charity

"there is something in each of us that cannot be naturally loved.... all who have good parents, wives, husbands, or children, may be sure that at some times- and perhaps at all times in respect of some one particular trait or habit- they are receiving Charity, are loved not because they are lovable but because Love Himself is in those who love them." -C.S. Lewis

obedience

"so, in the last resort, we must turn down or disqualify our nearest and dearest when they come between us and our obedience to God. Heaven knows, it will seem to them sufficiently like hatred. We must not act on the pity we feel; we must be blind to tears and deaf to pleadings." -C.S. Lewis

demand

"a tyrannous and gluttonous demand for affection can be a horrible thing." -C.S. Lewis

thy God

"Never want whilst thou hast a God to go to; never fear or faint whilst thou hast God to help thee; go to thy treasure and take whatever thou needest—there is all that thou canst want. Learn the divine skill of making God all things to thee. He can supply thee with all, or, better still, He can be to thee instead of all. Let me urge thee, then, to make use of thy God. Make use of Him in prayer. Go to Him often, because He is thy God." -C.H. Spurgeon

open

"An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical Reason is idiocy. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut." -C.S. Lewis

"The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:13,14

man

"we are wholly and continually dependent upon God, the Source and Fountain of life. Only by full dependence upon Him are the hidden potentialities of our natures realized. Apart from this we are but half-men, malformed and unbeautiful members of a noble race once made to wear the image of its Creator." -A.W. Tozer

to do

"We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. 'Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might . . .' ( Ecclesiastes 9:10 )." -Oswald Chambers

"moral"

"A strange amentia has resulted, marked by acute self-importance and delusions of moral grandeur." -A.W. Tozer

disciples

"Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view- we count how many souls have been saved and sanctifie, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God's grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God's sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others' lives until they are totally yielded to God." -Oswald Chambers

comfort

"It is quite useless knocking at the door of heaven for earthly comfort; it's not the sort of comfort they supply there." -C.S. Lewis

capable

"We must never measure our spiritual capacity on the basis of our education or our intellect; our capacity in spiritual things is measured on the basis of the promises of God." -Oswald Chambers

belief

"You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?" -C.S. Lewis

strength

"Unguarded strength is actually a double weakness, because that is where the least likely temptations will be effective in sapping strength." -Oswald Chambers

suspect

"suspicion often creates what it suspects." -C.S. Lewis

love

"....very few people know that they are loved without any conditions or limits.

This unconditional and unlimited love is what the evangelist John calls God's first love. 'Let us love,' he says, 'because God loved us first' (1 John 4:19). The love that often leaves us doubtful, frustrated, angry, and resentful is the second love, that is to say, the affirmation, affection, sympathy, encouragement, and support we receive from our parents, teachers, spouses, and friends. We all know how limited, broken, and very fragile that love is. Behind the many expressions of this second love there is always the chance of rejection, withdrawal, punishment, blackmail, violence, and even hatred. Many contemporary movies and plays portray the ambiguities and ambivalences of human relationships, and there are no friendships, marriages, or communities in which the strains and stresses of the second love are not keenly felt. Often it seems that beneath the pleasantries of daily life there are many gaping wounds that carry such names as abandonment, betrayal, rejection, rupture, and loss. These are all the shadow side of the second love and reveal the darkness that never completely leaves the human heart.

The radical good news is that the second love is only a broken reflection of the first love and that the first love is offered to us by a God in whom there are no shadows." -Henri J.M. Nouwen

self

"....force me to let go of my relevant self - the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things - and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments." -Henri J.M. Nouwen

there

"Commit to God whatever burden He has placed on you. Don’t just cast it aside, but put it over onto Him and place yourself there with it." -Oswald Chambers

love

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because he loves us." -C.S. Lewis

changes

changes are usually something that we do not bring about ourself and therefore feel out of place, uncomfortable and... well, just out of control

but when we are a child of God's we can trust that His hand has brought about all of this change AND no matter what we believe, He's right, and good

time

"who understands the choice of those whom God takes to the divine self early? Does it not seem to us again and again in the early deaths of Christians as though God were robbing the divine self of God's best instruments at a time when God needed them most? But God makes no mistakes. Does God perhaps need our brothers and sisters for some hidden service for us in the heavenly world? We should restrain our human thoughts, which always seek to know more than they can, and keep to what is certain. God has loved anyone whom God has called. 'For his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he took him quickly from the midst of wickedness' (Wisd. of Sol. 4:14)." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

evil

"Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good." -C.S. Lewis

defenseless

"We shall draw neared to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accpeting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour." -C.S. Lewis

get there

"A man can't be taken to hell, or sent to hell: you can only get there on your own steam." -C.S. Lewis

destiny

"so I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him. All share a common destiny- the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

as it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them.

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: the same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. Anyone who is among the living has hope"

Ecclesiastes 9:1-4

"when times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other." Ecclesiastes 7:14

"do not say, 'why were the old days better than these?' for it is not wise to ask such questions." Ecclesiastes 7:10

knew it

"we could not, after all, know anything exhaustively as finite creatures." -Francis A. Schaeffer

man

"the Bible teaches that, though man is hopelessly lost, he is not nothing. Man is lost because he is separated from God, his true reference point, by true moral guilt. But he never will be nothing. Therein lies the horror of his lostness. For man to be lost, in all his uniqueness and wonder, is tragic." -Francis A. Schaeffer

free

"evil comes from the abuse of free will." -C.S. Lewis