Month: September 2014

Much as we wish, not one of us can bring back yesterday or shape tomorrow.  Only today is ours, and it will not be ours for long, and once it is gone it will never in all time be ours again.  Thou only knowest what it holds in store for us, yet even we know someting of what it will hold.  The chance to speak the truth, to show mercy, to ease another’s burden.  The chance to resist evil, to remember all the good times and good people of our past, to be brave, to be strong, to be glad.
Frederick Buechner

The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful- for he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:11-13
The English Standard Version

Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes.  One alone is true to us; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our need.
John Henry Newman

O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:
Psalm 7:1
The King James Version

President Lincoln once said a few kind words about the Confederates.  A woman retorted that she wondered how the president could speak kindly of his enemies, when he should rather wish them destroyed.  “But ma’am,” Lincoln replied.  “Do I not destroy them when I make them my friends?”
Unknown

The best reason to pray is that God is really there.  In praying our unbelief starts to melt.  God moves smack into the middle of even an ordinary day.
Emily Griffin

But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good,
Romans 2:10
The King James Version

The closer we are to God, the closer we are to those who are close to him.
Thomas Merton

I am always content with what happens, for I know that what God chooses is better than what I choose.
Epictetus

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.
2 Timothy 2:24-25
The English Standard Version

Find out what your temptations are and you will find out largely what you are yourself.
Henry Ward Beecher

Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.
Isaiah 1:17
The New King James Version

It helps to write down half a dozen things which are worrying me.  Two of them, say, disappear; about two nothing can be done, so it’s no use worrying; and two perhaps can be settled.
Winston Churchill

Note from Eric:  We received another $680 this week in honor of my wife, Lana, to go directly to Dan and Emily Okall’s work of breast cancer education and care in Kenya.  That brings our total for them up to $3,998.39!  I would love to add another $6,000 that amount by the time they move back to Kenya at the end of the month.  If you would like to help us to help them, please use the link below. We’ll send you a “Lana’s Hope is My Hope” reminder band as our way of saying thanks.
www.LanasHope.com

Somehow, somewhere, I know that God loves me, even though I do not feel that love as I can feel a human embrace, even though I do not hear a voice as I hear human words…God is greater than my senses, greater than my thoughts, greater than my heart.  I do believe that He touches me in places that are unknown even to myself.
Henri J. M. Nouwen

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
2 Corinthians 6:2
The New International Version

How hard is it for God to get your attention?  Do you regularly practice turning aside in your day?  That is, taking a moment to listen to God- because God, through the Holy Spirit, really is speaking, because we know, every place is filled with the presence of God.  There is not an inch of space, not a moment of time, that God does not inhabit.
John Ortberg

“‘Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.  Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”
Exodus 19:5-6
The New International Version

A converted Hindu who had been given a Bible and a clock said, “The clock will tell me how time goes, and the Bible will tell me how to spend it.”
Unknown

The man who is elated by success and cast down by failure is still a carnal man.  At best his fruit will have a worm in it.
A. W. Tozer

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
John 8:36
The New King James Version

We are the most appealing to others, and happiest within, when we are completely ourselves.
Luci Swindoll

God is bigger than all of us, beyond all of us.  When I pray, I don’t really pray for anything, I just try to understand God’s will and do the best I can.
Harry Connick, Jr.

The heavens are the LORD’S heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
Psalm 115:16
The English Standard Version

Forgiveness is the oil of relationships.
Josh McDowell

“No one can serve two masters.  For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.”
Matthew 6:24
The New Living Translation

Every tomorrow has two handles.  We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.
Henry Ward Beecher