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Shattered Gates
I consider the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell. — William Booth The Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets forecast it. The Gospels and the Epistles allude to it. Ancient Christian…
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Guts and Perversity
Like our earliest Christian ancestors, we stand together to defy the world. We insist that Jesus rules the world, that He hates much of what is going on down here, and that He will correct and judge when He returns. We insist that much of what is culturally normative and ascendent is sinful and wrong…
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What We’re Looking At
They who are God’s without reserve are in every state content, for they will only what He wills and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do. They strip themselves of everything, and in this nakedness find all things restored a hundredfold. — J. R. Miller As consternation rises in the hearts…
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The Last Lesson
The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us. — Billy Graham If you know Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, then you know that the central, heroic character, Frodo, the ring-bearer, fails to throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom at the end of his arduous…
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Forgiveness
The key is to firmly grasp that God is still working his plan even when we can’t see it. God wants us to live intentionally—believing that his unseen hand and the invisible agents loyal to him and us (Hebrews 1:14) are engaged in our circumstances. Each of us is vital to someone’s path to the…
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Para Bellum
To progress and to grow; to grow to strive in a world that changes fast. To learn how to adapt when conditions work against us. It’s an endeavor to be sharper and smarter. As old as time itself, relentlessly pushing the boundaries further, and further again, and again, and again.They are, without a doubt, the…
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Never Give In
This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large, or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. — Winston Churchill “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh … to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.…
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Humility
There are two things about human beings that remain infallibly certain and true all the time. One, that there is a moral law written in the human heart. And, two, that we invariably break it. In doing so, however, we necessarily feel guilt. “Blessed be sin, if it teaches us shame.” — C.S. Lewis Our…
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Work and Pray
St. Benedict found the world, physical and social, in ruins, and his mission was to restore it in the way not of science, but of nature, not as if setting about to do it, not professing to do it by any set time, or by any rare specific, or by any series of strokes, but…
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Crouching Lion
Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love. — Fyodor Dostoevsky The…
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Quietness and Confidence
The quieter the mind, the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more perfect the prayer is. — Meister Eckhart An elk does not have to work at having a quiet mind; it feels content standing in a field for hours with its fellow elk, chewing grass. I never saw the elk…
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When the Deal Goes Down
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch,…
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Adversity
Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by the One who knows us better than we do ourselves, as He loves us better, too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This conflict with difficulty makes us acquainted with our object, and compels us…
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The God Who Cares
Beyond all the games we won, beyond all the honors and accolades, I’ve just had so much fun being able to play this game. My motivation coming in to every single day is to run the race in such a way that honors God, and the passions and the talents that He’s given me. And…
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Give Your Best Anyway
Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease except they are in a state of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from Him, they lose their peace. The nearer to Him, the nearer to the perfect calm of Heaven; the nearer to Him, the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of…
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Divine Thoughtfulness
While nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer, nothing is more difficult than to understand him. — Fyodor Dostoevsky It seems to be a fact of human psychology that when death approaches the human heart speaks its words of love to those whom it holds closest. There is no reason to suspect that it…
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God’s Greats
Many of God’s greats were small and unassuming, but their faith often gave them a kind of ferocious cordiality that could walk into any place and be absolutely at home. Is your faith as much at home in the quiet and comfort of home, surrounded by love and assurance, as it is in the raunchy…
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Purpose of Existence
I suspect very few of us think seriously enough about this life as our soul’s preparation for eternity. The pursuit of God in this life is not to minimize enjoying and experiencing this life to the fullest, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither” (C.S.…
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The Me That I Am
He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. — Aeschylus If your life isn’t what you want it to be, it may be because…
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Starting Over
There are two kinds of Christians: Those who sincerely believe in God and those who, just as sincerely, believe that they believe. You can tell them apart by their actions in decisive moments. — Richard Wurmbrand How many times in your life have you thought to yourself, I wish I could start over. Maybe you…
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God’s Love
Whoever thinks that he understands the Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought. — St. Augustine of Hippo Concerning the crossing of the Red Sea in…
