A growing collection to ponder – in no particular order (newest at the bottom)…
“You will not succeed by your own strength or power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord All-Powerful. — Zechariah 4:6
God has opened a door for you. Now you can choose to spend the rest of your life enslaved by guilt and remorse, or you can walk through that door and close it behind you. — Max Lucado
Your days are made of moments and your moments are made of choices. — Andree Seu
Helplessness is the worst feeling in the world. Most of the time all I can do is pray. Then it dawns on me, that is the best thing I could do. And pray that the Lord will give me the strength to continue to take hands off and let Him do what he plans. — Bobbie Eubanks (Missionary to Nigeria)
Prayer does not equip us for the greater work… prayer is the greater work. – Oswald Chambers
I believe in the sun when it is not shining.
I believe in love when I do not feel it.
I believe in my Lord, Jesus, even when he is silent.
— Karl Loes
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. — Jim Elliot
Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God. — Jim Elliot
You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. — Amy Carmichael
Faith is knowing that, with God, even when nothing is happening, something is happening. — Dr. James Dobson
He gives… Beauty for ashes, Strength for fear, Gladness for mourning, Peace for despair. –praise song – Crystal Lewis/Ron Kenoly (from Isa. 61:3)
Of one thing I am perfectly sure: God’s story never ends with “ashes.” – Elisabeth Elliot
We laugh at honor… and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. — C. S. Lewis
Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die.
Western democracy is like a three legged stool: One leg is political liberty, one is economic freedom, and the third moral responsibility. Weaken any leg and the stool topples over. — Michael Novak
What is morally wrong cannot be politically right. — Lord Shaftesbury
Thinking Christianly is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistently Christian way — in a manner that is shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God’s Word and God’s Spirit. — Os Guinness
We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God. — Dwight L. Moody
I don’t see the big picture. I don’t have a clue. But I know God does. I’m going to declare that, even if I don’t feel it right now. — Steven Curtis Chapman
Wisdom is knowing what path to take; Integrity is taking it. — anon.
Wishing will never be a substitute for prayer. — Ed Cole
Pray, and let God worry. — Martin Luther
Satan watches for those vessels that sail without convoy. — George Swinnock
An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand. — A.W. Tozer
When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer. — Corrie Ten Boom.
Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. — Corrie ten Boom
“The moral test of government is how [it] treats those who are in the dawn of life … those who are in the twilight of life … and those who are in the shadows of life.” — Hubert Humphrey
Any system that denies truth, denies itself. It’s so simple. If you say there’s no truth, then you’ve just spoken something that doesn’t count. — Dr. John Piper
Opinions divorced from knowledge are ugly things. — Socrates
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. — C.S. Lewis
Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words. — George Eliot
There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. — C.S. Lewis
There is a world of difference between activity and progress. — Discipleship Journal, Issue 97
When men cease to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing. They then become capable of believing anything. — G.K. Chesterton
You were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell played out here on earth…. Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are life abundant. — John Eldredge, in Waking the Dead
Casual Christians know nothing of spiritual warfare. — Vance Havner
Just because most of us ignore spiritual warfare doesn’t mean we’re not in the battle. It just means we’re losing. – Mark I. Bubeck
The difference between the blessing and the curse, the fruitfulness and the barrenness, Eden and exile, hinges on the object of our trust, not the difficulty of our circumstances. Whether we languish or thrive when the heat comes depends on where we look for help. – Ryan Chase (Jer. 17:5, 7)
Regarding unanswered prayer: “The possible answers seem to be “yes,” “no,” or “you have no idea what’s going on behind the curtain of your sensate reality so you better make up your mind once and for all – I do love you. Will you trust Me?” ” — Andreé Seu
Faith never denies reality but leaves room for God to grant a new reality. — Jim Cymbala
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. — Dwight Eisenhower
God whispers in your soul and speaks to your mind. Sometimes when you don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you. It’s your choice: Listen to the whisper, or wait for the brick. — Ray Ross
We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. — Chuck Swindoll
Then again, a leap of faith is necessary if one is to sustain the belief that the specimen that designed the microchip and painted the Mona Lisa is no better than a monkey—a creature that has never created anything, lives in trees, throws coconuts, and hoots to communicate. — Ilana Mercer
Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal-a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. — Dwight L. Moody
Lord, make my life a crossroads in the life of every person I meet. — Jim Elliot
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. — Abraham Lincoln
“God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.”
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. — C. S. Lewis
“Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.” — Gen Sir John C. Maxwell,
If you don’t forgive people, you are letting them live rent-free in your heart. “You took yesterday; you cannot have tomorrow.” — Wes Stafford
Sincerity is not a test of truth. We must not make this mistake: He must be right; he’s so sincere. Because, it is possible to be sincerely wrong. We can only judge truth by truth and sincerity by sincerity. — Jim Rohn
God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with him. — Jim Elliot
Rejoice in knowing that you belong to God and that He is conforming you to the image of His Son. See every event of this day as part of that process. Yield to the Spirit’s prompting, and take heart that God will accomplish His will. — John MacArthur
The fact that I’m a woman doesn’t make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I’m a Christian does make me a different kind of woman. — Elisabeth Elliot
Things happen which would not happen without prayer. Let us not forget that. — Elisabeth Elliot
Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.
We must all suffer one of two things in life: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Always, always choose discipline, for discipline weighs ounces but regret weighs tons. — Jim Rohn
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. — Jim Rohn
Wherever you are, whoever you’re talking to, that’s your mission field at that moment. — Emily Long
The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God. — C.S. Lewis
Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. – Eric Metaxas
Despondency is not a virtue; I believe it is a vice. I am heartily ashamed of myself for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like a holy faith in God. – Charles Spurgeon
When God answers your prayer with a donut, don’t complain about the hole. – James Aist
Accept what God sends into your life whether you understand it or not. – Tim Keller
The chief mark of the Christian ought to be the absence of fear and the presence of joy. — Ray Stedman
On Christmas Day, 1938, Nelson had written to his mother: “This past Thursday it was my time to lead foreign prayer meeting, and I talked about the place of physical fear in the life of a Christian. Last week it dawned on me that our Lord, tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin, hungered, thirsted, was tired, became angry, and gave every evidence of humanity, but He was never fearful. Fear, therefore, must come from lack of faith – sin. Just as we never become sinless, so we entirely never lose fear, but surely it is His will for His children to live with peace in their hearts, trusting in him and His promises” — From A Foreign Devil in China, by John Pollock, p. 260 (Biography of Nelson Bell, missionary doctor in China & father-in-law of Billy Graham)
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship
There are meaningful warnings which history gives a threatened or perishing society. Such are, for instance, the decadence of art, or a lack of great statesmen. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
There is nothing which shows our ignorance so much as our impatience under trouble. We forget that every cross is a message from God, and intended to do us good in the end. Trials are intended to make us think—to wean us from the world—to send us to the Bible—to drive us to our knees. Health is a good thing but sickness is far better if it leads us to God. Prosperity is a great mercy; but adversity is a greater one if it brings us to Christ. Anything, anything is better than living in carelessness and dying in sin. — J. C. Ryle
Scripture sees hell as self-chosen…. Hell appears as God’s gesture of respect for human choice. All receive what they actually chose. Either to be with God forever, worshipping Him, or without God forever, worshipping themselves. — J. I. Packer
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser. – Socrates
When some liberals use the word “diversity” they are not talking about diversity of thought or ideology; they mean people who think alike but who are different in outward appearance. Otherwise the left would celebrate successful conservatives from different racial and ethnic groups. — Cal Thomas
Those who travel the high road of humility will not be troubled by heavy traffic. — Alan Simpson
The surest way to make life hard for your children is to make it soft for them. – Anon.
Sin is a problem of what you love before it’s a problem of what you do. (Matthew 15:18–20) — Jimmy Needham
Silence is agreement — the Talmud
Sometimes opportunity knocks, but most of the time it sneaks up and then quietly steals away. — Doug Larson
If you lose an opportunity you will be like one who lets the bird fly away; you will never get it back. — John of the Cross
Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.
I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Perseverance is faith with running shoes on. — Andree Seu Peterson
There is nothing so fatal to character as half-finished tasks. — David Lloyd George
Bitterness is a poison you mix for someone else and drink yourself.
Cowardice asks the question – is it safe? Expediency asks the question – is it politic? Vanity asks the question – is it popular? But conscience asks the question – is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Gratitude is the mother of all virtues. — G.K. Chesterton
The most dangerous ideas in a society aren’t the ones that are argued, but the ones that are assumed. — C.S. Lewis
Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t. — Richard Bach
The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with. — Bobby Jindal
You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. — Abraham Lincoln
Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Life is a meandering pilgrimage of one whose experience of faith has been punctuated by hard decisions, harsh persecution, broken relationships, lingering uncertainty and silence.” One thing is certain: through the struggles of faith, God will never let us go. — Makoto Fujimura, in The Beauty of Silence
There is a wonderful story in the Bible told from two perspectives. From the west side we see freaked out Philistine pagan priests, who can’t get rid of their troublesome war booty fast enough—loading the Ark of the Covenant on a cart with replicas of gold tumors and mice for appeasing Israel’s God, watching two yoked and driverless milk cows head straight for Beth-shemesh, neither turning to the left or to the right. From the east side, we see Israelite farm workers quietly plying in a field, suddenly spotting on the horizon a driverless milk cow–drawn cart carrying home their pride and joy. I think funerals are like that. On our end there is mourning and a bit of freaking out. But on the other side, where angels unseen wait, they take what we hand off to them and celebrate a long expected homecoming. — Andree Seu
If Christ is not Lord over our money and possessions, he is not our Lord. — Randy Alcorn, in Managing God’s Money
Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord. — J. I. Packer
It’s not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. — Seneca
You stir us to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. – Augustine
Each temptation leaves us better or worse; neutrality is impossible. – Erwin W. Lutzer
God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. — John Piper
I don’t so much pray that my death will be without pain, but that it will be without doubt. — John Piper
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. — G. K. Chesterton
Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. Faith is the belief that God will do what is right. — Max Lucado
We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful. — C.S. Lewis, in The Abolition of Man
“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms…”(Deuteronomy 33:27).
Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship ‘in spirit and in truth.’ Never mind about the feelings. We are to worship in spite of them. — Elisabeth Elliot
Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of “other things.” Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame. — Jim Elliot
Venezuela is a woeful reminder that no country is so rich that it can’t be driven into the ground by revolutionary socialism. — Rich Lowry
Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often passed to gratify, or rather to appease the anger of those who cannot abide independent minds. —Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
… a congregation learns its theology, and takes it down into the crevices of their soul, by the songs that they sing, not just by the preaching they hear. Historically, it’s the hymnody of the church that has, alongside preaching, been one of the most powerful means by which a church is taught. — John Piper
The true measure of the greatness of sin is not the way it ruins human life, but the way it dishonors God. – John Piper
God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves. – Joni Eareckson Tada
It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities. — Josiah Stamp
Providence: it’s not the world’s idea of fate or luck, but the reality of God’s divine intervention. He orchestrates the lives of His children to accomplish His good purposes. – Chuck Colson
Sin makes you stupid – Greg Laurie
I foresee a time when every sincere Christian will be compelled to openly confess and freely declare their faith. — Paul Schneider (1937, first martyr of the Nazis)
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. – Albert Einstein
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. — Reinhold Niebuhr
The best way to prepare for the coming of Christ is never to forget the presence of Christ. — William Barclay
Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short of God and his will for us. — William Franklin (Billy) Graham
One of Satan’s most effective schemes is simply to wear God’s people out. Satan uses exhaustion and profound discouragement to persuade us to give up opposing him. — Beth Moore
Putting God’s will above your own is how one takes up their own cross. – Greg Laurie
The chief mark of the Christian ought to be the absence of fear and the presence of joy. — Ray Stedman
The question is not how much of my money I give to God, but rather how much of God’s money I keep for myself. — R. G. LeTourneau
If we could count the fears, both small or large, that once hounded us, and then thank God for each dreaded outcome never met, we would reach no end to gratitude. — James Cavanaugh
Do not miss this: modern relativism is politicized absolutism. It has no check. It has no authoritative source or text to guide it. It has no ethical code to restrain it. It is in truth an ideology and an ethic of power. The uprisings and violent “protests” that recently broke out at Middlebury and Berkeley? Each represents the fruit of a strain of thought that does not seek dialogue, has no category of “neighbor love” as in Christianity, offers no grounds for free speech, is not interested in intellectual exchange, believes that people can be violently opposed if philosophically wrong, and brooks no disagreement. – Owen Strachan
An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation. — John Marshall (1819)
Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery. — Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
…tough times can produce great benefits: Imagine a storm blowing a sailboat so fast that all night long, death seems moments away, but in the morning you’re hundreds of miles closer to your destination. We can rejoice amid suffering not because we’re masochists but because a deeper and sweeter joy will come in the morning. And, when we stop thinking so much about our own story that we enter into God’s story, we learn that’s the biggest and best of all. — Marvin Olasky
Conceit is what makes a little squirt think he is a fountain of knowledge. — Unknown
It is better to lose your life than to waste it. – John Piper
There are only two states of being: submission to God, and refusal to submit to anything beyond one’s own will. The latter of which enslaves one to the forces of evil. — M. Scott Peck, in People of the Lie
You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success in found in your daily routine. ~John C. Maxwell
God calls us not to heterosexuality but to holiness. – Emily Thomes (former lesbian)
He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God. — Isaac Newton
A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)
The devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds. He will not allow quietness. — Elisabeth Elliot
God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better. — Elisabeth Elliot
We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies to ourselves. — Elisabeth Elliot
“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms…” (Deuteronomy 33:27)
There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them. — George Orwell
One has a moral responsibility to disobey an unjust law, because an unjust law is no law at all. — Martin Luther King
Worldliness is whatever makes sin look normal and righteousness look strange. — David Wells
The true meaning of Christmas is this: God took on the form of a human to die in our place, paying for our sins, so that humans who receive Him might be forgiven and be with Him forever. — Cal Thomas, (in World Magazine)
Christmas is the day that holds all time together. – Alexander Smith
Aslan is on the move. You just have to have eyes to see and know where to look. – Roberto Rivera
There is infinite, unending security in the almightiness of God — no matter what happens in this life. — John Piper
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. — Cicero
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty. ~ Ronald Reagan
Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy. – Margaret Thatcher
The biggest traitors among you hold elective office. — Anon
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is you end up being governed by your inferiors. — Plato
Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. Government is force; like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. — George Washington
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. — Thomas Jefferson
Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. — Winston Churchill
Freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorships. —Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)
Laws which prescribe what everyone must believe, and forbid men to say or write anything against this or that opinion, are often passed to gratify, or rather to appease the anger of those who cannot abide independent minds. — Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction…The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. — Martin Luther King, Jr (in Strength To Love, 1963)
Most dangerous thing in the world is not radical Islam, it’s apathetic Christianity – Emir Caner
Hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principle. — Paul McHugh, MD
My mind is a place. It can be governed. It can be cultivated. It can be invaded and ruled over by enemies…if I permit. I can choose to let Christ farm my mind, to weed, prune, sow and fertilize it. As a new creation in Christ, I can choose a daily date with Jesus. – Jean Fleming
God has disclosed Himself in descriptive terms that give us enough information to be able to know who He is, and He has hidden enough of Himself for us to learn the balance between faith and reason. — Ravi Zacharias
There are no such entities as a “free church” or a “persecuted church,” there is simply One Church, always persecuted and free. The church in persecution teaches us how to pray; not that their persecution might end but that they might be obedient through their sufferings. This is a prayer that prays both halves of the prayer of Jesus. It is always appropriate to pray for “let this cup pass” while never forgetting to pray to the Father that “thy will be done.” ~Nik Ripken
Often we are slammed with a challenge in life. We tend to ask God, “why?” Trouble is, when we do that, we are challenging God to be accountable to us — wanting an explanation that we can analyze to then figure out a different solution. All He really needs to tell us is, “trust Me.” We must walk by faith. — Jim Aist
Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy. — Warren W. Wiersbe
Thinking is difficult. That’s why most people judge — Carl Jung
The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. — John Kenneth Galbraith
Next after theology I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor…Experience proves that next to the Word of God only music deserves to be extolled as the mistress and governess of the feelings of the human heart. — Martin Luther
… a congregation learns its theology, and takes it down into the crevices of their soul, by the songs that they sing, not just by the preaching they hear. Historically, it’s the hymnody of the church that has, alongside preaching, been one of the most powerful means by which a church is taught. — John Piper
The true measure of the greatness of sin is not the way it ruins human life, but the way it dishonors God. – John Piper
Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before…you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature. ― C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity
Worship and worry cannot live in the same heart: they are mutually exclusive. – Ruth Bell Graham (from Prodigals and Those Who Love Them, p. 40)
Fear of the Lord puts all other fears in perspective. – Ruth Bell Graham
The most powerful weapon against fear during a crisis is gratitude. When we intentionally look for reasons to be thankful, we do not deny the reality of the situation. —Paul Tripp
Fear is reality minus God; Faith is reality plus God. – Jimmy Evans
We were born selfish. We are reborn generous. – Robert Morris
Life Is Short. Eternity Is Long. Live Like It. – John Piper
We are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe, yet more loved and accepted in Jesus than we ever dared hope. – Tim Keller
Unless we are profoundly certain that God is our loving father, we will never be able to say ‘thy will be done’. – Tim Keller
10 Clichés Worth Keeping:
- 1. People don’t care what you know till they know that you care.
- 2. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
- 3. It’s not what you know but who you know.
- 4. Born once, die twice; born twice, die once.
- 5. Where God closes a door He opens a window.
- 6. Why pray when you can worry?
- 7. Sin takes you further than you want to go, keeps you longer than you planned stay, and costs you more than you ever intended to pay.
- 8. There’s nothing you can do to make God love you any more and nothing you can do to make Him love you any less.
- 9. Except by the grace of God, there go I.
- 10. You can’t outgive God
It is easier to deceive people, than convince them that they are deceived. – Mark Twain
In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. – George Orwell
I never let schooling get in the way of my education – Mark Twain
Our pride makes it hard for us to stomach the notion that “earning” or “deserving” are not words that exist in God’s vocabulary of grace. — Brett McCracken
When you are serving God’s purposes, you can trust the enemy is not going to stand idly by. If you really want a target on your back, work on ways to further the Great Commission. If you are making a presentation of God’s Word available to translate in any of the world’s languages, you may have the biggest target of all. – Steve Cleary
Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true, but many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence. -Thomas Sowell
Faith honors him whom it trusts with the most reverent and highest regard, since it considers him truthful and trustworthy. – Martin Luther
There is a practical holiness without which we will not see the Lord. Many live as if this were not so. – John Piper (Heb. 12:14)
John Owen: “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”
Our lives are not determined by our wants and desires. Our lives are determined by the choices we make. – Anonymous
God’s work done in God’s way will not lack God’s supply. – Hudson Taylor
Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God. – William Carey
God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn up for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus. — Jim Elliot
Time is the canvas on which you present your portrait, eternity is the keyhole that takes you into the gallery that gives you the whole story – Ravi Zacharias
It is critically important to examine the assumptions within a question. C.S. Lewis
The battle for human souls pivots on the issue of Christ’s identity. He’s the watershed, the dividing line between Hell and Heaven. Who do you believe, in your mind and deep in your heart, that he really is? Every person must give an answer—and whether our answer is right could not be more consequential or eternally significant. — Randy Alcorn
Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three–
all they have had,
all they have now,
and all they expect to have.
Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’; aim at Earth and you will get neither. — CS Lewis, The Joyful Christian
Feeling sorry for yourself is the opposite of saying thank you…. “Thank you” is your doorway into right focus, which is to say, into reality. – Andrée Seu Peterson
Veiled in Mystery
You are made known through your Son,
For it is in Him we see the love of our Father,
No longer a mystery,
I rejoice in the love and forgiveness
You bestow upon me,
Through the love of Jesus Christ, Amen
– Tom Seibert
In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act. – Unknown. (sometimes attrib. to George Orwell)
Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. – George Orwell
The mercy and the sovereignty of God are the twin pillars of my life. They are the hope of my future, the energy of my service, the center of my theology, the bond of my marriage, the best medicine in all my sicknesses, the remedy of all my discouragements. – John Piper
All concepts of reality that ignore Jesus Christ are abstractions…. There are not two realities, but only one reality, and that is God’s reality revealed in Christ in the reality of the world. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The mercy and the sovereignty of God are the twin pillars of my life. They are the hope of my future, the energy of my service, the center of my theology, the bond of my marriage, the best medicine in all my sicknesses, the remedy of all my discouragements. – John Piper
Tomorrow’s history has already been written—at the name of Jesus every knee must bow. -Paul E. Kauffman
The great tyrant has not forgotten you, and he designs your capture and re-enslavement. – Charles Spurgeon
The gospel is not a “help wanted” sign. It is a “help available” sign. – John Piper
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. — John Knox
No country that denies religious freedom can ever rightly claim to be good in some other way. — Mike Pompeo
I dread government in the name of science. That is how tyrannies come in. – C.S. Lewis
Duty is ours; results are God’s. – John Quincy Adams
Since the genetic code was broken in the 1960s, being a materialistic evolutionist is about as logically reasonable as being a member of the flat-earth society. We pity the poor soul who believes the earth is flat. We hire the evolutionist to teach our children. – D. James Kennedy
Sin will take you farther than you want to go;
Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay;
Sin will cost you more than you want to pay.
Sin pays—but it pays in remorse, regret, and failure. — Billy Graham
The battle for human souls pivots on the issue of Christ’s identity. He’s the watershed, the dividing line between Hell and Heaven. Who do you believe, in your mind and deep in your heart, that he really is? Every person must give an answer—and whether our answer is right could not be more consequential or eternally significant. — Randy Alcorn
Missions exists because worship doesn’t. — John Piper
Every circumstance in life can become an adventure as you turn to God to see what He may want to do to develop your character or to work through you to reveal His character to others. – T.W. Hunt
The Gospel will not be quarantined, and the Holy Spirit cannot be locked down. – John Pudaite
There is no one, who with a little bit of thought, cannot discover many reasons for being grateful to God… Once we have come to an appreciation of all he has given to us, we will have abundant cause to give thanks continually. — St. Bernard of Clairvaux
“Grief never ends, but it changes. It’s a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith. It is the price of love.” – anon
Our feeling of deep loss when someone close to us dies is based not on the loss of the physical life, which sometimes included suffering, but rather on the loss of our relationship to the real person—the spiritual soul of our loved one. Our faith is based on the understanding that our loss is a temporary one; we will join our loved ones in heaven someday. – Virginia Gaultney
“Christianity is, among other things, the wonderfully good news that this life is not our whole story” (Robert C. Roberts).
The Greek word for “repentance” describes an attitudinal work in you. A working definition of repentance: Repentance is knowing who you are, who God is, what you’ve done and how you’ve lived…and then taking that to a holy God. After that, the ball is in God’s court. — Steve Brown
Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.
A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by a majority. —Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned. – Richard Feynman
There is a considerable amount of intellectual tyranny in the name of science. – Nobel Prize recipient Richard Feynman
“The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization. Neither a market economy nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life. If a nation’s spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure or by any industrial development. A tree with a rotten core cannot stand.” —Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)
In each of us is a germ that can hatch into a disease of substitutions. Anything that preoccupies our attention can eventually slip into that cavity in our souls and attempt to fill the spot that was meant only for One Other to indwell. – Karen Mains
You labor at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ. – Oswald Chambers.
“My life is on Thy Altar, Lord—for Thee to consume. Set the fire, Father! Bind me with cords of love to the Altar. Hold me there. Let me remember the Cross.” –Elisabeth Elliot, age 21
Suffering is never for nothing. – Elisabeth Elliot
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time. —Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
“People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives . . . and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.” —Nate Saint
“Teach me never to let the joy of what has been, pale the joy of what is.” — Elisabeth Elliot
It is not easy to hold things lightly. Once we have them, we want to keep them. – Elisabeth Elliot
Every individual life is a creative, collaborative work between the one who lives it and the One who gives it. In that sense, it doesn’t matter where the path leads or what ground it covers or whether we travel at night or full daylight. What matters is His steadfast love and faithfulness. – Janie B. Cheaney
“Self-seeking is the gate by which a soul departs from peace; and total abandonment to the will of God, that by which it returns.” —Madame Guyon
“The soul who loves God only for Himself, apart from His gifts, knows indescribable peace.” Elisabeth Elliot
“The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.” —Elisabeth Elliot
“Oh, it is one thing to declare, in giving a brave talk, that there is no such thing as sacrifice, in the light of eternity and its rewards, but it is quite another thing to believe, in my heart of hearts, that it is not sacrifice.”
“I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth, that God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?” —Benjamin Franklin (1787)
A disciple does not ask, “How much can I keep?” but, “How much more can I give?” Whenever we start to get comfortable with our level of giving, it’s time to raise it again. – Randy Alcorn
The sign at Auschwitz says, “Never Again.” Yet holocausts have happened again. I hope that someday our country will admit that abortion kills children and will say, “Never Again.” – Randy Alcorn
When Jesus finally came as the Lamb of God, He came not a moment too soon. And when He returns as the Lion, again it will be not a moment too soon—or too late. – Randy Alcorn
While those who offer abortions charge women for them, those who offer abortion alternatives give their assistance freely, lovingly, and often behind the scenes. – Randy Alcorn
God prospers us not to raise our standard of living, but to raise our standard of giving. – Randy Alcorn
The richest man out of time, may as well be broke. God’s greatest gift to you is time! It is your most precious possession. Don’t waste it! – T.D. Jakes
Ask God for things so staggering, so big, that He slides out to the edge of His holy throne and says to the angels, “Did you hear that?” Ask Him for the impossible, “For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). – John Hagee
“If God did not mean to hear us, he would not bid us pray.” — Charles Spurgeon
True worship reminds us that our jobs, health, talents, sports, family, friends, and possessions do not satisfy a longing heart — only God can. – Dustin Benge
For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. – – Nelson Mandela
All God’s children really will live happily ever after. This is not a fairytale; it is the blood-bought promise of Jesus. “In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). – Randy Alcorn
John Newton: “We have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, his arm over us, his ear open to our prayer—his grace sufficient, his promise unchangeable.”
God is in control. I am not. God knows my future. I do not. God always has my best interest in mind. I can trust that. -Nanci Alcorn
Corrie Ten Boom: “The blacker the night around us grew, the brighter, and truer, and more beautiful burned the word of God.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: “There are meaningful warnings which history gives a threatened or perishing society. Such are, for instance, the decadence of art, or a lack of great statesmen.”
“It is futile to fight against, if one does not know what one is fighting for.” —Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
“… the anxiety we feel in the face of death is the consequence of our investing this life (from which we must die) with ultimate significance.” “The despair we feel when forced to reckon with the vanity of all our activities and pleasures is the result of our according ultimate significance to those activities and pleasures—to their being for us the whole story, or the center of the story. If we could manage to see this life as a stage in an eternal life, then it could be accepted honestly and gladly for what it is. If we could see the significance of our present activities and pleasures as deriving from a context beyond this present one of flowering and fading, they could be honestly enjoyed for what they are, no less and no more.” “If on the other hand we have no larger expectation in terms of which to interpret this life, then since we are creatures who cannot escape our surveying imagination and our deeper longings, embitterment dwells on our doorstep. And we live in constant fear of stepping out into the open.” (R. Roberts)
Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty one percent can vote away the rights of the other forty nine. – Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.”
In principle, no less than in practice, socialism is the ideology of thieves and tyrants. – Dinesh D’Souza
If you choose to resist evil and you choose it firmly, then ways of carrying out that resistance will open up around you. – John Ensor
We have forgotten God, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. – Abraham Lincoln
Great civilizations are not murdered; they commit suicide. – Arnold Toynbee.
We are living in “a civilizational moment.” All the great civilizations reach a moment when they’re out of touch with the inspiration that made them. And there’s a critical transition moment when they either go towards renewal or down to decline. – Os Guinness
A radical is one who speaks the truth. — Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr.
So if we lie to the government, it’s a felony, but if they lie to us it’s politics. -Bill Murray
If a duty is clear, the dangers surrounding it are irrelevant. —Elisabeth Elliot
Never worry about who will be offended if you speak the truth. Worry about who will be misled, deceived and destroyed if you don’t.
“A true recognition of God’s love and our salvation will lead to worship. It’s impossible for it not to.” Amir Tsarfati
God has given prayer to us as a war-time walkie-talkie not as a domestic intercom… In other words, prayer is not mainly a peace-time activity in the New Testament. It is surrounded by a sense of urgency and alertness and warning. It is a war-time instrument. It’s made for battle. – John Piper
I find that faith is more vigorously exercised when I can find no satisfying explanation for the way God does things. – Elisabeth Elliot
To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And the cross always entails loss. The great symbol of Christianity means sacrifice and no one who calls himself a Christian can evade this stark fact.” – EE
The more you accept daily crosses as daily bread, in peace and simplicity, the less they will injure your frail, delicate health; but forebodings and frettings would soon kill you. —François de la Mothe-Fénelon
After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. (C. S. Lewis).
If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
“If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all of our efforts in the long run are hopeless” (C.S. Lewis).
“God is good but God is not safe. God is good and terrifying at the same time” (C. S. Lewis).
“Atheism is the most daring of all dogmas, for it is the assertion of a universal negative” (G.K. Chesterton)
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” – Frederick Douglass
“CRT is not a vague, non-threatening idea. It isn’t just ’teaching history.’ It’s a view of America that is thoroughly perverse.” –Ben Shapiro
We live in a time when intelligent people are being silenced so stupid people won’t be offended.
You can’t get rich in politics unless you’re a crook. – Harry S. Truman
We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. – anon
Mask mandates are more politics than science, and politics is to be sorted out in the halls of Congress rather than at a politically unaccountable administrative agency. – AAPS
Having a difference of opinion is not a threat to freedom. What is a threat to freedom is denigrating people who have a different opinion. – Dr. Ben Carson
How long do politicians have to keep on promising heaven and delivering hell before people catch on, and stop getting swept away by rhetoric? – Thomas Sowell
Too much of what is called “education” is little more than an expensive isolation from reality. – Thomas Sowell
Censorship is the tool used when the lie loses its power.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.”
Imagine being lied to for two years straight and still trusting the media narrative. – anon
Of course, all scientists agree, when you censor the ones who don’t. – anon
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ― George Orwell
A good journalist, like a good scientist, starts with a working narrative (hypothesis) but modifies or even rejects it on the basis of reporting (experimenting). Bad journalism is like scientific fraud, cherry-picked facts and evidence massaged to fit. – Josh Hochschild
There is no such thing as racial justice. There is only justice. When people feel a need to add a qualifier, you can be certain that we aren’t talking about justice anymore. – Leonydus Johnson
If our happiest moments on earth are a foretaste of heaven, then it is our most tragic moments on earth that make us long for it and yearn for it. Heaven is so wonderful; God knows it is so glorious, so filled with pleasure and delight and joy. Isn’t it just like God to then turn our hearts toward that distant reality with the help of suffering. – Joni Eareckson Tada
God’s sovereignty is our sanity – Randy Alcorn
We need to remember that tolerance is not a Christian virtue, and it is never an end in itself. In fact, tolerating grave evil within a society is in itself a form of evil. – Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
“If fascism ever comes to America, it will come in the name of liberalism.” – Ronald Reagan
I may not know where He leads me, but well do I know my Guide. – Martin Luther
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. – Albert Einstein
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. – Upton Sinclair
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. – Groucho Marx
You can get history to say whatever you want – anon
When it comes to LGBTQ issues, there is no middle ground: “Neutrality is not an option. Neither is polite half-acceptance. Nor is avoiding the subject. Hide as you might, the issue will come and find you.” – David Gushee
It is the function of mass agitation to exploit all the grievances, hopes, aspirations, prejudices, fears, and ideals of all the special groups that make up our society, social, religious, economic, racial, political. Stir them up. Set one against the other. Divide and conquer. That’s the way to soften up a democracy. – J. Edgar Hoover, Masters of Deceit
To learn who rules over you simply look to those you cannot criticize. ― Voltaire
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn regarding courage: “He who is not sufficiently courageous to defend his soul — don’t let him be proud of his ‘progressive’ views, and don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a distinguished figure or a general. Let him say to himself: I am a part of the herd and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and kept warm.”
As distinguished Stanford economist and author Thomas Sowell put it: “Racism is not dead. But it is on life-support, kept alive mainly by the people who use it for an excuse or to keep minority communities fearful or resentful enough to turn out as a voting bloc on election day. … Have we become a country whose leaders are charlatans, and whose people are sheep?”
You either understand history or you trust the government. You can’t do both. – anon
If socialists understood economics, they wouldn’t be socialists. – Friedrich August von Hayek
Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving. – David Burge
A ship in a harbor is safe, but it is not what ships are built for.
Never worry about who will be offended if you speak the truth. Worry about who will be misled, deceived and destroyed if you don’t.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. – Voltaire
The Christian message is not about man becoming god; it’s about God becoming man.
Would you know life abundant, / Love doubled for all you give? / There is a means no surer / Than helping someone to live. -Ellen H Jones
When you censor yourself, you’re doing the tyrant’s work for him. – Seth Dillon
Hope has a face, and a name: Emmanuel – God with us.
All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.
From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day. – Will Durant
A little science estranges man from God. A lot of science brings him back. – Francis Bacon
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists. – Hannah Arendt. (1951). “The Origins of Totalitarianism”, Part 3, Ch. 13
Turn your face toward the sun, and the shadows fall behind you. – Maori proverb
Rather than rehearse the chaos of the world, rejoice in God’s sovereignty. – Max Lucado
Has is ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?
The politicization of scientific journals that were once highly esteemed is a sad story of our times. Some exasperated readers have even wondered whether they could do without experts entirely. – Wall Street Journal (Best of the Web 12/15/22)
“And if He has redeemed me, I am not my own / The measure of my worth is His love alone / He declares my standing, and He declares my state / So I will know myself by the name He gave” – Skye Peterson, Ben Shive et al, I Am Not My Own
“It’s a universal law — intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn
It would seem uncorroborated “evidence” is a theme for Democrats to smear a political enemy. – Nate Jackson
“When you shine the light of Truth, watch the political cockroaches scurry for cover!”
Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives.” ― Robert A Heinlein
The great tragedy of science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact – Thomas Huxley
“Please stop killing undocumented infants who are trying to cross the border of the birth canal in hopes of a better life. Every undocumented infant deserves a chance at the American dream.” —Matt Walsh
“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” —Thomas Jefferson (1816)
It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. – Joseph Stalin
“But there seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously — after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important … so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be both ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth. (Most of his fans were just as ignorant and unlettered; the disease was spreading.)” ― Robert A. Heinlein, To Sail Beyond the Sunset
The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. – Plato
The Roman Empire was very, very much like us. They lost their moral core, their sense of values in terms of who they were. And after all of those things converged together, they just went down the tubes very quickly. – Dr. Benjamin Carson
Just as any moron can destroy a priceless Ming vase, so the shallow and ill-educated people who run our schools can undermine and destroy from within a great civilization that took centuries of dedicated effort to create and maintain. – Thomas Sowell
It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. – Thomas Sowell
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” ― Tacitus
“If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticize.” ― Tacitus
A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. – Ariel Durant
Nonsense remains nonsense, even if high-powered scientists utter it. – John Lennox
God makes us miserable through conviction to make us joyful through confession.
The difficulties of your life are not in the way of God’s plan; they are a tool of it. They’re crafted to advance his work of grace. – Paul David Tripp
Idolatry occurs when anything created to point you to God replaces God in the thoughts and desires of your heart. – Paul David Tripp
For those who may currently be in the midst of a storm, remember, no amount of tribulation can change our destination. He said we would someday be where He is, and we will. Nothing can alter our course. Nothing can separate us from His love, and no one can snatch us from His hand. –– Amir Tsarfati (https://mailchi.mp/beholdisrael/amirs-bible-bites-devotionals-1007387-q7a8ch7s7m-1007699)
“When the people fear the government there is tyranny. When the government fears the people there is liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson
“I may be crazy. But it’s no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” ~ Ivor Browne, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University College Dublin [2017]
At the core of Liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats. – P. J. O’Rourke
“When the people fear the government there is tyranny. When the government fears the people there is liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson
You can’t be the land of the free unless you’re the home of the brave. – Dr. Ben Carson