Month: August 2014

Bread for today is bread enough.
E. M. Bounds

“Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Exodus 23:9
The New King James Version

Once upon a time a man whose ax was missing suspected his neighbor’s son.  The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief.  But the man found his ax while digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor’s son, the boy walked, looked, and spoke like any other child.
Lao Tzu

We’re 2 months away from our 2nd Annual Ranch Retreat and we’d love for you to join us!  You might think, “Is this really for me, even if I live far away?”  Yes, it is!  Over the years we’ve heard from people from all over the world asking if they could visit us here in Illinois–and many have!  Now we have a special event where you can join us for a whole weekend and get a boost in your faith in person.  Our theme this year is “Transitions,” so if you find yourself in a time of transition and want to hear how God can help you through it, come join us on Columbus Day Weekend, October 10-12th.  The deadline to register is just 6 weeks away, so make your plans to visit us today!  Click here to learn more or to register.

Whenever our desire to be right overshadows our desire for another person’s well-being, we are not living for Kingdom purposes.
Mary Albert Darling

Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
Psalm 33:18
The King James Version

The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

“For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
Matthew 10:20
The English Standard Version

Don’t let so much reality into your life that there’s no room left for dreamin’.
Texas Bix Bender

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If you need a boost in your faith, we hope you’ll join us for our 2nd Annual Ranch Retreat here in the heart of the Great Midwest on Columbus Day weekend, October 10-12.  We’ll have great food, great worship, great messages and great fellowship.  Why not get away and see what God has to say?  Click here to learn more or to register.

This Day’s Thought from The Ranch, P.O. Box 3784, Greenwood Village, CO 80155, USA

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We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking.  We move along the surface of things going from one quick base to another, often with a frenzy that wears us out.  We collect data, things, people, ideas, “profound experiences,” never penetrating any of them…But there are other times.  There are times when we stop.  We sit still.  We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory.  We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.  Then we begin our “going down.”
James Carroll

For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 14:2
The New King James Version

Blind as we are, we hinder God, and stop the current of His graces.  But when He finds a soul penetrated with a lively faith, He pours into it His graces and favors plentifully.
Brother Lawrence

“But cowards who turn back from followng me, and those who are unfaithful to me, and the corrupt, and murderers, and the immoral, and those conversing with demons, and idol worshipers and all liars- their doom is in the Lake that burns with fire and sulphur.  This is the Second Death.”
Revelation 21:8
The Living Bible

Every Sunday the ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church.  They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews.  The duck choir waddles in and takes its place, then the duck minister comes forward and opens the duck Bible.  He reads to them:  “Ducks!  God has given you wings!  With wings you can fly!  With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles.  No walls can confine you!  No fences can hold you!  You have wings.  God has given you wings and you can fly like birds!”  All the ducks shouted, “Amen!”  And they all waddled home.
Soren Kierkegaard

Worry less about offending the people and more about offending the Gospel.
William Brosend

that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
1 Thessalonians 2:12
The New King James Version

The whole world is nothing more than a singing and a dancing before the Holy One, blessed be He.  Every Jew is a singer before Him, and every letter in the Torah is a musical note.
Nathan Naphtali

The story is told of a church that secured a new preacher, and the word spread around town about how well he preached.  The church members were abuzz about what an improvement he was over their former preacher, and how much more attention they gave to his sermons.  When the town cynic asked what made this new preacher so much better than his predecessor, he was told, “The old preacher told us that we’re all sinners, and that if we didn’t repent, we’d burn in hell forever!”  This cynic then asked, “And what does this new one say?”  The answer was, “That we’re all sinners, and that if we don’t repent, we’ll burn in hell forever!”  When the cynic responded that he didn’t see any difference between the two of them, he was told, “This new preacher says it with tears in his eyes.”
Tony Campolo

Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.
Luke 4:40
The English Standard Version

The only certainties that don’t break down are those acquired in prayer.
Reinhold Schneider

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 6:14-15
The New International Version

The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.
Unknown

Creation had been given to men as a clean window through which the light of God could shine into men’s souls.  Sun and moon, night and day, rain, the sea, the crops, the flowering tree, all these things were transparent.  They spoke to man not of themselves only but of Him who made them.  Nature was symbolic.  But the progressive degradation of man after the fall led the Gentiles further and further from this truth.  Nature became opaque.
Thomas Merton

I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Psalm 40:8
The King James Version

Will God ever ask you to do something you are not able to do?  The answer is yes- all the time!  It must be that way, for God’s glory and kingdom.  If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory.  He wants to reveal Himself to a watching world.
Henry Blackaby

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:7
The New King James Version

I live the perfect imperfect life.
Paul Lore