This Sunday’s readings: James 1:5-8

Reflections

Everything difficult indicates something more than our theory of life yet embraces.
~ George MacDonald, 19th-century Scottish novelist and writer

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.
~ Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, Clergyman, Social Reformer

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If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried, and therefore, through trial, be strengthened.
~ George Mueller, 1805-1898, Ashley Down Orphanage, Plymouth Brethren

I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should ask what kind of me God wants for his mission.
~ Christopher J. H. Wright, 1947- , Anglican, O.T. Scholar

Never miss a chance to keep your mouth shut.
~ Robert Newton Peck, 1928-2020, Author of Young Adult Fiction

Happiness is untested delight. Joy is delight tested.
~ Jack Hyles, 1926-2001, Pastor

When suffering comes, we yearn for some sign from God, forgetting we have just had one.
~ Mignon McLaughlin, 1913-1983, Am. Journalist & Author

It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
~ Walter Lippmann, 1889-1974, American political commentator

This Sunday’s readings: James 1:1-4

Reflections

If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.
~ C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963, British author

No one can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of the ripest fruits of the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be grown.
~ Henry Drummond, 1851-1897, Evangelist, Biologist, Lecturer, Writer

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The will of God is not something you add to your life. It’s a course you choose. You either line yourself up with the Son of God…or you capitulate to the principle which governs the rest of the world.
~ Elisabeth Elliott, 1926-2015, author, speaker and missionary

We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love-object or its love.
~ Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, Civilization and Its Discontents

So pain endures for a time. Its role is to purge us, to make us to know ourselves, and it drives us to the Lord to plead for mercy.
~ Julian of Norwich, 1342– 1416, English anchoress, Revelations of Divine Love

We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person – the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.
~ Oswald Chambers, 1874-1917, Evangelist, Teacher

There is only one unanswerable argument against Christianity: Christians.
~ G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, Author, Writer