Good Words for Today
The next time you are feeling a little puffed up about all the great things you have done, and you are about to break your arm patting yourself on the back, remember the turtle on the fence post. You didn’t crawl to the top by yourself. Somebody had to put you there.
If we are rich and successful, if we are famous and blessed with worldly acclaim, if we are regarded as the best and the brightest, if we are quoted and feted and praised by all men, it will all count for nothing if we fail to pass the baton of faith along to the next generation. What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and yet lose his own family? And if we go to our grave knowing that our children and grandchildren believe in Jesus, we can die happy, knowing that our time on earth was not spent in vain.
"Collapse in the Christian life is seldom a blowout. It is usually a slow leak." Paul Little
"Stand up, stand up for Jesus, the strife will not be long; this day the noise of battle, the next the victor's song." George Duffield
"O Lord, change the world. Begin, I pray thee, with me." Chinese prayer
In 1839 two men from the London Missionary Society landed in the New Hebrides, a chain of eighty islands in the South Pacific. Those two missionaries were killed and eaten by cannibals in November of that year. Eventually other missionaries came and the gospel began to take root on some of the islands. Nineteen years later a young man named John Paton set sail for the New Hebrides. When he announced his desire to go, a Mr. Dickson exploded, “The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!” But to this Paton responded: "Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer."
"When we take sides with God, God takes sides with us." R. W. Dale
Let it be said of all of us that we only did what had to be done. That we did not go looking for trouble, but when forced to make a choice, we chose to obey God rather than man.
"I heard the voice of Jesus say, 'Come unto Me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one, lay down Thy head upon My breast.' I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place, and He has made me glad." Horatius Bonar, 1846
"A saint is a person who makes it easy to believe in Jesus." Ruth Bell Graham
I would rather be on the wrong side of history than on the wrong side of truth.
If you're going to be a Christian, be one!
"There is an urgent need for discernment among Christians. We are often too gullible, and exhibit a naive readiness to credit messages and teachings which purport to come from the spirit world. There is such a thing, however, as a misguided charity and tolerance towards false doctrine." John Stott
"There is no pit so deep that the love of God is not deeper still." Corrie Ten Boom
Who looks worse? Peter who sank because he took eyes off Jesus or the 11 other guys who never got out of the boat in the first place?
"I'm as sure of heaven as if I'd already been there 10,000 years." Jack Wyrtzen
If you can’t be thankful for what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped.
"Give tongues of fire and hearts of love To preach the reconciling word; Give pow'r and unction from above, Whene'er the joyful sound is heard." James Montgomery, 1823
"Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive." C. S. Lewis
"Faith is believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse." Philip Yancey
“Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.” Oswald Sanders
"Life is not something to be frittered away, not something to be smirked about, not something to be danced out, but something to be weighed in the scales of eternity." De Witt Talmage
Jesus saw something the disciples didn’t see. Were they blind? No but they didn’t see what he saw. Even so we may live our whole lives bombarded by the call of God … and see nothing … and feel nothing. The world is full of people who are not like us. The first step is see them!
"Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves, He will lift you by His love, out of the angry waves." James Rowe
"We can always be thankful that a thing is not worse. If it were worse, it would be no more than our sins make us deserve." John Broadus
"People aren't looking for a friendly church. People are looking for a friend." Todd and Erin Stevens
"The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved." Matthew Henry
"It is a serious and solemn truth. If a man is true to God, he gains everything. If he is untrue to God, he loses everything. In time and eternity, nothing matters save loyalty to God." William Barclay
"The least little Christian cleansed by the blood of Christ is as thoroughly saved and will as certainly get to heaven as the greatest Christian on the face of the earth." George W. Truett
"Love doesn't keep score of the sins of others." 1 Corinthians 13:5 in The Message
We do not forgive in order to be forgiven. We forgive because we have been forgiven.
Only God can make you better. Think about that for a moment. Exercise improves your body, therapy make help your soul, friends may lift your spirit, good fortune may improve your circumstances, but only God can make you better.