Weekend Book Reflections

One of the best things I've ever done was turn off the TV and open books. I read the Bible everyday, but also try to find time for other authors, like Brennan Manning, C.S. Lewis, Phillip Yancey, and others. The following are lines or short passages from some of those books:

From "Make My Life a Prayer-Glimpses of God from the Ministry and Personal Journals of Keith Green"

"Oh, I feel the calling so strong tonight. To join the Holy army and fight the numbness in the world toward God."

"The devil hates me more everyday. He despises me more the closer I get to you. He's losing his grip. Praise you God. Your light is the only thing I want to see and the only thing I want to reflect."

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From "The Wisdom of Tenderness" by Brennan Manning

"One of life's great paradoxes is that it's in the crucible of pain and suffering that we become tender. Not all pain and suffering, certainly. If that were the case, the whole world would be tender, since no one escapes pain and suffering. To these elements must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, and the willingness to remain vulnerable. Together, they lead to wisdom and tenderness."

"Without love and compassion for others, our own apparent love for Christ is a fiction."

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From "Arrow Pointing to Heaven", by James Bryan Smith

"Tonight I'm going to say to you what the angels said to every character in the Bible that they encountered...They said,"Don't be afraid." We've got a little while to go in this life, and it's a scary thing, but don't be afraid. Be of good cheer. He has overcome the world. And He has chosen to dwell within us. And we ain't all that big a deal, but our Savior is. He will walk with us through this life, and when it's over, He will raise us up again and take us to be where He is. Not because of what we've done, but because of who He is. Because of the love He has for us." Rich Mullins

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C.S. Lewis

"Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is...That is why bad people know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it."

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From Watchman Nee's "Sit, Walk,Stand"

"We begin our Christian life by depending not upon our own doing but upon what He had done."

"As Christians our standard of living can never be right or wrong, but the Cross. The principle of the Cross is our principle of conduct. Praise God that he makes his sun to shine on the evil and the good. With Him, it's a question of His grace and not of right or wrong."

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From Phillip Yancey's "What's So Amazing About Grace"

"When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us."

Weekend Scripture

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving thanks.

  1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

  2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
       come before him with joyful songs.

  3 Know that the LORD is God.
       It is he who made us, and we are his;
       we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

  4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
       and his courts with praise;
       give thanks to him and praise his name.

  5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
       his faithfulness continues through all generations.