30. Evangelism

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:18-20.

Lighthouses don’t fire guns or ring bells to call attention to their light; they just shine. > Dwight L. Moody.

The real witnessing Christian does not talk about people he has “converted.” Witnessing is hard work unless it is done in the Spirit, and then we can’t brag about it. > William R. Bright.

If a man has a soul – and he has – and if that soul can be won or lost for eternity – and it can – then the most important thing in the world is to bring that man to Jesus Christ. > Author Unknown.

When a Christian is winning souls, he isn’t messing around with sin. > George L. Smith.

Evangelism is the proclamation of the Gospel of the crucified and risen Christ, the only Redeemer of men, according to the Scriptures, with the purpose of persuading condemned and lost sinners to put their trust in God by receiving and accepting Christ as Saviour through the power of the Holy Spirit, and to serve Christ as Lord in every calling of life and in the fellowship of his church, looking toward the day of his coming in glory. > World Congress on Evangelism, 1966.

Evangelism is a sharing of gladness. > Author Unknown.

The trouble with some of us is that we have been inoculated with small doses of Christianity which keep us from catching the real thing. > Leslie Dixon Weatherhead.

Something must really change in the world, and this can come only through men who themselves are changed. But when a man is changed under the influence of grace, then not only the state of his soul, but also the whole comportment, is changed. He is suddenly free from the old habits which kept himimprisoned, free from the rancor and remorse that consumed him. [He has] become whole in the broken world. > Paul Tournier.

Evangelism applies a supernatural remedy for the need of the world. > Faris Whitesell.

See also John 1:12-13; 3:1-21; Romans 3:23; 6:23..

29. Choice

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15

God has no need of marionettes. He pays men the compliment of allowing them to live without him if they chose. But if they live without him in this life, they must also live without him in the next. > Leon Morris

Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both. > Tryon Edwards

Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost or a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me. > Jim Elliot

To be a Christian, or not to be, is a matter of being a somewhat better man, or a man perhaps not quite so good. It is a matter of life and death. > James Denney

A man is too apt to forget that in this world he cannot have everything. A choice is all that is left him. > H. Matthews

Let it be known on whose side you are. If there is any doubt about it, something is wrong. > Author Unknown

We make our decisions, and then our decisions turn around and make us. > F. W. Boreham

As sure as I lived, I knew that I possessed a will, and that when I willed to do something or willed not to do something, nobody else was making the decision. > Augustine of Hippo

The chains of habit are to weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. > Samuel Johnson

He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end. > Harry Emerson Fosdick

When a Christian is in the wrong place, his right place is empty. > T. J. Bach

See also Deuteronomy 30:19 -20; Proverbs 1:28 -29.

28. Identity

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.

When a man is all wrapped in himself he makes a pretty small package. > John Ruskin.

Jesus Christ never met an unimportant person. That is why God sent his Son to die for us. If someone dies for you, you must be important. > M. C. Cleveland.

If you have anything really valuable to contriute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature. > Bruce Barton.

Here is Christian identity: I know my past, where I came from. I came from God. I know what went wrong. I tried to play God instead of being satisfied to be a real man. I know my future. My destiny is Christ. And I know the present. I can face myself now – my problems, my hang-ups, my assets, my faults – because I have turned myself over to God. > Leighton ford.

Modern youth alternates between abysmal hang-ups and fanatical commitments. Psychologists call their malady an “identity crisis”. Its chief symptom is the cry: “Who am I?” To them I say, “Have a confrontation with yourself. Then have a confrontation with Jesus Christ.” > Billy Graham.

He who falls in love with himself will have few rivals. > Benjamin Franklin.

We’re not lost, we are here. we just don’t know where “here” is. > Winnie the Pooh.

I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, that character of an honest man. > George Washington.

Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself. > Leo Tolstoy.

Many could forgo heavy metals, a full wardrobe, a fine house; it is the ego that they cannot forgo. > Mahatma Gandhi.

See also John 12:43; Romans 2:7-8; 5:7-9; Philippians 2:1-8.

27. Adversity

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12

I don’t envy those who have never known any pain, physical or spiritual, because I strongly suspect that the capacity for pain and the capacity for joy are equal. Only those who have suffered great pain are able to know equally great joy. > Madeleine L’Engle

Suffering is the seed from which compassion grows. > Dolores E. McGuire

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it. > William Hazlitt

I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work and my God. > Helen Keller

If we are going to be mind into wine, we all have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. > Oswald Chambers

There are tender-hearted people who object to the whole scheme of creation; they would neither have force used nor pain suffered; they talk as if kindness could do everything, even where it is not felt. Millions of human beings but for suffering would never develop an atom of affection. The man who would spare due suffering is not wise. It is folly to conclude a thing ought not to be done because it hurts. There are powers to be born, creations to be perfected, sinners to be redeemed, through the ministry of pain, that could be born, perfected, redeemed in no other way. > George MacDonald

The best way out is always through. > Robert Frost

He knows not his own strength that hath not melt adversity. Heaven prepares good men with crosses. > Ben Jonson

He said not: “Thou shalt not be troubled, thou shalt not be tempted, thou shalt not be distressed,” but he said: “Thou shalt not be overcome.” > Julian of Norwich

When you’re up to your waist in alligators, it’s difficult to remember that your main objective was to drain the swamp. > Author Unknown

See also 2 Corinthians 1:3-11; James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:3-7; 4:12-19.

26. Friendship

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. John 15:15

The only way to have a friend is to be one. > Ralph Waldo Emerson.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can make in two years by trying to get people interested in you. > Dale Carnegie.

Friendship is something that raised us almost above humanity. This love, free from instinct, free from all duties but those which love has freely assumed, almost wholly free from jealousy, and free without qualification from the need to be needed, is eminently spiritual. It is the sort of love one can imagine between angels. > C. S. Lewis.

After the friendship of God, a friend’s affliction is the greatest treasure here below. > Author Unknown.

Friendship doubles our joys and halves our grief. > Dolly Madison.

Friendship is forgetting what you give and remembering what you receive. > Author Unknown.

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person: having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them out. Just as they are – chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away. > George Eliot.

Alas, my God, that we should be

Such strangers to each other!

O that as friends we might agree,

And walk and talk together. > Thomas Shepherd.

Promises may get friends, but it is performance that keeps them. > Owen Feltham.

Friendship without self-interest is one of the rare and beautiful things of life. > James Francis Byrnes.

See also Proverbs 18:24; Luke 7:34; James 2:21-23; 4:4.

25. God

Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah 6:3.

The remarkable thing about the way in which people talk about God or about their relation to God is that it seems to escape them completely that God hears what they are saying. > Søren Kierkegaard.

All-wise. All-powerful. All-loving. All-knowing. We bore to death both God and ourselves with our chatter. God cannot be expressed but only experienced. In the last analysis, you cannot pontificate but only point. A Christian is one who points at Christ and says, “I can’t prove a thing, but there’s something about his eyes and voice. There’s something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he carries his cross – the way he carries me.” > Frederick Buechner.

The universe is created on neither the earth nor the sun. It is centred on God. > Alfred Noyes.

The public has a deep respect for the amazing scientific advances made within our lifetime. There is admiration for the scientific process of observation, experimentation of testing every concept to measure its validity. But it still bothers some people that we cannot prove scientifically that God exists. Must we lift a candle to see the sun? > Wernher Von Braun.

Does God seem far away? Guess who moved? > Author Unknown.

Get into the habit about dealing with God about everything. > Oswald Chambers.

A comprehended God is no God at all. > Gerhard Tersteegen.

There are three stages in the work of God: impossible, difficult, done. > James Hudson Taylor.

We must wait for God long, meekly, in the wind and wet, in the thunder and lightning, in the cold and dark. Wait, and he will come. He never comes to those who do not wait. He does not go their road. When he comes, go with him, but go slowly, fall a little behind; when he quickens his pace, be sure of it before you quicken yours. But when he slackens, slacken at once; and do not be slow only, but silent, very silent, for he is God. > Frederick W. Faber.

The whole trouble is that we won’t let God help us. > George Macdonald.

See also Isaiah 64:8; Luke 1:37; Romans 8:31; 2 Peter 3:9-14.