39. Ambition and Success

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, an take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? Luke 9:23-25.

The true goal of the Christian life is heaven: nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. > Sherwood Eliot Wirt.

Everybody wants to harvest, but nobody wants to plow. > Author Unknown.

He who dies with the most toys wins…nothing. Luke 9:25. > Bumper Sticker.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to not get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it. > George Bernard Shaw.

If we make it our first goal always to please God, it solves many problems at once. > Philip E. Howard Jr.

He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has. > Henry Ward Beecher.

The danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. > Michelangelo Buonarroti.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. > Helen Keller.

God give me work till my life shall end, and life till my work is done. > Winifred Holtby.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressing in overalls and looks like work. > Thomas Edison.

An ambitious farmer, unhappy about the yield of his crops, heard of a highly recommended new seed corn. He bought some and produced a crop that was so abundant his astonished neighbours asked him to sell them a portion of the new seed. But the farmer, afraid that he would lose a profitable competitive advantage, refused. The second year, the new seed did not produce a good crop; and when the third-year crop was still worse, it dawned on the farmer that his prize corn was being pollinated by the inferior grade of corn from his neighbour’s fields. > Ralph L. Woods.

See also Proverbs 3:5-6; Ecclesiastes 1:2-11; Luke 9:46-48.

38. Our World

With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let the favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. Isaiah 2:9-10.

The world has a lot of glitter, but it doesn’t have the glow. > Bill Frye.

The ship’s place is in the sea, but God pity the sea when the sea gets into it. The Christian’s place is in the world, but God pity the Christian if the world gets the best of him. > Author Unknown.

If Christians withdraw from society because of the bewildering nature of its problems, they will soon lose the right to be heard. > Gary R. Collins and James F. Jekel.

The view we entertain of God will determine our view of the world. > Christoph Ernst Luthardt.

Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next. > W. R. Inge.

In this society we save whales, we save timber wolves and bald eagles and Coke bottles. Yet, everyone wanted to throw away my baby. > Victoria, a pregnant woman.

The world hopes for the best but Jesus Christ offers the best hope. > John Wesley White.

What the soul is in the body, this the Christians are in the world. Christians hold the world together. > Letter to Diognetus.

The world charged with the grandeur of God. > Gerald Manley Hopkins.

To deny the prevalence of pain in the world and the perennial popularity of evil. To abdicate responsibility for them by assuming that God will take care of them very nicely on his own… To dismiss them or to encourage others to dismiss them by stressing the promise of pie in the sky… To maintain your faith by refusing to face any nasty fact that threatens it. These are all ways of escaping reality through religion and should be denounced right along with such other modes of escape as liquor, drugs, TV, or any simplistic optimism such as communism, anticommunism, jingoism, rugged individualism, moralism, idealism, and so on, which assume that if everybody would only see it our way, evil would vanish and all would be sweetness and light. > Frederick Buechner.

See also Matthew 5:13-16; Romans 6:23; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17.

37. Temptation

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when his drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceiveth, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. James 1:13-15.

Most people want to be delivered from temptation but would like to keep in touch. > Robert Orben.

Change your thoughts and you change your world. > Norman Vincent Peale.

The things that I can’t have I want, and what I have seems second-rate; The things I want to do I can’t, and what I do I hate. > Don Marquis.

Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is… a man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what I would have been like a hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. we never find out strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it; and Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means–the only complete realist. > C. S. Lewis.

Virtue consists, not in abstracting from vice, but in not desiring it. > George Bernard Shaw.

Better to shun the bait than struggle in the snare. > John Dryden.

The worst thing that can happen to a man who gambles is to win. > Charles H. Spurgeon.

Lord, often have I thought to myself, I will sin but this one sin more, and then I will repent of it, and of all the rest of my sins put together. So foolish was I and ignorant. As if I should be more able to pay my debts when I owe more; or as if I should say, “I will wound my friend once again, and then I will lovingly shake hands with him.” But what if my friend will not shake hands with me? > Thomas Fuller.

I can resist anything except temptation. > Oscar Wilde.

See also Matthew 26:14; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 2:14-18; 4:15.

36. Worry

And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature on cubit? If ye be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Luke 12:26-27.

We would worry less about what others think of us if we realised how seldom they do. > Ethel Barrett.

If a care is too small to be turned into a prayer, it is too small to be made into a burden. > Corrie ten Boom.

Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you. > John Adams.

Worry and trust cannot live in the same house. When worry is allowed to come in one door, trust walks out the other door; and worry stays until trust is invited back in again, whereupon worry walks out. > Robert G. LeTourneau.

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength. > Charles H. Spurgeon.

It ain’t no use putting up your umbrella until it rains. > Alice Caldwell Rice.

Anxiety is a natural result when our hopes are centred in anything short of God and his will for us. > Billy Graham.

Don’t tell that worry doesn’t do any good. I know better. The things I worry about don’t happen. > Author Unknown.

Borrow trouble for yourself, if that’s your nature, but don’t lend it to your neighbours. > Rudyard Kipling.

You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o’clock. Do not blacken nine and ten and eleven, and all between, with the colour of twelve. Do the work of each, and reap your reward in peace. So when the dreaded moment in the future becomes the present, you shall meet it walking in the light, and that light will overcome its darkness. > George MacDonald.

See also Psalms 37:7-11; 46:1; Luke 10:38-42.

35. Praise

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5.

I can live for two months on a good compliment. > Mark Twain.

Praise God, for whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. > Thomas Ken.

What else can I do…but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I would do the nightingale’s part; if I were a swan, I would do as a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God: this is my work; I do it, nor will I desert my post, so long as I am allowed to keep it. And I exhort you to join me in this same song. > Epictetus.

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. > Norman Vincent Peale.

Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing. It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child. > Phyllis McGinley.

The continued offering of praise requires stamina; we ought to praise God even when we do not feel like it. Praising him takes away the blues and restores us to normal. > Harold Lindsell.

There are three kinds of giving: grudge giving, duty giving and thanksgiving. > Robert N. Rodenmayer.

O Lord, in the simplicity of my heart, I offer myself to Thee today, to be Thy servant for ever, to obey Thee, and to be a sacrifice of perpetual praise. > Thomas à Kempis.

Praise is like a plow set to go deep into the soil of believers’ hearts. It lets the glory of God into the details of daily living. > C. M. Hanson.

It is a sure sign of mediocrity to be niggardly with praise. > Marquis de Vaunvenargues.

Praise makes good men better and bad men worse. > Thomas Fuller.

See also Proverbs 27:2; John 12:43; James 3:7-12.