Word, Thought, Deed...

Violence in word, thought, or deed begets violence. 
But love in word, thought, or deed begets love.
~ Rev. Jon Middendorf

Brand New...

Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start now and make a brand-new ending. ~ Carl Bard

God Is Able...

If you want God to do a new thing, you can't keep doing the same old thing. If you want to experience the miraculous, you need to unlearn every assumption you`ve ever made, save one. God is able. ~ Mark Batterson

Heart Investment...

Too many Christians have mental faith without a heart investment.

~ Chris Tiegreen

HIS Promises

We hope in our God because He has told us the truth and His promises are certain.

~ Chris Tiegreen

Anticipation...

Sometimes it seems as though we spend our lives waiting. Daydreaming about an upcoming vacation, worrying over a medical test, preparing for the birth of grandchild-our days are filled with anticipation and anxiety over what the future holds. As Christians, we too spend our lives waiting. But we are waiting for something much bigger than a trip, bigger even than retirement or a wedding: We are waiting for the return of Jesus in glory. Advent heightens this sense of waiting, because it marks not only our anticipation of Jesus' final coming, but also our remembrance of his arrival into our world more than 2,000 years ago. ~ Anonymous

Power Over the Enemy

You will find that your experience of power over the enemy directly correlates to your experience of Jesus' power over you. ~ Chris Tiegreen

In HIS Hands...

God has every moment of every day in His hands - even until the day He raises you up. 

~ Chris Tiegreen

Christmas...

In a couple of days another Christmas will be over. Decorations will be taken down and the grind of daily life will resume. We must do something to remember that the message and meaning of Christmas does not cease when the celebration is over. Christmas is not really about a celebration, Christmas trees, and piles of gifts. Christmas, the coming of Christ, is about everyday life. God is with us and we need to do anything we can, to remember that fact the rest of the year. ~ Bruce Goettsche

Ablaze for HIM

Spirit-filled souls are ablaze for God. 

~ Samuel Chadwick

Our Journey...

For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning - not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach home at last. ~ Frederick Buechner

Focus of Christmas

When purchasing gifts becomes the focal point of the season, we lose focus on what's truly important. ― Joshua Fields Millburn

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day...

Christmas Magic

Christmas Given...

Never Fool HIM

You may fool your pastor; you may fool yourself, but you will never fool God. ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Receivers...

You Are the Reason...

Advent Season...

During this Advent season as we celebrate the new relationship between God and his people, may that be mirrored in our renewed relationships with spouses, children, family and those near and dear to us. May we speak tenderly to each other amidst all the rush of the season and transform the shopping days till Christmas into the true Advent of Christ.

~ Casely Essamuah

Joy of Anticipation...

What has happened to the old-fashioned, spiritual Christmas? The cause is our disregard of Advent. The church set aside this four-week pre-Christmas season as a time of spiritual preparation for Christ’s coming. It is a time of quiet anticipation. If Christ is going to come again into our hearts, there must be repentance. Without repentance, our hearts will be so full of worldly things that there will be ‘no room in the inn’ for Christ to be born again.…We have the joy not of celebration. Which is the joy of Christmas, but the joy of anticipation. ~ John R. Brokhoff

HIS 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

Advent Opportunities

During Advent opportunities for works of charity abound calling out for Christians from every side: a sack of food for a needy family, money dropped in a Salvation Army kettle, a donation to an Indian school, a toy for 'Toys-for-Tots,' etc. Unfortunately, these works of charity so easily can assuage the Christian conscience, while doing nothing to being about a solution to the root causes of the problem. ~ Brian Cavanaugh

Strive to be...

You may encounter many wonderful Christians that you put on pedestals. You may even aspire to be like them or hope to attain their level of holiness one day only to realize at some point that they aren't exactly what you once thought. It is so important to love all people where ever they are on their journey, but ONLY aspire to be like Jesus. Compare yourself only to His holiness and strive to be like Him alone.

~ Me

 I'm not free to discuss the whys here, but when God spoke this to me yesterday, I was thinking of young Christians or possibly even those who are not Christians seeing a godly person do things that aren't so godly and then leaving the faith or never coming to Jesus because of the example of Christians who are imperfect (me included). If we put our focus on man we can get tripped up. I agree that we can see a positive trait in someone and want that in our lives too, but when someone does something hurtful and they carry the name of Jesus is can damage others. Which is why I said we need to only aspire to be like Jesus and only compare ourselves to him. This quote was also just written and posted without really proofing it. I made changes to the beginning part a few hours later, but didn't update FB. Here is how I edited it - http://thinkonthisquotes.blogspot.com/.../strive-to-be.html

Always Do the Right Thing...

Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest. 

~ Mark Twain

Advent Season

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

The Source...

Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope. ~ Charles H. Spurgeon

Advent Journey

This Advent we look to the Wise Men to teach us where to focus our attention. We set our sights on things above, where God is. We draw closer to Jesus... When our Advent journey ends, and we reach the place where Jesus resides in Bethlehem, may we, like the Wise Men, fall on our knees and adore him as our true and only King. ~ Mark Zimmermann

Celebrate Advent

During this Advent season as we celebrate the new relationship between God and his people, may that be mirrored in our renewed relationships with spouses, children, family and those near and dear to us. May we speak tenderly to each other amidst all the rush of the season and transform the shopping days till Christmas into the true Advent of Christ.

~ Casely Essamuah

Is there Room?

Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus! ~ Neal A. Maxwell

A Season of Prayer

Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent…If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the kind of fire in our souls that can truly change our hearts. Ours is a great responsibility not to waste this Advent time. ~ Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 187

Move Into Advent...

As we move into this Advent season, let us remember with thanksgiving that Christ was born to show us how to live and to give us the opportunity to be reconciled to God and one another. What will we need to let go of to prepare room in our hearts, our lives, our work and our play for Christ? Will we be ready this year for Christmas?~ Kate Lasso