Jim Elliot
"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."
D. L. Moody
"It is a great deal better to live a holy life than to talk about it."
Thomas a Kempis The Imitation of Christ (1418)
"Our fervor and progress should increase daily: but now it is accounted a great matter if a man can retain but some part of his first zeal."
John Climacus The Ladder of Divine Ascent (640)
"I would not consider any spirituality worthwhile that wants to walk in sweetness and ease and run from the imitation of Christ."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church...Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession."
C. S. Lewis
"On the whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for God. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian love, either towards God or towards man is an affair of the will."
Gilbert K. Chesterton
"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."
Unknown
"I would never want to reach out a soft, uncalloused hand, a hand never roughened by serving others to grasp the nail-pierced hand of my Savior."
Francis de Sales Introduction to a Devout Life (1609)
"And, turning myself towards my most gracious and merciful God, I desire, purpose, and am irrevocably resolved to serve and love him now and forever; and to this end, I give and consecrate to him my soul with all its powers, my heart with all its affections, and my body with all its sense, protesting that I will never more abuse any part of my being against his divine will and sovereign majesty, to whom I offer up and sacrifice myself in spirit, to be forever his loyal, obedient, and faithful creature, without ever revoking or repenting of this my act and deed.
But if, alas! I should chance, through the suggestion of the enemy, or through human frailty, to transgress in any point, or fail in adhering to this my resolution and dedication, I protest from this moment and am determined, with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, to rise as soon as I shall perceive my fall, and return again to the divine mercy, without any delay whatsoever. This is my inviolable and irrevocable will, intention, and resolution, which I declare and confirm without reservation or exception, in the sacred presence of God."
Betsie tenBoom (to her sister Corrie)
"The most important part of our task will be to tell everyone who will listen that Jesus is the only answer to the problems that are disturbing the hearts of men and nations. We shall have the right to speak because we can tell from our experience that His light is more powerful than the deepest darkness...How wonderful that the reality of His presence is greater than the reality of the hell about us."
William Law A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728)
"He therefore is the devout man who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life parts of piety by doing everything in the name of God and under such rules as are conformable to His glory."
Solomon Proverbs 4:23-27
Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do. Avoid all perverse talk; stay far from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; then stick to the path and stay safe. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.
Solomon Proverbs 23:23
"Invest in truth and wisdom, discipline and good sense, and don't part with them."
Thomas Merton
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your will does not mean that I am acrually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this You will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone."
Solomon Proverbs 23:23
"Invest in truth and wisdom, discipline and good sense, and don't part with them."
Thomas Merton
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your will does not mean that I am acrually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this You will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone."
