateful for the numberless blessings received through life at His hands, never repine at what He has denied, never murmur at the dispensations of Providence, and implore His forgiveness for all the errors and delinquencies of my life!" ~ John Quincy Adams (First Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 6, 1825)

Time is Precious

"Time ought to be esteemed by us very precious, because we are uncertain of its continuance." ~ Jonathan Edwards

Truly Follow Him

"With good intentions and sincere desires to reach as many people as possible for Jesus, we have subtly and deceptively minimized the magnitude of what it means to follow him. We've replaced challenging words from Christ with trite phrases in the church. We've taken the lifeblood out of Christianity and put Kool-Aid in its place so that it tastes better to the crowds, and the consequences are catastrophic. Multitudes of men and women at this moment think that they are saved from their sins when they are not. Scores of people around the world culturally think that they are Christians when biblically they are not." ~ David Platt (Follow Me)

A Prayer

"Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention, to do the truth quietly without display, to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, to accept our limitations, to cling to the gospel of grace, and to delight in your love. Amen." ~ Brennan Manning

Dream a Dream

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” ~ C. S. Lewis

God's Gift

"Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of Himself." ~ Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Whose Are You?

"The world desperately needs established, stable Christians who know who they are, Whose they are, and what they are to be and do." ~ Lloyd John Ogilvie

No Comfort in the Bible UNLESS...

"The Bible has no comfort whatsoever to give to people who are not Christians - none at all; indeed the exact opposite. The Bible has nothing to say to such people except to warn them to flee from the wrath to come. It tells them that the sufferings of this present hour are not worthy to be compared with the sufferings they are going to endure, that these are but a foretaste of what is coming to them, that the account of the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all similar calamities are but faint pictures of the suffering that is going to come to those who do not belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no comfort here for an unbeliever - none at all." ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans - The Perseverance Of The Saints)

No Limit

"There is no limit to the good things we can do when love is the motivation. There is no limit to what God can do when He alone is Lord of our lives." ~ Lloyd John Ogilvie

All Men Are Created Equal

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." ~ Thomas Jefferson (from the Declaration of Independence)

Faith & Patience

"Give me faith and patience. Help me to wait for Thine enabling grace without discouragement, remembering the words of our Saviour, that persons ought always to pray and not to faint. Amen." ~ Susanna Wesley

Continual Training

Give me the spirit, I pray Thee, to keep myself in continual training for the punctual fulfillment of Thy most holy will.
John Baillie

Give Thanks in All Things

"O most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who cares for us; preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal." ~ William Bright

Pray for Power

"Do what you can and then pray that God will give you the power to do what you cannot." ~ Augustine