In Christ's Name

Photo credit: matt_so

The words which all of us shall one Day hear sound not of theology but of life, not of churches and saints, but of the hungry and the poor, not of creeds and doctrines, but of shelter and clothing, not of Bibles and prayer-books, but of cups of cold water in the name of Christ.

--from The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond

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Two Choices

Photo credit: James Neeley

You have two choices:

Reach outward
Toward the Light
Of Christ Jesus,
Living a life
Of hope and faith,

Or

Stay ground-bound,
Lurking in the mud
Of self and the world,
Living a lie
Told by the father of them.

Your choice determines
Your destiny.

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Seeing the Unseen

Lord, let our eyes the things unseen behold,
And, ’mid the glory that like sunset dies,
Fair to the sight the wondrous bliss unfold
That lives in beauty under cloudless skies.

And let our ears the things unuttered hear,
That silent voices to the soul can tell;
That heart can whisper when a heart is near
Of love that scorns in uttered tones to dwell.

Teach us to know that things unseen are real,
That earth no bloom of fadeless beauty gives,
That far beyond the things that sense can feel,
The joy of being, and of having, lives.

Lord Who hast risen, nor left the world behind,
Daily incline our sense-bound souls to soar,
Till ’mong the things all hidden we may find
Possessions that abide for evermore.

--from Hymns from the Morningland by John Brownlie, tr.

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The Lamps of Heaven

Photo credit: TailspinT

"I will strengthen thee."
Isaiah 41:10

The same God who directs the earth in its orbit, who feeds the burning furnace of the sun, and trims the lamps of heaven, has promised to supply thee with daily strength. While he is able to uphold the universe, dream not that he will prove unable to fulfill his own promises.

Remember what he did in the days of old, in the former generations. Remember how he spake and it was done; how he commanded, and it stood fast. Shall he that created the world grow weary? He hangeth the world upon nothing; shall he who doth this be unable to support his children? Shall he be unfaithful to his word for want of power?

Who is it that restrains the tempest? Doth not he ride upon the wings of the wind, and make the clouds his chariots, and hold the ocean in the hollow of his hand? How can he fail thee? When he has put such a faithful promise as this on record, wilt thou for a moment indulge the thought that he has outpromised himself, and gone beyond his power to fulfill? Ah, no! Thou canst doubt no longer.

O thou who art my God and my strength, I can believe that this promise shall be fulfilled, for the boundless reservoir of thy grace can never be exhausted, and the overflowing storehouse of thy strength can never be emptied by thy friends or rifled by thine enemies.

"Now let the feeble all be strong,
And make Jehovah's arm their song."

--from Morning and Evening by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

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Watcher or Participant?

Photo credit: State Archives and Library of Florida

None of us know
How many more days
We have to serve God
On this earth.

Would you rather
Be caught flat-footed,
A watcher from the sidelines,
Or the one taking faith's leaps
And living the Christian life
To its fullest?

My advice?

Bounce, Baby, Bounce!

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