quotes

Adversity will develop a strong character or a weak coward*which one is up to you. (Unknown) "My disabilities do not have me. I have the disabilities and I accept them because I know who I am from the inside." Jim "Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I choose to respond to it." Chuck Swindoll You may be disappointed if you fail but you are doomed if you do not try -Beverly Sills "Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn; my God, do you learn!" (Clive Staples Lewis) We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God. (D.L. Moody) Sometimes the struggle is exactly what we need to become what God intends us to be (Joanie Yoder, Our Daily Bread) If you can't be thankful for what you receive, be thankful for what you escape. Anon. You can either hold yourself up to the unrealistic standards of others, or ignore them and concentrate on being happy with yourself as you are. J. Jacques, Questionable Content webcomic, #352, 05-04-05 "A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself." Category: Character Author: Tozer, A.W. If lips and life do not agree, the testimony will not amount to much. H. A. Ironside (1876-1951) American Bible teacher, commentator, pastor; My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:18 Though we claim to believe the whole of Scripture, in practice we frequently deny much of it by ignoring it. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) Welsh preacher and expositor; But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17 The devil knows that if he can capture our mind, he holds our future. [Joe Campbell] __________________ The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian. A. W. Tozer __________________ "Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible." Category: Faith Author: Ten, Boom, Corrie __________________ "God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them." Category: Judgement Author: Lewis, C.S. __________________ "If Christianity is untrue, then no honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even if it gives him no help at all." Category: Theology Author: Lewis, C.S. __________________ "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you." Category: Forgiveness Author: Lewis, C.S. __________________ "Important as it is that we recognize God working in us, I would yet warn against an over preoccupation with the thought. It is a sure road to sterile passivity. God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, 'Oh Lord Thou knowest.' Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints." Category: Passion Author: Tozer, A.W. "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work and my God." Helen Keller "God wants us to lay our burdens on Him and rest in His love. It's His responsibility to work out the purpose and plan in our hardships. Only our refusal to trust Him....can hinder His purposes in our lives." Joni Eareckson Tada "The hands and feet of God are strengthened when the body includes someone who is suffering." Joni Eareckson Tada [Comment on I Cor 12:24-26] "God uses suffering to purge sin from our lives, strengthen our commitment to Him, force us to depend on grace, bind us together with other believers, produce discernment, foster sensitivity, discipline our minds, spend our time wisely, stretch our hope, cause us to know Christ better, make us long for truth, lead us to repentance of sin, teach us to give thanks in time of sorrow, increase faith, and strengthen character." Joni Eareckson Tada One thing we may be sure of, however: For the believer all pain has meaning; all adversity is profitable. There is no question that adversity is difficult. It usually takes us by surprise and seems to strike where we are most vulnerable. To us it often appears completely senseless and irrational, but to God none of it is either senseless or irrational. He has a purpose in every pain He brings or allows in our lives. We can be sure that in some way He intends it for our profit and His glory. Jerry Bridges Navigators When you and I hurt deeply, what we really need is not an explanation from God but a revelation of God. We need to see how great God is; we need to recover our lost perspective on life. Things get out of proportion when we are suffering, and it takes a vision of something bigger than ourselves to get life's dimensions adjusted again. Warren W. Wiersbe Biography/Daily Devotional "God's purpose in increasing our trials is to sensitize us to people we never would have been able to relate to otherwise." Joni Eareckson Tada "God deliberately chooses weak, suffering and unlikely candidates to get His work done, so that in the end, the glory goes to God and not to the person." Joni Eareckson Tada "Suffering drives us to our knees in weakness, where God wants us, so that His strength is most obvious, not ours." Joni Eareckson Tada Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you.... as by the attitude you bring to life. John Homer Mills The Constitution only guarantees the American People the right to pursue happiness; you have to catch it yourself. Benjamin Franklin An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees calamity in every opportunity. Sir Winston Churchill Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal: nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. Thomas Jefferson Life is 10% what you make it, and 90% how you take it. Irving Berlin If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm. Vince Lombardi The most handicapped person in the world is a negative thinker. Unknown Everything starts with yourself - with you making up your mind about what you're going to do with your life. Tony Dorsett. You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. David Viscott Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing. Abraham Lincoln Life can only disappoint you if you let it. Mark Hopkins You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. Beverly Sills If you do not believe in yourself, do NOT blame others for lacking faith in you. Brendan Frances Making a success of something has nothing to do with luck. Care, thought, and study go into making something succeed; luck is something you get playing the lottery or roulette. Unknown There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Colin L. Powell I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up. Beverly Sills The Difference between the "impossible" and the "possible" lies in a person's determination. Tommy Larsorda If you can't change your fate, change your attitude. Amy Tan Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. Karen Kaiser Clark Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you. They're supposed to help you discover who you are. Bernice Johnson Reagan To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. Henri Bergson Holding resentment is like eating poison and then waiting for the other person to keel over. Unknown If you want to be strong, know your weakness. Unknown He who conquers his anger has conquered an enemy. Unknown Learning to live is learning to let go. Sogyal Rimpoche Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much. Oscar Wilde When you judge others, you define yourself. Unknown