From an email I received today from a friend of mine

It is kind of freeing to say…I can't do everything! But God is awesome despite me! — Joe Henseler

From an article in Wired magazine

People...spend a lot of time looking at ideas and asking, why do that? But sometimes the more powerful question is, why not? — Jeff Bezo

From a book Jess is reading

They are all pretenders, who live in the light but hide in the dark. — Ted Dekker

1998-2008: 10 Years of Quotes

These are all quotes that I've had on a quotes page on my web site. I've decided to "syndicate" them and put them on a blog. From now on I'll post each quote as a new blog entry.

• It is definitely a crime for a Christian to be weak in God’s strength. — Oswald Chambers


• God is personal, but never private. — Jim Wallis


• Sacred cows make the best hamburger. — Mark Twain


• Speach is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitues for both. — John Andrew Holmes


• Fuel is extremely flammable. — #1 Warning on a package of Coleman Insta-clip Mantles


• What does it say about your life when you are jealous of your neutored cat? — Kathy VanDuzer


• By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of becoming idiotic oneself. — Gustave Flauber


• A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. — Douglas Adams


• I always wanted to be somebody, but I should’ve been more specific. — Lily Tomlin


• Committee: a group of men who individually can do nothing, but as a group decide that nothing can be done. — Fred Allen


• The goal of all of life is to find its rest in God. — Norman Wirzba


• No law made by man can overturn that of the Creator without dramatically affecting society in its very foundation. — Pope Benedict XVI


• The American Dream is to reach a point in your life where you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do and can do everything you do want to do. — Jerry Reinsdorf (Owner of the Chicago Bulls and WhiteSox) (Compare this with 1 Timothy 6:6-8.)


• It is becoming impossible for those who mix with their fellow men to believe that the grace of God is distributed denominationally. — W.R. Inge


• The witless are all paupers. — Philo


• We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.” — C.S. Lewis


• The church attracts to itself persons who like to live in the atmosphere of the holy but have little interest in being holy themselves. — Eugene Peterson


• You don’t lower values by doing something wrong. You lower values by believing what you did wrong was OK. — Horst Schulze


• He reluctantly debates doctrine, but he passionately studies Scripture and seeks to apply all its truth. — Collin Hansen in a Christianity Today article referring to Joshua Harris


• Not really a quote, but a bunch of stuff about living in PA, click here to be linked to the "You know you're from PA if..." page


• The gospels are scary, because if you follow them, you just might become a Christian, and that's a tough road. —Garry Wills (from “What Jesus Meant”)


• Discipleship is essentially teaching someone to be like you, which shows how important Christ-likeness is. — Dan Hickman (from Journey magazine, Spring 2006; “Is there any such thing as a teenage disciple of Christ?”)


• Jesus said, “The truth shall set you free,” which, by implication, must mean, “The false will imprison you.” I, for one, am no longer willing to imprison the amazing grace and liberty that my faith has given me to reach out to a world that is begging for authentic Christianity to save their terminally ill souls. — Brad Stine (from Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot)


• Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. — Bob Blomquist, 18-year testicular cancer survivor


• Trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers. — David McCullough quoting Daniel Boorstin


• The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. — Bertrand Russell


• I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord. — George Mueller as quoted by Steve Farrar in Point Man


• What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don't want to discourage it completely. — Franklin Jones as quoted by Steve Farrar in Point Man


• A man must know the Bible well enough, through study, to fight temptation and protect himself against the ideas and philosophies of the world. [He] is confronted daily with thousands of messages and ideas. A biblical defense system must sort out the ideas, take what is obedient to Christ, and reject what is not. — Bill Hull as quoted by Steve Farrar in Point Man


• ...theology with heart...— J Vinson


• Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. — A. W. Tozer


• When God would make His name known to mankind, He could find no better word than "I AM". "I am that I am," says God, "I change not." Everyone and everything else measures from that fixed point. — A. W. Tozer


• Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and bring Him nearer to our own image. — A. W. Tozer


• Phos Hilaron!
  

  O gracious Light,
  pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
  O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

  
  

  Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
  and our eyes behold the vesper light,
  we sing thy praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

  
  

  Thou art worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
  O Son of God, O Giver of life,
  and to be glorified though all the worlds.



• I'm trying to like people, it's just so hard to weed through the stupid ones. — unknown


• I am so amazed that God has altered me that I can never despair of anybody. — Oswald Chambers


• I believe that humor and laughter are part and parcel of our comfortableness with a holy God. The devil hates more than anything else the sound of healthy laughter. It's derision unto him. — Calvin Miller


• Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. — Napoleon Bonaparte


• Most modern freedom is at root fear. It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities. — G.K. Chesterton


• It is not always wrong even to go, like Dante, to the brink of the lowest promontory and look down at hell. It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made. — G.K. Chesterton


• To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. — G.K. Chesterton


• What sparked outrage five years ago now seems tame. If you subsist on a diet that's extremely pungent, you eventually lose your appetite for subtler flavors. — Mark Crispin Miller, professor of Media Studies at New York University commenting in USA Today [click here for article] on the violence and sexuality common on television today, article dated 11/13/02


• "Systematic theology" is an oxymoron. God is not a system. Christians are fond of asking: "What would Jesus do in this situation?" Unfortunately, they very rarely come up with the correct answer, which is: "Something unexpected!" If the Creator really did write himself into his own story, that's what we ought to expect to see. Creative solutions. — Larry Wall, creator of the PERL programming language


• From my many years experience I can unhesitatingly say that the cross bears those who bear the cross. — Sadhu Sundar Singh


• (Regarding youth work) If you're not totally frustrated at times, you're not caring about your ministry. — Kathy VanDuzer


• This is my kids' life—I just wander around in it. — Kathy VanDuzer


• The good teacher does not write his message in ink that will fade, in words that cannot speak. He finds a disciple and sows the seed of the message in a heart that understands. He writes his message upon men. — Plato


• All of us are somewhere on a journey to God…the gap between least and most advanced is infinitely smaller than the gap between the most advanced and God Himself. —John Ortberg


• Live in a constant state of expectancy leaving room for God to come in as He decides. — Oswald Chambers


• When you are faced with a busy day, save precious time by skipping your quiet time with God. — Lucifer


• We have all been inoculated with Christianity, and are never likely to take it seriously now! You put some of the virus of some dreadful illness into a man's arm, and there is a little itchiness, some scratchiness, a slight discomfort — disagreeable, no doubt, but not the fever of the real disease, the turning and the tossing, and the ebbing strength. And we have all been inoculated with Christianity, more or less. We are on Christ's side, we wish him well, we hope that He will win, and we are even prepared to do something for Him, provided, of course, that He is reasonable, and does not make too much of an upset among our cozy comforts and our customary ways. But there is not the passion of zeal, and the burning enthusiasm, and the eagerness of self-sacrifice, of the real faith that changes character and wins the world. — A. J. Gossip


• Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. — Thomas a Kempis


• I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.— Martin Luther


• The principal part of faith is patience.— George Macdonald


• Apart from God every activity is merely a passing whiff of insignificance. — Alfred North Whitehead


• What is there in my life that can only be explained by the fact that Jesus Christ is in my life? — paraphrase of Howard Hendricks


• A good man will always choose to suffer wrong rather than do wrong. — Plato


• If you're gonna be stupid you gotta be tough. — Joe Byrd


• The Christian life isn't difficult—it's impossible. — Louie Giglio


• I don't care what God does. It's what God is that I care about. — Oswald Chambers


• A worshiper can work with eternal quality in his work. But a worker who does not worship is only piling up wood, hay and stubble for the time when God sets the world on fire. I wish that we might get back to worship again. Then when people come into the church they will instantly sense that they have come among holy people, God’s people. They can testify. "Of a truth God is in this place."— A. W. Tozer


• Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy fee glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus Name, Amen. — AW Tozer


• Never allow yourself this thought, "I am of no use where I am," because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. — Oswald Chambers


• Constantly choosing to be busy may be an unconscious attempt to have value before the Lord. To deepen requires exactly the opposite! We must slow down, choosing to spend blocks of time with God in private. We need to let go of the value we place on service, availability and busyness and take up the value God places on quietness, trust and peace (rest). We need to be aware of being too needed in any work; we are not! God calls us not foremost to “accomplish,” but to a deep relationship with Himself. A deep friendship with us as persons is what He desires most. — Dr. Stanford


• There is no way for you to know whether what I'm telling you is true unless you know the truth. And there's no way for you to know the truth unless there is a truth to know. — Frank Peretti


• Our children’s lives are largely the product of the choices they have made about the influences that God has allowed in their lives. God’s intention is that their parents be the most dominant influence during their formative years. — James R. VanDuzer


• The Revelation of God is not a book or a doctrine, but a living Person. — Emil Brunner


• The purpose of religion — at any rate, the Christian religion — is not to get you into heaven, but to get heaven into you. — Frederick Ward Kates


• Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before. — John Owen


• If all you have found [in Christianity] is advantage, whether it is fun or profit or security, then you haven't started following Him yet. His way is the way of the Cross. The world can be very hard on those it hates. If it is not hard on you, perhaps it sees nothing in you to hate. But then it doesn't see Jesus in you, for it hates Jesus with an undying hatred. While your way is still all fun, all easy, all jolly, it is only your way: when you turn from it to follow His way, it will cost. It may cost you everything you have. That is what it cost Him. — Robert MacColl Adams


• Have you noticed this? Whatever need or trouble you are in, there is always something to help you in your Bible, if only you go on reading till you come to the word God specially has for you. I have noticed this often. Sometimes the special word is in the portion you would naturally read, or in the Psalm for the day, ... but you must go on till you find it, for it is always somewhere. You will know it the moment you come to it, for it will rest your heart. — Amy Carmichael


• The Bible is a supernatural book and can be understood only by supernatural aid. — A. W. Tozer


• The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief. — T. S. Eliot


• It is no great matter to associate with the good and gentle; for this is a naturally pleasing to all, and everyone willingly enjoyeth peace, and loveth those best that agree with him. But to be able to live peaceably with hard and perverse persons, or with the disorderly, or with such as go contrary to us, is a great grace, and a most commendable thing. — Thomas a Kempis


• Christ came, not so much to preach the Gospel, as that there might be a Gospel to preach. — R. W. Dale


• When our lives are focused on God, awe and wonder lead us to worship God, filling our inner being with a fullness we would never have thought possible. Awe prepares the way in us for the power of God to transform us and this transformation of our inner attitudes can only take place when awe leads us in turn to wonder, admiration, reverence, surrender, and obedience toward God. — James Houston


• Of course, it all depends upon what we are praying for. If we are whimpering, and sniveling, and begging to be spared the discipline of life that is sent to knock some smatterings of manhood into us, the answer to that prayer may never come at all. Thank God! Though, indeed, it is not easy to say that, with honesty. Still, it may never come at all, thank God. But if you have attained as far as Epictetus--pagan though you would call him--whose daily prayer was this: "O God, give me what Thou desirest for me, for I know that what Thou choosest for me is far better than I could choose"; if you are not bleating to get off, but asking to be given grace and strength to see this through with honour, "the very day" you pray that prayer, the answer always comes. — A. J. Gossip


• A knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without a knowledge of the Bible. — William Lyon Phelps


• The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof, and the worshiping heart needs none. — A. W. Tozer


• See in the meantime that your faith bringeth forth obedience, and God in due time will cause it to bring forth peace. — John Owen


• We implore the mercy of God, not that He may leave us at peace in our vices, but that He may deliver us from them. — Blaise Pascal


• In Romans 7, St. Paul says, "The law is spiritual." What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of the heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and henceforward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart. — Martin Luther


• I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. — John Newton


• God is not a deceiver, that He should offer to support us, and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us. — St. Augustine


• From a colorless past You asked me to the paint store. — Riley Armstrong


• Many a false step is taken by standing still. — Arnold Glasow


• To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men. — A. W. Tozer


• If ever I reach heaven I expect to find three wonders there: first, to meet some I had not thought to see there; second, to miss some I had expected to see there; and third—the greatest wonder of all— to find myself there. — John Newton


• The [Christian] "doctrines" are translations into our concepts and ideas of that which God has already expressed in language more adequate, namely the actual incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. — C. S. Lewis


• The primary object of prayer is to know God better; we and our needs should come second. — The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn


• The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His. — George Macdonald


• Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. — African proverb


• Oh! I am my Beloved's,
  And my Beloved is mine!
  He brings a poor vile sinner
  Into His "House of wine."
  I stand upon His merit,
  I know no other stand,
  Not e'en where glory dwelleth
  In Immanuel's land.
  — Anne Rose Cousins [for all 19 verses of this poem/hymn click here]


• In our praying, we should speak to God about Himself—that is praise; or about His gifts—that is thanksgiving; or about other people—that is intercession; or about our sins—that is confession and penitence; or about our needs—that is petition. Prayer has five fingers, like a hand, and each in turn must be pointed to God, that our prayer may be full and complete. — F. W. Kates


• Prayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us. It may be that one of our great faults in prayer is that we talk too much and listen too little. When prayer is at its highest we wait in silence for God's voice to us; we linger in His presence for His peace and His power to flow over us and around us; we lean back in His everlasting arms and feel the serenity of perfect security in Him. — William Barclay


• The primary object of prayer is to know God better; we and our needs should come second. — Florence Allshorn


• If I say to you that no one has time to finish, that the longest human life leaves a man, in any branch of learning, a beginner, I shall seem to you to be saying something quite academic and theoretical. You would be surprised if you knew how soon one begins to feel the shortness of the tether: of how many things, even in middle life, we have to say, "No time for that", "Too late now" and "Not for me". But Nature herself forbids you [young people] to share that experience. A more Christian attitude, which can be attained at any age, is that of leaving futurity in God's hands. We may as well, for God will certainly retain it whether we leave it to Him or not. — C. S. Lewis


• We must not measure the reality of love by feelings, but by results. Feelings are very delusive. They often depend on mere natural temperament, and the devil wrests them to our hurt. A glowing imagination is apt to seek itself rather than God. But if you are earnest in striving to serve and endure for God's sake, if you persevere amid temptation, dryness, weariness, and desolation, you may rest assured that your love is real. — Jean N. Grou


• It would be easier, I sometimes think, if God had given us a set of ideas to mull over and kick around and decide whether to accept or reject. He did not. His gave us Himself in the form of a Person. — Philip Yancy


• It is through the Servant's wounds that we are healed, said Isaiah—not His miracles. — Philip Yancy


• God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with Him. — Jürgen Moltmann


• Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work.— Thomas A. Edison


• Prayer is a wine which makes glad the heart of man. — St. Bernard of Clairvaux


• [May] the Lord lead further and further those who do in earnest want to live the Joshua [i.e., transformed] life. It means a daily dying to self and what self wants; a daily turning to our Master with a "Yes, Lord" to everything, even to what is most against the grain. May He quicken those who have not yet begun to live this life to see what they are missing, before it is too late. — Amy Carmichael


• I don't care about the icing. What I care about is you most. — Bobby VanDuzer (said to his sister after she was sent to her room crying for taking too big of a bite out of the donut he was sharing with her)


• We are never nearer to Christ than when we find ourselves lost in a holy amazement at his unspeakable love. — John Owens


• The worst tragedy would be to turn the Sermon on the Mount into another form of legalism; it should rather put an end to all legalism. Legalism like the Pharisees' will always fail, not because it is too strict but because it is not strict enough. Thunderously, inarguably, the Sermon on the Mount proves that before God we all stand on level ground: murderers and temper-throwers, adulterers and lusters, thieves and coveters. We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace. — Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew


• If you have nothing in your mind, throw it out.


• If you don't see your life as something to be given away you can't lead. — Tom Fogle


• There's a lot more heat than light in these guys. — Kermit Jemeland talking about some men who were arguing for their belief


• It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him. — C.S. Lewis


• There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings. — unknown by me, if you know who said/wrote this feel free to email me


• Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves -- blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. — A. W. Tozer


• It is a poor sort of faith that imagines Christ defeated by anything men can do. — Joy Davidman


• God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination. — St. Augustine


• The most important work you or I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes. — Harold B. Lee


• Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learining. — Bill Gates


• Cats regard people as warmblooded furnitue. — Jacquelyn Mitchard


• You miss 100% of the shots you never take. — Wayne Gretzky


• For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step. — Thomas a Kempis


• The real presence of Christ's most precious Body and Blood is not to be sought for in the Sacrament, but in the worthy receiver of the Sacrament. — Richard Hooker


• All things are God's already; we can give him no right, by consecrating any, that he had not before, only we set it apart to his service — just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord's before as now. — John Selden


• Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mahomet, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and schools combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke words of life such as never were spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of any orator or poet; without writing a single line, He has set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art and sweet songs of praise, than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. Born in a manger, and crucified as a malefactor, He now controls the destinies of the civilized world, and rules a spiritual empire which embraces one-third of the inhabitants of the globe. There never was in this world a life so unpretending, modest, and lowly in its outward form and condition, and yet producing such extraordinary effects upon all ages, nations, and classes of men. The annals of history produce no other example of such complete and astonishing success in spite of the absence of those material, social, literary, and artistic powers and influences which are indispensable to success for a mere man. — Philip Schaff


• Avoid idleness, and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe and useful employment: for lust easily creeps in at those emptinesses where the soul is unemployed and the body is at ease; no easy, healthful, idle person was ever chaste if he could be tempted; but of all employments, bodily labour is the most useful, and of the greatest benefit for driving away the Devil. — Jeremy Taylor


• Never... think we have a due knowledge of ourselves till we have been exposed to various kinds of temptations, and tried on every side. Integrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He alone knows who died for our sins. — John Henry Newman


• He prays well who is so absorbed with God that he does not know he is praying. — Francois de Sales


• Since God offers to manage our affairs for us, let us once and for all hand them over to His infinite wisdom, in order to occupy ourselves only with Himself and what belongs to Him. — J. P. de Caussade


• That Night
  (Author Unknown)
  
  That night when in the Judean skies
  The mystic star dispensed its light,
  A blind man moved in his sleep—
  And dreamed that he had sight.
  
  That night when shepherds heard the song
  Of hosts angelic choiring near,
  A deaf man stirred in slumber's spell—
  And dreamed that he could hear.
  
  That night when in the cattle stall
  Slept Child and mother cheek by jowl,
  A cripple turned his twisted limbs—
  And dreamed that he was whole.
  
  That night when o'er the newborn Babe
  The tender Mary rose to lean,
  A loathsome leper smiled in sleep—
  And dreamed that he was clean.
  
  That night when to the mother's breast
  The little King was held secure,
  A harlot slept a happy sleep—
  And dreamed that she was pure.
  
  That night when in the manger lay
  The Sanctified who came to save,
  A man moved in the sleep of death—
  And dreamed there was no grave.


• Because Christ was God, did he pass unsorched through the fires of Gethsemane and Calvary? Rather let us say, because Christ was God he underwent a suffering that was absolutely infinte. — Augustus H. Strong


• I find that doing the will of God leaves me with no time for disputing about His plans. — George Macdonald


• Your mind is like a lake, when not agitated one can see through to the bottom, when agitated things are blurred. — Alan Finger


• In my intellect, I may divide [faith and works], just as in the candle I know there is both light and heat; yet put out the candle, and both are gone. — John Selden


• It is Truth which we must look for in Holy Writ, not cunning of words. All Scripture ought to be read in the spirit in which it was written. We must rather seek for what is profitable in Scripture, than for what ministereth to subtlety in discourse. — Thomas a Kempis


• Christianity does not consist in any partial amendment of our lives, any particular moral virtues, but in an entire change of our natural temper, a life wholly devoted to God. — William Law


• If Christianity is worth anything, it's worth everything! — Hudson Taylor


• Be concerned, not with what you have accomplished, but over what you might have accomplished if you had followed the Lord completely. — A.W. Tozer


• Were the whole realm of nature mine,
  That were an offering far too small;
  Love so amazing, so divine,
  Demands my heart, my life, my all.
  — Isaac Watts


• It's the set of the sail, and not the gale, that determines where you go. — W. Borden


• God has a natural law in force to the effect that we are conformed to that on which we center our interest and love. If we are attracted to this present evil world, we become increasingly worldly; if we pamper and live for self, we become more and more self-centered; but when we look to Jesus Christ, we become more and more like Him.
  "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13). And what is His "good pleasue" He is "performing" in us? He is working everything together for this one purpose: "That the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11). This is life: "For me to live is Christ" (Phil 1:21). This is service: "Now there were some Greeks...saying...'Sir, we wish to see Jesus'" (John 12:20, 21). — Miles Stanford from The Green Letters


• Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love their cow — for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost Truth. — Meister Eckhart


• The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. — Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 B.C.


• Those who are victorious plan effectively and change decisively. They are like a great river that maintains its course but adjusts its flow...they have form but are formless. They are skilled in both planning and adapting and need not fear the result of a thousand battles; for they win in advance, defeating those that have already lost. — Sun Tzu


• At the Day of Judgment, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done. – Thomas a Kempis


• All God's revelations are sealed to us until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God's truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. Obey God in the thing He is at present showing you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. We read tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit when... five minutes of drastic obedience would make things clear as a sunbeam. We say, "I suppose I shall understand these things some day." You can understand them now: it is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens up and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself till you obey what you know already. Beware of being wise and prudent. — Oswald Chambers


• There is never any peace for those who resist God. — Francois Fenelon


• [Christ] was primarily concerned to change men as men rather than the political regime under which they lived; to transform their attitude rather than their circumstances; to treat the sickness of their hearts rather than the problems of their environment. - J.N.D. Anderson


• The deepest need of man is not food and clothing and shelter, important as they are. It is God. — Thomas Kelly


• A good mind knows the right answers. A great mind knows the right questions.


• With Jesus there is no neutral ground. — Paraphrase of a thought from One Year With Jesus (1/21)


• The great thing, and the only thing, is to adore and praise God. — Thomas Merton


• Our power in drawing men to Christ springs chiefly from the fulness of our personal joy in Him, and the nearness of our personal communion with Him. The countenance that reflects most of Christ, and shines most with His love and grace, is most fitted to attract the gaze of a careless, giddy world, and win restless souls from the fascinations of creature—love and creature—beauty. — Horatius Bonar from Words to Witness of Souls


• If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.... Probably earthly pleasures were never made to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same. — C. S. Lewis from Mere Christianity


• Only on recognising the true, may we lay down our task of searching further for truth; and only on being satisfied that we have found the holy, are we justified in submitting to its guidance. The duty of following truth at all hazards is not altered, and it is only a false wisdom and prudence which shuns the search. The one chief reason why so much more may be revealed to babes than to the wise and prudent is still simply that, with less calculation and prejudice, they entirely abandon themselves to the leading of truth. — John Oman


• It's better to finally believe what at first you could not say, than to say at first what you do not believe. — Earl Palmer


• It is hard to find the better things in life when one does not look beyond the end of ones nose.


• I collect the opinions I want. — Cal Ripken


• A shared joy is a double joy. A shared sorrow is half a sorrow. — Swedish Proverb


• Tolerance is the privilege of people who don't believe in anything. — G.K. Chesterton


• I could have eaten a box of Alphabits and crapped a better interview. — From Everyone Loves Raymond


• Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you're doing but nobody else does.


• Faith that is sure of itself is not faith; faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is. — Oswald Chambers


• It is no use saying we are doing our best. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary. — Winston Churchill


• Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself. — Martin Vanbee


• Such a pitiful poverty of the imagination.


• Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he finishes the job he starts — Coleman Cox


• Faith in God is not a leap from point A to point B; it is simply from point A. —Todd Lake


• Truth is by its very nature intolerant, exclusive, for every truth is the denial of its opposing error. — Luthard


• I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. — C. S. Lewis


• Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government! — Monty Python from the Holy Grail


• In the long run we'll all be dead. —John Maynard Keynes


• I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book. — Groucho Marx


• The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried. —G.K. Chesterton


• Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character. — Henry Clay


• God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him. — Martin Luther


• Work harder, millions on welfare depend on you. — bumper sticker


• Progress is practically inevitable at this point. — sign on office door of project manager of a software company, not Parsons.


• Even if you're on the right track, you'll still get run over if you're just standing still. — Will Rogers


• Let us go forth...asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own. — John F. Kennedy from his Inaugural Address


• Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a little book. — from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis


• Get what you can, can what you get, sit on the can.


• Lorena Bobbitt for White House intern. — T-shirt


• May you live in interesting times. — Chinese Curse


• The best thing you have going for yourself is your willingness to humiliate yourself. — From As Good As It Gets


• He did not study God, he was dazzled by Him. — Les Miserables


• Clearly he had his own strange way of judging things. I suspect he acquired it from the gospels. — Les Miserables


• If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room.


• If you aren't completely out of your mind, you're not paying attention.


• You can lead a buffalo anywhere he wants to go.


• God's work done in God's way will never lack God's support. — J. Hudson Taylor


• A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble-because Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out. — C.S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity


• How people master their fate is more important than what their fate is. — Wihelm von Humbolt


• Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours. — Yogi Berra [more]


• I'm good because I'm paid to be good, you guys are good for nothing. — Howard Hendricks


• In order to go anywhere, one must leave the place where he is and arrive somewhere else. — Ruadh in Byzantium by Stephen Lawhead


• By continuing this man's employment we are depriving a village of an idiot.


• This man is reluctant to work on Wednesdays claiming that it shortens his weekend on both ends.


• I don't mind bragging but I hate to show off.


• How can we lose when we're so sincere. — Charlie Brown

Copyright © 1998-2008 by Jim VanDuzer