Reflections

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.
~ Saint Augustine

Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks.
~ Frederick Buechner, 1926-2022, Author and Pastor

How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it.
~ G.K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English writer and journalist

All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.
~ Flannery O’Connor, 1925-1964, Author/Essayist

I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.
~ A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, American author and Pastor

This Sunday’s readings: Ephesians 2:1-10

Reflections

Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell justifies the importance of his running in the Olympics by saying, “God has made me for a purpose—he made me for China. But he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.” In the same way, the Lord wants you to know that his face is turned toward you in grace and in peace. He wants you too to “feel his pleasure.”
~ Commentator

To hear the phrase ‘our only hope’ always makes one anxious, because it means that if the only hope doesn’t work, there is nothing left.
~ Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book

Mother Teresa said that she couldn’t imagine doing her work for more than thirty minutes without prayer. Do you and I have work that we can’t imagine doing for thirty minutes without prayer?
~ Gary Haugen, Founder: International Justice Mission

Home is where the heart is.
~ Pliny the Elder, 79AD, Gaius Plinius Secundus, author, natural philosopher

When there is a tendency to compartmentalize the spiritual and make it resident in a certain type of life only, the spiritual is apt to be gradually lost.
~ Flannery O’Connor, 1925-1964, Mystery and Manners

Praise is the rehearsal of our eternal song. By grace we learn to sing, and in glory we continue to sing. What will some of you do when you get to heaven, if you go on grumbling all the way? Do not hope to get to heaven in that style. But now begin to bless the name of the Lord.
~ Charles Spurgeon, 19th Century Pastor

This Sunday’s readings: Psalm 27:1-11