the position I am in now

"The position I am in now: It is the one appointed: it is the one needed: I will resign myself to it: I will grapple with its difficulties, and bear its burdens, and endure its temptations--in all things and at all times, casting my care upon God, invoking His help in all my feeble efforts to faithfully fulfill the part assigned to me in this present mortal scheme."

be clothed with humility

"Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." {I Peter 5:5}

"We shall therefore do well to check all feelings of self-glorification and self-importance if any such there be, and to cultivate that meekness and humility of character which only is highly esteemed by God."

to God alone belongs glory

"Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake." {Psalm 115:1}

selfish

"I spell sin selfishness."

daily readings

"Let your readings be private, individual, and at the right time of day. Reading with others is good in its place, but cannot settle to the subject with that thoroughness of grip that is needful for thorough results. Do your Bible readings by yourself, whatever luxury you may indulge in with your friends. And let it be when your faculties are wide awake. To put it off to the last thing, just before going to bed, after your pith has been spent on other things, is not doing justice to yourself or God. A little extra Bible reading at such a time, such as a psalm or a chapter from the epistles is very well as a soothing finish to the day, but to leave your Bible readings till then is to attend to do it under conditions that almost preclude the possibility of getting the intended good."

trust Him

"When you surrender to God, you trust Him to work things out instead of trying to manipulate others, force your agenda, and control the situation. You don't feel obligated to react to criticism or rush to defend your rights."

daily task

"This is our daily task--to show forth in our character the excellencies of the Divine Being, the love, the patience, the purity, the righteousness that characterizes Him."

lose our lives now

"Brothers and Sisters, I pray that we may all lose our lives now, so that we may gain them in the Kingdom. Blessed is the man that has lost it all. When all is lost, all is left to gain. Nothing in this life can get him down. He has no concern about today and its temporal things; he only looks forward to the future establishment of the rule of God over the earth, when the eternal is set up."

an appeal for a holy life

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." {I Peter 1:13-16}

knowledge vs wisdom

"Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is letting the Truth pass into action."

internal beauty of holiness

"Internal beauty of holiness:
It is centered in a heart filled with reverent fear, seeking to discover the will of God and to answer it in humble joy; a life trembling at His Word and responsive to His command; walking in the way of God's appointment, whatever it may be, like sheep content with the pasture which the shepherd has selected; a life of holiness unfolding the beauty which glorifies God."

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 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. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." {Psalm 100}

something better

"We develop patience as we trust that God denies us what we think is good only because He has something better for us--both now and in the future."

pray for others

"There is nothing that makes us

love someone
so much as praying for them."

maintained faith

"Joseph was of unblemished character, unusually handsome, with an exceptional gift for leadership, and ability to make the best of every unpleasant situation. Had a heathen wife and ruled a heathen kingdom, and resided in the center of idolatry but maintained childhood faith in God."

armor of light

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light."{Romans 13:12}

being prepared

"True children of God would desire nothing that God sees not fit to give. Selah! (Consider) What He sees fit, that He gives; and this being what we ask, we know that we always have what we ask; and here we rest, even in the midst of the more direful experiences, knowing that experience of the evil is part of the instrumentality by which God is preparing children for Himself during this transitory age of evil, against the perfect and endless ages beyond."

live Godly

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation which hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world: Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." {Titus 2:11-13}

"What does it mean to 'live godly'? Like God; we are to copy Him; we are to try to be perfect, as our Father Who is in heaven is perfect; we are to have perfection continually before our minds, as we see it worked out in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are to consider that our policy is always to be onward and upward..."

close to the Word

"If I keep close to the Word of God and realize its teachings in the experience of discipleship--I will be able to know how to live and how to react to the problems and possibilities which confront me from day to day."

the right to ask

"He [God] asks, and He has the right to ask, for all you have and all you are. And if you shrink from what is involved in such surrender, you should fly to Him [in prayer] at once and never rest till He has conquered this secret disinclination to give to Him as freely and fully as He has given to you."

True love

"True love is not measured or governed by feeling. Jesus did not say--'If you love me, you will feel warm, cascading sensations of religious emotion' but rather 'If ye love me, keep my commandments.' {John 14:15} Expressing love is about obedience to God and service to others."

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." {John 13:34-35}

No harm?

"It is here where true wisdom will impel a man to avoid many things that may not be in the category of things definitely and palpably 'wrong'. Things even 'lawful' are to be declared by Paul in some cases 'not expedient'. How much more is it so with the many questionable things by which we are surrounded in this pleasure-loving and God-neglecting age--things in which it is customary to say 'there is no harm'. No harm? Is spiritual hurt no harm? Is carnal strengthening no harm? Is it no harm to have the power of Christ weakening within you? Is it no harm to have your affections revived for an evil world, shortly to be destroyed? Is it no harm to have your moral preceptions blunted, your enthusiasm for Christ allayed, your original contentment with the present wicked state of things increased, your spiritual man enervated and weakened, your eternal life endangered? It is doubtful if people, who say there is no harm in the pleasure-following of the present age, have truly ever realized what spiritual well-being is. We can only do this by daily intercourse with the holy oracles; these enable us to see 'harm' in many things, where the children of the flesh are necessarily blind. They do this by imparting to us a habit of thought and a system of sentiment which are incompatible with the whole atmosphere of worldly thought and pleasure. They, besides, tell us plainly that those who live in pleasure are dead while they live." {I Timothy 5:6}

crucified with Christ

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." {Galatians 2:20}

worth the sacrifice

"The grand truth of God's Word is that glory, honor, incorruptibility, and life are the reward of a character formed in harmony with the commandments delivered to a man in the several dispensations of time under which they live. They are the rewarder of a good character; a character which shall be pronounced by the Judge 'without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that shall be holy, and without blemish'. If glory, honor, and eternal life be worth the sacrifice of every thing on earth to obtain, then the inducement to a holy, righteous, and unblemished life in Jesus Christ is found in these, transcendentally powerful."

Denial of self

"The central thing is the denial of self. It is utterly radical. Denial of self is an inward thing. Taking up the cross daily is the external manifestation of the inward condition. To talk of it is not to realize it. To write about it is not to achieve it. The use of the word daily emphasizes that it is not just a theory but something that is real and practical; facing squarely every new circumstance; confronting bravely every impediment; grasping joyfully every new opportunity."

"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." {Luke 9:23}

Slowly growing

"We must be able to feel, when we go to bed each night, that we have that day done our most and best: that all we have done was necessary and useful, and the most important thing to be done at the time, and that we have done it with all our heart, unto the Lord. We must not be satisfied with what we have done, but we must be reasonably satisfied that we have tried our best, and that we have noted, and learned something by, our slips and failures. We must be able to feel we are slowly overcoming, growing, deepening, becoming more naturally spiritual--that is less as duty and effort, more as pleasure and desire. We must be able to see ourselves passing some tangible milestones of progress: a steady transformation of the mind Godwards--less and less interest in passing, worldly, animal things of any kind (except moving purpose). And even this we must see somewhat dispassionately, as from afar. For that will come of a certainty: our major and overwhelming concern must be to be personally ready when it does--when the dreadful and joyful cry goes forth: 'The marriage of the Lamb HAS come!--and his Wife hath made herself READY!'"

"Be ye transformed"!

Romans 12:1,2

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of the Supreme Deity, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."