Thursday, September 16, 2010

"I went to a gentleman who is much troubled with what they call lowness of spirits.  Many such have I been with before; but in several of them, it was no bodily distemper.  They wanted something, they knew not what; and were, therefore, heavy, uneasy, and dissatisfied with every thing.  The plain truth is, they wanted God, they wanted Christ, they wanted faith.  And God convinced them of their want, in a way their physicians no more understood than themselves.  Accordingly nothing availed till the Great Physician came.  For in spite of all natural means, He who made them for himself, would not suffer them to rest, till they rested in Him." ---John Wesley, Thursday, July 12, 1739

"The challenge God faces is rescuing a people who have no idea how captive they are; no real idea how desperate they are.  We know we long for Eden, but we hesitate to give ourselves back to God in abandoned trust.  We are captivated by the lies of our Enemy.  But God has something up his sleeve." ---John Eldredge in Epic

"If, once in awhile, I can make one lonely soul feel that Jesus cares, because I care, then my life has meaning.  In quiet moments I hear a voice saying, 'Do what you can today to make some lonely person smile.' " ---Walter Albritton in Life is Short So Laugh Often, Live Fully and Love Deeply

"No one to whom the love of Christ has been mediated so that he is in some sense a new person, is free to let this stop so long as he lives.  If he has been, in any sense, liberated, he must join in the eternal fellowship of liberation.  If the enkindling fire which Christ said He came to light has in any sense entered his soul, he cannot rest until he lights as many other fires as possible.  In short, a person cannot be a Christian and avoid being an evangelist.  Evangelism is not a professionalized job of a few gifted or trained men but is, instead, the unrelenting responsibility of every person who belongs, even in the modest way, to the Company of Jesus." ---Elton Trueblood in The Company of the Committed

"God does not hear us because we pray earnestly— He hears us solely on the basis of redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God— that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God." ---Oswald Chambers