Question 1: “What is the chief end of man? Answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Westminster Shorter Catechism
“How many of your plans take an unending future into account?” John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire
“If we really believed that God meant what He said-what should we be like! Dare I really let God be to me all that He says He will be?” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God.” Meister Eckhart
“We act like pagans in a crisis, only one out of a crowd is daring enough to bank his faith in the character of God.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, May 30th-Yes-But…?
“You were placed on earth to know God. Everything else is secondary.” Greg Laurie
“The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“The way home is not the way back.” Colin Wilson
“Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life-gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, April 29th-Gracious Uncertainty
“The evidence of conversion is not a decision card filled out, it’s a life being living out.” Paul Washer
“There is nothing easier than getting into a right relationship with God except when it is not God Whom you want, but only what He gives.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“Jesus wasn’t only concerned about getting you into heaven, He also wanted to get heaven into you.” Sean Curran
“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, Knowing God
“I have chosen you” (John 15:16). “Keep that note of greatness in your creed. It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“I can tell you from personal experience that, at the end of your life, when all is said and done, you’ll never regret being courageous for Christ.”
Luis Palau to Lee Strobel
“When God gives a vision of truth it is never a question of what He will do, but of what we will do.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“Happy are those whose eyes are never removed from their God.” C. H. Spurgeon, Psalm 25:15 commentary
“Resting in the Lord does not depend on external circumstances at all, but on your relationship to God himself.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot
“If we are unexcited Christians, we should go back and see what is wrong.” Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There
“Many of us are loyal to our notions of Jesus Christ, but how many of us are loyal to Him?” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“To know about God and to know God are two absolutely different things.” A. W. Tozer, Delighting in God
“My worth to God in public is what I am in private.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“Never mind the scribes—what saith the Scripture?” Martin Luther
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.” Charles Dickens
“Give me unwavering faith that supplications are never in vain, that if I seem not to obtain my petitions I shall have larger, richer answers, surpassing all that I ask or think.” The Prayer of Love from The Valley of Vision
“Every element of self-reliance must be slain by the power of God. Complete weakness and dependence will always be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest His power.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“True peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God.” Alexander MacLaren
“Young man? Jones asked as he brushed a wisp of white hair from his eyes. ‘What would you think if I told you that, yes, your bad choices and decisions have had a part in your ending up under this pier, but beyond that, under this pier is exactly where you should be in order for a future to occur that you can’t even imagine at this point?'” (p 8) “So, my contention is that you are right where you are supposed to be.” The old man scooped up a double handful of the white sand and let it pour from his fingers. “It may look like barren sand to you, son, but nothing could be further from the truth. I say to you that, as you lay your head down tonight, you are sleeping on fertile ground. Think. Learn. Pray. Plan. Dream. For soon…you will become.” Andy Andrews, The Noticer (p 9)
“There are two things that confound a fool: How slow God is to judge sin and how quickly He shows up.” Steve Wiggins, Groundworks Ministry
“Let your Christianity be so unmistakable, your eye so single, your heart so whole, your walk so straightforward, that all who see you may have no doubt whose you are, and whom you serve.” J. C. Ryle
“There is a correlation between our sense of security and the depth of our understanding of God’s love.” David Jeremiah
“When God gives a vision of truth it is never a question of what He wil do, but of what we will do.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“Our fundamental problem as Christians is not really obedience. Our problem is keeping our love for Christ fervent, for love makes obedience a delight. A decline in obedience is the outgrowth of a decline in love.” Tony Evans
“Do nothing that you would not like God to see. Say nothing you would not like God to hear. Write nothing you would not like God to read. Go no place where you would not like God to find you. Read no book of which you would not like God to say, ‘Show it to Me.’ Never spend your time in such a way that you would not like to have God say, ‘What are you doing?’” J. C. Ryle
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
“My vision of God depends upon the state of my character. Character determines revelation. Before I can say “I saw also the Lord (Isaiah 6:1),” there must be something corresponding to God in my character.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
“Let us think of Jesus Christ above all things, underneath all things, outside of all things, and inside of all things. He is above all things but not pushed up. He is beneath all things but not pressed down. He is outside of all things but not excluded, and inside but not confined. He is above all presiding, beneath all upholding, outside of all embracing, and inside of all building.” A. W. Tozer, Delighting in God
“What or whom we worship determines our behaviour.” John Murray
“By affliction He teaches us many precious lessons, which without it we should never learn. By affliction He shows us our emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our affections, weans us from the world, makes us long for heaven.” J. C. Ryle
“Remember, whatever you focus upon, increases.” Andy Andrews, The Noticer
“It is not so much a man’s journey that defines him, but his destination, and David’s destination was God.” A. W. Tozer, Delighting in God
“To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world.” Dr. Seuss
“Our problem is that we’ve grown quite used to seeking life in all kinds of things other than God.” John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire
“Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its faith not in the living God, but in dying men.” A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
“Keep on being faithful, because God honors faithfulness. Not bigness, but faithfulness. Not the great crowds, not the great set-up, but faithfulness in the place He put you.” Billy Graham
“We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life. We’ve added years to life, not life to years.” George Carlin
“The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, his grace is too ordinary, his judgment is too benign, his gospel is too easy, and his Christ is too common.” David Wells, God in the Wasteland
“If man is not made in the image of God, nothing then stands in the way of inhumanity. There is no good reason why mankind should be perceived as special. Human life is cheapened. We can see this in many of the major issues being debated in our society today.” Francis Schaeffer
“There is nothing more ugly than a Christian orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion.” Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There
“Get into the habit of saying, ‘Speak, Lord,’ and life will become a romance.” Oswald Chambers
Opportunities don’t present themselves in ideal circumstances. If you wait for all the lights to turn green, you will never leave your driveway. John Maxwell
“A person is known by the passion that drives him day after day through thick and thin.” A. W. Tozer, Delighting in God
“You made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in You.” Augustine
“Every man is in tension until he finds a satisfactory answer to the problem of who he himself is.” Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There
“When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.” A. W. Tozer
“Do you fear trouble? Don’t! Better to be with God in trouble than to be without trouble and without God.” David Jeremiah
“The personality of the artist leaks through their work. God included. He reveals himself through nature, as the Scriptures testify.” John Eldredge (Beautiful Outlaw)
“We do not so much search the Word of God as the Word of God searches us.” Barry Black, US Senate Chaplain
“I have observed one thing among true Christians in their differences in many countries: What divides and severs true Christian groups and Christians – what leaves a bitterness that can last for 20, 30, 40 years (or for 50 or 60 years in a son’s or daughter’s memory) – is not the issue of doctrine or belief that caused the differences in the first place. Invariably, it is a lack of love – and the bitter things that are said by true Christians in the midst of differences.” Francis Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian
“The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends on my spiritual condition.” Oswald Chambers
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satifisfied in Him.” John Piper, Desiring God
“No work of art is more important than the Christian’s life, and every Christian is called to be an artist in this sense… The Christian’s life is to be a thing of truth and also a thing of beauty in the midst of a lost and despairing world.” Francis Schaeffer
“The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.” A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
On worship: “For many, Christianity has become the grinding out of general doctrinal laws from collections of biblical facts. But childlike wonder and awe have died. The scenery and poetry and music of the majesty of God have dried up like a forgotten peach at the back of the refrigerator.” John Piper, Desiring God
“Never interpret God’s love by your circumstances, but always interpret your circumstances by His love.” C.H. Mackintosh
“It’s time that you take a close look at your God concept. Your God concept is what you think about God and how you feel about Him. These beliefs and feelings become a type of filter in your brain. Inevitably you will not live with the facts of your life but the interpretation of the facts of your life.” Paul Marc Goulet
”There was no identity crisis in the life of Jesus Christ. He knew who He was, He knew where He had come from, and why He was here. And He knew where He was going. And when you are that liberated, then you can serve.” Howard Hendricks
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.” Albert Einstein
“Do you perceive mere coincidence, or do you discern the hand of God?” Oswald Chambers
“God has no problems, only plans.” Corrie ten Boom
“But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God.” Oswald Chambers
“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.” C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
“People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I’m sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they’re on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there’s a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they’re looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever’s going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.” Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), Signs, the movie
“I have found comfort to be a possible thorn in the side of revelation.” Dr. Alan Shapiro (Paul Giamatti), Morgan, the movie
“If we are growing we are always going to be outside our comfort zone.” John Maxwell
“Before we can pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come,’ we must be willing to pray, ‘My kingdom go.'” Alan Redpath
“These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.” Red (Morgan Freeman), The Shawshank Redemption, the movie
“Every man dies, not every man really lives.” William Wallace (Mel Gibson), Braveheart, the movie
“You must therefore live in the present, as far as possible like you will live in the future.” N.T. Wright
“A difficult time can be more readily endured if we retain the conviction that our existence holds a purpose, a cause to pursue, a person to love, a goal to achieve.” John Maxwell
“I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?” Chuck Nolan (Tom Hanks), Cast Away, the movie
“A Native American elder told his grandson about two wolves who live in every heart. One is Evil—anger, jealousy, pride—and the other is Good—joy, love, peace, humility. The grandson asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?” The elder replied, ‘The one you feed.’ ” David Jeremiah (devotional)
“Please, Lord, help me get one more.” Desmond Doss, Hacksaw Ridge, the movie
From Justice League, the movie: The Flash, “It’s really cool you guys seem ready to do battle and stuff, but I’ve never done battle. I’ve just pushed some people and run away!” Batman, “Save one.” The Flash, “What?” Batman, “Save one.” The Flash, “And then?” Batman, “Then you’ll know.”
“God brings us into straits that He may bring us to our knees.” Matthew Henry (Red Sea Rules by Robert J. Morgan, p44)
“It’s easy to love and trust God when life is good, but when things fall apart is when you find out what we truly believe.” Cory Asbury, Reckless Love (the devotional)
“It’s not about success. It’s about signficance.” Tim Tebow
“The only Christian you want to listen to is the one who gives you more of a hunger for God.” A. W. Tozer
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie ten Boom
“There are no coincidences in our life, only God’s providence.” Greg Laurie
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
“The significance of a truth is judged in part by whether over time it has transforming power in very different circumstances.” John Piper, Desiring God
“He said there were two kinds of Christians: those who sincerely believe in God and those who, just as sincerely, believe that they believe. You can tell them apart by their actions in decisive moments.” Richard Wurmbrand, In God’s Underground
“Now there is Talitha Ruth (daughter), whose motto at fifteen is “a girl should get so lost in God that a guy has to seek Him to find her.” John Piper, Desiring God
“You can choose what fills you, or society will do it for you. Choose well.” Paul Marc Goulet
“Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.”
Bob Pierce
“Cast out the temptation to move from loneliness to self-pity. Use your lonely feelings to push you toward someone lonelier than you are. The God who blesses you will make you a blessing!”David Jeremiah
“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
Corrie ten Boom
“If you fall in love with God, it allows you to love people in impossible ways. Jesus showed that over and over in Scripture. He simply loved.” Carlos Whittaker
“Anger is just one letter short of danger.”
Unknown
Difficulties make us either better or bitter.
Unknown
God’s purposes always have God’s provision.
John Blanchard
Contentment is an embracing of the providence of God.
George Seevers
Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God’s plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins. Eric Liddell
“We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” Tim Keller
“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” John Bunyan
“Are you ruled by a knowledge of God or the revelation of God?” YouVersion devotional
It is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs. Vance Havner
ONE's upon my time 