Quotations for March, 2025
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601
God, in a man who is made “partaker of His nature,” desireth and taketh no revenge for all the wrong that is or can be done unto Him. This we see in Christ when He saith: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
... Theologia Germanica [1518], Anonymous, ascribed to Johannes de Francfordia, (1380?-1440) & Susanna Winkworth, tr., published anonymously by Martin Luther, ch. XXXIII 
(see the book; see also Luke 23:34; more at Attitudes, Christ, Forgiveness, God, Man, Vengeance)
Sunday, March 2, 2025
Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672
Jesus came to raise the dead. Not to repair the repairable, correct the correctable, or improve the improvable. Just to raise the dead, and nobody but the dead. Nothing is all he needs for anything.
... Robert Farrar Capon (1925-2013), The Foolishness of Preaching, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1997, p. 25
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 6:14; Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2; Luke 14:14; John 5:21,25,28-29; 6:40,54; Rom. 6:4; 8:11; Eph. 5:13-14; 1 Thess. 4:14-16; more at Death, Jesus, Resurrection)
Monday, March 3, 2025
If the Lord is indeed our shepherd, then everything goes topsy-turvy. Losing becomes finding and crying becomes laughing. The last become first and the weak become strong. Instead of life being done in by death in the end as we always supposed, death is done in finally by life in the end. If the Lord is our host at the great feast, then the sky is the limit.
... Frederick Buechner (1926-2022), Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, Zondervan, 2007, p. 130
(see the book; see also Ps. 23:1; Matt. 10:39; 20:16; John 10:11; 1 Cor. 15:54-55; more at Death, Life, Strength, Victory, Weakness)
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647
Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart.
... Robert Pierce (1914-1978)
(see also Isa. 53:3; Matt. 9:36; 14:14; 20:34; Mark 1:41; 6:34; Col. 3:12; Heb. 4:15; 5:2; more at Compassion, God, Heart)
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Ash Wednesday
When you see the light, do not forget Him who gave it to you; when you see the sky, the earth, the sea and all that is in them, marvel at these things and glorify their Creator; when you put on clothing, acknowledge whose gift it is and praise Him who in His providence has given you life. In short, if everything you do becomes for you an occasion for glorifying God, you will be praying unceasingly. And in this way your soul will always rejoice.
... Peter the Damascene (12th c.), Philokalia, v. III, St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, St. Makarios of Corinth & Kallistos Ware, G. E. H. Palmer, and Philip Sherrard, trs., Faber & Faber, 1984, reprint, Macmillan, 1986, p. 173
(see the book; see also Eph. 5:19-20; Ps. 86:12; Luke 18:1; Rom. 12:12; 15:5-6; 2 Cor. 9:15; Phil. 4:6; 1 Thess. 5:17-18; more at Abasement, Glory, God, Light, Praise, Providence, Remembrance, Sight)
Thursday, March 6, 2025
It occurred to me that in our work with secular organizations, the leader shapes the heart and passion of the corporate entity. In our work with non-profit organizations, we have found the same principle to be operative. When it comes to the focus of the organization, the people who serve there tend to take on many of the core personality traits of the leader toward fulfilling the mandate of the organization. If this is true, and most churches seem to lack the fervor and focus for evangelism, is it reasonable to conclude that it may be because of the lack of zeal most pastors have for identifying, befriending, loving and evangelizing non-Christian people?
... George Barna (b. 1955), Evangelism that Works, Gospel Light Pubns., 1995, Regal Books, 1995, p. 90
(see the book; see also Acts 11:22-26; Gal. 1:10; Jude 1:3; more at Great Commission, Mission, Zeal)
Friday, March 7, 2025
Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203
For it seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms.
... Simone Weil (1909-1943), Waiting for God, Emma Craufurd, tr., Putnam, 1951, p. 69
(see the book; see also John 17:17; Gen. 32:24-29; Ps. 31:5; 145:18; Pr. 23:23; John 4:23-24; 8:31-32; 14:6,16-17; 16:13; 18:37-38; 1 Cor. 13:6; more at Christ, God, Truth)
Saturday, March 8, 2025
Commemoration of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, Priest, Poet, 1929
No body worries about Christ so long as He can be kept shut up in Churches. He is quite safe there, but there is always trouble if you try to let Him out.
... G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), The Word and the Work, Longmans, Green, 1934, p. 66
(see the book; see also Luke 12:49-51; Matt. 10:34-36; Luke 22:36-38; John 18:9; more at Christ, Church, Safety, Trouble)
Sunday, March 9, 2025
No matter how great our burdens or how deep our pain, God is able to comfort us. No matter how severe the pressures of daily life, they can’t separate us from the tenderness and compassion of our Heavenly Father.
... Luis Palau (b. 1934), Time to Stop Pretending, with Stephen and Amanda Sorenson, Victor Books, 1985, p. 20
(see the book; see also 2 Cor. 1:3-6; Ps. 40:1-3; 116:3-7; 126:5-6; Isa. 25:8; 35:10; 57:18-19; Matt. 5:4; Luke 6:21; John 16:20-22; Rev. 21:4; more at Burden, Comfort, Compassion, Father, God, Pain)
Monday, March 10, 2025
For however devoted you are to [God], you can rest assured that He is immeasurably more devoted to you and He trusts you far more, for He is loyalty itself.
... Meister Eckhart (1260?-1327?), Treatises and Sermons, Harper, 1958, p. 83
(see the book; see also 1 Thess. 5:24; Ps. 9:10; 100:5; 111:5; 121:3-4; Neh. 9:7-8; Jer. 32:40; Matt. 23:37; John 8:26; 1 Cor. 1:9; Heb. 10:23; more at Devotion, God, Loyalty, Trust)
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
One of the principal parts of faith is patience.
... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Weighed and Wanting, Boston: D. Lothrop and Company, 1882, p. 542
(see the book; see also Ps. 37:7-9; 40:1-2; Luke 8:15; 21:17-19; Rom. 2:7; 8:25; 1 Cor. 13:4-5; Heb. 12:1; Jas. 1:3-4; more at Faith, Patience)
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
This concern for the rights and liberties and welfare of the backward peoples is rooted in the Christian ethic of justice and of the duty to help and protect the weak, upon the Christian valuation of man as of spiritual dignity and worth, as made for freedom, as a potential child of God. These principles have no validity unless the Christian view of man be true.
... Nathaniel Micklem (1888-1976), The Theology of Politics, London: Oxford University Press, 1941, p. 114
(see the book; see also John 7:24; Jer. 22:1-4; Amos 5: 7,8; Mic. 6:8; more at Freedom, God, Justice, Man, Social, Truth)
Thursday, March 13, 2025
It is much, yea, it is everything, not to turn away the ear, to be willing to hearken, not to drown His Voice... It is a secret, hushed voice, a gentle intercourse of heart to heart, a still small voice, whispering to the inner ear. How should we hear it, if we fill our ears and our hearts with the din of this world, its empty tumult, its excitement, its fretting vanities, or cares, or passions, or anxieties, or show, its rivalries, and its whirl of emptinesses? A loud voice will often not reach an occupied heart. The Voice of the Son of God in the flesh, though it waked Lazarus from the dead, reached not those whose ears and minds were filled with the love of the praise of men.
... Edward B. Pusey (1800-1882), Parochial Sermons, v. II, London: Rivingtons, 1868, p. 247
(see the book; see also John 5:44; 1 Kings 19:12; Ps. 25:14; Eze. 2:7; Matt. 23:5-7; Luke 16:15; John 5:41; 11:43; 12:43; 1 Thess. 2:6; more at Emptiness, Gentleness, God, Heart, Vanity)
Friday, March 14, 2025
The Church lives neither by her faithfulness to her message nor by her abiding in one fellowship with the apostles; she lives by the living power of the Spirit of God.
... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 105
(see the book; see also Acts 1:8; Deut. 8:3; Rom. 15:13; 1 Cor. 3:11; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Tim. 2:19; more at Church, Faith, Fellowship, God, Power, Spirit)
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Our wishes and desires—to pass an exam, to marry the person we love, to sell our house at a good price—are involuntary and, therefore, not in themselves prayers. They only become prayers when addressed to a God whom we believe to know better than ourselves whether we should be granted or denied what we ask. A petition does not become a prayer unless it ends with the words, spoken or unspoken, “nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt.”
... W. H. Auden (1907-1973), A Certain World, London: Faber and Faber, 1971, p. 307
(see the book; see also Matt. 26:39,42; 6:10; John 6:38; Rom. 12:2; 15:3; Phil. 2:8; Heb. 10:7; 1 Pet. 4:1-2; more at God, Goodness, Knowledge, Prayer, Will of God)
Sunday, March 16, 2025
As we have a natural aversion to God, we shall never aim at that which is right, without a previous renunciation of ourselves. Therefore we are so frequently commanded to put off the old man, to renounce the world and the flesh, to forsake our lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Besides, the very word mortification reminds us how difficult it is to forget our former nature; for it implies that we cannot be formed to the fear of God, and learn the rudiments of piety, without being violently slain and annihilated by the sword of the Spirit. As though God had pronounced that, in order to our being numbered among his children, there is a necessity for the destruction of our common nature.
... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, III.iii.8, p. 541
(see the book; see also Rom. 8:13-14; 8:7; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 6:17; Col. 3:5; Heb. 4:12; more at Child, God, Nature, Renewal, Renunciation, Self-sacrifice, Spirit, Sword, World)
Monday, March 17, 2025
Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460
God planted three principal faculties in the soul of man; which are the understanding, the will, and the memory; that in these three the manifestation of his glory might more fully and distinctly be set forth. These faculties, as an out-flowing from its original source and root, the Holy Trinity produces and preserves, sanctifies and illuminates, most beautifully decks and adorns with its divine graces, works and gifts.
... John Arndt (1555-1621), True Christianity, tr. A. W. Boehm, Boston: Lincoln & Edmands, 1809, p. 35
(see the book; see also Gen. 1:26-30; Ps. 16:3; Pr. 8:30-31; John 13:1; Eph. 4:22-24; more at Gifts, Grace, Man, Memory, Sanctification, Trinity, Understanding, Work)
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
“Christianity is keeping the golden rule. Therefore, for me to become a Christian, I must try harder.” Hardly good news to someone who has tried and tried and failed and failed. To eliminate this caricature of the gospel, plant this though. Just the other day, my neighbor said to me, “I’m not a very religious person.” I replied, “I’m not either. I was delighted to discover that Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship with a person, Jesus Christ.” That to most non-Christians is a revolutionary thought. If you did nothing more than eliminate that caricature, you have made great progress in your evangelistic enterprise.
... Joseph C. Aldrich (1941-2009), Lifestyle Evangelism, Multnomah Press, 1981, p. 215
(see the book; see also Acts 15:10-11; Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31; Acts 8:4,25,40; 14:6-7; 27:8; 1 Cor. 1:17; more at Evangelization, Failure, Goodness, Gospel, Jesus, Neighbor, Religion, Rule)
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Feast of Joseph of Nazareth
“To become a Christian, I must give up everything that I enjoy.” This is a partial truth. His observations may have led him to conclude that Christians never have any fun. The caricature could be stated this way. “Christians are negative people. I don’t want to be so negative, therefore, I don’t want to be a Christian.” Unfortunately, some Christians act in ways that reinforce the caricature... You can be the key to eliminating this distortion.
... Joseph C. Aldrich (1941-2009), Lifestyle Evangelism, Multnomah Press, 1981, p. 215
(see the book; see also 1 Thess. 5:16; Matt. 5:3-12; 25:21; Luke 2:10; 24:52-53; John 17:13; Acts 8:8; 13:52; Rom. 5:2,11; 14:17; 15:13; Phil. 4:4; 1 Pet. 1:8; more at Happiness, Joy, Self-sacrifice, Truth, Unfortunate)
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Feast of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 687
“To become a Christian, I must go to church and get involved in lots of meetings.” This is the old “churchianity” caricature. Unfortunately, some of our churches perpetuate this idea by pushing a program which encourages a neurotic Christian activism. I shared with my neighbor that I wasn’t interested in lots of meetings, but that I did enjoy regular times of significant teaching and worship.
... Joseph C. Aldrich (1941-2009), Lifestyle Evangelism, Multnomah Press, 1981, p. 216
(see the book; see also Ps. 1:1-2; Eccl. 3:12-13; 12:12; Phil. 4:8; 1 Thess. 5:21; Heb. 10:25; more at Action, Authenticity, Church, Neighbor, Teach, Worship)
Friday, March 21, 2025
The Word of God was written to give us not merely a speculative apprehension, but an experimental sense and feeling, of holy things, comfortable or terrifying as our spiritual state requires. Too many, alas, have no conception of this efficacy in Scripture: and no wonder, for they have never seriously endeavoured to have any. But let them try in earnest, and they will infallibly succeed, if they use proper means. We read of some, what will be true of all in the same condition, that the word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith. God indeed can operate according to His own pleasure: but humanly speaking, persons will not be influenced by what they disbelieve; and not much by what they believe but faintly. Nay, should they labour to make the strongest impressions on their own souls, without applying to Him, whose gift saving faith is, their efforts would be vain. But let any one jointly strive and pray for a deep conviction, that the Bible is the appointed instrument of his religious proficiency: then let him read it, not as performing a task, he knows not why, from which he had rather be excused,... to amend his inward state towards God: that... by patience in well doing, and comfort in virtuous suffering, which we learn of His holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.
... George D’Oyly (1778-1846) & Richard Mant (1776-1848), Holy Bible According to the Authorized Version, Introduction to, London: SPCK, 1839, p. xviii-xix
(see the book; see also 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Sam. 23:2; Matt. 22:43; Mark 12:36; John 10:35; Rom. 3:2; 15:4; Heb. 4:12; 2 Pet. 1:21; more at Belief, Bible, Conviction, Endeavor, Faith, Gifts, God, Prayer, Salvation, Scripture, Truth)
Saturday, March 22, 2025
I wonder many times that ever a child of God should have a sad heart, considering what their Lord is preparing for them.
... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, 1643, p. 74
(see the book; see also Isa. 35:10; Matt. 5:4; 2 Cor. 7:10-11; Jas. 1:2; Rev. 21:4; more at God, Heart, Sadness)
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Begin to realize more and more that prayer is the most important thing you do; and that you can use your time to no better advantage than to pray whenever you have an opportunity to do so, either alone or with others, while at work, while at rest, or while walking down the street. Anywhere!
... O. Hallesby (1879-1961), Prayer, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1943, reprint, Augsburg Fortress Books, 1975, 1994, p. 172
(see the book; see also Phil. 4:6; Ps. 25:1; 65:2; 88:1; Dan. 6:10; Matt. 14:23; 26:36; Mark 1:35; Luke 9:18; John 17; Rom. 8:15; Eph. 2:18; 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:17; more at Opportunity, Prayer, Rest, Time, Work)
Monday, March 24, 2025
Feast of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, 1980
Commemoration of Paul Couturier, Priest, Ecumenist, 1953
If some Christians who have been complaining of their ministers... had said and acted less before men and had applied themselves with all their might to cry to God for their ministers—had, as it were, risen and stormed heaven with their humble, fervent, and incessant prayers for them—they would have been much more in the way of success.
... Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A.M., v. I, London: William Ball., 1839, p. 427
(see the book; see also Col. 4:3-4; Rom. 15:31; 1 Cor. 3:1-5; Eph. 6:18-19; 1 Thess. 5:25; 2 Thess. 3:1-2; Heb. 13:18; more at Church, Complaint, God, Heaven, Humility, Minister, Prayer)
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Virgin Mary
We are not to put our trust in this man or that man—not to lean upon an arm of flesh. All the ministers in the world and all the potentates in the church put together cannot save one soul. It is thoroughly impossible. It is the Lord that can save, and the Lord alone; therefore we want to get our eyes away from man, from the church, and right straight up to the man Christ Jesus.
... Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899), Moody and Sankey, the new evangelists, their lives and labours, London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1876, p. 119
(see the book; see also Acts 4:12; John 3:36; 14:5; Acts 10:42-43; 1 Cor. 3:11; 1 John 5:11-12; more at Christ, Church, Jesus, Man, Minister, Salvation, Trust, World)
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883
Paradoxical as it may seem, I think that it is quite possible that the shortness of his stay may have conduced in no small measure to St. Paul’s success. There is something in the presence of a great teacher that sometimes tends to prevent smaller men from realizing themselves. They more readily feel their responsibility, they more easily and successfully exert their powers when they see that, unless they come forward, nothing will be done. By leaving them quickly, St. Paul gave the local leaders opportunity to take their proper place, and forced the church to realize that it could not depend on him, but must depend on its own resources.
... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 125
(see the book; see also Acts 14:20-26; Rom. 12:6-8; 1 Cor. 12:7; 14:12; Eph. 4:11-12; more at Church, Dependence, Leader, Opportunity, Responsibility, Success, Teach)
Thursday, March 27, 2025
If thine heart were right, then should every creature be a mirror of life and a book of holy doctrine. There is no creature so small and vile but that it showeth us the goodness of God.If thou wert good and pure within, then wouldst thou look upon all things without hurt and understand them aright. A pure heart seeth the very depths of heaven and hell. Such as each one is inwardly, so judgeth he outwardly.
... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.iv.1-2, p. 89
(see the book; see also Jas. 1:17; Gen. 1:31; Ps. 34:8; 19:1-2; 104:24; 145:9; Lam. 3:25; Nah. 1:7; Matt. 7:11; 19:17; Mark 10:18; Acts 11:8-9; 1 Tim. 4:4; more at God, Goodness, Heart, Heaven, Hell, Holiness, Life, Purity)
Friday, March 28, 2025
God, out of the pattern of His own heart, has planted the Cross along the road of holy obedience.
... Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941), A Testament of Devotion, London: Quaker Home Service, 1941, reprint Harper, Collins, 1996, p. 71
(see the book; see also 1 Pet. 4:12-13; Matt. 16:24; Acts 5:41; Rom. 5:3-4; Gal. 2:20; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Tim. 1:8-9; Heb. 2:10; 10:32; Jas. 5:10; more at Cross, God, Holiness, Obedience)
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Commemoration of Jack Winslow, Missionary, Evangelist, 1974
Were Christians duly instructed how many lesser differences, in mind, and judgment, and practice, are really consistent with the nature, ends, and genuine fruit of the unity that Christ requires among them, it would undoubtedly prevail with them so as to manage themselves in their differences, by mutual forbearance and condescension in their love, as not to contract the guilt of being disturbers or breakers of it... To speak plainly, among all the churches in the world which are free from idolatry and persecution, it is not different opinions, nor a difference in judgment about revealed truths, nor a different practice in sacred administrations, but pride, self-interest, love of honour, reputation, and dominion, with the influence of civil or political intrigues and considerations, that are the true cause of that defect of evangelical unity that is at this day amongst them.
... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Evangelical Love [1672], in Works of John Owen, v. XV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, P. 113
(see the book; see also Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 4:3-6; 5:29-30; Col. 3:13-15; more at Christ, Church, Honor, Judgment, Pride, Self, Truth, Unity)
Sunday, March 30, 2025
If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronising and spoiling sport, and back-biting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.
... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan, 1952, reprint, HarperCollins, 2001, p. 91
(see the book; see also Matt. 21:28-31; 20:6; Luke 7:29,37-38; 15:1-2; 19:9-20; more at Hatred, Hell, Pleasure, Power, Purity, Self, Self-righteousness, Sin, Spiritual life, Wrong)
Monday, March 31, 2025
Commemoration of John Donne, Priest, Poet, 1631
It is not in the power of the devil to do so much harm, as God can do good; nay, we may be bold to say, it is not in the will, not in the desire of the devil to do so much harm, as God would do good.
... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. III, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Sermon LXII, p. 93
(see the book; see also 2 Cor. 4:8-10; John 13:2-3; 14:18; Rom. 5:3-5; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 4:16-17; Eph. 6:11-12; Jas. 1:17; 1 Pet. 5:8-10; more at Devil, Evil, God, Goodness, Power, Providence)
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