"When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself." --
Wayne Dyer
When we try to meet every need, agree to every committee, attend every seminar or church service, we get overwhelmed with obligations and lose our effectiveness—and our joy.
Pastor Ray
When people humble themselves before God, phenomenal spiritual recovery can be experienced.
PR.
The chief weapon we ought to use in resisting Satan is the Bible.
~J.C. Ryle~
As an obedient believer, you are to stand firm in the strength of the Lord, to be sober in spirit, and to remain alert in order to resist the schemes of the devil.
~John C. Broger~
You can be a gift from God to the world when you allow Him to reveal Himself through you, like love poured out through a flawed but very beloved vessel.
Ray Bently
Weak and ineffective Christianity is often the result of amassing numbers instead of making disciples.
Dustin Benge
In His sovereignty, God orchestrates unique opportunities for us to be generous. He delights in those moments of divine connection, and so should we.
Randy Alcorn
The attitude of the heart toward the Scriptures is pivotal if a person is to experience God's grace at work in his life. A hardhearted response to the word of God does not receive the grace of God.
Bob Hoekstra
The enemy cannot endure the infallible truth, for it is death to the falsehood of which he is the father.
~C.H. Spurgeon~
No matter how many pleasures Satan offers you, his ultimate intention is to ruin you. Your destruction is his highest priority.
~Erwin W Lutzer~
Avoid a sugar-coated gospel. Seek the gospel that rips up, wounds, and even kills, for that’s the gospel that makes you alive again.
Charles H. Spurgeon
Fight the good fight with all thy might; Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right; lay hold on life, and it shall be thy joy and crown eternally.
~John S.B. Monsell~
I’d rather stand with God and have the world, my enemy, than go along with the crowd to destruction.
~A.W. Tozer~
“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger…be put away from you…And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”—Ephesians 4:31-32
The Delany sisters, Bessie and Sadie, each lived over one hundred years, leaving behind a legacy of grace and wisdom that touched my heart.
In The Delany Sisters’ Book of Everyday Wisdom, they wrote about their beloved “Papa,” a former slave, elected the first black bishop of the Episcopal Church of America. In 1918 he was asked to be a guest preacher at a church in Raleigh, Virginia. His family considered the invitation a great honor, so all ten children and his wife attended. Even though Papa was the guest of honor, his family was sent to the back balcony.
Bessie recalls, “They made us sit where the slaves had been made to sit. And then we were not given the privilege of Communion.”
When the story appeared in the sisters’ first book, they received a formal letter of apology from the congregation of that church. Bessie writes, “We were so touched that they apologized a full seventy-five years later. Now that’s God’s work.”
Seventy-five years! Decades over which bitterness could have hardened these women’s hearts. But something insulated them from such destructive emotions. Something motivated them to live free, productive lives, each following her passion.
“We set aside time every day to talk to the Lord,” Sadie wrote. “After all, He has to manage the whole world and He’s never too busy for us!”
Bessie recalled, “When we walk into our house—whether we’re coming back from a long trip or just from seeing our neighbors—the first thing we say is, ‘Praise the Lord.’ We do that to thank Him for watching over us.”
That story appears in their book under the heading, “We’re in His Hands.”
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