"The Christian faith is about a relationship with Someone who loves you and who has given you the freedom to be His friend. The further we get from that freedom, the further we get from New Testament Christianity and the more our Christianity resembles every other religion, merely a system for keeping the baser instincts of human nature in check. In other words, Christianity becomes a system of rules and regulations. If we live by them, our Christianity becomes pure drudgery with a vague hope that God will reward us in heaven for the drudgery. If we don't live by them, we either lie about it or give up altogether."
Steve Brown
Showing posts with label Quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quotes. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Something to ponder....
"You know," Liesl said now, tucking a hand in my arm as we walked. "I have to tell you something I have been thinking about for a long time, ever since Uncle Abe died."
"Yes?"
"I notice that the English are always saying, 'I'm sorry for your loss, so sorry for your loss.' It is an appropriate expression, I suppose."
"I nodded, wondering where she was going with this.
"But for me," she continued, "what I realized is that at other times when things are going well and a person is finding herself to be quite successful and affluent, earning and achieving and expanding, what I would like to say is 'I am sorry for your gain.'
I couldn't help but laugh, asking what on earth she meant.
"Just that the ways of God's people are not the ways of this world. Success and money and achievement can be a terrible hindrance to one's spiritual life. At least at times of loss, we are reminded of our priorities, of our many blessings. In times of gain, we can so often lose our way. This is why the Amish stress simplicity in all things at all times, because nothing should ever be allowed to turn our eyes away from what is truly important, from the cross."
Excerpt from Secrets of Harmony Grove, pgs 361, 362
by Mindy Clark Starns
"Yes?"
"I notice that the English are always saying, 'I'm sorry for your loss, so sorry for your loss.' It is an appropriate expression, I suppose."
"I nodded, wondering where she was going with this.
"But for me," she continued, "what I realized is that at other times when things are going well and a person is finding herself to be quite successful and affluent, earning and achieving and expanding, what I would like to say is 'I am sorry for your gain.'
I couldn't help but laugh, asking what on earth she meant.
"Just that the ways of God's people are not the ways of this world. Success and money and achievement can be a terrible hindrance to one's spiritual life. At least at times of loss, we are reminded of our priorities, of our many blessings. In times of gain, we can so often lose our way. This is why the Amish stress simplicity in all things at all times, because nothing should ever be allowed to turn our eyes away from what is truly important, from the cross."
Excerpt from Secrets of Harmony Grove, pgs 361, 362
by Mindy Clark Starns
Monday, July 18, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Christians...
"Christians no longer need to pretend to be better than anyone else. We don't have to put on any show of being good, for we know we are not. We are not good, we are forgiven; and so we are free to be honest before God and before others. We are free to be ourselves. We have given up trying to be good little boys and girls, and whenever we catch ourselves striving to please either God or others by dint of moral effort, we are the sort of people who react to this danger signal by falling on our faces before the Lord. For one of the secret privileges of being His child is knowing that it is all right to fail. It is all right to get tired, as His followers we know that if we are ever truly to reflect His goodness or His power, it will not be by human effort by only by grace."
Author Unknown
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Worry
This from Randy Alcorn:
Worry is momentary atheism crying out for correction by trust in a good and sovereign God. Paul, whom we seldom think of as vulnerable, wrote, “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. … But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” God uses suffering to break us of self-dependence and bring us to rely on him.
http://ref.ly/2Co1.8f
Worry is momentary atheism crying out for correction by trust in a good and sovereign God. Paul, whom we seldom think of as vulnerable, wrote, “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. … But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” God uses suffering to break us of self-dependence and bring us to rely on him.
http://ref.ly/2Co1.8f
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