Frederick W. Faber
It would seem as if very few of us give this power of kind words the consideration which is due to it. So great a power, such a facility in the exercise of it, such a frequency of opportunities for the application of it, and yet the world still what it is, and we still what we are! It seems incredible. Take life all through, its adversity as well as its prosperity, its sickness as well as its health, its loss of its rights as well as its enjoyment of them, and we shall find that no natural sweetness of temper, much less any acquired philosophical equanimity, is equal to the support of a uniform habit of kindness.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05740c.htm
Author Unknown
Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door, and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime; Then looking in, I saw upon the floor old hammers, worn with beating years of time. "How many anvils have you had" I said "to wear and batter all these hammers so?" "Just one" said he, and then with twinkling eye, "The anvil wears the hammers out, you know." And so, thought I, The anvil of Gods Word. For ages skeptic blows have beat upon; Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard, The anvil is unharmed... the hammers gone.
William Law
Wherever thou goest, whatever thou dost at home, or abroad, in the field, or at church, do all in a desire of union with Christ, in imitation of His tempers and inclinations, and look upon all as nothing, but that which exercises, and increases the spirit and life of Christ in thy soul. From morning to night keep Jesus in thy heart, long for nothing, desire nothing, hope for nothing but to have all that is within thee changed into the spirit and temper of the holy Jesus. This new birth in Christ, thus firmly believed and continually desired, will do everything that thou wantest to have done in thee, it will dry up all the springs of vice, stop all the workings of evil in thy nature, it will bring all that is good into thee, it will open all the gospel within thee, and thou wilt know what it is to be taught of God.
David Otis Fuller
We both need prayer as the battle gets hotter and that it surely is doing. But so help me the hotter it gets the better I like it. And that poses a theological problem; is that my old nature or my new old? A bit puzzling!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Otis_Fuller
G. Campbell Morgan
Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.
http://www.gcampbellmorgan.com/
Barbara Johnson
A smile is the lighting system of the face and the heating system of the heart.
http://www.familychristian.com/wof/barbara.johnson.asp
C. S. Lewis
Question: "Didn't we agree that God is a spirit? Don't you worship Him because He is pure spirit?" Answer : "Good heavens, no! We worship Him because He is wise and good. There's nothing specially fine about being a spirit. The Devil is a spirit."
http://cslewis.drzeus.net/
Jim Elliot
We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are "harmless," and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are "sideliners" -- coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!
http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/jim-elliot/
Steve Brown
A quiet time, to me, is just an established time to go to my Source, to the Father, and spend time with Him. It doesn't matter what you've done, or who you are, or how you've screwed it up, but you have a Father who likes to spend time with you. To go before God, to know what I've done and thought and to expect that He's going to strike me with a lightning bolt - but to be hugged instead - creates great astonishment. We mature Christians, we get so we're not astonished any more.
http://www.keylife.org/
Francis Frangipane
I realize that many Christians have not been praying because they have not accepted the reality of war in which we find ourselves. There is a spiritual war mode that we must appropriate. It is an aggressive stance that we take against evil. It is governed by love for people, but it is fearless and uncompromising with the powers of darkness that manipulate people to fulfill evil plans.
http://frangipane.org/