A growing collection to ponder – in no particular order…
“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 (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
Silence is agreement. — the Talmud
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
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)
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
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: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. — 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 Nazi)
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)
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
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
Accept what God sends into your life whether you understand it or not. – Tim Keller
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
… 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