Inspiring Quotes - add one that's recently motivated you

[John Becker]

"The call to become a saint in not simply a call for you to become a holy individual.  It is a call to become a part of a people who are becoming holy together....When you set out to become a saint, you are becoming a part of something big."  Jack Bernard, How to Become a Saint, p. 26

[Tami]

"When God made time, He made enough of it. " -- Celtic proverb. I was joking about this quote, which showed up on a tea bag, quite a bit, but it ended up sticking with me. It's so tempting to waste time, or to say you don't have enough time to accomplish what you want to accomplish. But in God's economy, He *has* given us the time we need to accomplish His work. Also, when we fear we're running out of time, I have to remember that God is sovereign over time, and if He wills something to happen, it will happen in His time.

"Purity of heart is to will one thing." -- Søren Kierkegaard. A challenge that I have been wrestling with this year. If I really did only will one thing -- God's kingdom -- what would that really look like? I don't think it would necessarily make life easier, but it might make my choices more consistently focused on God's purposes.

[John Becker]

Amen! Fitting as I watch the day tick away. What am I "willing" today? Is it that one thing? Thanks Tami for speaking truth.

[Sarah Richardson]

"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
The way that we see the world is so coloured by what we believe about God and our relationship to Him.

[Peter Williams]

" the present is where time touches enternity " another one from C.S.Lewis in the screwtape letters It really made me think about the value and power of the present really making the most of each moment as it comes.

[John Becker]

"Determined obedience is participating by faith in what God is doing, not pulling myself together for another go at getting it right."

Confession and repentance are part of actually being a saint, not just something you have to get out of the way in order to get there. When you confess - if it is sincere- and repent, you are preferring God's will to your own." J Bernard, How to Become a Saint

I am still benefiting from this book and found these two quotes very helpful. Obedience and the disciplines of confession and repentance are not means to an end, they are intrinsic to our walk as followers of Jesus. God's promise of holiness applies even to us! Be of good cheer.
John

[Gary Casady]

I have a natural bent to being alone.  Yet holiness can't be achieved alone.  The people God places in my life, all of them, are orchestrated by him for mutual growth in him. This quote urges me on to community.

[John Becker]

"Holiness is defined by what we do"   David Platt in Radical:Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.

Platt makes a good point that disciplemaking is not about "disinfecting" people from the world but rather propelling people into the world to risk their lives for the sake of others.

[Gary Casady]

In John 15:13 Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."  Actually dying for a good friend might be relatively easy compared to spending oneself for others by giving of our time, resources, gifting.  Often the hardest place for me to do this is with those closest to me, like my wife.  I often take her for granted rather than loving her like Christ loves me and laid down his life for me.  When I get it wrong, which is often, something in my heart that needs refined, and purged is revealed.  The words of Paul David Tripp have helped me here:  "What do you think God typically uses to regain our affection? Ironically, he uses other people!  That is one of the blessings of conflict.  Conflict with others is one of God's mysterious, counterintuitive ways of rescuing us from ourselves."  And to think I have spent most of my life avoiding conflict instead of using it as a mirror to my heart.  When I get it right, there is an energy that does propel me into deeper, holy service because my getting it right is not me, it is God's provision.  Either way, God is growing me in His grace. In this posture I can truly worship.  Worship plus living in the reality of what is not yet but what is sure to be propels us into holy service.

John Becker said:

"Holiness is defined by what we do"   David Platt in Radical:Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.

Platt makes a good point that disciplemaking is not about "disinfecting" people from the world but rather propelling people into the world to risk their lives for the sake of others.