C. S. Lewis in a letter to his friend Bede Griffiths, April 29, 1938:
I have been in considerable trouble over the present danger of war. Twice in one life—and then to find how little I have grown in fortitude despite my conversion. It has done me a lot of good by making me realize how much of my happiness secretly depends on the assumption of at least tolerable conditions for the body; and, I see more clearly the necessity which God is under of allowing us to be afflicted– so few of us will really rest all on Him if He leaves us any other support.
John 6:68 — Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
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It is from God that parents receive their children, and it is to God that they should lead them.
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Proverbs 22:6 — Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
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Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.
–Winston Churchill
Philippians 3:12 — Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
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Biblical Christianity is the most ‘pluralistic, tolerant, and embracing of other cultures’ religion on earth. In fact, Christianity is very pluralistic — it is the one religion to embrace other cultures, and has the most urgency to translate the Scriptures into other languages. A Christian can keep their native language and culture, and follow Jesus in the midst of it. An early ‘criticism’ of Christianity was the observation that they would take anybody! Slave or free; rich or poor; man or woman; Greek or Barbarian. All were accepted, but on the common ground of the truth as revealed in Jesus Christ. To leave that common ground is spiritual suicide, for both now and eternity.
–David Guzik
Colossians 3:11 — Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Matthew 22:9 — (Jesus said), “God to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.”
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“Since it is God we are speaking of, you do not understand it. If you could understand it, it would not be God.”
–St. Augustine
Isaiah 55:8-9 — “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
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Edward Gibbon in his book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire described the attitude towards religion in the last days of the Roman Empire, attitudes remarkably like our own today:
· The people regarded all religions as equally true
· The philosophers regarded all religions as equally false
· The politicians regarded all religions as equally useful.
Zephaniah 1:12—At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.”
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If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
–Chinese proverb
Proverbs 14:29 — Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.
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A PRAYER BY JOHN BAILLIE:
O Lord, grant that through fellowship with you the true graces of Christian character may more and more take shape within my soul:
The grace of a thankful and uncomplaining heart;
The grace of courage, whether in suffering or in danger;
The grace to endure difficulties with patience as a good soldier of Jesus Christ;
The grace of boldness in standing for what is right;
The grace of preparedness and discipline, lest I enter into temptation;
The grace of strict truthfulness;
The grace to treat others as I would have others treat me;
The grace of love, that I may refrain from hasty judgement;
The grace of silence, that I may refrain from hasty speech;
The grace of forgiveness towards all who have wronged me;
The grace of tenderness towards all who are weaker than myself;
The grace of steadfastness in continuing to desire that you will do as now I pray.
Dear Father of all, make me the human channel, so far as in me lies, through which your divine love and pity may reach the hearts and lives of those who are nearest to me. Amen.
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