From "Eye of the Oracle"

The Maker has given us this destiny, so we would be wise to make the best of it. — Makaidos, Bryan Davis

From LCA's Christmas Concert/Play

Faith means completely depending on the Lord—being confident that He's walking with us through everything we go through in this life—good and bad. And He builds our faith through all these things, whether we see it or not. — (not sure who the author of the play was)

From Cosmic Christmas

I could not comprehend God’s plan, but my understanding was not essential. My obedience was. — Max Lucado, Gabriel

Is this the real reason for all the conspiracy theories? I think so!

© 2009 Piraro

From a friend's Facebook Status

Books to the ceiling, books to the sky.
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
— Arnold Lobel

From my DailyInk Cartoon email

Did you see the Christmas ad on TV Halloween weekend? I mean...really?!

This made me laugh.

© 2009 Piraro

From a conversation with my wife

I didn't realize how much pride I had until I had to swallow it.

From Dr Swenson at MACSA

• God is sufficient unto Himself.
  
• Ministry for Jesus was the person right in front of him.
  
• Jesus never ran.
  
• “You are not going to hurry Me. You are going to have to fit into My schedule.”
  
• God invented human limits. They help us remember that we are not God.
  
• Joy is an early casualty of overload.
  
• God is very strong and very loving. He didn’t have to be both.
  
• If I step in a hole and break my leg I know my field will still be plowed. &mdash Amish description of community
  
• Human beings are what matter most. They’re what Jesus died for.
  
• Time is the context for relationships.
  
• God will give you enough time and resources to accomplish His will for your life.
  
• You cannot satiate people with economics.
  
• The countries with the most technology are the most stressed.
  
• Everything you own, owns you.
  
• “I want you to want Me more than anything else.”
  

— Dr. Richard Swenson

From Dr Swenson at MACSA

Soon the American Civil Liberties Union, or People for the American Way, or some similar faction of litigious secularism will file suit against NASA, charging that the Hubble Space Telescope unconstitutionally gives comfort to the religiously inclined. — George Will (Newsweek, November 9, 1998)

From Dr Swenson at MACSA

All God's gifts are loving only to the degree that they lead us to God Himself. That's what God's love is: His commitment to do everything necessary (most painfully the death of His only Son) to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying—namely Himself. — John Piper

From Dr Swensen at MACSA

Today we seldom see in our church the simplicity of the gospel message. — A.W. Tozer

From a friend's Facebook Status

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. — Winston Churchill

From a friend's Facebook Status

His anger must be released by a stiff safety lock, but his mercy has a hair trigger. — John Piper

From a commentary on Philippians

Joy, unmitigated, untrammeled joy, is—or at least should be—the distinctive mark of the believer in Christ Jesus. — Gordon Fee

From the Thursday Report

I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth. — J.O.F.

From a web site I came across

Someday, in the distant future, our grandchildren's grandchildren will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge. — Plato

From a Commentary on James

[Elijah] was not worthy, he was simply a righteous man who prayed, for individuals and for his society. — Donald M. Doriani [See James 5:17.]

From my brother

What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew. When you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. Now, older, you stretch out your hands, and Someone Else dresses you (and even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these), and leads you where before you didn’t want to go. And let me tell you, it is so much better than it seems, so much better than your dreams. The removal of things that can be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. All that to say, these are the days of Him changing water into wine. — S

From "A Man Called Blessed"

Be bold. Cowardice keeps man double minded, hesitating between two worlds. True faith abandons one option for the other. — Father Hadane (as written by Ted Dekker & Bill Bright

From an online chat with a friend

God may not let me go hungry, but He might very well continue to let me go stupid. — Jim Coates

From a prayer

Provide us with everything we need to be of service to You! And with that, and nothing more, let us be content. — Jim VanDuzer (this is my paraphrase of a line in a prayer that I was meditating on the other morning)

From Godward Life by John Piper

We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. — C.S. Lewis

From my mother-in-law

I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much. — Mother Teresa

From Mikey's Funnies

It is never wise to let any piece of electronic equipment know that you are in a hurry. — Mikey's Funnies

From the radio

Evolution cannot explain creation. — Rush Limbaugh

From Stuff Christians Like

It’s not about the cup or the wafer or the cold the person next to you is inevitably going to give you. It’s about Christ and He tends to live outside of etiquette. — Jon Acuff [Stuff Christians Life is one of my favorite blog sites.]

A PaulTripp Tweet

God loves you enough that he will compromise your temporary comfort to create something better—holiness. — Paul Tripp

A PaulTripp Tweet

Those tough things you are going through are much more than momentary hassles...they are tools of grace in the hands of a refining Redeemer. — Paul Tripp

From a friend's Tweet

History can definitely repeat itself if everyone concentrates very hard on making the same stupid mistakes. — Nelson DeMille

From one of those crazy "signaquotes" on someone's email

To escape the error of salvation by works we have fallen into the opposite error of salvation without obedience. — A.W. Tozer

From a friend's Tweet

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. — Magaret Thatcher

From a commentary on James

Christian leaders should not seek as their final goal the greatest number of relationships, but the greatest exposure to the word. — Daniel Doriani

From a commentary on James

Since we see that the Lord does not so require from us what is above our strength, but that he is ready to help us, provided we ask, let us, therefore, learn whenever he commands anything, to ask of him the power to perform it. — Calvin

From a comment from a Facebook friend on us not taking our tree down until Jan 31.

I love that you guys are so unnormal in many ways and yet the coolest people I know. — B. Wengryn

From a friend's Facebook status line

Giving money and power to Government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. — P.J. O'Rourke