scripture
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
quote
Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval.
Thomas S. Monson
scripture
Proverbs 28:4
Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them.
quote
Once you depart from the Ten Commandments, you have relativism, humanism, the abandonment of absolutes. You have anything. How long before child pornography is mainstream?
Randall Terry
scripture
Mark 16:15-16
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
quote
Preach the gospel to all the world and if necessary use words.
St. Francis of Assisi
scripture
Romans 6:16
Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?
quote
We have reared a generation of strong-willed, belligerent, independent young men and women. Surrender is not a word in their vocabulary. Too bad, since it is the key that unlocks the vault of God's best and deepest treasures. He patiently waits for us to yield, to quit fighting Him, to allow His plan to run its course, to turn to Him for our security and significance.
- "Intimacy with the Almighty" by Charles R. Swindoll
scripture
Hebrews 4:16 AMP
Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].
lyrics
Reliant K – Life after Death and Taxes (Failure II)
And this is how I choose to live
As if I'm jumping off a cliff
knowing that you'll save me
and after all the stupid things I did
there's nothing left that you'd forgive
because you already forgave me
yeah you already forgave me
Never forget
there's life after death and taxes
Forgiveness come
and all of the rest
is what passes away
Death and decay can't touch us now
scripture
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
idea
Friday 9/12 was the National Day of Encouragement. Here is the website http://www.letsencourage.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=33765. There are ideas on the webpage on how to encourage the others in your life. For example, send an email to your co-workers letting them know what you appreciate about them.
Contributed by Pete
scripture
Psalm 91:1
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
quote
Let people see your struggles and don't ever fake it.
- Rich Mullins
scripture
John 15:9-17
Jesus speaking to his disciples said, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.
quote
I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.
- Dorothy Day, cofounder of the Catholic Worker Movement 1933
scripture
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
quote
A real Christian is an odd number. He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen; talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see; expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another; empties himself in order to be filled; admits he is wrong so he can be declared right; goes down in order to get up; is strongest when he is weakest; richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels the worst. He dies so he can live; forsakes in order to have; gives away so he can keep; sees the invisible; hears the inaudible; and knows that which passes knowledge.
A.W. Tozer
SCRIPTURE
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
QUOTE
To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means. As Thomas Merton put it, 'A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.'
- Brennan Manning, excerpt from The Ragamuffin Gospel
