"What I have seen in the past 10 years of traveling- performing at a church one day and a casino the next- is that a lot of people in the church want to be [b]entertained[/b], and people in casinos want to be [b]ministered[/b] to. That's hard to understand, but I see a [i]hunger[/i] in the world that I don't see in the church."-Ricky Shaggs (muscian)
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.Matthew Henry
Those who complain that they make no progress in the life of prayer because they "cannot meditate" should examine, not their capacity for meditation, but their capacity for suffering and love. For there is a hard and costly element, a deep seriousness, a crucial choice, in all genuine religion. ... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)_______________________________________________________________Meditation: Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. -- Matthew 16:24,25 (KJV)http://www.cqod.org/
_________________Mike Balog
"To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless."Gilbert K. Chesterton
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. ... Martin Luther (1483-1546)http://www.cqod.org/
Don't try to bring the Word of God down to your level. Let it pull you up to its level - David MacDonald
_________________Aaron Ireland
Let those, he very beautifully says to the Manichæans, burn with hatred against you, who do not know how much pains it costs to find the truth, how hard it is to guard against error;but I, who after so great and long wavering came to know the truth, must bear myself towards you with the same patience which my fellow-believers showed towards me while I was wandering in blind madness in your opinions.Augustin