Quotations for March, 2014
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601
How can we know that what Jesus has shown us of God is the truth; ... how do we know when we look into the face of Jesus that we are looking into the face of God? ... The answer is so plain and simple that it is a marvel how intelligent men can manage to miss it as they do... Look at what Christ has done for the soul of man: that is your answer. Christianity is just Christ—nothing more and nothing less. It is a way of life, and He is that way. It is the truth about human destiny, and He is that truth. It is the offer of life lived in the sunshine of eternal love, and He is that life. To know this is to know God, and every need is satisfied in that one word.
... R. J. Campbell (1867-1956), The Call of Christ, London: Skeffington & Son, n.d. (before 1932), p. 89-90 
(see the book; see also John 14:8-9; Ps. 51:10; Luke 10:21, John 14:5-6; 16:6-7; Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; 5:17; Col. 1:21-22; 3:9-10; more at Christ, Destiny, Everlasting, God, Jesus, Knowledge, Life, Love, Soul, Truth, Way)
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672
It is not God’s way that great blessings should descend without the sacrifice first of great sufferings. If the truth is to be spread to any wide extent among the people, how can we dream, how can we hope, that trial and trouble shall not accompany its going forth.
... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Sermons Preached on Various Occasions, London, Longmans, Green, 1898, sermon X, p. 178
(see the book; see also Cant. 2:10-12; Ps. 30:5; 126:5-6; John 15:21; 16:20,33; Acts 14:21-22; Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Pet. 1:6; 5:10; more at Blessing, God, Sacrifice, Suffer, Trial, Trouble, Truth, Weakness)
Monday, March 3, 2014
When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really... Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.
... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 93
(see the book; see also Phil. 3:18-19; Gen. 3:22; Matt. 15:18-20; Mark 7:21-23; Rom. 14:23; 1 Thess. 5:22; Tit. 1:15-16; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; more at Evil, Goodness, Knowledge, Man, Thought)
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647
We are all pencils in the hand of a writing God, who is sending love letters to the world.
... Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) (1910-1997)
(see also John 3:16; Ps. 117:1-2; 136; Rom. 5:8; 8:32; 2 Cor. 3:3; 5:18-21; Tit. 3:4; 1 John 4:9-10,19; more at God, Love, World)
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Ash Wednesday
The usual biblical word describing the “no” we say to the world’s lies and the yes we say to God’s truth is repentance...Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself and your neighbor and your world. And it is deciding that God in Jesus Christ is telling you the truth.
... Eugene H. Peterson (1932-2018), A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, InterVarsity Press, 2000, p. 29-30
(see the book; see also Acts 2:38; Isa. 45:22; Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 6:19-21; Acts 20:21; 2 Cor. 5:17; 7:10; Col. 3:2; 1 Thess. 1:9-10; Heb. 12:1-2; Rev. 3:19; more at Jesus, Life, Repentance, Self, Sin, Wrong)
Thursday, March 6, 2014
The enthronement of Christ in the heart secures the dethronement of self, for two cannot occupy the throne at the same time.
... J. Oswald Sanders (1902-1992), The Pursuit of the Holy, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Pub. House, 1972, p. 30
(see the book; see also Rom. 6:16; 1 Kings 18:21; 2 Kings 17:33; Matt. 3:2; 4:10; 6:10,24; Luke 16:13; Gal. 1:10; Jas. 1:6-8; 4:4,8; 1 John 2:16-17; Rev. 3:20; more at Christ, Heart, Self)
Friday, March 7, 2014
Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203
We all know that too much introspection can be unhealthy, unhelpful and even damaging. But some is not only salutary, but necessary. Our Bible reading will often sober and abase us in this way. The word of God ruthlessly exposes our sin, selfishness, vanity and greed, and then challenges us to repent and to confess. One of the safest ways to do this is to take on our lips one of the penitential psalms, especially perhaps Psalm 51 (“Have mercy on me, O God”) or Psalm 130 (“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord”). It is a healthy discipline each evening to review the day briefly and call to mind our failures. Not to do so tends to make us slapdash about sin and encourages us to presume on God’s mercy, whereas to make a habit of doing so humbles and shames us, and increases our longing for greater holiness. There is nothing morbid about the confession of sins, so long as we go on to give thanks for the forgiveness of sins. It is fine to look inwards, so long as it leads us immediately to look outwards and upwards again.
... John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), Basic Christianity, Nottingham, U.K.: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008, third edition, p. 120-122
(see the book; see also Ps. 51; 38:1-4; 102:12; 130; 143:1-2; Pr. 20:9; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eze. 11:19; 36:25-27; Acts 15:9; 1 Pet. 1:22; more at Abasement, Bible, Discipline, Forgiveness, Greed, Repentance, Self-examination, Selfish, Sin, Thanksgiving, Vanity)
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Commemoration of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, Poet, 1929
The Christian discipline of fighting temptation is not about self-hatred, or rejecting parts of our God-given humanity. It is about celebrating God’s gift of full humanity and, like someone learning a musical instrument, discovering how to tune it and play it to its best possibility. At the heart of our resistance to temptation is love and loyalty to the God who has already called us his beloved children in Christ, and who holds out before us the calling to follow him in the path which leads to the true glory. In that glory lies the true happiness, the true fulfilment, which neither world, nor flesh, nor devil can begin to imitate.
... N. T. Wright (b. 1948), Luke for Everyone, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 44-45
(see the book; see also Luke 4:1-13; Matt. 6:13; 26:41; Mark 14:38; Luke 11:4; 22:40,46; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Pet. 4:7; more at Discipline, Glory, God, Love, Loyalty, Self, Temptation)
Sunday, March 9, 2014
The secret prayer chamber is a bloody battleground. Here violent and decisive battles are fought out. Here the fate of souls for time and eternity is determined, in quietude and solitude.To pray is to open one’s heart to Jesus.
... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 98
(see the book; see also Ps. 6:9; Luke 18:1-8; Acts 1:14; Rom. 8:26-27; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; Jude 1:20; more at Battle, Blood, Eternity, Fight, Heart, Jesus, Prayer, Solitude)
Monday, March 10, 2014
[In prayer] we want to move closer to God, the source and goal of our existence, but at the same time we realize that the closer we come to God the stronger will be his demand to let go of the many ‘safe’ structures we have built around ourselves. Prayer is such a radical act because it requires us to criticize our whole way of being in the world, to lay down our old selves and accept our new self, which is Christ... Prayer therefore is the act of dying to all that we consider to be our own and of being born to a new existence which is not of this world.
... Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), originally in “Letting go of all things” in Sojourners8, May 1979, p. 5-6, The Only Necessary Thing, p. 39
(see also 1 Pet. 2:24; Ps. 69:16-18; Matt. 19:21-22,27-29; Mark 10:21-22; Luke 18:22-23; Acts 20:24; Rom. 6:2,11; Gal. 6:14; Phil. 3:7-8; Col. 3:3-5; more at Christ, Death, Existence, God, Prayer, Safety, Self)
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
The Gospel is not presented to mankind as an argument about religious principles. Nor is it offered as a philosophy of life. Christianity is a witness to certain facts—to events that have happened, to hopes that have been fulfilled, to realities that have been experienced, to a Person who has lived and died and been raised from the dead to reign for ever.
... Massey H. Shepherd, Jr. (1913-1990), Far and Near
(see also 1 Cor. 15:14-17; Luke 19:10; Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 1:19-24; Col. 2:8; 1 John 4:2-3; 2 John 1:7; more at Argument, Death, Experience, Gospel, Hope, Life, Philosophy, Resurrection, Witness)
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
O for a closer walk with God,A calm and heavenly frame,A light to shine upon the roadThat leads me to the Lamb!
Return, O holy Dove, return,Sweet messenger of rest:I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,And drove Thee from my breast.
The dearest idol I have known,Whate’er that idol be,Help me to tear it from Thy throne,And worship only Thee.
So shall my walk be close with God,Calm and serene my frame;So purer light shall mark the roadThat leads me to the Lamb.
... William Cowper (1731-1800), included in The Works of William Cowper: his life, letters, and poems, New York: R. Carter & Brothers, 1851, p. 670
(see the book; see also Luke 24:32; Gen. 5:24; Deut. 28:9; John 1:29,32; 2 Cor. 5:7; Col. 2:6-7; Rev. 5:12; more at Calm, God, Heaven, Holy Spirit, Idol, Knowing God, Lamb, Light, Road, Sin)
Thursday, March 13, 2014
The Company of Jesus is not people streaming to a shrine; and it is not people making up an audience for a speaker; it is laborers engaged in the harvesting task of reaching their perplexed and seeking brethren with something so vital that, if it is received, it will change their lives.
... Elton Trueblood (1900-1994), The Company of the Committed, Harper, 1961, p. 45
(see the book; see also Matt. 9:37-38; Ps. 68:11; Matt. 28:19; Luke 10:1-2; 24:46-47; John 4:35-36; Acts 8:4; 1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1-2; 2 Thess. 3:1; more at Harvest, Jesus, People, Task)
Friday, March 14, 2014
To confess your sins to God is not to tell him anything he doesn’t already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.
... Frederick Buechner (1926-2022), Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, Harper & Row, 1973, revised, HarperCollins, 1993, p. 15
(see the book; see also Ps. 69:5; 2 Sam. 24:10; Ps. 32:5; 41:4; 51:2-5; Isa. 59:12-13; Jer. 14:7; Matt. 6:8; Luke 15:17-21; Jas. 5:16; 1 John 1:9; more at Communion, Confession, God, Knowledge, Sin)
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Amid all our dryness let us never grow discouraged, but go steadily on, patiently waiting the return of better things; let us never be misled to give up any devout practices because of it, but rather, if possible, let us increase our good works, and if we cannot offer liquid preserves to our Bridegroom, let us at least offer Him dried fruit—it is all one to Him, so long as the heart we offer be fully resolved to love Him.
... François de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life [1609], London: Rivingtons, 1876, IV.xiv, p. 338
(see the book; see also Phil. 3:13-14; Ps. 31:22; 77:7-9; Isa. 35:3-4; Matt. 10:22; Luke 18:1-8; Rom. 2:7; 8:24-25; 1 Cor. 9:24-25; 1 Thess. 5:14; Heb. 10:36; 12:1-3,11-13; Jas. 1:2-3; 5:10-11; more at Discouragement, God, Good works, Heart, Love, Offering, Patience)
Sunday, March 16, 2014
The way to begin a Christian life is not to study theology. Piety before theology. Right living will produce right thinking. Yet many men, when their consciences are aroused, run for catechisms, and commentaries, and systems. They do not mean to be shallow Christians. They intend to be thorough, if they enter upon the Christian life at all. Now, theologies are well in their place; but repentance and love must come before all other experiences. First a cure for your sin-sick soul, and then theologies.
... Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), Life Thoughts: gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher, Edna Dean Proctor, ed., Sheldon, 1860, p. 2
(see the book; see also Heb. 5:12-14; Pr. 9:10; Matt. 4:17; 11:29-30; Mark 1:15; 10:15; John 5:39-40; 13:15; Acts 3:19-20; 20:21; 1 Cor. 3:1-3; Phil. 2:5; 1 Pet. 2:1-3; 1 John 2:6; more at Conscience, Life, Love, Sin, Soul, Theology)
Monday, March 17, 2014
Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460
You, too, are called to be an open letter, as Paul puts it, written by Christ’s own hand, showing those round about you what things Christ can do. We are to go into the world and so to live our ordinary lives that, all unconsciously to us, those among whom we move will look at us again, and will begin to say, You know I used to doubt if there was much in Christianity save talk. But I have revised my opinion. There’s So-and-so (that’s you, you understand), that is a man in whom the thing is obviously working out. He used to be so touchy, so opinionative, so mean and shabby in his views, so dully ordinary. Yet now, undoubtedly, the man has won to self-control and a large generous mind, and—yea, I know it’s a queer thing to say—but he has won to something more, something that somehow—though he never speaks about those things—makes you remember Jesus Christ!
... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 28
(see the book; see also 2 Cor. 3:3,18; Isa. 42:6-7; Matt. 5:14-16; Rom. 1:8; Eph. 1:4; 4:15; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 1 Tim. 1:16; more at Authenticity, Call, Doubt, Generosity, Jesus, Remembrance, Salvation, Self-control)
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
In judging others a man laboureth in vain; he often erreth, and easily falleth into sin; but in judging and examining himself he always laboureth to good purpose.
... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, I.xiv.1, p. 49
(see the book; see also Matt. 7:1-5; Ps. 4:4; 26:2; 119:59; 139:23-24; Lam. 3:40; Hag. 1:7; 1 Cor. 11:28,31; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 6:3-5; 1 John 3:19-22; more at Judgment, Man, Repentance, Self-examination, Sin)
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Feast of Joseph of Nazareth
A satisfying prayer life... elevates and purifies every act of body and mind and integrates the entire personality into a single spiritual unit. Such prayer can only be the result of a life lived in the Spirit...In the long pull we pray only as well as we live.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Root of the Righteous, Christian Publications, 1955, p. 81
(see the book; see also Gal. 5:16; Ps. 46:1; 119:11; John 6:63; 14:26; 15:7,16; 2 Cor. 3:6; Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:25; Eph. 5:18; Col. 3:16; 1 Thess. 5:19; 1 John 2:27; 2 John 1:2; more at Life, Mind, Prayer, Purity, Satisfaction)
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687
When the word intervenes in a situation, it changes that situation. When it comes on a man, it changes that man even if he refuses to listen. This goes beyond mere obedience. The word enlists man in an adventure into which he carries all those around him and which may be a controversy with God.
... Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), The Judgment of Jonah, tr. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1971, p. 22
(see the book; see also Jon. 1:9-10; Deut. 18:15-19; 1 Sam. 8:18-19; Neh. 9:16-17; Jer. 11:9-10; Matt. 10:14-15; 11;15; 13:15; Mark 4:9; 6:10-11; 9:7; Luke 16:31; ; more at God, Listening, Man, Obedience)
Friday, March 21, 2014
If anyone tells you that the life of prayer is one uninterrupted experience of being happy with Jesus, do not follow him. He is not a safe guide. Those who follow the Lamb know that there are stretches of darkness and loneliness and perplexity along the way, and they know that Jesus himself went that way.
... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), Journey Into Joy, Christian Literature Society, 1972, reprint, Wm. B. Errdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1973, p. 124
(see the book; see also Mark 14:33-34; Ps. 22:1; 23:4; 27:1; 46:1-3; 69:13-15; 88:6-7; 118:6; 130:1-2; Matt. 26:37-38; Rom. 8:18; 1 Cor. 15:55-57; Heb. 5:7; more at Darkness, Experience, Happiness, Jesus, Lamb, Loneliness, Prayer)
Saturday, March 22, 2014
We need to confess to God our sin of neglecting His Holy Word. We have time enough—we take time—to read the writings of fellow-sinners, yet we have little or no time for the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is a series of Divine love letters, and yet many of God’s people have scarcely broken the seals.
... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), The Divine Inspiration of the Bible, Swengel, Pa.: Bible Truth Depot, 1917, p. 139-140
(see the book; see also Luke 8:11-12; Ps. 19:1-3; Mark 4:24; Luke 8:18; Rom. 1:16; 10:14-17; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:17; Col. 1:6; 1 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 4:12; more at Bible, Confession, God, Love, Sin, Time)
Sunday, March 23, 2014
As our life comes to maturity we discover to our confusion that human ears can pick up from the Infinite many incompatible tunes, but cannot hear the whole symphony. And the melody confided to our care, the one which we alone perhaps can contribute and which taxes our powers to the full, has in it not only the notes of triumph but the notes of pain. The distinctive mark therefore is not happiness but vocation: work demanded and power given, but given only on condition that we spend it and ourselves on others without stint.
... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today, E.P. Dutton, 1922, p. 225
(see the book; see also 1 Pet. 4:10; Matt. 20:25-28; Mark 9:35; 1 Cor. 7:20,24; 13:9-10,12; 2 Cor. 5:7; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 6:7-8; Phil. 3:12; Heb. 3:1-2; Jas. 1:23-24; 2 Pet. 1:10-11; more at Call, Confusion, Discovery, Happiness, Pain, Power, Work)
Monday, March 24, 2014
Feast of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, 1980
Commemoration of Paul Couturier, Priest, Ecumenist, 1953
Sorrow for sin and sorrow for suffering are ofttimes so twisted and interwoven in the same person—yea, in the same sigh and groan—that sometimes it is impossible for the party himself so to separate and divide them in his own sense and feeling, as to know which proceeds from the one and which from the other. Only the all-seeing eye of an infinite God is able to discern and distinguish them.
... Thomas Fuller (1608-1661), The Cause and Cure of a Wounded Conscience [1655], Dialogue I.
(see the book; see also Rom. 8:26; Ps. 6:3; 42:1-4; 69:3; 77:1-3; 119:81; 143:4-7; Isa. 35:10; 53:11; 2 Cor. 5:1-4; 7:10-11; more at God, Guilt, Knowledge, People, Sin, Sorrow, Suffer)
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary
I hold that secret sin, if any thing, is the worst of sin; because secret sin implies that the man who commits it has Atheism in his heart. You will ask how that can be. I reply, he may be a professing Christian, but I shall tell him to his face that he is a practical Atheist, if he labors to keep up a respectable profession before man, and then secretly transgresses. Why, is not he an Atheist, who will say there is a God, yet at the same time thinks more of man than he does of God? Is it not the very essence of Atheism—is it not a denial of the divinity of the Most High when men lightly esteem him and think more of the eye of a creature than of the observation of their Creator? There are some who would not, for the life of them, say a wicked word in the presence of their minister, but they can do it, knowing God is looking at them. They are Atheists. There are some who would not trick in trade for all the world if they thought they should be discovered, but they can do it while God is with them; that is, they think more of the eye of man than of the eye of God; and they think it worse to be condemned by man than to be condemned by God. Call it by what name you will, the proper name of that is practical Atheism.
... Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), Sermons of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon of London, third series, New York: Sheldon, Blakeman and Co., 1857, p. 171-172
(see the book; see also Num. 32:23; Ps. 19:12; Jer. 23:24; Matt. 6:24; Luke 11:23; 16:13; Rom. 6:16; Jas. 4:4; 1 John 2:15-16; more at Atheism, Condemnation, Discovery, Evil, God, Heart, Man, Sin)
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883
Prayer does not stand alone. It is not an isolated performance. Prayer stands in closest connection with all the duties of an ardent piety. It is the issuance of a character which is made up of the elements of a vigorous and commanding faith. Prayer honours God, acknowledges His being, exalts His power, adores His providence, secures His aid... To pray well is to do all things well.
... E. M. Bounds (1835-1913), Purpose in Prayer, New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1920, p. 96
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 6:20; Isa. 26:13; Hos. 6:6; 1 Tim. 1:17; Heb. 4:16; Jude 1:20; Rev. 4:11; more at Duty, God, Honor, Prayer, Providence)
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Let us not mind what is past. Perhaps it is all failure, and useless struggle, and broken resolves. What then? Settle this first, brethren, Are you in earnest? If so, though your faith be weak and your struggles unsatisfactory, you may begin the hymn of triumph now, for victory is pledged. “Thanks be to God, which”—not shall give, but “giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57)
... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, v. III, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1859, p. 289
(see the book; see also Acts 17:29-30; John 16:33; Rom. 8:37; 1 Cor. 15:55-57; 1 John 5:3-5; Rev. 12:10-11; more at Failure, Faith, Jesus, Past, Resolve, Struggle, Victory, Weakness)
Friday, March 28, 2014
What makes life worth living is the mutual enrichment of people through understanding, intelligence and affection.It is just here that our awareness that Jesus is our contemporary and that Calvary is relevant to our present human situation ought to help us greatly. And that is not merely because in his relationships with others during his earthly life in Palestine Jesus exemplified all that I have tried to say about human relationships. In every genuine human encounter with another person we may become aware of Jesus, and meet with him. This may sound fanciful, but there is much in the Scriptures and in Christian experience which suggests that Jesus is frequently met in the traffic of person with person, provided that there is a genuine encounter between them. Jesus himself showed that for this to happen demands courage and a willingness to move from a life that is centred in itself. So if we are to pass out of that lonely world of isolation then we must be prepared to take the risks that are always involved when we allow persons to confront us as persons and do not regard them as things. Yet, dangerous though it may be to live in this way, it is the only way to live.
... Ambrose Reeves (1899-1980), Calvary Now, London: SCM Press, 1965, p. 76-77
(see the book; see also 1 John 3:14; Matt. 19:13-15; 25:34-40; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 10:29-37; 18:15-17; John 13:35; Heb. 13:1; 1 Pet. 1:22; 3:8; 1 John 4:7-8; 5:2; more at Affection, Calvary, Courage, Jesus, Life, People, Scripture, Understanding, Way)
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974
I can tell you for an eternal truth that troubled souls are always safe. It is the untroubled that are in danger. Trouble in itself is always a claim on love, and God is love. He must deny Himself if He does not come to help the helpless. It is the prisoners, and the blind, and the leper, and the possessed, and the hungry, and the tempest-tossed, who are His special care. Therefore, if you are lost and sick and bound, you are just in the place where He can meet you. Blessed are the mourners. They shall be comforted.
... Andrew Jukes (1815-1901), [1889], Letters of Andrew Jukes, London: Longman, Green, and Company, 1903, [1889], p. 155
(see the book; see also Matt. 9:11-12; Pr. 3:11-12; Matt. 5:4; 6:34; John 14:1; Heb. 12:7; Phil. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:7; more at Blindness, Comfort, God, Helplessness, Love, Prisoner, Sickness, Soul, Trouble, Truth, Weakness)
Sunday, March 30, 2014
My belief that miracles have happened in human history is not a mystical belief at all; I believe in them upon human evidences as I do in the discovery of America. Upon this point there is a simple logical fact that only requires to be stated and cleared up. Somehow or other an extraordinary idea has arisen that the disbelievers in miracles consider them coldly and fairly, while believers in miracles accept them only in connection with some dogma. The fact is quite the other way. The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.
... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), Orthodoxy, London, New York: John Lane Company, 1909, p. 278-279
(see the book; see also Matt. 4:23-25; 9:2-7; Mark 2:3-12; Luke 4:14; John 2:11; 7:31; 20:30-31; Acts 19:17; 1 Cor. 1:22-24; more at Belief, Dogma, Historical, Miracle)
Monday, March 31, 2014
Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631
Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for youAs yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bendYour force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. VI, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Holy Sonnets, XVII, p. 449
(see the book; see also John 3:3; Deut. 4:24; Ps. 34:18; 51:10,17; Isa. 57:15; Matt. 5:3; Luke 18:11-14; John 14:23; Rom. 6:6-7; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; Heb. 12:29; Rev. 3:20; more at God, Heart, Renewal)
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Quotations Bible Study
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Jonah: a miracle play
Ruth: a play
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