I don’t know how you can be happy without Christ. Can the railway train be happy without the rails, the eye without light, the lungs without air, the heart without love? — E. Stanley Jones
Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee. ― Augustine of Hippo
Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8, NLT)
Harold Hill: You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering. ― Meredith Willson, The Music Man
Thankful for today, one more day. Here's a great song I came across this morning. So good, so fun.
When it comes to Jesus Christ, there are no apologies upon my lips, for there are none in my heart. My song about Jesus Christ is not a species of whistling in the dark to keep up my courage. I sing with my total being—with my mind, my emotion, my will—with the consent of all my being. I sing because I can’t help it. If I held my peace, the stones—the hard, bare facts of life—would cry out. … You can only sing when you have something to sing about. My “something” is a Someone. My theme song is Jesus Christ. — E. Stanley Jones
God’s system of promotion does not follow the pattern of this age. … Which kind of promotion do we seek? One who knows the “right” people can attain to considerable eminence down here. But the man who lets God promote him is spared all that fever. God may set him in a high place to the chagrin of some of his contemporaries. If he never gets a newspaper headline he will lose no sleep over it, for any place is a “large place” if it is God’s place. — Vance Havner
No one on earth—from east or west, or even from the wilderness—should raise a defiant fist. It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall. (Psalms 75:6-7, NLT)
Humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. (1 Peter 5:6, NLT)
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11, NLT)
No plottings of men, no combinations of circumstances can defeat the man who has God as his helper. Here is the secret of many a life, conspired against by ill health, poverty, evil men, foes in the household, the world, the flesh and the devil, but victorious anyway—God was with him. - Vance Havner
For the resolutions of the just depend rather on the grace of God than on their own wisdom; and in Him they always put their trust, whatever they take in hand. For man proposes, but God disposes; neither is the way of man in his own hands. — Thomas à Kempis
You cannot love and live for two worlds at a time. — Vance Havner
Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me . . . (2 Timothy 4:10, NIV)
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (1 John 2:15-17, NLT)
Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. (James 4:4, NLT)
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8, NIV)
Jesus does not prevent the storms; he rises in the midst of the storm.— Craig Barnes
The essence of faith is simply taking God at His Word. — Vance Havner
Do you think their faithlessness cancels out his faithfulness? Not on your life! Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same:
Your words stand fast and true;
Rejection doesn’t faze you. (Romans 3:3-4, MSG)
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? — G. Keith, & R. Keen
Jesus said, “It is written . . .” (Matthew 4:4, NLV)
These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31, NIV)
'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
and to take him at his word;
just to rest upon his promise,
and to know, "Thus saith the Lord." — Louisa Stead