The Secret...

"The whole secret of abundant living can be summed up in this sentence: Not your responsibility but your response to God's ability." ~ Carl F. H. Henry

Undeserved Blessings

"All the blessings which God hath bestowed upon man are of his mere grace, bounty, or favor; his free, undeserved favor; favor altogether undeserved." ~ John Wesley

Truth & Love

"Truth makes love possible; love makes truth bearable." ~ Rowan Williams

Two Hands

"God has given us two hands--one to receive with and the other to give with. We are not cisterns made for hoarding; we are channels made for sharing." ~ Billy Graham

Purpose of Prayer and God's Call

"The purpose of prayer and of God's call in your life is not to make you number one in the world's eyes but to make him number one in your own life." ~ Ravi Zacharias (The Grand Weaver)

Presence of Christ

"It is not my presence that has redemptive value but the presence of Christ in me." ~ G. Crocker

A Clear Indicator

“The best and most clear indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming unto Christ is the way we treat other people.” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Your Giving

"After giving something to God, you are no longer accountable for it. Your blessing is based on your giving, not on what others do with the gift." ~ Ed Cole

Priorities

The key is not to prioritize your schedule but to schedule your priorities. ~ Stephen R. Covey

Power Causes...

"Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other." ~ Philip Yancey

An Unequivocal and Unlimited Yes

"We are to come to God with such a trustful heart of obedience that to any promise of God's applicable to our condition we say an unequivocal and unlimited yes.: ~ Phineas F. Bresee

Be First

"Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Quality Person

“A quality person is someone with integrity. To be worthy of the highest trust is a noble attribute and compliment. You will need to maintain confidences. Certainly it is greater to be trusted than loved. Truly happy persons will always be totally honest in their dealings with their fellowman.” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Perfection Is Achieved

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

With Courage Faith and Hope

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” ~ Thomas Merton

Giving Gifts

"When thou makest presents, let them be of such things as will last long; to the end they may be in some sort immortal, and may frequently refresh the memory of the receiver." ~ Thomas Fuller

Everything Doesn't Happen for a Reason

"Everything doesn't happen for a reason, if by this we mean evil is a part of God's plan. But God does ensure that evil will not prevail and that light will always, ultimately, overcome the darkness." ~ Adam Hamilton

How Do You See the Glass?

"A pessimist, they say, sees a glass as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty." 

~ G. Donald Gale

Love Is...

“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ~ Robert Heinlein

The More You Give...

"The more you give, the more comes back to you, because God is the greatest giver in the universe, and He won't let you outgive Him. Go ahead and try. See what happens." ~ Randy Alcorn

Generosity

"He, who gives what he would as readily throw away, gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice." ~ Jeremy Taylor

Destroy Your Enemies...

"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my

friends?" ~ Abraham Lincoln

Letters of Love

"How many times, in the middle of adversity, does God send us blowing letters of love to remind us that he is still with us?" ~ David Busic

Heroism Is...

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." ~ Arthur Ashe

Lose Yourself

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

A Real Friend

“Someone has said, “A friend is a person who is willing to take me the way I am.” Accepting this as one definition of the word, may I quickly suggest that we are something less than a real friend if we leave a person the same way we find him.” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Servants...

"We should always look upon ourselves as God's servants, placed in God's world, to do his work; and accordingly labour faithfully for him; not with a design to grow rich and great, but to glorify God, and do all the good we possibly can." ~ David Brainerd

Successful

“Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.” ~ Thucydides

Generosity Is Impossible...

"Generosity is impossible apart from our love of God and of His people. But with such love, generosity not only is possible but inevitable." ~ John MacArthur

Variety of Imperfections

“Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfections.” ~ Samuel McChord Crothers

Relationships with Others

"Every step in our spiritual life is directly related to our relationships with others."  ~ David Busic

Jesus is Lord!

Though every one of us will be tempted, we are not slaves to sin. By God's grace we are free to proclaim, "Jesus is Lord!" ~ Jerry D. Porter

Just Like Me

"It takes very little love to relate to someone who looks, thinks, and acts just like me." ~ David Busic

Only Two Kinds of Love

Augustine said, "There are only two kinds of love.  The love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self to the forgetfulness of God."  Two kinds of love.  Two kinds of walks.  Which one is yours and mine? ~ Gary O'Shell

Pride = Death

All forms of taking pride in ourselves have a dangerous potential in the spiritual life. [Thomas Merton] said of himself, ‘If I make anything out of the fact that I am Thomas Merton, I am dead.’ And then he added: ‘And if you make anything out of the fact that you are in charge of the pig barn (a dubious distinction which I had recently received and which I considered to involve some kind of promotion in status) you are dead. The moment you make anything out of anything you are dead.’ ~ James Finley (Merton's Place of Nowhere)

A Million and One Things...

“If he could have his way, Satan would distract us from our heritage. He would have us become involved in a million and one things in this life–probably none of which is very important in the long run–to keep us from concentrating on the things that are really important, particularly the reality that we are God’s children. He would like us to forget about home and family values. He’d like to keep us so busy with comparatively insignificant things that we don’t have time to make the effort to understand where we came from, whose children we are, and how glorious our ultimate homecoming can be!” ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Power is Promised

"Power is promised when we act with courage and step out in faith to do something we know is quite beyond our ability." ~ David Busic