OUR WORK

Holy people must stop going into church work as their natural course of action, and take up holy orders in farming, industry, law, education, banking, journalism with the same zeal previously given to evangelism or to pastoral and missionary work. 

-Dallas Willard

THE SHOOTINGS IN SCHOOLS

Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas.  But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. The shepherds were nightshift workers. The Wise Men followed a star. Your first cries were heard in the shadows. To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame. It was dark. Dark with Herod’s jealousy. Dark with Roman oppression. Dark with poverty.  Dark with violence. Herod went on a rampage, killing babies. Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt. You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene. Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won’t you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger. This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us. - Max Lucado

MAN'S TRUE IMPORTANCE

"Christianity does not involve the belief that all things were made for man. It does involve the belief that God loves man and for his sake became man and died." CS Lewis in ~ Miracles

THANKSGIVING

“The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness. Gratitude arises from the lived perception, evaluation, and acceptance of all of life as grace—as an undeserved and unearned gift from the Father’s hand. Such recognition is itself the work of grace, and acceptance of the gift is implicitly an acknowledgement of the Giver.” (Brennan Manning in Ruthless Trust)

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen." ― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much. ~Mother Teresa~

THE NECESSITY OF REALITY

"There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation to reality." - Thomas Merton

REALITY AND PRAYER

 “When a man is at his wit’s end, it is not a cowardly thing to pray; it is the only way he can get in touch with reality!” – Oswald Chambers