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Raphael – Marriage of the Virgin, 1504

“A Christian marriage is [not] one with no problems or even a marriage with fewer problems. (It may well mean more problems.) But it does mean a life in which two people are able to accept each other and love each other in the midst of problems and fears. It means a marriage in which selfish people can accept selfish people without constantly trying to change them—and even accept themselves, because they realize personally that they have been accepted by Christ.”
… Keith Miller, The Taste of New Wine, Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1965, p. 48

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“I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.”

C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity

Lord, may this be my aim this year…

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King David in Prayer

Author : PIETER DE GREBBER
Date :1635-40

“Almighty and most merciful Father, I again appear in Your presence the wretched misspender of another year which Your mercy has allowed me. O Lord, let me not sink into total depravity, look down upon me, and rescue me at last from the captivity of sin. Impart to me good resolutions, and give me strength and perseverance to perform them. …grant that I may redeem the time lost, and that by temperance and diligence, by sincere repentance and faithful obedience, I may finally attain everlasting happiness, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.”
… Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), Prayers and Meditations, London: Verner, Hood, and Sharpe, 1806, Jan. 1, 1766, p. 53-54

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Bernardo Strozzi 1581 – 1644
The Conversion of Zacchaeus

oil on canvas (163 × 100 cm) — 2nd q 17th century
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

“The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day ‘evangelist.’ He announces a Saviour from hell rather than a Saviour from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.”
… A. W. Pink (1886-1952), Studies on Saving Faith, Swengel, Pa.: Reiner Publications, 1932, p. 9-10

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“A gospel which does not express itself to the physical needs of man is a gospel not worthy of the name… Man is a whole person, with body and soul. Some evangelicals act as if people are disembodied souls, statistics for eternity only.”
… Stan Mooneyham, former president, World Vision US, in a private communication from World Vision

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“God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, “O Lord, Thou knowest.” Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God’s omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.”
… A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948],

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“Prayer and action, therefore, can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows in powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us to a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ.”
… Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996), Compassion, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1982, Random House, 2005, p. 117-118 (see the book; see also Isaiah 40:11

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O for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame,
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!

Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest:
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,
And drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.

So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb.
… William Cowper (1731-1800), included in The Works of William Cowper: his life, letters, and poems, New York: R. Carter & brothers, 1851, p. 670

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A Christian marriage is [not] one with no problems or even a marriage with fewer problems. (It may well mean more problems.) But it does mean a life in which two people are able to accept each other and love each other in the midst of problems and fears. It means a marriage in which selfish people can accept selfish people without constantly trying to change them—and even accept themselves, because they realize personally that they have been accepted by Christ.
… Keith Miller, The Taste of New Wine, Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1965, p. 48

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“It is hard enough, even with the best will in the world, to be just. It is hard, under the pressure of haste, uneasiness, ill-temper, self-complacency, and conceit, even to continue intending justice. Power corrupts; the “insolence of office” will creep in. We see it so clearly in our superiors; is it unlikely that our inferiors see it in us? How many of those who have been over us did not sometimes (perhaps often) need our forgiveness? Be sure that we likewise need the forgiveness of those that are under us.”
… C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), “The Psalms”, in Christian Reflections, ed. Walter Hooper, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1967, p. 119-120

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