52. Wisdom

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. Proverbs 9:10-12 (KJV)

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. > Reinhold Niebuhr.

There are but two classes of wise men: the men who serve God because they have found him, and the men who seek him because they have found him not. > Richard Cecil.

Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. > Cato the Censor.

It is easy to be wise after the event. > English saying.

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. > John Duke Coleridge.

Much wisdom often goes with the fewest words. > Socrates.

A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew. > Herb Caen.

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. > Alfred Lord Tennyson.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks. > Benjamin Disraeli.

The wise man endeavors to shine in himself; the fool to outshine others. The first is humbled by the sense of his own infirmities, the last is lifted up by the discovery of those which he observes in other men. The wise man considers what he wants, and the fool what he abounds in. the wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation, and the fool when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him. > Joseph Addison.

It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. > Henry David Thoreau.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. > Charles H. Spurgeon.

See also 2 Chronicles 1:1-12; Jeremiah 10:12.

51. The Incarnation

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11 (KJV)

Since Christ’s birth some 2,000 years ago, much has been written about this God/man and those years when he walked in our shoes. Planet Earth never had such a visitor, and writers have never gotten over it: You can never truly enjoy Christmas until you can look up into the Father’s face and tell him you have received his Christmas gift. > John R. Rice.

The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable. > Ralph W. Sockman.

Christmas is not just the birth of a baby; it is the heavenly Father saying goodbye to his Son. > Author Unknown.

Christmas is the great central fact in the world’s history. To him everything looks forward and backward. All the lines of history converge upon him. All the great purposes of God culminate in him. The greatest and most momentous fact which the history of the world records is the fact of his birth. > Charles H. Spurgeon.

You needn’t worry about not feeling brave. Our Lord didn’t – see the scene in Gethsemane. How thankful I am that when God became man he did not choose to become a man of iron nerves; that would not have help weaklings like you and me nearly so much. > C. S. Lewis.

God ministers to us so gently, so stolenly, as it were, with such a quiet, tender, love absence of display, that men often drink of his wine, as those wedding guests drank, without knowing whence it comes – without thinking that the giver is beside them, yea, in their very hearts. > George MacDonald.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d either be a lunatic – on a level with a man who says he’s a poached egg – or else he’d be the Devil of Hell. You mist make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God, or else a madman or something worse. > C. S. Lewis.

A man may go to heaven without health, without riches, without honours, without learning, without friends; but he can never go there without Christ. > John Dyer.

Christmas is a son away from home. > Norma Alloway.

See also Luke 1:26-38; 2:1-20.

50. Worship

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. Psalms 95:6-8 (KJV)

It cannot be that the instinct which has led to the erection of cathedrals, and of churches in every village, is wholly mistaken and misleading. There must be some great truth underlying the instinct of worship. > Sir Oliver Lodge.

When Christian worship is dull and joyless, Jesus Christ has been left outside – that is the only possible explanation. > James S. Stewart.

It is when only men begin to worship that they begin to grow. > Calvin Coolidge.

Many of today’s young people have little difficulty believing that God was in Christ. What they find it hard to accept is that Christ is in the church. > Ernest T. Campbell.

To worship God means to serve Him. > Fredrick Buechner.

The true inner life is no strange or new thing; it is the ancient and true worship of God, the Christian life in its beauty and in its own peculiar form. Wherever there is a man who fears God and lives the good life, in any country under the sun, God is there, loving him, and so I love him too. > Gerhard Tersteegen.

Some people in the church look like guests at a royal banquet, who couldn’t afford to be left out, but have been forbidden by their doctor to eat anything. > W. R. Maltbie.

Rejoice in him and make a fool of yourself for him the way lovers have always made fools of themselves for the one they love. A Quaker Meeting, a Pontifical High Mass, the Family Service at First Presbyterian, a Holy Roller Happening – unless there is an element of joy and foolishness in the proceedings, the time would be better spent doing something useful. > Fredrick Buechner.

The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God. > Irenaeus.

As you worship, so you serve. > Thomas L. Johns.

See also 1 Chronicles 16:29; Luke 4:5-8; John 4:23-24.

49. Joy and Happiness

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. John 15:10-11 (KJV)

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us. > Ashley Montagu.

You cannot read the Gospels without seeing that Jesus did not tell men how to be good in the manner of the moralists of every age, he told them how to be happy. > Sir Thomas Taylor.

This is the secret of joy. We shall no longer strive for our own way; but commit ourselves, easily and simply, to God’s way, acquiesce in his will and in so doing find our peace. > Evelyn Underhill.

There is no happiness for people at the expense of other people. > Anwar El-Sadat.

May we never let the things we can’t have, or don’t have, or shouldn’t have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness let us not forget it, for one of the greatest lessons in life is learning to be happy without the things we cannot have or should not have. > Richard L. Evans.

The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk; the unexpected visit; the unpremeditated journey; the unsought conversation or acquaintance. > Fanny Fern.

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common – this is my symphony. > William Henry Channing.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. > Albert Schweitzer.

See also Psalm 30:4-5; Ecclesiastes 2:26; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

48. Compassion

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Colossians 3:12 (KJV)

A dew of compassion is a tear. > Lord Byron.

Tell me how much you know of the sufferings of your fellow men and I will tell you how much you have loved them. > Helmut Thielicke.

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. > William Wordsworth.

Compassion is the basis of all mortality. > Arthur Schopenhauer.

There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. > John Andrew Holmer.

Cleverness will enable a man to make a sermon, but only compassion for lost men will make him a soul winner. > Leonard Ravenhill.

Do all the good you can

By all the means you can

In all the ways you can

In all the places you can

To all the people you can

As long as you ever can. > John Wesley.

The root of the matter is a very simple and old-fashioned thing, a thing so simple that I am almost ashamed to mention it for fear of the derisive smile with which wise cynics will greet my words. The thing I mean – please forgive me for mentioning it – is love. Christian love, or compassion. > Bertrand Russell.

If you quit loving the moment it becomes difficult, you can never discover compassion. > David Augsburger.

See also Isaiah 54:10; Zechariah 7:9-10; Mark 8:1-8.

47. Men and Women

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27 (KJV)

A person who despises or undervalues or neglects the opposite sex will soon need humanizing. > Charles Simmons.

The woman was formed out of man – not out of his head to rule over him; not out of his feet to be trod upon by him; but out of his side to be his equal, from beneath his arm to be protected, and from near his heart to be loved. > Matthew Henry.

As unto the bow the cord is,

So unto the man is woman;

Though she bends him, she obeys him,

Though she draws him, yet she follows;

Useless each without each other. > Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult. > Charlotte Whitton.

It was Christ who discovered and emphasized the worth of woman. It was Christ who lifted her into equality with man. It was Christ who gave woman her chance, who saw her possibilities, who discovered her value. > Arthur John Gossip.

Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on. > H. L. Mencken.

She is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one. > Edmund Burke.

You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man’s rib; she was really made from his funny bone. > James Matthew Barrie.

If all hearts were open and all desires known – as they would be if people showed their souls – how many gapings, sighings, clenched fists, knotted brows, broad grins, and red eyes would we see! > Thomas Hardy.

See also Genesis 2:24-25; 3:1-24.

46. Eternity

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. John 6:47 (KJV)

We have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset in which to win them. > Robert Moffat.

When you are with somebody you love, you have little if any sense of the passage of time, and you also have, in the fullest sense of a phrase, a good time. When you are with God, you have something like the same experience. The biblical term for the experience is Eternal Life. Another is Heaven. > Fredrick Buechner.

I thank thee, O Lord, that Thou hast so set eternity within my heart that no earthly thing can ever satisfy me wholly. > John Baille.

Eternity is not an everlasting flux of time, but time is a short parenthesis in a long period. > John Donne.

We think of Eternal Life, if we think of it at all, as what happens when life ends. We would do better to think of it as what happens when life begins. > Fredrick Buechner.

The thought of eternity consoles for the shortness of life. > Luc de Clapiers.

On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it. > Jules Renard.

I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy; the most profitable explanation is that I was made for another world. > C. S. Lewis.

The average man does not know what to do with his life, yet wants another one which will last forever. > Anatole France.

God, as Isaiah says “inhabiteth eternity” but stands with one foot in time. The part of time where he stands most particularly is Christ, and thus in Christ we catch a glimpse of what eternity is all about, what God is all about, and what we ourselves are all about, too. > Fredrick Buechner.

See also Ecclesiastes 3:11; Isaiah 57:15; Mark 10:17-31.

45. Judgment

And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:17-19 (KJV)

The New Testament proclaims that at some unforeseeable time in the future God will bring down the final curtain on history, and there will come a Day on which all our days and the judgments upon us and all our judgments upon each other will themselves be judged. The judge will be Christ. In other words, the one who judges us most finally will be the one who loves us most fully. > Fredrick Buechner.

There is no fear of judgment for the man who judges himself according to the Word of God. > Howard G. Hendricks.

You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends. > Joseph Conrad.

History shows that Christ on the cross has been more potent than anything else in arousing a compassion for suffering and indignation at injustice. > F. J. Foakes-Jackson.

A man’s judgment of another depends more on the one judging and on his passons than on the one being judged and his conduct. > Paul Tournier.

I believe the troubles that have come upon us are in part a judgment of God on us for our sins; and that unless we repent and turn to God we are finished as a free democratic society. > Billy Graham.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them. > Mother Teresa.

The average man’s judgment is so poor, he runs a risk every time he uses it. > Ed Howe.

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing; others judge us by what we have done. > Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

See also John 3:16-17; 8:3-7; Hebrews 9:27-28.

44. Love and Sex

But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Mark 10:6-9 (KJV)

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is the finger of God on a man’s shoulder. > Charles Morgan.

A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day. > André Maurois.

In marriage, being the right person is as important as finding the right person. > Wilbert Donald Gough.

Modern man refuses to recognize that God has set certain standards, certain absolutes for sex, as he has for behavior generally. To be ignorant of these absolutes, or to deny them or nationalize them, in no way invalidates them. > L. Nelson Bell.

If there is anything better than to be loved, it is to love. > Author Unknown.

We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity-like perfect charity-will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. > C. S. Lewis.

There is a tendency to think of sex as something degrading;l it is not, it is magnificent, an enormous privilege, but because of that the rules are tremendously strict and severe. > Frances Devas.

Contrary to Mrs. Gundy, sex is not sin. Contrary to Hugh Hefner, it’s not salvation either. Like nitro-glycerin, it can be used either to blow up bridges or heal hearts. > Fredrick Buechner.

Love is not blind-it sees more, not less. But because it sees more, it is willing to see less. > Rabbi Julius Gordon.

See also Matthew 5:27-30; 1 Corinthians 13; Ephesians 5:1-17.

43. Loneliness

Whither shall I go from thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy presence ?
If I ascend up into heaven , thou art there: if I make my bed in hell , behold, thou art there.
 If I take the wings of the morning , and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ;
Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Psalms 139:7-10

The soul hardly ever realises it, but whether he is a believer or not, his loneliness is really a homesickness for God. > Hubert Van Zeller.

Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye nam’d not good. > John Milton.

Solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone. > Thomas de Quincey.

The surest cure for vanity is loneliness. > Thomas Wolfe.

Art thou lonely, O my brother?

Share thy little with another?

Stretch a hand to one unfriended,

And thy loneliness has ended. > John Oxenham.

It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching. > Theodore Roosevelt.

The deepest need of a man is the need to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness. > Erich Fromm.

The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence. > Thomas Wolfe.

If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball. > Jack Lemmon.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. > Ralph Waldo Emerson.

In cities, no one is quiet but many are lonely; in the country, people are quiet but few are lonely. > Geoffrey Francis Fisher.

See also Joshua 1:5-9; Psalm 25:16-18.