All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask; yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask.
…Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.
Prayer: Don’t give God instructions — just report for duty!
“I’ve found that anytime I followed my heart, good things almost always happened. It may not be what you think will happen, or even what you think should happen. But the heart can open doors.”
James Dodson, from his book Final Rounds
“Anything that refreshes you, without distracting from, diminishing from, or destroying your final goal is a legitimate pleasure.”
Ravi Zacharias
“If a man loves the labor of any trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the Gods have called him.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
“Men and women disbelieve the Easter story not because of the evidence but in spite of it. It is not that they weigh the evidence with open minds, assess its relevance and cogency and finally decide that it is suspect or inadequate. Instead, they start with the a priori conviction that the resurrection of Christ would constitute such an incredible event that it could not be accepted or believed without scientific demonstration of an irrefutable nature. But it is idle to demand proof of this sort for any event in history. Historical evidence, from its very nature, can never amount to more than a very high degree of probability.”
…J. N. D. Anderson (1908- ), Christianity: the Witness of History [1969]
An essential part of the ordination exam ought to be a passage from some recognized theological work set for translation into vulgar English —- just like doing Latin prose. Failure on this part should mean failure on the whole exam. It is absolutely disgraceful that we expect missionaries to the Bantus to learn Bantu, but never ask whether our missionaries to the Americans or English can speak American or English. Any fool can write learned language: the vernacular is the real test. If you can’t turn your faith into it, then either you don’t understand it or you don’t believe it.
…C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) in “The Christian Century”
Few have defined what free will is, although it repeatedly occurs in the writings of all. Origen seems to have put forward a definition generally agreed upon among ecclesiastical writers when he said that it is a faculty of the reason to distinguish between good and evil, a faculty of the will to choose one or the other. Augustine does not disagree with this when he teaches that it is a faculty of the reason and the will to choose good with the assistance of grace; evil, when grace is absent.
…John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, ii.2.4 [1559]
We should always pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God; we should always act with as much energy as those who expect everything from themselves.
…Charles C. Colson
Peace starts with a smile.