Get a Grip

"When faced with disappointing events—grieve, get a grip, then get up. Being forced to go a new direction can make you wiser, stronger, and more in tune to hearing God’s voice in your life." ~ C. Jean

Personal Mission Statement

The most effective way I know to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement or philosophy or creed. It focused on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based. ~ Stephen Covey

Get Ready for 2014

"You never know how God is going to use your influence, insights, and inventiveness to impact and inspire your corner of the world in 2014. Get ready!" ~ C. Hosher

God Gives Freedom...

"God . . . gives me the freedom to acknowledge my negative attitudes before him but not the freedom to act them out because they are as destructive for me as they are for the other person." ~ Rebecca Manley-Pippert

Make a Positive Difference

“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with vision is making a positive difference.” ~ Joel Barker

Repentance, Faith, Holiness

“Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three: That of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself.”  ~ John Wesley

Lift Your Heart to God

"One whose faith is continually stimulated by the upward look gives no ground to the attempted encroachment of despair. No matter how great the trouble or how dark the outlook, a quick lifting of the heart to God in a moment of real actual faith in Him will completely alter any situation and turn the darkness of midnight into glorious sunrise." ~ Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

God's Unconditional Love

Having God's unconditional love does not mean you have God's unconditional approval." ~ Miles Mcpherson

When I was young...

"When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me." ~ John Wesley

It Takes Courage

"It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who we are. We face surprises. And disappointments. The crucial fact is that we are different from anybody we know and admire…. It takes all one’s courage to be the person one is, fulfilling one’s odd and unique possibilities." ~ M. C. Richards

To Produce Saints

"The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it is designed to reveal my unholiness, but it also awakens an intense yearning and desire within me. God has only one intended destiny for mankind-holiness. His only goal is to produce saints." ~ Oswald Chambers

Not Given But Shared

“Time cannot be packaged and ribboned and left under trees for Christmas morning. Time can’t be given. But it can be shared.” ~ Cecilia Ahern (The Gift)

Issue of Faith

"The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe in the God we believe in." ~ R. C. Sproul

Greatest Gift

“The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.” ~ Fred Rogers

Stop the Madness

"Our world is fast becoming a madhouse, and the inmates are trying to run the asylum. It is a strange time when the patients are writing the prescriptions, the students are threatening to run the schools, the children to manage the homes, and church members—not the Holy Spirit—to direct the churches." ~ Vance Havner

Actions Speak Loudest

"Let us preach you, Dear Jesus, without preaching....not by words but by our example." ~ Mother Teresa

In Process...

"Everyone is in the process of spiritual formation! We are being shaped into either the wholeness of the image of Christ or a horribly destructive caricature of that image-destructive not only to ourselves but also to others, for we inflict our brokenness upon them." ~ Robert Mulholland

Roots in the Call of God

"The fruit of the Spirit is not push, drive, climb, grasp, and trample. Don't let the rat-racing world keep you on its treadmill. There is a legitimate place for blood, sweat, and tears; but it should have its roots in the call of God, not in the desire to get ahead. Life is more than a climb to the top of the heap." ~ Richard J. Foster

Beware of...

"Beware of Christian activities instead of Christian being. The reason workers come to stupendous collapses is that their work is the evidence of a heart that evades facing the truth of God for itself—"I have no time for prayer, for Bible study, I must be always at it." ~ Oswald Chambers

The Reality of God

"When we begin to glimpse the reality of God, the natural reaction is to worship him. Not to have that reaction is a fairly sure sign that we haven't yet really understood who he is or what he's done." ~ N. T. Wright

Compassion Costs

"Compassion costs. It is easy enough to argue, criticize and condemn, but redemption is costly, and comfort draws from the deep." ~ Samuel Chadwick

Overflow of Joy

"The early Christians did not share their resources out of obligation, guilt or in obedience to a new rule called “equality.” They shared their goods out of a tremendous experience of joy and spontaneous offering. They had experienced the Holy Spirit in their midst." ~ Jim Wallis (The Call to Conversion)

Because of Christmas

"Because of Christmas, this we know: Christ was born for us.  He is love, and the plans He has for us always surpass our own." ~ Karen Kingsbury

How to Have a Merry Christmas

"If our Christmas is to be a happy one, it won’t be because of perfect meals, perfect relatives, perfect weather, perfect gifts, or perfect travel connections. It will be because we remember this anniversary of Christ entering the world. So adjust any unreasonable hopes for a “perfect” Christmas. Relax. Enjoy. Celebrate." ~ C. Hosher

Through Love

"Everything will resolve itself through love. Stop wasting time running after the perfect community. Live your life fully in your community today. Stop seeing the flaws—and thank God there are some! Look rather at your own defects and know that you are forgiven and can, in your turn, forgive others and today enter into the conversion of love, and remember, pray always." ~ Jean Vanier
(Community and Growth)

Christmas Gift Suggestions

“Christmas Gift Suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.”

~ Oren Arnold

It Matters

"What I do today has tremendous bearing on eternity. Indeed, it is the stuff of which eternity is made." ~ Randy Alcorn (Money,Possessions and Eternity)

Ready to Do God's Will

"Lord, here I am.  There is no friction between my will and Yours. Whatever You have for me, I know that You will give me enough grace.  I know you will give me all that I need, so Lord, here I am, ready to do Your will." ~ Evelyn Christenson

Solitude

"Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one’s self." ~ Parker Palmer (A Hidden Wholeness)

Strength & Humility

"Give me the strength that waits upon you in silence and peace. Give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens. Possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love. Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love, that I may love not for the sake of merit, not for the sake of perfection, not for the sake of virtue, not for the sake of sanctity, but for You alone." ~ Thomas Merton (New Seeds of Contemplation)

What Are You Living for?

"If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. Between these two answers you can determine the identity of any person." ~ Thomas Merton

As Long As You Can

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can,
as long as ever you can." ~ John Wesley

Deliberate Confidence

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time." ~ Oswald Chambers

Frustrating and Ridiculous

"Not being able to understand God is frustrating, but it is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable to comprehending." ~ Francis Chan

You Have a Choice

"You will have a choice: to adjust how you live daily or to stay the same." ~ Francis Chan (Relentless God)

Receive Life

"As the season of Incarnation approaches, as we prepare to receive Life himself, may we taste and see how our own lives, the life of the world, and the very breath of the universe flow to us from the Holy One made flesh." ~ Scott Cairns

God Is With Us

"During the Advent season, in particular, the eternal significance of our days becomes so crucial to our apprehending how, now and ever, God is with us. What is the nature of this gift we have received, this gift we hope yet to receive? Have we come to understand it as a proposition or do we welcome it as a person? Is the One we call our Lord Jesus Christ a lovely idea or is he the lover of humankind?" ~ Scott Cairns

Healing Silence

"When a heart is throbbing with anguish it is not speech that is needed, but our Lord's healing silence." ~ Paul S. Reese

What Are You Concerned About?

"The Church was as concerned with this world as the next: I saw that virtually all of the achievements of Africans seemed to have come about through the missionary work of the Church." ~ Nelson Mandela

Are You Hungry?

"A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God." ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Outside of Time

"God exists outside of time, and since we are within time, there is no way we will ever totally grasp that concept." ~ Francis Chan (Relentless God)

Disciple Making

Discipline making is the mission Jesus left for us, and what we want to be found doing when He returns." ~ Francis Chan & Mark Beuving (Multiply)

God Uses Pain & Weakness

"God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength for each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean." ~ J.L. Packer

Are You Bored?

"If you're bored, one thing is for sure: You're not following in the footsteps of Christ." ~ Matt Batterson

Life

"It is better to lose your life than to waste it." ~ John Piper

Treat Everyone...

"Treat everyone as though God has deliberately put you in their path." ~ Ken Wert

God's Advent

"God's advent among us is so profound that we can never fully grasp the mystery of incarnate deity. So we must continue to remember and experience anew, year after year, the reality of light in the midst of the world's darkness." ~ Rob L. Staples

Perfect Prayer

"Perfect prayer is not attained by the use of many words, but through deep desire." ~ Catherine of Siena