More than Conquerors

"With a trust in God that brings into our souls something of infinite passion and intensity, which realizes that God will be at every turn in the road to supply all our needs, without fear we undertake the impossible and find ourselves more than conquerors in the name of the Lord." ~ Phineas F. Bresee

Alleviate Pain & Suffering

"Our broken and humbled hearts have to motivate us to do whatever we can to alleviate the pain and the suffering we see around us." ~ Sarah Hohman

How Are You United?

"Being united by what we fear is a poor substitute for being united in the love of Christ." ~ David Busic

Blessing of Little Crosses

"What a blessing it is to have these little crosses, that we may try what spirit we are of! We could not live in continual sunshine. It would dry up all the grace of God that is in us." ~ John Wesley

Live to Give

"Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do it, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give." ~  David Livingstone

Each New Day

"We are not traveling toward the night but are facing the rising sun. The possibility of each new day to every soul is greater than any proceeding day." ~ Phineas F. Bresee

Apathy...

“Someone has wisely stated that hate is not the opposite of love. Apathy is. We will not have time for apathy in life’s journey if we speak and think positively. Seek, search, and work for worthy eternal qualities and friends.” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Do the Right Thing

"God can use those who are willing to do the right thing no matter what." ~ David Busic

Act of Obedience

"Giving is more than a responsibility—it is a privilege; more than an act of obedience—it is evidence of our faith." ~ William Arthur Ward

Dependence

"A Christian . . . has a continual sense of his dependence on the Parent of good for his being, and all the blessings that attend it. To Him he refers every natural and every moral endowment; with all that is commonly ascribed either to fortune, or to the wisdom, courage, or merit of the possessor." ~ John Wesley

Worship Is...

"Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. ~ Oswald Chambers

Seeking Our Heavenly Father

"When we approach the Bible as history and biography, we approach the Bible in the wrong spirit. We must read the Bible, not primarily as historians seeking information, but as men and women seeking God." ~ Billy Graham

On Fire!

"Nothing short of being red hot for God can keep the glow of heaven in our hearts during these chilly days. The early Methodists had no heating in their churches. They said that the flame in the pew and the fire in the pulpit must be sufficient to keep them warm." ~ E. M. Bounds (The Necessity of Prayer, p. 46; 1984)

True Genius

“The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.” ~ Edgar Allen Poe

Measure of a Man

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Live As Brothers

“We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

What Doesn't Kill You...

“Adversity will surface in some form in every life. How we prepare for it, how we meet it, makes the difference. We can be broken by adversity, or we can become stronger. The final result is up to the individual'.” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

The Newborn Church

"The newborn Church, as vulnerable as any human child, having neither money, influence nor power in the ordinary sense, is setting forth joyfully and courageously to win the world for God through Christ. The young Church, like all young creatures, is appealing in its simplicity and single-heartedness. Here we see the Church in its first youth, valiant and unspoiled—a body of ordinary men and women joined in an unconquerable fellowship never before seen on this earth. This surely is the Church as it was meant to be. It is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath through prosperity, or muscle-bound by over-organization…. But if they were uncomplicated and naïve by modern standards, we have ruefully to admit that they were open on the God-ward side in a way that is almost unknown today." ~ J. B. Phillips

How to Love God

"I do not know how to love God except by loving the poor. I do not know how to serve God except by serving the poor…. Here, within this great city of nine million people, we must, in this neighborhood, on this street, in this parish, regain a sense of community which is the basis for peace in the world." ~ Dorothy Day

Transformation Is Dependent On...

"Deep in us we know that the transformation of a city is dependent on transformed people and that finally a commitment to the building of the city has to involve a commitment to change in us." ~ Elizabeth O'Connor

Communication

Think like a wise man, but communicate in the language of the people. 

~ William Butler Yeats

An Abundantly Rewarding Day

"Lose yourself in generous service and every day can be a most unusual day, a triumphant day, an abundantly rewarding day!" ~ William Arthur Ward

No Need to Raise Voices...

“Soft and small voice communications with our associates make priceless friendships possible. I am appreciative of people who find no need to raise their voices as they try to impress or convince. It seems most people who argue and shout have ceased listening to what the small voice could powerfully contribute.” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Definition of Church

Jesus’ definition of church is “the called out ones who are sent.” That’s what church means. ~ Busic

Reflections on Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp

"We had to learn, and we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and think instead of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct." ~ Victor Frankl

Expect the Best

“Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Called to Be Different

"Christians are called to be different and should be recognized for being different. Once we acquiesce to societal norms and procedures, we have effectively lost our capacity to be salt of the earth and light of the world. We continue the weary, threadbare legacy of domesticating the message of Jesus." ~ Diarmuid O'Murchu

Hard to Believe Because...

"It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey." ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Ambassadors in Chains

Watchman Nee said, "It will help us greatly and keep us from much confusion, if we keep constantly before us this fact, that God will answer all our questions (and prayers?) in one way only, namely by showing us more of His Son."  If we are to really be His ambassadors, even when such means we walk through the darkest, most painful places, literally "ambassadors in chains," that we will have greater and greater revelations of Christ, His Son, and through those revelations, greater and greater degrees of His life.  Life that will flow freely and fully through us, to others. Though kept in our own "prison cells" by so many different things, none can hold us as He, in us, calls others out of theirs.  Ambassadors in chains, vessels of His freedom. ~ Gary O'Shell

Decision Making

"Lord, show me how to decide and give me such trust in you that I may receive you guidance and in calmness may act upon it." ~ Malcolm Playfoot

Love Your Neighbor

We have not yet loved our neighbor with the kind of love that is a precept to the extent of laying down our life for him…. This is a new precept; it is a new way; it is the new human we are supposed to become. I always comfort myself by saying that Christianity is only two days old (a thousand years are as one day in the sight of God) and so it is only a couple of days that are past and now it is about time we began to take these things literally, to begin tomorrow morning and say, “Now I have begun.” 
~ Dorothy Day

Wonderful Creation

"God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners." ~ Soren Kierkegaard

The Only Cohesive Power in the World

"Only God can supply that love that we must have for our fellowman. We will never build brotherhood of man upon earth until we are believers in Christ Jesus. The only true cohesive power in the world is Christ. He alone can bind human hearts together in genuine love." ~ Billy Graham

Why Me?

"We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground." ~ Brennan Manning

One Little Lie...

“One little lie or dishonest act leads to another until the perpetrator is caught in the web of deceit.” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Methods or Men?

"The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men…Men of prayer.” ~ E. M. Bounds

No Man Is an Island

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a cloud be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee." 
~  John Donne

Gift Giving Spree

"The giving of gifts is not something man invented. God started the giving spree when he gave a gift beyond words, the unspeakable gift of His Son." ~ Robert Flatt

Mystery of the Christian Life

"This is the mystery of the Christian life, to receive a new self, which depends not on what we can achieve but on what we are willing to receive." ~ Esther de Waal

Only One of You

"There is vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique…. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open." ~ Martha Graham

Root of Sin

"The root of sin in each of our hearts is extremely deep, and this is the basic cause of the world’s problems; only the fire of the Lord can burn it out. This is precisely what Christ came to do. He didn't come to treat symptoms. He came to get at the very heart of man’s disease." ~ Billy Graham

Faults and Imperfections

“Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others for thou hast many faults and imperfections of thine own.” ~ Thomas à Kempis

Ministry of Memory

"It is a good thing for a man to remember his past sins when that memory brings a loathing for evil. It is still better when the memory brings gratitude for the cleansing, and a deeper dependence upon God for power to live a holy life. This ministry of memory is one of the blessed ways that the Holy Spirit works in us." ~ A.F. Harper (Holiness and High Country)