Categories
Quotes

Anxiety Brings Nothing But Trouble

Of what use is anxiety about the future? Does it bring you anything but trouble upon trouble? …It is foolish and useless to be either grieved or happy about future things which perhaps may never happen. But it is human to be deluded by such imaginations, and the sign of a weak soul to be led on by suggestions of the enemy. For he does not care whether he overcomes you by love of the present or fear of the future.
–Thomas à Kempis

What are you worrying about right now?
And how is that helping your state of mind?
Stop speculating on things that may or may not happen in the future, as all this does is cause you anxiety.
As the quote above indicates – Satan tempts us to have anxieties and worries over speculation, and he is pleased to keep you from growing in God due to anxiety.

Cast your cares upon the Lord. He knows your needs. He knows His plans for you. Allow your trust in Him and His love for you be of greater strength than your anxiety and speculation over the future.

Categories
Quotes

Nothing Is a Substitute for Christ

Christ is a substitute for everything, but nothing is a substitute for Christ.
–Harry Ironside

Amen.
Accept no substitutes.

Categories
Quotes

God Has Called You Into Full-Time Ministry

Dualism has infected our minds. We unconsciously believe that there is a sacred / secular divide. Being a minister for Christ is NOT an activity, a profession, a position, a title, a “higher” or a “special” calling, and does not require lengthy and expensive training. It is NOT a segment of our life, but an integration of all that we are. It is not as much what we do, as it is who we are.
–Kent Humphreys

Kent was a business-man who decided that God had called him to be the minister to his workplace. He also wants all other Christians to realize their calling to be work-place pastors. I agree with him that when God calls you into a relationship with Himself, He is calling you into ministry to others. It is to be WHO you are, not just what you do. I pray that God will help you embrace this idea and begin serving those around you as a minister – looking for ways to meet their spiritual needs in the name of Jesus.

Categories
Quotes

You Can Help Eliminate the Worst Disease in the World

Mother Teresa (who cared for those with leprosy) once said, “We have drugs for people with diseases like leprosy. But these drugs do not treat the main problem, the disease of being unwanted. That’s what my sisters hope to provide.” The sick and the poor, she said, suffer even more from rejection than material want. “An alcoholic in Australia told me that when he is walking along the street he hears the footsteps of everyone coming toward him or passing him becoming faster. Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” One need not be a doctor or a miracle worker to meet that need.
–Philip Yancey

Christians are called to provide help to the hurting.
And since the greatest hurt in life that people are experiencing is loneliness, since the worst disease is the feeling of being unwanted, then we are all equipped to provide the cure.
Reach out to someone today in love and kindness.

Categories
Quotes

How Important Is “Private Religion”?

In relation to our need to be connected to Jesus on a personal level…
      Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all proportion, that the “us” of the New Testament is being displaced by a selfish “I.”
      Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.
      So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity”-conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier.

–A. W. Tozer

Great Point!
We will not grow stronger in unity by simply trying to like each other more (we will still get irritated with each other). Instead, we will grow stronger in unity by individually growing closer to Christ. The closer each one of us becomes “in tune” with Christ, the more united we will find ourselves with others. It is only through Him (and our growth in becoming more like Him) that we will become people of love, charity, compassion, & patience, and therefore become the united Body of Christ.